[Blue Technology Review] In the weak economic cycle affected by the epidemic, the smart home track is becoming a bargaining chip to attract capital. According to the latest IDC report, it is expected that smart home will become one of the areas with the highest spending on the In

[Blue Technology Review] In the weak economic cycle affected by the epidemic, the smart home track is becoming a bargaining chip to attract capital.

According to the latest report of IDC, it is expected that smart home will become one of the areas with the highest spending on the Internet of Things by 2023. Global smart home device shipments will reach 1.39 billion units in 2023, and the Chinese market size will be nearly 500 million units. The scale accounts for approximately 35.9% of the global market.

Every enterprise hopes to use the power of capital to enjoy the dividends brought by smart homes and enter this track.

Not long ago, Shenzhen Oribo Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Oribo ) officially announced a new round of financing of 1 billion yuan. Such as Tencent , Huaxing New Economic Fund, Sophia, etc. all participated in this round. financing . Oribo, which wants to be the “first stock in whole-house intelligence”, is gaining momentum with the support of 1 billion capital.

smart home is heading in the right direction, but Oribo, which hopes to become the “first stock in whole-house intelligence”, still has some difficulties.

First, it is closely connected with real estate and is greatly affected by real estate fluctuations.

In July 2020, Oribo has entered the listing guidance period and plans to list A shares in 2021. However, in March 2021, with Tencent’s 300 million yuan investment in shares and the delay in other investment institutions and Oribo discussing investment matters, Oribo’s IPO road has been delayed again and again.

Until recently, with the injection of 1 billion yuan in financing, Oribo's road to listing seemed to be clear again.

One of the reasons for the rapid development of Oribo is its deep ties with real estate companies. Relevant data shows that Oribo has served more than 300+ real estate high-tech residential projects across the country, ranking first in the national real estate market with a market share of over 15%. These include Evergrande Real Estate , Country Garden Real Estate, Midea Real Estate, Shimao Group , Kaisa and dozens of other real estate companies.

This brings greater competitive advantages to Oribo, making it more favored by capital. However, misfortunes lie on the back of blessings, and blessings lie on the backs of misfortunes. The current situation of the real estate industry may have a certain impact on Oribo, which is deeply connected with it.

plus Hikvision , Midea, Haier are all planning to list their smart home business subsidiaries. Therefore, how big can Oribo's future market be, and whether it can get rid of its dependence on the real estate industry and find sustained growth points? , is an urgent matter that needs to be solved.

Even if the smart home pie is big enough, Oribo's path to becoming "the first smart home stock" may not be as smooth as imagined.

Second, in the smart home industry, user cognitive advantages are not obvious.

Since the first half of 2022, the smart home industry has been very busy.

First, Haier Triwing Bird released the "1+3+5+N" whole-house smart full-scenario solution, which is composed of the Smart Home Brain open platform + AI cloud, big data cloud, IoT cloud + whole-house neuron network system. A set of smart home control system ; and Huawei upgrades the "1+2+N" whole-house intelligent architecture, launching whole-house smart host SE, smart central control screen and smart life App products; Yunmi It released dozens of AI home appliances and new home products, and at the same time reiterated Yunmi’s brand positioning as a “trendy technology brand”, launched high-end sets of home appliances starting at RMB 300,000, and released a newly upgraded “one-stop whole-house intelligence” solution. .

Oribo has released a new HomeAI operating system: fully compatible with the Matter protocol. It is worth noting that although Oribo independently developed the first operating system for the smart home industry, Oribo has not launched a large number of new products in the development of in recent years, but still chooses to use the MixPad series of smart panels as its main operating system. The main feature is to replace traditional switches and directly control peripheral devices.

In fact, in the smart home industry, there is another mountain that cannot be avoided - Xiaomi Mijia. Smart homes can currently be divided into four categories: smart home appliances, home security, lighting systems and connected control devices. Xiaomi is the only company that covers all four categories, ranging from sockets and switches to refrigerators and air conditioners. Xiaomi Mijia's smart home supply chain covers everything.

For users, Xiaomi Mijia has a bigger trump card - extremely high cost performance. Relying on the endorsement of Xiaomi, even if the price of Mijia products is lower than that of other competing products, it can still capture enough consumers. Because many people have preconceptions about Xiaomi smart home , and are more willing to accept Xiaomi's ecological chain model. In addition to

’s huge category advantages and extremely high cost performance, Xiaomi’s own traffic has also brought Mijia a level that other companies cannot reach. As of March 31, 2022, the number of Xiaomi AIoT connected devices reached 478 million, a year-on-year increase of 36.2%. Among them, the number of users with five or more devices connected to the Xiaomi AIoT platform reached 9.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 38.7%. artificial intelligence voice assistant Xiaoai classmates html had 115 million monthly active users in April. Having its own mobile phone business also makes the interactive experience advantages of Xiaomi smart home more obvious. In addition, offline, Xiaomi has also launched whole-house smart customization with higher personality and freedom, which is undoubtedly another competitive weight of the Xiaomi series.

Regardless of category, brand awareness, cost performance or user volume, there is still some distance between Oribo and the above-mentioned companies in terms of smart home. Of course, one of ORIB's advantages is its close cooperation with the real estate industry. Once the real estate industry picks up, the upside potential for Oribo will further increase.

If we look at consumer choices from the C-side, I believe most people are still relatively unfamiliar with Oribo, and consumers have shortcomings in Oribo's brand awareness of . Unlike well-known companies such as Xiaomi, Haier, and Huawei, Oribo has a small reputation on the B-side of the real estate industry based on its past connections with the real estate industry. If the C-side is used as a breakthrough in the future, Oribo must get closer to consumers in terms of brand recognition.

Thirdly, user safety needs to be assured.

Although Oribo's MixPad can be called a hot product that disrupts the market, compared with mature smart home companies such as Haier, Midea, and Xiaomi, its entrance to whole-house intelligence is relatively narrow.

This year, Oribo released HomeAI OS 4.0, which to a certain extent broadened its access to whole-house intelligence. Especially with the highlight of the second domestic self-developed operating system after Hongmeng operating system , it has firmly occupied the market. Traffic "C bit". This also means that HomeAI OS 4.0 has become a native IoT operating system that is completely separated from Android. However, relying solely on this halo is not enough to support its ambition to secure the top spot among smart home companies.

Whether it is Huawei's 1+2+N, Yunmi's 1=N44 or Haier's 1+3+5+N, its mature industry model, whole-home scene customization functions, and endless product categories are all Oribo's products. Not comparable.

And Oribo's proud flagship product MixPad also faced some problems in the early stages.

The article "Oribo, which was fined for security vulnerabilities, claims that its self-developed system hollows out Android " writes: Problems such as weak Mixpad Bluetooth signal, unreasonable screw design, leakage, etc. have occurred, and many consumers have reported that when When problems arise, Oribo's handling method is also more perfunctory. In addition to product issues, there are also hidden concerns about data in . In November last year, Oribo was given an administrative penalty by the Nanshan Branch of the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau. The reason for the punishment was that the public security agency’s inspection found that the network system of “Shenzhen Oribo Technology Co., Ltd.” had exploitable high-risk security vulnerabilities. A series of negative events have become an obstacle to building trust between consumers and Oribo.

In the field of smart home, in addition to building technology and ecological chain, Oribo also needs to build consumers' trust, brand recognition and consumption willingness. This is the basic condition for sustainable development. There is no doubt that smart homes are a major trend. This track is already crowded with companies of all sizes. There are even some companies that lack industrial chain support and technical support, and only rely on the platform they have built to attract capital by using the banner of smart home. According to

data, as of May, the total number of companies involved in the smart home field in my country has exceeded 830,000. CSHIA has speculated that the market will exceed 650 billion yuan this year, and predicts that shipments of related equipment will reach 540 million units in three years.

This is a very promising industry, and it is worth encouraging for Oribo to seize the industry's spotlight and enter this track. However, Oribo still has a long way to go to become the “first stock in whole-house intelligence”. It needs to let more B-side and C-side users have trust and willingness to consume in itself. Otherwise, even if there is any experience in the capital market, A high market value does not mean it has sustainable development potential.