Shimao Group eyes expansion with new tech
Shimao Group intends to triple the size of office and residential space under contract by expanding Internet of Things solutions with technology partners; also it may list its property management affiliate in two years.
Partnered with external high-tech firms like speech recognition solution provider Beijing Unisound Information Technology Co, artificial intelligence firm specializing in computer vision SenseTime and cloud computing giant Alibaba Cloud, Shimao has unveiled new property management solutions for office buildings, residential neighborhoods and property developers by combining its own technological capabilities with smart home devices.
Existing residential neighborhoods will also undergo renovation to include more technologically advanced solutions such as security.
Shimao seeks to balance its property management businesses with its core business of residential property and commercial property development.
It also aims to expand its service realm to include not only residents at its neighborhoods, but also a wider customer group including external partners as well as visitors and the whole community.
Ding Zuyu, CEO of real estate transaction service provider E-House China, said the property management industry could be worth 1 trillion yuan (US$141.54 billion) in the long term as it is generally not subject to economic cycles.
With this plan to support growth, Shimao Group said it may list its property management affiliate in two years, either on the Chinese mainland or Hong Kong.
Shimao will use the affiliate to raise its competitiveness and quality of service, said Ye Mingjie, vice president of Shimao Group who is also chairman and president of Shimao Property Management Co.
"We want to leverage the Internet of Things and smart urban management solutions to optimize our cost structure, and therefore put more staff on customer service," he said.
By the end of July, it had a presence in some 50 domestic cities with a customer base of nearly 2.4 million households at more than 160 residential projects. It hopes to cover as many as 3 million households by 2021.
