Founded in 2015, JUUL is a very young e-cigarette brand, but according to a report released by Guofu Bank based on Nielsen data, as of September 2018, JUUL has occupied 72% of the market share of the e-cigarette market in the United States, surpassing the previous top four e-cigarette brands in the United States: Renault/British American Tobacco's Vuse, Imperial Tobacco's Blu, Japan Tobacco's Logic and Philip Morris International's MarkTen.
 
Since the invention of e-cigarettes by pharmacist Han Li in 2003, e-cigarettes have gone through several generations of development, from the first and second generations of manually adjusted voltage e-cigarettes to the third generation of chip control power and temperature e-cigarettes, which have been greatly improved in quality and taste. In terms of formula, the first and second generation of e-cigarettes mainly use free alkali nicotine formula e-liquid, this form of nicotine does not adhere to any other substances, due to the high pH value of free alkali nicotine, it is alkaline, and there will be a strong choking sensation at high concentrations, and it is impossible to obtain similar satisfaction to traditional cigarettes by increasing the concentration of nicotine. James Monseeuo, president of JUUL, once said: "In the cigarette market, 60% of smokers have tried e-cigarettes, but less than 6% end up being repeat customers. ”
 
Under the limitation of free alkali nicotine e-liquid, in order to obtain greater nicotine satisfaction, it is nothing more than to fully atomize nicotine and increase the inhalation amount as much as possible. Because of this, e-cigarettes have been developing in the direction of high power and smoke for a long time, and have gradually become a paradise for players, and their original intention of smoking/quitting smoking is gradually moving away.
 
After realizing this, PAX Labs, an American e-cigarette company, developed nicotine salt e-liquid, and accordingly developed a small cigarette called JUUL. Compared with free base nicotine, nicotine salt can not only obtain a satisfaction closer to that of traditional cigarettes in taste, but also has a more stable form than free base, which is convenient for preservation.
 
In addition, nicotine salts also have a lower pH, which makes the throat smoother when inhaled, and users can inhale higher concentrations of nicotine salts without choking their throats. According to the data published by PAX Laboratories based on physiological pharmacokinetic models (PBPK), the curves of nicotine in the blood over time are very similar when smoking nicotine salt e-liquid and traditional cigarettes. This means that vaping nicotine salt e-liquid can be similar to the satisfaction of traditional cigarettes.
 
At present, PAX Laboratories has successfully obtained a patent for nicotine salts. With the success of nicotine salt, major e-liquid manufacturers have also tried their best to develop nicotine salt formulations on the premise of circumventing PAX patents. It is worth mentioning that due to the first-mover advantage, PAX has seized a large share of the market. According to the PRWeb report, more than 75% of the world's e-cigarette liquid brands use nicotine salts from PAX labs.
 
JUUL is the first e-cigarette company to use nicotine salt technology to make e-cigarette oil, and just started using 5% nicotine concentration e-liquid, which is equivalent to the nicotine concentration of a pack of cigarettes, it can be said that the 5% nicotine standard is a trend led by JUUL, and the advent of JUUL has a significant impact on the entire e-cigarette industry and has led to the outbreak of the small cigarette market.
 
Because of the value of JUUL, on December 20, 2018, Philip Morris International, the world's largest tobacco company, acquired a 35% stake in JUUL for $12.8 billion. It is also the largest investment ever made by a U.S. venture capital firm. Wells Fargo said the deal boosted JUUL's valuation to $38 billion. The success of JUUL has inspired a large number of imitators, and major manufacturers have designed their products to be small cigarette devices with a boxy structure similar to JUUL e-cigarettes. In October 2018, JUUL filed a lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that products manufactured by U.S. and Chinese companies infringed its patents, and asked the ITC to block the import of various infringing products into the U.S. for sale.
 
At present, the second generation of JUUL e-cigarettes on the market are sold, with a domestic price of 430 yuan (excluding cartridges), and JUUL adopts a square appearance design, which is equivalent to the length of traditional fine cigarettes. There are no buttons on the body, and there is a built-in air pressure sensing switch, which can be used with a light inhale, which is very intuitive to use.
 
At present, JUUL can provide 7 flavors of tobacco, mint, milkshake, fruit, mango, cucumber and classic tobacco, with a nicotine content of 5% and 3%, and the price is 178 yuan / 4 pieces, of which mango flavor is the most popular. The JUUL device consists of two basic components: a cigarette stick with a built-in battery and chip and a pre-filled e-cigarette cartridge (pod), which can be charged in 1 hour using a USB base.