The reporter of the "Daily Economic News" noted that with the launch of the "patent war" between Midea and Yunmi Technology, the relationship between the two giants of Xiaomi and Midea has become subtle.
Previously in December 2014, Midea announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi Technology and Midea will issue 55 million shares to Xiaomi Technology. After the completion of the issuance, Xiaomi Technology will hold a 1.29% stake in Midea. Both parties will be in the future. Smart home industry chain cooperation. The subsequent 2015 is the "love period" of millet and the United States.
However, the "love period" is always short-lived. Soon, Xiaomi will show greater ambitions in the layout of home appliances. The reporter combed and found that Xiaomi's ecological chain products include water purifiers, IH rice cookers, smart toilets, etc. There are dishwashers. These products are highly consistent with the United States. On the other hand, the US Group itself through the intelligent investment in intelligent transformation, is also 'feather.'
Short sweet 'love'
Precisely, before the end of 2014, when the United States announced the 'marriage' of Xiaomi, the relationship between Xiaomi and Mei’s “scandals” had long been flying. In 2014, when it came to the “flood” of power stations on the Internet, traditional home appliance companies found that they lacked smart home control. At the entrance (mobile phone), Internet company Xiaomi found himself lacking household electrical appliances. In this context, the two are sympathetic to each other.
On December 15, 2014, the U.S. Group announced a high-profile announcement of cooperation with Xiaomi. Mei’s decision to issue 55 million shares to Xiaomi Technology raised 1.266 billion yuan of funds. After the completion of the issuance, Xiaomi Technology will become a group of the United States. Shareholders. At the time, this 'hand in hand' was known as the largest cross-border cooperation in the year.
In the announcement at the time, Midea Group stated that Midea Technology and Xiaomi Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xiaomi Technology) have signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The cooperation between the two parties is based on the company’s corporate strategy, business strategy, industry status, corporate governance, and corporate culture. And a high degree of recognition of values'.
According to the agreement, Xiaomi and Midea will cooperate in various modes in the field of smart home and its ecological chain and mobile Internet business, establish a close-level communication mechanism between the two sides, and coordinate the cooperation teams in smart home, e-commerce and strategic investment. , Actively explore a variety of cooperation models to support the development of related businesses between the two sides. In addition, Xiaomi can also nominate one of its core executives as a director of the United States. It is worth noting that the basic principles of strategic cooperation between the two parties also include 'priority principles', mutual Give priority to each other under the same conditions, the preferred strategic cooperation. This point is enough to see the intimate relationship between the millet and the United States.
Entering 2015, the relationship between Xiaomi and Midea continued to heat up. In April 2015, the cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea had substantial development. Xiaomi and Midea jointly released the i-Smart Air-Conditioning Air Conditioner that can be used to connect the millet bracelet in 2015; 2015 In June of the same year, with the completion of the United States' project for increasing the number of millet technology, the Midea Group said at the time, the construction and layout of the “Smart Home Platform for the cooperation between Midea and Xiaomi in various fields and the United States is worth looking forward to.”
At the 2015 Midea Group summary meeting, at the invitation of Fang Hongbo, chairman and president of the United States, Lei Jun even took the rain to the United States to share Internet thinking and entrepreneurial experience; when the US group’s third quarter financial report was released, Lei Jun was also at the micro level. Bo transfer points like.
It is understood that in order to further study Xiaomi's Internet thinking, Midea Group once sent senior executives to Xiaomi to exchange ideas.
From cooperation to competition
The reporter of the "Daily Economic News" noticed that the official microblogging of Midea Group had also been a box for millet in 2016, and the cooperation between Xiaomi and Dajiang's platform. However, there was no update on Xiaomi's information after January 2017.
In addition, the United States has previously given Xiaomi Technology the right to assign directors, but until now, Xiaomi Technology, as the seventh largest shareholder, has not exercised this right. On this issue, on March 13, the reporter tried to contact the relevant person in charge of Xiaomi, but not yet. Get a reply.
In addition to these, the cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea at the product level seems to remain in the joint launch of i youth air-conditioning, and other cooperation such as 'smart home, eco-chain, and mobile internet' will no longer advance. July 2016 The United States announced that it had deployed Huawei to build a smart home. At that time, there was a voice in the industry that 'millet has been abandoned'.
Behind the changes in the relationship between Xiaomi and the United States, it is the millet's growing ambitions in the field of home appliances. After announcing its entry into the Internet TV industry in 2013, Xiaomi announced in 2015 that it would enter the water purifier responsible for the production of Xiaomi water purifiers. The company is Yun Mi Technology. In March 2016, Xiaomi released a high-profile IH rice cooker in Beijing. In 2017, Xiaomi speeded up the layout of its home appliance product line. It first released the 'Xiaoji Mini Retro Refrigerator' on the Xiao Mi Mi Jia Crowd Platform. Then it also released Zhimi full DC inverter air conditioner, smart toilet products. In these household appliances, millet has always insisted on the 'cost-effective' advantage, to low-cost home appliance market 'spoiler'.
The reporter combed and found that the current line of millet-based household appliances also includes floor fans, electric kettles, humidifiers, table lamps, kitchen appliances, and even dishwashers. These products highly coincide with Midea's products.
From the perspective of the United States, Midea Group has also continuously increased its transformation of smart homes since 2014. In addition to the Internet giants such as Jingdong, Huawei, etc., in cooperation with channel expansion and smart homes, Midea has also built a heavy investment in Shunde. Global smart home research and development headquarters, as the future smart home incubator base. In April 2017, Midea Group announced the opening of a future technology center in Silicon Valley, USA. The center will use artificial intelligence as the main R&D direction and plans to invest 250 million US dollars in the next five years. R & D. In order to successfully complete the transformation, Midea launched the "Millions of Years of Talent" star program in the world in 2016 to reserve talents for smart homes.
Through the series of transformation layout and technology precipitation, in March 2017, Midea officially announced that it had transformed into a technology group company.
Liu Buchen, an analyst in the home appliance industry, believes that the reason for the shift in the relationship between Xiaomi and Midea is complex. Among them, Xiaomi’s full access to home appliances is the main reason for the formation of competitive relations with the United States. 'Once it is a competitive relationship, both parties will certainly not be happy.'
Zhang Yanbin, a home appliance specialist, recalled the collaboration between Xiaomi and Midea in 2014. 'The cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea at that time was not very promising in our industry. Because the corporate culture of the two companies is very different, the cooperation foundation is not solid, and neither side has established a long-term relationship. Cooperation mechanism, cooperation on the capital alone is not enough. Corporate culture differences will eventually lead to difficult to maintain the concept of cooperation. '