On June 19, 2024, IDC recently released the "Quarterly Tracking Report on the Global Smart Home Device Market, Q1 2024", showing that the global smart camera market (including consumer-grade indoor and outdoor cameras, including operator channels) shipped 31.53 million units in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%. In terms of shipping regions, the U.S. market shipped 13.06 million units, accounting for 41.4% of global shipments, followed by China with 11.38 million units, accounting for 36.1% of the global market. The acceleration of product upgrades and the increase in nursing demand brought about by the recovery of travel frequency after the epidemic caused by the acceleration of the smart camera market in the first quarter.
Global market
Hikvision: Hikvision's consumer brand EZVIZ ranked first in the world in terms of shipments in the first quarter of 2024, with a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. Its shipments in China accounted for 74.3% of the world's overall shipments, and emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America are its main positions for overseas layout.
Xiaomi: Xiaomi's camera products have performed well in the Central and Eastern European market, and its globalization strategy continues to deepen, with a complete offline store layout. As an important product in Xiaomi's smart home ecosystem, it has enjoyed the positive effect of Xiaomi's brand influence in overseas markets.
Dahua: In the first quarter, the Chinese market accounted for 35.8% of the global shipments of Dahua's consumer brand Lecheng, and in the overseas market, Asia-Pacific, Western Europe and Latin America accounted for more than 45%, and its binocular products grew rapidly in the first quarter. In Southeast Asia, its offline channel layout capability is strong, its global e-commerce channel layout is leading, and it has formed a perfect sales system in overseas markets.
Pulian: Tapo has grown rapidly in Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and North America by leveraging the sales channel advantages and brand influence of its parent company. In 2023, the Pu Union ranked first in shipments to the Indian market.
Amazon: Amazon-owned brand Ring still has a clear advantage in North America and Western Europe.
Chinese market
The Chinese market also saw year-on-year growth in the first quarter, but the growth rate slowed down compared with 2023, and indoor gimbal machines are the current mainstream product form. Judging from the shipment situation of manufacturers, the competition in China's camera market has intensified, and the shipment concentration of head manufacturers has begun to decline. With its rich product line layout and online and offline channel advantages, EZVIZ continues to rank first in shipments. From the perspective of shipping channels, the proportion of shipments from operator channels has declined, and the share of e-commerce has gradually increased due to related factors such as live broadcast room subsidies, gift attraction and cloud service gifts.
IDC predicts that there will be three key points in the upgrade of consumer camera products in 2024:
- Strengthening security functions with the help of AI capabilities will become the focus of brand manufacturers in 2024. Selling points such as AI humanoid tracking, AI baby crying detection, AI pet activity monitoring, and picture-in-picture tracking of camera products are gradually rising in the priority of consumer purchasing decisions. At present, some AI alarm notification functions of leading vendors need to be used after the cloud service is activated, and they still need to pass the privacy trust test of consumers.
- The proportion of binocular products has increased. Dual lenses and dual images achieve all-round multi-angle monitoring, especially fixed + mobile gimbal binocular products, integrating fixed-angle shooting and dynamic monitoring needs, helping consumers reduce the cost of multiple units.
- Night vision technology has become an important product differentiator. In the indoor night monitoring scene, there are still obvious differences between different models. Infrared night vision, infrared night vision + fill light, black light full color, low light full color, ultra low light full color, infrared + AI recognition of human shape after full color and other night monitoring solutions for different needs of people, night vision effect improvement is still an important upgrade direction of the current manufacturers.
Zhao Siquan, senior analyst of IDC China, believes that the global camera market is still in a stage of rapid growth, and domestic competition is fierce. Chinese brands have obvious advantages in product pricing, and the current emerging countries represented by Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have strong demand and huge potential, which is the top priority for Chinese security manufacturers to go overseas. In mature markets such as Europe and the United States, data privacy sensitivity is higher than that in China, and it is necessary to pay attention to relevant laws and regulations and data protection regulations in the process of going global. In 2024, camera manufacturers should continue to optimize their product structure and cover as many subdivided scenarios as possible. In terms of sales, we will increase efforts to improve the online and offline sales system in various regions to enhance market competitiveness.
(Liu Liqing)