Keep in mind that Hualai offers products that Wyze doesn’t and Wyze offers products that Hualai doesn’t. They most definitely aren’t the same company.
We do know they have overlap, since Hualai definitely is the biggest supplier for Wyze. Wyze works with them to tell them what they want designed, and once that is all worked out, Hualai mass manufactures the products for Wyze.
I would not be shocked or angry or betrayed to learn that Wyze has a contract with Hualai to be able to sell Wyze products in China, with or without the Wyze name on them. Regardless, if you have ever studied patent and trademark law, it becomes very messy internationally. Companies routinely steal patents and trademarks and sell things in China or resell back to the US this way. China doesn’t respect USA patents or Trademarks and in fact will routinely rip them off, as do some other countries.
Apparently there are over 900 results searching for trademarks of “Wyze” in China.
My guess is that Wyze’s agreement or contract with Hualai is to allow them to resell the products in the China market and both companies prosper out of it. That same website also talks about other companies they do the same thing with, including Xiaomi and Shunwei products. Basically, they are just taking credit for the products they create/manufacture.
If Hualai was Wyze, then we would’ve had better AI detection long ago. Hualai has had developed cloud AI object recognition for THOUSANDS of objects since way back in April 2018, including for People, pets, cars, etc. and they’ve had facial recognition since June 2018. They’ve had crying detection since 2015…Wyze is just BARELY starting to develop these things themselves. If Hualai owned Wyze we’d already have had all that stuff YEARS ago. We’d have had Crying detection since before Wyze even launched…and we’re just barely starting to get testing on it just this mid-summer.
I mean, just go look at how advanced their AI detection has been for a long time now, compared to Wyze’s AI just starting:
https://www.hualaikeji.com/en/technical
Hualai has had many more YEARS of development on their AI recognition. It’s incredible. Look at all those objects it recognizes AND LABELS with confidence intervals on the fly (handbag, bench, backpack, boat, aeroplane, person, dog–not just pet/animal, truck vs car differentiation, faces with names and highlighted and labeled)! You know exactly what it is identifying as what. Wyze’s AI is still just a baby…I like the baby, but if Wyze was Hualai, we’d have some pretty advanced AI already. Wyze’s AI is great, but I look forward to it reaching this level of sophistication. Honestly, I hope Wyze does work with Hualai to get help with their AI to develop it faster to become this advanced. I would not be complaining.
I am totally open to evidence on any side…but so far it’s overwhelmingly seeming to me that Wyze has a very close business relationship with Hualai, but they are most definitely not the same company, nor have the same owners or employees, etc. I once worked for a company that made jacks for trailers and campers, etc. We worked with a manufacturer to provide us with certain parts customized the way we needed them, then we would manufacture and customize them ourselves the way our other customers needed, and they would then sell them consumers. We had close relationships with our suppliers and our different clients, and sometimes the client would ask us for custom jacks made just for them in special ways…then after we put that through the factory line for them, sometimes we’d sell the exact same thing to others ourselves even though they’re the ones who told us how they wanted it designed, we’re the ones who designed it, but nothing stopped us from using that same design to sell ourselves or to others. I suspect that’s basically what’s going on here with Hualai. Additionally, since Wyze is a big name now, if Wyze didn’t pay for the trademark in every country including China, nothing is stopping someone else from doing it…or 900+ someone elses for that matter, and eventually making Wyze pay them to buy the trademark back to do their own business in that country. People do that domain piracy all the time too. Honestly, it makes sense for Hualai to reserve it so someone else in China can’t try to pretend they’re the ones making a bunch of Wyze hardware. At least this way, they’re protecting themselves. If Wyze didn’t trademark “Wyze” in China, why shouldn’t they do it when they feel they’ve got a huge investment and relationship there?
Still, a little bit of research and logic shows a lot of flaws in believing Hualai completely owns Wyze. Too many other things don’t add up. But I am definitely open to considering any points.
