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Author | Lin Qingqing

Editor | Yuan Silai

After ten years of ups and downs in the industry, Kaadas, a leading manufacturer of smart door locks, has reached a critical juncture.

China's smart door lock market is expanding and market competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

Smart door locks achieved growth in both retail volume and sales during the 618 promotion in 2024. AVC monitoring data showed that during the 618 mid-year promotion this year, the traditional e-commerce retail volume of smart door locks was 816,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 23.7%; the sales volume was 960 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%.

An industry that can still achieve double-digit growth at present will not lack new players flocking in. In the market, professional smart lock companies, traditional home appliance manufacturers, and Internet companies "divide the world into three parts". Among them, professional smart locks are represented by traditional brands such as Kaadas, Dessmann, and VOC; home appliance companies are mainly represented by Bosch, Samsung, Skyworth, etc.; Internet companies are led by Xiaomi, Huawei, 360, etc.

After the 618 promotion this year, Kaadis released a full-channel sales report. According to Kaadis' 618 report, it achieved many firsts on platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin.

Kaadas was founded in 2009 by Su Zhiyong. It is understood that the founder Su Zhiyong entered the lock industry in the 1980s and studied traditional mechanical locks in the early days. At its peak, the annual sales volume was 20 million sets. In 2007, Su Zhiyong began to transform into the field of smart security. In the same year, he launched the first smart lock 5155.

Now, after making the company a leader, Su Zhiyong has handed over Kaadas to the next generation. Su Zhiyong's son Su Qiyun followed his father into the lock industry.

Public information shows that Su Qiyun studied at the University of Alberta in Canada from 2012 to 2017, majoring in economics and minoring in mathematics. After graduation, he returned to China to work for Kaadis. From February 2019 to date, Su Qiyun has served as the chairman of Kaadis.

At present, the smart door lock industry is entering an era of fierce competition. The situation Su Qiyun faces is more complicated and cruel.

As a smart door lock company that originated from a professional lock brand, what will be the next step for Kaadas? What has kept the brand leading for many years? What are the pain points in the smart door lock industry? How will Kaadas respond to changes in the industry landscape? With these questions, we talked with Su Qiyun, chairman of Kaadas.

The following is an edited excerpt from a conversation between 36Kr and Kadis Chairman Su Qiyun:

36Kr: After you returned to China in 2017, what changes took place in the market environment?

Su Qiyun:When I returned to China in 2017, the domestic smart lock market was developing very rapidly, with nearly 10 million sets produced and sold, and an output value of over 10 billion yuan. Many media outlets regarded that year as the first year of the smart lock industry's explosion. Many Internet giants and cross-border brands also entered the market and launched smart lock products. Thousands of brands participated in the market competition. I noticed that Kaadas was facing the problem of how to break through and stay ahead.

At that time, the mainstream consumer group of smart locks was families with mature spending power and an average age of 40 or above. Since 2017, smart locks have become increasingly popular, and more and more young people have begun to buy them. Because of this, the average customer price of smart locks has begun to decline significantly. The benefit of smart products plus prices that are acceptable to young people is that the industry's market penetration rate has increased.

36Kr: What challenges have you encountered during the development of the Kaadas team?

Su Qiyun:After I came back, I thought it was important to understand the development trend of the smart lock industry. Therefore, I often visited and researched the market to understand the front-line data and facts, and also visited and learned a lot from industry predecessors and peers. After joining the company, I did not directly become a manager, but rotated in different departments to familiarize myself with the actual situation of the organization and the business development of each section.

Then he joined the board of directorsI realized that Kaadas’ biggest challenge at that time was the e-commerce transformation., adapting to the sales rhythm of e-commerce platforms. At the beginning, smart locks were still biased towards the home building materials industry, and the sales path and business model were relatively traditional. They were sold to various distribution outlets through offline agents in various cities and then reached consumers. Therefore, as a traditional smart lock manufacturer at that time, e-commerce transformation was a relatively big challenge for us.

So we began to try to establish business departments such as Kaadas New Retail E-commerce and Cross-border E-commerce, to engage in direct e-commerce. We sell goods directly to end consumers on JD.com and Tmall, expanding the company's business layout.

36Kr: In recent years, a number of Internet brands and cross-border brands have emerged in the smart lock industry. Faced with these competitors, how do you cope with the impact and gain a foothold in the market?

Su Qiyun:In fact, every industry is driven by everyone working together. We also hope that more brands and manufacturers will come in to expand the industry together, because I think the current industry penetration rate is still too low, and it is not yet time for everyone to really grab the cake.

In addition, Kaadis has been focusing on the lock industry for many years, and there are several main barriers: the first is the experience and supply chain capabilities accumulated over the past 30 years mentioned above. We now have three factories in Wenzhou, Zhongshan and Zhuhai;

Second, we have been investing a lot of R&D resources in locks since 2012. We currently have more than 400 R&D personnel. In the smart lock industry, this R&D investment is relatively large. Emphasis on R&D investment has also brought great results. So far, we have obtained 711 patents, the largest number in the world.

Third, our advantage in offline channels is very strong.There are more than 10,000 outlets nationwide, the largest number in the industry.Of course, it is not just the number of sales outlets that is an advantage. All of our partner dealers also provide after-sales guarantee for end consumers. Because smart door locks are strongly related to after-sales service. When a consumer returns home and finds that the door cannot be opened, there is no power, or the product fails, timely, immediate service is needed. I think this is also a huge pain point and barrier in the industry.

36Kr: What problems do you think exist in the smart door lock industry?

Su Qiyun:I think there are too many low-priced and low-quality products in the entire industry. This is the first point. The second point is that there is no latest national standard specifically for smart door locks, which leads to many low-quality products still using traditional hotel locks, and even the testing standards of traditional locks. How can this ensure the user's home safety and privacy security? In fact, smart lock products are highly integrated products. They are not only safe in terms of mechanical structure, but also in terms of data algorithm security and encryption security when stored on the cloud platform. Otherwise, everything at your door will be known to others, or others may open the door while you are sleeping at home through remote operation, which is a huge security risk.

Smart locks are directly related to the family's property and personal safety. You must have awe when working in this industry.The starting point must be to ensure the safety of users. For example, our Kaadas smart lock supports opening from the outside after the door is locked from the inside. Why must it have this function? If you can't open it, a fire in the house will affect fire rescue, which is directly related to life safety. My father and I are very persistent on this point.

36Kr: What is the development prospect of smart locks? Is it still in the blue ocean period? What are the new trends?

Su Qiyun:From the perspective of the front-end market, I think it is still a blue ocean period, but if you look at it from the back-end supply side, it is actually a red ocean. The smart lock industry is facing unprecedented development opportunities. Despite the fluctuations in the real estate market, the stability of the home improvement market and the diversification of smart lock demand (from decoration to upgrades) provide continuous momentum for the industry. At present, the penetration rate of smart locks is low, less than 20%. With the increase in consumer demand for intelligence and security, the market potential is huge.

In the future, as the penetration rate increases and people’s understanding of smart locks deepens, the leading professional brands will definitely be able to develop in the long term, and some white-label products will gradually be cleared out.

36Kr: What are the differences between overseas markets and domestic markets? Which markets are easier to operate in?

Su Qiyun:Kaadas is a smart lock brand that was launched overseas relatively early. It has been sold to 36 countries around the world, and its overseas market expansion has been relatively smooth. The US market is relatively easy to do business in, followed by Singapore and Malaysia.

The overseas market is actually more about North America. The product form of smart locks in North America is completely different from that in China, and the user needs are also completely different. Americans are more concerned about privacy and don't want to spread some of their biometric data. At present, when we look at the overseas market, the audience is still using password locks, swiping cards, and carrying keys, which are relatively traditional product forms. Secondly, the standards of overseas products are highly unified. After all, the standards for doors are highly unified, which leads to highly unified standards for locks. The certifications of various national standards are different, and we have to meet the certifications of that country before we can sell our products.

Why is the US market relatively easier to do business in? Because the US market is relatively large, Americans have strong spending power, and are more optimistic about accepting new things, making it easier to enter the market. In the US, because products and doors are highly standardized, consumers can buy them and install them themselves, just like selling ordinary home appliances.

When we first started to enter the overseas market, we also wondered whether Americans would prefer to buy local brands. However, after trying for a few years, we found that a large number of Americans are not too obsessed with whether the brand is local, but are more concerned about actual needs. Consumers feel that the original traditional mechanical locks are not easy to use, and want intelligent and electronic products to solve security and convenience problems, so they will buy smart locks. Relatively young people are more willing to try new things and pay more attention to the functions and selling points of the product itself.