Economic Observer reporter Chen Yueqin

The International Consumer Electronics Show (IFA 2026) will be held in Berlin, Germany from September 4th to September 8th, 2026. The 102 year old IFA exhibition witnessed the ups and downs of the global consumer electronics industry over the past century: from the early dominance of Europe and America, to the rise of Japan and South Korea, and now the comprehensive dominance of Chinese companies.

This year, more than 1900 companies from 49 countries and regions participated in the exhibition, with 932 Chinese exhibitors, accounting for nearly half of the total, almost filling all core exhibition areas from large household appliances to clean appliances, from smart homes to new energy. The huge advertising space at the entrance of the exhibition hall is enclosed by Chinese companies such as TCL, Haier, Midea, Hisense, Xiaomi, etc.

A Shenzhen smart hardware enterprise insider said that he spent a day browsing the exhibition hall, speaking Chinese throughout the entire process. After greeting around, he found that all the companies at his doorstep were customers, competitors, upstream and downstream suppliers, etc. During IFA, he invited industry insiders to have coffee, hot pot, and play tennis on his social media in Berlin, which was more diverse than the number of people he invited in Shenzhen.

Xiaomi, which participated in IFA for the first time this year, directly secured a super large exhibition booth of over 3300 square meters in the core exhibition area. Not only did it showcase several new mobile phones or televisions, but it also fully moved more than 380 mature products from the "human car home ecosystem" in China to Berlin.

In the field of intelligent cleaning, due to various obstacles such as tariffs in the North American market, the five major Chinese cleaning companies have coincidentally deployed all their flagship technologies to Europe. Stone Technology has released the RockAqua P1, which can overcome complex obstacles and even dive underwater to clean swimming pools; The exhibition lineup of Zhumi has been reduced, and only four main products - smart homes, outdoor courtyards, smart travel, and embodied intelligence - will be exhibited this time; Ecovacs introduces photovoltaic relays into underwater robots, and the signal will not attenuate during underwater operations. On this track, traditional home appliance brands in Europe and America have been left behind at least one position in the integration of algorithms and machinery.

There are occasional figures of local European brands in the home appliance exhibition hall, while in the IFA Next innovation exhibition area of the robot exhibition hall, over 80% of exhibitors come from China, including Yushu Technology, Galaxy General Motors, Zhiyuan Robot, Sweet Potato Robot, etc.

In the bustling hard technology exhibition booth, there is also a new face - AliExpress, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Alibaba. Why is AliExpress here? Why is an e-commerce platform joining the hardware exhibition? "Yanzhi, the head of Alibaba's AliExpress Brand+, was repeatedly asked a similar question. In fact, AliExpress participated in IFA with a clear mission, one of which was to establish connections with every Chinese brand participating in the exhibition.

In the past decade, cross-border e-commerce has mainly played the role of a "channel" for selling Chinese white label and cheap goods overseas. However, in the European market with strict compliance requirements and mature consumer mentality, the low price dumping model has reached its peak.

In this context, AliExpress wants to take more brands overseas. Many Chinese hard tech startups often face pain points such as slow channel deployment, weak localized marketing, and difficult logistics performance overseas. AliExpress has invited European suppliers such as German cashback platform Payback and affiliate marketing AWIN to expand their marketing channels. In mid September, they will also use local warehouses in Germany, which will reduce warehouse and distribution costs for overseas merchants by 15% to 20%.

IFlytek also participated in IFA for the first year. A person in charge of the consumer business group of iFlytek mentioned that most Chinese brands participate in IFA not to sell goods on site, but to "show off their muscles". If you don't participate in the exhibition, it's difficult for the outside world to perceive how light the product is and how powerful the AI function is.

The exhibition is an important window for product managers to listen to local voices and translate technology into user language. It only takes a few days to understand the real demands and feedback of consumers. For example, what surprised the product manager of iFlytek was that compared to AI, European consumers are more concerned about details such as product battery life and white appearance that are more suitable for high temperature environments in Europe during summer.

Another change in IFA this year is that Samsung will no longer rent the large main venue at Messe Berlin. Since 2014, Samsung has been the largest exhibitor at IFA, with an annual booth area of over 6000 square meters. Samsung's withdrawal and Xiaomi's entry have further sparked curiosity in the European market for new entrants.

Why choose to participate in IFA in a high-profile manner this year? A person involved in the preparation of Xiaomi's IFA project revealed to the Economic Observer that discussions within the company about whether to participate in IFA have been ongoing for three to four years, and every year they evaluate whether it is the best time. It was not until the end of 2025 that they officially decided to participate this year.

For Xiaomi, this year is a milestone that connects the past and the future. On the one hand, in September 2025, Xiaomi's flagship products will make their debut in Munich. The brand "Mi Home" has gone global with home appliances, but has not officially introduced it to European users. Xiaomi hopes to officially introduce "Mi Home" to the European market and convey the message that "Xiaomi is not just about mobile phones". On the other hand, Xiaomi Auto will enter the European market, including Germany, in 2027.

Those who make mobile phones may not necessarily make cars, and those who make whole house intelligence may not necessarily make embodied intelligence, especially in Germany, which has established car companies such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi. How can we introduce Xiaomi to a wider range of European consumers? What kind of company is Xiaomi?

Xiaomi Group's partner and president, Lu Weibing, told the Economic Observer, "I am no longer worried about this issue." During a visit to a group of customers in Germany, Lu Weibing asked them why they wanted to cooperate with Xiaomi. The three most frequently mentioned sentences from customers were: "You are a tech company," which was the most frequently mentioned; Secondly, you are a premium brand; Thirdly, you are an ecosystem company.

A smart hardware company with overseas revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan believes that promoting brand awareness on the C-end at large-scale exhibitions is more important than making direct transactions on the B-end. Especially when entering a new market, it is difficult to fully tell others' what company I am currently in '. Without a complete and formal presentation, a brand may be stereotyped by the outside world. The new generation of intelligent hardware in China urgently needs a window for large-scale exhibitions to directly reach C-end consumers.

Compared to the extreme price war in the domestic market, European consumers have lower price sensitivity and stable purchasing power. Europe has long held over a quarter of the global home appliance and consumer electronics market share. At the same time, the North American market has built a high wall, and Europe has become the absolute main battlefield for Chinese hard technology brands to go global.

The aforementioned smart hardware enterprise insiders believe that for many brands whose products have just been launched or are just preparing to enter Europe, participating in IFA is a way to "beat dates". "If there are dates, but not dates, hit a stick", and then do it first.

(Author Chen Yueqin)