IngDan opens Beijing smart product experience center

An innovative experience center that opened on Oct 11 is expected to boost the development of the smart product industry in Zhongguancun Science Park, insiders said at its opening ceremony.

The IngDan experience center, which covers an area of more than 500 square meters in the Hailong Building, Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, allows consumers to try out smart products and helps entrepreneurs find suitable supply chain resources to efficiently make smart products.

"The center is of great significance and will help Zhongguancun become a place where creativity and dreams can come true," said Xuan Hong, deputy director of the Zhongguancun administrative committee.

IngDan is a subsidiary of Shenzhen-based Cogobuy Group, which runs a large e-commerce platform for electronic components and parts, according to IngDan's website.

Supplier resources are one of IngDan's core advantages, according to Liu Hongjiao, vice-president of IngDan. Such resources involve exterior design, structure design, integration testing and production.

Liu said IngDan can also help entrepreneurs analyze whether their ideas are practicable and find suitable supplier resources as the company has solid foundations and rich experience in related industries.

IngDan opened its first experience center in Shenzhen in April. The company attracted more than 7,000 smart innovation and entrepreneurship projects by early October. More than 3,000 suppliers are available on the IngDan platform.

The Beijing IngDan center displays 120 smart products, including robots, wearable devices and musical instruments.

"We will update the exhibits every two to three months and bring in the newest and best products from the IngDan platform," said Liu.

People from the smart product circle are expected to gather and communicate in the center, according to Liu.

Xuan said that the Hailong Building, which used to be a mall for IT products, represents the past of Zhongguancun while IngDan is the future of the area.

He said Zhongguancun has to have creativity and original industries instead of selling products and IngDan will facilitate commercialization of creativity.

Li Feng, president of IngDan, said the center in Beijing opens a door for smart product innovators and entrepreneurs in Zhongguancun and will become a key impetus for transformation of the area.

Zhongguancun issued 29 policies in March to support development of the smart product industry. Income of smart products in Zhongguancun is estimated to reach 500 billion yuan ($78.8 billion) by the end of 2017, according to the Zhongguancun administrative committee.

IngDan is also exploring foreign markets and connecting overseas innovative businesses related to smart products with manufacturers in China, according to Liu.

She said developing domestically and abroad at the same time would be hard work but it is IngDan's strength.

The company has offices in the United States and Italy and will possibly open more in Japan and Israel, Liu said.

(China Daily 10/20/2015 page7)