Is pet intelligence a path to “freedom in pet - keeping” or just an “anxiety tax”?

Just by opening the mobile app, you can remotely start the cat toy. The smart feeder spits out a lunch measured to the gram on time, and at the same time, the smart cat toilet is pushing a report on the poop situation... This seems to be the ideal state of pet - keeping for today's "pet parents".

Data from iResearch shows that the growth rate of China's pet smart products market has exceeded 40% for three consecutive years. Smart feeders, cameras, and water dispensers have become the "three - piece set for pet - keeping".

However, behind the frenzy, the frequency of resale posts for pet smart devices on Xianyu is increasing. "Not used to it", "Useless", and "Cleaning is more troublesome than scooping poop" are the main reasons for selling second - hand devices.

When pet - keeping intelligence becomes a new trend, are these expensive smart devices really a way to free pet - owners' hands and achieve pet - keeping freedom, or just another "IQ tax" in the capital's harvesting of anxiety?

01 The Smart Frenzy under the "Pet Economy"

Data from the "Research Report on China's Pet Consumption Industry" released by iResearch shows that the market size of pet smart products is about 10.2 billion yuan, accounting for about 20% of the overall pet products market. However, the development of such a large market did not happen overnight.

The germination of pet intelligence was earlier than expected. In 2013, PETKIT, a company deeply involved in the pet smart hardware track, was officially established and launched pet smart wearable device products. During the same period, the American veteran pet products company PetSafe began to develop automatic feeders, water dispensers, and electronic fences.

Another important node was in 2018. With the popularization of the networking technology for pet smart devices and the upgrading of user consumption, the market reached the explosion period of single products.

PETKIT seized the IoT opportunity, completed a round B financing of 100 million yuan, and quickly launched smart feeders and smart water dispensers that support app control, becoming the definer and leader in this domestic track.

The domestic brand Donice unveiled its fourth - generation smart collar at the International Pet Products Expo and was officially listed in the United States during the same period, becoming the "first stock in pet smart hardware".

The brands for cats and dogs successively received investments from Granary and Xiaomi and became a company in the Xiaomi ecosystem, quickly embarking on a path of rapid development. In 2020, the smart pet water dispenser jointly developed by this brand and Mi Home raised funds through crowdfunding. 13,446 units were sold in 10 days, reaching 1422% of the target; 14,000 units of the Pawbby smart pet snack machine were sold in 30 days of crowdfunding, reaching 1403% of the target.

In the overseas market, Furbo's smart camera products integrate functions such as snack feeding and barking alerts, precisely hitting the users' needs for "interaction and comfort", and are a model of single - product blockbusters.

At the same time, emerging brands such as CATLINK, Xiaomi Youpin, Niaoyuhuaxiang, Petcube, and Litter - Robot are also constantly entering the market.

Since 2023, brands have begun to transform from the research and development of single - product blockbusters to the construction of product matrices and ecological layouts.

Specifically, leading brands such as PETKIT and HOMY Technology still focus on researching and developing intelligent products covering pet living scenarios.

Traditional pet industry giants such as New Ruipeng Group, Mars, and Nestle are constantly seeking intelligent transformation. For example, Mars tries to build a comprehensive ecosystem of "food + health + technology" by acquiring mature technology brands (Whistle, Wisdom Panel).

Giants from other industries are also starting to enter the market across industries. Midea, Xiaomi, etc. use their strong supply chains and brand influence to increase investment in intelligent technology, accelerating market competition.

Chongzhiling Technology, which targets B - end enterprises, has grasped the pain points of the industry and launched the "Pet All - inclusive" AI large model for pets, covering all industry scenarios such as pet medical care, smart hardware, insurance, travel, boarding, and education, providing enterprises with full - chain capabilities from data to application.

02 Hidden Traps under the Prosperous Market

With the booming pet smart market and continuous investment from giants, industry competition has evolved from simple function stacking to in - depth games for data value and ecological construction rights.

First, blind competition leads to product homogenization and high involution.

Leading brands are trapped in homogeneous tactics in order to seize the entrance to the "smart ecosystem". Take PETKIT as an example. Its smart feeder can sell more than 10,000 units per month on the Tmall platform. However, similar products from brands such as HOMY and Mi Home are also popular, and their functions are highly homogeneous. There is not much difference in the core functions of the products, and finally, they can only compete in terms of price and appearance.

Take "Unipal" as an example. It launched a strategy of "smart cat toilets under 1000 yuan". The market responded enthusiastically at the beginning, but in fact, it was "losing money to gain popularity". Although it achieved a certain sales volume, it over - estimated the scale of repurchase conversion brought by traffic, which ultimately led to a broken capital chain and the company entered the liquidation stage.

The industry research report of iResearch points out that this involution directly squeezes channel profits, reducing the gross profit margin of some smart products from over 40% in the early stage to about 20%.

Second, "False needs" and "False intelligence" consume trust and hinder industry upgrading.

A certain evaluation blogger tested 11 smart water dispensers and concluded that the so - called promotion of pets' water intake by flowing water is far less practical than timely water replacement. Data from a pet hospital in Hangzhou shows that the body temperature monitoring error of existing pet collars is ±0.5℃, while medical diagnosis requires an accuracy of ±0.1℃. So, the health detection function of most collars on the market is completely useless for users.

Some "smart" functions are also suspected to be marketing gimmicks. The actual sterilization rate of HOMY's drying box was detected to be only 52%, far lower than the advertised 78%. A technical blogger on Zhihu disassembled a camera claiming to have pet AI emotion analysis function and found that its algorithm was only based on a simple action recognition library, and the misjudgment rate of the pet's anxiety state exceeded 30%.

This kind of experience gap is leading to a decline in user trust and hindering the high - end development of the industry.

Finally, consumer traps and lack of ecosystem in enterprises.

The profit of pet intelligent hardware itself is limited. Some enterprises try to create continuous revenue through consumable binding and subscription services, such as cloud storage and advanced AI analysis. For example, smart cat litter boxes require special consumables, and non - original consumables may lock the device. Pet cameras force users to subscribe to high - price cloud storage.

A real ecosystem means the efficient linkage of devices, data, and services. Currently, only a few leading brands are starting to try to break through. Data from 36Kr shows that the health report provided by PETKIT's self - developed app is still relatively basic, and it has not yet achieved in - depth connection with offline medical services.

The industry report of iiMedia Research points out a cruel reality: although the market size of China's pet smart products reached 50 billion yuan in 2023, most enterprises are still trapped in the low - profit hardware business and data islands.

In the face of competitors with established technology and service closed - loops, brands lacking core data capabilities will see their living space continuously squeezed.

03 Where is the Key to Breaking the Deadlock?

In the wave of the "pet economy", to ride the waves, the first step is to find the real needs of users. The pain points of user needs are the real breakthrough points.

Breakthrough point one: Focus on technological depth rather than function refinement, and reconstruct products by returning to the essence. Replace micro - innovation gimmicks with the ultimate in basic functions. The automatic cat litter box technology of the foreign brand Litter - Robot is truly stable and easy to clean. The Whistle smart collar has developed functions in cooperation with veterinarians, enabling data to have medical value.

Breakthrough point two: Conduct in - depth verification of scenarios and prioritize user experience. PETKIT precisely focuses on user pain points, increases investment in product safety, and launches the PETKIT Smart Planetary Feeder. It sets up an emergency food - dispensing mechanism in case of power or network outages, which is a response to the core need for pet safety.

The fully automatic smart cat litter box launched by Litter Robot has successfully cracked the "false intelligence". Through weight sensors, high - end models can distinguish cats of different weights in the family and record the toilet frequency of each cat, obtaining valuable health data.

The CEO of the Whisker brand under the company publicly stated that the smart cat litter box products achieved sales of over 100 million US dollars in 2022 and are still growing at a high speed. This also proves the strong market demand for smart products that can truly solve problems.

Breakthrough point three: Focus on ecological linkage rather than isolated single products. Xiaomi's entry into the market across industries provides another idea. Through the linkage of the Mi Home ecosystem, pet devices can work in coordination with home cameras and air conditioners, creating an overall smart environment for "pets at home alone". In the future, the business model may shift to a reasonable profit model of "hardware + service subscription", avoiding over - reliance on "consumable binding" or "subscription services" that may damage user experience. Provide real value to gain users' willingness to pay.

The current market game is an inevitable result of the rapid market development. But only the fittest will survive. In the end, the brands that can stay are definitely not those that can only tell "emotional stories". The key to breaking the deadlock always lies in whether enterprises choose to harvest anxiety with technology or create value with wisdom. The answer is undoubtedly the latter.

* The pictures are from the Internet. Please contact us for deletion if there is any infringement.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Shenmou Finance” (ID: chutou0325). The author is Chen Yuan, and it is published by 36Kr with authorization.