On March 14, Meizu Science and Technology official issued a document to celebrate the 19th anniversary of its establishment. Unconsciously, this "Zhuhai small factory", which has played an important role in the domestic smartphone industry, is almost 20 years old.
Not long ago, former Meizu system engineer Hong Hansheng restarted his Weibo account, but his identity has become an OPPO employee. Although Meizu has become a non-head manufacturer in the mobile phone market, and its sense of existence has weakened, Meizu has long been a Whampoa Military Academy in the industry, and has "sent a large number of talents to the society."
Taking the opportunity of Hong Hansheng's return to Weibo, let's sort out the big guys from Meizu and understand their recent situation.
Hong Hansheng: Tell the truth and kneel durian
Compared with the familiar faces that the charm friends know better, Hong Hansheng may not know so well. Hong First appeared at the Meizu 16s conference in April 2019, when he was a systems engineer and was mainly responsible for performance tuning related work such as OneMind 3.0.
At that time, the three musketeers of Meizu had faded out of the vision of Meiyou, and a group of speakers at the press conference, including Hong Hansheng, inevitably gave people a sense of strangeness. However, Hong Hansheng's ability to "tell the truth" and "kneel durian" is still good, leaving a good impression on everyone.
Hong Hansheng's Weibo has been active for a period of time since then, and he has also answered questions to netizens. However, in the second half of 2019, Hong Hansheng has stopped weibo and reported the news of his departure. Gavin Zhang once posted that he was forced to leave his job, but the specific reason is difficult for us to know.
He reappeared on the Web, and three years later, his company became OPPO, responsible for software technology planning and setup, and clearly played an important role.
Ma Lin: From Flyme to Ecological Anti
Although Meizu is already a small factory in Zhuhai, at least it has survived round after round of shuffling. And the LeTV mobile phone, which was once soaring, is now almost gone. However, leTV at that time, with the ultimate cost performance and ecological anti-big move played by Jia Yueting, was in the limelight for a while. LeTV mobile phone crazy stacking and loss selling, so that the cost-effective millet is also very uncomfortable.
However, at that time, LeTV was just starting out, although the hardware kept up, but the system UI was still a bit sloppy, and it needed experienced big guys to control the situation. At the beginning of the smartphone era, Flyme was already the leader in the domestic customization system, which can be called a textbook existence. Digging people from Meizu has become the fastest way to catch up with leTV mobile phone system construction.
Now when it comes to Flyme, more people may think of Yang Yan. But at that time, Flyme's soul figure was Ma Lin. According to public information, Ma Lin entered Meizu in 2007 to participate in Flyme research and development, and in 2011, he was promoted to vice president of Meizu research and development, responsible for all aspects of Flyme. Meizu M8, Meizu M9 two generations of classic products, Ma Lin is deeply involved in the system UI work.
In 2014, Ma Lin joined LeTV as vice president of research and development, responsible for the research and development of EUI systems. It is undeniable that the EUI interface of LeTV mobile phones did look like there were indeed a lot of Flyme shadows.
At an official LeTV event in 2016, Ma Lin gave a speech, and a subtitle of PPT was "Across the terminal ecological anti". Obviously, at that time, LeEco and Ma Lin hoped that EUI was not limited to mobile phones, but opened up smart devices such as mobile phones, VR/AR, cars, and TVs. Although the term "ecological anti" has become a joke after everyone's tea and dinner, this concept has been inherited and carried forward by many manufacturers.
(Figure Source Intelligent Power Grid)
With the total collapse of LeTV, Ma Lin also quietly became invisible on the Internet for a while. Judging from the Weibo authentication information, Ma Lin has joined Fafa Automobile (China) Co., Ltd. as a vice president of research and development.
Xi Chen: From Flyme to ColorOS
Xiao Lei first met Chen Xi at a ColorOS meeting in 2019. As the keynote speaker, Chen Xi spent a lot of time introducing the UI, icon design concept and interaction logic of ColorOS 6. Before ColorOS 6, the system UI was definitely not a product advantage of OPPO mobile phones. But today, the ColorOS system can be said to be the golden sign of OPPO mobile phones, which can become an important factor for many people to choose European and Canadian products.
Information on the LinkedIn shows that from 2013 to 2018, Chen Xi served as the design leader of the Meizu Flyme team. Earlier, Chen Xi worked as a senior designer at Tencent for 2 and a half years. From May 2018 to the present, Chen Xi's identity has become the head of the ColorOS design center, which can be said to be the soul of the Eurasian mobile phone system.
Frankly speaking, with OPPO's research and development strength, ColorOS has not been too much of a problem in technology, and the biggest role of Chen Xi from Meizu is to inject key aesthetic concepts into ColorOS, thus reborn.
Of course, at the beginning of the launch of ColorOS 6, it also faced accusations of stealing from Flyme. But with the renewal and evolution of ColorOS from generation to generation, it has formed its own style, and Chen Xi will naturally continue to play its important role.
Gavin Zhang: Angry at Yang Zhe, he became famous in World War I
Compared with the others, at least on the surface, Gavin Zhang set off a huge wave before leaving Meizu. On the eve of Meizu's 15 press conference, Gavin Zhang publicly shelled vice president Yang Zhe on Weibo, believing that Yang Tuo was incapable of bringing Meizu out of the predicament and accusing him of wasting his budget. This kind of behavior of Gavin Zhang is undoubtedly to make the internal contradictions of Meizu public, and leaving Meizu has naturally become a foregone conclusion.
Gavin Zhang's real name is Zhang Jia, according to the information he personally provided on Zhihu, Zhang Jia served as the director of the marketing center (cultural and creative department) in Meizu from 2013 to 2019, mainly involving new media marketing, of which the once well-known Penge Technology was built by him. Zhang Jia once revealed that he had a long conversation with Li Nan before entering Meizu, and Li Nan had been responsible for Meizu's marketing for a long time, and the two may have a relatively close relationship.
It is undeniable that a series of new media marketing forms represented by Bige Technology have greatly enhanced the spread of meizu brands. Judging from the evaluation of Meizu employees on the Internet, Zhang Jia's personal style evaluation is relatively good, whether it is marketing ability or management ability, it has been recognized by many people. Of course, the storm before the final departure pushed Zhang Jia to the cusp of the storm, and also made him completely feud with Meizu.
The right and wrong of Gai Wenzhang, Yang Zhe, Huang Zhang and others in this storm is difficult for us as outsiders to judge, but with the departure of Gai Wenzhang and Yang Zhe in the center of the storm, everything seems to be less important.
After leaving Meizu, Zhang Jia applied for labor arbitration and won the lawsuit. In 2019, Zhang Jia said on Weibo that she had joined the electric bicycle company Shark Bay Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and as a co-founder, she served as a CMO and entered the car industry.
Li Nan: From the helmsman of Charm Blue to the independent entrepreneurship
Among all the people who left Meizu, Li Nan was definitely the one that everyone was most familiar with. Whether it is the dream turn from the column chief writer to the vice president of the mobile phone company, or the achievements of single-handedly creating the Charm Blue sub-brand, coupled with the topicality that he continues to bring as a marketing ghost, it is difficult for Li Nan not to be concerned by the outside world. When it comes to Li Nan in Meizu, "marketing" and "charm blue" are two labels that cannot be stripped away.
Li Nan has planned many successful marketing cases, and in those years, the strange invitations of Meizu products have always attracted countless lights. In the early years, Li Nan "fanned the flames" on social platforms such as Zhihu, and threw out violent theories such as "cost performance is garbage", and obtained a very high brand exposure at a very small cost. The charm blue he created single-handedly launched the sign of "youth good products" and also brought real sales to Meizu.
However, with the strategic adjustment of Meizu, the Meilanzi brand was cut, coupled with other contradictions between Li Nan and the top management, Li Nan officially announced his departure in 2019. Li Nan is worthy of the people who breathe in marketing, and even left his job to plan a large-scale marketing, pulling people into the group on Weibo and sucking up the traffic until it is full. After leaving Meizu, Li Nan did not choose to be a worker, but started his own business, founded Nu Meow Technology, mainly engaged in high-end peripheral products, and the customized keyboard launched earned a lot of eyeballs.
Leaving is nothing more than an option
The Internet of Science and Technology has always been a high-turnover industry, whether it is ordinary employees, executives or even founders, it will circulate between different enterprises, and Meizu is naturally no exception. Employees leave one company and go to another, often the latter can provide a better platform or treatment.
Therefore, it is also the flow of personnel, a company with good development prospects, it is easy to attract talents from all directions; and if it is downhill, it is difficult to avoid the dispersion of core talents. Unfortunately, Meizu is the latter.
Meizu is of course the forerunner of the domestic smartphone industry, and indeed it is the Whampoa Military Academy. However, under various factors, Meizu has fallen behind, and has long been a member of the "Others" in the mobile phone market, and the overall strength has long been unable to compare with the head brands such as Xiaomi OV.
In this case, Meizu's volume cannot carry a large-scale talent echelon, and it is difficult to provide them with competitive treatment and development platforms, so it is inevitable to passively send a large number of talents to the society. These big guys mentioned above, they may have different direct reasons for leaving Meizu, but the fundamental factors are all this.
Fortunately, these big guys all carry a certain common trait of Meizu, and they all do a good job in their own segments. Although they left Meizu, they still brought this kind of thing to more companies and brought more users. Just like the advanced Concept webOS eventually failed, but gesture operation, card background, wireless charging, cross-screen linkage and other functions or technologies, through the employees and friends of Palm Company, were eventually promoted on existing products.
From this point of view, the departure and re-employment of employees of technology companies is not a benign means to promote industry exchanges and accelerate technological progress, and Meizu has also unconsciously contributed to the entire industry.