"The U.S.-China trade war has had some impact on us," Zhan stated during an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He noted that North America represents the company's largest market outside of China in terms of demand.
To mitigate the effects of tariffs, Zhan explained that iFlyTek is focusing on diversifying its supply chain while simultaneously expanding its business reach.
Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 20% tariff on various Chinese electronics, including smartphones, laptops, video game consoles, smartwatches, speakers, and Bluetooth devices—categories previously unaffected by such duties. This follows former President Joe Biden's imposition of tariffs on Chinese computer chips last year.
With a market capitalization of 123 billion Chinese yuan ($16.97 billion), iFlyTek currently operates in France and Hungary, where it maintains an office. The company also plans to establish a new office in Paris either this year or next, Zhan revealed.
"Next year, we aim to expand into additional European countries, such as Spain and Italy," he added, though he did not provide further details.
iFlyTek, headquartered in Hefei and renowned for its voice recognition technology, recently introduced a new tablet in Barcelona capable of transcribing conversations.
"This demonstrates iFlyTek's strong commitment to the European market," a company spokesperson commented.
Zhan mentioned that iFlyTek is evaluating further expansion into other European nations, selecting locations based on existing partnerships.
In 2019, iFlyTek was added to a U.S. trade blacklist, restricting its ability to purchase components from U.S. companies, including Nvidia's AI chips, without approval from Washington. In response, the company has utilized chips produced by Huawei to develop its AI models and has incorporated technology from the emerging AI startup DeepSeek.
"It's a challenge for us, but over the past two years, many Chinese companies have begun producing AI chips," Zhan remarked.