Xiaoai students have activated about 100 million devices, woke up 8 billion times, and lived 34 million in September. Xiaomi IoT has connected 132 million devices (excluding mobile phones and laptops)-this is the latest "connection" report card given by Lei Jun at this year’s Xiaomi AIoT conference.
IoT business is an important part of Xiaomi Valuation (Tencent multiplied by Apple’s market value) ridiculed by Lei Jun on the eve of listing. During the roadshow of Xiaomi’s listing, many investors generally believed that Xiaomi’s hardware should be benchmarked against Apple, and its software should be benchmarked against Tencent, so as to calculate the value of Xiaomi. IoT not only has a lot of diversion hardware on the Xiaomi ecological chain, but also relies on this foundation for Internet services and software with strong liquidity.
However, just as there is a huge gap between monthly activity and connected devices in the published data, how to keep users’ retention and activity has always been a problem discussed by people in the industry. Fan Dian, general manager of Xiaomi IoT platform department, is no exception. Although no relevant data is given, he said in an interview with Geek Park that in the future, AI and other ways will be used to maintain user activity.
"Xiaomi also needs enough equipment activation to reduce the unit R&D cost. An analyst who did not want to be named also said that active users have another meaning for Xiaomi. Obviously, people are curious about what the next step of Xiaomi IoT will be.
Expanding the service map is the first answer given by Xiaomi. At the AIoT Developer Conference, Xiaomi announced that it will cooperate with a "mysterious" guest-IKEA from December, and all the intelligent lighting products of IKEA will be connected to the IoT platform. In the future, it will be possible to control the intelligent lighting products of IKEA through Mijia’s App and Xiao Ai’s classmates.
Not only IKEA, Xiaomi also announced that it has reached a cooperation with All Seasons Hotel, and moved the scenes such as small love speakers and intelligent lighting to the upcoming All Seasons Hotel (Shanghai Hongqiao Center Store). In addition, there is a partner who can infiltrate users’ lives from the decoration. Love space.
At this point, Xiaomi’s service targets are not only the previous intelligent hardware enterprises, intelligent hardware solutions, traditional home appliance manufacturers, voice AI platforms, but also hotels, apartments and real estate.
The importance attached to the high-frequency scene of intelligent lighting was demonstrated by Xiaomi at the first IoT Developers Conference in 2017. At that time, as a strategic partner of Xiaomi, Philips Lighting proposed that by 2020, all new lighting products would be embedded with IoT technology to achieve "interconnection".
According to statistics, in a typical user’s home, there are 17 switches on average, and a typical user performs 25,000 operations on turning on and off the lights in a year. Whether it is Philips Lighting or IKEA, intelligent lighting, as the first cooperative product, is a good decision to cultivate user stickiness.
However, analysts’ views are slightly different. An analyst who was present believed that Xiaomi cooperated with these platforms because "AI and smart home are the trends. If we only make exquisite life cost-effective products, it is actually difficult for Xiaomi and Netease YEATION to open the gap. What Xiaomi is doing now is trying to empower traditional products intelligently, which will be more cost-effective at the same price or slightly more expensive. 」
After the deployment in the past few years, Xiaomi’s smart home has achieved "a little" results. So far, Xiaomi IoT has supported 2,000 devices, covering more than 200 countries, and 132 million smart devices have been activated (excluding mobile phones and laptops).
"In the future, Xiaomi may have to think about how to connect other friendly products to his own platform as much as possible, so as to control more devices through Xiaoai students, which can promote Xiaoai students faster and more widely, but this seems a bit difficult. Some analysts have raised their concerns about the future of Xiaomi.
However, Lei Jun doesn’t seem worried. He understood the truth of "making many friends and making few enemies" a long time ago.
"Xiaomi promotes the progress of IoT equipment, on the other hand, it has also caused some misunderstandings to the industry. Is it true that I can’t connect to Xiaomi’s IoT system without joining the Xiaomi ecological chain? I repeat, no. At the meeting, Lei Jun said, "Xiaomi’s determination to open up has not changed. I hope everyone can understand this. 」
As early as 2014, Xiaomi established an ecological chain department focusing on the incubation and cultivation of intelligent hardware, and established an ecosystem composed of more than 220 companies through investment and incubation, of which more than 100 companies focused on intelligent hardware and consumer products. Last year, Lei Jun officially announced that it would open IoT capabilities to all developers and serve more third parties. This year, Lei Jun once again stressed that as long as developers access Xiaomi’s ecological agreements and specifications, they can be connected with Xiaomi.
Lei Jun said that in the next 5-10 years, AIoT will be the core strategy of Xiaomi in the future. As the name implies, Wang Peng, senior product manager of Xiaomi IoT, proposed two ways to empower future AIoT developers. The first way is AI voice empowerment, and the second way is the Internet of Everything. The most practical example is the Zigbee protocol used in smart lighting cooperation with IKEA, which will also be open to all developers next year.
Some research reports pointed out that Xiaomi has now accessed hundreds of millions of intelligent hardware devices, and the entire consumer Internet of Things has begun to take shape. Other hardware devices must access Xiaomi’s IoT platform if they want to interconnect with these hundreds of millions of devices. At the same time, the use of Xiaomi platform by developers can avoid high R&D costs, greatly reduce the threshold of hardware entrepreneurship, and at the same time, there are various support such as sales channels, which is a win-win cooperation.
The research report also predicts that in the future, the IoT platform will no longer be exclusive to Xiaomi and eco-chain enterprises, but will be a huge development platform, and Xiaomi will get a lot of service fees and a lot of data.
Regardless of whether the future development direction of MIoT (Xiaomi IoT) will develop in the secondary direction, the revenue performance of IoT is indeed getting brighter and brighter. According to Xiaomi’s financial report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2018, IoT and consumer goods business contributed 10.8 billion yuan to Xiaomi, up 89.8% year-on-year. The total revenue of the business in the first three quarters of 2018 reached 28.9 billion yuan, which exceeded the total revenue of IoT and consumer goods in the whole year of last year of 23.45 billion yuan.
132 million is a number mentioned many times at the meeting. This is a smart device that Xiaomi IoT has been activated so far, which means that Xiaomi IoT has become the world’s largest consumer-grade IoT platform. In the development of IoT, the privacy policies of various countries and regions are a challenge that cannot be underestimated in front of various developers.
The EU General Data Protection Act (GDPR), which came into effect on May 25th this year, is known as the strictest user data protection act in the history of the EU. According to the provisions of GDPR, enterprises must explain to users in a way that users can understand and accept before collecting personal information, and give users the right to withdraw the license agreement at any time. Companies that violate the regulations may face a penalty of up to 20 million euros.
Xiaomi’s experience will be a valuable asset for reference. As early as 2014, Xiaomi set up the Privacy Committee, and cooperated with TRUSTe (now renamed TrustArc) in California, USA, the world’s largest privacy authentication scheme provider, to carry out privacy protection related business. By 2016, Xiaomi has obtained the privacy mark of TRUSTe.
According to Liu Kai, senior product manager of Xiaomi IoT, MIoT’s current privacy policy is configured in accordance with the highest standard GDPR, and at the same time, corresponding policy adjustments are made according to local conditions. For eco-chain partners, MIoT launched a one-stop auditing system and product privacy mechanism tools. For example, the latter provided a standardized interface to help developers realize the demand of "user withdrawal agreement".
Privacy and security are twin brothers. With Google, Apple and other technology companies, and domestic home appliance giants have seized the market in the IoT field, IoT security issues are also coming to the fore. This year, Amazon Echo broke a news story. Echo recorded a conversation between a couple living in Oregon and sent it to contacts in the address book. As Xiaomi IoT Liu Daokuan said, "IoT security is a big deal when it happens. 」
Before "AI+IoT" became Xiaomi’s new growth engine, Liu Daokuan said that Xiaomi should first make MIoT safe. Xiaomi has a relatively complete security infrastructure and confident security protocols (Wi-Fi, BLE, Zigbee, NFC security protocols), and these successful experiences will be solidified in the form of SDK and provided to developers.
The Internet of Everything is a huge territory. Although we can’t predict the end of the arrival, fortunately, some people have started to take the lead.
The following is a record of Lei Jun’s speech:
Lei Jun: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! The popularity of our Xiaomi developer conference is far beyond imagination. Just now, I believed that all the people were jammed on the way, and they should have felt the heat of the conference. When my colleague introduced me yesterday, he said that today there are not only many developers, but also Xiaomi’s very close partners. There are also many managers’ funds of investment companies and analysts in the securities industry. I said, why are there some analysts in the securities industry? They said that Xiaomi was listed, right? In fact, it shows that everyone is very, very concerned about IoT.
IoT, the whole industry has been doing it for more than 20 years. It is not a new concept. It has been done for so many years, and it has not made a breakthrough until the last five or six years. Why? In fact, it is very simple. The IoT for more than 20 years is based on PC. When Xiaomi started to do IoT, what was Xiaomi’s thinking? When we started to do IoT, we wanted to connect all devices with mobile phones as the core, so we stood at the forefront of this era as soon as we came up.
So when we see today, why is the IoT industry developing so fast today, much faster than before? I feel grateful to this great era, that is, the mobile Internet. After we made mobile phones, when we wanted to connect all the devices, we even thought about whether we could connect with TV well. The mobile phone becomes the remote control of the TV, and the TV becomes the display of the mobile phone. How can we seamlessly connect all the devices together? This is also the reason why most Xiaomi mobile phones are equipped with infrared remote control. So, that’s our idea.
When you have a preliminary idea, is IoT done? We still encountered many difficulties. Then, we even considered whether we can use the router as a device, because the router is a device that is turned on 24 hours a day at home, so we think of the router as a home server.
I remember that we made intelligent routers very early, in fact, in order to solve the interconnection problem of IoT. When we finish all this, will things be solved? Still not. In 2014, we set up a special department to make IoT connection module, embedded system, cloud service system and control center. When we provided the whole solution, this is a photo when we released it in 2014. At that time, we proposed to provide IoT intelligent module chips to our partners at the material price. I remember that at the beginning, a Wi-Fi connection module cost more than 60 RMB, and we soon got more than a dozen modules of IoT, which effectively promoted the intelligence of the equipment.
Of course, it is not enough to do this step. In 2014, we set up the Ecological Chain Department, which specializes in incubating and cultivating intelligent hardware. We have trained nearly 100 enterprises in the past time. Of course, today, I am very happy that many Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises have grown up or even listed, such as Huami and Yunmi this year, and they have successfully listed overseas.
Therefore, after so many years of deployment, Xiaomi’s IoT has made a little progress. Let’s take a look. Up to now, 2,000 devices have been held. By the end of the third quarter, the number of activated smart device connections was 132 million (excluding mobile phones and laptops). Maybe many people don’t have much idea about 132 million units, which have already ranked first in the world among consumer IoT devices. That is to say, whether it is Google or Apple, or the domestic appliance giants, the number of devices they have activated to connect to the Internet is actually a little far from Xiaomi.
What do I think Xiaomi has done on IoT at this moment to achieve these achievements? The most important thing is that Xiaomi attaches great importance to its partners, so we set up an ecological chain department five years ago to incubate intelligent hardware startups, and we have spent a lot of money to get to today step by step in this field. So I think today’s achievements are hard-won, and we will attach great importance to the alliance with our partners as in the past.
When IoT developed into this era, two years ago, I felt that artificial intelligence had made a huge breakthrough. After AI empowered IoT, the IoT industry showed a faster growth trend. I think there are many places where AI can empower IoT. Intelligent voice assistant is only a small link, but this link has brought a huge revolution to IoT equipment. What is the most obvious thing? It’s AI’s smart speaker.
Two years ago, Xiaomi regarded AI smart speakers as a key breakthrough in strategic commanding heights. Since its release in July last year, Xiaoai smart speakers have also ranked among the best in this field. I believe that most of you here should have used Xiaoai smart speakers. Why do I ask this question? Everyone says that there are at least forty or fifty kinds of smart speakers on the market, and many people think this thing is useless. Before July last year, we had a big internal debate. Everyone felt that the technology of artificial intelligence was not so mature. After the release of this product, perhaps the reputation was not so good. But to be honest, the response after the release far exceeded my imagination. Demand has been in short supply until May and June this year. Therefore, the whole smart speaker is well received than expected.
I communicated with Xiao Ai’s R&D department, and they even told me who is the most popular with Xiao Ai’s smart speakers? He is an empty nester and has no children at home. It is quite interesting to chat with Xiao Ai’s classmates. There is also a group of children who love to use speakers as toys at home. Of course, it is very important that the small love speaker can connect the smart devices of various IoT.
What is my own idea? I believe that control technology such as AI+IoT will be embedded in every device in the future. There may not be a special device called smart speaker, or smart speaker will become a very small device. This technology is embedded in every device. For example, I don’t need this page flipper. I just need to turn the page, and it will turn the page. I think in three to five years, every smart device may have the control module of AIoT, which will make the whole interaction very interesting. Our product department has also done a lot to embed AIoT technology into the equipment. For example, a small alarm clock released a few days ago actually has the intelligent technology of Xiao Ai’s classmates. In this case, the whole application will be wider and wider. I imagine that in a few years, the cost will be so cheap that every device will be easily connected to AIoT technology.
A month ago, I released Xiaoai’s Bluetooth speaker, which is very small, 49 yuan. Although it is small, the sound quality is actually excellent. A month ago, at the Xiaomi MIX3 conference, we released this little love Bluetooth speaker. I believe that this very easy-to-use voice interactive assistant will be embedded in every smart device in the future. Of course, I won’t talk about how AI empowers big data and other aspects. I at least think that the technology of AI smart speakers will be applied to the interaction of the whole smart device. We have embedded into these devices, which is Xiaomi Xiaoai’s smart alarm clock. More than 100 yuan can solve many problems.
Let’s take a look at what achievements Xiaomi’s Xiaoai classmate’s intelligent voice assistant has made in just over a year. A total of 100 million devices have been activated, because Xiao Ai is not only on smart speakers, but also on mobile phones, televisions and children’s story machine, and 100 million devices have been activated. Accumulated 8 billion awakens, I think this figure is relatively bullish, and the monthly activity has reached the scale of 34 million at the end of September. Therefore, everyone knows an intelligent system like Xiao Ai’s. In fact, the more you use it, the more intelligent it will become. They used to joke with me that there is as much intelligence as there are people. In fact, the more you use it, the smarter it becomes. Therefore, I believe that with such a large number of users, Xiaoai’s intelligence will become higher and higher.
So, what do I want to communicate with you today? But AI+IoT is the core strategy of Xiaomi. We have the earliest layout and the largest investment in this field, and I think our determination is also the greatest. Therefore, after five or six years of layout and five or six years of growth, we have developed to today’s scale. Looking at the next 5-10 years at this moment, it will always be the core strategy of Xiaomi.
And when it comes to core strategy, what advantages does Xiaomi have compared with other peers? It is the huge intelligent hardware ecological chain and the entire ecological environment that Xiaomi has formed. Moreover, we have an online Xiaomi Mall and a wired Xiaomi Home, and we also have a good marketing channel for IoT equipment. More importantly, we have a lot of users who highly recognize Xiaomi’s products, which will greatly improve the user experience and make the perception stronger and stronger after the whole IoT is empowered.
So, speaking of this, the most important thing for me today is to introduce the open ecology of Xiaomi’s AIoT. Throughout the open ecology, there are two Xiaomi and the relevant department heads at our conference to introduce the open ecology of AIoT. One is our IoT platform department, and the other is the head of Xiaomi’s artificial intelligence voice service department, which will give you a detailed introduction to the open ecology of AIoT.
What am I going to tell you? It is the determination of Xiaomi to cooperate. Everything is connected with wisdom. If we want to connect everything, I think the most important thing is the sincerity of cooperation. In the past five or six years, Xiaomi has come to this day because of cooperation and opening up. At today’s stage, the whole giant is extremely optimistic about the AIoT industry, and the competition is becoming more and more fierce. I think Xiaomi is more open than before.
In order to promote the opening up, we set up the Xiaomi Eco-chain Department, so that on the one hand, we promoted the progress of IoT equipment, on the other hand, it also caused some misunderstandings to the industry, saying that I can’t connect to Xiaomi’s IoT system without joining the Xiaomi Eco-chain? I think this is a big misunderstanding. We set up the Eco-chain Department to promote this matter, so that more people can effectively interconnect the equipment together. Therefore, as long as you access these protocols and specifications of Xiaomi, you can connect with Xiaomi’s equipment. Xiaomi’s investment is only to promote and strengthen this cooperation more effectively. This is what I want to explain to you today. Xiaomi’s determination to open up has not changed. I hope everyone can understand this.
Later, we will have two special reports to introduce our whole open ecology and open agreement. Thank you again for coming to our Xiaomi Developer Conference today. Thank you!
Editor-in-Chief: Sleeping Worm
