China’s little-known Imoo ships 26% of all smartwatches for kids

Three out of five kids’ smartwatches are sold in China, according to Counterpoint

Smartwatches

Xinmei Shen

Published: 5:37pm, 7 Apr 2020

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This article originally appeared on ABACUS

You might already know that Apple is the biggest wearables maker today. But when it comes to smartwatches for kids, the biggest brand is a name you might not be familiar with. Chinese brand Imoo, owned by Oppo and Vivo’s parent company BBK Electronics, made up more than a quarter of all smartwatches for kids shipped in 2019, according to a report by Counterpoint.

Known as Xiaotiancai in China, meaning “little genius,” Imoo makes smartwatches that allow phone calls, video calls and location tracking. In the global kids’ smartwatch market, Chinese competitors Huawei and Xiaomi rank second and fifth respectively with 9% and 4% of the market last year. Outside China, though, the market isn’t as big. China made up 62% of the kids’ smartwatches market in 2019, according to the report.

Counterpoint’s Ethan Qi said the privacy and security of kids’ smartwatches remain major challenges for the market. In China, parents are using smartwatches to keep tabs on their children. Some Imoo models with built-in mics also let parents listen in on their kids.

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