Dilizheba

The second phase of the original sound charm competition show "Sound in Its Realm 2" created by Hunan Satellite TV will be broadcast at 20:10 this Friday (February 1), and the new generation of actor Di Lizheba will be surprised to join. Just as the theme of this issue is "The Voice That Can’t Be Hidden", Di Lizheba shows "Hidden Skills" to challenge the classic play "Hamlet" clips, and the hidden voice talent makes Zhang Tielin praise "new voice stars".

In this episode, Di Lizheba voiced the crazy woman Ophelia. As a classic character in "Hamlet", there are countless people who have played the role. This time Di Lizheba dared to challenge, and the pressure can be imagined. Character shaping is already difficult, and this performance is also mixed with singing elements. Di Lizheba chose not to watch the blind matching of the dubbing script, which is even more difficult. In this regard, Di Lizheba has done a lot of preparation work. On the one hand, she carefully speculates on the inner hearts of the characters, and on the other hand carefully memorizes the lines. At the scene, she is seen wearing a black shawl and staring at the dubbing screen. The voice sounded, and the "mentally deranged" Di Lizheba stood in front of Li Mai and muttered to herself, and the image of an abnormal crazy woman instantly jumped on the screen.

Dilizheba

As the plot progressed, Di Lizheba danced and sang, struggling and scratching his head, and the perfect interpretation made the Iron Triangle and the audience almost forget that this was dubbing. From a little sober to a complete loss of reason, Di Lizheba used her body as a supplement to control the "out of control" voice very smoothly and layered. The voice of the big white coffee guest praised: "If it were me, I might not know where the microphone is while dancing." And Teacher Wang Gang was even more generous: "Today, I saw the most authentic Reba that has settled down, except for the star aura, which amazed me. Her success is not without reason."

As the smallest voice on the stage of "Sound in the Realm", Di Lizheba showed amazing dubbing ability. Take "Hamlet" as an example, she did not flatten the characters, but used her professional quality to understand the characters, so that they were perfectly three-dimensional in front of the audience. The sound recognition is strong, and the sound characteristics are difficult to conceal. Even though there are many disadvantages in the voice, she still proved herself with strength. On stage, Di Lizheba revealed that she had done a lot of mental preparation and joined the show with a learning attitude. She said modestly: "The lines of the actors are very important for the shaping of the whole character, so here I am."

When it comes to hatchback cars, the Fit is always a topic that cannot be bypassed. The appearance is cool, although the size is small but the space is huge, and it can also play a variety of Sa Qi modification styles, so that the Fit has won the love of many young consumers, and it has also become the first car of many consumers. After the third-generation Fit was launched, the Fit was replaced with a 1.5L Earth Dream engine, and its power performance can be described as a seckill for the same level of models. Coupled with the super-high modifiability, the Fit has since transformed into a "GK5" national supercar. After 15 years of deep cultivation in the Chinese market and a total of three generations of models, on January 11 this year, GAC Honda launched the third-generation mid-term modified Tide Run series of new models. At the same time, the cumulative sales of Fit also exceeded the sales mark of 1 million vehicles at the end of August this year.

After the end of the Q3 quarter of the car market, the Fit became the biggest winner in the sales list of small cars, with 38,240 sold, an increase of 27% month-on-month; the POLO temporarily ranked second with 31,954 units, a decrease of 7% month-on-month. Behind this soaring sales is the unique product strength of the new Fit and the Fit Tide Run series.

The target consumers are gradually getting younger, and young people have a soft spot for Fit

In the context of the shrinking market for small cars, differentiated competition is particularly important, and Fit has used its reputation for supercars in the market to become the myth of "national supercars".

The reason why Fit is popular among young people today is that in addition to its high cost performance and reliable product strength, its strong modification potential is also the incentive for its strength to circle fans. In the playing car circle, Fit is an uncompromising modified Internet celebrity. The lower modification cost has made Fit once synonymous with JDM. In the era of JDM models, Fit can be regarded as a clean current. Youth is about having fun, and driving pleasure is not just 0-100. It can be said that Fit’s creative spirit infects every young person around.

Speaking of the charm of the Fit must start with the engine. The power combination of the 1.5L Earth Dream engine and the CVT gearbox takes into account the needs of power and fuel economy well. At the same time, this 1.5L naturally aspirated engine has an amazing 131 horsepower. This makes this Fit popular with many entry-level modification enthusiasts, and the great modification space makes the Fit famous overnight.

The Tide Run series Fit launched this year maximizes the playability of light modification. The Tide Run version is priced at 88,800 yuan, and the exclusive body color of Sky Blue is added. Compared with the ordinary version, the exclusive kit of the Tide Run series is added. Orange-red decorative strips are added to the front and rear bumpers of the body, which are matched with blackened wheels. The styling design is more sporty and visually impactful. This set of original sports enclosure components is undoubtedly less detours for modification novices. Cool front fog lights, dynamic and cool steering wheels, orange-red sewn seats, a series of configurations highlight the sporty nature of Fit vividly.

The price of the Tide Run + version is 93,800 yuan. On the basis of the Tide Run version, it adds an electric sunroof, an ice blue instrument panel, a leather steering wheel with orange-red wiring, paddle shifters, etc., with the common diffuser device on the rear racing car. In addition to providing a strong visual effect for the impact of the Fit body, it also ensures the stability of the vehicle at high speed. With the "SPORT" logo on the tail, it further strengthens the cool genes of Fit, but also highlights the sport and personality.

In fact, it is not difficult to find that the launch of the Fit Tide Run series must be related to its modification culture. As the first choice for modification in the hatchback field, the Tide Run series can be said to be a trendy and fashionable sports model prepared for young people. Fit’s modification culture can be said to be its essence, thus verifying the important position that modification culture occupies in the hearts of Fit riders. The reason why Fit can achieve such impressive sales results is partly due to its strong product performance, and the other part is undoubtedly due to Fit’s modification culture. Maybe this is the charm of Fit.

Brand marketing activities that best understand young people’s preferences

"Young", "practical", "easy to drive", etc., have been the magic weapons of GAC Honda Fit in the field of small cars for many years. From the appearance of a group of youthful post-90s marketing teams at the Guangzhou Auto Show to the test drive experience, which will become "NO BORDER tide running without boundaries", the new Fit is constantly releasing itself on the way to play with the "Sa" attitude.

At the beginning of this year, it completed the launch conference with a flash flash auto-tune remix-themed video of only 60s. The new Fit not only fits the young consumers better in the model, but also leads the young trend in the marketing form of the conference. Create an attitude that dares to show different personalities, is not bound by routines, and lives a "NO BORDER" borderless attitude.

In 2018 FIT DAY, in order to celebrate the achievement of millions of sales of Fit, the Guangzhou Tower, a landmark building in Guangzhou, held a million fan fun party in the form of FIT Wonderland, creating a cool party feast for Fit owners and Fit fans.

Just as Fit itself conveyed, it provides the best DIY way for young people who "love to play, can play, and are creative" to pursue trends from different dimensions. Behind such a theme activity with the concept of a million-fan fun party is the "Sa NO BORDER" brand spirit that Fit has always been.

Since entering the Chinese market for more than a decade, Fit has always gained insight into the trend of youth, personalization and diversification in the Chinese automobile market, and has become a model for young ethnic marketing. As a young and trendy model that can play, from a group of youthful post-90s employees marketing team at the Guangzhou Auto Show to the new Fit debut, to the test drive experience will become "NO BORDER Tide Run Borderless" tide party, to the 60S online conference, until today’s 2018 FIT DAY Fit Million Fun Party event, Fit is interacting with fans in different ways, playing a variety of different NO BODER gameplay with fans, and also conveying the pursuit of individuality, yearning for freedom and vitality. New values. It is precisely because of the "civilian supercar" like Fit that young people realize that car travel is no longer a distant dream. In the future, I believe that Fit will continue to make progress, play its charm beyond model positioning, and create sales milestones with Fit fans!

As the first choice for young people to buy cars, the price of Fit is 7.38-10 2,800 yuan, which is quite close to the people. It is the peak sales season at the end of the year. Friends who are ready to buy cars can go to the local GAC Honda 4S store to see the car for a test drive. Fit has prepared a surprising preferential price for you, not to be missed!

Author | Huang Qingchun

In the past month (December 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024), user acquisition through ads market, social platforms, game live streaming host/game media almost all fell under the "Yuan Dream Star" marketing offensive:

On the input side, the fixed-file press conference said "the first phase of ecological incentive investment is 1.40 billion yuan, and the long-term investment is not capped". On the first day of the launch, the user acquisition through ads material was placed in more than 27,000 groups, which was 50 times that before the launch, and more than 600 stars were invited to promote;

Linkage end, WeChat Channels, QQ, Tencent News and other traffic entrances work together to promote, 6 "Honor of Kings" joint fashion free, and joint B station, Douyin, Douyu, Huya, Kuaishou, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms to carry out "Star Dream Partner" incentive plan.

Data Source: Diandian Data

Tianmei, Tencent’s major IP push, the outside world can clearly feel the importance of the entire Tencent in this game;Even some media have called "Yuan Mengzhixing" "Tencent’s next extremely important battle", or it will become its next "trump card".

However, the anomaly is that the "Yuan Dream Star" that Tencent has put on the stage so much is not a long-dormant heavy self-research masterpiece, but a party casual game that runs into the venue – after two rounds of confidential testing, the first exposure (September 20), the first test (September 28), the second test (November 17), and the open test (December 15) were quickly completed in more than three months.Such efficiency is still rare among domestic game makers, let alone as large as Tencent.

This makes one wonder why a party game makes Tencent so concerned and anxious.

Tiger Sniff believes that the pattern of Tencent is no longer limited to the vision of a game company. The reason why "Yuan Dream Star" was raised to the group strategy is to a greater extent that a certain trend and potential energy are loosening the entire Tencent’s future development channel – "Egg Party" covers the skin of the game and leverages the young market through the UGC (User Generated Content, that is, user-generated content) ecology, which truly touches the foundation of Tencent:Social relationship chain.

Following this logic, Tencent’s above actions are reasonable:The stability established by Tencent in the past is being loosened in the process of content and channel gaming. "Yuan Dream Star" is no longer limited to a single game category, and Tencent is betting not just on a party game, but on the next generation of social scenes.

Why did Tencent smash the "party"?

Since NetEase’s "Egg Party" detonated the party track, the entire gaming industry knew that the dormant Tencent would take action sooner or later.

On the one hand, CITIC Securities analysis, the essence of the party game is a mild multiplayer competitive game, due to the low threshold, fission propagation characteristics, easy to birth phenomenon-level large DAU (Daily Active User, the number of active users) game; while the domestic casual game has reached more than 800 million users, but the supply of party games is still small, so it is the blue ocean track in the mobile game segment.

Moreover, Tencent has been coveting party games for a long time – previously, Tencent has laid out the party track through a number of external collaborations and investments, such as investing in Synopsys, the developer of "Beast Party", cooperating with Nintendo to introduce Switch National Bank and Nintendo party games (such as "Mario Kart 8" and "Super Mario Party"), Tencent-backed Epic Games also acquired "Jelly Bean Man" developer Mediatonic’s parent company Tonic Games Group in 2021.

June 2023 QuestMobile data, growth contribution rate = APP year-on-year increment/secondary market year-on-year increment

On the other hand, "Egg Party" pushes up the DAU step by step through the player’s UGC ecology – Tiger Sniff learned that in September 2023, NetEase "Egg Party" completed the "Double Billion Achievement", that is, MAU (Monthly Active User, monthly active user) broke through 100 million + the total number of maps accumulated 100 million; as of December 2023, "Egg Party" has over 500 million registered users and 30 million DAUs.

In view of this, "Yuan Dream Star" is intentionally or unintentionally targeting "Egg Party" from the game category, launch time, and targeting the crowd, which can be called a precise sniper by Tencent for NetEase – on the day of the launch of "Yuan Dream Star" born with a golden spoon, not only WeChat and QQ spared no effort to set up a platform, but also platforms such as B Station, Douyin, Douyu, Huya, Kuaishou, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu came to join the audience, and won the first place in the App Store free list in two hours.

Generally speaking, new games are launched in two ways: "hot start" and "cold start". The survival of the cold start project depends entirely on the market data. "At the beginning, the cold start’Honor of Kings’ almost died, and it was originally called’Hero’s Trail ‘. When it was changed and re-launched halfway through, the expectations were not so high, and the result was a steep upward curve." A person close to the "Honor of Kings" project said to Tiger Sniff.

As for the hot start, it is mostly accompanied by a grand press conference + traditional hardcore alliance channels (Huawei, Lenovo, OPPO, vivo and other app stores) + new live broadcast platforms (Douyin, Kuaishou) + old live broadcast platforms (Douyu, Huya) + community (B station, TapTap) release momentum –Such a big battle is mainly due to the particularity of the "Yuan Dream Star" category: the party track is already a fully competitive field, and the new product iteration speed is fast, and the hot start is conducive to occupying the minds of vertical users.

"There is another important reason for the launch of" Yuan Dream Star "carpet shop, which involves the issue of sniping and counter-sniping between companies – the launch of" Yuan Dream Star "is not small, and the momentum will only be even worse in the first week of its launch, but NetEase, Lilith, Heart, Eagle Horn and other game manufacturers are also pushing new party games, and they are bound to grab the launch time and media schedule. In order to ensure the spread of high expectations, Tencent must’sweep goods’." A practitioner explained to Tiger Sniff that the logic of "Yuan Dream Star" carpet launch is to ensure that it will not be exposed by competing cards such as "Egg Party".

Now, from the "Yuan Dream Star" has been on the line for a month, at least from the market performance point of view is still competitive – data points show that the iOS end of the flow, December 15 to January 15 during the "Yuan Dream Star" total revenue of 138 million yuan (Tiger sniff to Tencent related people to verify, the other side said that the actual data is not limited to this), more than the "Egg Party" over the same period of 110 million yuan total revenue, in many new tours of a ride out of the steep climbing curve.

Data Source: Diandian Data

However, "Yuan Dream Star" has only been launched for more than a month, but "Egg Party" has been running for 20 months (launched on May 27, 2022) – the latter has not only completed the staging of the market structure, but also some users’ minds have been formed.Even "Egg Party" has become a phenomenal IP for party games.

In the face of such a situation, "Yuan Dream Star" chose to confront "Egg Party" head-on, hand-to-hand combat, even if Tencent used the power of the group to invest resources and link all channels and platforms that could be mobilized, but the game was not a pile of resources that could explode, otherwise Tencent would not be seven or eight years later. "Honor of Kings" is still a revenue trump card.

Moreover, "Jelly Bean Man", "Goose and Duck Kill", "Egg Party", and "Beast Party", these representative party games each have their own advantages, and have already divided up a lot of party players in the market. How can Tencent catch up and run a differentiated upward curve?

In this regard, people close to Tencent IEG (Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group) analyzed the strategy of "Yuan Dream Star" to Tiger Sniff:

First, "Dream Star" has targeted the promotion direction to a "family fun game" –This is not a product that only targets the young market. "Yuan Dream Star" has established a more universal goal to target the full client base and full circle coverage;Taking a step back, even if "Dream Star" can’t hit the core user base of "Egg Party", this game still has a differentiated audience.

"Tianmei has chosen to incorporate strong social networking and mainstream gameplay, including the cooperation between" Star of the Dream "and" Honor of Kings "," Crayon Shin "," Kung Fu Panda "and other leading IPs, in order to bind the brand’s mind to more pan-users and pan-circles, and quickly absorb the fan groups behind different IPs into potential party game players." An industry insider analyzed to Tiger Sniff.

In other words, in terms of strategy, "Yuan Dream Star" reserves a back hand, and also wants to break down some player groups that "Egg Party" has not shaken, targeting users of all ages, to penetrate them and become a new addition.

DataEye, a third-party research institution, calculates the user composition of "Yuan Dream Star" in the first month

Secondly, the sewing ability of "Yuan Dream Star" is very "Tencent": the core gameplay of the game is the pass mode, but it integrates the strengths of each family, and the shadow of the shadow makes players feel the shadow of eating chicken + QQ speed car + CF + Werewolf + King + Jelly Bean Man + Egg Boy party, and in the recent "Mountain and Sea Adventure" new season preview shows that "Yuan Dream Star" plans to add ball bumper cars, bubble wars, go-kart mode, and tower defense gameplay to the game – you know,The series of gameplay integrated by "Yuan Dream Star" has led the trend. After all these gameplay are integrated into one game, "Yuan Dream Star" is no longer just a party game, but more like a game square.

"Party games is just a concept, or a container, and there is no standard for what gameplay should be in it. From its definition, it can be included in the game that is suitable for everyone to play together. The extension of the party is very large, and it must be constantly dug." A game producer said to Tiger Sniff.

The above producers further pointed out that in recent years, there has been almost no new single gameplay in the game market (unless there is a change brought about by technology), and new games are all stitching together various gameplays – following this logic, the underlying logic of new games is a mathematical problem: what gameplay to capture a group of users, and what IP to capture a group of users.The difference is that some people have made subtraction, some people have made addition, and some people have even made multiplication.

"There is no one-size-fits-all formula to get this math problem right (that is, to ensure the success of the game). Whether it should be subtracted, added or multiplied depends only on the product and the market." He stressed that the domestic game industry has been changing drastically in recent years, especially the obvious reshuffle of some large DAU products. To succeed, we must keep pace with the times.

A battle that Tencent cannot lose

Tiger Sniff has previously written that party games such as "Jelly Bean Man: The Ultimate Knockout Tournament", "Among Us" and "Goose and Duck Kill" have successfully verified the huge potential of social communication. The reasons why "Egg Party" came from behind and successfully "penetrated" the post-00 group are divided into two levels:

On the one hand, "Egg Party" has come up with high-quality art design, superimposed its relaxed and casual game rhythm, strong interactive game social gameplay (can challenge racing, survival, individual points, team theme levels, while combining two-player cooperation, 2v2 confrontation, asymmetric competition and other gameplay), captured the hearts of many young gamers –These game scenes are undoubtedly a new "social currency" for the post-00s who value self-expression and have a stronger sense of group identity.

QuestMobile calculates the age distribution of egg users in June 2023

On the other hand, the UGC system derived from "Egg Workshop" in "Egg Party" has greatly broadened the boundaries of game exploration, not only providing players with the convenience of freely creating levels and self-made maps, but also fully mobilizing players’ creative collisions and sharing more secondary content.

The reason behind this is that there is an obvious change in party games. Before, the entire industry was casual and light games such as chess and cards to complete user education, and then heavy games to complete the harvest. Now the whole logic is different –Light games can also be made to complete the harvest, just like casual party games were originally low-stickiness games, but the gameplay richness of "Egg Party" and the entire game are becoming more and more complex, and casual parties can also be like heavy games.

Another change is that the difference between the RMB players of "Egg Party" and ordinary players and the difference in game experience is not so big. Strictly speaking, "Egg Party" is not a pure NetEase style game – NetEase specializes in big payment design, while "Egg Party" is a big DAU + low payment threshold in terms of business model. It follows the path of "Honor of Kings", and the logic has changed.

Take NetEase’s "Against the Cold" and "Naraka: Bladepoint" as an example, the character’s weapons and skin have circulation attributes, and there are tens of thousands of three-way transactions. It mainly promotes the scarcity of external equipment, but "Egg Party" mainly promotes fun, weakening the competitiveness –To a certain extent, the success of "Egg Party" has given NetEase the opportunity to break through and reflect on its own capabilities.

Based on the above analysis, if the success of "Egg Party" is UGC first, and the game is just a shell, then how "Yuan Dream Star" surpasses "Egg Party" has become a proposition that Tencent games must face – difficult, but crucial.

Looking at the review, after products such as "Crossing the Wire", "League of Legends", "Dungeon and Warrior" established the status of Tencent’s PC era, it rode the social (WeChat & QQ) and entertainment territory potential in the mobile game wave – Tencent games identified several promising game categories, a large number of horse racing projects squeezed into these tracks "gambling explosion", good at grafting the group’s resources into its own business system, through investment, joint research, and self-research to promote the rapid growth of gameplay, technology, and user ecology in different periods.

Data Source: Game Committee, Gamma Data

Even with the expansion of Tencent’s game industry-wide investment territory, the channel is likely to follow the mobile game era and quickly establish track control capabilities in the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and shooting (including FPS/TPS/tactical competition, etc.) categories.

At present, Tencent games are facing a situation of internal and external troubles:

In terms of Tencent, the two cash cows in hand, "Honor of Kings", have been in operation for more than 8 years, "Game for Peace" has been online for nearly 5 years, and it has been more than 7 years since the explosion of chicken gameplay in 2017. However, the entire IEG has been unable to come up with a new explosion, and the two-dimensional trend led by "Yuan Shen" in 2020 and the party trend led by "Egg Party" in early 2023 are all passive followers. Tencent has long been anxious.

In terms of external competition, rising stars such as miHoYo ("The Original God"), Lilith ("The Awakening of Nations"), Moonton Technology ("Mobile Legends: Bang Bang"), IGG ("Kingdom Era"), Habby ("The Legend of Bow and Arrow") have occupied the top of the sub-category through a product with hundreds of millions of flowing water, and even gained good water in the global market.However, Tencent has become increasingly passive in leading new categories.

Moreover, the old rival NetEase is further strengthening its deterrence through new games, taking the 2023 summer as an example, GameLook statistics show that NetEase ("against the water cold mobile game", "egg boy party", "peak speed", "all-star streetball party") 4 new games have eaten more than 40% of the new game market, while Tencent ("Adventure Island: Legend of Maple"), Byte ("Crystal Core"), miHoYo ("Star Iron") The three giants’ new game flow only accounts for more than 30% of the new game market.

The situation is like this, Tencent naturally sees it in the eyes and is anxious in the heart – so, with the power of the group to launch "Yuan Dream Star" positive "hard" "Egg Party", if this "shot" is misfired, Tencent’s morale will inevitably be severely dampened –Therefore, "Yuan Dream Star" has become a battle that Tencent games cannot lose.

Of course, there are many game practitioners who are optimistic about the next market performance of "Yuan Mengxing", after all, leisure competition + big DAU is Tencent’s strength; but people close to Tencent IEG said that there is no DAU goal for "Yuan Mengxing" now:

On the one hand, the growth and accumulation of party games is a long-term cyclical work, and short-term results after going online are difficult to "determine life and death". At least this Spring Festival can see more possibilities;

On the other hand, Tencent’s various gaming businesses operate in a diverse manner and have different expected goals, making it difficult to determine the evaluation criteria.

The above-mentioned person further reiterated that Tencent IEG (including Tianmei Studio Group, Photon Studio Group, Rubik’s Cube Studio Group, and Northern Lights Studio Group) has its own layout and business promotion rhythm when it cuts into new products, and is not intentional to benchmark "Egg Party" as the outside world said. "Tencent’s style will not catch a wave of popularity in a certain category and gameplay in the market immediately; when a certain gameplay is popular, it will pay close attention to market changes in the early stage and invest in some start-up teams. Later, there will be projects based on market judgment, business needs, and meeting players."

　　Enjoy Rongcheng intelligently and see the future! On August 25th, 2023 Chengdu International Auto Show kicked off in the West China International Expo City. The "Super Comfortable Medium and Large Electric Car" Star Road Star Era ES made a heavy appearance. The comfortable design with "world-class" super power, platform technology advantages, naturalistic aesthetics and user experience as the first priority provided a full-dimensional "super comfortable" experience for warm and technological middle-class families.

　　The aesthetics of wind stuns the audience and interprets the concept of elegant design of sports.

　　The strength faction also has a high value. At the Chengdu International Auto Show, the first pure electric vehicle of the high-end brand Xingtu New Energy Product Series "Xingjiyuan" of Chery Group, with its unique aesthetic design, made the attendees feel excited.

　　Star Age ES carved the body curve, outlining the slender body lines, with a golden ratio of about 5 meters long, nearly 2 meters wide and a wheelbase of about 3 meters, supplemented by ultra-low body, dynamic slip-back modeling inspired by water droplets in the wind and streamlined waistline design, which is simple without losing the charm of sports. It not only shapes the extremely dynamic back slip shape, but also brings 0.205Cd ultra-low wind resistance comparable to super running.

　　When we look at the front face of the ES in the Star Age, the elegant and beautiful dynamic image of the butterfly is very eye-catching. The front headlights with horizontal penetration and two ISD intelligent interactive lights form a unique front face shape of the butterfly with wind feathers. Inspired by the butterfly’s flapping wings, the wind-language programmable interactive headlight consists of 972 LED lamp beads, which blends lightness and elegance into the unique dynamic shape of ES in the Star Age, perfectly blends the beauty, freedom and tenacious vitality of butterflies with modern scientific and technological elements, sharpening product recognition and conveying brand connotation.

　　Four world-class superpowers, set the benchmark of electric car value.

　　In the tide of technological empowerment, new products have emerged at an unprecedented speed, and the new energy automobile industry has entered the mainstream mass era from the "early adopter era". The automobile consumption market in China has become a world-class market in which global brands compete.

　　Born globally, build world-class product strength. With the blessing of E0X’s global super-comfortable and high-performance electric platform, Star Age ES was guided by world-class product strategy at the beginning of its design, and realized four world-class superpowers of world-class "big space", world-class "true wisdom", world-class "super comfort" and world-class "low energy consumption", which brought subversive driving changes to the whole automobile industry and helped users experience a beautiful and comfortable car life with the ultimate product power.

　　Mobile life, tolerance is the first. Xingyue ES has a world-class "big space", and the front and rear rows of shoulders, legs and head spaces are better than their peers. The "room rate" is as high as 70.2%, allowing users to enjoy the whole journey.

　　Comfortable life, from the outside to the inside. Star Age ES creates a world-class "super comfort", and the whole system comes standard with air suspension +CDC, front double wishbone+rear five-bar linkage, turning bumps into smooth roads; The lowest wind resistance of 0.205Cd in the same class, combing the airflow to reduce wind noise and bring a quieter driving experience; The minimum turning diameter of 11.4m makes driving smoother and calmer.

　　"Superpower" should not be shackled by distance. Star Age ES redefines the power consumption standard with world-class "low energy consumption" and expands the travel boundary of pure electric vehicles. As the first China brand car to mass-produce 800V high-voltage platform, the power consumption per 100 kilometers of the Star Era ES is as low as 11.7kWh, and it can last 150km after charging for 5 minutes, and it can be recharged by 30% to 80% in 15 minutes, with a long battery life of 720km, with low energy consumption, fast charging and long running distance.

　　At the moment when major brands are competing for IQ, Star Age ES has defined world-class "true wisdom" and jointly built a "big model model" in the automobile industry with Iflytek, which relies on 512.
TOPS’s super computing platform, supplemented by higher perception hardware, leads the new wave of automobile intelligence development.

　　Five good cockpit wisdom blessings to promote the all-dimensional advancement of travel space.

　　"True wisdom" is not only easy to travel, but also physical and mental pleasure is more attractive. While providing worry-free, labor-saving and time-saving "three provinces" intelligent driving, Star Age ES has created a "five good" intelligent cockpit, which integrates good-looking, easy-to-use, good-listening and good-smelling, creating sensory surprises in multiple dimensions and making users always "like it".

　　Star Age ES adopts an integrated embracing cockpit design to provide a more immersive, spacious and comfortable ride experience. The central control panel is an intelligent central control panel with 2.5K high color gamut, high saturation and high screen ratio, with a size of 15.6 inches. It is equipped with a brand-new, simple and scene-based HMI design, with clear picture, convenient operation and better visual experience.

　　Thanks to 8155′ s powerful software and hardware platform, Star Age ES has carried out in-depth excavation in the dimensions of science and technology, entertainment, intelligent interaction, intelligent service, and full-scene collaboration. Based on scene development, it has maximized the user experience and made the cockpit know you, understand you and be more "easy to use".

　　Up to now, cars are not only a simple means of transportation, but also an important part of life, and the importance of quality and health is increasingly prominent.

　　Star Age ES carries Lion.
Melody sound system, equipped with 23 speakers, the peak power of the sound system can reach 1000W, supporting panoramic sound effects, creating a vast 3D surround sound field space and immersive feeling, as if moving the concert hall into the car; The main driver’s headrest speaker can realize the use experience of three different application scenarios, such as full car mode, driving mode and private mode, so that the owner can only listen to the "nice" sound.

　　In order to let drivers and passengers take a deep breath in the car, Xingjiyuan ES uses AQS air quality management system, CN95 air filter and negative ion generator to realize intelligent air purification and build a healthy cockpit for 6A. At the same time, the intelligent fragrance easily dispels the odor, making the car fragrant all the time, creating a safe, comfortable, fresh and more "good-smelling" driving space. In addition, depending on the needs of users for rest and watching movies, the cockpit can be associated with the scene mode, and the nap mode, wake-up mode and cinema mode can be turned on intelligently, such as the intimate life assistant taking care of everything properly.

　　In Jinguan City, the youth is splendid. Landing at the Star Age ES of Chengdu International Auto Show will surpass the expected "super-comfortable" image and bring a full-dimensional super-comfortable experience to warm and high-tech middle-class families. This appearance at Chengdu International Auto Show is also a preview of its official entry into consumer life. In the fourth quarter of this year, Star Age ES will be listed soon. At that time, more users will start from Star Age ES and open the door to "super comfortable" travel life.

　　On November 10, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Safety in Online Catering Services", which will take effect from January 1, 2018. This "method" has attracted widespread attention in the society as early as during the consultation period. The reason is that the food takeaway market is getting bigger and bigger, food safety issues are becoming more and more prominent, and new business models continue to challenge supervision. Therefore, many people have high hopes for this "method". However, some "small moves" in the market are already challenging this "method".

　　Our reporter, Zhao Li

　　At seven o’clock in the evening, it was time for Hu Ling, who was still working overtime. For more than half a year, Hu Ling’s takeout was basically "contracted" by the family-shared kitchen app "Go Home for Dinner".

　　Hu Ling, who works at an Internet company in Beijing, often works overtime to order takeout. However, a recent piece of news has caused Hu Ling to worry that his newly developed eating habits may be affected.

　　"I heard that the new regulations on online catering will be implemented next year, requiring online takeout to have a physical store and a food business license," Hu Ling said. "As far as I know, most of the family-shared kitchens are done by some unemployed people part-time, so it is impossible to meet these two conditions. This requirement of the new regulations will have some impact on the family-shared kitchen takeaway model."

　　The new rule, which Mr. Hu was referring to, is the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Safety in Online Catering Services" issued by the State Food and Drug Administration on November 10, which stipulates that online catering service providers should have physical stores and obtain food business licenses according to law, and must not operate beyond the scope. The "Measures" will take effect on January 1, 2018.

　　Hu Ling admitted that such regulations will definitely purify the online takeaway industry, which is good for consumer rights and food safety protection. "Previously, the media often reported news of some online takeaway black workshops, and the safety issues of online takeout were exposed during the" 3.15 "period last year. This regulation is a good thing in the field of food safety."

　　However, an investigation by a reporter from Legal Daily found that the emergence of online catering "agency settlement" services may reduce the positive significance of the new regulations.

　　Most consumers care about "physical stores"

　　At every meal, in the office building where Hu Ling works, the delivery staff of various platforms hurriedly shuttle between different floors with various food boxes. At this time, the elevator of the office building also becomes a "battlefield" between the staff who go downstairs to eat and the delivery staff.

　　Not long ago, Hu Ling and colleagues ate at a pizzeria. It was dinner time, but the restaurant surrounded by various office buildings had no other customers except them. Within 15 minutes of Hu Ling’s order, four or five takeaways came to pick up the food, and Hu Ling and the others who ate at the pizzeria were lined up after these takeaway orders.

　　"I’ll order takeout next time." This unpleasant experience made Hu Ling even more determined to order takeout.

　　Unlike Hu Ling, who was forced to choose, Qian Hao, 30, is a true takeaway enthusiast.

　　Safe, hygienic, edible and deliverable are all Qian Hao’s criteria for takeout. It is needless to say that he orders takeout at work and almost never cooks at home. Qian Hao relies more and more on takeout. "To be honest, I probably see the delivery staff more often than I see my friends."

　　However, while food delivery brings convenience to life, new problems are also becoming increasingly prominent.

　　The question of whether food delivery platforms can ensure food safety has worried consumers. In 2016, CCTV’s "3.15" evening exposed the existence of "black workshops" and a large number of management loopholes in food delivery platforms.

　　On these issues, Qian Hao said: "Although my attitude towards food is relatively casual, I am very concerned about safety and hygiene. After all, it is to be eaten in the stomach, so the takeaway stores I often order are those that I have confirmed have brick and mortar stores."

　　Speaking of brick and mortar stores, consumers also have something to say.

　　Chen Qing, a first-year graduate student at a Beijing university, once heard classmates mention that "some takeaway merchants just temporarily form a’small workshop ‘in their own homes and mass-produce takeaway food every day." Chen Qing felt that this "physical" form has no security guarantees, "but she does not deliberately avoid it when ordering food."

　　Like Qian Hao, Gong Qi, 25, works for an Internet company in Beijing, and ordering takeout has become an indispensable part of his life.

　　When ordering takeout, Gong Qi prefers to choose those who "have eaten in the brick and mortar store in person". "There are two reasons, one is that you will have a better understanding of the taste of the food, and the other is that you feel that the physical store is relatively more hygienic and safe."

　　In the field survey of Legal Daily reporters, 65% of respondents believed that having a physical store means more hygiene and safety.

　　However, there are also consumers who hold different views on "physical stores".

　　Ma Yuan, from Cixi, Zhejiang province, believes that merchants without "physical stores" also have their own advantages. "From the consumer’s perspective, takeaway merchants without physical stores tend to have lower prices and faster food delivery. From the store’s perspective, the operating costs are also much lower than those of physical stores."

　　Liu Hongyi, a 35-year-old branch owner of a Beijing-based restaurant chain, was happy to see the new regulations on online dining.

　　"If you allow a large number of’small family workshops’ to provide takeout, it will inevitably lead to unfair competition." Liu Hongyi said that it is difficult for brick-and-mortar stores to win the competition with "small workshops" due to operating costs. "Small workshops will also compete with each other, and in order to keep prices down, they will naturally sacrifice the quality of food."

　　Mr. Liu told reporters that competition in the takeout industry can be seen to some extent as "the networking of real competition", "but in the final analysis, everyone is comparing the quality of food."

　　"Agent Settlement Service" has appeared

　　A reporter from Legal Daily investigated and found that there are already "countermeasures" on the market for the "measures" on physical stores.

　　Reporters found that on some e-commerce platforms and information intermediary platforms, many merchants have launched "takeaway agency" services, and even on social platforms such as Weibo and WeChat or some question-and-answer platforms, some people claim to help takeaway operators without brick and mortar stores handle takeaway platform matters.

　　The reporter interviewed some merchants who provide agency services and learned that most agency service providers say they can take advantage of poor information and related loopholes to help some merchants, especially those operating without a license, enter the takeaway platform.

　　Reporters found that these agency service providers have a wide range of "services" and have operations all over the country. "National agency Meituan takeaway Ele.me word-of-mouth glutinous rice group buying…" A WeChat agency nicknamed "takeaway agency" wrote in Moments.

　　In addition, the agency service provider that placed an advertisement on a search platform also guaranteed that the ability to handle the goods will not be successful in refunding. "You can make absolutely delicious taste, and the taste is very good, but how to open a takeaway store is a more complicated thing, and the process and requirements of opening a takeaway store are very strict, not to mention wanting to do takeout without a business license. Now, we have also got a solution to this problem, so that everyone who sincerely wants to open a takeaway can have their own store." The above-mentioned agency service provider said, "First of all, there is a relatively big problem is the ghost store that you may have heard of before, and the problem of closing the store. Our analysis is that’great value and low price must be a lie, and the probability of being closed must be 100%. The other part is to change the store information and lend it to you for a few days and then take it back. Some are simply cheating deposits. These are all things we need to avoid when opening a store. A few hundred yuan to open a store must not be a regular channel. I also remind you to pay attention to this problem."

　　An agency service provider who claimed to be an industry insider told Legal Daily that if you sincerely want to do takeout and the hygiene conditions are hygienic enough, you can have special channels to open a takeaway store. "You don’t need a business license, you don’t need a store, as long as you really want to make money and want to open a store, you can open a store. According to the designated address and the designated store name, you only need to provide some basic information, and you can generally go online successfully in one to five days."

　　How to do it? The reporter also contacted the agent service provider nicknamed "takeaway agency" on WeChat. "By entering the takeaway platform through the agent, it only costs 1,000 to 1,500 yuan, and merchants can avoid cumbersome procedures and strict entry standards, and easily carry out the increasingly popular takeaway business" – this is the advertisement of the agent service provider.

　　What should I do if I don’t have a business license? "Takeaway Agent" Reply: If an unlicensed merchant wants to open a store on the takeaway platform, they only need to provide the agent with the store name, store photo, personal ID card and handheld ID photo, bank account and other information, and mobile phone number.

　　What should I do if I don’t have an actual store and just operate it at home? The "takeaway agent" replied: It doesn’t matter as long as it is on the first floor of the community, "if it is not on the first floor, it will be offline by the platform".

　　Will such an operation not be discovered by the regulatory authorities? Will it be investigated? "The takeaway agency" said with certainty, "no one will come to investigate".

　　The reporter found that although these agency service providers advertise their business on the Internet, they charge through micro-stores or Taobao stores.

　　In the WeChat Moments of an agency service provider, the reporter found that some merchants did not pay the price after entering the platform, and their business information and personal information were directly published in the circle of friends of the agency service provider, accompanied by a sentence – "This person is operating without a license, everyone should report him".

A few days ago, the old photo of Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun attending the meeting together became popular again. Dong Mingzhu in the picture "asked" Lei Jun: Just you? Can you also make air conditioners? Can you turn on air conditioners? Lei Jun silently responded to the Xiao Ai speaker: Xiao Ai, turn on the Mijia Internet air conditioner and turn off the Gree air conditioner!

It has to be said that Lei Jun and Xiaomi, who did not let go of any explosive points, launched the marketing copy of air conditioners to cater to the hearts of the people who love to watch the fun.

As expected, the next day, Xiaomi officially released the Mijia Internet air conditioner. This air conditioner labeled Mijia adopts Xiaomi’s commonly used pricing method: 1.5 horsepower, three-level energy efficiency standard, retail price of 1999 yuan, which is about 1,000 yuan cheaper than the big brands Gree and Midea congeneric products on the market, and the public test price is only 999 yuan.

It was still Lei Jun’s familiar formula and Xiaomi’s familiar taste.

01

A mysterious air conditioning company

"For this Mijia air conditioner, Xiaomi has started to form a team in the first half of last year, looking for OEM foundries, designing product prototypes, and also buying our air conditioner data reports," Dong Min, vice-president of Aowei Cloud Network, which provides information services, told AI Finance Agency.

Xiaomi’s air-conditioning business has always been in charge of Xiaomi’s ecological chain enterprise Zhimi Technology. The company responsible for the research and development and production of Xiaomi air-conditioners is a company called Zhuhai Sanyou.

From the industrial and commercial registration information, the legal representative of Zhuhai Sanyou is Liu De, the co-founder of Xiaomi and the head of Xiaomi’s ecological chain. The shareholder of Zhuhai Sanyou is Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd., with a 100% shareholding ratio. In short, Zhuhai Sanyou is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi.

A point person in Zhuhai Sanyou’s business is Xiao Youyuan. He was originally a senior executive of Gree, worked in Gree for 10 years, and was also a trusted person of Dong Mingzhu, who was in charge of Gree’s overseas business. In 2015, Xiao Youyuan was poached by Skyworth with his team and participated in the establishment of Skyworth Air Conditioning. Hundreds of Skyworth Air Conditioning people came from Gree that year.

Xiao Youyuan, who participated in the founding of Skyworth Air Conditioning

From the industrial and commercial registration information of Zhuhai Sanyou, Xiao Youyuan and the team worked in Skyworth for two years, and soon took the team to the wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi, "because Skyworth and Gree have very different corporate cultures."

"As a private enterprise, Skyworth is used to’small input and big output ‘, while the Xiao Youyuan team from Gree has a style of’big work and fast work’." A person familiar with the matter told AI Finance Agency. In addition, Skyworth air conditioners encountered the "Little New Year" of air conditioners at the beginning, and their performance was not good. Gree and his group were gradually emptied of Skyworth air conditioners.

Xiao Youyuan’s team, who joined Xiaomi’s subsidiary, brought "Gree Feng" to Xiaomi. Wu Wei, who has visited the Sanyou production line and is also a supplier of air-conditioning components, told AI Finance Agency that Sanyou is a mysterious company, but "the solution is almost the same as Gree". For example, the MCU (microcontroller) is made by Texas Instruments, a large American manufacturer, the module is made by Fuji or Mitsubishi, and the IPM (intelligent power module, responsible for frequency conversion) is made by Ruineng.

"Everyone in their company seemed to be holding their breath. After Gree came out to Skyworth, Gree issued a ban order, and all Gree suppliers were not allowed to supply Skyworth. The team gambled so much and was finally washed out by Skyworth," Wu Wei said.

The team was eventually recruited to Lei Jun.

However, Wu Wei revealed that Sanyou currently has only two production lines of its own, and its annual production capacity is "only a few hundred thousand units". Therefore, in May 2017, Zhuhai Sanyou and Zhongshan Changhong jointly funded the establishment of Zhongshan Hongyou Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., with Zhongshan Changhong holding 60% and Zhuhai Sanyou holding 40%. It should be noted that Changhong is the foundry of Zhimi air conditioners this time.

According to people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi’s foundry is not in Mianyang, Changhong’s headquarters, but in Nantou Town, Zhongshan, not far from TCL’s headquarters.

02

Lei Jun’s obsession

This is the third time Lei Jun has tried to make air conditioners.

The first dates back to three years ago. When Lei Jun first entered the air-conditioning industry, he chose to cooperate with Dong Mingzhu’s old rival, Midea. This immediately annoyed Dong Mingzhu and directly accused the cooperation between the two sides as "two scammers together, a group of thieves". At that time, Midea had just been ordered by the court to compensate Gree 2 million yuan for stealing Gree’s patents.

But this Youth series air conditioner, priced at 3,099 yuan, did not cause much splash. The selling point at that time was that it was used in conjunction with the Xiaomi Mi Band, which could be set to automatically turn on when you go home, and automatically enter sleep mode when you feel you fall asleep.

Youth series air conditioner

Perhaps deliberately to highlight Xiaomi’s "Internet thinking" in the limelight, there is no display panel on the surface of the air conditioner. This means that if users want to know the temperature of the air conditioner in the room, they need to open their mobile phone, check the app or pick up the Xiaomi bracelet. This incredible design appeared in the first generation of products. Fortunately, this is the only cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea in the field of air conditioning.

"It’s impossible for Midea to raise competitors," says one air-conditioning supplier. In fact, Xiaomi decided to invest in Midea at the end of 2014, paying nearly 1.30 billion yuan for a 1.29% stake. But the shareholding relationship has not alleviated the conflict between the two sides in real business.

Millet’s tentacles have already extended to rice cookers, electric fans, water purifiers, electric kettles, cooking machines and many other small household appliances. This is Midea’s territory, which will inevitably lead to fierce collisions, and it is impossible to expect that Midea will be willing to help Xiaomi produce air conditioners. However, from an investment perspective, Midea’s share price has doubled in the past three years, and Xiaomi’s investment in Midea has been very successful, earning a lot of money.

The second time Xiaomi launched an air conditioner was in 2017, which was developed by Zhimi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi. The minimalist design of this air conditioner has also won international design awards, and this design style has been carried over to the current Mijia air conditioner.

However, the price of the Zhimi air conditioner at that time was as high as 4,399 yuan. Although Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology, said that there was almost no profit, such a high price did not have the pricing style of Xiaomi at all. Now the air conditioner has been removed from the Xiaomi mall.

Interestingly, in order to explain that his 4,399 yuan air conditioner was a conscientious price, Su Jun reported at the time that the quality of the current air conditioner was worse than that of more than ten years ago. "The original material was very solid, but now it is loose, and there are recycled materials in it. You don’t even need to open it, and you can feel the huge decline in quality just by the shell itself."

He said that Zhimi can also make its products cheaper than some 999 yuan air conditioners on the market, by using some inferior materials or even recycled materials to cut costs. "But that’s not something we can guide the quality of life of ordinary people, it doesn’t make sense."

But coincidentally, this time, the price of Mijia’s Internet air conditioner was exactly 999 yuan. However, it was embarrassing that the first user to get the goods couldn’t wait to hang the Xiaomi air conditioner on a second-hand trading platform on the same day.

03

Mi Ge Gree’s life?

What makes Lei Jun envious is that Dong Mingzhu’s Gree air conditioner profits are astonishingly high.

Chen Hang, chief analyst at Southwest Securities, told AI Finance Agency that Gree’s gross profit margin for air-conditioning products is above 35%, which is unusual in the home appliance industry known for price wars. Midea’s gross profit margin is slightly worse. But it is much higher than Xiaomi’s 10% gross profit for mobile phones.

High profits mean there is room to be compressed. This is also the direction of Xiaomi’s revolution, improving efficiency and reducing circulation costs.

This time, the air conditioner of Mijia brand, whether it is the price strategy or the product itself, looks much more reliable than the previous two times. But Dong Mingzhu has never been easy to bully. When Lei Jun entered the mobile phone market, it coincided with the market being on the eve of the transformation to smartphones, and the timing was excellent. But the air conditioner industry is relatively stable, the technology has existed for hundreds of years, and the market structure and corporate rhythm are quite stable.

Mijia air conditioner

"Gree will not be killed." Chen Hang analyzed that unlike other household appliances, air conditioners need to be installed, and one of Gree’s moats is a team of highly efficient ground installers. "Xiaomi will not have much impact on the giants in the short term."

"The competition of air conditioners is nothing more than the competition of brands and after-sales services." Lu Jianguo, deputy chief engineer of the Home Appliances Research Institute, also believes that now Xiaomi air conditioners are all new machines and have not yet reached the after-sales link. Users can take their mobile phones to the store for repair, but the air conditioner needs to be repaired at home, which will test the after-sales team of Xiaomi air conditioners.

Dong Min, vice president of Aowei Cloud Network, also expressed his concerns. Air conditioners are financial products. They are produced in winter and sold in summer, and they need to pay a lot of money in advance to stock up. To a certain extent, stocking up is also a gamble on the weather, and sales immediately rise in hot weather.

Dong Min was deeply impressed that when the weather was hot a few years ago, whoever had installers sold their air conditioners well. And this requires a huge ground force, which is not what Xiaomi is good at.

The bigger challenge comes from the supply chain. Back then, Xiaomi suffered a loss in the mobile phone supply chain and had been in short supply. Lei Jun went to South Korea to meet the boss of Samsung Electronics, hoping that the other party could guarantee the supply of mobile phone screens.

The risk of the supply chain is increasing in the air-conditioning market. The routine of these traditional large manufacturers is to build a huge capacity scale advantage first, and then firmly control the supply chain, especially the core components such as compressors, and finally achieve a stable market structure and profit margins.

"Compressors are a seller’s market," said Zhang Jie, a supplier of air-conditioning components. Gree and Midea produce their own compressors.

Zhang Jie revealed that there is a shortage of inverter compressors this year, and many air conditioner manufacturers have reduced production as a result. "Key components have been out of stock from this year to next year, so compressor companies must protect big factories, not millet."

AI Finance Agency learned from people familiar with the Xiaomi ecological chain that in order to get the upstream supply chain of air conditioners, Xiaomi paid a lot of money to obtain air conditioner compressors and IPM module parts. "They need to take out 30-4 billion to the compressor company to book the production capacity, which is equivalent to the table fee."

Dong Min believes that the air-conditioning business is designed and defined by Xiaomi in the short term, and Changhong conducts OEM OEM, because Changhong has a large volume and has the voice over, but according to the laws of TV and mobile phones, Xiaomi will definitely purchase and customize some important components in the future.

Zhang Jie was also a little surprised that Xiaomi chose Changhong OEM. "Changhong’s production line is relatively old, and it can’t be compared to the big factories." Changhong bought Meiling and Huayi in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Meiling is mainly responsible for the production of air conditioners and refrigerators in Changhong, while Huayi specializes in the production of compressors.

But in Zhang Jie’s opinion, Changhong’s Meiling air conditioners are not mainstream in the industry. The first echelon is Gree and Midea, the second echelon is Oaks, and the third echelon is Chigo, Haier, and Hisense. Meiling is outside these echelons.

Compared with the melee in the color TV market, the competition landscape of the air conditioner market is very clear. Gree and Midea firmly control the first camp of the market, and the two together occupy more than 50% of the market share. The remaining Oaks, Haier, Hisense, etc. have only a small market share.

"Xiaomi must have harvested the second and third camps first," Dong Min said. "Consumers have brand loyalty to the top few, but they have no impression of a lot of brands behind."

Asked in an interview with Mr. Dong in July what she thought of Xiaomi’s entry into the air-conditioning market, Mr. Dong understated: "We make it ourselves, they produce it under brand names. We are hardly on the same track, and we are not an industry type."

In fact, Dong Mingzhu had already reached for the mobile phone, while Lei Jun reached for the air conditioner. This was the lifeblood of the two families. When entering the other’s area of expertise, whether it was Lei Jun or Dong Mingzhu, their performance was difficult to satisfy.

04

Broken halberd "empty ice wash"?

Lei Jun "rose to the challenge", not just the bet with Dong Mingzhu, but the performance pressure may be a more important consideration for him to build air conditioners.

The Xiaomi Ecological Chain is a grand vision that Xiaomi has painted for the capital markets. In 2017, the Xiaomi Ecological Chain achieved 20 billion sales performance. Xiaomi has also set an ambitious goal for the ecological chain: 40 billion in 2018 and 80 billion in 2019. This means that the Xiaomi Ecological Chain needs to nearly double every year.

Xiaomi has proved its success in power banks, bracelets, sweeping robots, and air purifiers. But these products priced at tens of yuan or a few hundred yuan are a drop in the bucket for doubling the revenue of the ecological chain. According to the exclusive information of AI Finance Agency, Xiaomi made an organizational adjustment to the ecological chain team on July 27, and established a precious metals business department, an exploration product department, and an investment department under the ecological chain.

So far, Xiaomi has invested in more than 100 eco-chain companies and produced more than 1,600 SKUs of hardware products. But it is undeniable that Xiaomi specializes in industries where the original market is relatively chaotic and inefficient, typically color TVs, rice cookers, plug-in boards, and sweeping robots.

Take Xiaomi TV as an example. In the TV market that Xiaomi has entered, the share of leading brands such as Hisense and Skyworth is around 15%, and the share of other major brands is around 10%. The gap is not large. The melee pattern is conducive to Xiaomi’s competition for the market.

Because TV involves video content, for companies like Xiaomi and LeTV with operating experience, it is very familiar. And Xiaomi has also invested in video platforms such as iQIYI very early, and LeTV is known for video copyright. However, with the collapse of LeTV, the similarity of the two companies has also caused most of the share of LeTV super TVs to flow to Xiaomi. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in April 2018, the total online and offline shipments of Xiaomi TVs exceeded all brands, ranking first in China.

"The categories that can contribute more than 2 billion can be exhausted, probably within 50. And among these 50, there may be only 10 fields that are relatively easy to enter." The person in charge of a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise broke his fingers to the AI financial club. The bracelet can exceed 2 billion yuan, the sweeping robot can exceed 2 billion yuan, and the notebook can exceed 3 billion yuan.

If the Xiaomi ecological chain wants to double its growth, it has to enter the major home appliance market. In this market, Xiaomi has successfully won the TV market, and now there are only empty ice washers (air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines) left.

However, Xiaomi’s playing style is not universal, especially in the air ice washing market, where Xiaomi has encountered unprecedented resistance.

In early 2017, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Yunmi released the first Internet smart refrigerator with a crowdfunding price of 999 yuan. The following year, it launched an Internet smart refrigerator iLive priced at 1999 yuan, which supports Wi-Fi connection and can be remotely adjusted by mobile phone app. In addition to the refrigerator, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Xiaoji intelligent mini drum washing machine (Xiaomi version) launched a crowdfunding on the Xiaomi platform, priced at 1499 yuan.

However, none of these products were as successful as expected, and young people’s first ice wash didn’t really make young people buy it. Xiaomi, which is good at marketing, even lost money in terms of market volume.

Xiaomi has also entered the drone market, built by Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Feimi, after two and a half years of research and development, the cost of the mold alone cost more than 4 million yuan. Lei Jun personally demonstrated in front of 1 million netizens through Xiaomi live broadcast. However, surprisingly, in the live broadcast of Xiaomi employees, the drone actually lost control, and finally "blew up", and died before he could beat him.

In fact, even if it doesn’t "blow up", Xiaomi will have a hard time making a difference in the drone market. In the drone market, DJI is an absolute giant. Under the Iron Curtain of DJI, almost no players can survive in the consumer drone market.

Five years ago, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun made 1 billion bet, which was judged by the revenue of the two companies.

Now, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu’s gamble is only 5 months away. Xiaomi’s revenue in 2017 is 114.60 billion yuan, while Gree’s revenue is 148.20 billion, and it is expected to break through 170 billion this year. Lei Jun has almost no chance of winning. It has to be said that in the face of Gree, which still maintains strong growth, Lei Jun should carry out a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" of Dong Mingzhu earlier. To make amends, Lei Jun should not care about temporary gains and losses, and it is not impossible for Xiaomi to surpass Gree. Even if Xiaomi air conditioner is not done, it can still drive the industry to change like a catfish, which is what Xiaomi has always been best at doing.

(Wu Wei and Zhang Jie are pseudonyms in the article)

On June 8, Beijing time, the first nine satellites built by Geely Holding Group for future travel were launched earlier this month. Geely’s Zhejiang Space-Time Daodaoyu Technology Co., Ltd. is responsible for the development of these satellites, and its CEO Wang Yang said that compared with Elon Musk’s plans for SpaceX, the company’s ambitions are much more modest.

The nine satellites were launched into orbit on June 2 aboard a Long March 2C rocket, making SpaceX one of the first Chinese companies to begin assembling a constellation of satellites pioneered by SpaceX, which already has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit.

"We all have a background in car manufacturing, and we all want aerospace technology and satellites to give back to car manufacturing and travel," Mr. Wang said in an interview on Tuesday. "The difference is our goal of making satellites."

SpaceX is putting its Starlink satellites into orbit to build a constellation of internet services as a low-cost alternative to long-range land-based systems that are vulnerable to interference. SpaceX also launches rockets for global satellite operators, the US military and NASA.

In contrast, Spacetime Daoyu’s ambitions are more modest. Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu expects to have 72 satellites by the end of 2025 and 168 satellites by the end of the decade.

"While we want to provide the ultimate travel experience for our users, SpaceX is more focused on low-latency broadband and providing high-speed broadband access to 7 billion people around the world," Mr. Wang said.

Space-Time Daoyu is following in the footsteps of Chinese rival Galaxy Aerospace, which in March put six satellites into orbit. The satellites weigh an average of 190 kilograms and are China’s first projects to develop constellations in low-Earth orbit.

"Compared to Starlink, China’s constellation is small," Global Times said in a report on the launch, adding that China "will step up efforts to promote the application and transfer of space technology in the next five years".

Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu plans to do its part to open up the network to other brands, and more information will be announced within three months.

"Geely’s future partners will not be limited to Geely’s ecosystem and car brands," he said. "We are also building partnerships with other industries."

　　The sudden entry of the "giant" broke the development rhythm of the entire community group buying track, and the rules of the game changed accordingly. The industry changed from "fighting for innovation", "fighting for execution" to "fighting for capital" and "fighting for subsidies". It is not surprising that Tongcheng Life has embarked on an inverted "V" shaped trajectory from rise to fall.

　　The "giants" are still rolling in the track of community group buying, but the start-up company that started first was "easily" crushed. On the morning of July 7, the community group buying platform Tongcheng Life (now renamed Honey Orange Life) officially declared bankruptcy. According to reporters, its founder, chairperson and CEO He Pengyu was still in talks with suppliers that night. During the meeting for more than 4 hours, he cried several times and promised to try his best to pay off the debt, but he was unable to recover.

　　On the community group buying track, Tongcheng Life is not the first company to declare bankruptcy, but because of its high reputation, its bankruptcy was called "the first case of community group buying bankruptcy" by the media, causing industry shock.

　　Why did Tongcheng Life "die suddenly"? What is the situation of community group buying now? The reporter interviewed some people familiar with the matter.

　　Shift from innovation to subsidies

　　The usual cause of company bankruptcies is poor management, but Tongcheng Life, which was established in January 2018 and belongs to Suzhou Fresh Orange Technology Co., Ltd., is obviously not one of them. The inverted "V" trajectory of Tongcheng Life from rise to rapid "fall" can be clearly seen in the internal letter sent by He Pengyu to employees and suppliers. According to He Pengyu’s open letter, in only about a year and a half, "Tongcheng Life has achieved the front-end performance of the contract and entered a healthy development stage."

　　At that time, Tongcheng Life was still a star on the community group buying track, which was recognized by many investment institutions. According to reports, Tongcheng Life received 4 rounds of financing in a row in 2019, ranging from tens of millions of yuan to 100 million US dollars. In June 2020, Tongcheng Life announced the completion of 200 million US dollars C round of financing. According to public reports, its valuation before bankruptcy was about 1 billion US dollars, which can be regarded as a small and beautiful start-up company.

　　In the past two years or so, the community group buying model developed from fresh food e-commerce has rapidly developed into a new format in the e-commerce industry, providing a new way for the development of farmers and rich farmers and the absorption of flexible employment in cities and towns, and attracting a large number of entrepreneurial teams. Ten Hui Tuan, Xingsheng Preferred and Tongcheng Life are the three fastest teams, once known as the "old three groups" by the outside world.

　　However, the booming community group buying market has also attracted "giants" to enter the market. Since September 2020, Ali, Meituan, Didi, Pinduoduo and others have resorted to price war "big killers", and "1 cent to buy vegetables" has become popular. Even the vendors in the vegetable market have felt the pressure.

　　The sudden entry of "giants" broke the development rhythm of the entire community group buying track, and the rules of the game changed accordingly. The industry changed from "fighting for innovation" and "fighting for execution" to "fighting for capital" and "fighting for subsidies".

　　According to the reporter’s understanding, in the face of the sudden arrival of the survival crisis, Tongcheng Life has also struggled, seeking capital mergers and acquisitions while striving for performance. It has discussed acquisition intentions with JD.com, Ali, ByteDance, Meituan, etc., and even has a team settled in for due diligence, but ultimately failed due to changes in the industry trend.

　　Li Ming (a pseudonym), a former executive of Tongcheng Life, told reporters that "at the end of June, Tongcheng Life also hoped to get better business data through increased marketing efforts, so as to obtain the olive branch of a’giant ‘merger, but unfortunately it was rejected again. Later, due to the expiration of the brand authorization, the executive decided to start a name change and strategic transformation to make a comeback. Unfortunately, at this time, the supplier began to concentrate on the run to collect payment, which eventually led to the collapse of the capital chain."

　　At present, community group buying is still in the stage of rapid expansion and growth. Meituan (Meituan Preferred), Pinduoduo, and Didi (Orange Heart Preferred) have occupied the top position, and Xingsheng Preferred and Ten Hui Tuan have also been incorporated by JD.com and Ali. After the departure of Tongcheng Life, community group buying has become a game for "giants".

　　After the shopping, the industry will lose a lot.

　　After the community group buying track fully entered the era of "giants", price-fighting and long-term rebates became the norm, and no one could achieve positive benefits in the short term. Service innovation and experience innovation on the user side stagnated, and the entire industry suffered serious internal friction.

　　It is understood that the profit margin of the community group buying industry has rapidly declined from profit to loss. Li Ming revealed that before the "giant" entered the market (before September 2020), the monthly sales of platforms like Tongcheng Life were between 800 million yuan and 1.20 billion yuan, and the gross profit was about 20%. After the "giant" entered, with the huge subsidies for consumers and the competition for the "head", the monthly revenue of the platform fell by up to 80%, and the gross profit directly became negative. The entire community group buying market also further slid into the quagmire of industry-wide losses.

　　In December 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce jointly organized an administrative guidance meeting to standardize the order of community group buying, which was attended by six Internet platform companies including Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo, and Didi. At the meeting, the community group buying "nine must not" was proposed. In March this year, the operating entities behind five community group buying platforms including Meituan Preferred (Shenzhen Meituan Preferred Technology Co., Ltd.) were fined 1.50 million yuan for suspected unfair price behavior.

　　But this still failed to curb the expansion of the "giants". On the one hand, they "hide their positions" and continue to engage in similar "1 cent" activities. On the other hand, they seize the end point market by greatly increasing the commission rewards and subsidies for the "heads". Li Ming said that at present, the rewards and subsidies given by several giants to community groups buying end point "heads" have reached a maximum level of 15% to 18%, basically subsidizing the platform’s own income. This is already irrational competition and is suspected of disguised price war.

　　On July 8, the reporter inquired about some community group buying platforms, not only the activity of "15 eggs clocked in 5 days", but also 1.25 yuan a catty of sand sweet potatoes and 0.99 yuan a red dragon fruit. On the community fresh platform, similar red dragon fruits cost about 4 yuan to 5 yuan each, and sand sweet potatoes cost 5 yuan a catty, which is much higher than the community group buying platform.

　　Behind the shopping prices and subsidies is the huge loss of the entire industry. According to public reports, Meituan’s adjusted net loss reached 3.892 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, and Meituan’s investment in the community group buying business was about 10 billion yuan, which is expected to reach 20 billion yuan this year. In the first quarter, Pinduoduo’s gross profit fell to 49.74%. Pinduoduo invested about 6 billion yuan in buying vegetables in Duoduo, and will increase investment in 2021.

　　Under the mess, suppliers are affected

　　From thriving performance to being forced to declare bankruptcy and exit, the closure of Tongcheng Life is not only regrettable, but also leaves a trail of chicken feathers.

　　In the early morning of July 8, He Pengyu issued an open letter through his personal Moments, proposing three solutions to the bankruptcy of Tongcheng Life: to maximize the protection of the rights and interests of all creditors within the scope of the law; to make every effort to preserve existing assets, hand them over to the court for proper storage and treatment, and actively cooperate with the government’s guidance to offset debts with company assets; if the assets are not enough to offset debts, He Pengyu promises to start a business again, "I will record every debt clearly, and use all my personal efforts to repay debts."

　　It is also understood that on July 8, Tongcheng Life issued a repayment plan for the supplier before initiating the bankruptcy liquidation process. Previously, it had paid employees’ salaries in June and also promised to pay social security for employees in the future.

　　Although the entrepreneurial team of Tongcheng Life tried their best to make up for it, there were still many vegetable farmers, small traders, and even large and medium-sized suppliers who did not receive the payment on time.

　　A livestock company has cooperated with Tongcheng Life to supply egg products since 2019, and it was owed nearly 800,000 yuan. After the crisis broke out in Tongcheng Life, Mr. Wang, the person in charge of the company, came to ask for the arrears. "There are hundreds of egg farmers behind me, so I have to come to collect debts."

　　According to the latest situation, on July 8, Tongcheng Life has started to repay some of the suppliers’ debts in advance, and the rest will be allocated by the court after the bankruptcy liquidation process starts. The work is still being carried out in an orderly manner.

　　As of the morning of July 9, there were more than 600 suppliers who had reached repayment agreements with Orange Technology, mainly from the financing loans raised by He Pengyu and his team.

　　On July 9, Mr. Wang booked a return ticket with a repayment agreement. But next time, if there is another community group buying platform flash crash, will the suppliers be so lucky?

June 20th at 13:13,Community group buyingThe sector index reported 616.576 points, down 2%, with a turnover of 1.991 billion yuan and a turnover rate of 1.02%.
Among the stocks in the sector, the top five stocks with the largest declines were:Haixin FoodReported 3.63 yuan, down 5.47%.PINWOOD FOODIt was quoted at 14.05 yuan, down 4.03%; ST was quoted at 3.41 yuan, down 3.13%.Nandu PropertyIt was reported at 8.31 yuan, down 3.03%.Xi’an dietAt 7.08 yuan, it fell 3.01%.

　　The 2024 Haoyue L has launched three models, and the market guidance price is 127,900-147,900 yuan. The new car has upgraded the central control large screen and the car system, in which the central control screen has been upgraded from the current 12.3 inches to 14.6 inches, and the car system has also been upgraded from Galaxy OS to Galaxy OS 2.0 version.

　　The new Haoyue L adopts a brand-new design, and the domineering potential energy ice waterfall vertical grille is decorated with plating strips on the outside. The headlights on both sides are lens-shaped, with 244 LED beads inside, and the front face as a whole looks extremely tense. Haoyue L body adopts tough design lines, 19-inch wheels adopt five-width vortex design, and blackened wheel eyebrow components enhance the sense of strength of the vehicle. The length, width and height of the new car are 4860/1910/1770mm and the wheelbase is 2825mm respectively. The tail adopts penetrating taillights, and the red decorative strip is very obvious. There is a thick exhaust decoration on each bumper, and the layout is simple.

　　The 2024 Haoyue L central control large screen has been upgraded from the current 12.3-inch to 14.6-inch, and the car system has also been upgraded from Yinhe 0S to Yinhe 0S 2.0 version. At the same time, the cockpit chip has also been upgraded from E02 of 12nm to E04 of 7nm, and the running memory and storage memory have been significantly upgraded. The central control screen is larger, the car system is more stable, the function is more perfect, and the chip computing power is stronger. The overall operation fluency of the 2024 Haoyue L car machine has increased by 25%, and the startup speed of the APP has increased by 18%. In terms of interior color, the 2024 Haoyue L has added a brand-new Danxia red color scheme, replacing the current desert brown color scheme. At the same time, the new car has also optimized the details of the modeling scheme of the interior panel, further enhancing the luxury of the interior.

　　The 2024 Haoyue L has made a series of adjustments and optimizations to the standard Drive-E 2.0TD engine, and optimized the fuel label to No.92 on the premise that the maximum power of 160kW and the maximum torque of 325N·m remain unchanged, further reducing the cost of users’ cars. (Photo: provided by Geely Automobile)