Over the years, Luo Yonghao has set up many FLAGs, the most famous of which is to pay off 600 million yuan in 5 years. In 2018, in the face of 600 million yuan of debt left by the outbreak of the hammer technology crisis, Luo Yonghao said, "Within five years, we must pay off the account." Subsequently, he relied on live streaming to gradually pay off this huge debt.
Seeing that the debt was paid off, Luo Yonghao also began to plan to withdraw from the live broadcast circle. For the next step, Luo Yonghao has said that he will return to the technology industry. However, Luo Yonghao, who returned again, did not have the courage to make a mobile phone. The question is, without mobile phones, what will Luo Yonghao's new entrepreneurial project be?
No more making phones
The 600 million yuan debt was almost paid off, and Luo Yonghao, who brought his own topic, began to plan to return to the science and technology circle. In March, it was reported that after paying off the debt, Lao Luo would return to the technology industry. This has aroused the speculation of the melon-eating masses.
A few days ago, some netizens asked Luo Yonghao through the social platform, "Do you have the courage to make a mobile phone again?" In this regard, Luo Yonghao replied, "Because I want to burn investors' money, so I really don't have the courage, otherwise you can vote." As long as 2 billion, we don't consider the financial returns and the reactions of the masses, I will make you a mobile phone that touches the soul and swings back. ”
However, this statement has attracted some netizens to question, believing that Lao Luo is "bragging". Their doubts are also quite reasonable, if it is so powerful, why sell the nut mobile phone? Of course, some people lament that Lao Luo is "a man". After all, after owing so much money, it is still very responsible to insist on paying it off in the end.
In the view of headline bacteria, Lao Luo does not do mobile phones, and the greater consideration is the development trend of this industry.
On the one hand, the smartphone market has reached the "ceiling". In 2021, global smartphone shipments increased by 5.7% year-on-year to 1.355 billion units, still lower than the 1.37 billion units in 2019. Especially in the fourth quarter of last year, global smartphone shipments were 362 million units, down 3.2% year-on-year. In 2022, the downward trend is more pronounced. In the first two months, domestic mobile phone shipments fell by 22.6% year-on-year to 47.886 million units.
On the other hand, the overall situation of the industry ecology has been determined. The current global smartphone market is basically divided up by five mainstream manufacturers such as Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo. According to the data, in 2021, the global smartphone shipment volume is 1.355 billion units, of which the TOP5 brand accounts for more than 72%. The market share of other brands of mobile phones is getting smaller and smaller.
What is the direction of entrepreneurship?
The decline in the smartphone market has been reflected in mobile phone manufacturers. Recently, there is news that Apple android manufacturers have reduced shipments. For a time, cutting orders became a hot word in the industry. This means that even mobile phone manufacturers are not optimistic about shipments.
The performance of the smartphone market is dismal, what else can Lao Luo do? Earlier, he conveyed two meanings in a conversation:
One is that it will return to the tech industry, but the company is not called a hammer. Returning to the tech world is not attachment, just out of liking. Why not call it a hammer, Luo Yonghao said, this is a particularly failed project, the next step is to make a cooler, more innovative technology products.
Second, the next entrepreneurial project is most likely to be AR. In this regard, he also deliberately emphasized that it is AR (augmented reality), not VR (virtual reality), not the metaverse. It is reported that Luo Yonghao intends to use AR as the basic direction to create the next mobile platform.
What kind of industry is this? Unlike VR, which creates a new environment through computers, AR fuses virtual information with the real world and applies it to the real world. In recent years, VR/AR has stood on the cusp of the wind and is favored by capital, whether it is market size or investment, it has continued to grow. In terms of market size, the global market reached $3.89 billion in 2020, and some institutions expect this data to reach $12.19 billion by 2024.
The industry scenery is infinitely better, but AR still has practical difficulties. Compared with VR, the use case of AR is more application-oriented. For this industry to mature, it needs a large and perfect AI intelligent solution. Some commentators believe that only by relying on the mature big data background can AR products gradually replace existing smart mobile devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and so on.
Once replaced, it means the beginning of a new era. In the context of such an overall iteration of the industry, Lao Luo is also difficult to turn the tide by his own efforts.
For Lao Luo's return to the technology circle, the headline fungus admires, but also a little worried, in the homogeneous competition is too cruel in the technology industry, whether it is to do mobile phones or AR, entrepreneurship is particularly a long way to go.