Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 550: The First Enterprise Killed by Prism Gate

"It's not a good idea to release it as soon as possible. The Prism scandal is still very popular. Even if we release Baidu Smart Home, not many people will pay attention to it."

"It's not possible to publish it, and it's not possible not to publish it either. It's difficult to deal with."

Li Yan frowned and couldn't help looking at Qu Xin who had been silent the whole time: "President Qu, what do you think about this?"

Qu Xin sighed: "The key now is not whether to release it or not, nor when to release it, but whether our Baidu Smart Home still needs to be released? Is there still a way out?"

"Is there any need to release it? Is there any way to survive?!"

The words are not surprising and die endlessly.

Everyone in the room, from Chairman Li Yan to the junior supervisor of Baidu Zhijia, was silent.

We were discussing when to release Baidu Smart Home, and you asked directly if there was any way out...

This was so sudden.

"President Qu, Baidu Smart Home has invested a lot of money and is doing very well. How can there be no way out?"

"That's right. Our other businesses have failed one after another or have been killed by Xingyi Technology. We are counting on Baidu Smart Home to grow bigger, turn the tide and become the second largest player in the smart home market. Are you telling me there is no way out?"

Everyone was furious and very angry.

Li Yan also frowned: "President Qu, can you explain in detail why Baidu Zhijia has no future?"

"The reason is simple, it's still the Prism Gate!" Qu Xin said.

“???” Everyone was even more confused: “What does Baidu Zhijia have to do with Prism? We don’t have a backdoor!”

Qu Xin nodded: "Indeed, our Baidu Smart Home does not have a backdoor, but our Baidu Smart Home needs to log in to the mobile phone. What is the preferred platform?"

“Apple and Android…”

As soon as he finished speaking, the man's expression changed drastically.

Li Yan's face also darkened.

Then, everyone else's faces turned very ugly.

Qu Xin said: "That's right. Baidu Smart Home follows Xingyi Smart Home and is in competition with Xingyi Smart Home. Therefore, Baidu Smart Home has not yet adapted to the XOS system. After all, most users of Xingyi mobile phones will use Xingyi Smart Home, not Baidu Smart Home."

“So we can only choose Apple and Android!”

"Then the question is, once the PRISM scandal broke out, both Apple and Android collapsed. Both had security issues and could be monitored by the NSA and FBI."

"So will users still risk being monitored by using the Apple version of Baidu Zhijia? Or the Android version of Baidu Zhijia?"

"This..." Everyone was silent.

But I have the answer in my heart.

It's difficult, very difficult!

Li Yan also felt a deep sense of powerlessness:
"Smart homes are closely related to privacy and security, especially when connected to cameras at home. Once there is a backdoor and they are monitored, a lot of privacy can be obtained."

"Although there is no backdoor monitoring in our Baidu Smart Home, it exists in both Android and iOS systems! Therefore, the Baidu Smart Home APP on Android and iOS platforms can still be monitored."

"Yes, that's the truth." Qu Xin said.

Then someone else said, "If we don't make cameras, can we avoid this problem?"

Qu Xin shook his head: "It's meaningless. If we don't make cameras, we have to make AI speakers, right? Our Xiaodu AI speakers don't have backdoors, but they can be monitored through the backdoors of Apple or Android systems. AI speakers can interact with voice and are online 24 hours a day. They can completely monitor and upload all the user's privacy through the backdoor."

"This..." The man was silent.

Yes, monitoring is not just about cameras, audio equipment can be used as well!

Especially AI speakers, which are online 24 hours a day. If placed in the bedroom, the frequency of certain aspects of the couple can be monitored clearly...

"Under this situation, even if we launch Baidu Smart Home, how many users will use it? How many white goods brands are willing to join Baidu Smart Home? So I ask, is there any need to launch Baidu Smart Home?"

Faced with Qu Xin's question, everyone remained silent.

Yes, are there still many users willing to use it?
Without the Prism Gate, both Apple and Android are very safe systems, and are supported by the majority of users.

Now that the Prism Gate has broken out, both Apple and Android have become the most insecure systems and can be monitored at any time. Users are not buying into this and have turned to buying Xingyi phones, causing a terrifying increase in sales of Xingyi phones. In some regions and markets, the increase has even exceeded 100%!

In this case, who would still use Baidu Smart Home on Android and Apple?

If users don’t need it, will the white goods giants still join Baidu Smart Home and invest in the research and development of Baidu Smart Home’s products?

The answer is clear, this is impossible!
Who would do such a thankless task?
Moreover, Xingyi Smart Home has been developing for more than a year and is very mature. With the help of hundreds of millions of Xingyi mobile phones, Xingyi tablets and Xingyi TVs, it has quickly become the only smart home giant in the country and the world's number one smart home platform.

Major white goods giants have joined in and reached in-depth cooperation.

Last summer, only some brands of new air conditioners supported Xingyi Smart Home.

But this summer's new air conditioners, whether big brands or small brands, all integrate the Xingyi Smart Home module and are connected to Xingyi Smart Home.

The same is true for other devices.

White appliance giants such as Haier, Midea, Gree, and Hisense are making crazy efforts to develop smart products, and many of their devices have been integrated into Xingyi Smart Home!
Several Xiao Ai AI speaker products have been launched globally, with astonishing sales.

Especially the launch of Xiao Ai Speaker Lite, priced at 799, has been a global hot seller.

So far, the total sales of Xiao Ai's three speaker products have exceeded 1 million units.

With such momentum, we can only say that Xingyi Smart Home has grown big and monopolized the domestic market.

It was too late for Baidu Smart Home to be launched at this time.

Now that it has encountered the Prism scandal and is being dragged down by Apple and Android phones, its future is even more hopeless.

Li Yan and other senior executives have thought this through clearly.

"President Qu is right. The current situation is indeed a bit difficult. Let's all think about how to break through the difficulties!"

Li Yan spoke in a deep voice, completely at a loss for what to do.

A senior executive said: "Since Android and IOS platforms are not safe, how about we develop the XOS platform?"

"It's useless. The XOS platform belongs to Xingyi Technology. Even if we put it online with Baidu Smart Home, we can't compete."

"Yes, in my opinion, it is better to just give up and regard Baidu Zhijia as a failure!"

"No, Baidu Zhijia is developing AI algorithms, natural language human-computer interaction, and AI speakers. We have invested more than a billion yuan in this field. How can we just give up like that?"

"What if we don't give up? If we invest another billion, we will only suffer greater losses."

"In addition, Xingyi Technology previously announced that the price of Xiaoai Speaker Lite is 799, which makes the profit margin of our Xiaodu Speaker very slim. The original price of 699 had no future, and we can only sell it at 599, which does not make much profit at all!"

“We have to sell it even if it doesn’t make money. Without Xiaodu speakers, Baidu Smart Home cannot succeed.”

"Okay, we don't make any money from Xiaodu speakers, we just sell them at a small profit, but what about the equipment? Third-party brands are unwilling to join Baidu Smart Home, so if we try it ourselves? We won't be able to do it either!"

"Yes, this is a big problem. Everyone knows that Baidu Zhijia has a bleak future. Those white goods giants will not spend money to buy Baidu Zhijia's modules unless we continue to spend money on subsidies."

"This is also a way!"

"That's bullshit! Damn, do you know how much the subsidy is?"

"Xingyi Smart Home's IOT module + technical services + solutions + online Xingyi Mall, the price for white goods brands is 150 yuan, with a subsidy of 50 yuan, which is equivalent to only 100 yuan. White goods brands can make a smart model by adding 200 yuan to the price and earn 200 yuan. Consumers also think it is suitable, and most of them will choose to add yuan to the Xingyi Smart Home model."

"Xingyi Smart Home's IOT modules are all developed by themselves, and the cost is only about 20 yuan. Including technical services, the total cost is only 30 yuan. If they sell them for 100 yuan, they can make a profit of 70 yuan! For each Xingyi Smart Home device, Xingyi Technology makes 70 yuan, and the third-party brand makes 100 yuan."

"We at Baidu Zhijia all purchase IoT modules from third parties. Compared to Xingyi Technology's self-developed products, the cost is several times higher. The IoT module alone costs 60 yuan."

Ten years later, with the rapid development of the Internet of Things, the cost of Internet of Things (IOT) modules will drop to a bargain price under the scale effect, down to a few yuan, and the selling price will be around ten yuan.

But at present, the Internet of Things is just starting out, and the scale effect has not yet been achieved. The cost of the Internet of Things module is much higher. The cost price is 20 yuan, and the selling price is 60 yuan.

Otherwise there is no profit.

Xingyi Smart Home develops all its products by itself, and the cost is only 20 yuan.

Baidu Smart Home purchases IoT modules from third parties, which costs 60 yuan!
After all, third parties have to make money too.

"As for technical services, we at Baidu don't have such a large team, so we have to outsource them, which is also costly. The total cost of IoT module + technical services is at least 90 yuan. For one device, we have to subsidize 90 yuan to the white goods brand."

"How can 90 yuan be enough? If you don't give some benefits to third-party brands, they will promote Baidu Smart Home for you? At least 40 yuan promotion fee, right? That means a subsidy of 130 yuan for each unit."

"Well, for the same smart home products, Xingyi Technology makes 70 yuan per unit, while Baidu loses 130 yuan per unit! The difference is 200 yuan. This job is impossible to do!"

"A loss of 130 billion for each unit! Ten million units means 13 billion!" Li Yan's face turned pale.

The smart home industry also has economies of scale.

The more devices, the more users, the bigger the scale, and the more money you make.

Just like the current Xingyi Technology, there are more than 100 million Xiao Ai speaker activation devices alone!

The number of Xingyi Smart Home users has exceeded 100 million.

Not 100 million people, but 100 million families!

A family has Xiao Ai speakers, smart air conditioners, and maybe even smart fans, smart humidifiers, smart stoves, and smart TVs...

Even if we calculate based on three Xingyi Smart Home devices per household, that would be 300 million Xingyi Smart Home devices.

Baidu wants to develop smart homes. Let alone 130 million devices, even if it is 130 million devices, and the subsidy for each device is yuan, the subsidy will be billion!
This is simply not realistic.

As for not providing subsidies, just like Xingyi Smart Home, the money is paid by the brands, who buy IoT modules and Baidu's technical support.

Brands are also unwilling to be taken advantage of.

People are willing to buy Xingyi Smart Home's IOT modules and technologies because consumers recognize Xingyi Smart Home and the brand can make money by buying the equipment.

If you buy equipment for 100 yuan, you can sell it for 200 yuan more, making a net profit of 100 yuan.

But Baidu Smart Home is a failure because consumers do not accept it.

The brand spends 100 yuan to buy equipment, but cannot sell it for 90 yuan more, and can only suffer losses.

This is simply not realistic.

Qu Xin spread his hands and said, "This is the current situation. If we don't give subsidies, brands will lose money on every unit they sell and won't launch Baidu Smart Home devices! Don't even think about it." "But if the subsidies are really that high, 130 yuan per unit, Baidu can't afford it. We're stuck in a dilemma."

Everyone nodded, not wanting to accept it but having to.

Li Yan's expression was even more unpleasant: "Could it be that our Baidu Zhijia has gone bankrupt before it even started to develop?"

Qu Xin nodded: "Although the reality is a bit cruel, it is indeed like this."

"Then just give up completely? The billions of R&D and operating costs invested over the past year will all go down the drain?" Li Yan was extremely depressed.

In fact, BAT invests in many projects every year, but most of the projects lose money and fail.

Similarly, Baidu has had many new businesses fail, but this time Baidu's losses are really huge!
Li Yan couldn't accept it.

Qu Xin sighed: "Baidu Smart Home has to give up completely. We can't spend so much money to subsidize electrical appliance brands, which will cause greater losses. But we can take Baidu AI speakers out and sell them separately. We don't ask for too much, but if we can make 50 or 100 yuan per speaker, we can make back some of our investment!"

Li Yan took a deep breath and said, "At present, it seems that this is the only way. The total cost of our Xiaodu speaker is 500, but we sell it for 599. It is 799 cheaper than the Xiaoai speaker lite from Xingyi Technology, which costs 200!"

"This price is right, any profit is good!"

Qu Xin sees it clearly. Baidu Smart Home is useless and has no future, but Xiaodu Speakers can still make some profit.

Lu Yingxuan, the person in charge of Baidu Smart Home, suddenly asked: "Then do we still need to prepare for our Baidu Smart Home strategic cooperation meeting?"

"Preparation?" Li Yan's mouth twitched: "Preparation, what the hell? Even if we prepare, will there be any electrical appliance brand giants to participate?"

"This..." Lu Yingxuan was speechless.

Indeed, no one attended.

At the strategic cooperation meeting of Xingyi Smart Home, all large and small white appliance brands participated.

All white goods brands that joined Xingyi Smart Home made huge profits.

Those who did not participate regretted it so much that they joined Xingyi Zhijia one after another.

But when it comes to Baidu, it's completely the opposite.

"Smart home is easier said than done!"

Li Yan was filled with emotion. Baidu Smart Home was completely bankrupt and could only rely on Xiaodu speakers to make some money and recoup some of the investment.

To put it bluntly, Baidu Smart Home in the future will be equivalent to Xiaodu Speaker and nothing else.

"As for the release date of Xiaodu Speaker... the Prism Gate incident is still very serious, so let's put it off until the end of the month, or next month."

Li Yan made the decision right away: "It's just right to wait until the Xingyi Technology press conference is over, and then take advantage of the popularity of Xingyi Technology to release the 599 yuan Xiaodu speaker, which will definitely beat the 799 yuan Xiaoai speaker lite from Xingyi Technology!"

Everyone nodded, thinking that they could take advantage of this wave of traffic.

But what Li Yan didn’t know was that there would also be a lot of surprises at the Xingyi Technology press conference in September.

Subsequently, Baidu Smart Home entered its darkest hour.

Baidu Smart Home's subsidiary, which was established just over a year ago, has not yet made any progress but has already faced a large-scale layoff!
From R&D personnel to administrative clerks, all employees were laid off.

The worst hit was the marketing department which had just been established and was preparing to make a big move.

As a result, before I could even start making any progress, I received a layoff notice and the entire department was disbanded...

The entire Baidu Zhijia subsidiary is gone and was cut off by Baidu.

Baidu Zhijia’s HR laid off all employees and finally laid off himself...

Big Internet companies are very decisive in their work, and their efficiency in layoffs is also very high.

This incident has attracted some attention, but compared with the impact of the Prism Gate, it is nothing worth mentioning.

The Prism Gate scandal has overshadowed the Baidu Zhijia layoff scandal and is the only consolation for Baidu.

There is no other reason, the impact of Prism Gate is too far-reaching.

Upon hearing the news, Wang Yi was somewhat surprised, but more than that, he was happy:

“I didn’t expect that the emergence of Prism Gate would kill Baidu Zhijia!”

After the Prism Gate, both iPhones and Android phones will be hit hard.

But who would have thought that the first to die would be Baidu Zhijia!
I can only say that this chain reaction is a little unbelievable, but if you think about it carefully, it is also reasonable.

Meng Qingzhen, president of Xingyi Smart Home, was in a good mood: "Once Baidu Smart Home is finished, I think other brands of smart home will also be out of business."

Wang Yi nodded. "Almost. Baidu Smart Home has failed. I guess giants like JD.com, Gree, Midea, and Haier will completely give up the idea of ​​developing their own smart home systems. As for Tencent, they probably have no plans to develop Smart Home. The only one who may continue to develop is Alibaba, which is stubborn."

In the past, smart homes were everywhere. JD.com, Gree, Midea, and Haier all had their own smart home ecosystems, mainly with mature nodes.

It was only a few years later that the price of IOT modules dropped to a very low price, only 10 to 20 yuan per set.

With such low cost, these white goods giants can make it themselves.

But now, the cost of IOT modules is high, costing 60 yuan per set.

Coupled with the impact of the Prism Gate and the failure of Baidu Zhijia, these giants are likely to give up.

Baidu Zhijia in its previous life was also considered a failure, as not many people used it.

On the contrary, it was Tmall Genie, with the help of Tmall platform and cooperation with some white goods brands, that succeeded.

With such huge traffic volume controlled by Tmall and Taobao, even the white goods giants have to give them face.

After all, you have to sell goods on Tmall and Taobao!
Similarly, JD Smart Home was also built with the help of JD e-commerce platform.

But Baidu does not have such influence and is doomed to fail.

This time, with the support of Prism Gate, we cannot say that there is no opponent, but many of them are defeated.

Wang Yi said calmly: "Then we will seize the opportunity and release the borderless AI speaker next month at a bargain price. We will lower the threshold of Xingyi Smart Home to the lowest level, so that all users can experience Xingyi Smart Home at a low cost, and at the same time block the way for our competitors!"

"In the smart home field, we don't need too many platforms or too many standards. Two or three are enough."

"Okay, Chairman, then I will ask the factory to continue placing orders for the borderless AI speakers!" Meng Qingzhen responded.

Now Xiao Ai Speaker does not need to be in a hurry. As there is overcapacity, it can simply reduce production and focus on producing borderless AI speakers.

The lower the price, the higher the sales volume.

"This Prism Gate is really interesting." Wang Yi was filled with emotion.

Not only did it increase the sales of Xingyi Technology's mobile phones, but also the sales of tablets and TVs increased significantly. It also killed Baidu Smart Home, reducing a lot of competitors for Xingyi Smart Home.

Where to reason?
More importantly, because of the Prism Gate, the number of users of Lianchangchat and Douyin has increased rapidly.

For example, after the number of monthly active users of Changchat exceeded 5 million, it had reached a bottleneck.

But since the Prism Gate broke out, it has exceeded 6 million in just one month!
Millions of new users are added every day!

Among them, 60% are foreign users and 25% are overseas Chinese. On the contrary, the saturated domestic market has seen little growth.

When Facebook and Twitter became unsafe, many foreigners turned to them to chat with their friends!
The results show that Changchat is obviously more convenient and safer.

Even the number of Tik Tok users has exceeded 4 million!
More than half of the new users are foreign users.

Although there are language barriers, short videos are accessible, especially the various domestic short videos are very interesting, so much so that many foreigners have learned to shoot short videos even though they don’t understand them.

I also started shooting all kinds of weird short videos.

Especially the technical flow, which makes them fascinated.

There are also brainwashing songs and magical dances, which have attracted many foreigners to imitate.

As for makeup, it's jaw-dropping...

But what amazed them the most was the cross-dressing.

Especially the Hanfu cross-dressing, which takes you back to the Tang Dynasty in a second, is even more fascinating.

Not surprisingly, the Hanfu craze has reignited and is now popular all over the world.

The sales of Hanfu in Mayu International Mall and overseas stores have also soared several times.

So much so that when walking on the street, many foreigners have started wearing Hanfu and cosplaying.

Similarly, the number of overseas users of Mayu APP has once again skyrocketed, developing into a truly international must-have software.

The number of overseas posts on the forum is also increasing.

Coupled with the big data support of Xingyi Technology, it can push information more accurately and can use AI translation, which greatly lowers the threshold for foreign users.

I can only say that this time, Xingyi Technology completely won.

Thanks, Brother Deng!

Wang Yi made up his mind that as long as he broke off relations with Lao Mi, he must ask Brother Deng to be the spokesperson for Xingyi Technology!
While attacking Apple and Android, let’s disgust Mike to death!

No longer paying attention to these, Wang Yi took out his Xphone 3 and started playing "Boom Beach".

When Boom Beach was launched in July, it attracted widespread attention and the number of users increased rapidly.

Although it is a similar game to Clash of Clans, it is a brand new experience and gives people a refreshing feeling.

In early August, "Boom Beach" was officially launched globally and directly topped multiple game charts.

Fortunately, Xingyi Technology was well prepared, otherwise the servers would have been overwhelmed.

The revenue was even more outstanding, with global revenue exceeding 3000 million RMB on the first day, exceeding 2.5 million in five days, and exceeding million in three weeks!
If the current momentum continues, it will be no problem for the first month's revenue to exceed 3 million.

The previous game "Boom Beach" also had excellent initial revenue, and players were very optimistic about it.

But then it opened high and ended low, and quickly cooled down.

This time, Xingyi Game's "Boom Beach" retains the essence of its previous life and removes the dross, which can be said to be a complete transformation.

There is great hope that it will become an evergreen game that makes money like Clash of Clans!
Of course, another reason for the explosive revenue of "Boom Beach" is the Prism Gate, which has led to a surge in the number of international users of Changchat and TikTok.

As soon as Boom Beach was released, it was heavily marketed and promoted on Changchat and TikTok, completely catching this wave of international traffic!
(End of this chapter)