China smart glasses firms eye conquest of overseas markets

In China, Al glasses let the wearer pay in shops with just a glance at a QR code and a voice command, as a growing number of companies look to conquer both growing domestic and overseas markets.

- EMILY WANG

Interest in smart eyewear is soaring worldwide after more than a decade of stalled promise, with advances in artificial intelligence sparking a fresh boon for the sector.

US giant Meta is the clear market leader, but a host of Chinese companies — from behemoths like Alibaba and Xiaomi to startups like Rokid and XReal - have their sights set on catching up.

"China's advantages are self-evident," Rokid CEO Misa Zhu told AFP after a recent launch in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

"The ecosystem and its supply chain are all in China, and China produces a lot."

Domestically, Chinese companies have an undeniable edge — Meta's services are blocked there, inaccessible without a VPN.

The country is a potentially massive and lucrative market for wearable tech.

Smart glasses sales are expected to have grown 116% here on-year in 2025, according to market intelligence provider IDC.

Daily life is already highly digitalised, with even older citizens using smartphones for everything from payments to transport.

China's internet-based infrastructure, such as QR payment codes in shops, is "already more developed than in Europe and the United States", said Mr Zhu.