Behind the dilemma of declining influence of large screens, manufacturers are hiding their ambition to reshape the living room as the center

The "everyone staying at home" mode initiated due to the epidemic has not fundamentally changed the fate of large-screen TVs. The "OTT Large-Screen User Behavior" released by Aowei Interactive Entertainment shows that after the epidemic was effectively controlled, the power-on rate of large-screen TVs in Chinese living rooms immediately dropped to 38.9%, a 7% drop compared to the epidemic period.

The objective reason for this phenomenon is of course that after the epidemic, users no longer need to "stick to" the big screen, but is it right to always do so? How to solve the problem of large screens, break away from the TV itself, and empower it with higher "smart capabilities" may be the secret to solving the industry's difficulties.

Involution of the living room screen

It is undeniable that in the face of the gradual decline of the influence of large screens, players in the industry have not stopped "involution". For example, in order to enhance the attractiveness of products, we saw "price wars" again in 2020. Survey data shows that in the first half of 2020, the average retail price of smart TVs in China was only 2,469 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.4%.

Although manufacturers have repeatedly "cut their losses", the consumer market has remained unmoved. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, even with the direct stimulation of 618, the retail volume of China's color TV market in the first half of 2020 was only 20.89 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 9.1%, and the retail sales were only 51.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 22.2%.

It is true that, in a sense, price wars allow consumers to purchase corresponding goods at lower prices, but price wars caused by vicious competition also greatly affect the use of products.

Data from the "Complaints Received by National Consumer Associations in the First Half of 2020" released by the China Consumers Association showed that complaints about household electronic appliances accounted for 19.5% of the total complaints, and among them, complaints about smart TVs topped the list.

As a result, the large screen in the living room has actually fallen into an internal circle between product and quality - the narrower the market and the lower the product price, the more it will affect the long-term use of the product.

Such a painful industry situation obviously cannot usher in the next bright era.

Breaking through the situation requires new momentum

Can the large screen in the living room only be used as a PC and become a niche terminal device for a special group of people?

The answer is of course no, because beyond pure terminals, the industry is providing the large-screen industry with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for change.

Data released by McKinsey Global Institute shows that by 2025, the global IoT market size will reach 11 trillion US dollars, accounting for 11% of the global economy.

Just as the transformation of smartphones and smart cars was driven by the consumer market, analysts believe that the home scene with fragmented terminals will become the starting point of the IoT transformation. Therefore, the natural large screen in the living room scene may become the IoT hub.

In fact, since 2019, the large-screen products launched by new large-screen forces represented by smartphone manufacturers have been catering to the trend of the times and changing the industry's habitual perception of large-screen functions.

For example, before launching its smart screen products, Huawei announced its "1+8+N" full-scenario smart strategy, committed to making the large screen the information center of the living room. With the launch of Huawei's smart screen products, Huawei has also opened up the most important strategic entrance in the home scenario.

Although it is undeniable that the "new forces" have brought new development ideas to the large-screen industry, we cannot ignore the technological and ecological advantages that traditional home appliance manufacturers have gained through decades of hard work in home appliances and the large-screen industry.

For example, Haier Smart Screen 2.0 not only sees the trend of technology, but also realizes the unique value of large screens, so it has added targeted large-screen content such as smart cinemas and brain science education. In fact, from an industry perspective, Haier Smart Screen 2.0 has indeed captured the pulse of the times in terms of content. According to CNNIN data, in March 2020, the number of online education users in China reached 423 million, an increase of 110.2% from the end of 2018, accounting for 46.8% of the total number of netizens.

Especially considering that portable terminals such as smartphones and tablets have entertainment-oriented properties and inherent problems that affect students' eyesight, this actually highlights the high degree of compatibility between large screens and educational content. Therefore, Haier Smart Screen 2.0 has also explored the "anchor point" of large-screen content that is different from mobile terminals such as tablets and mobile phones.

Considering that the rise of smartphones was achieved by seizing content and then transforming into a mass computing platform, the large screens in the living room represented by Haier Smart Screen 2.0 have rediscovered highly competitive content, which actually implies that Haier Smart Screen 2.0 will return to the center of the living room.

As an international white goods giant, Haier is in a great position in the future IoT business. It is understood that Haier Smart Home's full-scenario solution is centered on large screens and covers five major scenarios, including living rooms, bedrooms, and kitchens. Compared with the "living room dimension" that the industry mainstream focuses on, Haier Smart Home's strategy is more detailed.

In September 2020, Haier Smart Home launched the world's first scene brand "Sanyi Bird", and Haier's IoT business made great strides forward. It can be said that through the Sanyi Bird smart living room scene, Haier has subverted the traditional fragmented home terminals and built a smart home interconnection ecosystem based on user needs and centered on the large screen in the living room.

Although the IoT industry is still in its infancy, Haier Smart Home has gained high recognition in the industry for its forward-looking strategy and unique ecological advantages. In the "2020 China AIoT Enterprise TOP100 Ranking", Haier Smart Home ranked second and was hailed as the "No. 1 provider of smart home solutions."

It is precisely because of the innovations in content boundaries and terminal communication that Haier TV's market performance is particularly outstanding.

AVC omni-channel data shows that from January to December 2020, the TV industry's sales volume and sales revenue fell by 9.1% and 11.7% year-on-year, respectively. In contrast, Haier TV's sales volume and sales revenue increased by 18.9% and 17.6% year-on-year, respectively.

On the other hand, the TV industry also presents a situation of "offline cold and online hot". According to the latest 2020 full-year statistics, the online TV market ushered in an 8.5% increase in sales and a 10.7% increase in sales in 2020. Among them, Haier TV actively deployed AI smart scenes, achieving an 83.1% increase in online sales and an 83.3% increase in sales. In addition, Haier AI TV sales and sales also increased by 186.4% and 177.4% respectively, 5 times higher than the industry.

From this point of view, although Haier has the shadow of traditional home appliances, its understanding of the direction of TV product transformation and the layout of cutting-edge businesses are not inferior to the new forces. Interestingly, it is also thanks to decades of hard work that Haier still has relative terminal and ecological advantages at the IoT level, which will also have a certain stimulating effect on the implementation of Haier's TV-centered smart living room scene.

In this sense, Haier TV has not only found the key to open the next era, but also established a positive cycle development model for the entire large-screen industry, becoming a new driving force for the continuous growth of the large-screen industry.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.