China"s JD.com ventures into the Smart-Home market and plans to invest 67.5mn yuan ($10.8mn) for a 45% stake in a joint venture with Chinese speech and language technology firm ifytek.com. The new firm will develop smart-home appliances and voice-control solutions for devices that can be remotely controlled by a phone or computer according to a filing made by iflytek. Alibaba Group has also partners with more than 100 appliance and electronics manufacturers in making connected devices. In addition to its investments in smart devices, Alibaba's investment in China's leading online retailer Taobao is worth an estimated 6bn yuan, which it hopes will help boost sales of goods from smartphones Consultancy iResearch forecasts China;s nascent smart-home sector will reach 1 tn yuan by 2020Forbes 5-Mar-15
China"s JD.com ventures into the Smart-Home market and plans to invest 67.5mn yuan ($10.8mn) for a 45% stake in a joint venture with Chinese speech and language technology firm ifytek.com. The new firm will develop smart-home appliances and voice-control solutions for devices that can be remotely controlled by a phone or computer according to a filing made by iflytek.Alibaba Group has also partners with more than 100 appliance and electronics manufacturers in making connected devices. Its smart-home app, Ali-smart, will be available on Chinese smartphone maker Meizu"s MX4 models from this spring.Consultancy iResearch forecasts China;s nascent smart-home sector will reach 1 tn yuan by 2020Forbes 5-Mar-15