(Chinese Version)

Editor’s Note:

Liu Xiangming, co-founder, publisher and chief-editor of Business Value magazine, wants to share with us his insights on WeChat’s role in Chinese IoT industry in this article (Business Value, September issue, editor’s letter section): Will WeChat play a key role in Chinese IoT industry? What challenges do WeChat hardware developers still have to face?

The other days, as one of the judges, I attended the final of WeChat Hardware Innovation Competition. After 8-month fierce competition, only 13 out of 400 teams stand out. It is fair to say they are leading innovators in Chinese hardware industry.

Statistics suggest that up till now, WeChat has already been used to control over 25 million devices made by 2,433 manufacturers. Now that WeChat can connect people with people, it can also connect people with smart devices. At present, the ratio of the number of smart devices to that of WeChat users has already hit 1:20. It is probable that WeChat will play a key role in Chinese IoT industry and become the generator of the industry.

However, WeChat’s developers might first have to address the following three challenges.

First of all, for sure, WeChat can connect people with smart devices via the Internet, yet it can’t really make life easier for people. Connecting smart devices to the Internet should only become a beginning, not an end. To be honest, most technological breakthroughs are actually driven out of human beings’ laziness. For example, people not only want to control their smart home devices via their phones nowadays, but also connect their domestic appliances and functions together, so that they can get their clothes washed, dried, ironed, folded and put away in their closets with the click of their phone buttons. The definition of domestic devices needs be renewed. In this sense, developing domestic robots that can control different domestic devices should be the real task for developers of smart home devices.

Secondly, WeChat hardware developers must always be aware of the possible consequences of their products. For example, many hardware developers focused their attention on the aged and kids, and developed a couple of products with which fathers get to know the position of their sons and sons get to know the health condition of their fathers. However, these products can never replace real, offline care after all. Some products might even pose threat to the privacy and dignity of the aged. No inventor can develop a product without taking into the possible consequences of it. The more advanced our technology is, the more attention should be paid to figuring out if a product might have negative impacts on people and working out solutions to avoid such impacts.

Thirdly, all the contestants failed to make full use of data gathered by WeChat. What a pity! Not a single team focused their attention on analyzing data. How come? Chinese hardware industry just gets started, and the business environment here is still not supportive of such endeavors.

In conclusion, this competition did suggest that WeChat might play a key role in the future development of Chinese hardware industry. However, I am still looking forward to the following series of competitions for more surprises. For sure, real innovation won’t come overnight, so we will have to be prepared to wait for some time.

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Liu Xiangming, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.