Where is the road for 3D printing? Look at the 3D printing market from Inside 3D|

[Tianji.com Enterprise Channel] [Tianji.com Office Channel News on November 6] The first time I heard about Inside 3D, a grand event in the 3D printing industry, was from a practitioner in the 3D printing industry. Today, when the exhibitions in this technology industry have been shrinking, it is a miracle that 3D printing can create an independent brand exhibition, and it can be held continuously in many places around the world.


In China, the development of the 3D printing industry is very similar to the savage growth of the cottage mobile phone industry. Although the attention is very high, the mention of 3D printing can even be compared with Tesla cars, because the meaning of their existence is "subversion". But at the exhibition, we can see that 3D printer manufacturers, large and small, have almost thousands of product appearances, and the functions that can be realized are similar. There is no breakthrough technology, and there is no bright product. It is almost the same, making people feel that there is no technical content at all.


Why does 3D printing, which sounds very tall, give people such an impression? At the Zhuhai Consumables Exhibition that just ended not long ago, we also conducted some exclusive interviews with the participating 3D printing manufacturers. In the interview, almost all the guests mentioned such a problem. At present, the solutions adopted by most manufacturers are the same set of solutions and the same open source technology. Without its own core competitiveness, without its own software and design, it will naturally look the same, and the printed products will have no characteristics.

But does this mean that 3D printing technology has no future? The development of science and technology is not like this. Take the Internet, which is now being fired up. Before the first Internet bubble burst in 2000, almost all Internet companies had promising prospects and modern ideas, but the only thing they lacked. It is a viable profit model. The same is true for 3D printing. Although everyone knows that this is a promising business, and users can use their imaginations, whether they can really make money is the fundamental factor that promotes whether 3D printer manufacturers can continue to invest, and it also determines the industry. development is healthy. Frankly speaking, more 3D printer manufacturers are seeing the future, but not the direction. Holding a gold mine to beg for food is not an exaggeration at all.


Based on a strong manufacturing base, China has enough companies to produce a large number of 3D printing products, but the current sales market, at least in China, has a big question mark. Since 3D printing products for industrial use have formed a good industrial chain, there is basically no problem of sales. But for civilian-grade products, has the market started? Can there be a good profit model? I think, this is not optimistic.

What is the profit model of 3D printing? How can 3D printer manufacturers make money? How to make users generate purchase demand? During the two-day summit forum and exhibition, I exchanged opinions with many visitors and representatives of manufacturers. According to a person in charge of a 3D printing manufacturer who did not want to be named, it is unrealistic to simply expect the sales of 3D printers to achieve commercial success in the short term, because user needs have not been stimulated. He took the recent "3D printing photo studio" project with high exposure as an example. Although many dealers have joined in, and manufacturers have also provided a complete set of solutions to realize the commercial operation of 3D printing, the actual market gives The response of the company was indifferent, because for users, the unit price of the finished product, the waiting time, and the user experience are not mature enough.

An audience member who was interviewed said that as a product, 3D printers may not have much shipping possibilities in the personal market at present. The cost of product procurement and the cost of consumables are all thresholds. The most important thing is, "buy home." It's been fresh for two days, what will you do with him after that?" This is indeed a question that has to be taken seriously. The current 3D printing products are still at a relatively early stage. It may take an hour or even a few hours for users to print a product designed by themselves, and the experience is very poor.

Ultimately, the problem now is technology. Everyone is using the same mold design and the same open source technology. Few manufacturers are willing to spend their energy on researching differentiated products. The cost is too high and the speed is too slow.

So at this stage, how should we view and utilize the 3D printing industry? Several viewers agreed that setting up a 3D printing training institution may be a good way out: "I don't need to buy it now, but I may use it at work in the future. Learning the operation of 3D printing is also a skill. improvement.”

Well, seeing this, are you thinking about the picture of "who is the strongest in 3D printing, China Shandong is looking for Lan Xiang"? Not only technical training, but renting 3D printers as value-added services in some events or exhibitions is also a good point. As a high-tech technology that can be considered "trendy", although the 3D printing that we can access is far less fashionable (even a little low) than imagined, for most people, try it out always good. It is really a good choice to regard 3D printing as a popular thing.

What we mentioned just now is to create some new demand possibilities for 3D printer users, so for 3D printer manufacturers, how can they obtain business opportunities? I think that there are almost no shortcuts in the manufacture and sales of products. The success of Xiaomi is also not based on the Internet thinking (sudden) dimension (you), but the launch of each generation of its products has sufficient cost performance. , at the same price range at that time, the configuration was the highest (although it was always unavailable for the first time). The same is true for 3D printers. If the product is not too hard, users will not feel "value" and cannot meet the needs of users. I think, no matter how fancy propaganda is, it will not have a good market.

Although the entire 3D printer industry is filled with a strong cottage flavor, which seems to have nothing to do with the high-tech industry in our impression, it is indeed an important opportunity to help Chinese companies truly move from Made in China to Created in China. As the organizer of the exhibition, Li Guanglian, general manager of "Regeneration Times", said that although 3D printing does not have much growth point in the market at present, it is believed that with the advancement of technology and the increase of industrial applications, the future 3D printing industry will definitely be Show us something different.