First Vaping Billionaires!
China has its first vaping billionaires and they’re the chairman and executive director of SMOORE Technology.
Never heard of them?
You may not have, but I’m pretty sure you’ll know a vape company they own, namely Vaporesso.
As one of the sub-brands, Vaporesso has inherited SMOORE’s spirit and incorporated it into its own mission to be Beyond the Ordinary. With cutting-edge ingenuity, VAPORESSO is dedicated to satisfying its customers with the high-quality vaping experience. VAPORESSO’s products – such as VECO, ZERO, LUXE and the Vaporesso GEN family – cover the full range of open-system vapes and fulfil the various needs from the vapers.
So far, along with SMOORE, VAPORESSO’s business has spread to more than 60 countries and regions around the world and has established a substantial brand influence in Europe, America, and emerging markets.
Not only that, SMOORE is behind the FEELM Inside technology used in many of the pod kits out there.
The company’s ceramic pods are used by global companies such as Japan Tobacco, Reynolds, NJOY, American Tobacco and British American Tobacco, to name but a few.
I have written about the FEELM Inside technology, and vape companies such as Logic, Dot, AlfaPod, nJOY and RELX also use the brand.
SMOORE just went public on the Hong Kong stock market and raised $918 million (£734.93 million) after making 574 million shares available, it’s the largest flotation so far this year.
Details show that SMOORE made a profit of $307.8 million in 2019 – that’s a lot of vape kits and pods!
Drilling into the finances shows the Chairman and CEO Chen Zhiping, now has a stake worth $8 billion whilst executive director Xiong Shaoming, has stock worth $1.2 billion.
Both men share the fortune with their wives…
WHO Is the Stop Smoking Bot?
Say hello to Florence the latest hi tech tool to help smokers quit.
I say hi tech – of course the most hi tech [and most successful and safest] way to quit smoking is of course the e-cigarette, however the World Health Organization disagrees.
But hey, let’s go with the flow and see what anti-smoking bot Flo is all about…
OK, she’s the brainchild of the WHO and is a virtual stop smoking advisor.
She needs access to your computer’s camera and microphone and you engage in a two way interview.
All sounds pretty good on the surface, however if it catches on I guess anti-smoking clinicians won’t be thrilled at losing their jobs…
Any way, once our Flo has got all the smokers information she suggests a form of nicotine replacement therapy such as patches – sprays or gums…
Now regular readers will know both Big Pharma and Tobacco KNOW and have known for decades they simply don’t work.
What we do know is vaping and e-cigarettes are the very best way of quitting smoking.
So it comes as no surprise whatsoever to see that Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health has ‘donated’ almost 40,000 of its ‘products’ to the pilot scheme being rolled out in Jordan.
This is the company behind the Nicorette gums, lozenges sprays and patches…
*rolls eyes*
Dr. Ruediger Krech, director of health promotion at WHO said:
We welcome the support of pharmaceutical and tech companies to improve people’s health and save lives during COVID-19.
The partnership highlights what we can achieve when we work together both to end the pandemic and, moving forward, to build back better.
No idea what ‘build back better’ means…
Once again the WHO is ignoring the life saving e-cigarette in favour of failed ‘hi tech’ products like inhalers and patches…
And they wonder why folks like me scoff at the WHO’s insistence on backing rubbished Big Pharma tired old ideas that simply don’t work.
Nothing to see here…move along…just Big Pharma and the WHO filling each others pockets as per usual…
As for Flo…she really doesn’t FLOat my boat…
Jail Threat For Vape Ads
Vape shop owners in Canada can face up to 6 months in jail if a child spots any vaping advertisements.
Health Canada says this is the best way to stop what they allege is the growing number of teens taking up vaping.
There’s also fines for vape shop owners of up to $50,000 when the new laws come into effect on August 7th 2020.
Canada’s Vaping Industry Trade Association said it was ‘happy’ with the new legislation saying:
Youth vaping is allied in something the industry doesn’t want.
The vaping industry doesn’t want Canada’s youth as customers.
Can’t argue with that, however it does feel more than a little heavy handed – especially the ‘punishments’.
The new rules will mean any shop selling vape products will need to have signage kept to black and white lettering with prominent health warnings and forbids:
any visual, sound or other effects
Health Canada said:
A vaping product must not be displayed at the point of sale in a manner that allows it to be seen by young persons, to protect youth from being exposed to advertisements that can induce them to try vaping.
Sadly this is just the start on the crack down on vaping in Canada with flavour bans and a reduction in nicotine strengths still on the agenda.
As I’ve written before, the country is on mission creep to ban vaping out of existence…crazy times indeed eh?
and finally…Vaping Black Market and the ‘Speak Easy’?
Great article on the Filter Mag website about the rise of the black market vape trade in New York – well worth a read…
What’s scary is the parallels with the short story I wrote on New Years Eve 2018: A Vaping Fairy Tale Of New York 2022 – A Short Story Or Dire Warning?
In that fictional piece I wrote about the rise of the Vapesters – mob style gangs that saw more profit in smuggled nicotine and vape kits than heroin after New York and then America banned all things vape.
I spoke of the rise of home grown DIYers making a killing selling flavoured e-liquids and how they were ‘rubbed out’ by the ‘mob’ hungry for profits.
I was actually out by 2 years, however pretty much got most of it right as you’ll see from the article in Filter titled: Vape Bans Are Creating a Thriving Illicit Market .
The writer – the excellent Alex Norcia – even manages to interview one of the DIYers now selling to a 50 strong clientele that has to meet in car parks and secluded spots!
The illicit flavoured e-liquid seller, known as Holden said:
I told them that they would probably have the largest black market since alcohol prohibition.
So now we’re here, and I’m selling nicotine to people from the ages of 21 to 75 who feel as if they’re criminals.
This isn’t a surprise.
Alex also talks to a vape shop owner who keeps his flavoured e-liquids out the back in a locked room who says he calls it his speak easy…spooky!
As we always say…truth is stranger than fiction…
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More vaping news on Wednesday!
