With 300,000 yuan in hand, a young man from Shenzhen sells goods worth 1 billion yuan a year

In recent years, the 3D printing industry has remained hot and has developed rapidly.

Compared with traditional manufacturing processes, 3D printing has significant advantages. It can manufacture components with more complex structures, greatly improving manufacturing efficiency and having unique advantages in meeting the diverse and personalized needs of consumers.

With the growth of demand for consumer-grade 3D printing, China's exports of 3D printers have also ushered in new development opportunities.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, in the first three quarters of 2024, the total export value of China's 3D printers reached 6.33 billion yuan (excluding parts), which has exceeded the total amount for the whole year of 2023. At the same time, since December 2024, China's 3D printer shipments have increased by 200% compared with the same period last year.

Many domestic companies saw the business opportunities, seized the chance to go overseas, and quickly became the leading brands in their categories.

1. Chuangxiang 3D has sold products worth 1 billion yuan for three consecutive years!

The story of the Creality brand began in Shenzhen in 2014, when four young people met at a 3D printing exhibition. They were keenly aware of the gap in the consumer-grade 3D printer market and decided to start their entrepreneurial journey with 300,000 yuan. The conditions at the beginning of the business were very difficult, with only a 20-square-meter office and a credit card for capital turnover. Despite this, they launched their first complete product, CR-i3, in just one year, which successfully brought the company its first considerable income.

After years of development , Chuangxiang 3D products have covered the fields of "FDM" and "light-curing" , and have built a relatively complete 3D printing product ecosystem, becoming a leading company in the domestic consumer-grade 3D printer industry . Its products are sold well in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, and have long been at the forefront of the global 3D printer sales list. They are widely favored by consumers and have sold 1 billion yuan for three consecutive years!

(Source: Chuangxiang 3D official website)

In terms of market layout, Chuangxiang 3D's products are mainly aimed at economically developed regions such as Europe and the United States. Specifically, the US market accounts for 40% of the total share , Europe accounts for 35%, and the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries account for 20%. It is worth mentioning that consumer-grade 3D printers dominate Chuangxiang 3D's revenue structure, contributing up to 80% of its revenue.

When the company was first established, it mainly engaged in brand OEM business, that is, producing and selling 3D printers for other companies . From 2014 to 2016, Chuangxiang 3D mainly took OEM and ODM orders and supplied cross-border e-commerce companies in Shenzhen.

In 2014, Creative 3D launched its first product, CR-i3.

By 2016, the company's CR-10 had achieved remarkable results, with sales exceeding 20,000 units, becoming a hit in the market. Users highly praised the CR-10, and the number of views of related videos spontaneously shared on YouTube reached 10 million.

In 2017, Chuangxiang 3D's business grew rapidly , achieving nearly 10 times growth.

In 2018 , the Ender 3 product released by Chuangxiang 3D was also very popular, and the cumulative sales of this series of products reached millions of units.

Although the product was a great success in overseas markets, the brand exposure of Chuangxiang 3D did not meet expectations.

In 2018, the largest cross-border e-commerce company cooperating with Chuangxiang 3D requested to use their own brand on the products. At the same time, many foreign companies also contacted Chuangxiang 3D through various channels, which made Chuangxiang 3D deeply aware of the urgency of brand expansion overseas.

Therefore, in 2019, Chuangxiang 3D officially embarked on the road of global branding upgrade and made every effort to build its own overseas brand.

At the end of 2022, the Chuangxiang 3D brand flagship store will be officially launched on the Amazon platform.

At the beginning of 2023, the company set a sales target of 300 million yuan. In just three months, it sold nearly 6,000 products, with sales exceeding one million US dollars.

From 2020 to 2023, Chuangxiang 3D's revenue has exceeded 1 billion yuan for three consecutive years.

The company's scale has continued to expand, and now it has the world's largest 3D printing production base and sufficient production capacity reserves. It is also equipped with advanced large-scale R&D centers, 3D printing laboratories, creative research institutes and modern production lines.

With the steady advancement of the brand's overseas expansion strategy, Chuangxiang 3D has become a leading brand in this field.

2. Tuozhu Technology became the leader in the category in just 3 years

As a cutting-edge company in the 3D printer industry, BambuLab has seen rapid growth in recent years.

According to the "3D Printer Brand Influence Report" for the first quarter of 2024 released by domestic media , Chinese brands alone occupy 4 seats in the top 5 cross-border e-commerce 3D printer brand influence list, among which Bambu Lab ranks third.

According to public information, Bambu Lab was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China. It focuses on the research and development and sales of consumer-grade 3D printers.

It is worth mentioning that the founding team of Bambu Lab is composed of a group of professionals who love 3D printing and have rich R&D experience. Most of the initial members come from core business positions of companies such as DJI, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Marvell, covering top experts in mechanical/mechanical design, motion control, machine vision, artificial intelligence, computational mechanics, embedded software, cloud computing and other fields. Since its inception, Bambu Lab has shown its global characteristics, setting up R&D centers in Shenzhen and Shanghai and an office in Austin, USA. It brings together global partners and its product users in more than 60 countries and regions.

After 22 months of research and development, 7 prototype design iterations and more than 700 tests, in April 2022, Tozhu Technology officially launched its first printer, the Bambu Lab X1 series high-speed multi-color 3D printer, and launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Kickstarter platform. In just one month, the project raised more than 47 million yuan, breaking the Kickstarter platform 3D printer crowdfunding record, with remarkable achievements.

(Image source: Bambu Lab official website)

The Bambu Lab X1 printer has excellent performance and can print 16 colors of materials at a printing speed of up to 500mm/s, which is twice that of competing products. It can also be remotely controlled through the Bambu "Handy" mobile APP, which is very convenient.

Bambu Lab has become a dark horse in the field of consumer 3D printers. In November 2022, Bambu Lab's X1 series 3D printer won the TIME magazine's Best Invention of 2022.

Subsequently, in order to meet the needs of different consumer groups, Tozuo Technology launched the Bambu P1 and Bambu A1 series products. Unlike the high-end positioning of the X1 series products, the Bambu P1 is positioned in the mid-range, while the Bambu A1 is entry-level.

The P1 series uses the mature structure and control system of the X1 series and also has high-speed and multi-color printing capabilities. The Bambu A1 product not only has a maximum printing speed of 500mm/s and supports printing on a variety of materials, but is also popular for its compact size, portability and affordable price.

Tuozhu Technology's products have not only achieved great success in overseas markets, but are also popular in the domestic market.

During the entire 618 period in 2023, Tuozhu Technology demonstrated strong market competitiveness, winning the sales and sales volume double championship of consumer-grade 3D printers on JD.com and Tmall. Not only that, in the sales ranking of office category stores on JD.com and Tmall, Tuozhu also took the lead and won the double first place. In addition, as a new brand that has only been in business for two years, Tuozhu also won the Tmall 618 3C digital trend category championship.

During the 2024 Tmall Double 11 advance purchase event, Tuozhu's cumulative GMV in the office and educational products category surpassed HP, surpassing Epson and taking the top spot in sales.

With the rapid growth of its performance, Tuozhu Technology has attracted the attention of the capital market. Since its establishment in 2020, it has completed multiple rounds of financing.

On May 28, 2021, it received strategic investment from Mingshi Investment; on January 28, 2022, it received strategic investment from IDG Capital; on October 8, 2023, it completed its Series B financing and strategic investment. Investors included Mingshi Investment, Temasek, True Light, and 5Y Capital, making it the highest valued company among China's unlisted 3D printing companies.

Unlike other leading overseas brands, Tuozhu Technology focuses its sales on DTC independent websites and non-Amazon channels, with Amazon only serving as a supplement. Its independent website focuses on mainstream European and American countries, especially the United States, Germany, and Canada, and the Italian market also accounts for a high proportion of sales.

In addition to its strong product strength, the success of Tuozhu Technology is also due to its on-site operations and off-site promotion. Bambu Lab's independent website has a "MakerWorld" user exchange community, rich prize competition activities, high user participation, and also provides 3D printing model downloads. In terms of social media, it is mainly deployed on YouTube, Facebook and Reddit, accounting for 48%, 22% and 18% respectively. According to similarweb data, Bambu Lab's independent website has 7.5 million monthly visits and continues to grow rapidly, becoming the brand with the highest number of visits to the independent website in the 3D printer track.

According to data from EqualOcean, Bambu Lab's revenue is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan in 2023.

Industry insiders said that Tuozhu Technology’s monthly sales revenue currently exceeds 100 million yuan.

3. Anycubic’s annual revenue exceeds 1 billion yuan!

Anycubic also has outstanding market performance in the 3D printer market.

Shenzhen Zongwei Cube Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2015, focusing on the field of 3D printers, integrating R&D, production and sales. It owns its own printer brand Anycubic, and its products are used in education, industry, jewelry, medical and other fields.

(Image source: Zongwei Cube official website)

For overseas markets, Zongwei Cube has actively deployed multiple sales channels, including Amazon, independent websites, AliExpress, eBay, Lazada and other platforms. Among them, Amazon is its most important revenue platform, followed by independent websites, and Ali International Station also occupies an important position. The revenue of Amazon and independent websites alone accounts for as much as 55% of the total revenue. In the category of complete 3D printers on Amazon's overseas sites, Zongwei Cube has performed outstandingly, occupying more than one-third of the market share. Many of its products have long been Best Sellers, and its industry ranking has remained in the top three.

In the early days of the company, like many other sellers, it adopted a distribution model and operated a wide range of products, including umbrellas, school bags, pajamas, etc. However, in the process of expanding the international market in 2016, Zongwei Cube saw the strong demand for 3D printer-related accessories in the overseas market, and decisively made a strategic transformation and invested in the independent research and development and manufacturing of 3D printers.

In the same year, Anycubic launched a classic product, Anycubic Mega. Relying on a number of patented technologies, especially the "lattice glass platform" technology, this product greatly improved the user experience. Once launched, it quickly won recognition from a large number of consumers and sales volume grew explosively.

In 2017, the company launched the Photon series, its first LCD light-curing 3D printer. With its 2K resolution and affordable price, it successfully broke the long-standing high price barrier in the light-curing consumer 3D printing market and quickly opened up the market.

In 2021, Zongwei Cube reached an in-depth cooperation with Texas Instruments (TI), the world's leading manufacturer of digital signal processors and analog circuit components, to launch the new desktop DLP product Photon Ultra, successfully introducing the originally expensive DLP technology into the consumer market.

On September 2, 2022, Anycubic Photon D2 and other new products were launched again to further enrich its product matrix.

In May 2024, Zongwei Cube launched its first gantry FDM 3D printer, Kobra 3 Combo. Its innovative multi-color printing function attracted widespread attention from 3D printing enthusiasts around the world.

Since the establishment of the company, Zongwei Cube has continued to innovate, created multiple product series such as Anycubic mega, Anycubic photon, and launched many popular models.

As of 2024, the company has released more than 20 products, with business footprint covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and cumulative sales exceeding 1 million units.

In recent years, Zongwei Cube's performance has shown a strong growth trend, with revenue scale continuing to expand and market share continuing to increase.

In 2020, Zongwei Cube's annual shipments of 3D printers exceeded 500,000 units, with annual revenue reaching 800 million yuan, making it a leading position among China's 3D printing companies .

By 2023, Zongwei Cube's annual revenue has exceeded 1 billion yuan, and both revenue and profits continue to grow, making it one of the few 3D printing companies to reach the billion-level scale .

In the first seven months of 2024, Zongwei Cube 's exports increased by more than 70% year-on-year, ranking among the top five in the global consumer 3D printer brand search popularity ranking, especially in the European market segments and 3D printing fields, and won good market feedback.

In the future, with the continuous innovation of 3D printing technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, Zongwei Cube is expected to continue to maintain its strong growth momentum in the industry.

4. After transforming into selling 3D printers, ELEGOO’s annual revenue reached 1.2 billion yuan!

ELEGOO is also a leader in the consumer 3D printing field and is very popular in the overseas market.

Shenzhen Smartpai Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2015. It is a desktop 3D printer company integrating scientific research, design, production, sales and after-sales maintenance. It has 5 wholly-owned subsidiaries.

(Image source: Smart Pie official website )

In the early stages of its development, Smartpie mainly sold STEM circuit kits overseas. Relying on the family's advantage as an electronic component distributor, its STEM circuit kits won the top sales in the programming electronic hardware related category one year after being launched on Amazon.

As market trends continued to evolve, the sales growth of STEM circuit kits slowed down, so Smartpie began to look for new business breakthroughs. In 2018, Smartpie shifted its business focus to the field of 3D printers , relying on its accumulated experience and technology in the field of programmable electronic hardware .

In 2019, the "Mars" series of light-curing 3D printers launched by ELEGOO quickly won the love and recognition of consumers for its excellent performance and affordable prices.

Then, the "Saturn" series of 4K resolution printers released in 2020 achieved amazing pre-sale results, once again proving ELEGOO 's strong strength and market appeal in the field of 3D printing. This year, ELEGOO 's annual sales successfully exceeded RMB 600 million, and it successfully started a new journey of branding overseas through the Kickstarter platform.

In 2021, the sales volume of ELEGOO ’s light -curing 3D printers successfully exceeded the 500,000 mark. In September of the same year, ELEGOO launched its newly developed 12.8-inch 6K 3D printer "Jupiter" on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Just 48 hours after the launch, this new product quickly received a pre-sale amount of US$3.2 million, and eventually raised a total of US$4.74 million in crowdfunding funds. This achievement also made "Jupiter" the second-highest-funded product in the history of global 3D printer crowdfunding.

In 2022, ELEGOO 's overall annual revenue reached RMB 800 million, and its product line was further enriched and expanded, covering multiple fields such as FDM 3D printers and laser engraving machines. In addition, the average monthly traffic of ELEGOO's independent station has stabilized at more than 1 million, showing strong market appeal and user stickiness. In November of that year, the monthly sales of ELEGOO's independent station exceeded US$6 million, further verifying its leading position in the 3D printing market.

Entering 2023, ELEGOO 's development momentum remains strong. The company's sales successfully exceeded 1.2 billion yuan, breaking the historical record again. At the same time, the first laser engraving machine developed by ELEGOO , Phecda , was successfully launched on the Kickstarter platform and eventually raised more than 2.8 million US dollars in crowdfunding funds. This achievement not only made Phecda rank among the top three in the industry, but also successfully selected as the top 10 design & technology projects on Kickstarter in 2023, further demonstrating ELEGOO's strength in innovative design and technological research and development.

At the same time, ELEGOO 's LCD light-curing printers also rank among the top in domestic shipments .

In 2024, at the Formnext 2024 exhibition, ELEGOO launched its first LCD slicing software Elegoo SatelLite .

After years of development, ELEGOO has gone through a transformation process from STEM kit production to 3D printer research and development, and has achieved remarkable achievements in the field of 3D printing. Today, ELEGOO has carefully laid out offline agents in nearly 80 countries around the world, and has built online sites in many countries. Through a market strategy that closely integrates online and offline, it continues to expand its market territory and enhance the brand's international influence. Its products are sold well in more than 70 countries and regions around the world, with cumulative sales exceeding one million units, of which the North American and European markets account for nearly 70% - 80%. In addition, ELEGOO has also formulated a clear market expansion plan, preparing to ship to Brazil, and plans to gradually expand into markets such as India, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the future.

It should be noted that with the entry of new players of all sizes, competition in the consumer 3D printer market is becoming increasingly fierce.

And with the popularization of 3D printers, consumers' needs have become more diversified, and they have begun to explore more application scenarios. These new demands have also put higher requirements on the products and technologies of 3D printer manufacturers.

When 3D printers are exported, we should also be wary of infringement issues. The field of 3D printing technology has always been on the fast track of innovation, and many companies and scientific research institutions have a large number of patents. From print head design, transmission system to control system, etc., each key component and technical link may have patents. If infringement occurs, it may cause serious legal disputes and economic losses to the company.

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