Editor's note: A Shenzhen entrepreneur has made a unique contribution to the mainland and global maternity and baby-products industry, creating a "smart" bottle that helps new mothers to devote their most affectionate care and love for their new-born babies. The bottle, linked to a mobile app, offers a solution to what the inventor calls the "maternity leave termination-resulted syndrome".

There is always not overmuch love for mothers to give to their children, especially those who have just had their babies. As a father of two, Qiu Zengchao clearly knows that.

"Many new mothers feel any other people, even their husbands or parents, cannot take good care of their babies," Qiu says. "They want to see every moment of their newly-borned's life with their own eyes."

"Some of my colleagues, who had just given birth, could not concentrate on their work after they returned from their three-month maternity leave. Their attention was entirely on their little prince or princess," says Qiu, who still remembers what it was like when he worked in another company he founded several years ago.

Jokingly calling it "maternity leave termination-resulted syndrome", Qiu says that is just what inspired him to develop an intelligent nursing bottle that meets new mothers' comprehensive demands.

According to Qiu, the smart bottle, which is linked to a mobile app through Bluetooth, enables mothers to monitor the feeding situation of their babies wherever they are. For example, how many times their babies are nursed, how much milk they drink, nursing time, temperature of the milk, or how much milk is dumped.

Mothers could also compare their babies' physical condition with their peers through the app to see whether their little lovers are on a healthy growing track.

"When the number of users accumulates to a certain amount, big data for healthy feeding will be formed, which will provide intelligence and advice for mothers from different regions and of different ages of babies," says Qiu.

Since its official launch in early September, the smart nursing bottle, called iHotKu, has garnered over 40,000 users. Qiu has also exported his creation to overseas markets. The product is currently on sale in Germany and the UK, apart from cities on the mainland.

Qiu believes the maternity and baby-products industry will develop along the "smart" road.

"Integration of maternity and baby commodities, smart hardware, Internet and big data is an irresistible trend," he believes. "More and more mothers will get to know and welcome the development."

Currently, some 130 million babies are born each year across the world, according to the United Nations. In China, the annual figure is roughly 16 million. The central government recently lifted its controversial one-child policy, allowing all couples to have their second child. Officials from the family planning department now expect 17 million new babies to be born by 2020.

"The market for maternity and baby products is huge and full of potential," insists Qiu, adding that he's not concerned about the acceptability of the relatively high pricing of his product, which retails at 698 yuan ($109.3) on the mainland. An ordinary nursing bottle of Japanese brand Pigeon is sold at around 120 yuan on Tmall - Alibaba's online marketplace.

Despite being an experienced entrepreneur who has set up three companies since 1999, Qiu still describes his third business drive, in which he founded Shenzhen iHotKu Technology Co Ltd, as "a thorny adventure".

"I fell again and again in the exploration of the new area."

He had intended to create a high-end and elegant product with 3 million yuan from several investors, including himself, but the reality far exceeded his expectation.

"We had only finalized the product's look when we ran out of money. There were a lot of improvements to be made in its structure and other parts. We needed more money," he says, recalling a time when the company suffered a 1-million-yuan loss after a large number of initial products were destroyed because they were not satisfactory.

An extra 2 million yuan had to be poured into the project, but the investment was again used up quickly. Differences surfaced among the investors, with some asking whether it was necessary to focus overly on improving the project's precision.

Dedicated to changing the traditional low-quality image of Chinese products and creating a high-end one, Qiu is adamant that "detail makes perfectness".

He managed to persuade his investors to inject money two more times - 2 million yuan and 3 million yuan, respectively - and, at last, iHotKu was born.

But Qiu's overemphasis on product backfired. Little energy was devoted to market promotion, resulting in iHotKu finding it difficult to get people to know about it. Qiu says he's making every effort for improvement by cooperating actively with medical organizations and shops related to mothers and children, and promoting the product both online and offline.

He also thinks of a reversed strategy of "overseas to domestic" - pushing for an increase in domestic sales through the success in overseas markets.

"Compared with Chinese mothers, mothers in Western countries are not that concerned about whether it is a famous brand. They would accept a new thing quickly as long as it is easy and convenient to use," explains the Shenzhen entrepreneur.

He says Western customers, who have used the product and consider it good, will act as perfect promoters of iHotKu.

sally@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 11/19/2015 page9)