Last year, TCL Corporation pumped 100 million yuan into a "startup incubator". The multinational electronics company in Huizhou, Guangdong province, also hopes to attract the brightest and best engineers with a specially designed funding operation.

"We have 20 projects in the works through this incubator, and we will continue to expand in the future," Li Dongsheng, TCL's chairman, said.

Zhang Yanbin, the associate president of All View Cloud, a data analysis company in Beijing, is convinced the pioneering moves by Haier, Midea and TCL will reap rewards.

Standing still was not an option, he pointed out. "In the Internet era, the traditional model could not be adapted to reflect the changes in the home appliances industry," Zhang Yanbin said.

"If home appliances enter-prises had not started to transform, they would have been in danger of becoming obsolete. That is why I admire Haier's boldness of spirit."

As China's economy is rebalanced to a more consumer-led and high-tech model from cheap, mass manufacturing and export-fueled growth, "new business ideas" will take center stage.

"Startup incubators break down the barriers between enterprises and customers," Zhang Yanbin said. "They bring entrepreneurs and innovators onto the same online platforms, and this can be the driving force for development."