What does it mean for smart home hardware manufacturers to connect with Tencent?

On October 30, 2014, Tencent Global Partner Conference was held in Boao, Hainan, and the "QQ IoT" smart hardware open platform was officially launched. In the future, Tencent will focus on connecting applications, smart hardware, and offline services to build a smart hardware ecosystem with social networks as the starting point.

Smart hardware and the core smart home industry are seen as the next hot spot in the technology field. Even though the "hot spot" is not strong at present, it has attracted many "pigs" to try it out. Before Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and even Xiaomi, a domestic mobile phone company, have successively proposed their own smart hardware platform strategies and smart home layout plans. Now, industry giant Tencent has also played this card. Will "QQ IoT" make Tencent take the lead?

What does it mean for hardware manufacturers to connect with Tencent?

The first batch of partners of "QQ IoT" include many well-known domestic and foreign hardware manufacturers such as Konka, Intel, NXP, Broadcom, Fontang IoT, KangKang Blood Pressure, etc., spanning traditional hardware, smart home, wearable devices, smart car, health equipment and other fields. Intel will cooperate with Tencent in the field of smart home to launch smart home gateway solutions.

For Tencent, it is now at a transition stage where the Internet industry is moving from PC to mobile and then to smart multi-terminals. More forward-looking transformations and upgrades are of direct importance to the future development of Internet companies.

However, Tencent itself does not have complete hardware development capabilities and mature conditions. Including hardware manufacturers will help companies to "position themselves" faster, complement each other's software and hardware advantages, and seize opportunities.

For hardware manufacturers, whether they are established companies or start-up teams, Tencent's platform with hundreds of millions of users is undoubtedly the ideal soil for the growth of most smart hardware products.

Hou Xiaonan, deputy general manager of Tencent Open Platform and Mobile Application Platform, said that Tencent's social intelligent hardware open platform currently provides seven major capabilities: massive coverage, fast networking, message reach, service expansion, big data computing, security and stability, and one-stop access. It is based on Tencent QQ's unified account system, connects social relationship chains, mobile payments, cloud computing and other resources, and can provide partners with one-stop product solutions.

What are the characteristics of “QQ IoT”?

One thing worth noting here is that Tencent is positioned as an Internet company, and this "QQ Internet of Things" is directly named after the social software QQ. The smart hardware open platform it launched also considers the connection between people more from the perspective of the Internet. This is different in form from the smart home platforms advocated by other hardware manufacturers or traditional home appliance manufacturers.

Take Haier as an example. It was one of the first companies in the traditional industry to propose its smart home brand UHome and its smart home open platform U+. In a telephone interview with Wang Zheng, Haier UHome Operations Director, he mentioned that UHome actually emphasizes the interconnection between Haier's own product lines. In March this year, Haier launched the U+ platform, which is an open platform open to the entire smart home industry and began to emphasize the interconnection between people and things. Compared with Tencent's smart home platform, there is not much difference in fundamental logic, but there are differences in expression.

From this point of view, the biggest feature of "QQ IoT" is that it puts people, that is, users, in a more important position. Ultimately, "IoT" refers to people rather than just the devices in people's hands or the hardware products in their homes. Although products are still in a very important position under the framework of the hardware open platform, Tencent's approach may enable us to see new collisions and frictions between smart home products and users and social networks. The approach of Haier, a veteran home appliance manufacturer, is a two-step approach, first connecting its full range of home appliances to UHome, and then building an open smart home platform U+, taking the path from "thing-to-thing interconnection" to "people-to-thing interconnection".

Thinking behind hardware developers

Tencent considers the development strategy of hardware open platform from the dimension of social networking, which takes advantage of its own strengths and is also the biggest attraction for hardware manufacturers. However, this does not seem to be enough to constitute the biggest motivation for hardware manufacturers to access the Tencent platform.

To be precise, in the eyes of hardware developers, what they value most is the user account system and friend relationship chain, but Tencent has long been open in this regard. Many developers only want to borrow Tencent's account and sharing platform to build their own platform to master data and link products.

At this stage, the industry standards for smart hardware and smart home are still in urgent need of improvement. Neither Baidu nor Tencent has made any specific smart hardware, and they may not know enough about the resources and help that hardware research and development really needs. It is nothing more than exchanging data for traffic. The pain points of the Internet open platform are not obvious, and the platforms that have emerged are not reliable enough. From this perspective, Haier U+, which has practical experience, considers more from the direction of operability.

Standing in line is a problem

Tencent vs. Haier, QQ IoT vs. Haier U+, both are platforms and have ambitions, so another issue that cannot be ignored is the choice of sides of hardware manufacturers in the two existing "ecosystems". In the smart hardware industry, start-up teams account for a large proportion. Compared with established hardware and home appliance companies with certain strength accumulation, start-up companies have to rely on the resources of large platforms on the one hand, but on the other hand, they are worried about becoming dependent and losing independence, which is an outcome that entrepreneurs do not want to see.

Even traditional home appliance manufacturers with a history and strength will face similar confusion on the path of intelligence and Internet in the new era. Of course, while choosing sides, these manufacturers will even consider building their own ecosystem to ensure the maximization of their brand and interests.

Therefore, in general, Tencent's construction of a smart hardware platform with a powerful social chain has far-reaching significance for the industry and itself. The mobile Internet connects smart hardware, smart homes and wearable products. In the future, it no longer seems far-fetched to use QQ and WeChat to control home appliances and smart watches.

However, industries such as smart hardware and smart home are undoubtedly still in their infancy. Tencent wants to play the role of a booster of the future Internet of Things and become a setter of industry standards. "QQ IoT" can only be said to have opened a head for Tencent with appeal, but there is still a long way to go in the future.

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.