Song Xiaobo: The development history of the Internet of Vehicles in China in the past and present life of the Internet of Vehicles The characteristics of the Internet of Vehicles market

In the past two years, under the background of the slowdown in the growth of mobile phones and the acceleration of the growth of the Internet of Vehicles, various giants have actively participated in seizing new tracks, and smart cars have become the hottest industry at present. In the words of Huaxi Securities: "The biggest business opportunity in the past decade has been smartphones, and the biggest business opportunity in the next decade is smart cars."

The Internet of Vehicles is an important part of the intelligent car, undertaking the networking mission of the "new four modernizations" of the automotive industry. At present, the definition of the Internet of Vehicles is different, basically divided into broad and narrow senses. The generalized internet of vehicles includes digital cockpit, V2X and other networking technologies, and the narrow sense of the internet of vehicles refers to the networking of the cockpit, especially the networking of vehicles and machines. Here we will only discuss the narrow sense of the Internet of Vehicles.

<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" data-track="4" > the history of the development of the Internet of Vehicles in China</h1>

The development of domestic vehicle networking began in 2008, and the development history can be roughly divided into three stages.

(1) Embryonic stage: from 2008 to 2016, the embryonic and slow development stage.

In the early days of this stage, due to poor hardware performance, immature car machine OS, enterprises from the website to cut into the Internet of Vehicles and other reasons, the early Internet of Vehicles is TSP (Telematics Service Provider, automotive remote service provider) as the core, through the Call Center to provide users with E-Call, B-Call, I-Call and other services, typically represented by the general OnStar (OnStar), Toyota's G-Book and so on. Another product type of this period began to appear, which was PATEO's InCarNet. Personally, I think that InCarNet is the prototype of the current Internet of Vehicles, which already has ELEMENTS SUCH AS CP/SP (Content provider/Service provider), forum, etc., and is a very forward-looking product, and I have to admire PATEO's ability to innovate.

In the middle and late stage of this stage, with the improvement of hardware capabilities, especially communication capabilities, car machine OS (specifically referring to Android) tends to mature and stabilize, and the mobile Internet ecology is also rising rapidly, and some domestic software and hardware integrators such as PATEO, Desai, Huayang, etc., have begun to join the mobile Internet ecology in the Internet of Vehicles. During this period, some innovators who integrated the mobile Internet ecosystem emerged, such as Jidou and voice-based companions.

In terms of automakers, the overall installed capacity has developed slowly, and they are trying to innovate. New car-making forces began to form, but they did not bring a sense of crisis to traditional car manufacturers.

(2) Growth phase: The 2016 RX5 model was released to this year's (2021) auto show.

In the early stage of this stage, BAT has participated in the Internet of Vehicles in different ways.

Alibaba and SAIC established Zebra as a joint venture to develop a full set of systems including OS and upper-layer applications, and in 2016, SAIC Roewe RX5 was released based on Zebra Systems. Roewe RX5 is known as "the world's first mass-produced Internet car", driven by the huge IP of Ma Yun and Chen Hong, a temporary reputation, directly helping SAIC passenger car sales to rise a step. A big innovation has emerged in RX5's connected car products, that is, from the desktop of the function list or buttons to the desktop of the map. Unfortunately, Zebra's successor was weak, and there were no more eye-catching innovations after this.

Tencent exerts efforts at the ROM layer to allow partners to develop upper-level interactions. The process is not smooth, the integration chamber of commerce according to the needs of the car factory and their own ideas, selectively integrate some of the Internet of Vehicles provided by Tencent, Tencent did not achieve all integrators to continue to follow up, the project is not rich. Later, Tencent further adjusted and established The Tencent Car Union, forming its own series of products and taking the initiative to cooperate directly with car manufacturers.

Baidu launched CarLife, a mobile phone and machine interconnection product, which has won a large number of projects for Baidu. However, Baidu did not promote in-depth cooperation based on this, and to a certain extent, it lost its first-mover advantage. CP and SP of other mobile Internet ecosystems have also further participated in it, with dozens of participants one after another.

The Internet of Vehicle products of various software and hardware integrators are becoming more and more mature, and the homogenization is becoming more and more serious. Relying on the spirit of daring to fight, some new integrators quickly made sales very large.

In terms of car manufacturers, this period coincided with the rise of new car-making forces. Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weima, Hezhong and other successfully built, sold and survived. It is said that at this stage, there are more than 100 new car-making forces, of course, more are dead.

Under the impact of new car-making forces and the inclination of new energy policies, traditional car manufacturers have also undergone great changes in this period, and have also launched new energy vehicles, including the launch of new energy models under the original brand, as well as the launch of new energy vehicle brands. Independent brands have launched high-end brands, such as SAIC Zhiji, Dongfeng Lantu, Geely Geometry, etc. The rise of new energy has provided a boost to the development of the Internet of Vehicles. Led by Tesla, new energy vehicles cancel the traditional physical buttons and integrate the button functions with a touch screen, which has driven the industry-wide intelligent screen trend.

In the second half of this stage, the concept of a smart cockpit appeared. Almost every hardware integrator now has a smart cockpit product. The significant increase in hardware capabilities has given the smart cockpit more design space. Now you can see that many new cars have several screens in the cockpit, and even the center console is a screen.

At this stage, a new supplier emerged, called Tier 0.5 in the industry, such as Yijiatong, Xiongshi, Xiandou, Zero Bundle and so on. Relying on the parent company's model project, they can quickly achieve mass production, thereby accumulating a large number of car owners and user groups in a single car factory in a relatively short period of time.

(3) Outbreak stage: This year's auto show began, and giants poured in.

This phase will begin at this year's auto show, and the landmark event is Huawei's deep involvement. Mobile Internet giants (such as Baidu), mobile phone manufacturers (such as Xiaomi), real estate developers (such as Evergrande), and white goods manufacturers (such as Skyworth) have gone to the sea to build cars. At the application layer, mobile Internet giants such as ByteDance have recruited to target the traffic depression of the Internet of Vehicles. The Internet of Vehicles thus ushered in an explosive period.

Why are new cars and the Internet of Vehicles so hot now? First of all, the industry is huge, the automotive industry chain is long, can drive a lot of downstream employment, which is why many places strongly support the introduction of car-making enterprises. Secondly, the increment of mobile phones is slowing down, mobile Internet giants want to tell new stories, and the automotive industry can tell big stories. Third, these giants have a variety of services, which can be grafted onto the car, which will bring a lot of revenue to the enterprise.

Based on this background, we predict the future trend of the Internet of Vehicles as follows:

The scale of the Internet of Vehicles is constantly expanding. Major domestic automakers have set intelligent networking targets, and are expected to be close to 100% of new car installations in the next five years.

The internet of vehicle ecological products will gradually tend to the development of the mobile Internet model, OTA and other functions become standard, and the iteration speed is constantly improving.

The operation of car owners is gradually unfolding. The scale of the automobile incremental market is rapidly declining, while the proportion of additional purchases or repurchases is constantly increasing. This requires the car manufacturer to provide various operational services for the car owners, including the car machine end, mobile phone end and other multi-terminal operation together, entertainment, community, fission, mall communication, point system and exchange and so on. The core purpose is to enhance the owner's recognition of the brand.

Commercialization is gradually unfolding. The bulls bragged in previous years are still round. Paid products such as paid content, paid memberships, traffic payment, and UI payment have been launched. Directly moving the revenue model of the mobile Internet to the Internet of Vehicles is a simple, direct and effective way. But what is the unique and future business model of the Internet of Vehicles? It is worth the deep thinking and practice of the entire industry.

<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" data-track="30" > the characteristics of the Internet of Vehicles market</h1>

The popularity of the Internet of Vehicles market is obvious to all. How to develop the Internet of Vehicles market is what service providers who are accustomed to mobile phone play need to think about.

To enter this market, you first need to understand the characteristics of the Internet of Vehicles market.

What is the market for the Internet of Vehicles? First of all, it is a B-end market, or a big B, the industrial chain is very long, the scale is very large, it is a capital-intensive, knowledge-intensive, manpower-intensive industry, and it is also a pillar industry of the national economy. The top 20 automakers are all very large, accounting for more than 90% of the market. For application manufacturers, in the short term, it is impossible to bypass the driving plant, and the car manufacturer has absolute control over the car (such as system development customization, OTA, etc.). Therefore, for application service providers who are accustomed to mobile Internet playing, the cooperation with the car factory is 2B and then 2C, first do a good job of the B-end, it is possible to operate the C-end, which is completely different from the way to play on the mobile phone.

Second, there is the fragmented market. This feature is obvious. The Chinese market is relatively special, and there are many car manufacturers, brands and models. In the context of the fragmented market, the market share of car manufacturers is not high, in the car group to calculate, the largest automobile group SAIC Motor Group, the market share is only about 30%, the highest sales of models is 600,000 / year. This market characteristic will not change substantially in the short term.

Based on the above characteristics, the car networking service provider should analyze what they have, what they can give, what they want, and then determine what to do in the future.

The author Song Xiaobo is the head of the Cloud Listening Car Networking Business Department, and has successively served as the head of the Guangting, Neusoft, PATEO, and Himalayas Car Networking Channels.