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.Consultancy iResearch 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.Alibaba Group 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