Anker Innovations Co., Ltd, commonly known as Anker, is a Chinese electronics manufacturer based in

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

, China. The company's product range includes phone chargers, power banks, earbuds, headphones, speakers, data hubs, charging cables, torches, screen protectors, etc.

History

Anker was founded in 2011 by Steven Yang at

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, but the company would soon move its headquarters to

. In 2011, Anker expanded its focus from replacement laptop batteries to smartphone battery chargers, wall chargers, portable power and conferencing gear. In early 2014, Anker Innovations hired Zhao Dongping, Google's then-head of sales in China, who eventually became president in 2020.

Availability

Aside from its domestic market in China, Anker also maintains subsidiaries in Japan,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Prior to 2016, Anker products were almost exclusively sold on the

Amazon Marketplace Amazon Marketplace is an e-commerce platform owned and operated by Amazon that enables third-party sellers to sell new or used products on a fixed-price online marketplace alongside Amazon's regular offerings. Using Amazon Marketplace, third-party ...

. Anker products are also sold in big box stores such as Best Buy, Target and Kohl's and are available on various other

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...

websites such as

Shopee Shopee Pte. Ltd. (Shopee) is a Singaporean multinational technology company that specialises in e-commerce. The company was launched in Singapore in 2015, before it expanded abroad. , Shopee is considered the largest e-commerce platform in S ...

and other third-party websites in agreement with Anker.

Brands and products

Anker makes power banks, charging cables, wall adapters, power strips, USB hubs, and torches under the Bolder sub-brand. Soundcore makes Bluetooth earbuds, headphones, and speakers. Eufy produces smart home appliances and security devices. Nebula makes portable

video projector A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), X ...

s. Roav makes car accessories. Zolo was a precursor to the Soundcore brand. KARAPAX made phone cases. Anker's line of charging cables have the trademarked name PowerLine, with the latest being PowerLine III. These cables have an MFi (Made for iPhone) certification from

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

Gallery

File:Anker-PowerPort-40W-5-Port-USB-Ladegeraet.2.jpg, Anker PowerPort, a fast USB charger with 5 ports File:AnkerAstro.jpg, ''Anker Astro'', a mobile battery charger introduced in 2011 File:Anker SoundCore interactive speaker display at a Walmart in Gillette, Wyoming.jpg, An Anker SoundCore interactive speaker display

Controversies

One of Anker's sub-brands, Eufy, claimed that all data recorded was stored locally with no cloud access and further claimed that only the owner had access to their data. However, security researcher Paul Moore found out that images and videos were uploaded to Eufy's servers, leased through AWS, and used to train a facial recognition AI. Additionally, these images were tagged with user data. Even after deleting the images and his Eufy account, Moore found that the images remained on their AWS servers. In December 2022, ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...

'' reported that Eufy had drastically changed its 'privacy commitment' page, removing many of their previous statements on the privacy aspects of its cameras.

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Anker Oman Official website
{{portalbar, China, Technology Companies based in Shenzhen Mobile technology companies Technology companies established in 2011 Chinese companies established in 2011 Chinese brands