Chinese tech companies are still struggling to get the international recognition they deserve. The latest example is Huami, a Beijing-based company of which you are unlikely to have heard — unless, that is, you were walking past the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, where a huge banner bearing its name was hanging to mark its initial public offering.
Huami is, by some estimates, the world’s largest maker of wearable technology, outselling Fitbit and Apple Watch by global unit volumes. Most of its sales are in China, but in the US it just released the best-value smartwatch on the market. And with Thursday’s IPO, it now commands a valuation of $600m.*
Like camera-drone pioneer DJI and Ninebot, the maker of electric scooters and robots that bought Segway in 2015, Huami is a leader in its field without being a household name.