On March 16, Xiaomi officially issued an announcement that the original "Xiaomi Sports" app was renamed "Zepp Life" and became Huami's sports health application, which was subsequently operated independently by Huami. At the same time, Xiaomi has launched a new application "Xiaomi Sports Health" as an official application for follow-up Xiaomi wearable products, and the new application will gradually support the user's original data migration.
The announcement also shows that the zepp Life application will continue to support the connection and use of the existing Xiaomi bracelet 1-6 generation products, Xiaomi scale series products, and Xiaomi body fat scale series products, and the course data, sports health and other data generated during use will be retained on the Huami server under the premise of ensuring user privacy and security.
At the same time, Xiaomi will continue to deepen cooperation with Huami in product development, self-developed chips, algorithms and other aspects in the field of wearables, and jointly provide high-quality and leading wearable software and hardware services for rice noodles.
It is worth noting that the move to change the name of the Xiaomi Sports APP is only the epitome of the "de-milletization" of xiaomi ecological chain enterprises in the eyes of industry insiders, because in addition to Huami, enterprises such as Stone Technology, Yunmi and No. 9 Company have begun to "stand on their own portals", get rid of the embarrassing positioning of being reduced to Xiaomi OEM, and create independent product lines.
It is understood that as early as 2014, Xiaomi and Huami jointly launched the Xiaomi bracelet 1 generation. From 2015 to 2016, Xiaomi products contributed 97.1% and 92.1% of Huami's current revenue.
Also in 2015, Huami began its "deconstruction plan", releasing its own brand Amazfit, and then acquired the smart wearable brand Zepp in 2018, and successively launched the Huangshan series of self-developed wearable device chips and the open platform Zepp OS, which are installed in smart wearable products such as Amazfit GT3.
Huami Technology's third-quarter 2021 financial report shows that its own brand shipments increased by 89% year-on-year, and the shipments of wearable products such as Xiaomi bracelets for OEM were down 45.3% year-on-year.
Although private label shipments have increased significantly, the sequelae of "de-riceization" have also followed. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2021, Huami Technology's revenue was 1.6 billion yuan, down 28.1% year-on-year; product shipments fell from 15.9 million units in the same period last year to 9.9 million units, down 37.7% year-on-year; and net profit fell from 81.1 million yuan in the same period last year to 49.3 million yuan, down 39.2% year-on-year.
Huang Wang, founder, chairman and CEO of Huami, once said in a conference call that the revenue and profit fell significantly in the third quarter, mainly due to the shipment of wearable products such as Xiaomi bracelets, which were manufactured by Huami Technology, which fell by 45.3% year-on-year.
As a star of the science and technology innovation board, Stone Technology is also a member of the resolute "de-milletization". In 2016, stone technology's first intelligent sweeping robot product was customized for Xiaomi. After a year, Stone Technology began to launch its own brands such as "Stone" and "Small Tile" series, and from 2016 to 2020, the sales ratio of Stone Technology's own brands was: 0.9.64%, 49.83%, 66% and 90.72%, respectively. In the first half of 2021, the proportion of sales of Stone Technology's own brand products has increased to 98.23%.
After the "de-metering", the identity of stone technology will also be transformed into a new rival of Xiaomi in the field of car manufacturing. According to reports, Stone Technology has launched the smart electric vehicle project Luoke Automobile at the end of 2020 and completed a $100 million financing by the end of 2021, with Tencent and Sequoia both participating in the investment.
It is worth noting that similar "reincarnation" has also been staged in Xiaomi ecological chain enterprises such as No. 9 Company and Yun mi. Even Company Nine clearly mentioned in the prospectus of the Science and Technology Innovation Board that "the company does not belong to the typical ecological chain enterprise defined by Xiaomi." ”
Some industry analysts said that the ecological chain enterprises such as Sushi Technology, Yilai Intelligent, and Fun Sleep Technology that will be listed next will still repeat the practices of their predecessors and resolutely "de-milletize". In the early stage of entrepreneurship, Xiaomi's strong supply chain integration ability and brand power can indeed provide a huge market and credibility endorsement for enterprises; but if the company reaches the stage of development and growth, it is still overly dependent on Xiaomi's ecological chain, it will face the risk of reducing procurement and reducing order volume, if you want to obtain a larger market, or impact a more high-end market, tear off Xiaomi's label, in order to accommodate more labels and possibilities.
Written by: Nandu reporter Chen Peijun