Text | Dongtan Institute of Production and Research
The Internet of Things platform is the core of the overall solution of the Internet of Things. At present, the main applications of the Internet of Things cloud platform include smart life, smart industry and smart city, showing a good development momentum in smart home, industrial Internet of Things, car networking, building energy efficiency, wearable devices and other markets. In addition to giants such as IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Tencent, Alibaba Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud, some emerging technology companies are also actively deploying Internet of Things platforms. Typical graffiti intelligence listed in the United States in 2021 has become the first share of the global Internet of Things cloud.
The Internet of Things platform is a key link in the industrial chain of the Internet of Things, and it plays a connecting role in the architecture of the Internet of Things. It connects all kinds of devices in the perception layer downwards and faces application service providers upwards, providing common service capabilities for all walks of life, such as data routing, data processing and mining, simulation and optimization, business process and application integration, communication management, application development, equipment maintenance and other services.
Internet of Things platforms can be divided into local deployment, hosting in private cloud, hybrid cloud and public cloud according to deployment types. The Internet of Things cloud platform is rooted in PaaS environment. By providing built-in tools, it provides functions that help to promote communication, data flow, equipment management and applications, empowers data to downstream applications, and makes the Internet of Things cheaper and simpler for enterprises, developers and users. From the functional point of view, there are mainly four types: connection management platform, equipment management platform, application enabling platform and data management platform.
The connection management platform ensures the stability of telecom operators’ IOT terminals, and carries out network resource consumption management, tariff management and bill management. Based on IaaS resources, the device management platform provides software programming interfaces related to terminals, gateways and clouds for customers to develop their own Internet of Things platform system. The application-enabled platform provides application development tools, middleware, API interfaces, interactive interfaces, etc. for Internet of Things developers to achieve rapid development, deployment and management. The data management platform can extract, integrate and analyze data from multiple business systems.
Generally speaking, the Internet of Things cloud platform is still in the early stage of investment, and the openness and interoperability of the platform are still improving. Each platform is mainly concentrated in the head market, and the long tail market has not yet been activated.
The first stage is the embryonic stage from 2009 to 2014. At this stage, the cloud platform mainly focuses on large-scale consumer markets such as smart homes and intelligent hardware, and ensures the basic connection management and equipment management platform construction through massive equipment connection and fault management. After that, it ushered in the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of various enterprises.
The second stage is the growth stage from 2015 to 2017. With the blessing of capital and demand, the Internet of Things cloud platform has been extended and developed in smart life-related scenarios, and the number of device connections, brands and users has increased rapidly. The connection, management and data analysis capabilities of the Internet of Things cloud platform are gradually becoming clear, the industry is becoming increasingly stable, and the enterprise matrix is basically finalized.
The third stage is the exploration stage from 2018 to 2023, and the application scenarios of cloud platform are expanded horizontally, including intelligent upgrading of traditional industries, smart life, smart retail, and car networking. The cloud platform focuses on the deep excavation of data value, and begins to emphasize its own technical depth, application breadth and experience thickness with the platform service empowerment scenario.
The fourth stage is the stable development stage after 2023. The value of the Internet of Things cloud platform is fully released, widely used in the whole industry and the business model is mature, and it has entered the construction return period in an all-round way. The number of devices connected in the Internet of Things has multiplied, pushing the platform from the "quantitative change" of continuous accumulation of devices and data to the "qualitative change" from application enabling to business analysis. At the same time, the Internet of Things platform market is further concentrated, and the market share of the head company is constantly concentrated.
The Internet of Things cloud platform industry follows the typical characteristics of the Internet of Things market and is a highly decentralized long tail market. Therefore, vendors rely on their own core advantages to enter the market with different purposes and angles, which are mainly divided into the following four categories: basic cloud service providers, communication vendors, software service and application system integrators, and vertical traditional vendors.
1. Basic Cloud Service Provider
This kind of manufacturers bring the technical, commercial and ecological advantages accumulated from the Internet into the field of Internet of Things, make use of the underlying IaaS capabilities, common technical capabilities and rich C-side operation experience, and take the cooperation of the Internet of Things cloud platform as the business grasper to drive the growth of application services. At present, they mainly provide the underlying computing resources and application enabling platforms, such as the Internet of Things platforms of Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba Cloud and other enterprises, which have strong cloud computing service capabilities and adaptive Internet of Things ecology.
2. Manufacturers in the field of communication
Such vendors were originally business connectors, such as China Unicom, China Mobile, Ericsson and other enterprises. They have absolute advantages in connection management platforms, and they can gain more benefits by strategically deploying the field of Internet of Things to expand their traffic services. In addition to the cloud platform service providers that provide the underlying PaaS capabilities, communication operators or equipment vendors extend from the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to the IoT cloud platform.
3. Software system integrator
Such manufacturers have long been rooted in the industry application field and have rich experience in industry software development and service. In the face of the wave of equipment in the field, they hope to provide better services to customers and improve their service processes and efficiency in combination with the new opportunities of the times. They optimize products and services externally, improve development efficiency internally, and precipitate industry experience by building platforms, usually with application development platforms as the main service content. The representative platforms include global technology and service providers such as Siemens, GE and Schneider.
4. Vertical traditional manufacturers
This kind of manufacturers mainly use their own understanding and experience of the industry, as well as the high barriers to entry in some fields, to create a vertical service platform. Different from the business model of Internet companies, they have enough industry data, focusing on how to use data for business development and upper-level services. Representative enterprises include Xiaomi Technology, Haier kaos, graffiti intelligence, etc., and take the underlying hardware (such as modules) as a breakthrough to achieve market expansion and increase platform stickiness.
Xiaomi Technology/Graffiti Intelligence
Xiaomi Technology takes "Mijia" as the entrance, and uses intelligent voice assistant Xiao Ai to realize the control of smart home. At the same time, it creates an IoT ecological chain by means of "investment+incubation" to create a closed loop of smart home products with full industrial chain.
Graffiti intelligent layout of Internet of Things PaaS and industry SaaS empowers brands and OEMs with smart device connection, cloud access, middle and back office management, pre-development, post-operation and traditional industry transformation, and also provides some smart device distribution services.
The Internet of Things industry is a complex system involving a variety of emerging technologies, industries and links. The industrial chain of the Internet of Things covers sensors, communication terminals, business management and service platforms, industry applications and users. The Internet of Things platform closely links the upstream, middle and downstream industries of the Internet of Things industry, and realizes the vertical linkage and horizontal coordinated development of the Internet of Things industry with the platform as the core.
The Internet of Things industry is a typical B2B2C business model. Starting from the connection, platform and application of operators, the main users are not the end users at the C end, but the industry partners at the B end, mainly including the following six types of enterprises: first, manufacturers such as communication modules and positioning modules; second, IOT system integrators; third, industry operators (such as Hello Bicycles); fourth, hardware manufacturers such as smart lock factories and gas watch factories; and fifth, product manufacturers (such as Huawei)
The enterprise layout of Internet of Things cloud platform is mainly influenced by regional innovation resources and market demand. As a typical "technology-driven" industry, the headquarters of IoT cloud platform enterprises are mostly concentrated in areas with strong R&D strength of information and communication technologies, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other areas where universities and research institutes are concentrated. The industrial ecology of the Internet of Things cloud platform is influenced by the demand of regional industrial clusters, and it has more development soil in areas with large application demand, such as areas with developed intelligent hardware industry and huge demand for smart scenes.
Chongqing Nan ‘an District Internet of Things Industry Demonstration Base
The park covers a total area of about 4.7 square kilometers, and started construction in 2014. At present, it has formed an Internet of Things industry structure supported by the Internet of Things platform and developed by large, medium and small enterprises. The park adheres to the development idea of "gathering enterprises by platform, promoting industries by application", promoting the transformation and upgrading of enterprises, innovative development, and promoting the continuous clustering of the Internet of Things industry.
1. Form an industrial chain. There are more than 300 IOT big data operation platforms and related enterprises, covering IOT chips, sensors, communication modules, terminal products, private network operation, software research and development, system integration, platform operation, data mining and other industrial chain links.
2. Build an innovation platform. Promote the innovation-driven development led by big data intelligence, and build more than 50 national and municipal R&D institutions such as China Mobile Internet of Things Technical Support Center, China Transportation and Communication Information Center West Center, and cyit iFLYTEK Institute of Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
3. Introduce a service platform. Gather enterprises with the platform of Internet of Things, and introduce the application platforms of Internet of Things in various fields such as transportation, environmental protection, agriculture, logistics, etc., such as the OneNET open cloud platform of China Mobile’s Internet of Things serving the whole world, the national vehicle networking supervision and service platform of China Transportation and Communication Information Center, and the Huawei Chongqing Internet of Things platform, etc., and gather the Internet of Things industry through open sharing, product service and other development methods.
4. Cultivate demonstration applications. Including intelligent traffic monitoring management and service system, telemedicine demonstration application, smart home application demonstration project, urban underground pipe network detection and early warning management system, elevator safety remote monitoring system, forest fire prevention early warning monitoring management system, coal safety monitoring platform and more than 50 demonstration applications of the Internet of Things.
5. Improve the industrial environment. Build a higher-level platform, such as introducing the Electronic Intellectual Property Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Chongqing Internet of Things Industry Association, and the strategic alliance of Internet of Things technology innovation. And the local government cooperates with fund companies to launch industrial funds to serve the Internet of Things and related industrial enterprises in the base.