How a Smart Lock Startup Won Huawei’s Contest and Scaled IoT Solutions

In the 2017 Huawei Developer Contest, Shanghai Duoling Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., the 2016 award‑winning team, shared its journey, technical insights, and market impact of its smart‑lock solutions.

Technical focus and challenges – Smart locks belong to both the hardware and security sectors of IoT. The company stresses the need for industry standards, especially for wireless protocols such as NB‑IoT, Z‑Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi‑Fi and RF, which are currently less mature in China.

Motivation for smart transformation – After a decade in traditional lock hardware, the founders seized the e‑commerce boom in 2010, leveraged IoT wireless technology, and in 2012 pivoted to a smart‑home security division, expanding from locks to apps, gateways and cloud services.

“Smart Door Butler” solution – The award‑winning system links a smart peephole and a smart lock via Z‑Wave, integrates with Huawei OceanConnect IoT through the Huawei Agent, and was the first in the industry to achieve peephole‑lock interaction. Post‑contest, the solution was refined and embedded in the Duoling HuiJu app, offering features such as fingerprint unlocking, remote video monitoring, and automatic alerts.

The company also launched a smart‑lock rental model: users pay a deposit and a daily fee of one yuan for free installation; after the rental period the lock is transferred to the user, with a refund option if unsatisfied.

After winning, Duoling received increased exposure through Huawei’s events such as the HC conference and Germany’s CeBIT, opening overseas project opportunities.

Advice for contest participants – (1) Continuously learn new technologies; (2) Design applications that solve real‑world problems; (3) Prioritize high‑quality, impactful solutions over sheer quantity; (4) Stay informed about Huawei’s open capabilities and competition updates.

Current technical cooperation with Huawei – Duoling is undergoing Huawei MAR certification for an NB‑IoT smart lock that uses Huawei’s NB‑IoT module and RESTful calls to OceanConnect IoT for remote unlocking, data collection, alerts, identity and permission management, all without a gateway and with carrier‑grade encryption. The 30‑person development team seeks systematic training, enhanced security collaboration, and deployment on Huawei Cloud.

Duoling’s experience demonstrates that beyond prize money, the Huawei Developer Contest can provide valuable market channels and partnership opportunities for IoT innovators.