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HEFEI, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Every night, office worker Li Zhe, 35, compares walking and running distances with his friends on WeChat.
The data is recorded on Li's Xiaomi sports bracelet.
"Comparing with each other helps aid our progress, and everyone around here is doing some kind of exercise," he said.
Li used to drive home from work, enjoy dining and play lots of video games, but his lifestyle has changed over the past three years, and now you are more likely to find him cycling or running.
"For the past two years, sports and health have become popular with everybody around us, and people are all wearing some kind of sports bracelet or watch," Li said.
Li's Xiaomi bracelet can monitor the number of steps he takes, his heart rate, and even his sleeping time. Sales of the Chinese sports bracelet topped 30 million in March this year, and when the new version of the product was released in June, over 36 million pre-orders were made on Xiaomi's online platform alone.
"Wearable smart devices started as sports bracelets, but within a very short time they become the most popular and successful intelligent hardware worldwide. Though, we are still surprised that Chinese consumer interest in them has even surpassed the interest in their cell phones," said Huang Wang, CEO of Huami Technology, the Xiaomi bracelet manufacturer.
Big data from over 20 million Xiaomi bracelet users show that more and more Chinese are paying attention to their health.
"On average 5 to 6 million users run everyday, and the number is increasing," Huang said.
Besides Xiaomi, other Chinese companies have also joined the market. Sports brand Li-Ning cooperated with the Xiaomi bracelet research team to develop running shoes with intelligent chips that can analyze a runner's movement and provide professional guidance.
"Wearable smart devices present sport with something that is visible and quantifiable," said Jiang Xuexing, a fitness instructor who has worked in Guangzhou for 10 years. "They have made exercise more interesting by giving participants a sense of achievement."
"My sports bracelet looks at my walking distance against my weight and sleep patterns, and it tells me my recent health condition," said Xu Jing, a 55-year-old Hefei resident. Xu has recently joined an "intelligent exercise group" with many of her middle-aged friends.
Through these wearable devices, exercise is no longer a lonely activity. Such devices help people form new social circles and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Wearable devices are also fun in other ways. They enable sports lovers to compare exercise results with celebrities on Weibo, gain discount coupons through their running miles and even donate to charities based on the number of steps they make.
Analysts believe that a Chinese government drive to develop the sports industry has created an unprecedented public enthusiasm for sports, which in turn has led to consumer demand for wearable smart devices.
Huang claims that in the future wearable devices will have functions in other fields such as medicine and health.
"The devices may even do electrocardiograms and record blood pressure, becoming family doctors one day, even giving suggestions on exercising and making emergency calls to doctors and family when necessary," Huang said. Enditem
