Home appliances are the common memory carrier of several generations in China and play an important role in the lives of Chinese people. From the "old three", to the traditional home appliances with the whole house, to the emerging smart home appliance set, China’s home appliance industry has completed the transformation from following and running to leading, leading the world with intelligent technology.
Recently, CCTV’s "Focus Interview" focused on the development of China’s smart home appliance industry, taking Haier, a leading home appliance company, as an example to demonstrate the new form of cutting-edge technology in China’s smart home appliances and how to achieve innovation leadership globally.
Leap: Leading the world’s home appliance consumption trend
When you come home after a busy day and say, "Hi, I’m back", the central control system of the smart home will be awakened, "Welcome home", and the home mode will be turned on: the curtains are slowly closed, the soft light is slowly turned on; if you want to eat steak when you are hungry, just shout to the AI cooking assistant: "I want to make grilled steak", the intelligent assistant will open the recipe intimately, and the oven will automatically start the preheating mode…
This is the familiar new scenario of China’s smart home, in which smart home appliances are indispensable.
The GFK2022 China Smart Home Appliances Market Development Report pointed out that the global penetration rate of smart home appliances was 37% in the first half of 2022, while China reached 50%. This figure is still growing.
Forty years ago, when reform and opening up had just begun, home appliances were mostly "imported". Although Chinese consumers were excited about home appliances, they were often turned away by the "hard-to-get-a-vote" situation. Today, this situation has been rewritten. With its efficient, high-quality and competitive products, China’s manufacturing industry has become one of the largest manufacturing countries in the world.
In 2023, the China Household Appliances Research Institute conducted brand evaluation of 15 major household appliances. The results showed that in almost all categories, the brands favored by Chinese consumers are our country’s own brands. Chinese household appliances not only meet domestic demand, but also have rapidly entered the world stage, occupying a large share in the international market. At present, China’s leading household appliance companies Haier and Xiaomi have ranked among the Fortune 500, and continue to lead the world’s household appliance consumption trend. Taking Haier as an example, it has laid out 35 industrial parks, 138 manufacturing centers, and 7 high-end brand clusters around the world. It has entered more than 200 countries and regions around the world, serving 1 billion + user families, and has ranked first in the retail volume of large household appliance brands in the world for 14 consecutive times.
Leading: Market and technology two-wheel drive
Liu Ting, president of the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, mentioned that "our Chinese companies are closer to Chinese consumers. Where are the pain points of Chinese consumers? It can understand best."
For example, in response to the high temperature resistance demand of hot pot restaurant owners for air conditioners, Haier developed a "hot pot air conditioner" equipped with Cool Core Bridge technology, which does not stop at 62 ° C; in response to the pain points of washing machines that cannot clean deep dirt, Haier developed an "essence washing" washing machine equipped with "essence direct injection" technology, achieving 5 times infiltration, and achieving the cleaning effect of an ordinary washing machine in 62 minutes in 39 minutes…
According to the people’s needs for a better life, the development of corresponding products and their smooth implementation are inseparable from the two-wheel drive of the market and technology.
First, market demand drives technological innovation.
The "China Home Appliance Industry Belt White Paper" released by Yibang Think ********tioned that China’s home appliance industry has fully entered a new stage of consumer-led "user-driven", placing user experience in an important position, taking users as the foundation of innovation and the direction of research and development, landing a number of technology products that adapt to market demand, creating an "innovation-friendly market", and transforming to "market-driven innovation".
Then how to listen to the voices of users, Haier’s answer is quite representative. A washing machine that can wash sweet potatoes is the demand of users in Sichuan; a washing machine that can wash robes is the demand of users in the Middle East; a self-cleaning bacteriostatic air conditioner is the demand of users in Thailand; an ultra-thin refrigerator is the demand of users in Japan; a vaccine storage box powered by solar energy is the demand of users in Africa… These needs from users around the world are regarded by Haier as "valuable ideas" and have become hot-selling products in the market through technological innovation. This group of "non-staff R & D personnel" composed of countless Haier users is located in every corner of the world. They have different occupations and interests, but they have a common identity in Haier – "Haier User Honorary Development Group".
Not only that, Haier’s open innovation platform HOPE realizes online and offline dual interaction between global R & D personnel and users through "micro-insights", and countless innovations based on user requests are born.
Secondly, technological innovation creates market demand. With market demand, but without the ability to achieve Product Research & Development, it is ultimately empty talk. If market-generated demand is the foundation, then technology is the most powerful support for implementing demand. Technology is the base color of product innovation and an inexhaustible engine for China’s home appliances to achieve a leap.
In 2021, the only national-level innovation center in the field of high-end smart home appliances, the National High-end Intelligent Home Appliances Innovation Center, was officially approved by MIIT. The main shareholders are leading enterprises in the industry and upstream and downstream partners such as Haier and China Home Appliance Research Institute. Focusing on core technology research and transformation of scientific and technological achievements at the national level has injected inexhaustible momentum into the continued global development of Chinese home appliances.
Today, China’s smart home appliances have broken through many stuck neck technologies around the world, and original technology has achieved global leadership. Haier washing machine’s 3D perspective drying technology, "essence direct injection" technology, etc., refrigerator’s bottom constant temperature preservation technology, oxygen barrier dry and wet storage technology, etc., air conditioner’s cool core bridge technology, variable diversion technology, etc. have achieved global breakthroughs… Data show that the patents authorized by major home appliance companies in our country have increased from less than 1,000 in 2001 to more than 35,000 in 2022.
Yu Guoxin, executive deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Digital Home Appliances and chief engineer of Haier’s Advanced Innovation Center, introduced that in June 2020, Haier took the lead in proposing the IEC international preservation standard in the world, completely rewriting the previous evaluation standard that only focused on the cooling effect of refrigerators. For the first time, the industry has shifted the evaluation dimension to the preservation effect on a global scale, and has been adopted and transformed by more than 20 countries, becoming a reference indicator for global users to buy refrigerators. He said that the internationalization of standards also fully reflects the national competitiveness. It is precisely because of these perfect standard systems and a number of Chinese standards that lead the world that Chinese home appliances have firmly established themselves in the global industrial highland.
Technological innovation creates new market demand and is tested by the market at the same time. The whole process of China’s home appliance innovation is a spiral process, guided by the two double helix forces of "technological progress" and "market demand". "Technology comes from the user and returns to the user."
Looking back at the 40-year development history of the industry, from following and leading, Chinese home appliances have never been afraid to compete with international brands. In the process of fighting, Chinese brands have become more and more confident, making a brilliant milestone in the global market for smart appliances, and continue to move forward with a zero mentality.