Change or die? Will the smart ecosystem platform become the next hot topic?

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2014 was a critical year for domestic mobile phone companies, home appliance companies, and Internet giants to form alliances. Driven by Google's acquisition of Nest for $3.2 billion, Xiaomi first launched its smart ecosystem platform strategy, which led to the rapid follow-up of Huawei, Meizu, 360, TCL and other companies.

Why did smart home and the Internet of Things only begin to make substantial progress in 2014 after a decade of hype? Which companies will join forces to influence the future landscape? The author recently had a conversation with many industry leaders on this issue. The following is the main information:

Companies that covet the smart ecosystem platform

Xiaomi + Midea + 100 hardware companies

Under Lei Jun's leadership, Xiaomi quickly transformed from a hardware company that sold mobile phones and TV products to an ecological platform company that integrates hardware + system + application + cloud computing in 2014. This year, Xiaomi launched a series of hardware products such as tablets, routers, bracelets, cameras, air purifiers, etc.

Lei Jun said that around the mobile phone as the core product, Xiaomi aims to build a three-layer ecological chain: the first layer is the smart hardware ecological chain (Xiaomi plans to invest in 100 hardware companies); the second layer is the content industry ecological chain (inviting Chen Tong, investing in Youku and iQiyi); the third layer is cloud services (investing in Kingsoft and 21Vianet). In addition, Xiaomi Technology invested 1.266 billion yuan in Midea Group in December 2014 to accelerate the layout of smart home hardware categories and channel cooperation.

Huawei Honor + Skyworth Coocaa

After Xiaomi, Huawei Honor is the fastest follower in the smart ecosystem platform. This year, Honor also launched a series of hardware products such as Honor Cube, Huawei Secret Box, and bracelets, and cooperated with Skyworth's Coocaa TV to enter the smart TV field.

Liu Jiangfeng, head of Huawei's Honor business unit, revealed to Yiguancha that Honor's goal is to build a complete smart ecosystem platform, and more terminal categories will be launched in the future. In a dialogue with Yiguancha, Huawei's Consumer BG CEO also said that the smart ecosystem platform will become the competitive direction of the terminal industry. Unlike Xiaomi, Huawei's smart ecosystem platform is more open, hoping to cooperate with the industry chain instead of requiring controlling stakes or capital entry.

Coolpad + Qihoo 360

After many "scandals", Qihoo 360 announced on December 16 that it would invest $409.05 million in Coolpad to establish a joint venture and hold a 45% stake in the joint venture. Zhou Hongyi explained in an internal email: "To achieve the ultimate security on the mobile Internet, we must make mobile phones ourselves, so that we can deeply intervene in the bottom layer of the operating system", and called on employees to "bring AK47 and follow me to the south to make mobile phones!"

However, the industry believes that Zhou Hongyi's desire to deeply intervene in the underlying operating system is probably not just security business. Zhu Fanghao, head of Coolpad Dasheng brand, also told "Yi Guancha" that "the cooperation between the two parties will include brand marketing, e-commerce channel diversion, Internet operation capabilities (game joint operation, app store operation, mobile search revenue, etc.), and ecosystem (CoolUI integrates location, video, security and other life services from the ROM+UI level). " - In other words, behind Zhou Hongyi's $400 million cash investment, what he values ​​is still the integration of the smart ecosystem platform.

Meizu

After introducing external capital and implementing the company's shareholding reform, Meizu took another step forward in its smart ecological platform. On December 23, 2014, Meizu announced the launch of its sub-brand Meilan, with the first product, Meilan Note, priced at 999 yuan, targeting the Redmi series.

Meizu President Bai Yongxiang told Yiguancha that Meizu Blue is not just a mobile phone brand, but a full-terminal platform brand covering wearable devices such as tablets, smart TVs, smart routers, and smart watches. After Meizu Blue Note, Meizu will select products that are in line with Meizu's strategic layout, highly integrated with mobile phones, and suitable for Meizu's current size to be launched on the market. Compared with Xiaomi, Meizu's platform strategy will be more open. Bai Yongxiang revealed that after Meizu Blue revealed its platform strategy to the outside world, many companies have approached Meizu hoping to enter Meizu's smart ecological platform.

TCL

In recent years, TCL has been regarded by domestic consumers as a traditional home appliance brand, but this impression is changing as its smartphone business returns to the domestic market.

Wang Jiyang, COO and President of TCL Communication China, said in an interview with Yiguancha that TCL is currently the platform-based enterprise with the most complete product line after Samsung, and even includes one of the few LCD panel production lines in China (CSOT). In response to the general trend of smart ecosystem platformization, TCL Communication established the Mobile Internet Emerging Business Center (MIEBC) in October 2014 to build a service platform for TCL's mobile Internet ecosystem and ultimately establish a new business model of "product + service".

Wang Jiyang gave an example, taking air purifiers as an example, intelligence is not just about making an APP to achieve network connection between mobile phones and purifiers, but should include intelligent perception of multiple rooms, and linkage with air conditioners and other home appliances. The background involves many algorithms and applications, which will be the advantage and opportunity of TCL's smart ecological platform.

Haier + Alibaba

Alibaba and Haier reached a strategic cooperation on December 9, 2013. Alibaba's total investment in Haier reached HK$2.822 billion (about RMB 2.213 billion). The cooperation between the two parties mainly involved logistics and supply chain management. What attracted the attention of the industry was that in addition to Haier's RiRiShun Logistics shares, Alibaba also acquired 2% of Haier Electric Appliances, which is currently a domestic home appliance giant with a relatively complete range of products and has been involved in smart home appliances and smart homes for many years. Subsequently, Alibaba and Haier cooperated to launch TV boxes and smart TVs, using Alibaba's family digital entertainment services, mainly including TV online shopping (v shopping mall), cloud games, entertainment and other special businesses.

According to Haier insiders, the cooperation with Alibaba will be fully expanded in 2015. For example, smart air boxes, water boxes, air conditioners, refrigerators, water heaters and other products are planned to be connected with Alibaba's YunOS to realize the smart ecological platform created by Alibaba + Haier, and can be opened to other manufacturers for access.

Why did it finally collapse after ten years of hype?

In fact, whether it is smart appliances, smart homes, or the Internet of Things concept, they have been hyped for nearly a decade. Why did companies finally come together to break the deadlock in 2014?

Based on the opinions of industry leaders, there are several reasons:

1. Lack of unified standards. The concepts of smart home appliances and smart homes were previously focused on and led by traditional home appliance companies. However, home appliance companies were bound by corporate interests and traditional concepts and have not reached a unified standard in the past decade. This dilemma has now been quickly broken by new mobile Internet platform companies with terminals, systems, and applications, such as Xiaomi.

From the perspective of business model, traditional home appliance manufacturers pay more attention to sales and product sales, but lack the maintenance of after-sales relationships with users and big data management. However, new enterprises such as Xiaomi, after rapidly expanding their user base to tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, have centralized and managed users through the Internet and established connection standards and business models based on user needs, which is impossible for traditional home appliance companies to do.

2. Lack of applications. Traditional home appliance companies are good at hardware manufacturing, but they are inherently weak in hardware-software platform integration. Internet companies used to focus more on business model innovation of software opportunities and lacked confidence in entering the traditional hardware manufacturing field. However, the smartphone ecosystem has rapidly formed a complete ecosystem in the past seven years. With the advancement of hardware, software, and system capabilities, this ecosystem is currently penetrating into the fields of smart home appliances and smart homes.

3. Innovation of terminal technology capabilities. Ten years ago, it seemed like a wild idea to put processors, display screens, storage devices, etc. capable of big data computing into traditional home appliances. However, with the popularization of new hardware terminals represented by smartphones and the rapid escalation of competition, relatively mature solutions are now available in terms of hardware technology, size, energy consumption, cost, etc.

4. High-speed network. Whether it is GSM, CDMA or even EDGE in the 2G era, or WCDMA or EVDO in the 3G era, their actual speed and bandwidth are not enough to support high-speed interconnection between external mobile networks and home WiFi networks. In the 4G era, the peak speed of 100MB or even 150MB, as well as the popularization of fiber-to-the-home, have become the support and basic guarantee for connecting mobile networks and home networks.

5. Application scenarios. Traditional home appliance manufacturers are more concerned with the three-screen or multi-screen interaction of their own products, which is actually less practical for consumers and has insufficient application scenarios. However, Xiaomi has established a connection center through a router and has opened up a complete ecological channel scenario by controlling other hardware, applications, and multimedia content through a smartphone. This channel has also triggered the rapid follow-up of Huawei, Meizu, and TCL.

From the perspective of the international market, Google, which acquired Nest, and Apple, which launched Homekit, have the potential to build a successful smart ecosystem platform. However, it is currently difficult for the former to enter the Chinese market in a commercial form, and the latter still needs to complete the integration with more home appliances and other product categories. China currently has the world's most developed mobile phone manufacturers, home appliance companies and mobile Internet companies, as well as a 4G communication network that is synchronized with the world, and is capable of incubating one or even 2-3 smart ecosystem platform companies first.

As Lei Jun said: "The wave of mobile Internet and smart home has arrived, and if we don't change, we will die!" So, who can build a complete smart ecological platform in 3-5 years to subvert the existing models of current terminal manufacturers, home appliance manufacturers, and even Internet giants?