Sunflower Interview with EZVIZ Network
As a leader in the Sunflower Award, EZVIZ Network has participated in the selection for four consecutive years, and has ranked among the top ranks in the industry with its outstanding performance in the field of smart home. Behind this honor is EZVIZ Network's deep understanding and unremitting pursuit of smart home technology, as well as its continuous innovation and breakthrough in the field of Internet of Things cloud platform services.
In order to more comprehensively display the growth trajectory and successful experience of EZVIZ Network, the 8th "Sunflower Award" smart home selection in 2024 specially planned the "Sunflower Interview" column. We will have an in-depth dialogue with EZVIZ Network to explore the story behind it and interpret the password behind its success, so that more people can understand the cutting-edge technology, innovative ideas and in-depth thinking of EZVIZ Network in the field of smart home, and provide valuable reference and inspiration for the industry inside and outside.
The leader of smart home and IoT cloud platform
EZVIZ Network, as a holding subsidiary of Hikvision, has been deeply engaged in the field of smart home since its establishment in 2013, and was successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2022 (stock code: 688475). The company has always adhered to the dual main business strategy of "smart home + Internet of Things cloud platform", and is committed to providing users with a smarter and more convenient life experience.
In the field of smart home, EZVIZ Network adheres to the core of visual interaction technology, and has created a series of smart home products through multi-dimensional perception IoT devices and AI algorithms, including smart cameras, smart home systems, intelligent service robots and intelligent control systems. These products not only meet the needs of consumers in various scenarios such as safety, home entry, cleaning, health, lighting, etc., but also form a unique 1+4+N product ecosystem through the combination of the IoT cloud platform and other ecological cooperation products, effectively empowering users' smart life.
As an IoT cloud platform, it helps customers complete intelligent transformation or develop solutions for complex scenarios through open platform services. With its global service capabilities and the layout of multiple data centers + nearby service points, EZVIZ IoT cloud platform provides efficient and stable services for global customers. By the end of 2023, the number of devices connected to the platform has exceeded 250 million, including more than 200 million video devices.
On the whole, the core competitiveness of EZVIZ lies in its dual-core drive of visual perception technology, multi-dimensional perception and AI interaction technology, product matrix based on AI interaction, integration capabilities and long-term continuous security investment. These advantages enable EZVIZ to maintain a leading position in the smart home industry and continuously promote the accelerated evolution of the industry.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Q: What are the important turning points or milestones in the development of EZVIZ network? Please share it briefly;
A: In general, it can be divided into the following stages:
2013 start-up stage: EZVIZ focuses on technology research and development and product innovation, laying a solid technical foundation for the company's long-term development;
Successful listing in 2022: After being successfully listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2022, EZVIZ has continued to increase its R&D investment and strengthened its international market expansion, with product sales covering many countries and regions around the world, and the company has entered a new stage of development.
While creating economic benefits, EZVIZ Network also actively fulfills its social responsibilities and participates in a number of public welfare activities. For example, the "Safe Growth, Care for Children" children's safety public welfare activities, the "Firefly Elderly Watch Program" public welfare tour, the "Hand in Hand Asian Games, Meet Growth" Asian Games Parent-Child Games Charity Tour, Vietnam Smile Rainbow Run Charity Activity, "Yellow Handrail Project" 2.0 - Love Action, etc., not only actively contribute to social welfare undertakings, but also establish a good corporate image for EZVIZ Network.
Q: EZVIZ Network has been honored to participate in the Sunflower Award for 4 consecutive years and has achieved a number of honors. What positive impact do you think these honors have had on the development of EZVIZ?
Answer: Winning the Sunflower Award for 4 consecutive years is a proof of EZVIZ's advantages in product quality and innovation ability, which is a good help for EZVIZ to enhance its brand influence and market competitiveness, and also encourages EZVIZ to continue to innovate and provide consumers with better products and services.
Q: What are the core products of EZVIZ Network in the smart home product line? Please elaborate on the features and market positioning of these products.
Answer: In 2023, with AI and EZVIZ IoT cloud platform as the core, EZVIZ will actively lead innovative research and development around the four core self-developed product lines of smart home cameras, smart homes, intelligent service robots and intelligent control, and provide competitive products and services for consumer users and industry developer customers.
(1) Smart home camera
Smart home camera is EZVIZ's cash cow business, EZVIZ has released a variety of new smart home camera products such as panorama, binocular and battery, 4G, pet care, etc., to promote the smart home camera to visual, scene-based, intelligent upgrade.
In 2023, EZVIZ will release a number of new AI multi-eye cameras, which can combine lenses with different focal lengths, combined with the characteristics of PTZ rotation tracking, to achieve the combination of large-scale scene coverage and long-distance detail tracking and viewing, and one device can meet the needs of users for larger scenes and more detailed care.
In view of the subdivision scenarios of pet care, EZVIZ released a pet care camera, which not only has camera preview, AI intelligent algorithm detection, but also adds pet companionship and care functions. For example, laser pet, built-in micro laser gimbal, users can remotely control the movement of laser points through the EZVIZ cloud APP, and interact happily with pets.
In line with the development trend of wireless and convenient smart home cameras, and to meet the monitoring needs of cameras in scenarios without electricity and broadband networks, EZVIZ has released a variety of 4G and battery smart cameras. For example, the 4G lampholder PTZ camera C8B cleverly solves the wiring problem with the help of the universal E27 lampholder power collection method under the appearance of the bulb. At the same time, it also adopts the method of built-in 4G SIM card to solve the problem of network coverage, eliminating the trouble of wiring power connection and punching installation, and can be flexibly used in scenarios such as single-family buildings, farmers' greenhouses, picking gardens, and breeding farms.
(2) Smart home entry
The smart home business is growing into EZVIZ's star business. Among them, after years of product polishing and technological innovation, EZVIZ smart locks have met the all-round needs of users for safety, convenience and intelligence in the home scene, and have been widely recognized by users and customers in terms of product quality and experience.
In 2023, EZVIZ will release a number of series of face video smart locks, taking the lead in leading the smart lock industry into the era of dual camera + face, the outer panel adds a lower camera on the basis of the conventional single camera, supports algorithms such as child exit detection and package detection, and further solves the pain points of subdivided scenes for users through visual technology; In addition to supporting OTA upgrades to provide continuous user experience improvement, the self-developed face module equipped with the product has also obtained the enhanced security standard certification of the BCTC Bank Card Testing Center, a national financial authority, to meet users' needs for product convenience and security.
(3) Intelligent service robots
EZVIZ continues to actively practice and develop embodied intelligent robots. At present, in the smart home scenario for consumer users, EZVIZ has deployed C-end cleaning robots and companion robots in response to diversified needs; On the other hand, in order to cope with the continuous growth of cleaning needs from internal and external commercial scenarios, EZVIZ has also carried out the research and development of commercial cleaning robot products, and is committed to improving the service quality of commercial cleaning, while reducing costs and increasing efficiency in building property management.
In 2023, EZVIZ released two new cleaning service robots developed with the concept of embodied intelligence, the new household AI sweeping and mopping treasure RS20 Pro and the first commercial cleaning robot BS1. The C-end and B-end cleaning robots are both integrated with a number of innovative patented technologies and AI vision capabilities, and use deep learning technology to open the era of intelligent cleaning.
Q: What are the unique product innovation advantages of EZVIZ Network in the field of smart door locks? What strategies have been adopted? What have been achieved so far?
Answer: After years of product polishing and technological innovation, EZVIZ smart door lock products have been widely recognized by users and channel customers in terms of product quality and experience.
EZVIZ mainly uses its technical advantages in cloud platform services and audio and video AI technology to focus on intelligent video door locks. EZVIZ attaches great importance to the design of product safety and reliability, and combines EZVIZ's solid accumulation in video images, visual algorithms, and cloud platform technology applications, so that the product has obvious advantages over its competitors in terms of video function richness, visual algorithm maturity, smart home scene linkage and value-added services.
At the 2024 spring new product launch conference that just ended in March, EZVIZ brought a higher-end AI three-camera automatic face video lock - DL60FVX Pro, which has three highlights: large model access, super care, and flagship configuration, and it is also its first three-camera smart lock to join the cloud large model. The algorithm strategy of device-cloud collaboration breaks through the limitation of local computing power and greatly improves the detection accuracy. With the help of the image understanding and natural language processing capabilities of large models, AI event labels can be generated to describe more details of events to achieve richer message push.
In terms of vision technology, EZVIZ has an ecological closed loop with a high degree of integration of hardware, software and cloud platform, and device-cloud collaboration, which provides strong support for intelligent detection, intelligent recognition, AI analysis and reasoning and other functions, and lays a competitive advantage for EZVIZ in the field of smart home products. EZVIZ smart door locks are among the top five in the electronic door lock categories on Tmall and Douyin platforms in shopping festivals such as Double 11 and 618 in 2023.
Q: What are the specific investments in technology research and development? What results have been achieved? How do these results translate into competitive advantage in the market?
Answer: As a technological innovation-driven enterprise, EZVIZ always adheres to technology research and development as the core, independently masters the core technology, quickly responds to user needs, and promotes the sustainable development of the business.
Since its establishment, EZVIZ has been deeply engaged in the field of Internet of Things cloud platform services and smart home, and has established a smart home industry technology system covering three major technical fields: cloud platform construction technology, multi-modal AI interaction technology, and intelligent hardware technology, and has grasped the industry and technology trends in a forward-looking manner, and continued to firmly invest in R&D in the field of core technologies.
As of the end of December 2023, EZVIZ has 1,352 R&D personnel, accounting for 31.94% of EZVIZ's total employees; In 2023, R&D expenses will be 731 million yuan, accounting for 15.10% of operating income. During the reporting period, EZVIZ newly authorized 90 invention patents and 3 software copyrights. As of December 31, 2023, EZVIZ has a total of 219 authorized invention patents and 83 software copyrights.
Among all kinds of IoT devices, video devices can obtain massive amounts of data and dense information. At present, based on visual perception technology, EZVIZ has expanded the technology of voice perception, recognition, understanding and generation, further developed a new generation of visual and voice interaction technology, and formed a technical dual core of "multi-dimensional perception + AI interaction", providing great impetus for the development of EZVIZ smart home. Based on a robust technical system, EZVIZ IoT smart devices are upgraded from mechanical response to intelligent interaction, and AI integrates subdivided scenarios to meet the diversified and personalized needs of consumers and improve user experience.
Q: What are the unique strategies adopted by EZVIZ Network in terms of market expansion? What are the innovative measures in brand building?
A: In terms of market expansion, in 2023, EZVIZ will actively deploy e-commerce channels, and its domestic business will strengthen online content planting and live broadcast sales; The terminal capacity of offline channels has been improved, and the operation and management of distribution channel customers have been continuously improved.
In terms of brand building, in 2023, EZVIZ will continue to focus on the two key words of "warm technology" and "rejuvenation", mainly focusing on four aspects: content communication, marketing activities, brand vision, and public relations media. For example, a digital content marketing system has been built; It has carried out brand joint promotion and official Weibo interactive joint marketing with a number of brands. EZVIZ also improves brand image and market competitiveness by focusing on ESG.
In addition, EZVIZ believes that good products and services are inherently a kind of brand marketing. As a company driven by technological innovation, EZVIZ has always been user-centric for a long time, quickly responding to user needs, building brand influence through product and technological innovation, and letting more consumers know and accept EZVIZ. In the future, EZVIZ will continue to adhere to scientific and technological innovation, focusing on keywords such as "warm technology" and "rejuvenation" to provide customers with better products and services.
Q: With the increasing diversification of consumer needs, how does EZVIZ Network gain insight into and meet these needs?
Answer: In terms of insight into and meeting the diverse needs of consumers, EZVIZ Network has adopted the following strategies: First, we adhere to the user-centered, go deep into the market and user groups, and accurately gain insight into user needs through consumer portrait and user contact analysis. Secondly, we are guided by customer satisfaction, and continue to promote the improvement of product strength and innovation, aiming to create more value for users.
In terms of improving product experience, in order to better promote the communication and interaction between users and product development, EZVIZ continuously recruits "EZVIZ user experience officers" to actively collect their real thoughts and suggestions in the process of using products. For example, the "EZVIZ 10th Anniversary Fan Festival - Firefly Festival" was planned, and "fireflies" from all over the world were invited to participate in strengthening in-depth exchanges with consumers.
In terms of service quality, EZVIZ always puts consumers first, constantly improves the service quality management system, and formulates policy documents such as "EZVIZ Domestic Maintenance Service Point Management Specification", "EZVIZ Domestic 400 Service Satisfaction Management Specification", "Domestic Online Service Satisfaction Management Specification" and other policy documents to promote the standardization and continuous improvement of customer service process.
Q: What development goals and strategic plans have EZVIZ set for this year? How will it deal with potential market risks and challenges?
Answer: EZVIZ Network's development goal this year is to consolidate its leading position in smart home and IoT cloud platforms, and provide consumers and industry developers with better smart life solutions through AI and IoT technology.
EZVIZ responds to potential risks and challenges through the following business plans:
1. Technology-driven: Continue to increase investment in horizontal core technologies, continue to expand the multi-dimensional perception technology capability architecture based on visual perception technology, and form a technical dual core of "multi-dimensional perception + AI interaction".
2. Product innovation: Continue to increase R&D investment in vertical core self-developed products and services, continue to increase the market share of smart home services, expand the market space of service robots, and maintain core product innovation and differentiated R&D advantages.
3. Cloud platform expansion: Continue to build and operate a globally compliant and reliable AI vision IoT cloud platform; Provide safe, comfortable, and healthy intelligent value-added services around the C-end user's life and work scene space, strengthen the intelligent interaction with users, and do a good job in user life cycle operation; Provide convenient, reliable and competitive IoT cloud platform service solutions for third-party developers, and increase the proportion of cloud services in EZVIZ's revenue structure.
4. Brands and Channels: Strengthen digital brand marketing capabilities, improve the digital content marketing system, and improve the communication matrix for BGC brand release, PGC professional influencers and UGC user interaction. speed up the construction of the retail matrix of the channel terminal and increase the potential energy of the channel; Digitalization drives standardized channel management and execution capabilities.
5. Overseas market: Overseas market customers have changed from quantity to quality, constantly enriching the types of channel customers, and consolidating channel operation capabilities; From single products to multi-products, we actively expand overseas new category markets and form a more stable revenue structure.
6. Supply chain management: Consolidate the basic capabilities of the supply chain, strengthen lean supply chain management, and realize the intelligent collaborative production mode with upstream suppliers through the digitalization, automation and intelligent upgrading of the supply chain, so as to create a supply chain with comprehensive cost and quality advantages.
7. Internal management: Promote the operation of the internal business division system, improve the cross-departmental collaboration capabilities of production, R&D, marketing, service, etc., and continue to create value. Continue to improve the IT middle office and improve internal operational efficiency; Improve internal quality management and talent management system.
8. Customer service: User-centric, close to the market and users, in-depth user insight from consumer portraits, user journey analysis from user touchpoints, and user satisfaction as the purpose to promote the improvement of product power and innovation, and create value for users. At the same time, we will promote the reshaping of product and service user experience, and establish standardized and transparent services that users can perceive.
Q: The 2024 Sunflower Award is in full swing, what are your expectations for the 2024 Sunflower Award?
A: EZVIZ will continue to participate in the collection and selection of the Sunflower Award this year, and for the 2024 "Sunflower Award", we look forward to seeing the emergence of more excellent products and solutions, showing the innovation and progress of the industry. Through unremitting efforts and innovation, I believe that every company will have the opportunity to show its style on the stage of the "Sunflower Award" and gain more recognition and honors. I wish all the participating companies a rewarding experience.