Alibaba is in the game: Smart Home

Following Xiaomi, 360, Jingdong and other Internet companies announced their entry into the smart home market, Alibaba also announced its formal entry into the war. In a contest involving entry, system software, terminal equipment and intelligent algorithms, who will eventually win?

On May 13, Alibaba Smart Life announced that it had launched a "Air Cloud" solution and entered the air purifier market. This is the first smart home solution launched since the establishment of the department.


In fact, Ali is not just involved in smart homes. The smart life division has launched smart kitchen appliances and other products and programs before its official establishment. However, the smart life division of Tmall Electric City, Taobao Crowd, Alibaba Cloud and other teams assembled as an independent department is clearly in the ascendant smart home market. After Internet companies such as Xiaomi, 360, and Jingdong announced their smart home strategy, Alibaba, the giant of home appliances giants, officially joined the battle.

But for the current smart home strategy advocated by major Internet companies, perhaps more still remain in the concept, or the initial stage of industrial development. As the product manager of Alibaba Smart Life Division released the space (Reporter's Note: Ali FAN) interviewed by 21st Century Business Herald, he said: "At present, in the smart home area, the hardware terminal's intelligence is much slower than the development of the Internet and software. The two links do not match."

What is Smart Home? Ali has a definition at the "Air Cloud" conference. There are three stages in the intelligentization process of home appliances. The first step is to connect the device to the mobile phone, that is, remote control. The mobile phone will become the user management and marketing portal. The second step is device interconnection. For example, when someone shakes the home security system, the security system will automatically start the camera to shoot suspects, and then the camera will restart the computer and send the data to the relevant security database for backup. The third step is the linkage between equipment and people. The device will sense people's habits, individual attributes, and make accurate judgments based on these. For example, the air conditioner automatically turns on when the user enters the room, and automatically adjusts the most suitable temperature according to the indoor temperature and the body temperature. After the user enters the sleep state, the body temperature decreases, and the temperature is moderately increased to make the user experience more comfortable.

Obviously, from the perspective of this process, it is difficult to realize the intelligence of homes by relying solely on Internet companies. This industry chain involves four key links such as entrances, system software, terminal equipment, and the core intelligent algorithms. Therefore, in the smart home market where the Internet is dominating the competition, from the perspective of the respective advantages and short boards, who will ultimately be the winner?


Entry and system battle

At the end of last year, Xiao Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, declared that Xiaomi would invest 100 smart hardware companies. This was regarded as an important signal for Xiaomi’s large-scale deployment of the smart home market. However, unlike the "millet" model that directly cuts into the hardware terminal, Alibaba, JD.com, and 360 have chosen more open and cooperative models.

According to the release briefing, in the business segment of Alibaba Smart Home, Taobao Crowdfunding is mainly to provide funds for start-up companies of smart hardware, Smart Cloud provides the underlying technical support, Baichuan plans provide a platform for enterprise mobile application development, and Tmall Electric City. Can be used as a good sales channel. Obviously, Ali’s smart home continues its platform strategy. The core entry point lies in the service provision of sales channels and core technologies such as big data and cloud computing. Similarly, in 360 and Jingdong’s smart home strategy, big data and cloud computing are also Often mentioned advantages.

But a complete smart home industry chain does not rely on the advantages of one or two links to get through, and four thresholds are indispensable. The first is the entrance, and the advantages are not the same. Millet's mobile phone shipments in 2014 reached 61.12 million units, and sales in the first quarter of this year also reached 11.98 million units. At present, mobile phones are still regarded as the main entrance for smart homes. Therefore, Xiaomi takes a one-step lead in terms of importation with its huge mobile phone market. Corresponding to millet is 360, which naturally occupies traffic entrance through software.

Alibaba and JD.com currently use the APP approach in terms of portals. Alibaba launches Alibaba, while JD.com publishes a smart hardware superapp. Compared to Xiaomi, 360's natural flow advantage, Alibaba and JD.com need to gradually drive with intelligent hardware at the entrance. However, compared to Jingdong, Ali's Alipay wallet is another natural mobile portal, which currently has about 200 million users.

At a deeper level, there was a melee situation in each home. According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, several Internet companies have entered the field of smart home software systems. Xiaomi relies on its original system ecology, and other companies or their own R&D, or cooperate with software system vendors to recommend their own to hardware terminal manufacturers. Program.

"A problem that is currently more headaches is the incompatibility of various systems." An executive from an air-conditioning manufacturer told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that he now cooperates with several Internet companies. However, because their systems are incompatible with each other, we can only choose single-product cooperation to differentiate products. From the perspective of business competition, major Internet companies want to build their own closed-loop ecosystem and open to competitors is not easy. But from the user's point of view, such a model undoubtedly increases the cost of use.

In response to this, Shikong said that Ali is also trying to promote the industry alliance, hoping to achieve the compatibility of major systems under the premise of security.


Hardware short board and algorithm threshold

If entry and software systems are what Internet companies are good at, then they are passive in the hardware world. Releasing the air indicates that the software is relatively light and has developed relatively quickly. However, due to the relatively long cycle of hardware research and development and production, coupled with the constraints of hardware technology, it cannot fully match the expected state of the Internet companies. And the most important thing is that the intellectualized hardware initiative is in the hands of hardware manufacturers such as Gree and Gree.

According to the release, in the field of hardware, the intelligence of mobile phones is already very high, but the degree of intelligence such as refrigerators and air conditioners still needs to be improved. For example, he said that the mobile phone is based on the screen, the user can feel the service as soon as they follow the steps, such as making a call, it is easy to meet the needs of users. But for home appliances, the services they provide are not visible, and the level of interaction is very low, such as air purifiers. There is no interaction within a few hours after the start-up. Only when the equipment collects enough data and calculates In order to achieve human interaction, this is technically intelligent.

At the same time, even if the technology is implemented, the cost of components and components is also a factor for manufacturers to consider. Before the price of an air purifier chip was a few hundred dollars. “It is now falling, including communication costs, the entire industry chain is becoming mature.” Releasing the air indicates. However, whether it is a component or a terminal manufacturer, for Internet companies, the difficulty of integration is extremely challenging.

However, when the underlying hardware of the hardware terminal is smart enough, the algorithm is still the challenge that all Internet companies have to face. The release also shows that "the algorithm will be the core competitiveness of each company, which is related to whether the smart device can achieve accurate automatic management."

This core competitiveness is given to cloud computing and big data technology. Air release takes air purifiers as an example. For example, the children's management mode is about one hour before the children go to bed. According to the air pollution situation and expectations of the family, the air purifier is turned on to purify the air to the proper state with maximum power. It is necessary to accurately adjust the air volume to the optimal state when the baby sleeps, and make intermittent adjustments.

“The ultimate state of smart home is that the equipment automatically serves people, so the accuracy of the algorithm directly affects the quality of service of the equipment.” Shikong said, “The current market does not have a standard algorithm, and each one is groping for themselves.”

The Internet giants are marching into smart homes and are exploring not only algorithms but the entire industry chain and business model.

While the cooking is in progress there's some waiting, so the diners may sip a little hard liquor. A togetherness ensues, which soothes their hearts. Weilu--to 'circle' a Hot Pot--has a deep and profound meaning to the Chinese, who are gregarious and strongly emphasize family and clan. It is cozy, yet informal. It's not a banquet, yet it can take as much time as one. It uses a single pot, yet is varied in ingredients, sauces, and cooking styles.

Hot Pot

Hot Pot

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