Haier

Ban Ki-moon, former UN secretary general and chairman of the Bo‘ao Forum for Asia, visited Haier on July 3, and saw the Haier Model Exhibition with the company of Zhang Ruimin, chairman of the board and CEO of Haier Group, and Zhou Yunjie, president of Haier Group. During the visit, Ban Ki-moon showed great interest in the RenDanHeYi model and Haier’s IoT products. He said that Haier’s exploration into the IoT ecosystem is consistent with the development goals set by the United Nations.

What is Haier IoT ecosystem that Ban Ki-moon gave the thumbs-up to? Why is it so attractive?

It is understood that Haie  IoT ecosystem brand is the first clear proposal about how to “create brands” in the IoT era across the world. In Haier’s view, user needs in the IoT era will be more personalized and all digital technologies should be developed for personalized user experience. Therefore, Haier will build an IoT ecosystem and construct a complete eco-system for users in a dynamic manner to meet all their needs indicated on the diagram of needs through making continuous efforts to dig user needs. The ecosystem will be replaced and upgraded constantly to create more value for all in the ecosystem.

Through the IoT ecosystem, Haier and relevant parties can realize co-creation & win-win. All the participants in Haier’s system will be able to share its value and participate in the subsequent co-creation. Value sharing encourages the participants to work together to create value for users, which promotes sustainable development for the ecosystem brand.

Haier IoT ecosystem includes three factors: eco-sphere, ecosystem revence and ecosystem brand. The three factors will be realized successively, and the ultimate goal of building an ecological brand will be fulfilled. The ecosystem is a shared economy. Haier aims to build a shared economic ecosystem, work together with relevant parties for co-creation & win-win, increase the value of all parties and attract various parties to join. The ecosystem revence is a community economy. Haier earns ecosystem revence through the community system and the contact network. Ultimately, Haier will build an ecosystem brand which will upgrade user experience through continuous iteration and makes customers lifelong users.

Traditional brands are confined to the evaluation criteria of the development of the enterprise and product, ecosystem brands focus more on the future development potential of the enterprise. The community users, eco-resources and eco-benefits of the ecosystem are the three main factors to measure the competitiveness of an “ecosystem brand.”

In the ecosystem brand model, Haier forms value interaction through net contact points and interactive contacts so as to acquire eco-community users. Traditional household appliances are upgraded to “net” contact points, linking tens of millions of lifelong users. In 2017, more than 20 million intelligent devices are connected to the U+ intelligent family cloud platform, and over 200+ smart home scenarios were customized. From the perspective of the construction of interactive contact points, the micro store keepers on the Shunguang platform and the express delivery cabinets of RRS are all contacts that can instantly detect and acquire the diverse needs of users. Data show that the Shunguang platform has a network composed of 1.13 million contact points which link hundreds of millions of users.

Eco-resources are an essential factor for an ecosystem brand to satisfy the diagram of user needs and also the most critical step to develop the ecosystem brand. Haier has been building a huge network of eco-resources revolving around user needs, such as the “Internet of Food” for smart preservation and the “Internet of Clothing” for smart laundry and upkeep. Take the Internet of Clothing as an example. Haier washing machines use clothing as the medium to absorb related resources, such as clothing enterprises, fitting mirror manufacturers and Internet of Clothing technology providers, customize laundry and upkeep programs and provide a whole range of services from purchase to wearing with the use of RFID technology.

The accumulation of community users and ecological resources will ultimately result in eco-benefits as well as traditional hardware benefits. For example, Haier has built the world’s first industrial Internet platform with users participating in the whole process from the perspective of intelligent manufacturing and aligned its interest with users and enterprises. By the end of 2017, it had achieved a trade volume of 313.3 billion. Haier’s model of mass customization has set the direction for the future development of the world’s intelligent manufacturing industry.

In the future, Haier will bring enterprises around the globe on the road to the IoT economy, keep expanding the capacity of the ecosystem by building an ecosystem brand and focusing on user needs and achieve infinite eco-benefits via co-creation & win-win.