A viral article published in 2015 entitled, “Going to Japan to buy a toilet cover” provoked widespread discussion online, and made a bestseller of the product in question. This “toilet cover” was “smart”, in the sense that it could be controlled via a phone app. It wasn’t an entirely new product, but this was the first story one was to attract such widespread attention. This hadn’t happened for years.

As with AI, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and other related technologies were developed in recent years. Many have embraced the smart era in the same way that earlier people ushered in the electric era, followed by the information age. Can the smart bathroom usher in a similar market boom? JOMOO Group has been deeply involved in home hardware and sanitary ceramics for many years. In 2018, it ranked first among Chinese bathroom goods enterprises with sales of RMB 13 billion. Lin Xiaofa, chairman of JOMOO, stated his sales goal of RMB 50 billion by 2025, and placed high hopes on the smart products for kitchen bathroom and custom products. With cross-border competition for smart devices, can JOMOO win the smart-home battle? How does it support strategic upgrades in research and development, channels, and operations? This case focuses on the smart strategy of JOMOO.