When the smart toilet set a new category growth record at a year-on-year growth rate of 793.3%, and when the whole house intelligence system became the "standard highlight" of the new real estate, the smart home and consumer market in the past three years has already surpassed the category of "technology early adopters" and become the core engine driving economic growth and activating industrial vitality. From the release of policy dividends to the upgrading of consumer demand, from technological innovation breakthroughs to the synergy of the industrial chain, this trillion-dollar market is writing a new chapter of high-quality economic development.
Policy + consumption two-wheel drive, activating trillion market momentum
In the past three years, policy support at the national level has built a "fast lane" for the rapid development of smart home and consumer markets. The implementation of the "Action Plan to Promote Large-scale Equipment Update and Trade-in of Consumer Goods" will include smart home appliances in the scope of key subsidies; the injection of super-long-term special national debt funds of over 300 billion yuan in 2025 will expand the subsidy category from "8 + N" to "12 + N", and consumer electronics products such as mobile phones and tablets will fully benefit. The policy effect is immediate: Sichuan has driven consumption 25.40 billion yuan through the trade-in subsidy for home appliances, and Gansu's trade-in has driven sales of over 90 million yuan per day. In March 2025, the sales of smart home products of key monitoring enterprises will increase by more than 10% year-on-year.
The upgrade of the consumer side has provided a lasting driving force for the market. With the per capita disposable income of urban residents exceeding 49,000 yuan and the size of the middle-income group expanding to 430 million people, consumer demand is shifting from "functional satisfaction" to "experience upgrade". 68% of households already own at least three types of smart devices, and health and scenario-based products are very popular. Sales of smart door locks, thermostatic showers and other categories continue to rise, and the premium ability of high-end devices with AI learning capabilities has increased significantly. Although the price of end-to-side AI smart cameras is 30% -50% higher, the market share still exceeds 22%. This consumption upgrade not only activates the market, but also promotes the comprehensive transformation of the industry from "equipment sales" to "product + service + ecology".
The brand matrix is making efforts to restructure the consumer market landscape
In this industrial revolution, well-known brands at home and abroad have developed diverse application scenarios in different consumer fields, jointly promoting smart home from "single product intelligence" to "whole house collaboration".
Local giants: Scenario integration opens up growth space
Midea Group takes "all-scenario smart life" as the core and expands market boundaries through cross-border cooperation. In its strategic cooperation with Anjuke, it has launched layered intelligent solutions for more than 3,000 new real estate projects - Shanghai Binjiang luxury house is equipped with COLMO whole house intelligence system to achieve AI linkage, and rigid demand projects provide cost-effective "smart home starter set"; "smart apartment solution" for 500,000 rental housing, integrated smart meters and energy management systems, and achieved a 30% reduction in energy consumption in Hangzhou Boyu project. At the same time, its smart white electricity continues to lead the market. Smart refrigerators, air conditioners and other products account for 28% of the domestic smart home appliance market with scene-based functions.
Haier Zhijia focuses on high-end and experience upgrades, and collaborates with Red Star Macalline to build "1 + N" smart home experience centers in more than 200 stores. In the model room, Casarte's smart kitchen appliances are deeply integrated with Zhibang Home Furnishing, and users can scan the code to obtain customized configuration solutions; the U-home system developed by it realizes cross-category linkage. After the smart washing machine completes the laundry, it can automatically command the dryer to start, and the air conditioner adjusts the operating status according to the human body temperature data. Sales in the high-end market will increase by 45% year-on-year in 2024.
Huawei uses Hongmeng ecology as a link to build a "1 + 8 + N" full-scene layout. In the field of smart home, more than 1,000 brand devices such as lighting, security, and home appliances are interconnected through HarmonyOS Connect; in cooperation with Poly Development, the whole house intelligence system is integrated into the construction of smart communities to achieve seamless connection between home and community security, parking and other scenarios. Its smart speakers have become the first choice for home smart hubs with 92% voice interaction accuracy, and the number of ecological connected devices will exceed 800 million in 2025. In the field of consumer electronics, the multi-screen synergy function of Huawei mobile phones and tablets continues to be optimized, driving the revenue of consumer electronics business to increase by 18% in 2024.
Xiaomi leverages the mass market with "high cost performance" and builds an intelligent ecosystem covering all categories. From 100-yuan smart sockets, light bulbs to high-end sweeping robots, the product matrix meets the needs of different consumer levels. Its smart door lock with fingerprint recognition + remote control function, sales exceeded 12 million sets in 2023; Xiao Ai's voice assistant activates users' super 300 million, supports more than 1,000 functions such as home appliance control and scene linkage, and becomes the core promoter of smart home popularization in the lower-tier market. Sales in third- and fourth-tier cities will increase to 52% in 2024.
International brands: technological advantages deepen the high-end market
Apple relies on the HomeKit ecosystem to focus on mid-to-high-end users, and guarantees device compatibility and security through a strict certification system. Its intelligent hub HomePod mini is seamlessly linked with iPhone and iPad, and users can control smart curtains, security cameras and other products across devices through Siri; customized solutions for high net worth families, integrating intelligent lighting, audio and video systems and environmental control, the unit price of customers reaches 150,000-300,000 yuan, accounting for 18% of the domestic high-end market.
Amazon uses Alexa voice assistant as the core to penetrate consumer scenes. Its Echo smart speaker series maintains a leading position in the domestic cross-border consumer market, supporting multi-language interaction and smart home control. It cooperates with brands such as Keworth and Stone to realize voice control of sweeping robots. Sales of domestic cross-border platforms will increase by 22% year-on-year in 2024. Its smart security suite, which integrates cameras, door and window sensors and smart door locks, has become the first choice for high-end apartment and villa users.
As a leading brand in the North American home appliance market, Shark Ninja has deepened the field of intelligent cleaning and kitchen consumption with technological innovation, and has achieved explosive growth in the Asia-Pacific market in the past three years. Its Shark brand has solved the pain points such as cumbersome replacement of traditional vacuum cleaners and inconvenient storage with core technologies such as Duoclean double brush heads and Multi Flex folding arms. After its CleanSense iQ series cordless vacuum cleaner was launched in the Japanese market, it quickly doubled the brand's shelf space, accounting for 50% of sales. In the field of intelligent cleaning robots, through the acquisition of domestic vSLAM technology company Susense Technology to strengthen its independent navigation and path planning capabilities, Shark IQ series broke the monopoly in the North American market and ranked second in category sales. Its Ninja brand has launched smart kitchen appliances, Ninja Creami ice cream machine has become a hit in the Australian market, and FlexStyle hair dryer has set a record for Amazon's sold-out. In 2023, its Asia-Pacific division revenue increased by 84.6% year-on-year. Through the joint venture with Jiuyang in China, it has ranked first in the domestic steam mop category for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, becoming an important growth pole in the smart consumer market.
Industrial linkage empowers economic growth
The outbreak of smart home and consumer market not only drives its own growth, but also forms a complete industrial chain of "core industry + upstream and downstream support", injecting multiple kinetic energy into economic development. In the upstream field, the demand for core components such as chips and sensors has surged, promoting technological breakthroughs in domestic semiconductor enterprises. The price of Wi-Fi 6 modules has been reduced by 40% compared with 2020, further reducing the production cost of intelligent equipment. In the midstream manufacturing process, the upgrade of intelligent production lines has driven the growth of demand for industrial robots. The production efficiency of smart factories in Midea, Haier and other enterprises has increased by more than 50%. In the downstream service field, new occupations such as installation and debugging and system maintenance have emerged. In 2024, the relevant practitioners will break through 1.20 million.
From a global perspective, China's smart home industry has become a global growth engine. In 2023, the domestic smart home equipment shipments reached 240 million units. It is expected that the market size will exceed 1.20 trillion yuan in 2025, and the penetration rate will increase to 40%. Behind these data is the same frequency resonance of policies, technology and consumption, and it is a vivid epitome of China's economic transformation and upgrading.