The official launch of the world’s first artificial intelligence “6S” store in Shenzhen will drive AI innovation and entrepreneurship and fuel the city’s push to become an AI leader, officials and industry insiders said.
Located in Shenzhen’s Longgang district, the “6S” store, which opened on Sunday, provides integrated services for software development and hardware manufacturing, further driving the city’s efforts to become a global AI pioneer.
The AI store undertakes six major functions: “Show”, “Sale”, “School”, “Social”, “Solution”, and “Startup”, offering comprehensive services that range from product display and sales to solution development, talent training, community building, and startup incubation.
It is supported by Chinese Software Developer Network (CSDN), a renowned IT technology exchange platform which is home to over 50 million developers, and Shenzhen Huaqiu Electronics, a leading distributor of electronic components. Together with their backing, the “6S” store integrates both software and hardware capabilities.
The dual-engine collaboration of hardware and software can significantly lower the barriers to AI entrepreneurship, enabling individual developers and small teams to launch innovative products at lower costs and faster speed, said Jiang Tao, founder and chairman of CSDN.
“We hope the store could not only serve as a commercial space, but also a platform on which developers, hardware engineers, and industrial chain partners connect with one another and co-create the future.”
Its inauguration follows the opening of a similar robotics “6S” store nearby just two months ago. Together, these two platforms are accelerating Shenzhen’s construction of an innovative AI ecosystem.
“It is not a simple product store, but a ‘dream factory’ for developers,” said Zhao Bingbing, head of Shenzhen Longgang District Artificial Intelligence (Robotics) Administration.
According to Zhao, the AI “6S” store adopts a “front-store, back-factory” operation model. The front end serves as a display and experience center, gathering cutting-edge global AI hardware and local innovative products. The back end, meanwhile, serves as an “incubation factory” that integrates research and development support, prototyping, small-batch trial production and large-scale manufacturing.
With these functions, the store can streamline the entire product R&D process and facilitate AI entrepreneurship.
Xu Hongli, deputy head of Longgang district, said the innovative operation model of the “6S” store carries great significance.
“While the front store makes cutting-edge technologies visible and accessible to address the pain point of ‘markets failing to gain clear insight into technologies’, the back factory solves the pain point of ‘technologies struggling to align with market needs’, enabling outstanding ideas to be implemented and scaled up for mass production,” she said.
The store’s opening is in line with Shenzhen’s vision of transforming itself into an AI powerhouse. The city launched an action plan in March to accelerate its development as an AI pioneer, aiming to increase the number of AI enterprises to over 3,000 and AI “unicorns” — startups valued at $1 billion or above — to more than 10 by 2026, with annual industrial output growing at over 20 percent.
Contact the writer at: sally@chinadailyhk.com
