Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 540 If you love her, buy her a Zhiyun robot.
As the leading intelligent electric vehicle company in China and the world, Hailan Auto has always received widespread attention, and rumors about its listing have been circulating for the past few years, with all sorts of speculation.

Domestic investors are particularly interested. Some want to buy shares after Hailan Auto goes public, while others see Hailan Auto as a bellwether for the electric vehicle industry and as a way to judge the stock prices of electric vehicle companies and supply chain manufacturers.

After all, Hailan Auto is too popular.

Although Hailan Auto rarely discloses its revenue and profit figures, its vehicle sales volume and selling price can be calculated by numerous third-party analysis and statistics agencies.

In terms of key car sales, Hailan Auto has performed exceptionally well since the birth of its first-generation model!
In late September, an analysis agency compiled and analyzed the sales performance of global automakers in major automotive markets during the first half of this year.

Toyota tops the list without much controversy, followed by the Volkswagen Group, and the other automakers are all well-known large automotive groups.

For the first time in its history, Hailan Auto has entered the top ten globally!
Hylan Auto's three car brands—Hylan, a mid-to-high-end brand targeting the global market; Ella, a mid-to-low-end brand targeting overseas markets; and Mite, targeting the Americas market—together, Hylan Auto's global sales reached 1.3 million vehicles in the first half of the year.

It surpassed Daimler Group, BMW Group, Suzuki Group, and other automakers to become the tenth largest automaker in the world.

Meanwhile, Hailan Auto is also the absolute leader in the new energy vehicle category, with sales of 1.3 million vehicles in half a year, a precipitous lead over BYD, Tesla, SAIC and other manufacturers.

More importantly, the main brand of Hailan Auto is Hailan, which targets the mid-to-high-end market with prices above 250,000 yuan. Its high price brings in even larger revenue and profits.

It can be said that the sales volume, revenue, and profit of Hailan Auto Group directly affect people's judgment of the entire electric vehicle industry.

Whether the new energy vehicle industry is doing well, how fast it is developing, and how high its profits are, just look at the performance of Hailan Auto!

There's no way around it; Hailan Auto's performance in the new energy vehicle sector is simply too outstanding.

Moreover, the performance of Hailan Auto's mid-to-low-end brand 'Aila' is also very impressive. It was first launched in ASEAN and gained recognition in the local market, with very good sales performance, based on the successful trial of the Aila brand in the ASEAN market.

Hylan Automotive Group has already launched this brand in the Americas and Europe.

At the same time, the first electric vehicle under the Ella brand will soon be launched in the country.

In early October, ALA Auto held a press conference in China to launch its electric vehicles under the ALA brand to domestic consumers.

The first sedan model used lithium iron phosphate batteries and L2-level assisted driving technology, and adopted a pure electric and range-extended architecture... In short, it was a simplified version of the early Hailan cars.

Its price was directly reduced to 150,000 yuan after subsidies... directly entering the most competitive entry-level sedan market in the current automotive market.

Although the configuration of this car is only average in the current highly competitive domestic electric vehicle market, the price of 150,000 yuan, coupled with Hailan Auto's lithium iron phosphate battery, results in a pure electric range of only about 500 kilometers, and the L2-level assisted driving is not very good either... Hailan Auto is not even willing to equip it with the advanced EYQ chip... because the EYQ chip is too expensive, in order to save costs, it is equipped with the cheaper EYQ chip, which uses pure vision recognition.

It's important to understand that the domestic electric vehicle market is already highly competitive. Some manufacturers are offering models priced around 200,000 yuan with top-of-the-line features, including semi-solid-state batteries, L2+ driver assistance systems, various intelligent cockpits, and even refrigerator-like materials.

It's scary.

Therefore, the ELA model continues to use lithium iron phosphate batteries in China, which no longer offers any performance advantage. However, this is unavoidable, as costs need to be controlled!

However, the ELA brand will also release new models with semi-solid batteries in the future, but that will be after next year... The current semi-solid batteries are still too expensive, and at the same time, Hailan Auto's own current semi-solid battery capacity utilization rate is also very high, so it cannot free up capacity.

But next year will be different. Next year, the Hailan brand will fully adopt solid-state batteries, which will release a large amount of existing semi-solid-state battery production capacity. Some of this capacity will be used by the Aila brand, and the rest will be transferred to Ningdai Battery to supply other car manufacturers.

Despite Hailan Auto's plans to develop solid-state batteries, semi-solid-state batteries will not truly enter the mainstream on a large scale until next year, especially in models priced over 100,000 yuan.

As for Hailan Auto's solid-state batteries, forget about it, and don't compare yourself to Hailan Auto... They're in the high-end car market, it's different.

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Despite the brand support of Hailan Auto, Aila Auto still generated a huge response after its launch in China, and even aroused the apprehension of more automotive giants.

Although the Hailan brand boasts various cutting-edge technologies and powerful features, seemingly posing a greater threat, it's actually not. This is because Hailan's models are simply too expensive... No matter how much you tinker with them, that's about it. Even the cheapest Hailan YEV, after subsidies, costs over 250,000 yuan, a price that exceeds the purchasing power of ordinary families.

Most people buy cars in the 100,000-200,000 yuan range, especially those priced slightly above 100,000 yuan. It's not because there are many cars in that price range, but because they can only afford or are willing to buy cars in that price range!

It's purely determined by your wallet!

The main competitors of the Hailan brand are BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and mid-to-high-end brands such as Cadillac and Lexus, and it has little to do with ordinary mainstream models.

The Ella brand is different. This sub-brand plays the low-price, high-volume strategy. Its first car was priced at 150,000 yuan, and it is highly likely that it will launch even cheaper models, even those priced at just over 100,000 yuan, which has caused panic among many car manufacturers!
Although the first generation of Aila cars launched in China still used lithium iron phosphate batteries and only had L2 level driver assistance, Hailan Automotive Group was even unwilling to put the "Hailan" logo on it—fearing that it would affect the brand value of "Hailan".

However, regardless of the circumstances, this is a sub-brand of Hailan Auto Group. Just the intangible brand value, quality workmanship, safety performance, and after-sales service alone are worth at least 50,000 to 60,000 yuan in the eyes of many people.

Therefore, after the Ella model was launched, it attracted a lot of attention from consumers and led to many direct purchases. Car manufacturers also paid close attention to it and regarded it as a huge threat.

As a result, many car manufacturers have successively adjusted their vehicle development and launch prices!
However, as the world's largest third-party power battery supplier, Ningdai Battery also promptly announced a price reduction for its lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries to help customers cope with the increasingly competitive new energy vehicle market.

The dynamic changes in the automotive market have once again significantly boosted the development of the domestic new energy vehicle market!
Many believe that domestic sales of new energy vehicles will increase significantly this year, potentially exceeding five million units, further boosting the penetration rate of new energy vehicles. This will benefit not only Hailan Auto, but also a large number of other domestic automakers such as BYD, SAIC, BAIC, and Geely.

This is a celebration for the entire industry!

And this carnival has only just begun!
Five million units are projected to be sold, but that's just the beginning... According to data from the strategic analysis department within Liuhe Investment, the domestic new energy vehicle market is estimated to reach eight million units next year, and will break through ten million units the year after.

There is huge potential for future market growth.

Therefore, a large number of domestic car manufacturers are now vigorously expanding their production capacity of new energy vehicles... The market demand is too great, and the existing production capacity cannot meet the demand!
For example, BYD only sold a few hundred thousand new energy vehicles last year, and not many in the first half of this year either. However, a large amount of their production capacity will be put into operation in the second half of this year, and it is very likely that their production and sales volume will reach 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles.

And next year, it is estimated that the number will reach more than one million vehicles.

This automaker, which focuses on the low-to-mid-end new energy vehicle market and specializes in plug-in hybrid models, is experiencing extremely rapid growth.

Even if Hailan Auto Group doesn't develop the mid-to-low-end brand Aila and relies solely on the "Hailan" brand, it's estimated that BYD will overtake it in sales within a few years.

No matter how impressive Hailan Auto is, its mid-to-high-end models can't compete with its low-to-mid-end models in terms of sales.

No matter how good Hailan cars are, consumers still can't afford them...

This is also the core reason why Hailan Auto launched the sub-brand 'Aila'. The mid-to-high-end market is too limited. After reaching a sales volume of two to three million vehicles, it has reached its ceiling and it is difficult to make a large-scale breakthrough.

Whether Hailan Auto can grow into a super car group with sales of several million or even tens of millions of vehicles in the future depends not on the Hailan brand, but on Ella and other mid-to-low-end sub-brands in the future.

Therefore, within the Hailan Automotive Group, the Ella sub-brand is quite valued... At the same time, plans have been launched for several other mid-to-low-end sub-brands, so that if the Ella brand fails, new sub-brands can be launched quickly.

In short, no matter what, we must develop the low-to-mid-end market.

Of course, it's hard to say what the future will hold. The automotive industry is quite unique, with very strong competitors, and success isn't something that can be guaranteed just because you're confident in your abilities.

While the domestic auto market remained fiercely competitive, Xu Shenxue had already shifted his focus away from automobiles. The electric vehicle market was gaining momentum, and Bao Yongyan and other senior management at Hailan Auto had accumulated ample experience over the years, so Xu Shenxue no longer needed to pay them much attention.

Recently, he has been focusing on virtual business and robotics business, which are the new core businesses of Zhiyun Group. Their success or failure will not only affect the revenue and profit of Zhiyun Group in these two businesses, but also a large number of related industrial chains, especially the semiconductor industry chain.

Zhuyun Group has invested heavily in a massive capacity expansion plan for advanced semiconductor processes for these two major businesses and artificial intelligence, with an estimated investment of over $250 billion over the next five years.

Such an extravagant investment plan requires a robust terminal business to absorb it... Mobile phone SOCs and computer CPUs cannot absorb such a massive advanced process capacity; it requires various computing power chips to absorb it.

If the robotics and virtual equipment businesses stagnate, it will trigger a series of chain reactions... so much 3nm, 5nm, and 7nm logic chip production capacity, a large amount of 2.5D and 3D advanced packaging process production capacity, massive 10C and 10D memory chip production capacity, and a large amount of expanded 12-inch silicon wafer production capacity.

Who will buy all this massive amount of advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity?

In this world, apart from Zhiyun Group itself, no other manufacturer can absorb such a huge amount of additional production capacity... Other manufacturers do not need so many computing chips, nor can they afford them!

The losses won't be billions of dollars, but hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars!
Fortunately, both of these markets are developing quite well right now!

The robotics business is progressing steadily, leveraging a large number of C-series robots priced at over 100,000 yuan to widely enter the global home robot market. The market has gradually expanded from domestic and developed countries to various emerging markets, and has even achieved some sales in markets such as India, Indonesia, and Brazil.

Of course, sales are not high in emerging markets!

The main markets for robotics are still in the country and developed countries...

China's overall economic level is good, and its large population results in a huge number of middle- and high-income groups!

With this base number, sales won't be too bad!

Moreover, with the intense competition in the industry today, young people are already exhausted from work and don't want to do housework after get off work... They can't afford or are unwilling to hire a nanny or hourly worker... In this situation, Zhiyun Robotics becomes a great option.

Some Zhiyun robot salespeople use this slogan when advertising on social media to attract customers: If you love her, buy her a Zhiyun robot!

If you love her, how could you bear to let her do housework?
Housework is for robots, not wives!
The husband is responsible for earning money to support the family, the wife is responsible for being beautiful, and the Zhiyun robot is responsible for doing housework... This is the perfect combination for high-income families in the new era!
Especially on some women's community platforms, this kind of marketing rhetoric is very common, bombarding a large number of middle- and high-income married women with the idea of ​​buying robots to do housework for them.

Once this idea comes up, buying robots becomes a major expense for families. If even a small number of people actually buy them, the total sales volume will be enormous.

Then there are also many families that need to care for the elderly, which is a large market, especially now that China is aging, young people are under great work pressure, caregivers or nannies are expensive or not trustworthy, and other factors combined, elderly care robots are an important application scenario.

The same applies to childcare. Not every family has grandparents to help take care of their children. Some families simply don't have the means, while some young couples are unwilling to live with their grandparents. Furthermore, they may not be able to trust nannies. Therefore, childcare is also an important application scenario for Zhiyun robots.

Finally, there is a very special market for educational tutoring, which is one of the main reasons why middle- and high-income families in China, Japan, South Korea and other countries purchase Zhiyun robots!

Advanced education and tutoring functions have long held the top spot in the activation rate of advanced functions in Zhiyun Robot!
Parents in East Asia are very willing to spend money on their children's education and academic pursuits. Even if a couple's annual income is only a little over 100,000 yuan, many families would rather not change their cars and prioritize buying a C-series Zhiyun robot. They do this for no other reason than to use the advanced educational assistance function of the robot as a tutor to improve their children's academic performance and, incidentally, help lower their own blood pressure!
Tutoring my child is too much of a struggle; it easily causes my blood pressure to spike, and then I can't help but hit or scold my child, leading to a breakdown for both the child and the parents.

At this point, the Zhiyun robot, which never gets angry, always remains patient, and has received extensive scientific teaching training, can perfectly fulfill the role of educating and guiding children.

Household chores, caregiving, and educational tutoring are the three major application scenarios that have become important driving forces for the gradual increase in sales of Zhiyun robots. Of course, there are also some scenarios involving assisting with tasks, which are mainly seen in the European and American markets.

Many families in Europe and America have to repair many things themselves because the service industry is expensive. They have to fix their own cars, unclog their own pipes, and mow their own lawns. Zhiyun robots can provide excellent assistance in various repair services. Therefore, Zhiyun robots are also very popular in the United States.

Zhiyun Robotics' overall sales have maintained a steady upward trend. It's a certainty that sales will exceed three million units this year, and next year sales are expected to be even higher, perhaps even reaching five million units.

Even though the C series accounts for the vast majority of these sales, exceeding 90%, the revenue it brings to Zhiyun Group is still enormous.

And profits began to rise gradually.

However, the virtual business is still in its early stages. Due to factors such as the high price of virtual equipment and the limited production capacity of computing chips, sales are unlikely to experience significant high-speed growth.

However, it is possible to achieve sales of 400,000 units in a full sales year... The exact number will depend on production capacity, especially the production capacity of APO graphics cards and ZY chips.

Now we can sell as much as we have!
Next year, Zhiyun Group aims to expand its sales to over one million units!
However, as high-income groups have already purchased what they need, whether future sales can maintain high-speed growth depends on whether cheaper virtual devices can be launched in the future, as well as the operation of virtual experience centers worldwide.

Zhiyun Group is actively promoting both of these approaches. On the one hand, it is to continuously reduce the cost of virtual devices and strive to launch cheaper virtual device terminals in the future.

On the other hand, we continue to promote the construction of virtual experience centers. To this end, Zhiyun Group has provided a lot of support and convenience to investors in virtual experience centers.

For example, offering installment payment options could lower the investment threshold.

We provide comprehensive and convenient after-sales service guarantees, especially repair services, and offer technical training to help virtual experience centers cultivate their own daily maintenance technical personnel, thereby addressing investors' concerns about after-sales service and technology.

Furthermore, supporting virtual content is also of paramount importance!

Virtual devices are just tools; what attracts people is not the virtual devices themselves, but the numerous virtual contents within the virtual world.

Therefore, supporting the virtual content ecosystem has become the main task of the virtual business department of Zhiyun Group.

On October 9th, Xiao Mincai, Senior Vice President of Zhiyun Group in charge of software and internet business, officially announced at a press conference that Zhiyun Group will launch a new round of support for the virtual content ecosystem.

In the coming year, channel service fees for all types of virtual content available on the Zhiyun Virtual Software Store will be reduced by 30% to 100% for a limited time.

For the main virtual content business, virtual games, channel fees will be reduced by 50%, and channel revenue sharing will be reduced from 30% to 15%.

After the unified adjustment of user recharge revenue, content providers can receive 85%, while Zhiyun will only charge 15% as a basic channel service fee.

For virtual content such as tools, which already have low revenue, the channel service fee is reduced to zero, and the content providers can directly receive 100% of the user recharge revenue... Since there's not much money to begin with, it's better to just not charge at all, in order to incentivize more content providers to create more virtual content.

Although this support policy is only valid for one year, it has still excited many virtual content producers!
The moment this news was announced, cheers erupted at Shanghai-based Magic Light Technology Co., Ltd.... This means that in the coming year, their revenue share from the Magic Light Demon Blade virtual game will increase by tens of millions every month.

The reason why Zhiyun Group made this decision is to further cultivate the market... Anyway, the revenue sharing of the current virtual content business is not much, and Zhiyun Group doesn't care about it. It's better to give back to virtual content manufacturers and encourage them to create more and better virtual content.

For example, the game "Magic Blade" is already quite popular, ranking second among all virtual games.

With just this one virtual game, Magic Light Technology has completed a magnificent transformation from a small startup to a large internet company, with its employees growing from a hundred or so to several hundred, and still expanding.

However, its monthly revenue is only tens of millions of US dollars, and the 30% that Zhiyun Group takes is also around tens of millions of US dollars.

The reduction of several million dollars in channel fees is negligible for the massive Zhuyun Group, and equally negligible for its enormous ambitions in the virtual business.

However, the results were excellent... Major virtual content providers saw the opportunity to make money, which is why they increased their investment and created more and better virtual content!
High-quality, abundant virtual content has a huge effect on boosting sales of virtual devices!
Zhuyun Group has reduced channel fees for virtual content, increased overall advertising and marketing in the virtual world, and even cooperated with game developers to hold virtual game competitions!
The first batch of virtual game competitions were held in the virtual game known for its PvP (player versus player) battles, namely, Magic Blade!
When they learned that Zhiyun Group had approached them to organize a virtual gaming competition, the management of Moguang Technology was both surprised and delighted...

Wow, we've become so awesome that even a top global multinational giant like Zhiyun Group is approaching us for cooperation?

(End of this chapter)