Plush Toys Get a 'Smart Chip' and Sell Well Overseas as Yiwu Merchants Escape the Price-War Red Ocean
At the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center, Hongyang Tech's experience center drew crowds with an AI plush "West Highland puppy" that blinks, wags and asks back in a child's voice, built on a large model that understands speech and remembers personality. The firm, once stuck in the whiteboard price war, moved into the tech track when the digital trade center opened in October 2025 and now sells "small-but-beautiful" AI products; its companion-education robot has sold thousands of units this year, and the first 3,000 West Highland puppies sold out with the international version rushed for export. Going overseas means deep localization: adapting minority languages, colors and animal shapes to cultural taboos, embedding local IP and signing NDAs. "Chinese manufacturing used to win on low cost; now it must go far on smart manufacturing and innovation," the founder said.
Source: Hubei Daily, Oct 28, 2026 | 2026-10-28
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