In China, artificial intelligence glasses allow wearers to pay in stores simply by scanning a QR code and voice commands, as more companies look to capture growing domestic and overseas markets.
After more than a decade of stagnant promise, global interest in smart glasses is surging, with advances in artificial intelligence bringing a new boon to the industry.
US giant Meta is the clear market leader, but many Chinese companies – from giants like Alibaba and Xiaomi to start-ups like Rokid and XREAL – are working to catch up.
“China’s advantages are self-evident,” Rokid Chief Executive Misa Zhu told AFP after a recent launch in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
“The ecosystem and its supply chain are all in China, and China produces a lot.”
At home, Chinese companies have an undeniable advantage – Meta’s services are blocked domestically and cannot be accessed without a VPN.
The country is a potentially large and lucrative market for wearable technology.
According to market intelligence provider IDC, smart glasses sales are expected to grow 116% year-on-year in 2025.
Daily life has become highly digitized, with even the elderly using smartphones for everything from payments to transportation.
China’s internet infrastructure, such as QR code payments in stores, “is already more developed than in Europe and the United States,” Zhu said.
-“Dark Horse” Xiaomi-
Flora Tang, an analyst at research firm Counterpoint, wrote that other Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, RayNeo, Thunderobot and Kopin are active players in the smart glasses space.
Xiaomi in particular is a “dark horse,” she said, with its first artificial intelligence glasses ranking third among similar products in the first half of 2025 despite only being on sale for about a week.
Smaller companies such as Rokid, which recently raised more than $4 million on Kickstarter, have also shown interest.
CEO Zhu said Rokid is “observing and learning from big global companies.”
In an effort to span domestic and overseas markets, the company allows customers to use Chinese apps in China and elsewhere, unlike competitors like Meta that limit the apps they offer.
Rokid glasses aren’t limited to one generative AI model either.
“We are very open. We use OpenAI and can also connect with Llama, Gemini and Grok.” Zhu said.
“That’s why a lot of people like us.”
Another feature Rokid showed off in Hangzhou was simultaneous translation, where fluorescent green English subtitles scrolled across the glasses’ internal lenses when an employee spoke in Chinese.
But breaking Meta’s dominance overseas will be challenging.
According to Counterpoint, Meta held a 73% share of the growing global smart glasses market in the first half of 2025.
It owes its success to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, which are almost indistinguishable from fashionable glasses worn every day.
– Privacy issues –
In Hangzhou, Rokid announced a new cooperation with Bolon, which also belongs to EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban.
Rokid says weight is also a key factor and its model is one of the lightest in the world.
“Appearance is still the top priority, it has to make people actually want to wear it,” customer Wu Tianhao, 25, told AFP.
Industry expert Zhu Dianrong said Chinese companies have demonstrated “numerous brands and models, rapid iteration, and the ability to quickly adapt to market changes.”
However, “overseas brands still have advantages in hard technologies such as full-color displays and optical waveguides.”
Rokid Vice President Gary Cai acknowledged that there is a “clear gap” in chip technology between China and overseas, but pointed out that the difference between artificial intelligence models “has narrowed significantly.”
Despite growing interest in smart glasses, both Chinese and foreign companies face significant challenges before widespread adoption.
Will Greenwald, a writer for consumer electronics media PCMag, said that overall the user experience needs to be more complete and accessible.
“I don’t think anyone has really made it a smooth experience yet,” he told AFP.
Privacy concerns remain an obstacle, and the cautious and almost continuously documented consequences of widespread eyeglass wear raise potential regulatory pitfalls.
Still, manufacturers like Zhu remain confident.
“Today, our AI glasses are mobile phone peripherals,” he said. “But in the near future… mobile phones will become accessories for glasses.”
EM/Reb/Kraft
