Is Northern's overseas sales booming and about to be acquired?

On October 29, Foshan Lighting, a lighting giant with an annual revenue of 9 billion yuan in the A-share market, issued an announcement on the signing of a "Letter of Intent for Equity Acquisition" .

What does this have to do with going overseas? Because the target of its acquisition is the seller going overseas.

Global shipments have exceeded 80 million

One day before the above announcement was released, Foshan Lighting signed a "Share Acquisition Intention Agreement" with Jiang Zhaoning and Liu Daping, the controlling shareholders of Qingdao Yilai Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yilai Intelligent"). The former will acquire more than 50% of the target company's equity in Yilai Intelligent ( the specific proportion and transferor will be determined by all parties through negotiation after due diligence, audit and evaluation ). After the acquisition is completed, Yilai Intelligent will be included in the consolidated financial statements of Foshan Lighting .

Why is Yilai Smart considered an overseas seller?

According to Qichacha data, Yilai Smart was established in Qingdao in 2012. Just six years later (2018), it started its overseas journey with the Indian market as the starting point .

Some media have reported that in the second year of going overseas, E-Like Smart's overseas market revenue exceeded 100 million RMB . In its official channels, E-Like Smart stated that its smart lighting products have now shipped more than 80 million units worldwide , covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with more than 14 million global users .

Running in the global market under the brand name of Yeelight, it is currently mainly entering the overseas market with application-type lamps and decorative lamps.

Relying on platforms such as Amazon and independent sites, Yeelight's smart bulbs, table lamps, atmosphere lights and other application-oriented lamps, as well as decorative lamps such as light strips and light panels, are gradually opening up overseas online markets.

A search on Amazon by the brand name Yeelight shows 43 listings for sale on the platform, and there is no uniform range of product pricing, with the lowest being in the single digits, such as $8.99, and the highest being $699.99.

Although Yeelight's current performance on Amazon is average, with most listings having low reviews and no high ranking in the BS list of the corresponding category, its color-changing desk lamps and smart bulbs are quite popular among consumers judging by sales data.

Yeelight has also put a lot of effort into building its own independent website. The page is clearly set up, and products are divided into purchase columns based on style and usage scenarios, such as decorative lamps, table lamps, smart lighting, indoor, outdoor, and gaming worlds...

It will also organize products with high demand and high consumption in the recent period. For example, with the arrival of Christmas, its Christmas light strings have become hot-selling, and its outdoor lights, curtain lights, and ordinary light strips have maintained a high level of attention.

Similarweb data shows that in October, Yeelight's brand independent website's rankings on the US, global, and US category websites all rose. In that month, its visits reached 227,200 times, and the average monthly visits in the past three months reached 222,300 times .

According to Google Trend data, its global brand search popularity has grown rapidly since its establishment, especially reaching its peak in November 2018, and has maintained a high level since then, and has maintained a high popularity in the fourth quarter of each year.

Although Yeelight has not yet had a particularly impressive performance in the overseas market, it may achieve great success in the future by relying on its cooperation with various super manufacturers.

7 rounds of financing , each round reaching 300 million yuan

Based on the sales of household smart lighting in the Chinese market, in 2022, Yeelight is the only professional smart lighting brand to enter the first echelon of the industry, joining the 700 million to 1 billion club.

Yeelight’s overseas brand official website shows that its current global daily active device count is over 10 million .

Although it has its own brand for B2C sales, Yeelight also maintains close cooperation with many global industry giants, such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, Razer , Xiaomi, Baidu, Yandex, Naver, etc. It is also one of the first lighting brands in China to support Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Razre Chroma .

It is also worth noting that Yeelight is one of Xiaomi’s first ecological chain companies.

In 2013, Yeelight 's first crowdfunding product, the smart dimming bulb "sunFlower" , was launched. With the product endorsement, the founder of Yeelight went to Silicon Valley in the United States with the product DMO and plan in the same year , and won hundreds of thousands of dollars in seed round investment from HAXLRBR and SOSV.

The first shot was fired. The following year ( 2014), Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital became Yeelight 's angel round investors with US$1 million . It was from this time that it became an ecological chain enterprise of Xiaomi. Since then , Yeelight has been running all the way and quickly attracted the attention of many large companies.

According to Qichacha information, Yeelight completed seven rounds of financing between 2012 and 2021, with leading investors including Blueprint Ventures , Shunwei Capital , Jinshi Investment , Everbright Holdings, Qingdao Science and Technology Innovation Fund, and Huaying Investment. Among them, the E round of financing alone amounted to 300 million yuan . There are also reports that Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have also paid special attention to it.

In the following years, with the help of Xiaomi, Yeelight's sales skyrocketed. In 2016 , its revenue soared to 150 million yuan . In the same year, Yeelight launched products compatible with Amazon Alexa .

In 2017, Yeelight products won international awards such as the German iF Award and the Red Dot Award for the first time. Now, it has won more than 30 international design awards. This year, it won the German iF Design Award again, with only four products winning five awards .

The Xiaomi smart desk lamp it launched won the German iF Gold Award, the German Red Dot Award, the Japan Good Design Award, and the American IDEA Award, achieving a grand slam of international design awards.

Yeelight has benefited a lot from its cooperation with Xiaomi . For example, its famous product is the Mijia LED Smart Desk Lamp , which became a hit when it was launched that year . It also became a dark horse in the lighting market, with revenue and profits increasing year by year, and it even hit the market.

In 2020, Yeelight's parent company Yilai Smart submitted an application for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. According to the prospectus, from 2017 to the first half of 2020, Yilai Smart's revenue was 307 million yuan, 553 million yuan, 886 million yuan and 888 million yuan, respectively, and its net profit was 14.5706 million yuan, 20.7328 million yuan, 34.5182 million yuan and 30.0441 million yuan, respectively.

However, problems such as the proportion of Xiaomi's business, patents, and gross profit margin ultimately led to the failure of its listing.

At the beginning, Yeelight chose India as its first overseas destination, hoping to enter the market by relying on the background of Xiaomi's ecological chain. At that time, its founder also said in an interview, "In December last year (2017), Yeelight's revenue reached 300 million yuan, and this year it is expected to double. The overseas market is developing faster, and it is expected to grow by 200% year-on-year."

However, since then, Xiaomi has encountered repeated obstacles in India, and Yeelight's development in the local area has not been entirely smooth. Its overseas business and overall revenue have not grown as expected. As time went on, Yeelight strengthened its layout of independent brand business.

With a complete smart home lighting product line covering home lighting, countertop lighting, atmosphere lighting and smart lighting , what Yeelight seems to lack is marketing.

Therefore, after going overseas, in addition to setting up online sales channels such as Amazon, Walmart, AliExpress, eBay , and independent sites, Yeelight also began to frequently appear in various top home appliance and consumer electronics shows, such as the CES International Consumer Electronics Show, the IFA Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show, the CES ASIA Asia Consumer Electronics Show, and the CSA Connection Standards Alliance's media conference, etc., to actively increase brand awareness.

Founded in 2012 and going overseas in 2018, in July this year, the CEO of Yilai Smart publicly stated that its online and offline businesses have grown against the trend this year.

According to Foshan Lighting’s announcement, in 2023 and the first half of this year, Yilai Smart’s revenue reached 885 million yuan and 463 million yuan respectively , and its net profit was 37.4 million yuan and 22.76 million yuan, with a solid growth momentum.

At present, many brand sellers and platform sellers are paying attention to overseas expansion. Although Yeelight's overseas business is currently performing generally, it is also making positive efforts, and its future direction remains unknown.

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