Essential Vaping Facts: 90% of the World’s Vaping Devices Are Made in China

E-cigarettes mimic traditional cigarettes. When consumed, they use a battery to turn e-liquid into vapor, providing a similar experience to smoking traditional cigarettes. There are two lesser-known facts about e-cigarettes: first, their inventor is Chinese, and second, China is the world's largest producer of e-cigarettes.

In 2003, Han Li, a pharmacist from Northwest China with a long history of smoking, decided to quit smoking for health reasons and led a team to design and invent the first nicotine-based e-cigarette product. Han Li is known as the "Father of E-Cigarettes".

Subsequently, the e-cigarette company "Ruyan," which he co-founded, achieved sales of 1 billion yuan within a year from 2005 to 2006 and successfully went public in Hong Kong in 2008.

Prior to this, in 1963, American Gilbert proposed the theory of a smoke-free non-cigarette device, which can be considered the theoretical ancestor of e-cigarettes. However, it was Han Li, a Chinese, who made the crucial leap from theory to practice. He is also recognized in the industry as the father of e-cigarettes.

Since the advent of e-cigarettes, tobacco giants have quickly entered the market, launching various new products and capturing market share.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the field of e-cigarettes, Chinese companies play a leading role akin to the protagonists in Jin Yong's martial arts novels: 90% of the world's e-cigarettes are produced in China.

A little e-cigarette trivia: 90% of e-cigarettes are produced in China!

According to incomplete statistics, in 2017, China produced as many as 1.651 billion e-cigarettes, and production is expected to exceed 2.2 billion this year. China is not only the largest producer of e-cigarettes globally but also has the most complete e-cigarette production chain, with thousands of related companies, most of which are located in Shenzhen.

Although China currently produces the vast majority of e-cigarettes in the world, the main consumer markets are still in Europe and America, reflecting the phenomenon of "manufactured in China, consumed in Europe and America."

The e-cigarette market is currently in a vast blue ocean phase. How many e-cigarette consumers are there globally? According to market research firm Euromonitor, in 2016, there were 35 million e-cigarette users worldwide. By 2021, this number is expected to rise to 55 million.

Although this seems insignificant compared to the massive 1 billion traditional cigarette consumers, it represents a market with unlimited potential, currently valued at hundreds of billions and still growing rapidly. Experts estimate that the growth rate of the e-cigarette market exceeds 300% annually, making the replacement of traditional cigarettes an inevitable trend.