Haier reveals a big inside story of the home appliance industry: Why China's smart manufacturing shocked the world

Since the rise of the intelligentization wave, the popularity of the term "smart home appliances" seems to have never declined. However, the progress of the smart home appliance industry in the past few years has really made people sweat.

Why smart home appliances cannot live up to expectations is probably a question that everyone in the industry is thinking about. Even ordinary consumers who are waiting and watching have begun to waver. Is the popularity of smart home appliances just a false alarm, or is it just a result of accumulated strength for the smart home appliance industry?

But on March 8, Haier chose to announce the world's first smart home appliance solution called "Smart Home" one day before the China Home Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE). So why does Haier think that smart home appliances are not popular? At the same time, as the world's first smart home appliance solution, how will Haier "break through" the smart home appliance industry?

Vigorously build a family ecosystem and smart home appliance scenarios will become a thing of the past

With the continuous development of science and technology, all major industries seem to be preparing for updates and iterations in recent years, and even the smart home appliance industry is no exception. For smart home appliances in this transition, it will be an opportunity for wild growth no matter how you look at it.

However, according to the latest data, the penetration rate of smart home appliances increased by 3.7% in 2015 compared with the same period in 2014, and increased by 5.8% in 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. It can be seen that although smart home appliances are in a steady upward stage every year, in fact, the speed of this increase lags far behind other smart products developed in the same period.

In the final analysis, the business model of smart home appliances determines the scenario of the product, that is, the selling point of a new product is to solve specific events that occur under specific conditions. Through this scenario-based restriction, the home appliance industry, which should have been closely connected, has begun to become fragmented. The uncertain short board effect between home appliances will overturn all the scenarios previously envisioned by manufacturers. In this case, the selling points designed before will become "exaggerated" in the eyes of consumers. Once the impression of being flashy and unrealistic is formed, it is definitely not a good sign for both manufacturers and the industry.

Therefore, Haier's "smart home" has targetedly chosen to start from the rigid needs of consumers such as "food, clothing, housing and entertainment", and has created five major ecosystems: kitchen, bathroom, living, entertainment, and security, with the intention of truly expanding the scene-based smart home appliances to the entire family level. At the same time, through the interaction of multiple scenes, the close connection between smart home appliances is achieved. At the same time, it improves people's daily life efficiency and eliminates people's bad impression that smart home appliances are flashy.

Committed to solving the problem of home appliance collaboration and creating the world's first home appliance cluster

When exploring the slow development of smart home appliances in recent years, a major problem that we have to face is the lack of a leading company to lead the industry to a breakthrough.

It is precisely the lack of such "leaders" in the industry that directly leads to disorder in the market. For example, because the benchmark of the smart home appliance system cannot be established, it is impossible to form close connections between enterprises, and a series of regulations cannot be formulated. This indirectly leads to the formation of a culture of single-soldier operations in the smart home appliance industry. It has become a luxury to rely solely on the industry to spontaneously form corporate collaborative operations, not to mention the so-called globalization strategy.

At this year's AWE, Haier collaborated with GE Appliances, Fisher&Paykel and others to release its brand globalization strategy. The four major industries of refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and kitchens will also release the latest world-leading technologies and products, ensuring that the brand achieves its strategic goals from world-class quality to global manufacturing and finally global sharing.

It can be foreseen that as Haier's multi-scenario smart home solutions gradually mature, Chinese smart home appliances will not only create new standards for the industry, but will also define the development of the global Internet of Things industry.

More persistence is needed to face smart home appliances

The process of intelligentization of home appliances is bound to be a long-term process of technology research and development and implementation. Especially today when the field of smart home appliances is in a deadlock, the accumulation of enterprises is more needed to promote the development of the industry.

For the entire smart home appliance industry, Haier is such a company that has been "persisting".

In August 2015, Li Li, then general manager of Haier Smart Home, answered this question in an interview with reporters one morning: "To persist in the field of smart home appliances, only companies that can burn money can do so. Small companies can't afford it." It is because of Haier's top-down persistence in smart home appliances and the correct analysis of its own strength that Haier can now set an industry benchmark through "smart home".

Although the process was extremely difficult, with the implementation of Haier's first global smart home solution, Haier, as the world's number one in the white appliance field, can now consolidate its dominant position in the home appliance market through this solution.

Faced with the continuous upgrading and changes in the smart home appliance industry, companies are left with unimaginable market space. However, in order to seize the market opportunities, they need to decisively grasp the pain points of users, conduct accurate market research, and carry out long-term original accumulation. Whoever can grasp the industry trend can lead the development of the 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.