The T10 supports horizontal and vertical screen rotation and functions such as online karaoke and mobile payments
By CUI Peng
On May 21st, Xiaodu, formerly Baidu’s AI business, launched the TIANTIAN T10, a rotating smart display. Xiaodu was spun off from Baidu and received external financing last year. An intelligent learning tablet and a whole-house smart solution appeared in March, but the new display is the first TIANTIAN-branded product.
Xiaodu CEO JING Kun optimistically claimed that the smart display is set to challenge smartphones and the hardware configuration of the T10 is indeed on par with most phones. The T10 supports horizontal and vertical screen rotation and functions such as online karaoke and mobile payments, for a mere 1700 yuan (US$260). Almost all of these mainstream functions come from external sources, karaoke is supported by WeSing, for example, while the payment is through Alipay.
In a chat with Jiemian News, Jing insisted that Baidu and Xiaodu were different entities, despite some obvious overlap. Baidu is the controlling shareholder of Xiaodu, but not the only collaborator. Xiaodu has partnered with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok owned by ByteDance, instead of Baidu’s in-house platform Haokan on short video products.
The T10 is much bigger than a smartphone, but Xiaodu’s market research indicates that mobility is not a big issue and certain demands are much better satisfied on the bigger screen.
“Comprehensive development is not our first priority, but the leading functions are. Functions such as karaoke, videos and online shopping should be much better than they are on typical smartphones,” said Jing. Using the example of long videos, he said that the following-day retention was 10 points higher on the T10 than on smartphones, a great difference in terms of mobile devices.
"Once users start watching on this screen, they will never look back at their smartphones again. That's why we have signed up so many video platforms," Jing said. “At 1,699 yuan, a TIANTIAN T10 can provide completely new experiences.
“We don't expect to take over our users’ whole smartphone time, which often reaches 6 or 7 hours a day or more. Just one or two hours will be enough at the beginning."
Although revenue will appear in Baidu's financial report, Jing said with certainty that TIANTIAN's products will not be profitable. The screen is configured with speakers, microphones and various membership services. It is a high-cost item, unlikely to make money.
"Our goal is more users," Jing Kun said "We don't plan to make a profit through hardware. Our core strategy is to build a software platform and let it penetrate new user groups.”
