International Electronic Cigarette Industry Expo (IECIE) 2021 is among the most influential trade fairs for the vaping industry. This year, it played host to over 2,500 vape brands to showcase the best ideas and latest breakthroughs.
We were dying to know what’s happening on site, and asked our friends in China to update us on the three-day exhibition. If you’re as interested in the IECIE 2021, read further down the page! We’ll walk you through every fun and inspiring takeaway.
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IECIE 2021 Overview
From December 6th to 8th, this year’s IECIE landed at Shenzhen, a city home to most vape manufacturers in the world. The first IECIE actually took place in 2015. After six-year build-up of proficiency and impact, it has risen to be a top-tier trade show to connect to the best and most creative minds in the industry.
The exhibits on the Shenzhen IECIE stop have covered the entire supply chain of e-cigarettes. More specifically, they include almost everything from upstream materials to end products, and from OEM/ODM to e-commerce solutions. Moreover, the show also invited multiple industry leaders to give speeches about the vaping markets inside out. In a nutshell, IECIE marks the best access to latest innovations and decision makers who’re navigating the future of vaping.
Vape Brands & Products on Exhibition
This year’s trade fair floor accommodated more than 500 exhibitors and 2,500 brands. They were scattered over four halls, with more than 65,000 square meters of exhibition space. We encountered quite a few booths with familiar names, including:
Vaporesso, Uwell, Freemax, Aspire, Lost Vape, Wismec, Sigelei, Vapelusion, Innokin, Smok, Geekvape
Relx, MOTI, Yooz, Allo, Elfbar, HQD, Maskking, Zovoo (VOOPOO)
As you might’ve been aware, the exhibitors at IECIE 2021 mainly consist of long-established vape mod leaders and thriving disposable vape startups.
Fun Highlights
Although Voopoo didn’t show up with its products, its newly-formed sister brand, Zovoo Disposable, attended the exhibition alternatively. Voopoo was actually not alone in focusing on disposable vape promotion in the fair. Geekvape threw most of energies into advertising Giftvape, its disposable vape branch, at the booth as well.
And rather similarly, Uwell also kept calling attention to its Gabriel disposables, apart from the hot Caliburn series pod systems; while Lost Vape exhibited an attractive special edition of disposables shaped into bubble tea to allure Chinese consumers. All these more or less herald an era of disposable vapes in China.
The booth of FEELM were packed with visitors all the time. As the atomizer giant put on display its first disposable vape with self-developed ceramic coils, it rapidly became the highlight of the IECIE. Or rather, even if without the new release, FEELM has good reasons to get so many eyes fixed on it. The company is nearly the one and only atomization solution provider for closed-system pods produced in China.
Another highlight at the IECIE 2021 is Boton Group‘s joining in the race. The company, initially running a business on flavors and fragrances, has sunk its teeth in medical atomizer R&D. Its latest disposables are free of nicotine, and utilize a variety of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients in the liquid formula. The effort to apply atomization tech into medicine has helped Boton obtain the license to sell these disposables online in China as medical devices. At present, China has banned all regular e-cigarettes from sales on e-commerce platforms.
Insights into IECIE 2021: Vape Consumption Trends in China
IECIE 2021 lasted for three days only, but it’s quite enough to reflect a picture of China’s current vape market. Based on what we learnt from the exhibition, it’s safe to predict the future consumption trends in China from three aspects, that is type, liquid flavor and brand market share.
Market Share
IECIE 2021 offers vape brands equal opportunities to come in contact with consumers, but the reality might not be so. Since China has introduced more stringent regulations to control vapes, the rooms for smaller brands would keep being narrowed down. When they have to continuously cede domestic market shares to bigger ones, they could possibly seek opportunities overseas to survive. As a result, Chinese vape market might be dominated by several big names in the near future.
Type
E-cigarettes have evolved into a product with relatively complex categorization over years. Most vapes available today fall into four major types, namely mods, pod mods, pod systems and disposable vapes. We could of course further classify each of them, but we’ll not go into details here.
In terms of this year’s IECIE, smaller disposables and pod systems apparently prevailed over traditional mods. Even when we visited the hall designated for mod exhibition, we found a majority of vendors still preferred to promote their smaller gadgets. That’s a mirror of what type of vapes gets down better with consumers in China.
Influenced by the big vape brands, such as Relx and MOTI who mainly launch disposables, Chinese vapers take up vaping from these easier products naturally. And most wouldn’t switch to other types devices. Pod systems could’ve carved out a position in Chinese market, but the latest ban on refillable vapes might just wipe them out.
Liquid Flavor
The past few years have witnessed a fierce competition among Chinese disposable brands to cater to customers and push the limits. IECIE 2021 has made the battlefield tense up even further. Apparently, lots of liquid flavors are exactly tailored for local market, such as tea, Chinese herbs and even Chinese cuisines like roasted sweet potato. Moreover, the sweetness of Chinese e-juice is way weaker than North America’s and European’s. Chinese people prefer icy and refreshing tastes, while in the U.S. and U.K., we love sweet.
Admittedly, some liquid flavors popular in North American and European markets, such as fruits and mint, have also made a success in China. But overall, differences seem to outweigh similarities.
