Internet wolves invade: Industry insiders worry that home appliance companies will become OEM factories

Zhou Hongyi said that 360 will launch more expansion products based on smart routers in the future.

If the cooperation is not good, it would be equivalent to that all manufacturing belongs to us, and the later models such as services and applications are given to others, and we will become a simple processing plant.

——An insider from Sichuan Changhong said

From TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators to smart homes, the Internet is gradually eroding the home appliance industry. Since the beginning of this year, Internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Xiaomi, and 360 have intensively announced their new plans to "enter the home appliance industry." The home appliance market, which has not undergone any fundamental changes in more than a decade, is expected to find new growth points with the help of Internet companies.

For home appliance companies, there have always been two opinions on cooperation with Internet companies: one is to "introduce foreign aid" to achieve mutual benefits, or to "invite wolves into the house" and become processing factories. Home appliance companies that are transforming to the Internet are worried.

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“Traditional home appliance retailers are just empty talk about smart products”

On May 6, 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi revealed that 360 will launch more smart hardware products, including various smart home products with smart routers as the core.

On April 30, Qihoo 360 held a small media meeting to announce its plan to enter the smart home appliance market. Currently, 360 has cooperated with AUX Air Conditioner to launch smart air conditioners, and jointly launched a smart Internet air purifier "T3 Air Guardian" with TCL.

According to 360 Vice President Shen Haiyin, Internet companies are here to "help" home appliance companies. In Shen's view, home appliance manufacturers have been calling for smart homes for many years, but there has been little progress. In addition to the inconsistent standards of various home appliance manufacturers and the difficulty of using their products, they are also facing security crises.

Shen Haiyin said, "In the cooperation with AUX, 360's cloud platform can provide big data analysis to help AUX determine the optimal air outlet temperature. When the air conditioner fails, it can also automatically push maintenance messages to the cloud platform." In addition, 360 routers can also ensure that home appliances can access a secure network environment.

Previously, Alibaba announced a partnership with Midea to launch the first IoT smart air conditioner. Baidu invested in smart home company Haimo Technology to enter the field of smart home remote control products. Tencent is developing a way to remotely control air conditioners and TVs using WeChat. Sina Weibo also cooperated with Hisense to launch two smart air conditioners.

However, Shen Haiyin believes that not all Internet companies are willing to play supporting roles. Sooner or later, some Internet companies will go it alone and make their own hardware products.

【cooperate】

Collaboration with the Internet to “get what you need”

Home appliance companies are also looking for points of integration with the Internet.

The general manager of TCL Small Appliances who was responsible for the negotiations with 360 was the only one who told the Beijing News reporter that TCL is responsible for the manufacturing, research and development, and sales of the products, while 360 ​​is mainly responsible for the background software development and user data processing, but the data is shared by both parties.

Weiyi said, "In terms of cloud and big data, 360 has brought us new thinking and ideas. After the cooperation, we can make our products directly face users, understand user needs, and develop future products more effectively."

Zheng Yongjing, technical general manager of AUX Air Conditioning, also believes that home appliance companies need to upgrade their technology. After cooperating with Internet companies, they can communicate directly with users through the Internet and observe product operation status and user usage habits at all times.

Of course, it is cooperation. Although the two sides have different strengths, the value exchanged between the two sides should be equal. An insider of a home appliance company believes that 360's entry into smart home is mainly for data and security, and Xiaomi wants to maximize the value of mobile phones through router products. Alibaba wants to understand users more accurately and hopes to obtain their life data at home to serve e-commerce.

However, cooperation is not unbreakable. "The cooperation process will change in a myriad of ways. One day, when your Internet thinking is sufficient, you may not play together anymore." An insider of a home appliance company told the Beijing News reporter, "There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies, only eternal interests. As demand changes, cooperation will also change."

【Game】

Standardization becomes the focus of the game

Judging from the current market, smart homes still face natural obstacles, namely the issue of standardization.

An industry insider told the Beijing News that what manufacturers are calling smart homes are currently still limited to their own products. The appliances of different manufacturers are not connected. If you buy products from two brands, you will not be able to enjoy the product interconnection services.

This requires the introduction of a standard, but how should it be introduced? Should a single company become the strongest and form a de facto standard, or should an industry alliance introduce something similar to a national standard? Currently, neither of these two methods has seen a breakthrough. This is also becoming an opportunity for Internet companies.

Shen Haiyin said that what 360 wants to do is to become a platform company, so that home appliances of different brands can be aggregated into 360's smart home control center. Users can install control software to remotely control lights, curtains, home appliances, security equipment, etc. in their homes.

Tang Mu, the head of Xiaomi Router, once told the media that Xiaomi will create a dedicated smart home wireless transmission protocol that is compatible with all smart home wireless transmission protocols currently on the market, including most of the wirelessly connected home appliances that have been launched. Xiaomi will cooperate with wireless manufacturers to develop wireless chips and equip them for home appliances.

However, Zhou Jun, secretary general of the China Smart Home Industry Alliance, believes that Internet companies cannot master technical protocols. "The so-called open protocol is based on a computer platform, and the protocol itself is open." The game between Internet companies and traditional home appliance companies has just begun.

【Concern】

Home appliance companies worry about becoming processing plants

Home appliance companies have concerns about cooperation. "If we don't control it well, the worst thing we can do is become a manufacturer. If the cooperation is not good, it means that we will be in charge of manufacturing, and the later models such as services and applications will be given to others, and we will become a mere processing factory," an insider of Sichuan Changhong told the Beijing News.

"In the long run, wherever the platform is, there is the data. For example, Midea cooperates with Alibaba, and the user data of Midea air conditioners is managed by Alibaba Cloud. In theory, this data belongs to Midea. But in reality, Internet companies will gather more data to build business models. The wealth that will survive in the future is data and users."

An insider of Changhong said that Changhong will become the data owner in the future.

It is understood that Changhong is currently more involved in the service sector and has formed a unified cloud platform backend system. In the future, information from its black and white appliances and other smart terminals can be brought together.

Haier also "stays away" from cooperating with Internet companies in the field of smart home. At the Shanghai Home Expo in March this year, Qingdao Haier officially launched the U+ smart life operating system, which can realize the interconnection of the entire series of home appliances across brands and products based on this platform. The smart life U+ system is based on the AllSeen Alliance standard and is an open protocol, which means that any brand that joins this alliance standard can achieve interconnection. Currently, the alliance has 26 members including Panasonic and Qualcomm . Haier's Dr. Xue Guodong is the president of the alliance.

An industry insider told the Beijing News that Haier is an absolute leader in smart home and is already building an alliance centered on itself, hoping to be a standard setter. Judging from the current landscape of home appliance companies, state-owned enterprises like Haier that have strong control over terminal categories such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, mobile phones, and televisions are likely to become the de facto standard setters for smart homes.

Internet companies have united many companies by promoting software services and cloud services to home appliance companies. The person said that this move is likely to outflank Haier in terms of standardization, so Haier will definitely not join the Internet companies' agreement "circle".

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.