【Introduction: As a first-line independent brand car company, Geely enjoys a high degree of popularity in China, and many of its models have a high market heat. But the car company, which focuses on building cars, recently announced that it was going to buy a mobile phone technology company: Meizu. Recently, Weilai also joined the ranks of entering the ranks of mobile phones, and Yin Shuijun, former president of Meitu Mobile Phone, joined Weilai Mobile Phone and took the lead in taking charge of Weilai's mobile phone business. The source also revealed: "Weilai's mobile phone planning predates Xiaomi's announcement of car building, and the project has been established for a while." Why are car companies starting to "not do business"? 】
Written| by Cai Jialun and editor | Hezi
In a multi-dimensional and complex environment where economic recovery and market demand are parallel, new energy vehicles have gradually become one of the most concerned tracks, and on this track, many mobile phone manufacturers have been added, such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and Sony. But just when mobile phone manufacturers have crossed borders to build cars, auto manufacturers have also set their sights on the mobile phone industry. Following Geely and Meizu's "eyebrows and eyes", now, Weilai Automobile is also in the mobile phone section of the frequent action, the year after the new more than 100 offers, the recent Shenzhen is expected to add more than 200 R & D positions.
In response to various rumors, Weilai did not admit or deny it. However, at this juncture, is it really a good time for Weilai to enter the mobile phone industry?
The main business pressure is relatively large, and the current situation of Weilai is not optimistic
Before discussing NIO mobile phones, let's take a look at the current situation of NIO cars.
In fact, it should be pointed out that Weilai's main business, that is, the new energy vehicle business, is under tremendous pressure, and the competitive landscape of the new energy automobile industry seems to be facing a historic reshuffle. According to the delivery volume of each company in 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 98,155 vehicles in 2021, leading Weilai to the top of the annual sales list of new car-making forces, while Weilai ranked second with the delivery of 91429 vehicles, it is worth noting that the delivery of ideal cars was 90491 vehicles, and the gap between Weilai and Weilai was less than 1,000.
The amount of delivery reflects the popularity of the three new forces of car manufacturing to a large extent, if the delivery volume is used as the criterion, the former "Wei Xiaoli" has become "Xiao Weili".
At the same time, among the three new forces that have made cars, it is a fact that Weilai is gradually falling. According to the latest financial report, NIO's total revenue was 9.81 billion yuan, an increase of 116.6% year-on-year; Xiaopeng Automobile's total revenue was 5.72 billion yuan, an increase of 187.4% year-on-year; ideal automobile's total revenue was 7.78 billion yuan, an increase of 209.7% year-on-year. At the same time, Nezha and Zero Run, the second echelon of the new car-making forces, have successively spread rumors of going to Hong Kong for listing. It is reported that Nezha Automobile has completed the third round of financing of the D round of more than 2 billion yuan, and has now opened a Pre-IPO round of financing with a target valuation of about 45 billion yuan, and plans to start an IPO in Hong Kong within this year.
It can be seen that Weilai is not only facing the dilemma of slowing down revenue growth, but also facing the situation that competitors are catching up.
Weilai made a mobile phone, and the opponent was too strong
In addition to the pressure of the main business, Weilai mobile phones also need to cope with the strong challenges of other opponents in the mobile phone industry.
You know, the fierce competition in the mobile phone market today can be called "purgatory", and the space left for Weilai has been very narrow. According to the mobile phone market tracking report released by IDC for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021, in the fourth quarter of 2021, China's smartphone shipments were about 83.4 million units, down 3.5% year-on-year. In the whole of 2021, China's smartphone shipments were about 329 million units, a slight increase of only 1.1% year-on-year.
Among them, Vivo became the champion in the Chinese smartphone market for the first time with a shipment of 71 million units, and occupied 21.5% of the market share, while OPPO, Xiaomi, Apple and Honor ranked second to fifth respectively, accounting for 20.4%, 15.5%, 15.3% and 11.7% of the market share, respectively. The top five together occupy 84.4% of the market share, which means that the Matthew effect in the mobile phone industry is becoming more and more obvious, leaving a narrower and narrower living space for latecomers. To put it bluntly, in such a competitive market environment, can Weilai survive?
Financial pressures cannot be ignored
On the other hand, capital investment is also a major challenge for NIO.
According to Xiaomi's financial report data, from 2016 to 2020, Xiaomi's expenditure on research and development investment has accumulated 27.9 billion yuan. In 2020 alone, Huawei invested 131.7 billion yuan in research and development expenses, while Apple also reached 127.7 billion yuan. For Weilai, whose main business is under pressure and is mired in losses, the investment in the mobile phone business will be a big burden.
Not only that, the marketing system of mobile phones and cars is very different, Weilai seriously lacks experience in making mobile phones, and needs to build a mobile phone supply chain system and sales channels from scratch, and whether Weilai adapts to the environment and playing style of the mobile phone industry is still unknown.
In addition, before Weilai, there were countless examples of cross-border mobile phone failures, such as Gree, 360, LeTV, Lenovo, etc. have had the experience of making mobile phones, but due to various reasons, they ultimately failed to receive much response. Taking Gree as an example, the purpose of its mobile phone is quite similar to that of Weilai, but due to the lack of selling points, unprofessional marketing and unprofessional team, the sales of the first generation of Gree mobile phones are dismal, and the shipment volume is only about 100,000 units. Later, Gree Group successively launched the second generation of Gree, Gree color industry, Gree third generation and Dasong G5, but the shipment volume was also dismal. There are so many losers in front of you, is Weilai really capable of achieving a breakthrough?
Comments
Perhaps some friends will say that whether Weilai mobile phone will fold like Gree mobile phone is still an uncertain thing. But what is certain is that in the case of such fierce market competition, and considering the current financial situation of Weilai, for Weilai, making mobile phones will be a very difficult hard bone.
(This article is the original of "Heyan Reading Car", without authorization, it may not be reproduced)