Over 660,000 Shine and Flash trackers have been sold there in the past 18 months
Misfit is currently outselling Fitbit in China, the CEO of Misfit has revealed to South China Morning Post.
The company said it has shipped over two million trackers around the world over the past 18 months, and a third of that – around 660,000 – was to China.
Misfit’s CEO Sonny Vu said, “We actually outsell the Fitbit in China”. This is an impressive statement to be able to make, though we don’t know which timeframe Vu is referring to.
Fitbit is undoubtedly the bestseller globally with 3.9 million total sales of its Charge HR, Surge and Flex trackers in the first quarter of 2015. But after landing in China last summer, Fitbit has clearly not yet made a huge splash there, perhaps down to competition from Misfit and Xiaomi.
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Misfit’s CEO, Sonny Vu, says the sales are largely down to the stylish design of the Shine and Flash, saying that many wearables “look like they were designed by geeks for geeks, as opposed to for the mass market and women”.
In 2014, Misfit raised $40 million in a round of funding, with a huge investment coming from China, including the country’s giants JD.com and Xiaomi. “This whole thing with Xiaomi and JD.com was basically done so that we can really amplify our presence in China and also to accelerate product development,” Vu said.
No matter where you are trying to sell a wearable, design matters, and in Asia particularly early adopters want to express style and personality. As for the potential market, look at Xiaomi’s own cheap and cheerful tracker, the Mi Band. We’ve also seen Apple’s gold iPhones do very well in China, and with rumours of a cheaper gold Apple Watch Sport, it seems Apple could be aiming to build on the prestige the brand has while it lasts.
So it’s still early days for both Fitbit and Misfit with less than 1m sales each in China. But Misfit will no doubt consider the country that’s buying a third of its devices when it comes to its next line of trackers.