In the past, there was something to find the police, but now it is popular to find Lei Jun when there is something to do.
Last month, Xiaomi cars were released at a shocking low price, and Rebus also became a "popular top stream" as desired.
Lei Jun, who has been going smoothly in his studies, career, friendship and love, was quickly slurred out of his life, and was awarded the title of "Realistic Version of Shuangwen Male Protagonist", and later was "developed" with a new function - "Wang Ba in the Wishing Pool".
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Yi Nian, half a life
The apotheosis began very suddenly, it was carried out thoroughly, and the wishes thrown at him were varied but unchanging: Xiaomi, quickly "knock down" the price of everything.
On March 30, "Can Lei Jun produce a camera" and "Can Lei Jun produce sanitary napkins" appeared on the hot search one after another.
When Fujifilm cameras are hyped as "electronic Moutai" in the second-hand market, popular models can either be bought at a high price to find scalpers, or "distribution" to buy, and the camera that cannot be completely replaced by the mobile phone camera function has become the most popular new Xiaomi project.
Source: Weibo @Headlines
Sanitary products are also popular, obviously half of the world's people just need, but the price is disproportionately high, "menstrual poverty" has been said for several years, or there is no significant improvement, it is really urgent to come to a "price butcher" to rectify it.
What kind of technological progress can be made in this field, netizens have figured it out: doesn't Xiaomi like to connect everything to its own "Mi Home" APP and connect to the artificial intelligence "Xiao Ai Xiao Ai", then make sanitary products that can monitor traffic and remind them regularly.
Even the name has been thought of, Xiaomi sells signature pens and names them "Juneng Write", and sanitary napkins are called "Juneng Suction".
图源：小红书@柠乐乐jio
Netizens' half-joking suggestions really attracted tampon manufacturers, expressing the hope that Lei Jun could take the lead in researching the tampon machine, bluntly saying that "at present, I can only buy imported ones", and it is difficult to reduce the cost.
The "old and difficult" problems in consumption were all nominated in this "large-scale wishing activity on the whole network"——
Barber shop Tony teacher will always be like he can't understand people's words, he only knows that I can spend four figures to get a card but can't cut the hairstyle I want, can Lei Jun open a barber shop?
Dental care is too expensive, and you can't get out without spending thousands of dollars when you enter the dental hospital, can Lei Jun open a dentist?
It is impossible to buy a house, it is impossible in this life, unless Lei Jun makes a "Xiaomi Home", focusing on "the first home of young people", it is estimated that it is still a little possible.
Source: Weibo @ Edge Technology
The reason why it can evolve into an intermediary used by consumers to express pain points and voices at the speed of light is not only that it has hit the current era of "cost performance first", but also that Lei Jun and Xiaomi have a brilliant past performance.
Since the launch of a smartphone in 2011 that costs only 1999 yuan, Xiaomi has been shouting "price butcher" for many years. Although the tram of 215,900 to 299,900 yuan is not cost-effective, it is a matter of opinion, but as soon as the discussion came up, Xiaomi's "heavy blows" to all walks of life over the years were all turned over.
Not to mention the electronic technology products that are most closely related to the main business mobile phone, as soon as the Xiaomi smart bracelet came out, the peers and consumers were confused - it sounds so tall, and the bracelet has always sold thousands, Xiaomi doesn't say hello and directly cuts it to double digits.
The "infrastructure" plug-in board of electronic products,Can't escape the fate of being rectified,The same specifications of the product Xiaomi is cheaper than its competitors,Forcing the bull to have to fight a price war,You sell 49I have to sell 48,Otherwise, the face of the "track head" has no place to rest.
Not only is the price pressed, but the function also has to be upgraded, so that the standard thunder always flutters lightly, "Why don't you spend 20 million to make a power strip for artworks". Some netizens claimed to be Bull employees, who had experienced the overnight rush of the whole factory and the price reduction and upgrade of the whole line, and some netizens recalled the past and sighed: "The contrast between the bull before and after the upgrade makes me feel that what I bought before and after the upgrade is pirated." ”
It is already very difficult to delineate Xiaomi's "peers" and "friends", because this "catfish" that does a line of confusion swims into almost every sea area.
In addition to mobile phones, bracelets, watches, toothbrushes, and cars, which can be linked to "smart" and "networked" technical products, it also sells simple and simple daily groceries, nail clippers, pillows, glasses, and even nose hair trimmers.
The above-mentioned "giant can write" has left a deep impression on many people, the pen is as its name "giant can write", 10 pieces are only sold for 9.99, placed in the dazzling stationery store now, the cost performance can really play. There is an old saying in the business world that "those who can do you are not peers", and the boss of Chenguang slept until midnight and estimated that he would suddenly wake up: "No, why does Xiaomi even beat me?"
In short, after such a hearty "Lei Jun's entrepreneurial career review and planning", Xiaomi has been regarded as "the god of ancient Greece in charge of cost performance".
In this regard, Lei Jun probably likes to see it, after all, he has long been determined to be "Muji in the science and technology industry".
Take the new car press conference that swiped the screen everywhere a while ago, Lei Jun introduced it on the stage for so long, and the most expensive thing to talk about was not the car, but the "whole family bucket" equipped in the car, including audio, ambient lights, flashlights, and parasols, mobile phone holders, car microphones, focusing on a walking Xiaomi mall, the scene is not clear for a while whether it is a new car conference or a live broadcast room with goods.
Source: Weibo @ Bright Light Pearl
In this regard, a comment in the live broadcast room said: "Now car companies are relying on price reductions to boost sales, and they can't make much money in the end by exchanging price for volume." Xiaomi's idea is quite clever, move the grocery store to the car, I don't know if I can make money by selling the car, I don't know, I can definitely make money by selling groceries. ”
It sounds like a joke, but maybe you really guessed Xiaomi's abacus.
It is accurate to say that millet is a "grocery store", but it is too small to say that people can now call it a grocery empire according to their scale.
According to the latest financial report, as of December 31, 2023, Xiaomi has invested in more than 430 companies, with a total book value of 67.1 billion yuan, an increase of 5% year-on-year.
These more than 400 companies are the "ecological chain" that Lei Jun spent a lot of money to save, and because of their large scale and intricate roots, they even derived a proper noun such as "rice enterprise", which refers to the companies on this "ecological chain".
Source: Tianyancha
The reason why it is called the ecological chain, as the name suggests, is because the growth and development of the Xiaomi company is largely maintained by this network, and this chain is the birthplace of various small household appliances and daily necessities in the Xiaomi mall.
From headphones, speakers and other mobile phone peripheral accessories, to rice cookers, hair dryers and other practical household appliances, to towels, toothbrushes, suitcases and other daily necessities, this ecological chain has a bunch of various things, the biggest feature is that it is cost-effective.
The first step to reduce the price of small commodities in various subdivisions is to become a big financier in the field of small commodities first, and instead of doing it yourself, it is better to spend money and hire people to do it.
Before founding Xiaomi at the age of 40, Lei Jun was already a well-known investor in the circle, although he is said to have rejected Ma Huateng because QQ's price of two or three million was too expensive, and it is said that he refused to invest in Taobao because he felt that Ma Yun was full of trains, but he still has a lot of successful records, especially in UC, which has achieved a 1000 times return on investment, which has also become an important part of his "cool life".
Probably no one can escape path dependence, and when he ran Xiaomi, he found that investment could still solve many problems.
In 2014, realizing Xiaomi's limitations in hardware, Lei Jun decided to develop and establish an "ecological chain", and Xiaomi invested in 27 projects that year, 28 the following year, and 22 in 2016...... We also know the story later, 10 years later, more than 430 companies were invested.
According to the analysis of industry insiders, Xiaomi usually looks for a competitive team and makes equity investment in the field of subdivided products that have not yet "exploded".
Through the "money ability" krypton gold shake people to form a game, although it costs money in the early stage, it is the most efficient way to reduce costs.
In fact, the reason is the same as Lei Jun's very respected Costco supermarket to do "own brand", Xiaomi invested in the company to Xiaomi customized products, printed with Xiaomi's logo, into Xiaomi's store, Xiaomi got a brand difference, and therefore more competitive products, and at the same time did not need to open a new production line by themselves, saving research and development, manpower, production, warehousing costs.
What's more, as the "gold owner" of the ecological chain company, Xiaomi has absolutely strong bargaining power.
According to 36Kr reports, among the companies that have received investment requests from Xiaomi's ecological chain, "receiving is a challenge, and not accepting is more stressful" is a not uncommon mentality, and many startups believe that Xiaomi's project "can be made without making money in the early stage".
That's really not a lot of money.
Lei Jun sells mobile phones by himself, promising that "the comprehensive profit margin of hardware does not exceed 5%", and by extension.
The official account "Xiaosheng Bibi" quoted a home appliance entrepreneur as revealing that the ecological chain company made a meager profit for Xiaomi hardware, with a gross profit of 40% for other brands, and Xiaomi cut it in half, if you want to "don't make money in the early stage, make it into a popular product and then make it", you can't play a package ticket, because Xiaomi is likely to insist on implementing the spirit of "price butcher" and reduce prices again.
But climbing the high branches of millet, the temptation is really irresistible.
Because after Xiaomi completes the first step of "investment", in order to make the ecological chain desperately make money for itself, it will also carry out the second step of "incubation".
This incubation is amazing, and the industry is generally prefixed with "nanny-style". But after I learned about it, I feel that the benchmark nanny is tactful, and Xiaomi's things are no matter how small, more like an East Asian mother who dotes on you and lets you bear the high pressure of love.
The money is in place first, Xiaomi returns it to people, and the core members of the team help to find it, but it can't find it directly for Xiaomi executives, and by the way, it outputs a complete set of Xiaomi enterprise management and product methodology;
If necessary, Xiaomi will even help overcome technical difficulties, such as after taking a stake in Ninebot, Xiaomi continued to help it acquire Segway, a self-balancing car start-up, and obtained core patents and production lines, which eventually opened the way for Xiaomi's self-balancing car;
If the technology is also available, let's hurry up research and development, Xiaomi and the ecological chain company jointly design and develop, it is said that the appearance of the product is mentioned by Xiaomi's ID design team, the dragon gives birth to nine sons, but the children born in the Mi family all look the same;
To the production link, Xiaomi to solve the supply chain problem: according to 36Kr report, Ninebot founder Wang Ye once said that in the early days of cooperation, Xiaomi product managers often help them in the supply chain to send business cards to "brush their faces" and ask for lower prices; Su Jun, the founder of Zhimi, also remembers that Xiaomi product managers will help allocate resources, organize weak ecological chain enterprises to learn from companies with good technology, and promote resource sharing between ecological chain companies.
It's all easy to say when the product is made, you can sell Xiaomi's ready-made channels, and you can also use Xiaomi's name to endorse yourself, and strive to land new channels to expand the market, and Xiaomi has a lot of traffic, and it will bring breakthroughs to the cause if you can account for a few shots at the press conference.
With more and more "successful cases" incubated by the ecological chain model, Xiaomi has found that "selling classes" is a business opportunity in itself.
In 2016, Xiaomi joined forces with Lei Jun's Shunwei Fund to establish Xiaomi's own business school "Xiaomi Barn", which teaches how to make explosive products and how to be a boss. According to network information, the barn provides three types of courses, the barn explosive product program class, the barn entrepreneurship college, and the barn explosive product president camp, which are expensive to ask for, which are 9,800 yuan/person, 12,800 yuan/person, and 25,800 yuan/person.
The "original and unique reverse incubation model" of the barn is the opposite of the general entrepreneurial process, and the piles and piles are all Xiaomi's privileges - there is a direction, a supply chain, a channel, and a capital.
In short, as long as you enter this bureau, Xiaomi's transformation is from top to bottom, from the inside out, unforgettable, and leaves traces of geese.
The benefits are obvious. There is no shortage of "quasi-unicorns" with successful IPOs in ecological chain companies, and there are a number of "category champions", such as Huami who makes smart watches, Yunmi who makes whole house intelligence, Rock Technology that makes cleaning robots, and Nine Company that makes electric vehicles.
However, the gift of fate has long been secretly marked with a price.
Although Xiaomi can be used to make a "category champion", the word champion actually has a prefix - "invisible". Xiaomi's "nanny-style incubation" and the "parasitic growth" of the ecological chain company not only make profits to death, but it is also difficult for the brand to get out of the shadow cast by Xiaomi.
Huami Technology shouted in 2015 that it wanted to "de-milletize", but until the end of 2023, Xiaomi is still its chronology, and the title of the media report on its financial situation is still "the eighth year of de-milletization".
The Xiaomi ecological chain is a bit of luck to join, but it takes courage to escape.
And perhaps even more terrifying is "being fled". In 2020, Xiaomi took the watch back into its hands, and Huami's business situation has plummeted since then, some people think that this is Xiaomi's "unloading and killing donkeys", Huami helped Xiaomi conquer new categories, and he became cannon fodder for sacrifices.
Xiaomi, on the other hand, has established a huge ecological chain empire, and has gained a reputation as a "tyrant" that makes small household appliances fearful, and now it has become a "king in the wishing pool".
In fact, the reason why Xiaomi was able to bring down the price of mobile phones at the beginning, and later did the ecological chain to bring down small household appliances, took the same path.
At the beginning, Xiaomi made mobile phones, and chose suppliers that met the quality requirements and had low quotations, Sharp's screen, Qualcomm's CPU, Sony's camera, and it all relied on online sales in the early stage.
Of course, this approach of "cutting everything at all costs" also leaves hidden dangers. In 1999, after the low price of the king bomb level was used to envelop the young people in the first and second-tier cities, Xiaomi encountered a dilemma around 2015, when the tide of first- and second-tier replacement basically stopped, and the young people began to pursue "experience", while the third and fourth-tier and lower-tier cities began to "upgrade mobile phones", and the consumers there are difficult to reach by Xiaomi, who focuses on the Internet.
It's too late to count on wholesalers and distributors, because Xiaomi can't leave them profit margins, otherwise online and offline will not be able to have the same price, and the two signboards of "Internet play" and "cost-effective route" will have to be smashed.
At that juncture, the ecological chain can be said to have saved Xiaomi's life.
In 2015, Xiaomi opened its first offline self-operated store, hundreds of ecological chain products, supporting hundreds of square meters of stores - it doesn't matter if you don't buy mobile phones often, you can also look at toothbrush bracelets and power banks, all of which are good goods.
Later, the ecological chain products can gradually compete with mobile phones. "Xiaomi Ecological Chain Battlefield Notes" said that among the users of ecological chain products, 1/3 are Xiaomi mobile phone users, 1/3 are Apple mobile phone users, and 1/3 are Android system other mobile phone brand users.
Although the revenue is certainly not as high as that of mobile phones, Xiaomi's "IoT (Internet of Things) and Consumer Products Division" – roughly understood as groceries sold in the ecosystem – has always had higher profit margins than mobile phones, and can also drive the "Internet business" that includes application distribution and content services, which is considered to be a cash cow for Xiaomi's "blood transfusion".
But on the other hand, the large-scale ecological chain and the "industry-wide ghost" have also attracted a lot of doubts.
The most intuitive thing is that quality control is difficult to guarantee, there are many Mijia products, there are many quality problems, and there are even voices of "OEM has ruined Xiaomi"; Lei Jun himself also mentioned as early as 2017 that the ecological chain "collapsed" The hidden worries: "After making so many products, what makes rice noodles and consumers very confused is that Xiaomi's business has no boundaries? Because it is difficult for a company that does everything to do well." ”
However, in the current era of "cost performance is king", although the enterprises included in the "rice system" still need to be entangled between "Dumei" and "rice gnawing family", the "price butcher" represented by Lei Jun and Xiaomi is undoubtedly the most popular character.
No matter how much slaughter there is and how long it can be slaughtered, there is such a "catfish", which is always an expectation for consumers.
No, a few days ago, some netizens found out that Xiaomi has begun to recruit camera software engineers, and perhaps the "Xiaomi camera" with the highest voice in the wishing pool is already on the way to rectify the photography industry.
Source: Xiaohongshu @ Mango Mango
编辑 | 橘总作者 | 大稚设计 | 胖兔开篇图源 | 小红书@雷军