Recently, Yu Chengdong has been very low-key. The most obvious thing is that "far ahead" can no longer be heard, and the wording in the mouth of "Yu Dazui" is becoming more and more restrained.
In the future, mobile phone-related press conferences may no longer see Yu Chengdong's figure.
On May 10, Yu Chengdong's position was officially renewed, and he was changed from CEO of Terminal BG to Chairman of Terminal BG. At the same time, he also serves as Huawei's Executive Director, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Device BG, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, and Director of the IRB of Intelligent Devices and Intelligent Vehicle Components.
In other words, Yu Chengdong is still the leader of Huawei's mobile phone business, but he can withdraw from many specific affairs and focus more on the automotive business.
This is due to the hot sales of the Huawei Mate 60 and Pure 70 series, and it also proves that the suppression on the other side of the ocean is completely bankrupt.
Huawei's mobile phone business has passed the most difficult period and entered a stage of independent and steady development. Yu Chengdong can finally put his mind at ease, and he doesn't have to be in pain, "Walking outside alone at night, coming back at dawn, and going directly to the company to work." ”
Now, beyond the hill, what awaits Yu Chengdong is a higher hill.
You have your own answers
"I can't open the pot at home", in the interview of "Meet the Big Coffee" in 2022, Yu Chengdong said with red eyes.
At that time, in the face of sanctions, Yu Chengdong was under great pressure. Fortunately, the Mate 50 series, which does not support 5G, sold very well and was an unexpected surprise. Yu Chengdong breathed a sigh of relief: "We are alive again, we are back again." ”
The story behind it can be described as "forging ahead, turning the peaks and circuits".
At the end of August 2023, the Mate60 series started the pioneer plan, and there was no press conference, and it was suddenly put on sale, and it was in short supply for a long time. At that time, countless people heard the "noise" in their mobile phones:
"Far ahead."
At the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai in June last year, and later in the internal letter of the Voice Community, a sentence from the "Book of Time" was quoted - "Do things in March and April, and August and September have their own answers".
August and September are the time to launch the Mate 60 series. At the end of August, the Mate 60 series suddenly hit the shelves in the mall, detonating the Internet in the form of a pioneer plan. On September 1, the Mate 60 Pro sold a total of about 800,000 units through online and offline channels, setting a number of new historical records for Huawei's mobile phones.
Now more than half a year has passed, and the answer is clear.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Huawei ranked fourth in China's smartphone market in terms of shipments with a market share of 13.9%, up 36.2% year-on-year. (IDC data)
Recently, Counterpoint, IDC, and Canalys have successively released the data ranking of the domestic mobile phone market in the first quarter of this year. Due to the difference in statistical details, vivo and honor topped the list of the first two institutions, respectively. According to the statistics released by Canalys, Huawei ranks first with a market share of 17%, and there is not much difference between OPPO, Honor, vivo, and Apple behind it.
Before the release of the new machine this year, "Is the P70 released today?" It is on the hot search every day, and finally on April 18, the Pioneer Project was launched again with a new look of the "Pure 70 Series". The slightly upgraded chips and the high price have not reduced everyone's enthusiasm, and it is still difficult to find a machine.
From "Others" to the first echelon, Huawei mobile phones announced the return of the king. The release of the Pura 70 series is another hearty victory, and it is likely to be Huawei's stage in the second quarter of this year and even throughout 2024. This means that Huawei will once again compete with Apple in the high-end market.
Netizens who are looking forward to the drama of "Mars hitting the earth" may be disappointed, because Apple is losing its appeal.
In the first quarter of 2024, China's smartphone shipments were 63.3 million units, up 1% year-on-year, ending an 11-quarter losing streak. And Apple's domestic sales of iPhones fell 20% after a rare discount, causing Apple's total revenue to fall 4.3% year-on-year in the first quarter.
Looking ahead, the iPhone's advantages are also getting smaller, such as the fact that it is still looking for suppliers for its AI capabilities, which are already being shown on phones from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei.
And Yu Chengdong, who has shouted "far ahead" several times, now only has one sentence left, "Thank you for your support and love", and all the sadness and emotion are in my words.
Climb new hills
While the mobile phone business has experienced ups and downs, Yu Chengdong has already devoted himself to the new energy vehicle business non-stop.
After many years of hard work, the current situation is - Hongmeng Zhixing, mixed blessings.
The joy is the sales. In September last year, taking advantage of the popularity of the Mate 60 series on the market, the facelifted M7 was released at the same time, and then it was a great success, changing the previous decline of three or four thousand monthly sales, and only 25 years after the launch, it gained more than 50,000 Dading, exceeding the total sales of the first 8 months.
In the first three months of this year, Wenjie overwhelmed the ideal and won the first place in the sales list of domestic new forces. In April, if the caliber of the Hongmeng Zhixing brand (including Wenjie and Zhijie) is counted, it is still the first new force.
△ Source: Hongmeng Zhixing official account
At the same time, friends are looking forward to the magic of Huawei's intelligent driving, and many customers are coming to Huawei's intelligent driving, which makes Yu Chengdong make a lot of friends, and the "alliance" of Hongmeng Zhixing is gradually growing.
For example, ARCFOX, a subsidiary of BAIC New Energy, was the first to cooperate with Huawei, but it was difficult for sales to improve due to the inability to supply Huawei's autonomous driving kits normally. Recently, its cooperation with Huawei has been upgraded to HI and Zhixuan dual mode, and the Xiangjie S9 has been launched, hoping to make a comeback with Huawei.
There is also the intelligent world of cooperation between Huawei and Chery, which has gradually been on the right track after overcoming the production capacity problem, which is an important bargaining chip for Chery to charge towards the high-end.
Huawei technology has become a golden sign in the industry.
The worry is competition. When Yu Chengdong appeared recently, it can be seen from the tired eyes that Huawei is not easy in the current new energy vehicle involution.
During the Beijing Auto Show, not only Lei Jun, Wei Jianjun, Yin Tongyue, Li Xiang and other car company leaders appeared, but also Zhou Hongyi, Zhang Chaoyang and other Internet bigwigs visited the exhibition hall, attracting a lot of traffic. At that time, the new force sales list ranked first in the world of question, but there was not much to grab the volume, the newly unveiled new car Xiangjie S9 was placed there to support the scene, Yu Chengdong did not appear in a low-key manner until the next few days.
Lei Jun and Xiaomi SU7 have become the most popular fried chicken, the latest news is that they have broken through 100,000 lock orders, and have locked the production capacity of the Xiaomi factory for one year in advance, and it has only been a month and a half since the release of Xiaomi SU7. This explosive number is really a dazzling achievement for a single model.
On the one hand, this proves that Lei Jun is serious about making cars and shows the greatest sincerity; On the other hand, it also illustrates the problem - even in the face of large consumer goods such as automobiles, paying for emotional value is not an impossible phenomenon.
In the field of mobile phones, Xiaomi and Huawei both have extremely large fans, and the two groups of people have been fighting each other for many years, and at present, this situation is being translated to the car circle. Xiaomi SU7 and Zhijie S7 have already had a preliminary confrontation, and Xiaomi SUV models are expected to appear at the end of this year or early next year, in popular terms:
Lei Jun and Yu Chengdong will have a battle in the car circle.
Yu Chengdong has more and more competitors and is getting stronger and stronger, and he will also face considerable challenges in the technology that he is proud of.
On the afternoon of April 28, Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited Beijing, and then news came out that Tesla was about to launch Full Self-Driving Software (FSD) in China.
Musk is confident in his technology: "If anyone wants to invest in Tesla stock, then I strongly recommend that you try FSD." If you don't know FSD, it's hard to say you know Tesla. ”
Intelligent driving is also the biggest capital that Yu Chengdong "braggarts". At the press conference of the new M5 on April 23, Yu Chengdong also said ruthlessly: "Huawei's intelligent driving experience is better than Tesla's FSD, and it has basically achieved L3 driving level on the highway." ”
Tesla's FSD is still a long way from being officially delivered to Chinese users, leaving Huawei with room to adjust to be prepared to take on the challenge.
This "Sino-foreign confrontation" will soon be upgraded from verbal confrontation to "hand-to-hand combat," and it is worth waiting and seeing which is stronger and which is weaker.
When "Yu Dazui" is no more
Yu Chengdong is very "crazy" - this is the intuitive impression of many netizens on him.
He once personally interpreted this style: "It seems that I am a very immodest person, but in fact, I am making demands for our team, not leaving myself a way back, and fighting against the water." ”
To the frustration of friends, most of them have "overfulfilled and realized." ”
But there are many times when he is not modest, and there are also various rumors, such as "Ren Zhengfei is not allowed to mention 'far ahead' again, otherwise he will be punished." This kind of rumor, which is difficult to distinguish between true and false, has a very popular audience on the Internet, and people are willing to believe it: Huawei is not used to Yu Chengdong's big mouth.
In November last year, the sentence "Even what AEB is, there are still the top leaders of car companies who don't understand it at all", pointed the finger at He Xiaopeng, questioning whether the other party really understands cars, and the words are sharp, and they don't save some face for the top leaders of friends and businessmen.
I'm afraid I won't see such a "cool article" anymore.
On April 26, a Wenjie M7 was involved in a serious traffic accident on the Yuncheng Expressway in Shanxi Province, when the speed was 115km/h, the airbags were opened normally, and the characteristics of the power battery pack were normal, but the doors failed to open in time.
Although with the release of AITO's automobile-related statements, public opinion doubts have gradually subsided, but for Yu Chengdong, this is a wake-up call worth remembering - no longer "speak wildly", and must transform from a brave general who charges into battle to a wise general who strategizes.
In the past, various companies advertised at the press conference that they only needed to list the intelligent driving capabilities of the top models, which may make consumers subconsciously think that they can enjoy the top configuration and capabilities of this car at a suitable price, while ignoring the difference in safety between low and high configurations.
Experienced people will smile - only half of the propaganda can be believed, and the remaining half is hidden in the small print in the corner of the PPT. All kinds of advanced configurations and technologies are often "futures", and there are them, but sorry to wait for OTA upgrades.
Now Yu Chengdong has set out to make a change – to be more pragmatic in marketing and more restrained in his personal style.
For example, on the new Wenjie M5 released on April 23, the advanced configuration is becoming standard, and its whole system is equipped with lidar and the "strongest at present" intelligent driving system.
On his Weibo account, most of the propaganda released is official, and the evaluation of the phenomenon in the industry is nowhere to be seen, and there are few personal circle of friends on the Internet.
Over the hills, Yu Chengdong became calm and mature, and he may finally realize that doing good deeds is more precious than saying big things.
Huawei has become nirvana, and "Yu Dazui" has also been reborn.
epilogue
There is no doubt that Huawei's automotive business is bursting into strong momentum.
The new M7, which was launched in September last year, has helped Huawei's automotive business to fight back. In March this year, Yu Chengdong revealed that Huawei's car BU lost 10 billion yuan in the previous year, then lost 8 billion yuan, and lost 6 billion yuan last year, and will probably be able to turn losses into profits this year.
Yu Chengdong once choked up and said: "Winter has come, spring will not be too far away, after the cold winter, it is spring flowers." ”
Today's Huawei is in full bloom.