In recent years, with the rapid rise of platforms such as Douyin and TikTok, content formats like short videos, Vlogs, and live streaming have ushered in a full-scale explosion and widespread popularity.

It is under this trend that a previously inconspicuous "niche" tool—handheld stabilizer—has stood at the forefront of industry development, directly driving the market explosion of the entire segmented category.

Image source:Zhiyun

According to analysis data from Market Research Future:

The globalhandheld stabilizermarket sizewas valued atUSD 1.154 billion in 2024,and it is expectedthatthe industry will grow from USD 1.288 billion in 2025 to USD 3.868 billion in 2035, with acompound annual growth rateof about11.62%during the forecast period, showing a very strong overall growth momentum.

Image source:Market Research Future

Facing such a promising and highly developed golden track, many domestic enterprises have long captured business opportunities, chosen to Tuke, and quickly became popular in overseas markets.

The Zhiyun (智云) we are introducing today is exactly the outstanding Tuke benchmark among them.

Starting from a studio of only 30 square meters, Zhiyunhas grownintoan industry leader withannual revenueexceeding4billionyuanin 2 years! Next, let's see how they achieved this.

Image source:Zhiyun

A small brand starting from an office, growing into an industry leader with annual revenue exceeding 4 billion in 2 years

According to public information, Zhiyun (智云) is a handheld stabilizer brand from Guilin, Guangxi, founded in 2015. Its birth originated from the founder Mr. Liao's personal experience and industry insight.

Mr. Liao once worked in a military enterprise, specializing in radar and wind turbine technology, and is also a senior imaging enthusiast. Dissatisfied with the heavy and expensive stabilizers on the market at the time, he came up with the idea of independent R&D and entrepreneurship.

Image source:Zhiyun

When the project started in 2014, Mr. Liao led the team to explore and start in a studio of only 30 square meters, with no mature brand, no ready-made blockbuster products, and facing more than a dozen competitors who entered the market earlier.

In 2015, Mr. Liao officially founded the Zhiyun (智云) brand in Guilin and launched the first handheld stabilizer.

The product replaced the traditional dual-arm stabilizer with a single-handed, single-arm structure, optimized the motor control algorithm, greatly reduced the weight while ensuring anti-shake performance, and precisely met the market demand for short videos and live streaming. Once launched, it quickly gained market recognition.

In the following years, Zhiyun continued to invest in R&D, iterating the Crane, WEEBILL, SMOOTH series, integrating AI deep tracking, gesture control, object frame tracking and other technologies.

Among them, Crane 2 became the world's first handheld three-axis stabilizer supporting focus operation, setting an industry benchmark; SMOOTH mobile stabilizer was used by CCTV for live broadcasting of the Rio Olympics, appearing for the first time on the stage of top international events.

Image source:Zhiyun

In addition to continuous efforts in products and technology, Zhiyun has also been active in online and offline channel layout.

Online, the brand has successively entered global mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Best Buy, Newegg.

When entering Amazon in 2017, it sold 2 million units in one year; in 2018, sales on Amazon alone reached USD 35 million, accounting for nearly 60% of the stabilizer category market share.

Image source: Amazon

Offline, Zhiyun has entered over 1,000 stores in the US, covering electronics and photography retailers, creating a closed loop of online traffic and offline experience.

In terms of performance, Zhiyun has maintained steady growth: annual revenue reached RMB 1.997 billion in 2021, continued to grow to RMB 2.06 billion in 2022, and the total revenue for two years exceeded RMB 4 billion.

In 2025, Zhiyun's global shipment share in the gimbal category is about 22.7%, ranking second in the world, making it a true leader in the handheld stabilizer segment.

Image source:Zhiyun

A single video garnered 43 million views—what did Zhiyun do right on TikTok?

However, in overseas markets, relying solely on online and offline sales channels is far from enough for brands.

As a foreign brand, overseas consumers have limited awareness of the brand and products, making it difficult to directly build trust and drive purchase conversion.

Therefore, social media has become the core battleground for brands to communicate and gain trust with overseas users.

Zhiyun also realized this early on, deploying on mainstream social media platforms like TikTok, using content marketing that deeply integrates into users' life scenarios to gradually bridge the gap with global consumers.

OnTikTok,Zhiyun has established its official brand account @zhiyun_global, which has so far garnered 413,200 followers and 2 million likes.

Image source:TikTok

To accurately reach core users and fit overseas audience preferences, the account's video content mainly falls into two directions.

The first category focuses on a professional and hardcore route, highlighting professional video creation and micro-movie quality productions to attract senior photography enthusiasts and tech aficionados.

For example,the @zhiyun_global account once posted a behind-the-scenes video showing how to use Zhiyun's stabilizer to shoot movie-level fight scenes.

Since its release, this video has reached an astonishing43.1 million views and 351,900 likes, with excellent communication effect.

In addition to intuitively demonstrating the product's professional performance, it also subtly enhances users' goodwill and trust in the brand during the viewing process.

Image source:TikTok

The second category focuses on real daily usage scenarios, covering snowy day recording, couple travel Vlogs, casual personal life shots, and other diverse situations.

Starting from different life scenarios, more ordinary content creators can feel the practicality and daily companionship of Zhiyun stabilizers, further expanding the audience circle.

Image source:TikTok

A wild run on a mountain road made many overseas users remember this Chinese brand

In addition, Zhiyun actively cooperates with tech influencers on TikTok, leveraging their influence to efficiently reach and attract more overseas potential users.

For example, TikTok tech influencer @matt_tin, who has 209,000 followers, once collaborated with the brand to shoot a real test video of running and filming on a mountain road.

Image source:TikTok

In the video, despite the rugged road conditions, the influencer held the phone and filmed while running, but the final footage remained stable and smooth with almost no shaking, intuitively showcasing the product's powerful anti-shake performance.

Ultimately, this promotional video garnered over1.1 million views and 43,200 likes, with a very enthusiastic response.

Many users commented that they were amazed, and some who were successfully "influenced" directly left messages saying they would definitely buy a Zhiyun stabilizer next time they shoot.

This also proves that such real usage scenario and strong experiential test content can better stimulate overseas users' interest and trust, thereby effectively driving consumption conversion.

Image source:TikTok

Conclusion

Today, the global handheld stabilizer track continues to heat up.

The popularity of short video and live streaming content formats is far from reaching its ceiling. The number of individual creators, MCN agencies, and live streaming bloggers is still growing, and the demand for shooting equipment is evolving towards lighter, smarter, and more professional directions.

For companies wishing to Tuke, entering this category now means there is a mature market foundation to follow and enough room for technological upgrades to explore.

Zhiyun's growth path has proven that by identifying real user needs, focusing on product technology, and using social media platforms to build sincere connections with global users, even a brand starting from an inland city can find its own vast world in overseas markets.

For more domestic enterprises, the doors to overseas markets have long been open, and now is the best time to go out with good products.