The market size of functional sofas is expected to surpass 17 billion yuan, with leading companies accelerating their efforts to seize the blue ocean market of smart living rooms.

China Economic News reporter Yang Rangchen, Shi Yingjing, Shanghai report

AI is accelerating its role in empowering smart living, while leading companies are speeding up to seize the blue-ocean market.

According to data from Sullivan Consulting, China’s functional sofa market is expected to grow from 12.6 billion yuan in 2023 to 17 billion yuan in 2028, with a CAGR of 6.2%. However, at present, the penetration rate of functional sofas in the overall sofa market is only 15%, far below the 40% level in Europe and the United States. The market potential is huge. In the current industry, competition has shifted from channel expansion to product innovation, digitization/intelligence, and omnichannel operations. Leading companies are stepping up investment in AI home furnishings, health and comfort, and scenario-based solutions.

Recently, the Huazishi “first-class compartment” held a themed new product launch event, unveiling a new series of intelligent voice-controlled functional sofa products. This launch event lays out the AI track through technological innovation, filling the intelligent gap of core home furnishings in the smart living-room ecosystem, and propelling the functional sofa industry toward a deeper evolution in the AI home-furnishing application space. It also brings a brand-new upgraded experience to smart-home lifestyles. Industry experts, seasoned media, home-designers, top evaluation influencers, dealer partners, and guests from all walks of life jointly witnessed the grand debut of the Huazishi “first-class compartment” noble, gentleman, fashion, and MeiJu series new intelligent voice-controlled functional sofas.

The new products unveiled in this launch cover four major series: noble, gentleman, fashion, and MeiJu. Leveraging AI technology, they create an ultraminimalist, natural voice-interaction system, and also complete targeted optimization for everyday home scenarios. They achieve precise recognition in complex environments and zero-latency response, while also building a comprehensive security and protection system—so the technology truly serves life. Yu Huijuan, general manager of the brand planning center of Minva Holdings, said during the new product launch segment that the four new products reflect the brand’s deep insight into the real-life scenarios of countless families. They are a sincere work that blends AI technology with comfortable home furnishing. During the event, the brand also announced on-site the affordable people’s prices from the headquarters factory. In the livestream room, consumers nationwide and the on-site guests immediately picked up their phones to place orders and choose products on the spot.

At the roundtable forum segment titled “Intelligent Voice—Making First-Class Compartment Living More Comfortable,” the guests discussed smart-home living together. The forum was attended by guests including: Guo Fu, chairwoman of the China Society of Ergonomics; A Shuang, a leading home-furnishing design influencer; TOP10 Liangjie (unboxing influencer); Mr. Zheng Xiaofeng, deputy chairman of Minva Holdings’ Quanshiliang Leader Community; and Li Kexin, the forum host. The guests also included: a professor at the School of Business Administration, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics; a doctoral supervisor; and the head of the Industrial Engineering Department. Around the core theme of “Intelligent Voice—Making First-Class Compartment Living More Comfortable,” everyone agreed that focusing on the development trend of the AI home-furnishing track, building a smart living-room ecosystem, and upgrading the intelligence of home-furnishing products are currently the most important development directions for the brand. With this new product launch, Huazishi “first-class compartment” not only completed an upgrade of its own product matrix, but also, through an intelligent breakthrough in core home-furnishing products, filled in the missing pieces of the smart living-room ecosystem, providing practical ideas that can be referenced for the industry’s layout of the AI track.

Roundtable forum segment titled “Intelligent Voice—Making First-Class Compartment Living More Comfortable” segment. Interviewee/Image

Huazishi “first-class compartment”’s foray into the intelligent voice-interaction field is a key step for the brand to extend from functional sofas into the AI smart home-furnishing domain. From traditional seating to functional sofas, and then to AI-integrated intelligent new products, Huazishi “first-class compartment” has consistently been driven by technological innovation, promoting the evolution of sofas from a “passive seating” role into a “life companion that responds intelligently.” The hosting of this new product launch fully demonstrates Huazishi “first-class compartment”’s solid achievements in the AI home-furnishing track. Going forward, the brand will continue exploring the deep integration of AI technology with home living, unlocking more comfort possibilities for smart living rooms through additional innovative products—so that an intelligent, comfortable “first-class compartment” lifestyle becomes a reality in more homes.

Today, the home-furnishing industry has entered a stock/volume market. In the digital era, all traditional industries are worth being rebuilt through digitization and artificial intelligence, and the home-furnishing industry is no exception. What is worth paying attention to is that leading companies are accelerating their efforts to claim territory and strategically plan ahead for new blue-ocean tracks.

(Editor: Shi Yingjing, Review: Tong Haihua, Proofreading: Zhai Jun)