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The administrative committee of Zhongguancun Science Park and the Haidian district people's government published a policy on promoting the innovative development of the smart hardware industry on March 27.
A total of 29 measurements support the development of smart hardware from seven aspects.
With the support of the policy, a complete ecosystem consisting of innovative ideas, talent, technology, platforms and policies has been formed.
Centering on the establishment of a smart hardware public service platform and incubator, the launch of an industrial capital fund and the exploration of innovative programs, Zhongguancun will develop a smart hardware industrial cluster with global influence.
As leading industries such as global IT technology and Internet are reforming and integrating, smart products have rapidly expanded to areas such as home supplies, wearable technology, automobiles and manufacturing.
With broad attention from high-tech enterprises and investment institutions around the world, the smart hardware products are going to be the next global economic growth point.
Steve Blank, an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and a famous innovator, was surprised by the huge cluster of technological entrepreneur businesses in Beijing after his visit to Zhongguancun.
Involving industries such as the emerging electronic information industry, the boom of the mobile Internet industry, and the rapid development of big data and cloud computing, Zhongguancun has always stayed on the cutting-edge of the industry. Today, Zhongguancun takes responsibility for the development of the smart hardware industry.
The official launch of the preferential policies on promoting smart hardware is going to provide positive influence to form an industrial cluster in the area.
Although the smart hardware industry has become one of the most popular areas in the technology industry, the industry is not as mature as the software industry because the ecosystem has not yet been formed.
Compared with the software industry, the smart hardware industry is struggling with problems such as difficulties in entry for entrepreneurs, lack of a public service platform, high cost of communication between the upstream and downstream industrial chain, weak interaction between regional businesses, limited influence of leading enterprises and the dispersion of industrial processes.
On the other hand, the smart hardware enjoys a large number of innovative products, a variety of types and a diversity of technology. In addition, the failure in meeting a united standard leads to problems in product promotion.
In order to solve the problems, the Zhongguancun Demonstrative Area established the first smart hardware industrial alliance in the country last October. Attracting members such as JD, Xiaomi, Baidu and Qihoo, the alliance covers different parts of the industrial chain such as chip design, industrial design, software, Internet, big data, hardware, electronic commerce, and testing and certification.
Relying on the affluent innovative resources in Zhongguancun, the alliance is going to establish public technological and service platforms in areas such as testing and certification, research and development, intellectual property and standards, big data service and electronic commerce promotion to lower the difficulty in entering the market for entrepreneurs.
In addition, the alliance is going to construct an entrepreneurship incubator and accelerator under the theme of "platform, incubation and investment". Based on the profound resources of designing, Zhongguancun is going to positively cultivate entrepreneurs and geeks, as well as bring innovative spirits to the campus.
Based on the market mechanism, the demonstrative area will also launch an investment capital fund to cultivate an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and promote the leading enterprises in the industry.
Transforming the advantages in the Internet industry to the smart hardware innovative area, the demonstrative area will continuously generate emerging business models and establish industrial clusters with global influence.
The west area of Zhongguancun is a place occupied by artists, designers, and software and hardware professionals. They turn their ideas to reality with the help of current resources and academic research results. Such premium programs include the Xboard large-sized touch screen end table, the drive aiding ADAS system, the uChair smart chair, the RecoWiFi smart charger and the smart phone glucometer.
According to the blueprint, the Zhongguancun core area will positively promote the transition and upgrade of the west area and form an industrial cluster including a foundation, incubator and accelerator.
The Zhongguancun International Digital Design Center and Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street are going to be developed into incubator foundations. Hailong Plaza and e-World Plaza are going to be turned into accelerators. The operation format for professional service institutions is going to be utilized in the two plazas.
Simultaneously, the innovative incubators such as the Hardware Dream Factory, Beijing Makerspace, IC Coffee and Feimalv are going to receive support from the demonstrative area.
Furthermore, the demonstrative area is going to provide a variety of services such as technology showcases, entrepreneurship education, guidelines on product demo creation and program road shows, entrepreneur communications, tutor mechanism, investment and market resource introduction through both on-line and off-line patterns.
The demonstrative area is dedicated to establishing the first domestic multifunctional comprehensive service platform focusing on entrepreneur cultivation and enterprises incubation to promote public entrepreneurship.
Eight institutions including JD.com and KSYun have been issued as smart hardware public service platforms in the Zhongguancun demonstrative area.
The creative design platform is able to lower the difficulty of entry for enterprises and persons to innovate and manufacture. The platforms provide tools, software and services applying to the whole product innovation process including industrial design, manufacturing, marketing and service.
Moreover, a trading platform covering the entire industrial product digitalized creation and manufacturing is going to be built and will provide services such as industrial design, three dimensional printing, numerical control programming and simulated analysis.
The key to winning the battle of smart hardware in today's market is speed. The speedy manufacturing interaction platform is going to provide personalized sample designing service to the hardware enterprises at a fast pace. Thanks to the service, the time spent on sample manufacturing will be shortened from more than 60 days to within three days.
The standard testing and certificate platform provides one-stop testing service to smart hardware enterprises. Other more personalized services provided by the platform include technological and policy consulting, and product verification and promotion.
The promotion platform offers comprehensive promotion service to enterprises from not only Zhongguancun Park but also from around the world. The platform rapidly boosts the development of entrepreneur programs.
Centering on the industrial cluster, Zhongguancun Park also promotes the establishment of platforms featuring hardware development, innovative design, investment and financing, and marketing to finally form a full service chain including experiment and verification, technological innovation, intellectual property and standard, and exhibition and trading.
The combination of technology and capital is an important base of industrial development. According to the report on last year's statistics of angel investment, as high as 80 percent of angel investors chose enterprises based in Zhongguancun Park, making up more than 60 percent of the total amount of investment nationwide.
In the demonstrative area, a batch of enterprises including Qihoo 360 and JD.com has been focusing on the establishment of a capital fund for smart hardware investment.
As the most innovative and energetic core area of Zhongguancun, the west area, Hailong Plaza, Dinghao Plaza and e-World Plaza have been transformed from electronic product markets to a home for smart hardware innovative entrepreneurs.
Today's Zhongguancun witnesses the birth of smart hardware industrial alliances, industrial capital funds, incubators and a batch of platforms providing professional services.
A professional technological service platform has been formed featuring the whole industrial chain including product innovation, industrial design, electronic elements supplement, software and hardware solutions, and sample implementation.
Platforms on entrepreneurship service, investment and financing, and market promotion gather in the demonstrative area.
Moreover, the area attracts the greatest amount of talents in the country including academicians, experts from the Recruitment Program of Global Talents, and oversees returnees.
The entrepreneurship market is currently a blue ocean. The future of the industry is guaranteed by the complete ecosystem consisting of innovative ideas, talents, technology, platforms and policies.
