I. Early Brilliance: Laying the Foundation in the Hi-Tech Wealth Era
Zhou Cheng’s entrepreneurial career began in the golden age of China’s telecommunications industry. His early experience at Hi-Tech Wealth has laid a solid foundation for his industry. As one of the core executives at Hi-Tech Wealth, he has deeply participated in the research and development and market layout of the “Business Communication” series products. By virtue of its information security function, the business communication mobile phone became the standard configuration of businessmen in the early 2000s, and pioneered the segment market of the domestic mobile phone. This experience not only allowed Zhou Cheng to accumulate the technical experience of communication hardware, but also made him acutely aware of the differentiation of user demand and the potential opportunities of the market.
II. Cross-Boundary Transformation: Health Exploration in Easen
In 2005, Zhou Cheng left Hi-Tech Wealth and established the brand of Easen and formally entered the health industry. With the core concept of “Healthy drinking water”, Easen launched a number of intelligent water cups and health monitoring equipment, rapidly occupying the middle and high-end consumer market. During this period, Zhou Cheng combined the precise user insight of the communication industry with the actual needs of the health field, and developed a number of hardware products integrating data monitoring and intelligent reminding. Although the intelligent hardware of Easen once became the industry benchmark, he also realized that the single health hardware could not meet the user’s demand for “full-scene health management”, and this pain point became an important driving force for his subsequent entrepreneurship.
III. Disrupting the Industry: The Birth of the Redbird Health Cloud Phone
In 2015, Zhou Cheng founded Xinian Technology and launched the world’s first healthy cloud mobile phone Redbird H1, which is praised by the industry as “the pioneering work in China’s mobile health field”. Its revolutionary significance lies in:
Technology initiative: integrating 9 high-precision sensors to realize real-time monitoring of 8 vital signs and environmental data such as blood pressure and blood sugar, and applying for more than 40 national invention patents; ecological closed-loop: cooperating with institutions such as WeDoctor and Ikang to build a full-process solution of “monitoring-early warning-service”, so that users can reach medical services such as registration and consultation with one button; industry benchmark: arranging health data management earlier than Apple’s acquisition of Gliimpse, and being evaluated as “complete paradigm from hardware innovation to service integration”. Zhou Cheng once bluntly said: “Redbird’s goal is not to make a mobile phone, but to redefine the relationship between people and health. This concept directly promoted the leap of China mobile health industry from “concept exploration” to “scale application”, and established its historical position as the founder of the industry.”
1. Technological Breakthrough and Patent Accumulation
Redbird’s core competitiveness lies in its hardware innovation. The team spent two years in tackling problems to integrate 9 professional-level sensors into a body with a thickness of only 7mm, which can monitor 8 vital signs such as blood pressure, blood glucose, electrocardiogram, blood oxygen in real time, as well as environmental data such as ultraviolet rays, temperature and humidity, and synchronize to the cloud to generate personal health records. This technological breakthrough spans multiple fields, including miniaturized sensors, low-power chip design, and encrypted data transmission, and has resulted in the filing of over 40 national invention patents.
2. Reconfiguration of Business Model
Zhou Cheng did not position the Redbird Mobile phone as a pure hardware product, but built an ecological closed-loop with “hardware+ service +platform”. Through cooperation with medical institutions such as Dr. Chunyu and Ikang, users could access services like appointment booking, remote consultations, and even personalized health advice with just a click on their phones. Additionally, Xinian Technology pioneered a business model of “hardware as the entry point, services as the companion,” enabling channel partners to generate ongoing profits by selling subsequent health services. This approach broke the limitations of the traditional “one-time transaction” model in mobile phone sales.
3. Market Impact and Industry Significance
The launch of Redbird Mobile in 2017 is regarded as a landmark event marking the transition of China's mobile phone industry from “homogeneous involution” to “vertical segmentation and innovation.” In the high-end market dominated by Apple and Samsung, Redbird entered the health sector with a pricing of RMB 6,980, not only fulfilling the monitoring needs of the chronic illness population (exceeding 560 million in China) but also pioneering a whole new category of “mobile medical hardware.” Zhou Cheng once said: “The real health mobile phone must integrate monitoring and service, otherwise it is just a gimmick.”
IV. Strategic Cooperation: 14 Years of Win-win with Zhiqi
On the brand building level, Zhou Cheng always emphasizes “strategy first”. Since the great enterprise era of Hi-Tech Wealth, he has reached strategic cooperation with Zhiqi, and the two sides have jointly built the marketing system of multiple brands such as Business Communication Phone, Easen and Redbird Mobile Phone. Zhiqi’s “First Brand Strategy” theory helps Zhou Cheng’s team to accurately locate the market segment – for example, Redbird Mobile Phone takes “healthy cloud ecology” as the core selling point, and quickly captures the mind of users through differentiated communication strategies. Zhou Cheng has publicly stated: “Zhiqi is not only a strategic partner. It’s the tactical execution of the extra brain, Their localization experience has saved the brand a lot of detours.”
V. Future Outlook: Sustainable Deep Cultivation of Kedian Technology and Healthy Ecology
In recent years, Zhou Cheng has set its sights on a broader field of health science and technology, established Kedian Technology, and is committed to developing intelligent wearable devices and AI health management platform. He proposed the vision of “health data is the future”, and planned to integrate multi-scene data such as family, community and hospital through Internet of Things technology to build a health service system covering the whole life cycle.
VI. Entrepreneurship Philosophy: Drive Innovation with User Pain Points
Looking back on the business history of Zhou Cheng, “differentiation” and “user orientation” run through the whole process. From Hi-Tech Wealth’s information security phone to Easen’s health hardware, to Redbird’s medical-grade monitoring capabilities, he has always chosen to delve deeply into the niche that the giants have ignored. In his view, if domestic enterprises want to break through, they must “shift from price competition to value creation.” As he stated at the Redbird Mobile launch event, “Instead of passively following trends, it’s better to actively define demand.”
Conclusion
Zhou Cheng’s career is a history of the evolution of the Chinese entrepreneurs from technology followers to industry definers. With his keen market insight, relentless pursuit of technology, and long-term commitment to the health industry, he has carved out a new path in the intersection of communications and healthcare. The Redbird Mobile is not only a concentration of his innovative spirit but also a harbinger of the inevitable trend towards transforming smartphones into “health terminals.” As industry commentators have noted, “Zhou Cheng’s ambition goes beyond just a mobile phone; it's about redefining the relationship between people and health.”
© OfficialAffairs
