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Discussion keeps the world turning. This is Roundtable. What if your toilet could do more than just flush? What if you could, it could adjust to your bodily needs, clean with precision and even entertain you? In China, a global manufacturing powerhouse, smart toilets have been gaining ground from shopping malls to hotels and are rapidly becoming the new standard in public spaces. How did
This happened, and could this be the next big step in elevating our daily comfort? Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable. I'm He Yang. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Shun in the studio. First on today's show...
Smart toilets, once a Japanese novelty, have transformed into a booming industry in China, with the country now making nearly 70 percent of the world's smart toilets, from just one million units sold in 2015 to over 11 million in 2024.
Smart toilets are now doing more than just flushing. They're revolutionizing comfort, hygiene, and even entertainment in the bathroom. What's behind the surge in popularity? Could smart toilets soon become as essential in our homes as air conditioning? So...
Steve, I got to consult with you. The concept of what a bathroom is supposed to be has apparently changed. Yeah. Before we get into statistics and start breaking down numbers and the trends and things like that, I thought this might set the table for our discussion quite well. This is a quote from Nancy, sorry, Louis Neithy, who is the leader of a product management firm in the UK saying,
And this is what Louis Neithy said. With an increased awareness of well-being, design trends have shifted towards solutions and spaces that promote relaxation and mindfulness. This shift mirrors the evolving role of the bathroom. Once a utilitarian space, it's now seen as a sanctuary for self-care and revitalization.
Early indications of the trend are now gaining momentum with the bathroom being reimagined as a regenerative space, a place for immersive experiences rather than just functional use. How wonderful is that? So with that in mind, I think we can have a nice discussion about smart toilets today. And I think I can maybe explain a little even more
more clearly why you with all of these smart toilets you can experience what Steve just said you know some of these smart toilet or there are sometimes it's just a smart toilet seat so it's kind of a advanced bathroom fixtures equipped with features like automatic flushing seat warming bidet functions air drying and even health monitoring to
to actually improve your hygiene and comfort and the whole convenient experience of you using the toilet. Yes. Some of them have lights inside, so they create this nice...
Almost glow. So that's convenient because you don't have to turn on the bathroom light because if you get up in the middle of the night to go to the washroom and you turn the lights on, you know, suddenly you're blinded, right? But if you have that light, it's nice and soft on the eyes. I mean, they have designed and redesigned the toilet into something...
far better than what it just used to be. They've really tried to think of every convenience that they possibly could. It's really kind of cool. It is. And we'll get into the smart part in more detail in a second. And also just to quickly differentiate between the
electronic toilet seats that Yushun mentioned and the smart toilets. Yeah, there are similarities and differences, but with the toilet seats, these are attachments you install onto a regular toilet. They offer features such as the heated seats, bidet sprays, air drying, and more. And the smart toilets, which is sort of the star of the first half of the show today, are
Our entire toilet's built with these technologies already integrated, often with more advanced features such as automatic lids, automatic flushing, deodorizing, or even music or app
And Yushun, please walk us through how China's smart toilet market grew more than tenfold in 10 years. Oh, yeah. So there is a 2024 report published by China Household Electrical Appliances Association or CHEAA.
It is showing that China has grown into the country with the largest manufacturing scale and market size of intelligent toilets. So this report is revealing that China's annual production of smart toilets rose 8.2% year on year to 12.65 million units in 2020.
with the total output exceeding 10 million units for three consecutive years. And also in 2023, China's share accounted for 69% of global smart toilet output, which is solidifying China's position as the world's largest smart toilet manufacturer. And also about the cells, this report also reveals that domestic cells of smart toilets reached...
almost 34 billion yuan or 4.6 billion US dollars in China in 2023. And also the domestic sales volume reached more than 11 million units in 2023, which is also a year-on-year increase of 18%. It accounted for 64% of the global market. Yeah, it's here. Sorry to interrupt. Did you want to finish your point? Yes. Another point I would like to raise is that the product market
penetration rate of smart toilets in China. In the report, it's also saying that it remains still less than 10% in 2023. So globally, it feels that it's not that widely adopted, but it is growing.
Yeah, I was just going to jump in with the global expectations, if you will. This is from China Daily, and they were talking about a market research and consulting firm called Grandview Research. And when they forecast the global smart toilet market, they're looking at a growth rate of double digits because consumers are
are becoming more conscious of cleanliness and hygiene is increasing. And again, going back to that quote, you know, what people expect from their bathroom experience is now changing. Now it's elevated now.
So the global smart toilet market was valued at almost $10 billion, around $9.5 billion in 2023. They project that to grow at a rate of about 12% to 13% between now and 2030. So numbers and production growing here in China. But the world is now catching on, and it seems like the bathroom is being taken more seriously and more luxuriously now. And that's what...
Japan kind of started with all this trend of smart toilets, I suppose, and the penetration rate of this particular arrangement in the bathroom in Japan is like over 80% or something like that. So actually, more than 10 years ago, when trips to Japan became really popular here in China, Japanese smart toilets were seen as a tech marvel.
Right up there with Japanese rice cookers and electronic toilet seats which topped Chinese tourists shopping lists now More than a decade later China is making world-class smart toilets of its own and smart toilets didn't just become popular overnight How did everyday consumers warm up to smart toilets in Japan? so
Actually, people in Japan did not accept it at the very beginning. An article by the domestic tech media LaTeX says if we take 1979, the year when Panasonic launched the research and development of smart toilet as the beginning point, the industry started to develop rapidly after 1995 in Japan and over 20%.
15 years later. So according to another website, it's called vigafaucet.com, as of March 2021, Japan's smart toilet penetration rate, as you said, He Yang, it reached 80.3% with 113 units per 100 households. Yeah, so if you don't have a smart toilet in Japan, you are in the minority. Yes. Yeah. The...
Numbers remain at perhaps a relatively low number. I mean, most countries would be relatively low compared to Japan, 80.3 penetration rate. It's rising here in China year by year, 9.6% in 2023.
And we talked about the production numbers now, right? And China's becoming one of, if not the leader, one of the leaders in the world in terms of production. So there's going to be an increase. I think we can expect to see an increase in that penetration number here in the Chinese market in the future. Sorry, just quickly echo what you guys said. If you're Chinese, you've been living in this country for more than, let's say, 20 years.
20 years, you can visibly see that there are just so many more smart toilets now. It's in a lot of places. And what features of smart toilets are winning consumers over?
Oh, yeah. I think we mentioned some of them and some of them are quite basic right now for the whole development of all of these intelligent toilets, like automatic lid opening, seat heating are just becoming the standard features for these smart toilets. And now even more, I
I think personalized functions are available. When you sit down comfortably, the toilet will be covered by dense bubbles. And that's creating a foam shield, that's what they call it. And it can prevent splashing, sticking, and also helps with antibacterial and deodorizing effects. And also, after you're done...
After you've done, filtered water can be instantly heated for washing. And which part you're washing, we all know that. And you can even customize the cleaning position, water flow, and water pressure. Some models can even record the washing preferences of different family members. Maybe, for example, elderly users can choose slightly higher water temperatures and slightly lower water pressure.
And that's one choice. And then after you washed everything, cleaned up,
Warm air drying kicks in saving you even the trouble of reaching for a toilet paper. Yeah, these new smart toilets They're different from the attachments that you were talking about before when I lived in Korea. I had one of the attachment bidets So someone comes to your house they take off your regular toilet seat and they put this new toilet seat on there which includes all the bidet functions then they hook it up to the existing plumbing in the house and
and it operates that way. But the ones that I saw, that style, there were no self-cleaning. They had those heated seats and the preferences about water pressure and all that stuff, but there was no self-cleaning. There was no foam bubbles. There was no music playing. The lid didn't automatically come up and down. So compared to the product that I just described, these are just on a whole other level. These are...
Yes, indeed. And apparently nowadays for Chinese consumers or let's say hotel goers,
Does this hotel have the smart toilet has become sort of one of the things on the checklist of whether this is a nice hotel? Oh, really? Yeah, things like that. It's kind of becoming a threshold or standard to see if this hotel is luxurious enough. If it has an intelligent toilet seat or intelligent toilet...
It is a high-end hotel in some way. Oh, so people aren't necessarily – because probably it used to be – what would it used to be? Maybe a flat-screen TV or maybe a super comfortable bed or something like that? Kind of the benchmark of whether people thought, oh, this is a nice hotel or this is just an average hotel. And now the smart toilet has become the new standard for whether this hotel is luxury or not. Also, if you're a nice shopping mall or not.
Like all the nice shopping malls in Beijing, for example, they have... First of all, if they can establish that they have a very clean bathroom, that's one thing. And also, the smart toilet is a necessity. Yeah. Here's a couple of other features which I think is pretty cool. So the flushing is automatic and the smart toilet knows...
by the amount of time spent sitting or standing, it's between 50 and 60 seconds, right? So after standing up, the lid will automatically close and start the flushing process. But if the sitting time, and they'll flush with a small amount of water, but if the sitting time exceeds a minute, then the lid will close and it will flush a larger amount of water. And that means we're looking at
Conservation, right? Water conservation there. Because the toilet recognizes how much water it needs to flush appropriately. You know how if you go into some public toilets, there will be two flush buttons? Yes. Right. The small one and the big one. Exactly. So these smart toilets, they're able to recognize that. But also, one thing they might not be doing that much for conservation is one star feature is...
You know, with the water spray, right? And then it points and it cleans. Without you need... Oh yeah, and then there's the drying function as well. But with the cleaning, there's water coming out. You're using more water, I suppose. But you don't need, in theory, you don't need to use toilet paper anymore. Yes. So you save up on paper, but use more water.
Who knows? These are all, I suppose, really wonderful inventions that come up. One more really cool thing. What is it? The quiet mode. So if you use the washroom in the middle of the night or something, right? Or maybe you have people over for dinner and the bathroom's located close to the living room or something like that.
Quiet flushing mode is where you probably will not be able to hear it. The sound level of the flush is so low that it's not going to, because you know what I'm talking about, right? No, I don't. You can hear the flush from outside in the living room or something like that. It's just a little awkward. But with the quiet mode, it reduces the sound to a point where you don't even hear it. How awesome is that? Mm-hmm.
And if we're getting there, another function, I think it is quite special and personalized one. You can, if you have some problem of constipation, there is also, yeah. Oh, you should. I can't believe you. What does the smart toilet help you with that? They use maybe personalized water temperature and the pressure of the water can give you some stimulation and
And then you can really, truly relax and, you know, go for it. I thought it was going to be words of inspiration like, you can do it. Oh, well, actually.
Actually, there's one function that shows my love for the Japanese smart toilet. And I've looked at all these Chinese articles, but it doesn't seem like this particular smart function is all that popular here in China. But I'd still just like to share with you. Might be a little bit of an overshare. But in Japan, they have this yin-ji function in these two Chinese characters. It literally means sound princess. And this button on the smart toilet...
plays a flushing or water sound to mask embarrassing bathroom noises. And originally developed because apparently Japanese ladies felt shy or uncomfortable about the sounds made while using the toilet.
I know this is a little bit of an overshare, but I think this is particularly useful, let's say, in the office toilet. Because, okay, if you're completely strangers, you're in different cubicles, you're doing your business, whatever. But sometimes it's like, oh, you greeted each other and like going into the bathroom and you go into separate cubicles. And then...
when the needle drops, you can hear it. And then it's just really weird, you know? So I would really love a sound princess function button, but I haven't worked in any companies that has such an advanced toilet function. So anyhow, in China, not a big thing, but in Japan, it's common.
When I said they think of every possible convenience, that's one of the things that I was talking about. That's amazing. I watched a video. It was an expat in Japan. I think it looked like a public toilet. He didn't announce where he was, but he just kind of had his camera pointed at the floor at the toilet, and he said, I just want you to hear what happens in a Japanese toilet. And it's like...
royal court music starts to play. Like you were an emperor or a king or a queen or something. And I just thought, wow, they really did think of everything. It's cool. But if you're using music to cover the sound of you using the toilet, would that be just...
letting people outside know you're having a party in the toilet instead of you're using the toilet. Yeah, I don't know if you can choose your music genres or not. Yeah, well, I certainly found that apparently with the sound princess function and then prior to that because people used to flush the water a lot
to mask the noise. And then if you're playing music or water noise to cover it, then that's actually good for conservation. And when we look at here in China, as time moved on and as the manufacturing prowess continues to develop in this country, now there are so many high-quality homemade, as in China, homegrown products
smart toilet brands that have been coming up with special designs as well as, you know, just really making good product that the market welcomes. Yes, Chinese brands are developing a lot of these intelligent toilets and also toilet seats, and they are exporting these to foreign countries. A recent China Daily report is saying that Chinese home furnishings
Maker Arrow Home Group has products including smart toilets, high-end ceramic bathroom accessories, etc. And the company operates eight global research centers focused on standardization and frontier innovations while regional teams tailor products to local needs. For example, in its Vietnam store, the vice president of this company,
saying that the company introduced new smart bathroom products in its first Vietnam flagship store in Ho Chi Minh City. Their research shows that Vietnamese consumers prioritize ergonomic comfort and smart usability in bathroom products, and the new toilet
Products they launch there have specially designed seat, which enhances user comfort or has antibacterial features catered to Vietnam's humid climate. Yeah, right. So they design products where moisture proofness, if that's a word, is enhanced or anti-mold features because in Southeast Asia, humidity is poor.
perhaps more common or high temperatures are more common than they'd find in their European market. So they design their European products for the European market just a little bit differently. So what else kind of drives this demand for smart toilets in this country? I think first of all is the awareness of having a maybe healthier lifestyle and maybe catering to your
your own needs and demand that kind of thing because people are having maybe higher living standard and people will naturally think about maybe have a better experience even when they're using the toilet. So that is one thing when we are, as you said, maybe 10 years ago looking at all of these Japanese smart toilets, Chinese people would buy toilets from Japan. And now we have the ability of manufacturing these high-end intelligent toilet seats or toilets
just domestically and of course the demand and also I think it is also brings down the prices of all of these expensive intelligent toilets. And then here in China there's a surge in renovation driven demand so old urban residential communities
There's growth there. It's projected to hit over 700 billion yuan through 2025. That's about $97 billion, just under. So there's that, the renovation market. And then there's rising demands from, we talked about it already, hotel guests are expecting more from their hotel bathrooms. So hotel renovations too. Also elderly-friendly renovation too.
That would really help out the elderly community, right? Make things more convenient. And that's increasing consumer acceptance among those groups, but just increasing consumer acceptance overall, I think, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Also, I would also like to mention that we are talking about a lot of these fancy features and how affordable these could be. The number is telling the truth. The penetration rate is not that high. So what we can see is that there is still a huge, I think, improvement space for Chinese market, also maybe for development.
And one worry I saw is that the water used in these devices may not be maybe properly filtered or that the cleaning of the system isn't timely and leading to bacterial growth in the spray nozzles sometimes.
Yeah, so in comparison, if filtration and regular cleaning are required, the cost of use could rise significantly. And as a result, many people may prefer models with just maybe seat heating functions or not use it at all. So there are still, I think, room for improvement. Yeah, I understand that point too, right? Because these are...
complicated machines in a sense. There's a lot of moving parts to them, like literally moving parts. And those parts need to be replaced sometimes. And for the average consumer, I would assume number one, they don't know how to do it themselves.
And number two, they may not want to do it themselves, right? Because you have to kind of get down on your hands and knees. You don't know how to fix the thing. Well, yeah, exactly. And I remember from that in Korea, that attachment bidet that I had,
the nozzle needed to be replaced for cleanliness purposes once every, I forget, once every three months or something like that. Especially seeing the bathroom and it is an environment that easily get these bacterial infections. Yeah. So then, you know, I had to make an appointment with the company and it was a service that they provided, but still, you know, I had to like text and okay, I'm going to be home at this time. You can go, it's just another layer of,
I don't know, making things more complicated. And some people, some consumers just might not like that very much. That I can understand. With rising living standards, people are seeking more comfort and convenience in every aspect of life, just like...
What we're talking about today, look at the growing demand for smart toilets in China. This shift reflects a broader desire for better quality living conditions, while also showcasing China's manufacturing prowess as a global leader in meeting these new demands.