With the development of technology, whiteboards are gradually replacing traditional blackboards in China. Currently, the whiteboard market in China has many famous brands.
Whiteboards in China area necessary education tool
The Ministry of Education (MOE) increases investment of teaching whiteboard in China
In recent years, the national and local governments have continuously increased the investment in basic educational equipment. The upgrade of equipment has provided technical support in education.
The MOE requires schools to install certain teaching equipment including teaching whiteboards instead of blackboards. Whiteboards allow teachers to project vivid pictures and videos to enrich class. Both students and teachers can avoid the harmful health effect of chalk dusks by using smart whiteboards. Meanwhile, the MOE emphasizes that the government will strengthen the promotion of modern education equipment in remote regions.
For the past three years, the cost of teaching equipment increased stably, according to MOE’s statistics. In 2018, teaching equipment and instrument spending reached 551 billion yuan.
[Data Source: MOE “Annual Expenditure on Teaching Equipment & Instruments”]
Whiteboards are necessary in various industries.
In addition to education, whiteboards also apply to a lot of industries. The commercial market has a huge potential. The uses of whiteboards have expanded to conference rooms, smart medical treatment, smart Party construction and more commercial uses. Users can make their communication more effective and efficient through whiteboards.
Baidu Index shows economically developed area’s are more likely to search about whiteboards, where people usually can afford high-end products. Thus, high-end whiteboards have promising future in the Chinese market as more people and school systems have spending money.
[Source: Baidu Index “Whiteboard inquiries Geographical Distribution”]
Main competitors of the whiteboard market in China
Popular whiteboard brands in China
The whiteboard market in China is matureing. According to qiang100.com, most popular whiteboard brands are local brands. Most of them are stationery companies and do not treat whiteboards as the main products.
Deli and Ziwei Star are two representative whiteboard brands in China. Deli is a well-known trademark but focuses on stationery sales. In contrast, Ziwei Star concentrates on teaching whiteboard sales but brand awareness is lower than Deli.
[Source: TMall “Product Information of Deli and Ziwei Star”]
Deli represents the company which sells whiteboards well but regards whiteboards sale as one product line.
Deli is the biggest stationery brand in China. It office supplies and customized products as well as distribution, installation, after-sales service in a one-stop service. Deli’s sale and service net covers the whole China. People can get access to Deli’s products in retail stores and online stores.
Ziwei Star specializes in whiteboards in China
Ziwei star is a whiteboard brand in China concentrating on whiteboards, but the brand is not famous. Its public information can only be found in the official TMall store and JD store.
The rise of interactive whiteboard products influences the sales of the whiteboard products in China.
Electronic whiteboards are now competing in the traditional whiteboard market. The leading electronic whiteboards in China are HiteVision, CVTE and SMART.
HiteVision
HiteVision has been cultivating “HiteVision” brand products since 2000. It has mastered the key technologies and huge marketing channels in the industry. Thus, it holds a large market share in the interactive whiteboard market in China and plans to expand into the overseas market.
[Source: HiteVision website “The HiteVision Interactive Whiteboard”]
CVTE
CVTE is an intelligent interactive solution provider with display and control technology as the core. It is the second-largest interactive whiteboard producer in the Chinese market. One of its product line, Seewo, provides interactive whiteboards and relevant software to help with teaching. The other product, MAXHUB, applies to meeting scenarios in various industries.
[Source: Seewo “Seewo Interactive Whiteboard”]
SMART
SMART is a foreign company originated from Canada. It is similar to CVTE, providing smartboards to both education and business meetings. It is worth to emphasize that SMART has a product called Kapp. Kapp allows people to read the content written in a whiteboard wherever readers are.
[Source: SMART “SMART Kapp”]
What to know about the whiteboard market in China
Companies have their unique advantages and are able to catch hot spots and take measures to prevent possible risks when expanding the market.
Core competencies stimulate customers’ brand choice.
Core competencies refer to the resources that can bring companies comparable competitive advantages, they can make products gain the stable profits in the market. Deli’s core competency is its brand reputation in the Chinese market. While Deli is a reliable choice, Ziwei Star may have deeper core competencies due to being specialized in whiteboards.
Whiteboard demand increased after the Coronavirus
Based on the Baidu Index, the search volume of the whiteboard and its relative keywords had a sudden rise after the Chinese new year. That period is the Spring Festival in China and the quarantine due to Coronavirus. People cannot go outside and whiteboards become useful tools for teaching and meeting.
[Source: Baidu Index “Whiteboard Search Index”]
Creating some interesting uses of products draws consumers’ attention. Seewo’s official Weibo indicates that it ever posted a video that created a scratch ticket in its product and gained 1,100 likes.
[Source: Weibo “Seewo Official Weibo Post”]
The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan standards for the whiteboard industry in China.
Environment-friendly development is required.
The plan encourages producers to produce green products. The government will supervise the production from the design to recycling to strengthen the whole product life cycle green management.
Import tariffs increase costs.
Most whiteboard brands are local brands and their prices are not expensive. Import tariffs will influence import products’ pricing and induce a series of regulation issues.
How Daxue Consulting can help
As a professional marketing research consulting firm, we have rich experience in multi-industry market research and we use multi-methodology to satisfy customers’ requirements. We can help you investigate the market elaborately to locate your product and explore expansion strategies.
If you have any question or want to have further discussion with us, just contact us at dx@daxueconsulting.com.
Author: April Peng
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