In the past 2017, Samsung Electronics’ annual revenue reached 239.58 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 19% compared to 2016, breaking its own historical record. In terms of smartphone business, Samsung also occupied 21.6 with sales of 317 million units worldwide. % of market share, ranking first in stability.
However, in China, the world’s largest smartphone market, Samsung is still under tremendous pressure. It is outside the top five. As the head of China, this is what Quan Guixian cannot tolerate.
In an interview last year, Quan Guixian disclosed that before he came to China, Quan Guixian was responsible for Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. In 2015 and 2016, Samsung experienced negative growth in the global market. These areas that Quan Guixian is responsible for have still achieved remarkable results.
'Localization' - This is Quan Guixian's management and sales tips.
Localization has entered a stable phase
At this Samsung Galaxy S9|S9+ China conference, Gao Dongzheng, president of Samsung’s mobile communications division, is proud to announce that: “With more than 30,000 Chinese colleagues at Samsung, we have successfully established research and development, A one-stop business system integrating design, production, sales and service. From this point of view, Samsung in China has become a real Chinese company.
Quan Guixian took office as president of Samsung Electronics in Greater China on May 11, 2017. Before coming to China, he was responsible for marketing work in 65 countries. 'Besides your wife and children, everything else needs to be changed.' Borrowed employees from the former president of Samsung Group Lee Kin Hee.
In order to better localize the operation, he took office only about 2 months. Right Gui-hyun had made a major adjustment to the organizational structure of Samsung China. He cancelled seven branches including the Northeast Branch, North China Branch, etc. The mobile phone business was reorganized into 23 branches, and the home appliances were 21 branch offices, so as to carry out meticulous management and improve working efficiency to cope with the rapid changes in the Chinese market.
When Fenghuangwang Technology asked Quan Guixian about the effectiveness of Samsung’s localization strategy after the adjustment, he said that it has now entered a very stable stage. After adjustment, all 21 branches of household appliances are China. The person is responsible, and there are 14 mobile phones, leaving only 9 Koreans as the person in charge.
'After the adjustment, our business has developed very steadily, and we also have smoother communication with customers in each region, which is conducive to actively promoting work, and the performance has also been significantly improved, so I think It has now entered a stable period and will continue to develop in the future. ' Right Guixian said.
Strengthen marketing, launch spokesperson for China
Technology, products, marketing, and retail channels are indispensable for today's smartphones. Samsung's technical strength and product innovation are unquestionable. Quan Guixian said that Samsung is right on January 8 this year. Samsung S8 series price adjustments have consolidated its position in the high-end market in the 4,000 yuan price segment. He also revealed that there will be new mid- to low-end price launches this year, while Samsung’s artificial intelligence platform Bixby will be launched in the future. updated version.
'Facts have proved that the Galaxy S8 has a steady increase in sales, and the results are also good.' Quan Guixian said. Compared with the Galaxy S8, the price of the newly released Galaxy S9 this year has only risen by 100 yuan. As we all know, in the past this The price of smart phone core components has risen sharply in a year. 'But in order to return for support, we love our consumers. The price of the Galaxy S9 must be stable.' Quan Guixian said.
Is the so-called 'wine is also afraid of deep alley', please celebrity endorsements are Huawei, OV, millet and other domestic mobile phone brands in the past few years of common gameplay, the major manufacturers are happy, and some users really buy it.
When Samsung announced the S9 series this time, it was announced many years later that Jingbo Ran in China was invited as the spokesperson for the Samsung mobile phone brand, Zhu Yawen as the chief AI officer, and the well-known singer Brilliance Chen. This is in addition to the organizational structure and talents. In addition to the major adjustments in the selection, another very significant change in Samsung mobile phones in China this year.
On the other hand, Quan Guixian also stated that Samsung’s mobile phone retail operations in China have achieved very stable development compared to last year, and the actual coverage rate has been expanded by 30%. 'Given these factors, I think this year’s meeting will There is a very substantial increase, the Galaxy S9 is the main driving force of this year's substantial growth. ' Right Guixian said.
In his view, last year Samsung brought the flagship products of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note8 to the Chinese market, gradually restoring consumer confidence in Samsung's mobile phones and allowing them to regain confidence in the Chinese market.
In China, there is a common saying called “Strong dragon overwhelming the head snake”, which has been particularly evident in the Chinese mobile phone market in recent years. Domestic mobile phones have made great progress in both market share and marketing promotion in recent years. Foreign brands are under tremendous pressure in the Chinese market. In the strong Chinese market, it has become an urgent task to rejuvenate Samsung mobile phones.
With the secret of 'localization', Quan Guixian has always been in a disadvantageous position in the area he has been in charge of. Will he be able to help Samsung's mobile phone regain its glory in the Chinese market this time?
Today it seems that everything is moving in the right direction, but this road of recovery is bound to be a long way to go.
The following is a shorthand for the interview of Quan Guixian (with a slight deletion on the basis of not affecting the original intention):
1: In the past year, Samsung released Note 8 and S8, and Bixby has left a deep impression. How do you feel about Samsung's performance in China in the past year?
Quan Guixian: In the past year, Samsung China has been at a stage of adjustment and change. Because China is a very big market, there are many places where we need to make adjustments. Last year we laid a solid foundation for stability. Last year, We brought the flagship products of the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy Note8 to the Chinese market, and gradually restored consumer trust in Samsung mobile phones. At the same time, we also regained the confidence of Samsung mobile phones in the Chinese market.
The Galaxy S8 performed very well in China. According to channel terminal feedback, the Galaxy S8 has achieved very good results and completed the set goals. Note8 After listing, first of all, it completely solved people's concerns about battery issues, and sales performance also made us Self-confidence is multiplied. Despite facing many challenges last year, we still achieved the established goals and laid a solid foundation.
This year, based on the restored trust relationship and self-confidence, Samsung handsets must have breakthroughs in sales and performance. At the beginning of the year, we made price adjustments on the Galaxy S8. Although adjusting the price of a flagship product is not an easy task, In order to meet the needs of consumers, we are still determined to do it. And it turns out that the Galaxy S8 has a steady increase in sales, and the results are good. In the Chinese mobile phone market, the price segment of more than 4,000 yuan was identified as the high-end mobile phone market. The industry will have separate market analysis data for this price segment, and Samsung has also been paying attention to this market. Last year up to now, the Galaxy S8 has helped the market share of Samsung's 4,000+ price segment. The S9 is now on the market. In the future, new low-end and mid-tier products will also be listed one after another. We will gradually resume our competitiveness in the Chinese market this year.
2: If S8 and Note 8 are to restore self-confidence and consumers re-establish trust, what are the goals for S9 and S9+ to enter the Chinese market?
Quan Guixian: The goal of the Galaxy S9|S9+ is to become the driving force for Samsung mobile phones to achieve growth in the Chinese market this year. In the past year, we have fully prepared for the four aspects of technology, products, marketing, and retailing, and through the Galaxy S8. Both the flagship products of Note8 and Note8 have laid a solid foundation. So this year the Galaxy S9/S9+ will become the main growth driver for substantial growth.
In terms of technology, the current mobile phone industry has three main technology trends: Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and 5G. At the core technology level, Samsung has a unique advantage and is a leader in the mobile phone industry. At the just-concluded Pingchang Winter Olympics On the Samsung as the first mobile phone manufacturer to conduct 5G network testing, and soon 5G network will be commercialized in South Korea. IoT Internet of Things is one of the major selling points of this Galaxy S9, users can connect through the Galaxy S9 Samsung's electronic products, and in the future will continue to expand the product group that can be interconnected and interoperable.
In the area of artificial intelligence, the realization of artificial intelligence requires two elements. One is the realization of human-computer interaction interface. Now there are two ways of voice and vision. Samsung Bixby realizes human-computer interaction through voice, and last year It has been successfully listed in China. Another function called Vision search is to realize human-computer interaction through visual interaction. In the future there will be an upgraded version of Bixby that will cover more fields and scenarios. So I think Samsung Electronics is very advanced in terms of technology. A company.
Secondly, at the product level, the competitiveness is divided into three points: The first is the design, the second is the performance, and the third is the price. The appearance of the Galaxy S9 design inherits the outstanding genes of the Galaxy S8. On the S8, Samsung has created a full-screen trend. Now the Galaxy S9 continues its all-round curved screen design and further enhances the screen share. In addition, in order to allow more female users to love Samsung mobile phones, the Samsung Galaxy S9 will be added to the first color. The evening fog purple.
In terms of performance, the main target of this phone is about 18-35 years old. Samsung conducted major research on these people. The results show that the camera function is the focus of these groups of people, and is happy to express themselves through photographs, highlighting individuality. Young people all over the world have such characteristics, but in China, this kind of crowd is more prominent.
So for this situation, Galaxy S9 brings more innovative camera features, it can be said that the Galaxy S9 is a set of outstanding camera features in today's market in one product. In the Galaxy S9 shooting time condensation function can achieve a second fixed 960 instant Currently, most of slow-motion shooting functions in the market can only reach 240 frames per second. The launch of gaze shooting is like the meaning of microscopes for the development of microbiology science. Therefore, our technology will also greatly promote the development of mobile phones. effect.
With the Galaxy S9, you can record things that were difficult to capture in the past, and if you use the condensate shooting function to capture the magician's magic moment, then perhaps we can uncover the secrets of the magic. In addition to the condensate shot, the Galaxy S9 One highlight is the F1.5/F2.4 intelligent iris. At present, the maximum aperture commonly used on mobile phones only reaches F1.7. On the Galaxy S9, it achieves a large aperture and can be switched intelligently according to lighting conditions. This is a very big innovation. It also brings more possibilities for users to take vivid photos in the dark. Therefore, in terms of product performance, the Galaxy S9 has greatly improved.
Third, the price, compared with the Galaxy S8, the Galaxy S9 price has only increased by 100 yuan. But everyone also knows how many parts prices have risen this year. But in order to return support, love our consumers, Galaxy S9 The price must be stable.
This year, our products are very competitive, and there is a very significant improvement in marketing capabilities. We have enabled advertising spokespersons (Jerboran, Zhu Yawen, Brilliance), and there are many follow-up plans, etc. Also compared to last year's retail operations The capacity has been developing very steadily, and the actual coverage rate has increased by 30%. Taking into account these factors, I think there will be very substantial growth this year. Therefore, we believe that the Galaxy S9 is the main driving force for this year's substantial growth.
3: Just mentioned the promotion of artificial intelligence. Samsung has always been very strong in this area, including cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and screen fingerprinting. Is there more information available to us?
Quan Guixian: The current three major technology trends in the industry include artificial intelligence, IoT, and 5G networks. According to the evolution of this core technology, their products and services will gradually emerge. After the 5G network era really arrived, compared to the current The speed of network transmission is at least increased 20 times to 100 times. This will have a great impact on the unmanned operation achieved through the network, such as driverless cars, car networking, drones, etc. The other is the interactive mode. The change is now mainly through the mobile phone touch screen to achieve interaction, the future will appear a variety of interactive methods, such as Samsung's more advanced voice interaction and visual interaction. And if this innovative interactive mode can be well used, I believe it will soon be possible to achieve similar control methods in science fiction movies.
In addition, based on AR and VR technology advances, the game industry will also bring about great changes, because to achieve very realistic effects through virtual reality and augmented reality, it needs a very fast network transmission speed, which is also a comparison of the recent industry speculation Hot fourth industrial revolution. After the 5G network is implemented, including artificial intelligence, Internet of things, etc. will have great development.
And soon, China's 5G network will be introduced in 2019, and will be popular in 2020. And the most developed companies in the IT industry today are all in China. Therefore, I think China will play a pivotal role in the future development and promotion. Samsung Electronics is also preparing, and hopes to become a member of the development trend.
4: During the interview last year, you mentioned a series of adjustments made in Samsung China, such as the adjustment of China's regional structure, and the adjustment of personnel, including more than 70% of all adopting Chinese as business leaders. Want to know what effect these adjustments have made after one year?
Quan Guixian: China's regional adjustment has now entered a very stable stage. Through past efforts, there has been a disruptive change. From the regional point of view has now been adjusted to become 23 branches, and 14 of them have branch offices. The responsible persons are all Chinese. In addition to mobile phones, there are 21 branches across the country in the field of household appliances and the responsible persons are Chinese.
After the adjustment, our organization has a very stable development, and it also has smoother communication with customers in each region, which helps to actively promote work, and the performance has also improved significantly. So I think it is now Into the stable period, will continue to develop in the future.
5: At the conference, it was mentioned that there will be more Samsung products such as home appliances connected to the Bixby artificial intelligence platform. Samsung Connect and Jingdong will conduct in-depth cooperation. Can you elaborate on Samsung's layout in the Internet of Things? Especially in China?
Quan Guixian: The Internet of Things will play a very important role in the future Samsung business. First of all, the Internet of Things has a wide range and great potential for development. After the car networking mentioned earlier Driving, and car networking necessarily involves the application of 5G networks and IoT. For example, if there is a person in front of an unmanned car, an emergency brake will be required. If the transmission signal is not smooth or delayed, then the instruction cannot be communicated in a timely manner. serious consequence.
In addition, achieving interconnection and interoperability between electronic devices also involves the Internet of Things. For example, in the case of 5G networks, it is necessary to connect its own mobile devices to 5G base stations to connect cars. From the current situation, there is no problem for mobile devices connected to the base stations, but the base stations Sending the command to another device after receiving the signal needs further resolution. This is also a key factor for future development. From the perspective of technology development, the time of implementation will probably be earlier than expected. Samsung Electronics is also working on All efforts are made to ensure that the core technology is developed earlier and landed on the product.
By the time Bixby's future upgrade version is launched, all of Samsung's products can be connected and interoperable. This involves the IoT space. At that time, there will be an alliance of the Internet of Things. Samsung is a member of the alliance. Through the alliance, Bixby voice can be used. The range of products to be controlled will be significantly expanded. If coupled with the blessing of 5G networks, the era of All Things will come soon.
6: Many data this year say that the sales volume of mobile phone products will decline, and the cost of parts and components may increase further. You just said that the price of S9 hasn't risen so much, is it a bit of a price war, and how will you handle the decline in the mobile phone market this year? the trend of?
Quan Guixian: Now the overall development of the mobile phone industry is slowing down. The reason is that, on the one hand, product performance is getting better and better now, leading to longer replacement cycles for consumers. From a global average, high-end mobile phone replacement The cycle is about 20 months, and this trend will become longer and longer.
On the other hand, it is difficult for technology to have large-scale innovations. Actually, it is not just mobile phones. The overall trend of the electronics industry is also the same. What's more, the mobile phone industry has integrated many other industry features and technologies, so its competitiveness and potential Other industries need to be faster. For example, the first feature is the MP3 player. Now no one uses MP3. All of them use cell phones to listen to music. The second is the camera. In addition to professional cameras, other cameras are no longer available. Influencing the computer industry, few people now sit on the Internet with a desktop computer.
Therefore, by integrating many other industries, the rapid development of the mobile phone industry has been achieved. For the future development, we need to find a breakthrough, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of things or 5G. If this can really advance development, we will have new development potential. .
In addition, the mobile phone is already a Red Sea market, so the price competition is very fierce, and the price of parts and components is also rising faster. We try to reduce the price increase, and we do not want to fight price wars. The main reason is to provide consumers with better quality products. Service, expanding our own sales scale. When deciding on the price of a product in the Chinese market, we must first consider the consumer's needs. That is to say, the fixed price can provide consumers with the price we consider the best service.
7: Why does S9 have to do so many unlocking methods? What kind of problems are currently faced with the expected screen fingerprint identification?
Quan Guixian: In order to ensure the safety performance of mobile phones, a security system needs to be set up. Now that the mobile phone contains a lot of personal information such as photos, bank passwords, etc., the need for higher security performance has always existed because it will involve To the user's payment transaction, etc. The most original unlocking method is the password, but sometimes the password is forgotten, and when we forget the password, it is more troublesome to reset it. So we have increased the fingerprint recognition for convenience, but in reality Some people don't have fingerprints or are hard to identify. There are other situations where people can't use our fingers to unlock us. So we apply iris recognition to mobile phones because irises are more secure than fingerprints, even if they are asleep. Under the circumstances, hard-opening eyes are also unrecognizable. Therefore, more and more convenient, more and more safe and let more users begin to inseparable from the iris recognition.
In the next stage, the fingerprint recognition under the screen is realized. For the fingerprint application under the screen, Samsung will first consider from the consumer's standpoint, what kind of convenience the fingerprint recognition under the screen can bring to the user, so when will the product land on the product? Considering economic practicality and genuine convenience for consumers.
8: In the era of consumer upgrades, consumer choices for high-end smartphones are not only about fancy performance, but also important for brand awareness. Samsung signed Jing Boran and Zhu Yawen, also to recruit a new generation of consumers, but China still has Some consumers are not interested in Samsung products. How did Samsung overcome this phenomenon in 2018 and how can it be further localized?
Quan Guixian: Through analysis of various aspects such as our sales trends, the attraction of young consumers needs to be improved. For young consumers, the price of the main product is high. In addition, young people will pay more attention to the game. This is why this time will be a game cooperation with Tencent. There is also the cooperation that JD.com also wants to bring in interesting things that can appeal to young consumers through cooperation.
In addition to this, we are also working hard to attract female consumers. For example, there are changes in the appearance, or the brand's influence has been strengthened. With these in mind, we have launched Xiwu Purple this year, and we have also started We are deeply involved with popular stars. However, brand influence cannot be improved in one day or two. We will continue to work hard and we hope everyone will wait and see.