Liu Lirong, a well-known Chinese entrepreneur and founder of Gionee Group, is known for his outstanding achievements in the field of mobile communications in China.
His entrepreneurial journey is full of hardships and determination, showing how an ordinary person can achieve his dreams through hard work and perseverance.
Big brand "Gionee"
At that time, when Liu Lirong founded Gionee, he really found 100 million and established Lijin Mobile Communication Design and Research Institute.
From the beginning, they focused on independent research and development, which is the key to Gionee's ability to live from the era of feature phones to the era of smartphones.
At that time, most of the domestic mobile phones were imitation versions, and domestic mobile phones were basically copycat machines. But Liu Lirong chose a different path, he is determined to build his own brand mobile phone.
In an era of relative lack of technology, Gionee mobile phones conquered the market with practical features such as large speakers and large batteries. In 2003, Gionee sold one million mobile phones at once, selling more than 800 million dollars.
By 2004, they had sold another 1.7 million units, more than dozens of times more than the money sold. However, in the past two years, Gionee has only done OEM for other companies, and until 05, they feel that they are fully prepared in all aspects.
In 2016, Andy Lau and Feng Xiaogang were invited to shoot an advertising video together, and at that time, the Gionee mobile phone brand quickly traveled to every city. At that time, other local mobile phone brands such as Bird , Xiaxin, TCL, etc. also entered our lives at the same time.
However, after 2008, these brands basically disappeared, and only Gionee survived at this stage, and survived quite well.
Liu Lirong once proudly said that when they were at their lowest, they experienced the fastest growth. By 2010, Gionee mobile phones reached a new height, ranking third in the industry in terms of market size, second only to Nokia and Samsung.
The annual output of domestic mobile phones has reached 80 million units, which can be said to be infinite.
However, the good times did not last long, and Jinli later went downhill. At that time, they angrily smashed more than a billion to ask celebrities to endorse, and at the end of 2015, Liu Lirong reappeared and took a big deal at the beginning.
They signed many first-line stars such as Feng Xiaogang, Xue Zhiqian, Yu Wenle, Liu Tao and other first-line stars in one go, and sponsored the popular variety shows "Chinese Good Songs", "Smiling Rivers and Lakes", "Four Masterpieces", "Crossover Singer" and so on.
However, celebrity endorsements are also time-sensitive, and the market landscape has changed, and this strategy is clearly invalid.
The overwhelming propaganda and advertising bombardment was only a temporary effect, and did not save Gionee's situation.
In fact, since 2011, Gionee mobile phones have begun to fail to keep up with the times, and their product design seems backward in front of other brands. While other mobile phone brands are pursuing cost-effectiveness, Gionee is still insisting on large batteries and ultra-long standby.
While the beauty and soft light of other mobile phone front cameras have been played badly, Gionee is still working hard to develop its own front dual cameras.
Most importantly, when everyone is paying attention to performance and hardware, Gionee is still emphasizing how strong its security performance is. Not to mention whether ordinary people can really feel this security, is the security of Internet giants such as Alipay and WeChat unreliable?
Another problem is Gionee's awkward brand positioning. Each phone brand has its own characteristics and labels. For example, Xiaomi is known for its ultimate cost performance, and Apple is respected for its unique iOS system.
And Jinli to tell the truth, giving people the feeling of being an old man's machine.
In addition, Gionee claims to be a business mobile phone, but it cannot make a young product, and it is really difficult to find a reason to buy it.
Therefore, there is a reason why Gionee has gone downhill in the market competition.
They didn't keep up with the times, and product design lagged behind other brands. At the same time, the brand positioning is also awkward, lacking unique selling points and appeal.
This has led to Gionee's gradual loss of competitiveness in the fierce mobile phone market.
The first half of Liu Lirong's life
Liu Lirong, a native of Yiyang, Hunan Province, had great learning ability and quality when he was a child. His enterprising and talented talent led him to be successfully admitted to Changsha Zhongnan University of Technology, and after entering the university, he continued to show a careful and sincere attitude, which was highly praised.
He entered Central South University at the age of 18. A few years later, he became the vice president of the Jinzheng Group, and he became famous. At the age of 30, he decisively started a business and founded Gionee Group.
He likes to play Go super and is simply recognized as a Go master in the business world, and he is very powerful.
Some say he plays chess very cautiously and doesn't take risks at all. Perhaps every entrepreneur has some gambler's spirit in his bones, but it is courage to use it on the right path, and it is destruction when used on the evil road.
In 1994, Liu Lirong graduated from school and was able to work at a research institute in Tianjin. The Institute is a unit that many people yearn for.
I can earn 500 yuan a month, which is really envious. However, Liu Lirong felt that such a life was too mediocre and did not have a sense of freshness. He decided to leave and break new ground in Guangdong.
Do you know why he made such a heavy determination? Because he heard that the new director was in his 50s at that time, and the director so far was also young.
He feels that no matter how good the work is, he can only become a director at the age of 50, and he feels that this speed is too slow. Because his education was okay, he quickly found a company to do related management work.
In Xiaobawang Company, with his own efforts, he won the recognition of Yang Minggui, the successor director of Xiaobawang, and also got a house as a reward.
Then, in 1997, after Yang Minggui left the company, he founded Gionee Company, and when he left, he specially came to find Liu Lirong to join him. In this way, a young man who was not yet 25 years old became the executive vice president of Jinzheng Company.
Losing 12 billion yuan, Gionee disappeared
Who would have thought that such a once highly sought-after young talent would be saddled with tens of billions in debt just a few years later. Probably because he has a gambling personality, this time he really went to the casino to gamble. And blocked more than once.
He gambled many times in a casino in Saipan, throwing tens of billions in the casino. And Jinli's capital chain was broken, precisely because Liu Lirong lost in Saipan gambling.
But it was revealed that Liu Lirong once lost billions of yuan on Saipan.
Liu Lirong has never denied that he gambled on the matter, but he himself did not lose so much money, only more than a billion. However, some people say that Liu Lirong's money in the casino should exceed 10 billion.
After the company's internal investigation, Liu Lirong lost more than billions of dollars before and after Saipan, definitely more than 20 billion.
But at the gambling table, there is a difference between winning and losing, and there is no emotion at all. Losing is losing, and the lost money casino will not return you a single point. A good brand is at the end.
And the founder Liu Lirong also fled to Hong Kong and never dared to show his face again, from a big boss with a net worth of tens of billions to an old man who cannot live forever, which is sad and lamentable.
Liu Lirong's gambling behavior is not only a moral issue, but also a legal issue. However, the allure of gambling kept him caught up in it again and again, eventually leading to the bankruptcy of him and Gionee.
His depravity from a once billionaire boss to an old man who cannot pay his debts is a sad ending.