Tuya Smart ("Tuya" or or the "Company") (NYSE: TUYA) a global IoT development platform, has convened a high-level forum for European business leaders to discuss trends in IoT. Entitled “Global Smart Connectivity: Sharing, Openness, Opportunities,” Tuya gathered various industry experts from across the European region to discuss the unique benefits and challenges of IoT in the region. A key event takeaway was the importance of combining a strong IoT development partner with a clear localization strategy to attain a foothold in Europe.

The IoT market offers a path for growth during the pandemic and beyond. According to research firm IDC, European IoT spending is set to exceed US $200 Billion by the end of 2021, including hardware and software applications. However, due to the fragmented nature of the market, companies outside Europe or siloed in a specific European country face many challenges expanding across the European IoT market.

Consumer preferences, hardware standards, and software standards can vary widely across the over 40 countries and regions in Europe, with technical standards even more numerous for IoT devices than for traditional electronics devices. For example, a smart refrigerator networking function must meet not only EU telecommunications regulations but also the various telecommunications requirements for each specific European country and sub-region it wishes to enter.

Tuya Smart’s open and neutral IoT development platform enables firms to meet country-specific consumer preferences throughout the region. For example, IoT hardware producers may have to support various smart voice assistants to meet the needs of all European countries. While the smart voice assistant Alexa is popular throughout Europe, it has shown limited success in the Russian market where consumers prefer Alice, the voice assistant developed by local search giant Yandex.

Fragmentation can also increase barriers for traditional electronic or hardware companies from launching smart products for the European region. Tina Yu, Tuya Smart’s General Manager for Eurasia and North America said, “We’re seeing strong demand for smartization across Europe. Traditional hardware companies across many industries are entering the IoT space for the first time. As an IoT development platform, we are looking to support the successful smartization to help launch products in the region and encourage the development of products consumers are looking for.”

While many European firms have local market insight and experience, IoT localization has many technical challenges that require input from IoT partners to understand. The lighting brand Calex, for example, has experience in the European market for more than 50 years in decorative lighting. On implementing a localization strategy in the IoT era, Marc van Hoof, head of marketing at Calex said at the event, “By partnering with Tuya, we are able to not only explore and penetrate new categories but also diversify our products under the smart ecosystem. Cooperating with an open and neutral IoT development platform like Tuya has helped us to promote localization. Tuya has enabled Calex to accomplish much more than we’d ever have thought four years ago.”

Tuya Smart’s IoT development platform is helping European firms expand their goals to the broader European region. The Hungarian-based intelligent solution provider EPS has partnered with Tuya’s open and neutral IoT development platform to adapt to complex local environments across Europe. Péter Zsák, senior consultant at EPS, spoke at the event about how the partnership has helped support EPS’s growth throughout Europe, and achieve rapid deployment.

“Our goal is to have the majority not only of the Hungarian market but to reach the central European market in shops, in apartments, and by teaching end-users and installers about the Tuya solutions,” said Zsák.

Tuya’s unique IoT development platform with its localized strategic support offers European firms a one-stop solution for launching products in any of Europe’s over 40 countries and regions. Localization is not only about market familiarity but also about building a relationship between the market and the company, and understanding the technical specifications and requirements of each unique market to achieve product success. By bridging gaps in technology and providing an open, adaptable, and interconnectable IoT ecosystem, Tuya is helping firms in the region not only meet market demand but focus on developing new IoT products.

UK Aurora, a LED lighting and technology company, touched on how the open IoT development platform promotes localization. Product manager Chris Hill pointed out that by partnering with Tuya, UK Aurora was able to explore new products and services, such as remote access, and explore new opportunities like data analytics and energy monitoring. Looking to the future, Hill said, "Though our partnership with Tuya is in the early stages, so far it’s been great, and we look forward to a quick development into the next year.”

About Tuya Smart

Tuya Smart (NYSE: TUYA) is a global IoT development platform that builds interconnectivity standards to bridge the intelligent needs of brands, OEMs, developers, and retail chains across a broad range of smart devices and industries. Based on the global public cloud, Tuya connects different intelligent scenarios and smart devices by providing hardware development tools, integrating global public cloud services, and offering an intelligent business development platform. Tuya provides comprehensive smart empowerment from technology to marketing to foster a neutral, open, and accessible developer ecosystem.