Author: Zhou Yuan/Wall Street News
If Nine had stopped at the electric self-balancing scooter business that it had started with, the technology-driven technology company would not have the benchmark position it has in the short-term transportation and service robot industry today.
Although it has been established for 12 years, Nine continues to improve its technology and business framework: the former is the foundation of the middle platform that supports the core competitiveness of Nine's products - intelligence, and the latter provides continuous momentum for the commercialization of Nine in the future.
From the perspective of business results and product strength, Nine's strategy driven by "self-developed technology and user needs" is rapidly changing the traditional attributes of related industries (such as electric two-wheelers). While improving the technical ability of industrial chain standardization, the entry of No. 9 Company has also improved the overall technical competitiveness of China's short transportation industry.
Among them, the obvious demonstration of the technological reconstruction of traditional industries began at the moment when Nine entered the electric two-wheeler market in the seventh year of its establishment (2019). This event is as significant as Nine's acquisition of Segway, the originator of electric self-balancing scooters, in 2015.
The difference between the two is that the market significance of the acquisition of Segway is that the technology brand image of Nine itself and Chinese technology companies has refreshed the global perception, while the entry into the Chinese electric two-wheeler market has pushed up the technological level of the entire Chinese electric two-wheeler industry chain.
The wave of intelligence is sweeping everything, and in the foreseeable future, where is the value of Nine Company for the B and C ends?
A technology pioneer in the trend of intelligence
April 12 was the Open Day for the Nine Company, which gave the market an up-close look at the global high-tech consumer goods company.
No.9 Company, A-share code "689009", was established in 2012 by Gao Lufeng (the current chairman).
Based on the global market with an international vision, the company continues to focus on the design, research and development, production, sales and service of intelligent short transportation and service robot products with the mission of simplifying the movement of people and things and making life more convenient and interesting.
From the perspective of technical orientation and product structure, Nine is committed to becoming the world's leading intelligent mobility capability company, providing the market with "intelligent mobile people (intelligent manned vehicles)" and "intelligent mobile things (carrying service robots)" capabilities, superimposing "electrification" with "intelligent" "carrying and moving capabilities", and materializing them into products and services with deep competitiveness and user value.
At present, Nine's products include electric two-wheelers, electric self-balancing vehicles, electric scooters, all-terrain vehicles, service robots and E-Bike, which is new to the market this year.
Among them, electric two-wheelers will achieve revenue of 4.232 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 74.10%, accounting for 41.40% of the total revenue, and the gross profit margin will increase by 3.71 percentage points year-on-year to 19.27% (data source: No. 9 Company's 2023 annual report). It is worth mentioning that the revenue value of electric two-wheelers is the highest among all terminal vehicles of Nine Company.
Nine is based on technology, which is embodied and perceived by the public in electric two-wheelers. This perception stems from the intelligent nature of the No. 9 electric two-wheeler.
Researchers Carl Frey and Michael Osborne at the University of Cambridge introduced three dimensions when analyzing the substitutability of AI for humans: social intelligence, creativity, perception, and operational ability.
From the beginning of its establishment, Nine Company has actually taken vehicle intelligence as the most important technological breakthrough direction. Initially, this intelligence revolved around the way you interact with your smartphone.
Gao Lufeng, founder and chairman of Nine, told Wall Street, "Since the first balance bike, we have been very attentive and serious about interacting with (smart) phones. Now, the trend of industry intelligence has been very obvious. ”
In Gao Lufeng's cognitive system, intelligence is not a fashionable technical term, and the real meaning of intelligence, or the real value for C-end users, lies in reducing manual intervention in the operation of vehicles. This is similar to the analysis of Carl Frey and Michael Osborne – the value of AI is the improvement of human productivity.
For example, "It turns out that many vehicles are almost 100% human-driven, and every action requires human involvement. We pass 'RideyGo!' (Stop-and-go system) and 'Ninebot Airlock' (inductive unlocking technology) allow the vehicle to be unlocked or locked by mobile phone sensing without the use of a key. "The purpose of this is to minimize the need for manual intervention by the user." ”
In fact, the No. 9 electric two-wheeler also has sensors installed on the pedals and foot supports to automatically sense the driving or parking status of the vehicle and make corresponding mechanical movements.
For example, when the user sits in the seat, the pressure sensor under the seat will "tell" the vehicle that someone sits up, and then the sensor will automatically prepare the vehicle to start;
On the contrary, the user may leave the seat and retract the foot support, and the vehicle can be automatically locked through the sensor linkage sensing, without the need for unnecessary manual intervention by the user.
This is the embodiment of the value of intelligence to users in Nine's understanding: the value of intelligent technology is to allow users to "perceive" the user's intention when using the vehicle and make it realize a non-inductive operation experience.
What is a good product of Nine Company
The foothold, or core competitiveness, of Nine Company is based on the research and development and application of technologies that can provide new user value.
For Nine, technology is not the end of the road. In other words, the technology research and development of Nine Company is not simply for the pursuit of technology itself. Gao Lufeng said, "Our technology research and development capabilities will be presented through products, and the core is to highly bind them to user needs." ”
This is like the characteristics and goals of good art: artistic creation is an expression of sensibility and spirituality. In a work of art, there may be very few "flashes of inspiration", and harmony, counterpoint, and form are all tools to amplify wonderful artistic moments. Whatever the rules, they all serve art, and tools should make way for art, not art accommodate tools.
Artists such as Michelangelo Buonarroti (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564) and Ludwig van Beethoven (December 16, 1770 – March 26, 1827) were great because they constantly challenged the frameworks and rules of old art and were always creating new ways of expression. Good art always inspires people, not gives answers to rules.
The same is true of technology, there is no good or bad technology, only whether it is suitable or not.
As far as business itself is concerned, the purpose of technology research and development determines the true value of technology: first, this technology must serve the business goal, secondly, on this basis, it must be able to build a strong enough core competitiveness, and third, it is necessary to transform the traditional industry and improve the overall technical level of the industry. Just like Apple (AAPL.), pull upstream and downstream to build a new ecological value chain.
With the mission of "simplifying the movement of people and things, making life more convenient and interesting", the mission of Nine Company is that harmony and counterpoint, music and other tools are just tools to amplify wonderful artistic moments, and it is not the end of Nine Company's technology research and development, and technology should be combined with the company's mission.
Great business technology companies should also have a strong willingness and ability to continue to challenge the original industrial technology framework and rules, and dare to create or have the ability to explore new technology application scenarios. Advanced technology can always provide people who are limited by traditional technology with a new value application experience, rather than doing a high-intensity involution that lacks value in the traditional technology framework.
Gao Lufeng said, "In the electric two-wheeler industry, if you use the original common play, you can 'save' a 'new' product in 3-5 months." However, it took three years for our first E series electric motorcycle product to be developed from project research and development, to mass production, and then to the market. ”
What has Nine been doing in the past three years?
"For example, such as the linear ABS anti-lock braking system, TCS traction control system, etc., involves major issues to protect the safety of the user's riding, which is the real value. "But the application of this technology was originally very expensive, and these technologies were originally applied to high-horsepower motorcycles." Now, we want to apply it to the 4000 yuan + electric two-wheeler. This is what Nine wants to do, and it is also our task: the technology is strong, the product is easy to use, and the price is not expensive, which takes time. ”
Nine has an internal evaluation system for the terminals it launches.
"If we want to launch a product, we have to answer two questions: first, do we feel that our faces are shining? Will we feel ashamed? Second, our family members -- siblings and parents, buy this car and don't feel at ease? This is a very important assessment criterion. Gao Lufeng said, "We can rest assured that we can introduce new products to the market that can definitely answer these two questions." ”
Technology-driven: Reshaping the industrial ecosystem
Steve Jobs (1955.2.24-2011.10.5), the definer and pioneer of smartphones, is great because Jobs not only developed an epoch-making great work like the iPhone, but also because Apple empowered and aggregated upstream and downstream industry chain companies to jointly build a new industry with sufficient innovation capabilities, continuous iteration of user value and a new technology system.
As the saying goes, "a single flower is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom in spring".
Nine's technological innovation path is different. Apple has blossomed in the center and subverted the original smartphone industry, but Nine's strategy is to "hit the middle with edge innovation" (Gao Lufeng).
"We must not say that we are racing with others on the original runway, we must use innovative methods to make some edge innovation opportunities in this industry, so that we can use edge innovation to hit the middle, so that we have a core competitive advantage." Gao Lufeng said, "Including robotics based on algorithms, vision, etc., extended to other categories." This methodology forms our unique competitive advantage. ”
"Edge innovation" is the technical direction of the methodology, and intelligence is the differentiated technical route of Nine.
As far as electric two-wheelers are concerned, Nine's native technology is mainly focused on performance, battery life, intelligence, etc., especially intelligence: Nine Company said in its 2023 annual report that "the company has grown into a platform-based technology enterprise, forming three core underlying technologies of smart technology, mobile technology, and online + data capabilities, all of which have reached the international or domestic leading level."
For example, Nine Company has developed BMS battery safety management technology, non-sensor drive technology, three-electric system technology, autonomous navigation technology, electric two-wheeled vehicle true intelligent system, VILO-SLAM2.0 navigation system, EFLS (Exact Fusion Locating System) fusion positioning system and other technologies, which are applied to electric balance vehicles, electric scooters, electric two-wheeled vehicles, Service robots and other categories have realized the effective integration of underlying technologies and opened up the whole chain of scientific and technological innovation from R&D, application to industrialization.
On April 15, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the "Safety Technical Specifications for Electric Bicycles" (GB17761-2018) was officially implemented. The new regulations require that the maximum speed of electric vehicles on the road should not exceed 25km/h, the battery voltage should be less than or equal to 48V, and the weight of the whole vehicle should be less than or equal to 55kg. According to the new regulations, about 70% of China's more than 300 million two-wheeled electric vehicles are not compliant.
According to the "iResearch Consulting Report", in 2022, 49.4% of car owners prefer to buy two-wheeled electric vehicles with intelligent functions when buying a car. This will become the biggest variable in the transformation of this very traditional industry - the proportion of users who pay attention to the three dimensions of battery and battery life, quality and power performance are 60.9%, 53.9% and 52.7% respectively, which are higher than the preference for intelligent functions - to the new industrial structure.
By 2023, the intelligent trend of two-wheeled electric vehicles has become an industry consensus - Gao Lufeng said, "the intelligent trend of the industry has been a clear card, clear" - mainly refers to the use of the Internet of Things, Internet of Vehicles, artificial intelligence and other technical means to make electric two-wheeled vehicles have intelligent products with vehicle intelligence, vehicle control intelligence and data intelligence: mainly in safety, energy and central control systems.
In this wave of intelligence, Nine Company has shown strong technological foresight and market demand insight capabilities. A considerable part of the intelligent sensing technology has become the overall technical capability of China's electric two-wheeled vehicle industry, and has begun to continuously output to the industrial ecological individual, such as real-time positioning, mobile phone APP, remote control, etc., which has become the standard function of intelligent two-wheeled electric vehicles.
It is not difficult to imagine that in time, industry players like Nine, which are based on the deep binding of technology and user needs, will become the core variable to promote the value reconstruction of China's electric two-wheeler market, reshape the overall pattern of the industry, and achieve a new industrial upgrading goal.
This is the unchanging value of Nine Company in the past, present and future, and it is also the iterative significance of Nine Company to the new value of China's electric two-wheeler industry.
This article is from Wall Street News, welcome to download the APP to see more