4 ms·

It's weird how since like the 2018ish, the West has been holding its collective breath about how 'high-tech Chinese product X' is going to wipe out local market

It's weird how since like the 2018ish, the West has been holding its collective breath about how 'high-tech Chinese product X' is going to wipe out local markets by offering the same stuff cheaper and better. We've seen this mentioned with smartphones, laptops, various electronics accessories, household stuff, and most recently cars. Interestingly, this stuff never seemed to catch on, the best they usually managed is they became mid-tier market players. The jury's still out on cars, but my suspicion is they're going to be far less dominant than the doomsayers predict. The only 2 exceptions to this are dji, and Bambulab, their products are without peer.

SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
> The jury's still out on cars, but my suspicion is they're going to be far less dominant than the doomsayers predict. Electric Vehicles? Chinese firms are crushing that market. They're well positioned to own the medium-term future of cars and similar vehicles.
- torginus 1y ago
  No they are not, the only Western market I could find where they have significant penetration is in Australia. Places like the UK have no tariffs on Chinese EVs, and no domestic industry to protect, yet Chinese cars are barely in the top 10.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
    You're mistaking "on top now" for "well positioned to be on top in the medium-term future". They're not the same.
  - triceratops 1y ago
    I hadn't heard of any Chinese EVs as recently as 3 years ago. That they're already in the top 10 in the West is incredible.
jabroni_salad 1y ago
Roborock is the market leader for robotic vacuum cleaners at the moment. irobot was asleep at the wheel for like a decade.
alias_neo 1y ago
> The jury's still out on cars I don't know if it's just anecdotal, but I see a LOT of Chinese EVs in the England lately. Obviously nobody is buying them based on brand recognition or any sort of quality belief, brands nobody has heard of until now can only be on our streets in the numbers I'm seeing because they're significantly cheaper than buying something from a known auto manufacturer. The one exception I'd say in the UK are MG EVs, which for some unknown reason some of my fellow Brits have some sort of affinity to as a brand. I wouldn't dream of buying a JAECOO or BYD and everything I've seen online about their EVs absolutely suggest some at least morally dubious tactics, not to say the likely of VW haven't also had their hands slapped, but let's see how their fair mid term. Side note: Recently got a DJI drone, have had some of their other camera related non-drone stuff, the thing is absolutely nuts for the price, DJI really are unrivalled.
- torginus 1y ago
  I dug around the internet, trying to find some sales stats. This list is for EVs: https://www.vehiclecontracts.co.uk/blog/best-selling-electric-cars-in-2025/ https://www.vehiclecontracts.co.uk/blog/best-selling-electri... This is for gas cars: https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-news/bestselling-cars/ https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-news/bestselling-cars/ Both lists have single MG vehicle, so they aren't doing terribly, but based on this, it's hard to conclude they're going to conquer the market. And this is with the UK, which has no tariffs on Chinese EVs. My prediction is that MG is going to fall off the next couple years, considering their reliability has been terrible, according to stats. Even if they fix the issues, they're going to get a reputation and it's a long way back from that.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
    And my prediction is that in the UK EV market, MG and Volvo are the thin edge of the wedge of Chinese cars. BYD are on the roads now, and Omoda, soon to be followed by Zeekr, XPeng, Nio and Xiaomi. How well MG does specifically is irrelevant to all that, but your suggestion seems wishful - they have several new models out this year. Tesla's brand reputation is in a ditch, and the big EU brands are struggling to keep up.
big_toast 1y ago
"This stuff never seemed to catch on." A little confused. In the US, Volvo EVs are pretty popular (80% owned by Geely). Tencent owns most of Riot Games and a large stake in Epic Games. The GE appliances division is I think fully owned by Haier. Hisense and TCL TVs sell pretty well. There's roborock (vacuums), Insta360 (that and DJI crushed GoPro?), Hikvision cameras, Segway-Ninebot mobility and other odd ones, TP-Link networking, TerraMaster for storage, BeeLink computers seem to be taking off. Nothing is wiping out local markets here, but to think it isn't catching on seems too strong a statement.
maxglute 1y ago
Eufy vac by Anker was truly baffling launch consider all the roborock alternatives at the time, any budget Xiaomi vac was better. It's not weird _because_ all the 2018 sentiment eventually led a bunch of export controls by US and Meng Wangzhou arrest in 2020... PRC companies don't want to fuck with getting popular in key western, especially NA markets like US because getting popular is ticket to sanction which makes operating RoW more annoying. See all the tariffs on EVs / renewables. see DJI now. See PRC doing obscene markups abroad to not look like dumping to locals but domestically the same goods sell for less. Everyone in PRC knows US will make up some retarded national security excuse to hobble successful multinational brans in high tech. So they keep all the good stuff, or price the good stuff cheap at home / in other markets. Where good is 80-90% of functionality for 50% the price, i.e. stuff that wipe markets. The really "good" stuff, as in market leaders that wouldn't simply stomp competitors, risk selling/becoming popular in west higher than ever. There was study in 20s that show incumbents (usually western) basically lose 50-100% of their operating profits once affordable PRC alternatives enter market... so now barriers are setup to scare those companies from selling products, or at least sell them at market wiping prices.
philjohn 1y ago
Also cycling accessories (less so full bikes). They already had all of the composites experience from making bikes and wheels in carbon for the western brands, and now they are producing their own designs and offering highly competitive price to performance.

SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago

> The jury's still out on cars, but my suspicion is they're going to be far less dominant than the doomsayers predict. Electric Vehicles? Chinese firms are crushing that market. They're well positioned to own the medium-term future of cars and similar vehicles.

torginus 1y ago
No they are not, the only Western market I could find where they have significant penetration is in Australia. Places like the UK have no tariffs on Chinese EVs, and no domestic industry to protect, yet Chinese cars are barely in the top 10.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
  You're mistaking "on top now" for "well positioned to be on top in the medium-term future". They're not the same.
- triceratops 1y ago
  I hadn't heard of any Chinese EVs as recently as 3 years ago. That they're already in the top 10 in the West is incredible.

jabroni_salad 1y ago

Roborock is the market leader for robotic vacuum cleaners at the moment. irobot was asleep at the wheel for like a decade.

alias_neo 1y ago

> The jury's still out on cars I don't know if it's just anecdotal, but I see a LOT of Chinese EVs in the England lately. Obviously nobody is buying them based on brand recognition or any sort of quality belief, brands nobody has heard of until now can only be on our streets in the numbers I'm seeing because they're significantly cheaper than buying something from a known auto manufacturer. The one exception I'd say in the UK are MG EVs, which for some unknown reason some of my fellow Brits have some sort of affinity to as a brand. I wouldn't dream of buying a JAECOO or BYD and everything I've seen online about their EVs absolutely suggest some at least morally dubious tactics, not to say the likely of VW haven't also had their hands slapped, but let's see how their fair mid term. Side note: Recently got a DJI drone, have had some of their other camera related non-drone stuff, the thing is absolutely nuts for the price, DJI really are unrivalled.

torginus 1y ago
I dug around the internet, trying to find some sales stats. This list is for EVs: https://www.vehiclecontracts.co.uk/blog/best-selling-electric-cars-in-2025/ https://www.vehiclecontracts.co.uk/blog/best-selling-electri... This is for gas cars: https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-news/bestselling-cars/ https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-news/bestselling-cars/ Both lists have single MG vehicle, so they aren't doing terribly, but based on this, it's hard to conclude they're going to conquer the market. And this is with the UK, which has no tariffs on Chinese EVs. My prediction is that MG is going to fall off the next couple years, considering their reliability has been terrible, according to stats. Even if they fix the issues, they're going to get a reputation and it's a long way back from that.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago
  And my prediction is that in the UK EV market, MG and Volvo are the thin edge of the wedge of Chinese cars. BYD are on the roads now, and Omoda, soon to be followed by Zeekr, XPeng, Nio and Xiaomi. How well MG does specifically is irrelevant to all that, but your suggestion seems wishful - they have several new models out this year. Tesla's brand reputation is in a ditch, and the big EU brands are struggling to keep up.

big_toast 1y ago

"This stuff never seemed to catch on." A little confused. In the US, Volvo EVs are pretty popular (80% owned by Geely). Tencent owns most of Riot Games and a large stake in Epic Games. The GE appliances division is I think fully owned by Haier. Hisense and TCL TVs sell pretty well. There's roborock (vacuums), Insta360 (that and DJI crushed GoPro?), Hikvision cameras, Segway-Ninebot mobility and other odd ones, TP-Link networking, TerraMaster for storage, BeeLink computers seem to be taking off. Nothing is wiping out local markets here, but to think it isn't catching on seems too strong a statement.

maxglute 1y ago

Eufy vac by Anker was truly baffling launch consider all the roborock alternatives at the time, any budget Xiaomi vac was better. It's not weird _because_ all the 2018 sentiment eventually led a bunch of export controls by US and Meng Wangzhou arrest in 2020... PRC companies don't want to fuck with getting popular in key western, especially NA markets like US because getting popular is ticket to sanction which makes operating RoW more annoying. See all the tariffs on EVs / renewables. see DJI now. See PRC doing obscene markups abroad to not look like dumping to locals but domestically the same goods sell for less. Everyone in PRC knows US will make up some retarded national security excuse to hobble successful multinational brans in high tech. So they keep all the good stuff, or price the good stuff cheap at home / in other markets. Where good is 80-90% of functionality for 50% the price, i.e. stuff that wipe markets. The really "good" stuff, as in market leaders that wouldn't simply stomp competitors, risk selling/becoming popular in west higher than ever. There was study in 20s that show incumbents (usually western) basically lose 50-100% of their operating profits once affordable PRC alternatives enter market... so now barriers are setup to scare those companies from selling products, or at least sell them at market wiping prices.

philjohn 1y ago

Also cycling accessories (less so full bikes). They already had all of the composites experience from making bikes and wheels in carbon for the western brands, and now they are producing their own designs and offering highly competitive price to performance.