The person who said this is an engineer born in the 1980s from Jiangxi.

He started from Shenzhen and, over ten years, turned a “niche gadget” in the eyes of many into a Tuke blockbuster with annual sales exceeding 70 million USD.

This product is the handheld smartphone stabilizer, which is quite familiar to many content creators.

 

Image source:Google

A “niche” blockbuster emerging from the short video boom

In recent years, the short video and Vlog trend has swept the globe.

More and more ordinary people are picking up their phones to shoot videos and record life, making the smartphone a portable “creative tool.”

But when it comes to actual shooting, problems arise: shaky hands, unstable footage, and the final product looks amateurish; when you need to shoot while walking or record while chatting, how can the camera keep up with the person?

Anti-shake and smart tracking have become two essential needs that creators cannot avoid.

Under this trend, a device once considered “very niche”—the handheld stabilizer—quietly stood at the forefront, giving rise to a rapidly expanding niche market.

According to research data released by sphericalinsights, the global handheld imaging device market size is expected to grow from $4.31 billion in 2024 to $12.93 billion in 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.5% during this period, developing rapidly.

 

Image source:sphericalinsights

And the protagonist we are talking about today——hohem（浩瀚）, is one of the representative brands that emerged in this track.

It has grown from an unknown OEM factory to an industry leader with annual revenue exceeding 500 million RMB and annual shipments of over one million units.

 

Image source:hohem

An engineer born in the 1980s from Jiangxi

Public information shows that hohem (浩瀚) was founded in 2014, headquartered in Shenzhen, and is a smart imaging device brand.

The core founder of the brand, Mr. Chen, is a post-80s from Jiangxi.

In 2008, after graduating with a master's degree, he settled in Shenzhen and joined a medical imaging company, responsible for the entire process of technology R&D and production line management in the imaging processing sector.

In 2014, Mr. Chen and three other partners chose to start a business together, and the hohem (浩瀚) brand was officially born.

 

Image source:hohem

In the early days, hohem focused on OEM as its core business, specializing in producing stabilizers and various imaging accessories for European and American companies.

However, the OEM business was not easy! Clients kept pushing down prices, taking away most of the profits, which was unsustainable for a tech company requiring high R&D investment. This dilemma made the team realize that simply relying on OEM was not a long-term solution.

In 2016, the Hohem brand innovatively integrated an APP smart interaction system with face tracking technology, launching the world's first handheld stabilizer with both features built-in.

It was this product that enabled them to successfully open the door to overseas markets and establish their first foothold abroad.

 

Image source:Google

After that, with the maturity of the industrial chain and cost optimization of the supply chain, Mr. Chen made a strategic adjustment in 2018, reducing 90% of the company's overseas OEM business and fully shifting to the independent brand Tuke development route.

Relying on precise and powerful online marketing strategies, Hohem quickly improved its independent profitability, doubling its revenue scale in the first year after transformation.

In 2024, the brand's annual sales exceeded 500 million RMB, with global shipments surpassing one million units. At the same time, it also received over 100 million RMB in Series B financing led by Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital.

Now, Hohem's self-developed AI tracking stabilizer has successfully entered more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, with overseas market revenue accounting for over 65%, firmly ranking among the top in the smart imaging stabilizer niche track.(Data source: 天下网商)

 

Image source:hohem

Using TikTok to precisely reach target users

Since it is a blockbuster product that became popular in the short video era due to strong demand,Hohem's target customers are naturallycontent creators clustered on short video platforms.

After identifying this, the brand directly took the globally popular social media platform TikTok as its main marketing battlefield.

By continuously leveraging the platform's traffic, potential users go from seeing product content and developing an interest, to deeply understanding product advantages, and finally feeling compelled to buy—seamlessly converting traffic into sales.

1. Brand account operation: Winning users with real experiences

On TikTok,Hohem was the first to set up its official brand account @hohem_global. As of now, it has gained 162,400 followers and 572,000 likes.

 

Image source:TikTok

For highly functional and technical products like stabilizers, simple parameter explanations are hard to impress users.

Therefore,the hohem brand directly put itself in the shoes of creators,creating account content from the creator's perspective.

The videos on this account mainly feature hands-on shooting demonstrations, so questions like how good the anti-shake effect is or whether smart tracking is easy to use are clearly shown in the videos.

In this way, potential users, after seeing the videos, can't help but imagine their own shooting scenarios, and are thus attracted by the practical functions, naturally generating the desire to place an order.

 

Image source:TikTok

2. Influencer cooperation: Small creators can also bring big sales

While cultivating its own brand account,Hohem also established partnerships with many niche influencers on TikTok, leveraging their influence to amplify the brand's reach and quickly break through with the product.

According to data from the Kalodata platform:In the past 3 months, its US store hohem global sold 26,800 products, with a total transaction amount of 1.549 millionUSD.

Among them, the influencer affiliate channel brought the brand sales of 1.3537 million USD, accounting for as much as 87.39%.

 

Image source:kalodata

In three months, Hohem cooperated with 3,856 influencers, releasing a total of 6,245 product promotion videos.

It is worth noting that among all the promotional videos, the cooperation video with TikTok micro-influencer @dannyspiracy, who has only 15,500 followers, achieved the most impressive conversion results.

 

Image source:kalodata

In the video,@dannyspiracyuses a home setting as the background to share his entire process of using Hohem's AI stabilizer to shoot short videos. He demonstrates the product's 360-degree rotation capability, personally tries out the detachable magnetic AI tracker, and uses gesture control to switch screens—convenient and easy to use.

Such a down-to-earth hands-on video received 2.585 million views. Despite the influencer's small fan base, it still generated 646 sales, with a transaction amount of 36,800 USD.

This shows that for functional products, as long as you accurately meet user needs and make users truly feel “I need this,” even small influencers can bring good conversions.

 

Image source:kalodata

The time is right for overseas markets. How can Chinese companies break through?

In summary,the growth of the Hohem brand proves that there are still huge opportunities in niche tracks.

For Chinese companies, overseas markets are not only incremental space but also a springboard for brand upgrading.

Currently, the opportunities in overseas markets are far from fully tapped, especially in fields such as smart hardware, new energy, and home technology, where Chinese brands still have huge potential.

Instead of struggling in the domestic market, it is better to look globally for the next growth point. Just asthe Hohem brand has proven—as long as you identify the demand, even niche categories can become big business.