SHANGHAI, CHINA – The many impressive attractions at the 2011 Asia Electronics Exhibition in Shanghai (AEES 2011) were both the varied product demonstrations by the Korean companies and the special performances which were held at the Korea Gallery’s specially prepared stage. Brave Girls, a five-member Korean Pop idol group and Yongin University’s Taekwondo team, offered special performances, and a variety of product demonstrations from the participating companies were held all throughout the day.
The product demonstrations held the first two days at AEES 2011 were carried out three times every morning and afternoon by eight companies including C&Electronics, MC Square, NDIS, and SungMun Electronics. These were events that allowed one to sense the reactions of the Chinese market towards Korean products. The demonstrations were held right after the Hallyu performance event. They were arranged by the hosting party aiming to turn the Chinese visitors’ steps to the Korea Gallery by providing a variety of attractions consisting of both business and cultural contents.
The event progressed from product demonstrations and presentations. C&Electronics presented a multifunctional rice cooker that allows some 150 cuisines and was very well received by the Chinese visitors. Another company, Alloy Corea Engineering, exhibited a heating ondol (Korean floor heating system) mat that uses hot water to give a hand to the Chinese people over the winter season. EyeMax and MC Square drew attention by presenting educational devices that promote concentration enhancement. Other products that caught the visitors’ eyes were SEINENG’s microbial breakdown waste-disposal unit that can be attached to the sink, MECS’ aluminum brazing soldering machine that uses ultrasonic sound, SungMun Electronics’ Rotary Dip/Cord Switch which is used for controlling products and space, and NDIS’ 3D LCD that allows bi-optic imaging without eyeglasses.
These series of events ultimately spurred the curiosity of the visitors, resulting in continuous visits to the entire Korea Gallery throughout the AEES 2011 event. At the center of attention were consumer electronics. China had great interest in these products that were aimed to harness the tremendous purchasing power of China, a country in transition from the global factory of the past to the global market of today. Let us look into the products that were displayed at the product demonstrations.
C&Electronics’ new conceptual slow cooker ‘Darim’ is simply an all-around electric rice cooker. It is a product created based on the idea that traditional food is healthier than fast food. It has applied a dual boiling system to allow 150 different kinds of recipes, from steamed dishes such as red ginseng, black ginseng, black garlic, to cheonggukjang (fast-fermented bean paste) and boiled chicken. As Ginseng is popular in China, and with Chinese medicine having developed similar to that of Korea, China has a great interest in Korean food and food technology. The atmosphere at the exhibition was positive with talks that provided the Korean recipe along with the product; this product could have a good chance of marketability in China, which is a country also living on rice. Darim can also be used to prepare Chinese health foods.
Alloy Corea Engineering’s ondol mat that uses hot water for heat-generation was also well received during the event. Southern China, unlike the north such as Beijing or Harbin, does not so much use indoor heating, because the temperature does not fall below 0 degrees even during the winter season.
That is why the southern Chinese people put on layers of clothes indoors during midwinter. For these people, the ondol mat was viewed as a key product.
It is a product that uses water pipes instead of hot wires to produce a heating system of boiling water with a miniature boiler. A visitor at the demonstration showed interest, saying, “Not to mention the quality of the product, the price is also reasonable.”
EyeMax presented their ‘Brain Stimulator’, a brain wave educational device that enhances concentration by releasing alpha waves when trying to concentrate. Unlike existing devices that people put on only when concentration is needed, this product is a concentration enhancer of a sort that improves concentration by training.
EyeMax created a rare scene, with many visitors standing in line to actually try the product during their product demonstration.
CEO Sung-chul Kang said, “Considering the great purchasing power of China, which is the new global market, as well as their desire for education, there is plenty of room for marketability,” and continued to explain that “In the Chinese market where the government limits the birthrate to one child per family, the ‘brain wave educational device’ has a bright future by targeting that child.
MC Square displayed their educational device ‘MC Square X1’ which is already highly recognized in the Chinese market. As if the high brand awareness of MC Square had been reflected, there was heated coverage from the local press, including Finance TV #1 (CBN), at the product demonstration.
Mind Power is an educational device that helps enhance concentration by relieving one’s cerebral fatigue. With its various modes such as concentration, break time, language, vitality and sleep, it can raise one’s condition to the very best by selecting the appropriate feature.
MC Square established their Chinese subsidiary in 2005 and entered the market with their Chinese brand Xuelexian. Since then MC Square has recorded sales of over 60 billion won. There lies keen interest on the performance of MC Square, which is now being licensed by 12 Chinese agents through AEES 2011.
SEINENG presented their ‘Sink Leader: SL-208’– a waste-disposal unit that can be attached to the sink. This wet-type reduction grinder is a product that has exported more than 30,000 products to China in less than a year since release, a remarkable achievement. This is all due to its outstanding quality.
Reflecting China’s trouble with the tremendous amount of waste generated from a population of 1.6 billion, the Chinese people’s interest in Sink Leaders was high.
We encountered Chairman, Kim Hae-bum at the Korea-China Sales Fair on November 11th, the second day of the AEES 2011, as he said, “Yesterday, we signed 24 MOUs in just one day. Outside of China, countries in the Greater China region like Taiwan are showing great interest,” and mentioned, “A real estate company now constructing 4,000 new apartments in China’s Jinan expressed their intent to install Sink Leaders as built-in components. They will be visiting Korea around the 25th of this month to finalize the contract.”
MECS displayed their Ultrasonic Welding and Soldering Solution. Sales Manager Michael Kim said, “As for the existing ones, the transformers, motors and inverters were made from copper.
But with the soaring price increase of raw materials, we had to replace copper with aluminum which costs one-third the price of copper for cost reduction, and that’s how this product was born,” and explained that “MECS is the second company in the world to make an ultrasonic welding and solder solution.”
He added, “MECS’ products have use high technology, and although the price is higher than the copper soldering machines, they are cheaper than the Japanese products, and we can retrieve our investment in just one month.”
