The Chinese government aims to increase worldwide respect for the 'Made in China' brand and gear up its tech industry development. The country's State Council surprisingly emphasizes on the need for China's bathroom technology, and one such bathroom product is the smart toilet seat.
According to Tech in Asia, in a set of guidelines released recently for Made in China products, the State Council listed the products that Chinese companies need to focus on improving. Among them, the top three products listed were - rice cookers, air purifiers and smart toilet seats. Other products were toys, smartphones, etc. During the beginning of the year, in China's yearly legislative session, the main point of discussion happened to be rice cooker, and after a month, China released its own Xiaomi rice cooker.
Chinese government plans to boost its economy driven by domestic consumption and not trade and investment. The importance given into making smart toilet seats reflects the growing importance of consumers and a house-proud public, as they spend a lot to make their homes more comfortable and pleasant. Till now, Chinese media made fun of Japanese toilet seats that came with water jets, heaters and other silly techniques, but Chinese tourists took advantage of weaker Japanese yen for shopping in Tokyo.
As per Chinese consumers, Japan is leading in making better toilet seats. Apparently, on Taobao, the top selling smart toilet seats are Japanese, and many of them are marketed with weightage given to their Japanese or otherwise foreign origin, which is why the State Council decided to fire it up in China again.
As per forecasters, economic activity is improving but overall growth might fall this year. So creating the best smart toilet seat (Made in China) is probably the kind of prestige project that tends to attract a lot of China's smart hardware startups and companies.