Appliances become intelligent investment hot spots this year

Many companies began to enter the smart home appliance/smart home area in 2013. Many of these startups also officially launched their own smart home appliances products from late 2013 to early 2014, or they have extended their product lines.

Venture capital can also flow in a large amount in a short period of time. From KKR announced on the 10th of 2013 that it had invested RMB 3.4 billion in Qingdao Haier, and by January 2014, Google had acquired NestLabs. In just three months, it did not include the input of traditional enterprises in the field of smart home appliances, and it exceeded RMB 20 billion. Capital flows into this market, which currently has a revenue of less than 100 billion yuan (2013 global home security and home automation product market revenue is approximately US$13 billion).

Smart home development into the fast lane

At present, the development of the mobile Internet is unprecedented, and the popularity of smart mobile terminals has already completed a complete re-education for young consumers. These consumers who have fully integrated into the digital era constitute the consumer base of the new era of smart homes. The influx of a large number of enterprises and funds will promote the rapid adoption of smart home appliances and the smart home industry is entering an accelerated development stage.

The pace of smart home appliances in China is not slower than that of European and American markets. Domestic home appliance manufacturers have tried to introduce a large number of smart products, but systematically connect the Internet with traditional products to provide the main form of system solutions (for example, including all home appliance smart home systems, adding WeChat remote control functions to traditional home appliances, etc. ).

We believe that at the current stage, we will productize and intelligentize some of the detailed features of traditional home appliances. We can focus on the ultimate in single-function user experience and data mining, and we can break through the limitations of a single product or a single brand. Regardless of the product and brand, there is a consumer market that has this functional requirement. Nest's thermostats and smoke detectors, iKair's air purifier air monitoring devices are all good examples.

Appliance manufacturers will share the feast

Networking is the foundation of smart appliances, and the value increment of smart appliances comes from the function of attracting consumers and the new life service methods derived from the data behind. The data platform, the construction of the data ecosystem is an essential part of the collection/analysis/use of these data. The digitization and networking of home appliances will change the way consumers use and consume home appliances. There will be a large number of new opportunities in opening up platforms and increasing content, and a lot of related industries will be spawned.

The development of smart appliances has almost no hindrance in hardware technology. The industry believes that the current bottleneck in the development of smart appliances exists in two aspects: 1. Unified communications standards; 2. Extend the smart home appliances feature is attractive to end consumers. The functional features of smart home appliances that extend to attract consumers will revolve around better user experience, energy conservation, environmental protection, and health.

We believe that traditional household appliances still occupy an important position in the new trend of smart home appliances, and they have the power and ability to “share a share” in the new trend. In the future, the smart home industry will be a feast shared by home appliance manufacturers, Internet manufacturers, and third-party service providers. The mainstream business model in the future will be a combination of hardware manufacturing, software and data services, and life services.

This year is an important transition period

In 2014, China's household electrical appliance industry became more mature and demand-pulling policies were completely terminated. The renewal peak has not yet arrived. For home appliance enterprises, 2014 will be an important transition period. We believe that more and more traditional home appliance companies will embrace the Internet in 2014. The following measures will be implemented by home appliance companies and will occur more frequently in the next 1-2 years: 1. Try to launch Internet products or solutions; 2. Sales Internet-based transformation with production models; 3. More in-depth cooperation with Internet companies; 4. Acquisition or investment in start-ups and teams that have gained momentum in the field of smart home appliances.

We believe smart appliances will be the theme of investment throughout 2014. The company's strategic choices and behavioral patterns will be clearly differentiated. Success or failure in short-term is difficult to determine, but companies with rapid and resolute mindsets can better grasp the initiative under new industry trends. We believe that smart home appliances are currently leading the layout and benefit from the intelligentization trend of home appliances. Listed companies include Qingdao Haier, Sichuan Changhong, Meiling Electrical Appliances, Hisense Electrical Appliances, Hejing Technology and Anjubao.