Since 2019, the e-cigarette industry has become the focus of capital’s favor and the center of public opinion topics. More and more entrepreneurs are going to the e-cigarette field to catch up with the new trend under the cold winter of capital. At the same time, various brands also start with e-liquid to develop brand-new electronic cigarette products more suitable for Chinese people to conquer the domestic consumer market. At present, only Boulder, Relx, Myst labs and SnowPlus make a lot of “voices” in e-liquid. It can be seen that with the entry of capital and the increasingly strict regulatory trend, a “dark war” of E-liquid technology is coming.
For e-cigarettes, E-liquid is the soul of a product. The quality of E-liquid determines the user’s product experience. At the same time, E-liquid products are the focus of consumer repurchase and the key to brand profitability. This also means that whoever can hold the initiative of E-liquid in his hand will be able to gain a leading edge in the fierce domestic brand competition.
Boulder
Boulder is an electronic cigarette brand owned by Boulder international, which was jointly founded in Pennsylvania by Robert Hebe, Ron dephil and Wang Ze at the end of 2013.
Boulder international, as an integrated group of e-cigarette R & D, production and sales, has strong strength in the field of E-liquid R & D and production. Its E-liquid is sold in 7000 stores across the United States, with a deep user base. At the same time, the E-liquid used in the pod system products under Boulder is all produced by Boulder’s own E-liquid factory, which realizes the seamless connection between device and E-liquid.
Recently, Boulder has unveiled E-liquid R & D architecture for the first time. Its U.S. laboratory is responsible for the R & D and production of nicotine salt and E-liquid substrate, while the domestic team will deploy E-liquid products suitable for Chinese people according to users’ taste preferences and use experience. From May this year, Boulder has applied for a number of E-liquid related patents, or will layout the low nicotine market. However, Boulder started late in the pod vape market, and it will take time to test whether it can replicate its E-liquid advantages in the pod field.
RELX
Relx was founded by Wang Ying, a former Uber China executive, in early 2018. In less than a year, it has obtained 38 million yuan of financing from source capital leading investment and IDG capital following investment. It has become one of the brands in the field of electronic cigarette in China.
Recently, Relx with capital also accelerated the layout of e-cigarette technology research and development, and built its own E-liquid testing laboratory. Jiang Xingtao, director of E-liquid R & D, introduced that the laboratory will focus on the research of e-cigarette stability, atomizing liquid safety, smoke safety, core raw materials, etc., and test the methanol value in the process of E-liquid evaporation. After the storage of carts for more than two years, whether the materials and components have changed, and under absolute temperature, such as high or low temperature, whether the e-liquid has safety risks or not.
From the public information of Relx, the author finds that up to now, Relx has focused its strategy on the quality inspection of E-liquid, and there is not much public information on the R & D and production of E-liquid. However, in the domestic market where the OEM mode is popular, the lack of R & D and production capacity of E-liquid will undoubtedly affect its future strategic development layout.
Myst Labs
Compared with Boulder and Relx, Myst labs was founded later. In March 2019, it was founded by Xing Chenyue, the former first scientist of Juul. It is reported that Xing Chenyue is a doctor of chemical engineering of the University of California, a former researcher of biotechnology gene Tech in the United States, and participated in the research and development of nicotine salt in Juul.
Xing Chenyue once said publicly that Myst labs has the scientific research team and research ability to develop nicotine salt, which is a technical advantage that domestic e-cigarette start-up companies do not have. Its new product is Myst P1.
Can Myst labs, with the “trump card” of Juul chief scientist, win in E-liquid research and development? Industry insiders said that the current technology of Juul is limited to the state of high nicotine concentration, in order to maintain a good taste, in the domestic market environment of increasingly strict supervision of electronic cigarettes, “high concentration” will encounter higher policy risk. It is not known whether the lack of local Jull’s technical experience can achieve results in the domestic market.
There is also good breaking news that 2nd generation nicotine salt tech by nicotine salt X by Myst Labs is coming in the near future.
SnowPlus
As a leading enterprise in the electronic cigarette industry, SnowPlus was invited by the organizer of the conference and the initiator of the laboratory, Guangdong Tianjian Testing Technology Service Co., Ltd. to attend the launching ceremony of the laboratory, and to discuss with practitioners for the healthy and lasting development path of the electronic cigarette industry. They invented their own e-liquid with great taste and patent.
Looking back to China, the national standard of e-cigarettes will be implemented in this year, or a new round of reshuffle will be carried out for the e-cigarette market. The strict regulation of E-liquid content and emission composition will also bring new challenges to the R & D and production of E-liquid. Who can be the last unicorn in the electronic cigarette industry? The market will give us a satisfactory answer.
