Innovation and Disruption in Asia: Smart Home

 

This post is part of an ongoing series on Innovation and Disruption of technology and business in Asia. Visit the archives of previous posts here.

ASIA IS THE BIGGEST ADOPTER OF SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY

Digital technology hasn’t just transformed the way people shop, but also the way people live. The global smart home market is expected to reach an estimated $107 billion by 2023.¹ Asia is projected to see the highest growth because of increasing urbanization, rising standards of living, and government investment in the building of smart cities.

 

Pre-Installed Smart Homes: In South Korea, most new residential buildings have smart home systems pre-installed. You won’t see light switches in these ultra-modern apartments, instead, there are touchscreens in every room. These integrated systems aren’t just for lights–they control temperature, digital locks, cameras, air purifiers, smart TVs, gas lines, energy reporting and even elevator requests.

Smart Drones: A growing trend is the utilization of drones as a part of the smart home security system. These security drones can fly whenever unusual activities are detected, inside or outdoors. Chinese brand DJI is dominating the global drone industry, and capturing 50% of the market share for drones purchased in the U.S. across all price points.²

Automated Toilets: In fact, there’s an area, rather intimate, that has also been elevated to a whole different level by innovators in Asia. It’s the toilet. In Japan, the smart toilets installed in the hotels create interesting experiences for travelers. It is, according to Toto, the world’s largest toilet brand, “an element of Japanese culture that is difficult to explain in words”. In practical terms, that means a motion-sensing toilet seat that lifts automatically, a stream of warm water sprayed at one’s undercarriage, and a gentle, warm breeze to dry everything off. For the past 5 years, Japanese smart toilets have become a shopping phenomenon in Asia, now you can easily spot them at Asian American homes.

For Asian Americans, the idea of living in a modern smart home is a natural part of their tech-forward lifestyles. Take the smart home speaker as an example. Asian Americans have the highest ownership of Amazon Alexa.³

Written by Selina Guo

Planning Director, Admerasia

Smart Home is not the only industry disrupted by Asian innovation. There are eight more! Download the link at https://www.admerasia.com to read the entire report.

 

¹NY Mag, We’re Already Living in the Smart-Home Future, 2017

²Techcrunch; prnewswire, Skylogic Research Report Unveils Drone Industry Market Share Figures, 2017

³thinknowresearch, OK Google How Are Multicultural Consumers Adopting Smart Speaker Technology in the US, 2018