Shenzhen Dama has withdrawn from this category, which once sold nearly 1.3 million pieces a year.

In the cross-border e-commerce circle, big sellers have different product strategies. Some companies continue to expand their product categories, showing a diversified development trend; while others are moving in a more focused direction, concentrating resources on specific product areas.

Huabao New Energy no longer makes power banks

On November 14, an investor asked energy storage giant Huabao New Energy: "Does the company still produce mobile phone power banks?" Huabao New Energy replied that the company is no longer involved in the production and sales of power bank products.

In fact, Huabao New Energy has been gradually reducing its power bank product business since 2019. By 2021, the revenue from the power bank business was close to zero. It can be said that the company has basically stopped engaging in power bank-related business since then.

In 2018, the power bank business still dominated Huabao New Energy's operating income, with annual revenue of 124 million yuan, accounting for 64.23% of total revenue. Annual sales volume was 1.2719 million units.

However, the amount has gradually shrunk since then. The prospectus shows that from 2019 to 2021, Huabao New Energy's power bank revenue was 50.0491 million yuan, 10.5612 million yuan and 19,700 yuan respectively. In 2021, the power bank revenue accounted for less than 0.01% of the total revenue.

Huabao New Energy was founded in Shenzhen in 2011 and initially started out as a power bank ODM business. During its development, it chose to voluntarily abandon this market, in large part due to strong pressure from competitors.

In the international market, there are many well-known brands in the field of power banks, and the competition is fierce. For example, Anker Innovations, which is well-known to cross-border sellers, has a high reputation in power bank technology, quality and design. It has been deeply involved in the overseas market for many years and has occupied a certain market share.

Charging products were also the first product category launched by Anker Innovations, generating operating revenue of 1.565 billion yuan in 2018 (including mobile power series, USB chargers and cable series). By 2023, the annual revenue of its charging and energy storage products (digital charging equipment and related accessories, as well as Anker SOLIX series of home photovoltaic and energy storage products, etc.) will rise to 8.604 billion yuan.

Anker Innovations' prospectus stated that on Amazon's US site, 7 of its mobile power products were among the top 10 best-selling products (Best Sellers) on the platform, and the top four best-selling products were all the company's products.

In addition to Anker Innovations, brands such as Xiaomi and Huawei also have high popularity and market influence for their power bank products overseas. These brands have formed strong competitiveness in overseas markets by virtue of their own technological strength, brand effect and market channels.

There are also some power bank brands in foreign countries, such as Mophie in the United States, Zendure in the United Kingdom, and Samsung in South Korea. They have certain advantages in the local market, such as brand awareness, local channels, and understanding of local consumer needs. These local brands will bring certain competitive pressure to Chinese power bank brands going overseas.

Deep focus on portable energy storage products

While the power bank business is shrinking, Huabao New Energy's other category of portable energy storage products is expanding rapidly.

From 2018 to 2020, the sales of its portable energy storage products were RMB 63.9812 million, RMB 250 million and RMB 893 million, respectively, with an average annual compound growth rate of 273.49%.

With such outstanding market performance, in 2020, its portable energy storage products were continuously selected as the best-selling products (Best Seller) and Amazon's Choice on the Amazon platform, further demonstrating the competitiveness and popularity of the products in the market.

It is understood that as early as 2015, Huabao New Energy had begun to layout the outdoor energy storage market, and gradually shifted its business focus from power banks to portable energy storage products. This is a track with greater technical difficulty and higher added value. In this process, its business model has gradually evolved into an M2C model based on its own brand of portable energy storage products.

At present, it mainly relies on the two major brands of "Jackery" and "Dianxiaoer" to layout domestic and overseas markets. As of the first three quarters of 2024, portable energy storage and photovoltaic products have covered more than 50 countries and regions, with cumulative sales of nearly 5 million units, firmly maintaining a leading position in global sales.

The financial report shows that in the first three quarters of 2024, Huabao New Energy's operating income was 2.133 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.02%; the net profit attributable to the parent was 159 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 357.06%.

Online, its products are mainly sold through independent brand websites and third-party e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Rakuten Japan, and Yahoo Japan. Sales performance is good.

For example, on the Amazon platform, Jackery's portable power station firmly occupies the first place in the BSR ranking of the generator category. This is a new product that was just launched in June this year, but it has accumulated nearly 500 reviews, of which 76% have 5-star reviews. At the same time, in the ranking of new products in the generator category, as well as the most desired products and gift ideas, Jackery products are in the top 3 positions.

When it comes to brands, independent websites are always a topic that cannot be avoided. According to similarweb data, in October this year, the total number of global visits to jackery.com was close to 1.73 million. The traffic mainly came from Europe and the United States. Specifically, the United States accounted for the largest proportion (70.7%), followed by the United Kingdom (5.28%) and Germany (3.89%).

According to the financial report, Huabao New Energy has established 21 official websites around the world. These independent websites are like Huabao New Energy's frontier outposts in the global market, which not only display the brand image and product charm, but also serve as an important bridge to directly connect with consumers.

The smoke on the track is getting thicker

Against the backdrop of global energy transformation and upgrading and the rapid penetration of outdoor lifestyles, the demand for portable energy storage is growing rapidly. From 2017 to 2022, global portable energy storage shipments will increase from 101,000 units to 6.567 million units.

Data from market research firm Next Move Strategy Consulting shows that the global mobile energy storage market size was US$5.73 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach US$15.46 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.2% from 2024 to 2030.

Huabao New Energy chose to delve deeply into this field because it had indeed identified a good track with broad prospects.

However, this attractive market is like a magnet that exudes great charm, attracting many participants to compete, and there are naturally many who want to share the pie. Anker Innovations, an old rival, is one of them.

Although Anker Innovations entered the portable energy storage field relatively late, and did not launch the "AnkerSolix" brand until 2023, its long-term accumulation of deep technical background in the charging field and its extensive brand influence have laid a solid foundation for its expansion in overseas markets, enabling it to quickly occupy a certain market share. According to relevant forecasts, when it enters a stable operation period in five years, its portable and household energy storage products are expected to achieve an average annual revenue of 2.35 billion yuan and a net profit of 194 million yuan.

In addition to Anker Innovations, EcoFlow and BLUETTI have also demonstrated strong competitiveness in this field and have become important players in the industry. In addition, Fenda Technology, a long-established foreign trade company, has also actively invested in the layout of the new energy storage market after successfully breaking through core energy storage technologies such as bidirectional inverters in 2022.

It can be predicted that under the siege of these powerful competitors, Huabao New Energy’s future development path will not be easy.

Huabao New Energy