Tencent's Upcoming Glucose Meter 'Tang Dafu' Accused of Copying Rival's Design Ahead of Launch
On January 13, an HTML5 invitation from Tencent, titled “Witness the Launch of a Mysterious Product Together at 14:30 on January 20,” went viral on WeChat Moments. Leveraging an emotional appeal centered on family ties, and buoyed by Tencent’s brand prestige and the allure of the mysterious product, the invitation garnered more than 150,000 shares within just a few hours.
Screenshot of Tencent’s HTML5 invitation to “Witness the Launch of a Mysterious Product Together.” Reading the invitation reveals that Tencent’s upcoming mysterious product is a smart blood glucose meter named “Tang Dafu.”
On that day, the WeChat official account “Shidai Yinuo Health News,” verified as belonging to “Tianjin Shidai Yinuo Technology Co., Ltd.,” published an article titled “Copied by Tencent: Should Yinuo Be Pleased or Panicked?!” Over the following two days, the account consecutively released two more articles, “Yinuo vs. Tencent: The Untold Story” and “Knowledge Boost: Why Did the Penguin Giant Set Its Sights on Shidai Yinuo?!” directly alleging that Tencent’s upcoming mysterious product was suspected of plagiarism.
What Gives Shidai Yinuo the Confidence to Go Head-to-Head with the Penguin Empire? With this question in mind, VCBeat interviewed Liu Shuang, E-commerce Operations Manager at Shidai Yinuo.
Liu Shuang introduced to VCBeat that the health terminal developed by Shidai Yinuo is the world’s first smart device integrating both a glucometer and mobile phone functionalities. It can instantly upload multiple parameters, including blood glucose levels, to the platform server for massive storage and intelligent analysis. The device also comes pre-installed with the Yinuo Diabetes Doctor app, helping individuals with diabetes manage their blood glucose scientifically.
Judging from the spy photos of Tangdaifu disclosed by Leiphone, everything from the mobile phone and test strips to the lancing device and needles bears a striking resemblance to products previously launched by Shidai Yinuo. When Shidai Yinuo applied for a Network Access License from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and a Medical Device Registration Certificate from the China Food and Drug Administration in 2013, there were no domestic precedents.
According to data obtained by VCBeat, Tencent’s Tang Daifu features a large screen and an independent operating system, offering people with diabetes a novel experience that does not rely on smartphones. The simplified testing process, combined with smooth and intuitive operation, enables elderly users to monitor their blood glucose more conveniently. Additionally, patients’ health data can be transmitted directly to their children’s WeChat accounts, and the children can send messages back to the glucometer via WeChat, thereby facilitating their active involvement in caring for their parents.
VCBeat also compared the leaked spy shots with the subtle details of Shidai Yinuo’s products. Whether this truly constitutes plagiarism is left to the readers’ discretion.
Comparison of Leaked Images of Tencent’s Tang Dafu with Product Details of Shidai Yinuo Regarding the allegations of plagiarism or imitation against Tencent, Liu Shuang stated that Shidai Yinuo’s public statement was not merely intended to accuse Tencent of plagiarism, but rather aimed to leverage the involvement of an industry giant like Tencent to genuinely promote the development of the sector. Although small enterprises cannot compete head-on with Tencent, Shidai Yinuo hopes for a symbiotic and mutually prosperous relationship, ultimately providing better services to patients with diabetes.
As Tencent’s Tang Daifu has not yet been officially released, everything remains speculative. VCBeat will continue to closely monitor further developments in this “alleged plagiarism” incident.
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