从AR泡沫到AI风口 Rokid迎来关键一役

This article traces the full development history of the AR glasses industry, from the burst of its early bubble to its revival driven by the AI boom, and outlines the 12-year journey of leading AR startup Rokid. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. The core driver of AR glasses’ renewed popularity is that general-purpose large language models have filled the gap of practical use cases the industry has lacked for years, solving the long-standing problem that "AR glasses look cool but are not a must-have." Today, AR glasses already support practical functions including real-time translation, meeting teleprompter, navigation and physical scene recognition.

2. The industry has now entered a "race of a hundred glasses" phase, with global and domestic tech giants including Meta, Google, Xiaomi, Huawei and Alibaba all entering the space. Rokid, a startup that has persisted in the field for 12 years, has launched two consumer-grade AI glasses models, exceeded 300,000 units in sales by 2025, and is currently pursuing an IPO in Hong Kong. It needs to achieve profitability and scalable growth while competing against surrounding giants.

3. Current consumer AR glasses weigh only 38.5g to 49g, a level of lightweight that brings the wearing experience close to that of ordinary eyeglasses. The product category is gradually moving beyond the niche geek crowd to the mass consumer market.

This article outlines the current industry status, consumer trends and competitive landscape for brands in the AR space. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of consumer trends, AR glasses have emerged from the industry downturn after being empowered by large models. Global AI glasses shipments grew 322% year-over-year to 8.7 million units in 2025. The user base has expanded from geeks to a wide range of professionals including business people, civil servants, lawyers and teachers, with core must-have use cases concentrated in lightweight, high-frequency information display.

2. In terms of product R&D direction, the mainstream industry focus today is on lightweight design. "Lightweight body + localized practical display" and pure AI perception without a full screen are both market-proven development paths, with the core being balancing daily wearing comfort and practical functions.

3. In terms of competition and marketing, the industry is still in a brand-driven stage, where incumbents enjoy clear advantages from their existing ecosystems. Startup brands can learn from Rokid’s breakthrough marketing strategy of building exposure through public real-world scenarios. Currently, the entire industry is still scaling at the cost of losses, and large sales volume is the core prerequisite for achieving profitability.

This article sorts out current market opportunities, risks and reference experience for sellers in the AR track. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of market opportunities, the AR glass industry has reached an inflection point. After large models filled the gap of must-have use cases, the market has entered a period of rapid growth, with global shipments growing 322% year-over-year in 2025. The user base continues expanding from the niche geek crowd to the mass market, making it a clear incremental growth market with a large amount of unmet new demand.

2. In terms of risk warning, the "race of a hundred glasses" has already begun, with global and domestic internet and smartphone giants entering the market rapidly leveraging their existing user bases, supply chain bargaining power and mature distribution channels, which will squeeze the living space of small and mid-sized players. Currently, even top industry brands still operate at substantial losses, making profitability very difficult, and players going overseas also face competitive pressure from Meta, which controls 85% of the global market share.

3. In terms of reference experience, the track’s market structure is not yet finalized, so players can achieve breakthroughs by targeting niche must-have use cases. Rokid, for example, gained mass recognition and drove sales quickly through its practical speech teleprompter use case.

This article summarizes market demand, business opportunities and development insights for factories along the AR industry chain. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of product manufacturing and design demand, the core development direction of today’s consumer AR glasses is lightweight, with weight dropping from hundreds of grams to 38.5g to 49g. This requires upstream factories producing core components including optical devices, chips and batteries to meet the requirements of miniaturization, low power consumption and low cost, to adapt to the lightweight product design strategy of end brands.

2. In terms of business opportunities, leading AR brands have begun laying out the full industry chain. Ahead of its IPO, Rokid has invited industrial companies across multiple core links including optics, batteries, chips, communication and testing to take equity stakes, covering all core industry chain segments, which brings direct cooperation and order opportunities to upstream factories.

3. In terms of development insights, the AR glass industry has reached the inflection point of industrial explosion. Factories need to layout relevant core production capacity in advance, keep up with technological iteration, adapt to end brands’ requirements for lightweight design and long battery life to seize the opportunities of this industrial boom, while also paying attention to the risks of intense industry competition and fast technological iteration.

This article sorts out industry trends, client pain points and technical directions for service providers serving the AR industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of industry development trends, after being empowered by large models, the AR glass industry has emerged from a decade-long downturn and entered a period of rapid growth, with global shipments growing 322% year-over-year in 2025. A large number of global and domestic brands have entered the market, launching the "race of a hundred glasses", and the capitalization process is also accelerating, creating a large amount of new service demand across all links of the industry chain.

2. In terms of core client pain points, industry clients generally face three core challenges: first, how to achieve lightweight body design and control product weight and cost while retaining full product functions; second, how to find a killer must-have use case to achieve mass market breakthrough; third, how to scale sales volume to achieve profitability and exit the loss-making stage.

3. In terms of technology and business direction, the core technical demand today is the integration of large models and AR. Lightweight optical design, low-power chips and batteries, and high-specification sensors are all urgently needed by the industry. Service providers can develop targeted solutions around these demands to meet the needs of brand clients.

This article sorts out opportunities and risks to avoid for consumer electronics platform operators布局 the AR industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of business demand and opportunities, the AR glass industry is currently in the early stage of explosion, and a large number of new and established brands need traffic exposure to achieve mass market breakthrough. Rokid, for example, achieved breakout growth through traffic exposure in public scenarios. Platforms can seize the opportunity to launch marketing and traffic support services for AR brands, while carrying out targeted recruitment of new AR products to capture the traffic and category dividends of this new track.

2. In terms of operation direction, AR glass users have now expanded to multiple professional groups including business, education and legal professionals. Platforms can carry out refined operation based on the use cases of different groups, match corresponding products, and tap into niche demand.

3. In terms of risk mitigation, the industry is still in the early development stage characterized by fast technological iteration and scaling at the cost of losses, and products have not been fully finalized. Some small and mid-sized brands face problems of unstable supply chains and insufficient scalability. Platforms need to evaluate brands’ technical strength and scalability during merchant recruitment to avoid potential risks.

This article provides a complete industry case and new industry insights for researchers in the smart hardware industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. In terms of new industry trends, the breakthrough of large model technology has brought an inflection point to the AR industry, filling the gap of must-have use cases the industry has lacked for many years. AR glasses have once again become a leading candidate for the next generation of human-computer interaction portal after PCs and smartphones. The industry is now in a period of rapid growth, capitalization is accelerating, leading startup Rokid is pursuing a Hong Kong IPO, and the "race of a hundred glasses" is in full swing.

2. In terms of new emerging industry problems, the industry currently faces multiple unresolved issues: first, giants are entering rapidly relying on their existing ecosystems, quickly erasing the first-mover technological advantage of startups and squeezing their living space; second, the global market is dominated by Meta, making it difficult for Chinese brands to expand overseas; third, even top industry brands still operate at substantial losses, no mature profitability model has been proven yet, and scaling is the core prerequisite for profitability.

3. In terms of research insights, this article provides a complete case study of a hardware industry cycle, demonstrating that the hardware industry requires both mature technology and mature use cases to go mass market, and startups need to adjust flexibly and survive the industry downturn to wait for the eventual boom.