Xiaomi's IOT Road —— Going out of the closed and welcoming the future

The Internet of Things, in short, is the Internet of Things, which is the abbreviation of the Internet of Things. It is the

Xiaomi's IOT Road —— Going out of the closed and welcoming the future

The Internet of Things, in short, is the Internet of Things, which is the abbreviation of the Internet of Things. It is the internet connected with things, which can realize the information exchange between things and people. The Internet of Things is another big wave of information industry development after computers and the Internet, and its development prospect is very broad.

At present, an important application of the Internet of Things is smart home. As an industry that has developed for decades, smart home has finally ushered in a big explosion in recent years. Intelligent voice has also become another smart home control center after routers. With the wave of new centers, the Internet of Things industry has also ushered in a big explosion.

According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, Xiaomi's IOT strategy has gone through two stages.

The first stage is to expand the ecological chain with "equity participation+industry"

The layout of Xiaomi's ecological chain adopts the two-way driving mode of "share participation+industry", and the scale of the ecological chain is continuously expanded by the mode of "holding shares but not holding shares".

The reason why Xiaomi has made such great achievements is, on the surface, the huge intelligent hardware ecological chain and the whole ecological environment that Xiaomi has formed. Marketing channels include online Xiaomi Mall and offline Xiaomi Home. In fact, it is Xiaomi's strategy of "investing rather than holding shares" in eco-chain enterprises, which is very different from manufacturers such as Apple and Google, which also lay out the loT ecology.

This is how Xiaomi's "chain-building movement" came about. At the beginning of the deployment of IOT, Lei Jun put forward the strategic goal of "100 ecological chain enterprise". Today, Xiaomi Eco-chain has become hundreds of hardware manufacturers, and its IOT developer platform has also been connected to hundreds of millions of devices, becoming the "largest consumer IOT platform".

The advantage of this model is that it can get quick results and open the market quickly. But the potential problem is that most of the smart devices that can really enter the Xiaomi IOT platform come from small enterprises that are willing to accept Xiaomi's control. It is difficult for home appliances and smart equipment manufacturers with large sales volume and good reputation to enter this "circle", which makes consumers' choices extremely limited.

20 17 1 1, Xiaomi announced the opening of Xiaomi Internet of Things developer platform.

Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Company, officially announced that Xiaomi IoT platform has more than 85 million networking devices, more than100000 daily life devices and more than 400 partners, making it the world's largest intelligent hardware IoT platform. Lei Jun believes that Xiaomi has become the world's largest intelligent hardware Internet of Things platform.

At the conference, Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Technology, said that Xiaomi had initially achieved its original goal. Now it is time to start the second phase of Xiaomi's Internet of Things strategy. Xiaomi will fully open the Internet of Things platform and launch the Xiaomi Internet of Things Developer Program and the AI+IOT strategy.

In the second phase of Xiaomi's Internet of Things strategy, "AI" will become the key word. Xiaomi expressed the hope that under the blessing of AI technology, hardware, software, cloud services and new retail businesses will be connected in series.

The so-called AI+IoT is artificial energy intelligence+Internet of Things. Artificial intelligence technology is now basically based on machine learning and big data, not real intelligence. However, the gradual development of the Internet of Things, especially in the coming 5G era, is likely to promote the further development of the Internet of Things industry.

From the strategic layout of IOT in the first phase of Xiaomi, we can learn that:

First of all, there are three main types of smart products connected now.

1, Xiaomi's own brand of smart products, such as Xiaomi mobile phone, rice belt, Xiaomi speaker, Xiaomi intelligent air purifier, etc.

2, Xiaomi ecological chain products, that is, products invested by Xiaomi.

3, third-party products, which is also a more open performance of Xiaomi.

Second, Xiaomi layout AIoT has three advantages: hardware advantage, big data advantage and rich ecological chain layout advantage.

1, hardware advantages

Xiaomi AIoT strategy also takes the mobile phone as the first entrance, and then takes smart products related to the family such as Xiaomi speakers, rice belts, air purifiers and smart lights as the auxiliary entrance to build smart home scenes for individuals and families.

Lei Jun announced at MIDC Xiaomi AIoT Developer Conference in 20 18 that in 20 18, Xiaomi Internet of Things platform has connected more than 654.38+32 million smart devices (excluding mobile phones and laptops), covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with more than 20 million daily devices and processing equipment requests as high as 80 billion times a day. There are more than 654.38 billion built-in activation devices for Xiao Ai students, and more than 34 million monthly active users.

Active IOT devices provide a solid foundation for massive data collection and Internet of Everything, which is the hardware advantage of Xiaomi's AIoT strategy.

2. Advantages of big data

20 18 July, at the China big data application conference, Zhao Ceng, director of Xiaomi big data products, said that Xiaomi has 300 million users, among which there are tens of millions of Xiaomi applications, with daily activities exceeding 2 1, all of which are deposited on cloud services; In terms of global search for big data, Xiaomi has accessed 16 vertical content, with an average daily user volume of160,000 and an average daily request volume of over 40 million.

3. Rich ecological chain layout advantages

AI+IoT is Xiaomi's most imaginative business today, far better than mobile phones. From smart TV, air conditioner and washing machine to alarm clock, mobile power supply and electric toothbrush, Xiaomi's ecological chain has formed a huge network. With the number of users, devices and data accumulation, Xiaomi is trying to build a complete ecology. With the acceleration of the commercialization of 5G, the connectivity of devices will have a significant leap, so the Internet of Things will also usher in a golden period of development. In the field of AIoT, Xiaomi has been laid out very early and accumulated deeply, and has formed a strong ecological chain system, and online and offline channels have also been opened. This is the ecological chain layout advantage of Xiaomi AIoT strategic layout.

For Xiaomi, not only is the time ripe, but it is also imperative to accelerate the landing of the AIoT strategy, so there will be a series of big moves later!

20 17+0 1 At the Xiaomi Internet of Things Conference in June, Xiaomi announced that it had reached cooperation with Baidu in the field of artificial intelligence. The two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in knowledge mapping, deep learning, voice, vision, natural language processing, human-computer interaction, robotics, driverless, AI chips and other fields. In other words, Xiaomi's intelligent hardware needs foreign aid such as DuerOS to supplement it.

20 18 At the second developer conference, Xiaomi AIoT will be fully upgraded, and Zigbee solution will be connected to Xiaomi Internet of Things platform, which can be connected with other clouds and support standard Bluetooth Mesh.

In the landing application, Xiaomi began to land AR(owlii), Smart Hotel (All Seasons Hotel) and Smart Home Decoration (Love Space).

AIoT platform will be connected to smart door locks.

In 20 18, Xiaomi also began to expand its IOT business overseas. In February of 20 18, smart TV entered the Indian market and ranked fourth in the fourth quarter of 20 18.

Finally, let's take a look at Xiaomi's 20 18 annual financial report. 19 in March, Xiaomi released 20 18 financial report.

In 20 18, Xiaomi's smartphone revenue was 1 138 billion yuan, up 4 1.3% year-on-year. During the reporting period, Xiaomi's smartphone shipments reached1.1.90 billion units, a year-on-year increase of 29.8%.

In 20 18, the revenue of Xiaomi's internet of things and consumer products division was 43.8 billion yuan, an increase of 86.9% compared with last year, and it also became the fastest growing business of Xiaomi in 20 18.

Judging from the proportion of this business in the overall revenue, it reached 25. 1% in 20 18, while it was 20.5% in 20 17; In the fourth quarter of 20 18, the revenue of this business even reached 33.6%, compared with 24.2% in the same period of 20 17. The Internet of Things business has undoubtedly become the biggest highlight of Xiaomi 20 18 in the fourth quarter and the whole year.

According to the data published in the financial report, as of 20 18 12 3 1, the number of IOT devices connected to Xiaomi IOT platform (excluding smartphones and laptops) was about 1.5 1 billion, a year-on-year increase of193.2. The number of users with more than five Xiaomi IoT devices (excluding smart phones and laptops) is about 2.3 million, up 109. 1% year-on-year.

In addition, the cumulative shipment of speakers in Xiao Ai exceeded 9 million units, and the global shipment of Xiaomi TV was 8.4 million, up 225.5% year-on-year. During the reporting period, Xiaomi also began to March into the field of white electricity. In July 20 18 and February 20 18, Mijia air conditioner and Mijia Internet washing and drying machine were introduced respectively.

It can be seen from the annual report of 20 18 that Xiaomi's actions are indeed more frequent than before this year.

65438+1October 1 1, they announced the launch of the "mobile phone +AIoT" dual-engine strategy. Lei Jun said that Xiaomi will continue to invest more than10 billion yuan in the AIoT field in the next five years.

On February 26th, the technical committee of the Group was established, and the artificial intelligence department, big data department and cloud platform department were established.

On March 7th, Xiaomi established the AIoT Strategy Committee, which consists of general managers and deputy general managers of more than a dozen core business departments, including the Internet of Things Platform Department, Artificial Intelligence Department, Ecological Chain Department and Intelligent Hardware Department.

On April 2, 20 19, Xiaomi decided to split some teams of Guo Song Electronics into Big Fish Semiconductor. The new department will focus on the research and development of artificial intelligence and Internet of Things chips in the future, while Guo Song Electronics will continue to develop mobile phone chips.

There is a general guiding ideology behind these actions. How to deepen AIoT strategy? At the equipment level, Xiaomi has accumulated advantages for five or six years. Obviously, in order to truly grasp this trillion-dollar market, we can only dive into the basic core technology level from the equipment, including chips, artificial intelligence, connection technology, edge computing and so on. Numerous practices in the era of mobile Internet have proved that only by grasping the whole industrial chain can we change constantly in the rapidly changing era, while Xiaomi runs earlier, so there is more time to accumulate this ability.

We can see that on the road of Xiaomi's progress, we are constantly thinking and updating our strategies in time. In addition to winning or losing, Xiaomi's AIOT strategy also has problems that have to be faced and considered.

First of all, artificial intelligence technology is inherently inadequate.

The Internet of Things is an ecology, not a single device model, and the core driving force is definitely inseparable from AI technology. In the second stage of Xiaomi's Internet of Things strategy, artificial intelligence has become the key word of the whole ecology. Xiaomi hopes to connect hardware, software, cloud services and new retail businesses in series with the blessing of AI technology.

Xiaomi lacks AI technology, which makes Xiaomi's Internet of Things model imperfect and even vulnerable to "criticism" from outsiders and investors.

Therefore, at the Xiaomi Internet of Things Conference on June 20 17+0 1, Xiaomi announced that it had reached a cooperation with Baidu in the field of artificial intelligence. The two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in knowledge mapping, deep learning, voice, vision, natural language processing, human-computer interaction, robotics, driverless, AI chips and other fields. In other words, Xiaomi's intelligent hardware needs foreign aid such as DuerOS to supplement it.

Xiaomi cooperates with Baidu for two reasons.

1, among the domestic Internet giants, Baidu is the first player to choose "All in AI". With data advantages and time dividends, Baidu has a deep foundation in artificial intelligence technology. In particular, the emergence of DuerOS, a conversational artificial intelligence operating system, opened a precedent for domestic artificial intelligence operating systems. In the cooperation list of DuerOS, there are already more than 130 partners such as Midea, Haier, TCL, vivo, Hisense, HTC and Lenovo. The accumulation of AI technology is highly complementary to Xiaomi's layout in hardware scenes.

2. Baidu is also the beneficiary of this cooperation. Xiaomi's huge Internet of Things foundation and big data can not only provide rich training samples for Baidu's artificial intelligence, but also accelerate the landing of artificial intelligence technology in actual scenes. In addition, DuerOS and Xiaomi IoT also have some overlap in scenes and applications. The cooperation between Baidu and Xiaomi means that Xiaomi's supply chain advantage can enrich Baidu's artificial intelligence ecology and apply AI technology to more scenarios, thus bringing better user experience to DuerOS and Xiaomi users.

Second, R&D funds are insufficient.

The investment and ecological construction of AI technology research and development is a long-term thing. Take Baidu's investment in AI technology as an example. Five years ago, I continued to spend money, and today I still can't form a large-scale income. Therefore, technology needs to be accumulated and long-term research and development, and it can't be solved by cramming. And more crucially, compared with mainstream Internet companies Baidu, Tencent, Ali and Meituan, Xiaomi's hardware trace is too heavy, lacking the scene support of application services and the support of continuous training and learning of big data. It is even harder to play AI.

In terms of artificial intelligence, Huawei terminals are expected to invest 40 billion yuan in the research and development of iot this year. Baidu's annual investment in this technology is above 15%, and Ali's future investment in Dharma Institute will exceed10 billion yuan. Xiaomi came late, and 20 16 was involved in AI research and development. In the next five years, Xiaomi will continue to invest more than10 billion yuan in AIoT.

Third, the "core" of the Internet of Things chip is insufficient.

From the perspective of the development of the Internet of Things, it can be roughly divided into three levels: hardware devices, operating systems and processing chips. At present, no company in China can do all these three aspects well. Xiaomi has achieved the greatest popularity of consumer hardware devices, while Baidu and Ali have come up with operating systems. Huawei pays more attention to chips and hardware.

From the industrial chain of Internet of Things, it mainly includes perception layer, network layer, platform layer and application layer. In addition to the network layer, other aspects are the focus of competition among vendors. In the industrial sector, the chip is undoubtedly the core of the Internet of Things system. To this end, if you want to build an independent ecosystem and build a low-power connection, the role of the chip is self-evident.

Due to the lack of core technology, Xiaomi has to rely on other companies in many key areas. For example, in terms of mobile phone AI chip and IOT chip, Xiaomi is not strong enough to rely on its own Kirin chip to realize independent iteration of products and technologies like Huawei. This also leads to Xiaomi's research and development ability and product iteration speed on high-performance and low-power IOT chips far behind Huawei.

Compared with the mobile phone chip, the Internet of Things chip is essentially a communication chip with certain connectivity, but Xiaomi is not easy to enter.

With such a large investment by Huawei, the road to independent research and development of chips is not smooth sailing. Since 2004, Huawei began to lay out its own research and development chips, and only in 2009 did it develop the first K3 chip, still testing the water. After many experiments, Kirin chip was successfully developed in 20 14, and finally applied to Huawei mobile phones. This shows how difficult it is to develop chips.

Since Xiaomi Guo Song Electronics was established in 20 14 Xiaomi, the first NB-IOT chip was launched at the end of 20 17. Although it is not far behind in time, it is clear that Huawei and other manufacturers have taken the lead. From the layout point of view, with the launch of the first NB-IOT chip, the ecological layout of Xiaomi IOT tends to be further improved.

Moreover, in Xiaomi's IOT product series, except for the core product of mobile phone, most other products are developed and manufactured by relying on eco-chain enterprises. The problem is that these eco-chain enterprises, like Xiaomi, face the problem of "lack of core".

Therefore, in the future, Xiaomi needs to increase research and development efforts in the field of Internet of Things chips.

Fourth, the ecological chain is not impregnable.

In the process of laying out the ecological chain, Xiaomi adopts the mode of "holding shares but not holding shares". What risks are hidden behind the seemingly clear?

With the help of the reputation of Xiaomi brand and the advantages of Xiaomi in the Internet channel, many Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises have developed rapidly, and the annual revenue of several enterprises has increased rapidly from zero to more than one billion yuan, which undoubtedly further enhanced Xiaomi's reputation. However, with the success of Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises, some doubts have followed, fearing that relying too much on Xiaomi will not be able to continue to develop and grow, and the call for the development of Xiaomi is becoming more and more serious!

Take Huami, a model of Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise, as an example. In 20 15 and 20 16, the income from Xiaomi accounted for more than 90% of its revenue, while the net profit was-38 million yuan and 24 million yuan respectively. By 20 17 and 20 18, the proportion of income from Xiaomi has been reduced to.

By comparison, it can be seen that although Huami relies on Xiaomi to contribute most of its income, the net profit brought by Xiaomi is low, and the substantial increase of net profit of 20 17 and 20 18 mainly comes from expanding its own brand business.

Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises, relying on Xiaomi's sales channels, will face the risk of losing the market if they leave Xiaomi. At the same time, although Xiaomi's control over eco-chain enterprises is getting weaker and weaker, its requirements are getting stricter and stricter.

Moreover, competition is also a severe test for eco-chain enterprises. Internally, there are many enterprises competing with the same category of products, such as Genting, Yunyou and Green Rice, which are also smart locks; At the same time, Remy, Xunluo Zhang Han and Xingyue Electric are also air purifiers.

Externally, more and more enterprises have accelerated the pace of entering the IOT market. Huawei cooperates with hardware manufacturers to create a more open ecology in the field of smart home; OPPO, vivo and TCL cooperated to announce the establishment of the Internet of Things Open Ecological Alliance.

Obviously, the Internet of Things has become the second battlefield for manufacturers, and the competition faced by eco-chain enterprises is becoming more and more fierce.

Conclusion:

With the advent of the 5G era, the Internet of Things business has also become the target of many mobile phone manufacturers. OPPO and vivo established an open ecological alliance of the Internet of Things with a number of e-commerce companies on 20 18; Huawei announced the strategy of upgrading the Internet of Things on AWE a few days ago, and Yu Chengdong also set the goal of acquiring one third of the Internet of Things equipment in China within three years.

20 19 is the first year of commercial deployment of 5G, and an important mission of 5G is to support the connection of massive Internet of Things. Its high speed, low delay and large capacity are the necessary conditions for the maturity of the Internet of Things system. It is foreseeable that starting from this year, with the gradual advancement of 5G commercial deployment, the development of the Internet of Things will enter the fast lane.

I hope Xiaomi will go all the way and create more glory!