Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

A few years ago, when my friends and I were hanging out in Sanjiao, Kyoto, we accidentally walked into a small needle shop called the Imperial Curtain House. I chatted with the shopkeeper for a while and learned that the store had been operating in Sanjiao for more than 400 years. More than 150 kinds of iron needles are sold in the store, and the roots are so small that ordinary people may not be able to see the difference between them. And each needle is ground out little by little by hand, and even the roundness of the needle eye has meticulous requirements. The friend sighed that this is the "professional skill" on which Japan became famous.

Interestingly, we went to India a year later. On the way from Delhi to Jaipur, next to a gas station in the wilderness. As far as I can see, there is no shop except a pack of wild dogs, except a vivo. At that time, I told my friends that this was the "professional skill" of the Chinese people.

In India, cities and villages with no traffic lights, no running water and no waste disposal system can see a vivo very "decisively". Most of the time, even incredible Indians find this incredible.

Since 2013 and 2014, the "going out" of Chinese Internet companies and hardware companies has become a spring tide. However, I think that the sea destinations of most enterprises definitely do not include those Indian villages and towns that do not have traffic lights and tap water.

Take a thing apart to the smallest particle, and you will find that things become a little different. Since the success of vivo became a phenomenon a few years ago, we always seem to focus on what vivo does, but pay less attention to the methods and criteria behind these things.

Returning to the environment of the mobile phone market in 2020, the mobile phone industry, like the Internet industry, has encountered various problems such as the peak of demographic dividend and the serious homogenization of products. China's mobile phone market withered rapidly in 2019. At the same time, the acceleration of 5G commercial business has brought dawn and change to the mobile phone industry.

At this time, whether mobile phone manufacturers, channels, supply chains, or consumers, are paying attention to the possible trend in the future. Where is the future of vivo? the key word may be "dismantling".

At the annual meeting of vivo, the key word given by Shen Wei, founder of vivo and CEO, is "never forget the original ideal and ambition and return to the entrepreneurial road".

The reminder of "do not forget your roots and always have the initial intention to start a business" can be regarded as the judgment and attribution of vivo's series of actions in 2019. Whether it is at the beginning of the edge, at the new node of homogenization competition, or at the beginning of 5G change, vivo's methodology is unified, that is, to disassemble things into the smallest particles, and then look for logic and opportunities between the smallest molecules-this is the strategic mobility of vivo's own cultural output.

At the end of 2019, vivo put forward the principle of "consumer-driven and design-driven" to make good products. This is the methodology to enhance the perceived value of the product and return to the source of vivo. Every time vivo turns the crisis into an opportunity, it relies on consumer-driven and design-driven, with successful products to achieve a jump in value. This is also a kind of disassembly, the disassembly of vivo itself, the disassembly of vivo in the future.

For 2019, it's just that vivo has dismantled more things than ever before. Whether it's brand fission, the continued rise of overseas markets, or the obvious premise of technology research and development, vivo's actions remind me of the mobile phone store on the Indian highway: it was there because it was needed, no matter how lonely it was around.

That store, in the haze and dust of the South Asian subcontinent, guards vivo's job.

To bring people back to diversity, so iQOO

In 2019, the first major event of vivo was obviously the birth of iQOO.

As a consumer, you may have more product and brand impressions of iQOO. If you take the perspective away from the linear brand fission and product launch, looking back at why iQOO was born in 2019, you can find that vivo has retaken apart and positioned the market and users.

For several years, the fission of Chinese mobile phone brands always seems to be tagged and one-dimensional. That is, fission out of Internet brands and low-cost products to meet the "tagging" needs of young, Internet people.

But is it true that the crowd is tagged? Do young people have to agree with low prices and Internet sales model? Is it possible that in the same young circle, people who love the Internet and technology and know more about technology actually have a higher love for high net worth technology products?

The crowd is not one-dimensional, but the existence of diversity. Users choose goods according to their own knowledge reserves, product needs and value recognition, rather than following the label planned by the manufacturer.

So we can see that although iQOO also focuses on Internet people, it targets young people who are more able to connect to the Internet and have a better understanding of the science and technology system. They are not the spokesmen of low prices, they are the locators they like.

In March 2019, the iQOO phone was officially launched. instead of taking the low-cost route that had been expected, it was equipped with a Snapdragon 855 processor and a 6.41-inch waterdrop screen. It is not the price difference with the vivo X series, but the difference in demand positioning, product design and channel network.

IQOO will divide the crowd into very fine particles, and even Wuhan, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, the gathering places of science and technology men, will see more iQOO advertisements and offline channels near the science and technology park.

Why iQOO, by extension, is why vivo. When you are surprised by vivo's sinking overlay mode, you may think it is a completely different mode. But compared with iQOO, you will find that the pattern is not single, but vivo's thinking habits are consistent: it is not vivo that permeates, but vivo understands and finds you.

Break the space into dust and condense it into India for five years.

Let's go back to India. Perhaps in another decade, we will re-examine that magical land and its position in the history of China's mobile terminal industry.

Chinese manufacturers accounted for four of the top five in the Indian smartphone market in Q3 2019, with a market share of more than 68 per cent, according to IDC. Vivo ranks third, accounting for 15 per cent of India's smartphone market. This is the fifth anniversary of vivo's trip to India. According to Chen Zhiyong, CEO of vivo India, "We have passed the stage of survival in India."

If vivo has found a strategic opportunity in the market base in China, then in India, the work of vivo must range from 0 to 1. In order to adapt to the global competition, the relatively low profit margin and the initial prejudice against Chinese products in the Indian market, vivo has carried out a series of "localization" attempts. Unlike other Chinese companies that come to India, the localization of vivo is not "Indian", but "Rajasthan" or "Uttar Pradesh", a village and a road.

Of course, the localization of India at the level of product research and development and brand promotion is in parallel with vivo's coverage of the Indian market. For example, vivo product strategy will be adjusted according to the love of Indian users, selfie as a priority, the launch of more colorful product appearance, and so on. At the same time, vivo has also tried a number of local brand initiatives in India, such as naming the Indian Cricket League IPG.

At the same time, the biggest inspiration to Chinese enterprises from vivo's trip to India lies in the meticulous dismantling of India's space concept that has never been seen before.

In India, there are great cultural differences, language barriers and even great differences in laws and regulations between states. The traditional agent model is very difficult to pass through this land. So vivo moved the domestic provincial model to India, recruited agents from home, and grew up overseas with vivo. The high integration of the provincial model and India's local retail network has finally formed the Indian spectacle of vivo everywhere.

The understanding of the needs of Indian users, the adaptation of Indian culture, and the re-dismantling of India's geographical and human space eventually formed a 15 per cent market share and an innumerable network of stores.

The lone vivo store I saw might be just a speck of dust in the overseas history of Chinese mobile phone brands. But there are a lot of things written in this dust. For example, what is vivo's "more local,more global"?

Break the time into gaps and re-look at 5G and AI

In 2019, technological changes are blowing through the stagnant mobile phone market.

Among them, the advance of 5G commercial use and the competing deployment of various manufacturers can be regarded as the largest smartphone market variable in the second half of the year.

Among the many 5G mobile phones, vivo is obviously not a calm waitress. So far, vivo has launched two 5G phones, and iQOO has also launched a 5G version. Compared with the product rhythm, the outside world pays more attention to the dual-mode 5G chip Exynos 980jointly developed by vivo and Samsung.

Compared with most smartphones in the Android camp, vivo's move has obvious technical prerequisites. During the research and development of Exynos 980s, vivo provided a large number of technical features and invested a huge amount of talent and time cost. This also proves to the outside world that in the industrial solution of terminal brand influence chip, there is another feasible way in addition to the self-developed chip.

But obviously, vivo's action is not to prove this.

If the secret of vivo's success in India is to break up space, then what vivo has done in the rapid evolution of 5G is actually dividing time. For mobile phone manufacturers, 5G is the best opportunity to build technological differentiation and escape the trap of homogenization.

However, large-scale investment in 5G chip research and development is too heavy a burden for mobile phone manufacturers, and it has to bear innumerable trial and error costs. However, if we continue to maintain the supply chain model of the 4G era, without the investment in technological research and development and the reorganization of industrial relations, we will miss this opportunity for change.

In the end, the choice of vivo is to put the user cooperation mode into the technology front before the 5G hardware exploration is basically over and before the new industry breaks out, so as to ensure the long-term explosive power and product differentiation dominance after that.

5G is a ten-year job, but it is made up of 120 months. When vivo pinpointed the technology investment to a smaller unit of time, he found that the source of 5G differentiation was much richer than previously thought. After cooperating with Exynos 980and establishing the cooperation mode of SoC chip, vivo's dominance of products and technology will be expanded in a new round, bringing 5G products and technology fusion solutions to users more freely, and faster strategic racing speed to reduce 5G mobile phones to 2000 yuan. There are many so-called kung fu, fast is a kind, force is a kind, and accuracy is also a kind.

By the same token, it also happens in the growth of AI in vivo system. It can be found that vivo's investment in AI technology is not that early, but vivo's AI plan is significantly faster in 2019. In this cycle, the processing power of AI hardware has been greatly expanded, but what is missing is the filling of AI computing power by software and algorithm power. In other words, the value of AI begins to expose great application opportunities in 2019. So vivo began to gather more R & D and product input, and also reflected the differential value of Jovi in the new products.

When Exynos 980 brings 5G, the AI computing power advantage of SoC will also become the new equipment of vivo. The right time to do the right thing, when dealing with technology, vivo will break down the technology into smaller, into each cycle, taking into account the changes in user needs and experience.

From screen fingerprinting to pre-chip definition, every time gap may become a technical resource for vivo.

Break me up. I'm me.

Who is the Internet crowd? Can you split it again? For example, become a fan of technology, a lover of literature and art, a follower of performance-to-price ratio?

Where is India? Could you refine it a little bit? For example, do users in Bangalore have the same buying and using habits as Agra?

What is the technology? Can you improve the accuracy a little bit? For example, is there only two options for entering the 5G chip: ten years in advance or no layout at all? Can the front chip be another way?

There will be a lot of changes in 2019, of course, but a lot of things seem to be consistent with vivo. For example, go on asking questions, and then grab the answer. The market, the crowd, the technology, the ever-changing space-time relationship, a little smaller, a little more detailed, to see if there is an opportunity. Perhaps it is the duty of vivo to keep the infinitesimal.

And if the change in 2020 comes from. Perhaps the initiative that comes from those who have been torn down to the finest particles by vivo is facing the opportunity to reassemble. For example, vivo will next launch 5G+AI products in the Indian market. The South Asian continent, which seems to be insulated from cutting-edge technology, is the trigger for the explosion of technology if it is broken up.

More vertical people, more detailed overseas market operations, more accurate technology research and development and product differentiation, combining big changes in small changes will be 2020 of vivo, and it is also a strategic space solidified in the "duty" of vivo.

Returning to the entrepreneurial road and returning to the principle of "consumer-driven and design-driven" is consistent with the technology and market changes of the mobile phone industry. With more fastidious design vision and extreme design pursuit, make the ultimate products that really appeal to users, surprise, love and follow. In the mobile phone market, design and consumer demand seem to be the most basic units. But starting from the smallest unit, it can often form a vast extension of time and space. Like the Indian market outlined by rural towns, as design-driven brand cohesion, as vivo's 2020.

Keeping "infinitely small" is indeed an excellent "professional skill". Because of the infinitesimal size, the needle shop in Kyoto has been open for four hundred years, and because of the infinitesimal size, many Indian brothers do not know much about English, but know the combination of the four letters vivo.

If the wind has only one direction, then all the migratory birds can only go together, but if one of them can only break the wind into innumerable currents, it can fly wherever it wants to go.

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