Editor's note:

Civilian security is big business on the Chinese mainland. Innovation has added strength to the industry with the invention of an intelligent device that can do much more than a surveillance camera at home or the office - distinguishing the host from thieves and raising the alarm via the mobile phone.

In 2010, when mobile Internet was aggressively penetrating people's lives, Huang Qinghua felt that an era of "Internet of Things" was on the horizon.

Having waited for the opportunity for years, he decided it was the ripe time to do something he had been long dreaming of.

"When mobile Internet hit its peak, the next wave, I felt, would be the connection of smartphones and hardware," said Huang, a second-time entrepreneur in Shenzhen.

Huang set up a company in 2011, making Wi-Fi SD card for cameras, but was forced to close it down after eight months due to poor management and differences with an investor. After two years garnering experience, he made a dramatic comeback in 2013 with a new product - "intellectual guardian".

"Intellectual guardian" is a set of civilian security hardware, including mobile alarms, wireless door sensors and wireless surveillance cameras that can be linked to mobile phones through the Internet. Once a precious jade is moved from its original place, the "guardian" will immediately shoot the scene and dispatch an alarm to mobile phones of the house's host. The host can then watch the whole process of the theft on their screens and take measures to deal with it.

The "smart guardian", Huang said, outperforms other similar products in that it can distinguish the host from thieves, thereby avoiding misreporting. When the host arrives at home, the surveillance camera will recognize his/her face and automatically close off, while the mobile alarm will stop combating.

"Civilian security is gaining more and more importance nowadays. People, especially the wealthy class, are not satisfied with just having a public surveillance camera installed outside their doors providing limited protection," said the 34-year-old chief executive officer of Shenzhen Wanwulian Ltd.

Although the civilian security industry is growing at a fast pace in China, it's still in its infancy compared with that of North American and European countries. In 2013, the market scale of civilian security on the Chinese mainland was approximately 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), accounting for only 6 percent of the country's overall security industry. The figure was 50 percent or higher in the US and 10 percent or so on world average.

The industry's immaturity thus offers larger scope for expansion. "The civilian security market is huge and the prospects are promising," said Pang Wei, deputy head of Shenzhen Security and Protection Industry Association. "If one-tenth of the 300 million Chinese mainland families buy such products, for example, at 500 yuan each, imagine how big the scale will be."

As technology matured, the industry reached a turning point in 2014, said Pang. "Development of the civilian security industry depends on technology. Only when a product's installation and use become easy and convenient for all consumers can the industry achieve fast growth," he explained.

Despite the technological breakthrough, industry insiders admit that there are serious challenges ahead. "How to cater to various demands from customers and how to connect new products with domestic appliances will be two major challenges," Pang pointed out.

Besides, problems such as a lack of supporting products and high network traffic fees for surveillance video-watching also need to be dealt with, commented Li Kai, product manager of Hikvision, a Hangzhou-based company specializing in making video surveillance products.

However, in Huang's view, the difficulties are not anything - he's determined to create "the top brand" in the field of civilian security with his "smart guardian".

Like many other entrepreneurs in the technological world, Huang's entrepreneurial adventure also originated from his lust for electronic products during childhood.

He pursued his bachelor's degree in electronic engineering at Zhoukou Normal University and then worked at Taiwan and international companies, where he accumulated practical experience to start his own business.

"It's essential to gain some experience from work before opening one's own company," he said.

Huang founded Wanwulian in September 2013 and introduced his products to the market seven months later. In three months' time, more than 700 sets, costing roughly 600 yuan each, were sold. "Most of our clients are shops," he said. During research and development (R&D), everything was tough. He had no full-time partners, but only three developers working part-time for him. He had no income and had to spend a lot.

To cope with financial difficulties, he put nearly all his deposits into the project, borrowed money from relatives, applied for bank loans and even sought financial aid from Weibo, a popular social networking platform on the mainland. He ultimately weathered the crisis and managed to develop the six-product set within four months.

Tall and dark-skinned, Huang puts on casual attire in his office like his 20 teammates. In a simple 30-square-meter room at a startup incubation center in Shenzhen, the developers are busy designing new products. This is their third office within a year. Previous smaller rooms in the same building could no longer accommodate the team's rapid growth.

In August last year, Wanwulian managed to raise 10 million yuan in its A-round financing. Huang said the money would go mainly toward developing products and recruiting talent.

"My top priority is to focus on optimizing my products, and to provide the best user experience for my customers," he said.

sally@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/29/2015 page9)