Checkout

Chinese Phone Charger Giant Has Ambitions Beyond Ruling Amazon

Company innovating with smart vacuums, solar security cameras
Anker eyes China market after decade targeting western buyers

WATCH: Chinese consumer electronics giant Anker Innovations Technology Co Ltd. is hoping to supercharge business in the post-Covid era by turning to faster, lighter products -- and switching focus to its home market. (Source: Bloomberg)

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Bloomberg News

September 9, 2021 at 9:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

A decade ago, then-Googler Steven Yang left California for Chinese tech hub Shenzhen to start Anker Innovations Technology Co Ltd. with less than $1 million in seed capital. Since then, he’s relied on a pioneering strategy of mining product reviews on Amazon.com Inc. to pump out some of the world’s most ubiquitous phone accessories.

By studying the thousands of reviews and complaints about electronic products posted on the e-commerce platform daily, Yang realized he could reverse-engineer items like power banks and smartphone chargers to address users’ pet peeves, starting with portable chargers that would overheat and were too heavy.