Going out and asking CEO Li Zhifei said in an interview with the first financial and other media at the 2018 geek Park Rebuild conference, he did not want to cause ToB because of the impression that ToC could not continue, and the B-end is more based on the current industry needs. But doing so can really ease the pressure of profit.
Force B, under the layout line
'Industry thinking' is a recent high-frequency word. Many companies say they want to change from 'internet thinking' to 'industry thinking', to find out which industry needs what the enterprise does.
It seems that this is also the case when going out to ask questions. Li Zhifei believes that the ToB business is like a 'magnifying glass', which is based on the needs of enterprise customers. It can be used to ask questions about the technology and experience in developing consumer electronics products.
'For the commercial side, the sales volume of the intelligent speaker ToC does have some challenges, but the algorithms accumulated in the process of making the smart speaker, the microphone array and other technologies integrate the algorithm into the chip module and can be used in the smart TV. Therefore, although the smart speakers require a lot of investment, the output of ToC is not obvious, but it is helpful for the overall technical polishing and the development of the ToB scene. 'Li Zhifei said.
The entry point is that, like Internet companies, these companies have their own channels but lack technical capabilities. In addition, from an international perspective, there are some countries and regions such as Singapore, Northern Europe, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Despite the economic development and high demand, the Internet giant has no time to take care of it, but local companies lack end-to-end capabilities.
At present, I asked the remote telecom to launch a smart speaker with Taiwan Yuanchuan Telecom. In the future, we will jointly build products with the relatively vertical children's category. 'This is a way we think it is more realistic and can produce output.'
Specifically, the focus area of the B-end is the equipment scene of the IOT (Internet of Things), such as smart TV, robots, smart home enterprises, mainly using AI voice chip modules, and the scene is mainly in the financial and insurance industries.
At the beginning of this year, I went out and asked about the launch of the AI chip module. According to Li Zhifei, there are already TV manufacturers who use the chip module to go out and ask questions.
'Our chip modules include chips, connectors, electronic capacitors, etc. We integrate the most core algorithms, do board integration and software algorithm integration, and have a complete set of interactions. The past practice is to take software. The algorithm works with the main CPU of the TV manufacturer, which takes a lot of time to run-in, and the external modules do not need to be run-in, and the time can be shortened from 3 to 4 months to 3 weeks. ' Li Zhifei said.
Starting in 2015, I went out and asked about the launch of four consumer electronics products at an annual rate. This year's strategy is to open 20 smart experience stores nationwide.
The consideration for this is that for new consumer electronics products, it is important that users need to be able to see and feel online, otherwise it will be difficult to understand the function of these products. Second, learn to understand the line. Under the play, plan to do the 'test field' of the new retail of AI.
'The development of a set of specifications for offline retailing, only we will open the store to understand the exhibition, staff training and management incentives, and even a set of offline retail specifications such as clothing and speech, in order to make this aspect of the saleout better. Li Zhifei said.
As the first startup company invested by Google in China, I went out and got the D round of financing from the Volkswagen Group in April 2017. As of April 2017, I completed six rounds of financing, with a cumulative financing of over $255 million.
Li Zhifei said that there is still financing demand for going out. The revenue target for this year is 1 billion yuan. I will not consider listing for the time being: 'The scale of revenue is still the benchmark for listing. It doesn't make sense.'
Product differentiation is based on the premise of small price difference
'Hello, ask', 'Hello, Ruoqi', 'small degree, small degree', how many smart speakers have awakening words, is differentiation only reflected in this?
In Li Zhifei's view, if the product differentiation is based on the premise that the price difference is 2~3 times, it is very weak.
'If the products under the giant subsidy are only about 30% lower than ours, this time is still very useful.' Li Zhifei said, 'In addition, the differentiation of business models, with their own channels, rich subsidies, but no technical ability. The cooperation of enterprises, quickly build end-to-end products is one of the ways to reflect. '
Li Zhifei said frankly, 'Whoever has money has core competitiveness, this is a very sad situation. Especially for large companies, many companies do not do it themselves, and then integrate and package to sell, instead of polishing their core technology. '
'The market is changing too fast. The market situation of smart speakers can't be estimated next year. Poverty limits our imagination.' Li Zhifei said with a smile, 'Under the giant subsidy, maybe you can buy a smart speaker to make up 10 yuan next year. Occurs. '
Although this is a joke, it can also reflect the pattern of the domestic smart speaker giant 'cutting the law'.
According to the global smart speaker shipment report released by market analyst firm Canalys in the first quarter of 2018, China has become the world's second largest smart speaker consumer market after the United States. The overall market size of Q1 is 1.8 million, of which Alibaba Tmall Elf With the shipment of 1.1 million, it has maintained the number one position in China and the third place in the world. Local manufacturers such as Alibaba and Xiaomi are investing heavily in this field. Canalys analyst Hattie He has said that in the second half of 2018, the promotion will be a Important driving factors.
'The current trend in the smart speaker market is that technology giants use subsidies to seize the market. If the price difference between other companies' product prices and giant products is 3 to 5 times, then it will be more difficult. 'Li Zhifei said, 'The giants only put intelligence Speaker as a way to grab users. '