In the past May Day holiday, Huaqiang North was on fire.
How hot is it? It directly overwhelmed the major attractions in Shenzhen, rushed to the hot search on social platforms, and became the "digital Disney" that young people are passionate about.
Buy "big brands" at low prices, choose widely, and update quickly...... All of this attracts young people who pursue cost-effective properties to break into Huaqiangbei.
Why is Huaqiangbei highly sought after?
Famous knowledge payment app "get"
Columnist Li Nannan has his own unique views
Here's what he said:
Before and after the holiday, the heat of Huaqiangbei is not low
Many young people go to Huaqiangbei to sweep goods
Buy cheap electronics
Let's take a look at these news headlines
For example, "In Qiangbei, China, Young People Beat Consumerism"
"Go to Huaqiangbei to sweep goods, this generation of young people are crazy in Digital Disney"
"Apple's Next Goal, Capture Shenzhen Huaqiangbei"
……
The last title "Apple captures Huaqiangbei" is actually a joke.
Mainly because at the end of March this year, Huaqiangbei released a self-developed Bluetooth headset called Huaqiangbei PodsPro. The earbuds are equipped with a touchscreen on the charging case, which can control the volume, music playback, sound effects, and more. Coincidentally, this design is very similar to Apple's AirPods Pro3, but the problem is that Apple's AirPods Pro3 will not be available until 2025.
Apple's patent application was circulated on the Internet
That's why a lot of people say
Huaqiangbei released Apple's products in advance
Huaqiangbei PodsPro
In fact, many people look at Huaqiangbei's folk innovation
A little bit of an industrial filter
For example, Huaqiangbei is the most widely spread
Two urban legends
Source: Futian Fusion Media AI Lab
Is there a prototype for these things?
There are, but exaggerated elements are not excluded
in other words
It's true that Huaqiangbei is powerful
But there's still a lot of room for improvement
This is also true
Today, let's talk about this topic
How did Huaqiangbei become
Today's "China's First Electronic Street"?
Note that this isn't just for storytelling
It's the experience of Huaqiangbei
It is also very inspiring for today's innovation
I happened to read two books recently
One is a scholar of Shenzhen culture
"Shenzhen Biography" written by Lao Heng
The other was written by Qian Jianghan and Qian Feiming
"Huaqiang North Rubik's Cube"
Two books inside
There are a lot of descriptions of Huaqiangbei
On the body of Huaqiangbei
There are three strong genes
Understand them, and we will understand Huaqiangbei
01
Engineer genes
I don't know if you've thought about it
The same is the electronic street
What is the difference between Huaqiangbei and Zhongguancun?
In fact, the biggest difference is that the earliest large companies in Zhongguancun were founded by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences:
For example, Liu Chuanzhi of Lenovo, Wan Runnan, the founder of Sitong Group, and Chen Chunxian, one of the initiators of the Kinmenqiao Science and Technology Development Center and known as the first person in Zhongguancun Municipal Science and Technology, were all born in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and worked hard in Zhongguancun.
Zhongguancun Electronic Street in the 90s
However, Huaqiangbei is different.
Huaqiangbei gathers mostly enterprises under the Ministry of Electronics Industry, as well as enterprises founded by scientific research institutes. In addition to R&D, these companies pay more attention to absorbing foreign technology, and value the localization of advanced technology and related manufacturing production.
How did this happen? Let's start with the summer of 1979.
At that time, the state encouraged military factories to find their own markets, and three Guangdong military enterprises (Dongfanghong Machinery Factory, State-owned Hongquan Electric Appliance Factory, and State-owned Pioneer Machinery Factory) came to Futian, Shenzhen, to jointly establish Huaqiang Electronic Industry Company, mainly engaged in the assembly business of foreign electronic products.
At the end of the 70s of the last century, Huaqiang Electronic Industry Company
Because of the "Huaqiang Company", the road next to it was named "Huaqiang Road". It is a north-south road, which is cut off by another east-west road in the middle. Therefore, the section on the north side of the road is called "Huaqiang North".
Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Electronics Industry planned to set up a large-scale electronic product export base in Shenzhen.
As a result, a special industrial area was set up near Huaqiangbei, which is today's "Shangbu Industrial Zone".
In 1982, the Shangbu Industrial Zone, which is close to Shennan Avenue, was under construction, which is the prototype of today's Huaqiangbei
At this point, the flywheel of the "agglomeration effect" began to kick in, and more and more people began to build factories here.
The 750 factory of the Ministry of Electronics Industry established Aihua Electronics Company here, and the road next to it was named "Aihua Road". The 083 base established Zhenhua Electronics Company, so there was "Zhenhua Road". In short, behind the roads in Huaqiangbei today, there is almost an electronics company established in that era.
In the 80s of the 20th century, the regional distribution map of the central enterprises stationed in Huaqiangbei
At that time, it was just in time for the relocation of production capacity from the Western world, in which Hong Kong undertook a large amount of production capacity in the electronics industry. Shenzhen, which is adjacent to Hong Kong, has also taken advantage of the situation to connect with a lot of resources from Hong Kong.
In other words, the birth of Huaqiangbei was born with a strong engineer gene from the beginning. Many enterprises have military attributes in their bones. They not only care about R&D, but also care about technology transfer and manufacturing.
However, this also begs a question
Huaqiangbei was obviously at the beginning
It is an industrial cluster composed of large enterprises
Mainly do business with businesses
It's not the same as today's electronics hypermarkets
Later electronic hypermarkets
How did it come about?
This brings us to the second gene of Huaqiangbei
02
Market genes
At that time, a large number of large enterprises landed in Huaqiangbei
Everyone must hurry up production
That's when the problem arises
Supply can't keep up
There was also a very heart-wrenching statistic back then
Why is this happening?
- First, the forces are too scattered: there are many enterprises, but they are all fighting separately and cannot form a joint force. So, in 1985, Ma Fuyuan, the former director of the General Office of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, took the lead in mobilizing 117 companies in Shenzhen to form the Shenzhen Electronics Corporation.
- Second, the purchase process is cumbersome: the supply of components cannot keep up. What to do? Ma Fuyuan took the lead in establishing an open electronic supporting market. It's like a wet market, as long as you have the goods in your hand, you are welcome to set up a stall.
In 1985, Shenzhen Electronics Industry Corporation (the predecessor of SEG Group) was established to identify market opportunities and plan the supporting market for components
As a result, in 1988, Shenzhen's first and the country's first electronic supporting market appeared, which is SEG Electronics Market. Nearly 200 manufacturers from all over the country settled in.
As a result, Huaqiangbei opened the era of the big market.
In July 1998, Huaqiang Electronics World officially opened and became the largest electronic components trading and exhibition center in China. Huaqiangbei began to appear in the situation of SEG and Huaqiang facing each other
How profitable were electronic accessories in Huaqiang North at that time? There is such a description in "Shenzhen Biography":
Once, "Motorola" handled a batch of electronic components in Hong Kong at a price of 2-3 cents. At that time, a small boss in Huaqiangbei bought 30,000 in one go and hoarded it in his hand. A year later, this batch of accessories rose to 27 yuan a piece, and the small boss sold it and made hundreds of thousands of yuan.
Note that this was in the early 90s of the last century, when the average person's monthly salary was only a few hundred yuan.
Attracted by fast money
More and more small bosses began to enter Huaqiangbei
Heyday
Just to register the merchants
You can get out of a 500-meter long queue
Therefore, what we are talking about today is Huaqiangbei, which actually has two meanings.
- Huaqiangbei in a narrow sense refers to the electronic market in this area, that is, the electronic markets known as "electronic Disney".
- Huaqiangbei in a broad sense includes a number of large companies with military genes at the beginning.
Speaking of which, mention Huaqiangbei
Like it or not
The word "copycat" certainly can't be bypassed
This brings us to the third question
How did Huaqiangbei's "copycat" gene come about?
03
"Copycat" gene
First of all, I would like to emphasize
Cottage here is not a derogatory term
"Shenzhen Biography" cites sociologist Ai Jun's definition of shanzhai:
Shanzhai products, in fact, in the market cultivation period of developing countries, there are some wise minds of the people, through copying, imitation, learning, reference and innovation and improvement, to the market of a kind of fast, low-priced, to meet the civilian brand products.
Huaqiangbei is a copycat, and chance is a technology.
In 2003, MediaTek in Taiwan, China, shipped it to the market on a large scale. They launched a low-cost chip solution called Turnkey.
To put it simply, it is to integrate MP3, camera, and touch screen-related processing functions into the mobile phone chip. This means that once you use this solution, you only need to add a case and a battery to produce a mobile phone.
That's right, building a mobile phone suddenly became easier. Imagine what this would be. Almost overnight, Huaqiangbei began to enter the mobile phone market with all its members. It is said that one day at that time, Huaqiangbei could give birth to 3 new mobile phones. It's not the technology that the little bosses are struggling with, it's how to name their new phones.
Source: Futian Fusion Media AI Lab
Functionally, the small bosses put at hand
All configurations imaginable
8 speakers, 4 flashes, 4 cards and 4 standby
……
All appeared
A 12-megapixel phone with a DSLR
Four cards and four standby phones
Because the brand is too mixed, it is difficult for the outside world to recognize
These manufacturers will print on the packaging uniformly
MADE IN SZ
SZ was originally the abbreviation of Shenzhen
But as it spreads, it becomes a "cottage"
It is said that Huaqiangbei at that time was once become
The world's largest shipment of mobile phones
It can sell 150 million units a year
Source: Futian Fusion Media AI Lab
This situation lasted for a long time, until 2010, when feature phones were gradually withdrawn from the market with the popularity of smartphones. And the requirements of smart phones for the supply chain are no longer something that a small boss can handle.
The era of copycat mobile phones in Huaqiangbei has gradually come to an end. However, Huaqiangbei's electronic accessories business is still continuing.
From the story of Huaqiangbei
It can be clearly felt
A market wants to thrive in the long run
There are two types of people needed for this
- The first type of people worry about what is in front of them, how to make money and how to do business at the moment. With the current business, the market has the basis for prosperity.
- The second group of people does not focus on the business in the near future, but on the long-term horizon and ponders the future of technology self-development.
And the continued prosperity of a market
It is the interests of the near and the ambitions of the distance
The result of working with each other
Source: Futian Fusion Media AI Lab
The story of Huaqiangbei will talk about this for the time being
A word or two
It's hard to summarize the magic and charm of this place
Do you have any story about Huaqiangbei
Share it with Xiaofu!
-END-
Edit | Zhang Biyin, Nie Xiang, Huang Ruitong
Proofreading | Wei Ding, Wang Jianjiao, Feng Yan
Proofreading | Dong Fangjun
Executive Producer | Zheng Yongtao
Source of information | Get APP (Author: Li Nannan), Futian Financial Media