Have you heard of (or used) Plaud AI?
Since launch on KickStarter in June 2023, the credit-card sized voice recorder Plaud Note has sold more than 1 million pieces, topping the chart for the category on Amazon.
Compared to traditional voice recorders, Plaud had a few innovations:
- Attach directly to the back of an iPhone, making it ultra-portable.
- Two-button design for simplicity.
- Built-in AI that transcribes and summarizes recordings automatically.
We spoke with the founder Nathan Xu back in 2022, before Plaud was even born. At that time, he had moved to Shenzhen and was determined to build a smart hardware product. He was also zooming into building a voice recorder: it is a relatively small field, and none of the incumbents (e.g. Sony) was dedicating enough investments to innovate.
That was before ChatGPT’s launch, which supercharged Plaud’s subsequent success.
Success factors
Nathan chose Shenzhen as the base because it is home to the entire supply chain of hardware.
Shenzhen remains the beating heart of global hardware innovation — a city where prototyping, supply chains, and venture capital intersect within walking distance.
You can source or custom build all the components much more easily in Shenzhen compared to almost anywhere in the world.
There is no coincidence that many large and successful consumer electronics companies such as Huawei, DJI, Anker, Oppo, as well as Apple’s iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, all started in Shenzhen and are often still based there.
Plaud’s name came from “Applaud”, to signify the joyful feeling after success.
A key differentiator of Plaud AI versus other AI hardware companies is its minimalist design and use case – focused on the pain point that traditional voice recorders have to be carried separately, and do not contain software capabilities;
“It is rare for a startup at such an early stage to engage the most professional product designers. Companies at this stage often either do not have the deep understanding of product design, or do not have the budget to do so,” according to a leading hardware design firm that has worked with Plaud.
Instead of starting in China — where price competition is fierce — Plaud began in Japan and the U.S., markets that value design and are willing to pay for efficiency.
Scepticism
Yet even as sales soared, questions loomed: can Plaud sustain its early momentum?
At the launch, many venture investors were already sceptical about Plaud’s future. Their main concerns are: Plaud builds on the fact that iPhone does not allow recording of calls, a need that Apple can easily cater to, if it chooses to. After all, Apple once killed the MP3 player by making music playback a software feature on the iPhone – could it do the same to Plaud?
This is a question almost every founder needs to answer – “What happens if Google, or Tencent, or Apple, or Alibaba, decides to do exactly what you do?”
Some also raised the issue that in daily meetings, recording and transcription can already be done by productivity software tools such as Lark and Google. Companies likely already pay for subscriptions of these tools, making Plaud’s subscription (to get more than 300 minutes of recording a month) harder to justify.
These are tough questions to answer and how things evolve will depend on Plaud’s team, as well as competition.
Competition
Since Plaud’s initial success, many companies in China have started building similar products. Software giant 360 and leader in power banks Anker Innovations have both released voice recorders of similar, if not more robust, features and capabilities:
Alibaba’s enterprise productivity suite, DingTalk, has also showcased a similar product:
These large companies are deeply worried that if AI in the future changes the way consumers interact with devices and systems, they could not afford to lose such an entry point to an upstart like Plaud.
The same reason why Google is deeply worried that ChatGPT could disrupt search.
In Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen’s legendary hardware bazaar, Plaud lookalikes now sell for as low as RMB 300 (around US$40). On Taobao, hundreds of mimic products have appeared — some even adding flashy extras like LED displays or dialect transcription.
True to the Chinese fashion, some followers also added more features: such as LED display, workflow management, and minority language/dialect transcription.
The real moat
Will these competitors be able to dethrone Plaud? Arguments on either side make sense:
- No: Plaud as a brand has already built the consumer mindshare, and the barrier of changing that is high. Think about how hard for Google Gemini to reach mass consumers after ChatGPT;
- Yes: Plaud is just a small use case – a feature in a larger workflow. Companies building the entire workflow will eventually squeeze startups with singular products. Think how Google Meets and Microsoft Teams have caught up with the initial success of Zoom;
Both arguments are valid. Here the key is on Plaud’s team – how they will manage to deepen its moat yet at the same time widen its applications.
Plaud’s current moat is not in technology, but its focus on refining the product experience. While competitors chase features, Plaud focuses on feel.
Maybe the larger issue is not product, but leadership and organisation.
In consumer electronics, products can be copied overnight — but leadership, focus, and culture are harder to replicate.
In an interview with Chinese media outlet Leiphone, Nathan Xu, Plaud’s founder, sounded confident. “If our competitors also believe that what Plaud does is very valuable, they should stop all their other products and focus on doing this well. But that’s not the reality – many are just doing it as a side hustle”.
He believes that the lack of focus of his competitors will translate into inferior products.
Leiphone also reported that Plaud is in a hiring spree of AI engineers (target: 300), and also looking into acquiring B2B AI companies.
Plaud’s story captures a broader trend: how Shenzhen’s next wave of entrepreneurs are merging hardware craftsmanship with AI – turning even the simplest devices into intelligent companions.
Whether Plaud becomes the “Apple of AI voice” or just a footnote in the era of smart tools, its rise is already a case study in speed, focus, and execution.
You can also make reference to the following Momentum Works reports for more:
- Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2025Inside Luckin Coffee: Strategy, model, and international playbookFood Delivery Platforms in Southeast Asia 2025
The post How Plaud AI built the most successful AI voice recorder first appeared on The Low Down - Momentum Works.
