Understand The Past And Present Life Of Electronic Cigarettes

As for the development history of electronic cigarettes, it seems that every Vaper can say two words, but if you want to ask more comprehensive and detailed questions, I'm afraid few people can go on.

Strictly speaking, electronic cigarettes have not appeared for a long time. It takes more than ten years to count forward with your fingers, and the real outbreak is in recent years. Many of us have witnessed the process from scratch, from slow growth to epidemic outbreak.

The first real nicotine-based e-cigarette product in the world was invented by the Chinese people. I believe many Vapers know this, but before him, you should not know that e-cigarettes have gone through a long period of germination.

Today we will talk about the growth history of e-cigarettes, and experience its ups and downs and vitality through history.

1、Previous life -- electronic cigarettes that cannot be completely called electronic cigarettes

The story begins about a hundred years ago.

In 1930, an American named Joseph Robinson applied for the patent of the first electric evaporator, namely the atomizer. Although the original intention of Joseph's invention was not to replace cigarettes, but to treat diseases by atomization, the history of electronic cigarettes has since stepped forward.

The patent of "Electric atomizer" invented by Joseph Robinson

About 40 years later, in 1963, Herbert A Gilbert, an old smoker in the United States, found inspiration from the smoke emitted from the fire when playing with fire in the yard, so he developed a device of "smokeless but not cigarette". Smokeless refers to the smoke without open fire, and non-cigarette refers to the absence of tobacco leaf in raw materials.

Herbert A Gilbert, inventor of the "smokeless non-cigarette" device

Herbert believed that the reason why cigarettes choked people was that there was an open fire burning. If the burning smoke was replaced by warm and fragrant air, it would open up a green and pollution-free new way for the majority of smokers.

But later, when Herbert looked for the company to carry out mass production of electronic cigarettes, he did not get support. After that, Herbert's smokeless and non-smoking equipment began to fade.

The device invented by Herbert has been very similar to the modern electronic cigarette, but it still does not contain nicotine and has not achieved mass production, so it cannot be called electronic cigarette.

Time came again in 1981. One of the pioneers of computer, Phil Ray, invented a patent for "smoking simulation device". At the beginning of the patent, Phil Ray said that his invention was related to a non-burning cigarette, which could reduce or eliminate the adverse factors brought by the use of burning cigarettes by traditional smokers. In addition, his doctor Jacobson also confirmed that nicotine vapor can be inhaled by users.

Phil Ray invented the patent of "Simulated Smoking Device"

Phil Ray commercialized the invention to the point where consumers can buy it everywhere. Although nicotine is used in this equipment, it can't be called a true electronic cigarette because it doesn't use electricity. Although the commercialized product finally miscarried, the inventor contributed two words, "Vaper" and "Vaping". Electronic cigarette users have their own names since then.

At the end of the story, it can be said that the true birth of electronic cigarettes is getting closer and closer.

 

2. This life -- the birth, explosion and precipitation of real electronic cigarettes

In 2003, Han Li, a pharmacist from Northeast China, invented the first nicotine based electronic cigarette product. This electronic cigarette uses piezoelectric elements to dilute nicotine in propylene glycol solution and then evaporate. His original intention is to invent a safe substitute for tobacco, which allows smokers to only inhale nicotine to relieve addiction and remove harmful substances such as tar and benzene.

Han Li, the inventor of the world's first electronic cigarette

In 2004, Hanli's e-cigarettes were listed and achieved great success in the Chinese market. Since then, electronic cigarettes have really stepped onto the stage of history.

The popularity of e-cigarettes has attracted many imitators. From home to abroad, e-cigarettes have become popular in the United States and other countries around the world in a few years.

However, due to the controversy over e-cigarettes from the outside world and the uncertainty of policies, the domestic e-cigarette market temporarily darkened in 2013 with the final acquisition of Hanli's e-cigarette brand by foreign enterprises.

However, at this time, the demand for e-cigarettes in foreign markets is still large. Under the opportunity of the times, China has become the largest producer of e-cigarettes in the world. According to the data, China's e-cigarette manufacturing industry reached its peak in 2014, with more than 2000 e-cigarette factories at one time. In this year, the output value of China's electronic cigarette industry was about 6.87 billion yuan, with a total production of 594 million electronic cigarettes. Many factories did not do business in China, and all products were sold overseas.

Also in 2014, e-cigarettes returned to China in the form of subculture. With the "foreign goods" imported from abroad becoming increasingly popular among smokers, the domestic electronic cigarette market has become active again.

In the next three years or so, the domestic e-cigarette market ushered in the best years of development: the United States Supreme Court ruled that FDA had lost the case against banning the sale of e-cigarettes, and that e-cigarettes were tobacco products, not pharmaceutical products subject to FDA control. The U.S. e-cigarette market was completely opened; Globally, smoking prohibition and control have become the mainstream trend. Japan, South Korea and other countries have put forward stricter regulations on smoking control in public places, and the demand for electronic cigarettes has surged.

According to the data, in 2019, 218 countries and regions around the world purchased e-cigarettes from China, and the United States, Hong Kong and Japan were the main countries exporting e-cigarettes from China; From 2014 to 2019, the global electronic cigarette market scale increased from 12.4 billion US dollars to 36.7 billion US dollars, with a compound growth rate of more than 24%.

The real outbreak of the domestic e-cigarette market was around 2018. In that two years, many e-cigarette brands were released in clusters, attracting many outsiders.

The bustling electronic cigarette exhibition site

According to relevant reports, by the second half of 2018, the number of domestic brands related to e-cigarettes has reached more than 4000. Until 2021, the number of domestic e-cigarette-related enterprises continued to grow.

The history of e-cigarettes has rolled to today, and the rise of the market has become a fact, but at the same time, problems have also emerged:

Due to the success of some leading brands, other brands that entered the market unconsciously chose to follow, including target group following (young people), taste following (fruit sugar), channel following (initial online promotion to offline store opening strategy), etc., forming the characteristics of product homogeneity and marketing homogeneity.

The birth of any mature industry will go through the process of germination, development, outbreak and calm precipitation, as will the electronic cigarette industry. After experiencing "barbaric growth", today's electronic cigarette industry has gradually returned to calm. In the future, the uncertainty of the policy and the choice of the market will bring new challenges to the e-cigarette enterprises.

However, it is the direction that all e-cigarette enterprises should strive to truly open the revolutionary products of the smoke-free era through continuous innovation. Like Elfbar, Elux, Lost mary, Allbar, and Fume, they are determined to create innovative categories like the iPhone through their own technological innovation and product charm, and meet people's increasing demand for health addiction with continuous iteration of atomization technology and biotechnology achievements. Originating from tobacco, surpassing tobacco and realizing the intoxicating dream of human security is the ultimate mission of electronic cigarettes.

 

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