42Late at nighton the beach in Panama City, a beam of strong light pierced the darkness, instantly illuminating the crowd on the distant beach.
This viral video with nearly 66 million views onTukehas made countless overseasusersremember a Chinese brand——Olight（Olight）.
Image source:Tuke
This beam of light not only illuminated the beach, but also lit up the overseas journey of a Chinese brand.
With this seemingly inconspicuous“flashlight”, Olightbrandhas achieved annual revenue of over 1.2 billion RMB, 99% of which comes from overseas markets. Its products are sold in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide, and it has officially restarted the A-share IPO process.
Today, let's take a look at what this brand, which started with flashlights, has done right.
Image source:Olight
Not just building a brand, but becoming a beam of light
The story of the Olight brand began in Zhongshan, Guangdong in 2007.
Like many Chinese manufacturing companies, in the early days they were highly dependent on overseas agents, having no say in price or sales volume, with their fate in the hands of others.
Facing the pressure from agents for“annual growth”, in 2015, Olight resolutely decided to break free, transform into cross-border e-commerce, and fully build its own brand.
However, at that time, competition among Chinese sellers on Amazon was fierce, and the fledglingOlight did not achieve significant results. So, they made a fate-changing decision: to build an independent overseas website and communicate directly with consumers.
Within just3 days of launching the independent site, they achieved $100,000 in sales, firing the first shot for the brand's overseas expansion.
This success not only madeOlight see the value of independent channels, but also strengthened its determination for brand development.
Image source:Olight
After that,Olight entered a fast track of development. Its product line expanded from professional outdoor high-brightness flashlights to EDC (Every Day Carry) gear, tactical lighting, headlamps, ambient lights, and other diverse scenarios.
Up to now,Olight's products have been sold in more than 100 countries and regions worldwide, and it has built 15 regional independent sites for core markets such as North America, Europe, and Asia.
Honors have followed:In 2024, Arkfeld Pro won the Red Dot Award for its flat design; in 2025, several products won the German iF Design Award again.
This beam of light has truly entered the hearts of overseas consumers.
Image source:Olight
Professionalization, lifestyle, and the blue ocean of the EDC culture market
From an industry perspective, the global portable lighting market is undergoing a structural upgrade.
According toGlobal Growth Insights, the global flashlight market size reached $2.86 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to $6.81 billion by 2033.
Image source:Global Growth Insights
The main drivers of market growth include:
- LED technology popularization:About68% of consumers prefer LED flashlights for their high efficiency and long lifespan.
- Increase in outdoor activities:Camping, hiking, and other activities have increased flashlight demand by44%.
- Increased awareness of emergency preparedness:Globally,53% of households have a flashlight in their emergency kit.
- Rechargeable products are popular:Rechargeable flashlights now account for52%, and in urban areas this proportion is as high as 64%.
The North American market is especially important, accounting for34% of the global share. 71% of US households own at least two flashlights, mainly for emergency preparedness and outdoor activities. These trends provide an excellent market environment for Olight, which focuses on high-end, innovative mobile lighting products, and also explain why it insists on a “high performance + high design” niche route instead of low-price mass products.
Image source:Global Growth Insights
Multi-platform layout: from social media to independent sites
For cross-border brands, products are the foundation, but how to reach target users is the key to opening up the global market.
The success of the Olight brand is not only due to its strong products, but also because it has found a set of “localized content+ vertical influencers + community operations” strategies, deeply binding lighting products to users’ lifestyles.
1. Tuke: Telling stories with “visual impact”
OnTuke, Olight's strategy is “abandon parameters, focus on shock value.”
They do not do hard product presentations, but encourage users and creators to showcase the core performance of the product in real, even highly dramatic scenarios.
For example, the Panama beach video mentioned at the beginning is a good example. The entire video does not mention a single parameter, but through highly dramatic visuals, it intuitively demonstrates the brightness and range advantages of the flashlight.
So far, this video has received65.2438 million views on Tuke, with estimated sales of $112,100, achieving excellent results in both reach and conversion.
Image source:echotik
In addition, another type of review video from a sharing perspective also works well, where influencers give detailed demonstrations of the actual usage process,such as how to conveniently use the flashlight and solve problems in specific scenarios like hiking, camping, night repairs, or daily commuting.
For example,Tuke influencer @nicknameswayne posted a video on using a mini keychain flashlight. In the one-minute video, there is no unnecessary talk; from disassembly to use, it fully demonstrates the convenience and practicality of Olight flashlights.
This video eventually received over13.6 million views, and even the comments section is full of praise for the Olight brand.
Image source:Tuke
This type of in-depth content not only directly promotes sales, but also firmly establishes theOlight brand image of “professional, reliable, and tested” among core user groups.
According to data, sinceSeptember 2023, when Olight opened a store on Tuke in the US, the brand has achieved over $13.21 million in sales, with cumulative sales of 244,100 units.
At least for now, this content strategy is still effective onTuke.
Image source:Echotik
In addition,Olight also regularly launches themed challenges.
For example, to promote thePL X series, it launched the #plxawards2026 challenge, encouraging users to shoot creative videos to win prizes, andgrantedOlight the right to use this content for secondary dissemination.
This approach not only efficiently generates massive amounts of real user content, but also significantly enhances fan engagement and brand interaction.
Image source:Tuke
Overall,Olight's approach on Tuke can be summarized in three points:
· Use highly impactful scenario visuals, not cold parameters, to first showcase“brightness, range, reliability”;
· Let different types of influencers demonstrate the product in their real scenarios (camping, commuting, repairs) to enhance immersion;
· Use small shops to capture all exposure, turning“content viewing” into “independent site/shop orders” as much as possible.
2. YouTube: Professional reviewsforseeding
OnYouTube, Olight chooses to cooperate with vertical bloggers in the outdoor, tactical, and EDC fields. These bloggers may not have the largest fan base, but they are highly influential in core circles and highly overlap with Olight's target users.
For example, outdoor influencer@Gideonstactical posted an 18-minute review video of the Olight Arc Feld series, showing in detail the product's real-world performance in waterproofing, drop resistance, brightness, battery life, and giving purchase recommendations.
This video received nearly130,000 views, with interaction data far exceeding the blogger's average,effectivelypromoting trust conversion within the core circle.
Image source:YouTube
3. Independent site: the “traffic pool” of owned channels
The independent site isthe central brain of Olight's entire brand and user operation system.
By2025, its US independent site has over one million monthly visits, withorganictraffic accounting forover47%,directlyreflecting that the brand has established strong user awareness and loyalty.
Image source:Similarweb
On the independent site,Olight has built a clear hierarchical membership growth system, with 11 levels from “Iron” to “Legend”. Senior members enjoy exclusive benefits such as early access to limited edition products, personalized engraving, and lifetime warranty.
This game-like upgrade system continuously motivates users to keep consuming and interacting to level up, gradually turning ordinary buyers into core brand fans.
Image source:Olight
From a beam of light to an ocean
That's all for today's sharing.
FromOlight's story, what we see is not just the growth of a brand.
It is more like a window, allowing us to glimpse the possibility of Chinese manufacturing becoming a global brand: it is no longer just an extension of supply chain advantages, but a deep combination of product innovation, brand storytelling, and localized operations.
When we shift our gaze from a single success story to the broader overseas market, we find that every niche has an expectation for“products made with care”.
For many domestic companies, the real challenge may be whether they can find their own beam of light, and through continuous investment and sincere communication, illuminate an ocean of their own.
The road ahead is long, but the direction is already clear.
