Anker, a Chinese brand founded in 2011 by ex-Google engineer Steven Yang, debuted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on August 24th. The brand was one of the first Amazon-native brands and is now on target to $1 billion in sales in 2020. “Amazon-native brands are built to leverage the key strengths Amazon offers.” Those brands follow the “low price, good quality, high Amazon rating” strategy. For them, Amazon is not a channel, but rather the channel.

Anker launched before most Chinese companies realized Amazon could be a channel to sell directly to the U.S. and other markets. In 2011, it was years before Amazon itself would recognize it. “One of the themes is Chinese factories who made stuff for Walmart and the likes for the past 20 years now realize they have shot at building a brand themselves and selling directly to the world, without the intermediary… and we are that vehicle,” read an internal Amazon email only in 2015.