Former ZEBAO Executives Build 2.99-Billion-Yuan Appliance Business in Five Years

The report compares Hesheng Innovation with listed home appliance makers. In 2025, Bear Electric, a Shenzhen-listed company focused on small appliances, posted annual revenue of 5.23 billion yuan and net profit of 393 million yuan. Joyoung, another listed player, reported revenue of 8.21 billion yuan and net profit of 118 million yuan. Hesheng Innovation, with only five years of history, achieved 29.9% of Joyoung's revenue while exceeding its net profit by more than double, said the report.

Hesheng Innovation was founded by Wei Lihu, Huang Haoqin and Yuan Hua, all former senior executives at ZEBAO, an Amazon seller once ranked among the “three giants of Amazon” alongside Anker and Patuoxun. Wei was ZEBAO's No. 2 figure after founder Sun Caijin, overseeing supply chains, inventory and global cost control. Huang led overseas channels, building ZEBAO's full sales network across Amazon, Walmart and Target. Yuan was responsible for product structure and smart control systems. After ZEBAO's parent company acquired it in 2018, management conflict erupted and the three left to start Hesheng Innovation in 2020.

The trio was not alone. Leiphone.com reported that between 2018 and 2022, more than 15 companies founded by former ZEBAO employees each exceeded 100 million yuan in annual revenue, covering categories such as small appliances, maternal care, pets and 3C products. Representative names include Momcozy, a wearable breast pump brand, and Petlibro, a pet feeding device maker. ZEBAO had run a standardized management trainee program since 2014, earning a reputation as a training ground for cross-border e-commerce operators.

Hesheng Innovation's early growth was driven by a market vacuum. Around 2020, North America's tower fans, circulation fans and ceramic heaters were split into two extremes: high-end local brands like Dyson and Honeywell focused on offline sales above $150 with weak online operations, while low-priced white-label products sold for $20 to $60 on Amazon. The $60-to-$150 online mid-to-high-end segment was largely empty. The pandemic pushed appliance sales online, and Chinese sellers rushed to fill orders that local brands could not handle. Hesheng's DREO brand topped 300 million yuan in revenue in its first year, doubled to 600 million in the second, and exceeded 1 billion by 2023, with 200 million yuan in profit in 2024, the report said.

But Leiphone.com argues that this growth path is no longer replicable. Industry competition has moved from seizing category vacancies to building hard-to-copy technological moats. Capital lately favors engineering teams from DJI, and companies like 3D printer maker Tuozhu Technology, founded by DJI alumni, have shown how deep R&D can sustain long-term advantages. Hesheng itself has responded by recruiting executives with Costco and other offline retail relationships to enter hundreds of physical stores in Europe and the US. Yet the window of opportunity that allowed its rapid rise is closed. The era of relying on information asymmetry and minor product tweaks has ended, the report concludes.