Currently, it is a critical moment for the restructuring of the global home appliance industry.
In the first year of China’s “15th Five-Year Plan”, the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act officially came into effect, and the United States passed the Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act to accelerate the deployment of smart homes. The world’s three major economies are reshaping competition rules in the home appliance industry from different dimensions.
On January 29, the China Household Electrical Appliances Service and Maintenance Association held a conference in Beijing with the theme of “Intelligence Integration·Media Empowerment·Tide Trend”
2026”-themed annual event.
This media gathering is not only an industry exchange, but also an in-depth prediction and strategic layout of the development direction of the home appliance service industry in the next five years.
According to data from the International Energy Agency, the global penetration rate of smart home appliances has exceeded 40% in 2025, with China contributing 60% of its production capacity; new EU regulations require that all home appliances must implement smart grid interactive functions before 2027; the U.S. Department of Energy has raised energy efficiency standards for home appliances to the highest level in history.
Against this background, China’s home appliance service industry is undergoing a profound transformation from “exporting products overseas” to “exporting service standards overseas”.
At the meeting, key voices from government, industry, research, and media gathered together to outline a new blueprint for industry development with the “three major emerging markets” as the engine, “qualitative service change” as the core, and “intelligent media integration” as the path.
Experts’ outlook: Reshaping service value with “digital intelligence leap”.
The core signal released by the meeting stems from profound insights into macroeconomics and industrial policies.
Relevant experts clearly pointed out that the “15th Five-Year Plan” period will adhere to the general tone of work while maintaining stability, with the theme of promoting high-quality development. The core driving force lies in reform and innovation. The fundamental purpose is to meet the people’s growing needs for a better life, and to expand domestic demand as the strategic basis.
For the service industry, the main engine of the national economy, the main focus is to use “digital intelligence” and “innovative technology” as the driving force and institutional reform as the guarantee.
Only through a higher level of supply and demand adaptation can consumer confidence be effectively boosted and the development of the entire service industry reach new heights.
Based on keen judgments on policy trends, experts predict that the country will further optimize policy measures for the trade-in of consumer goods in 2026, which will undoubtedly bring a new round of development opportunities to the home appliance service industry.
At the same time, the China Service Association has made continuous judgments on industry changes in recent years. In 2023, Guo Chibing, chairman of the presidium of the China Service Association Council, already understood that the market is shifting from “emphasis on products” to “emphasis on services”; in 2024, Liu Xiumin, president of the China Service Association, further proposed that consumer demand is experiencing four major leaps.
These coherent and in-depth industry insights jointly confirm that “reshaping service value” has become an irreversible trend of the times.
A new cycle of structural growth: the three major emerging market engines start at full speed.
Based on detailed data, the China Service Association has made specific and subtle predictions about industry trends in 2026 and the future period.
The home appliance market is bidding farewell to extensive growth and entering a new cycle characterized by “weak recovery + structural growth”.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2025, my country’s home appliance market has shown a clear pattern of “stabilizing total volume, structural differentiation, technology-driven, and green intelligence-led”.
Looking forward to 2026, the China Service Association predicts that the home appliance market as a whole will present four major characteristics: “policy support, structural upgrade, acceleration of overseas expansion, and channel change”.
The performance of export sales is expected to continue to be better than that of domestic sales, and the core driving force for growth will completely shift from scale expansion to product structure upgrades and new track layout.
In this new cycle of “structural growth”, the three major emerging markets have been identified as the core engines of growth, which will trigger an industrial fission from “product-heavy” to “scenario-heavy services”.
The market size of whole-house intelligent systems is expected to reach 280 billion yuan in 2026, with market penetration exceeding 35%; high-end, scene-based products for AI displays (such as AI TVs and AIPCs) will become mainstream; service robots will continue to penetrate and grow in specific functional areas such as cleaning and distribution, as well as in segmented scenarios such as health management and emotional escort.
Value jump: from passive cost items to co-creation growth poles.
In 2025, Liu Xiumin, senior president of the China Service Association, once pointed out that the way to break the industry lies in “a leap in digital intelligence and a qualitative change in services.”
Many companies still regard services as “cost centers” and “free accessories” and fall into the cycle of “replacement instead of repair”.
The “digital intelligence transition” is driven by technologies such as AI, big data, and the Internet of Things, which triggers the reconstruction of the value logic and model of the producer service industry.
“The rise of user initiative” is a key catalyst for the qualitative change of services, and the nature of services must be redefined.
The relevant action plans and publicity programs organized by the China Service Association are important practices in promoting this change.
Strategic synergy: Deepening “intelligent media integration” to lead industrial development.
Ma Yu, Vice Chairman of the Presidium of the China Service Association, systematically released the publicity work strategy for 2026 at the conference, the core of which is to deepen “intelligent media integration” and launch the “Tide 2026” plan.
The media promotion work in 2026 will focus on “policy-driven → technological empowerment → coexistence of consumption upgrades and consumption grading → investment opportunities → media co-creation” to form a positive interactive ecosystem that promotes industrial development.
Professional media carries the three core values of information bridge, value co-creation platform and trend leadership.
At the meeting, the China Service Association released the core topic selection framework for 2026 and launched the Trend 2026 plan, which aims to promote the development of high-quality services in the home appliance service industry through media empowerment and voice dissemination.
