Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 1030 "The Other Shore, Can They Make Cars?"

An hour later, the speech was completed in one go.

After uttering the last word, Lei Jun leaned heavily back in his chair.

There are only three people in this world who can make him work so willingly.

His wife, his assistant, and the guy next door.

Back to reality, the passion from just now vanished in an instant, and I sighed inexplicably—if Xiaomi hadn't been completely suppressed due to sanctions, it might have actually succeeded on this path.

After all, he knew Chen Mo too well. He might have worked very hard in the past few years, but in the last two years, this kid would never take an extra step forward unless he was whipped from behind.

He carefully reviewed the manuscript from beginning to end, and then a phone call summoned Chen Mo over.

"Hey, hand in your homework!"

Chen Mo stared intently.
"To make electric vehicles, or not to make them? That is the question!"

"Through ten years of hard work, we have achieved today's miracle."

If we choose to manufacture cars, will we still possess the same determination, physical strength, and dedication as we did back then? This is the key question I've been pondering repeatedly.

"As the leader of the company, I often ask myself, how can we live up to the expectations of millions of users?"
I am acutely aware of the enormous risks in the automotive industry, and I know that this will involve investments of tens of billions of dollars, and will require at least three to five years of dedicated effort before any initial results are seen.”

"But I'm also thinking, back when we first started our business, we only had three or five people and seven or eight guns, but we still managed to carve out a niche for ourselves. Now that we have such a strong foundation, why should we be timid and hesitant?"

“Countless opposing voices surrounded me, telling me not to build cars.”

However, after thirty internal meetings and 1680 hours of deep deliberation, an unwavering belief exploded in my mind—this car must be built!

"We have full confidence in building a good car. Although we are newcomers to the electric vehicle field and lack direct experience, we possess..."

Upon reading this, Chen Mo frowned slightly and pointed to the last paragraph: "Isn't this passage a bit too sentimental?"

Lei Jun leaned closer upon hearing this, his gaze sweeping over the lines of text, somewhat puzzled, "Incitement? I don't think so~"

Instead, he posed a question: "Tell me honestly, is this your last startup?"

"Probably, I plan to retire at 40."

This statement hurt Lei Jun, who chose to found Xiaomi at the age of 40, especially since Chen Mo's answer was very serious, making Lei Jun feel like tearing up the draft.
“Then,” Lei Jun stared intently into his eyes, “aren’t you betting all your past achievements, reputation, and everything?”

"Absolutely," Chen Mo replied without hesitation.

"That settles it then." Lei Jun spread his hands, his meaning self-evident.

Chen Mo pondered these words and nodded: "Hmm, that makes sense. But..."

He changed the subject, pointing to a detail in the manuscript, "Isn't your 'held thirty meetings and thought for 1680 hours' a bit exaggerated? Being so precise down to the hour, with even fractions, seems a bit deliberate."

Lei Jun leaned over to take a look, his face flushing almost imperceptibly. Fortunately, he had just drunk some alcohol, and his face was already flushed, this natural "protective color" perfectly concealed his embarrassment.

"Uh~ I drank too much and inevitably used some excessive force in my words. You can just delete this sentence; it won't hurt anything."

“We’re brothers, no problem. But you need to tone down your marketing tactics. I’m worried that some competitors might use this as an excuse to make a fuss.”

Lei Jun hadn't taken Chen Mo's words seriously at first, but then a competitor suddenly popped into his mind, setting off alarm bells and sobering him up considerably. He nodded.
"Well, that's thoughtful!"

Once upon a time, in a similar room, a young Chen Mo was polishing Lei Jun's speech for the Xiaomi 2 launch event.

Even today, it's still the same two people, but the no-longer-young Lei Jun is polishing the car-making declaration for the still-young Chen Mo.

Time has completed a closed loop at this moment.

The witness to Xiaomi's story back then has now become the writer of the story on the other side.

Since the end of August, a series of dramatic personnel and structural adjustments within the Beyond Group have attracted keen attention from industry observers.

Many speculate that this internet giant, known for its unconventional approach, may be about to make another surprising move.

Given that the other side had previously announced its high-profile expansion into the big health industry, most media outlets and analysts initially judged that this was probably just a personnel reshuffle caused by the expansion of related business lines.

However, with the popularity of the documentary "True Repayment Story", the frequent interactions between Chen Mo and Jia Yueting were exposed to the public. Coupled with sporadic internal revelations on the professional social networking platform "Zhiyan", rumors of "Beyond the Shore Car Manufacturing" began to spread like wildfire.

Soon, some media outlets with a keen sense of smell, in order to seize the high traffic, mixed speculation with facts and reported with the headline "The other side is about to manufacture cars", which instantly ignited the public's curiosity.

Meanwhile, the authorities on the other side have remained silent and have not made any response.

As September arrived, more clues emerged: media reports revealed that the Beyond Technology team had been frequently contacting major automotive parts and intelligent driving solution suppliers, further confirming the authenticity of the rumors.

What truly propelled the event to its climax was a photo from abroad showing Chen Mo from the other side, Lei Jun from Xiaomi, and Jia Yueting from Letu, all standing side-by-side in the stands at the Italian F1 Grand Prix.

Immediately afterwards, the news that "a Chinese tycoon spent a fortune to acquire an F1 team" spread back to China, like a bombshell, instantly igniting the entire technology and finance circles.

This dramatically increased the credibility of "car manufacturing on the other side" by several orders of magnitude.

After all, in the eyes of ordinary people, who would have nothing better to do than spend billions of dollars to buy an F1 team for fun?
Faced with the escalating media storm, the response from the other side remained restrained, only adding the statement, "Everything is subject to official announcements."

To those familiar with the other side, this silence appears more like a tacit agreement.

After all, this company, known for its internet products and software capabilities, has expanded its business into all aspects of digital life, including social networking, media, games, long and short videos, travel, cultural and creative industries, film and television, and music.

Even in the hardware field, which is not their forte, they have the massive "Other Shore" investment alliance as a supplement.

If it really wants to venture into car manufacturing, it doesn't seem entirely impossible.

After the news spread online, countless netizens were excited.

As the news spread widely online, countless netizens joined the nationwide discussion. Despite Chen Mo's illustrious past achievements and excellent personal reputation, his foray into the capital-intensive industry of car manufacturing has still sparked considerable controversy.

After all, this doesn't really concern netizens; most are just watching for fun. "The other side is going to build cars? Oh my god, is today April Fool's Day?"

"Wait, isn't the other side a software company? This isn't just a 90-degree turn, it's a 180-degree U-turn! Car manufacturing is a capital-intensive business. Even though Chen Mo's reputation wouldn't lead him to cheat on subsidies, is this really a reliable business?"

"A software company building cars? Chen Mo went to watch the game with Lei Jun, was he also there to learn from him? Lei Jun wouldn't tell him that new energy vehicles are just four wheels with a large tablet computer on them, would he?"

"Nonsense! Chen Mo has only ever worked as a driver, yet he's trying to build cars? Does he even know how to build them properly? He's just making assumptions!"

"As a fan of Chen Mo, if he said he wanted to build a cyber inflatable robot in the internet field, I would believe he could succeed. But building cars is too much of a leap."

"Not necessarily. Perhaps the internet battlefield has already shrunk to the point where Mr. Mo is no longer challenged. He's gotten so caught up in the action that he's lost his way and there isn't a single decent opponent. All the big players have become his friends. So he might as well step out of his comfort zone and reward himself with an ultimate entrepreneurial venture."

"Exactly! Cars are what real men should be into. Who isn't a middle-aged man who loves the thrill of the ride?"

Subsequently, an in-depth analysis article published by the emerging business media outlet LatePost, like a drop of cold water into a boiling oil pan, completely pushed the topic of "car manufacturing on the other side" to the forefront of public attention.

The article title cuts straight to the heart: "Will the other side be able to build cars?"

"In the darkness, everything has a pattern to follow."

It's like a master at the shooting range inadvertently displaying his entire arsenal.

Several months ago, a young tycoon known as "Thirteen Man of the Fourth Ring Road" who drove various supercars and caused a ruckus on Beijing's ring roads sparked a nationwide discussion about "flaunting wealth" and "getting carried away."

Looking back now, it may not have been a simple display, but rather a rather meaningful "preview".

Just like the empire behind him, every major operation seems incomprehensible to the public, but in retrospect, it is always found that everything has been secretly planned.

As an internet giant, Beyond seems far removed from car manufacturing, but is that really the case?
The author conducted a search using Tianyancha, a business information platform under the company Beyond, and the results were shocking:

As early as 2015, when the new energy vehicle industry was just starting out, Beyond had already quietly made its move through capital investment.

Its investment reach extends to core areas such as connected vehicles, sensors, LiDAR, and vision chips.

Whether it's Velodyne and Mobileye from abroad, or Horizon Robotics, PATEO, Chuangda, RoboSense, and many other intelligent driving hardware suppliers in China, there is always the presence of the other side behind them.

Even among the shareholders of the three emerging electric vehicle manufacturers, "Wei, Xiao, and Li," there is also a presence of Beyond.

According to incomplete statistics, Chen Mo personally, along with Beyond Group and Beyond Venture Capital, have made cumulative investments in nearly 100 companies in the automotive sector, with a total investment amount likely starting at tens of billions of yuan.

Patent data also illustrates the point: the company associated with the other side currently owns 334 vehicle-related patents, and many of its subsidiaries have included auto parts in their business scope.

Everyone knows that Beyond Marketing is unparalleled in the world, but by combining the data collected by third-party organizations every year, we can draw a conclusion that contradicts our perception.

That is, because of its own platform, the marketing expenses of the other side are even far below the industry average. After all, other companies need to spend money on marketing, while the other side just earns less.

The bulk of these costs—over 30% each—are R&D expenses and human resources, which is quite alarming.
Let's re-examine the timeline:
In June 2016, Chen Mo visited the United States, test-drove a Tesla, and took a close photo with Musk. Upon his return, he purchased two Model S cars.

In the same year, Beyond established an intelligent driving laboratory, focusing on the research and development of L2/L3 level autonomous driving, and its subsidiary Gaode Maps also launched high-precision map drawing at the same time.

Baidu's "Radish Express" driverless taxi, which was piloted in Wuhan last year, also received technical support from Bi'an.

In addition, it has made significant investments in big data, cloud computing, and AI over the years.
It can be said that Beyond has been honing its core capabilities in "software-defined vehicles," intelligent driving technology, and the future mobility ecosystem for several years. However, this sword has yet to be drawn.

After years of long-term investment, guaranteeing at least hundreds of billions of yuan with no expectation of return, what kind of dormant behemoth has been nurtured?

It's terrifying!
This year, Chen Mo has become associated with Jia Yueting, who has extensive experience in car manufacturing, through "The True Story of Repayment," and is also linked to Lei Jun of Xiaomi, who is good at integration and cost-effectiveness, as well as the rumored acquisition of an F1 team. When various clues are intertwined, the truth is almost about to be revealed.

From a macroeconomic perspective, the global internet market is approaching its peak, and a new trillion-dollar opportunity is needed to support its ambitions.

As a core national industry, new energy vehicles have enormous economic value that extends far beyond the vehicles themselves; they are driving a massive industrial cluster.

The technological revolution it contains is expected to drive the formation of multiple trillion-level emerging industrial clusters, including the industry itself, as well as the entire ecosystem encompassing batteries, energy, intelligent technology, after-sales service, and industrialization.

Men love cars, and Chen Mo is no exception.

So, returning to the title of this article, will the other side manufacture cars?
Based on all of the above, the conclusion is self-evident.

Everything is ready; all that's left is the official announcement.

The very first goal of the game had to be kicked by Chen Mo himself.

If this "extraterrestrial demon" forcefully enters the new energy vehicle battlefield, are our domestic and foreign competitors, who have been cultivating the market for many years, ready?
This multi-trillion-dollar industry extravaganza, which will unfold in the future, is something everyone is eagerly anticipating!

P.S.: Tianyancha, please settle your advertising fees. I have to say, this app is really reliable; they don't even spare their own sponsors.

This article, with its detailed data, clear logic, and sharp analytical perspective, quickly went viral online, making LatePost and its author famous.

Information about Song Wei, the lead writer, has also been unearthed by netizens. He was formerly the deputy editor-in-chief of Caijing Magazine, and his professional experience is characterized by in-depth business interviews. He has written special reports such as "Baidu's Winter", "Shared Bikes: A Game Within a Game of Capital" and "The Reality and Fiction of LeEco's Crisis".

The interviewees were mostly internet entrepreneurs, including "Interview with Robin Li: Baidu's Crisis and Opportunity" and "Interview with Wang Xing: Most People Are Willing to Do Anything to Avoid Real Thinking".
The article combines depth with beautiful writing, offering a sharp perspective on the business ecosystem.

Amidst the massive uproar sparked by the article, especially the double entendre in the title, all the scattered speculations, jokes, and questions were coalesced into a massive, nationally significant suspense:

Will they be able to build cars on the other side?
Faced with this overwhelming attention and traffic, Luo Yonghao, who is in charge of marketing for Biyan Auto, would never miss this golden opportunity.

Under his impetus, the Beyond Group officially announced that it will hold a technology press conference on the evening of September 21.

The official poster features the familiar countdown numbers and a silhouette of Chen Mo that, though the face is obscured, is instantly recognizable to all "Mo fans."

Familiar formula, familiar taste.

"They're back! They're all back! It tastes just like this!"

"A once-in-a-lifetime event! I can even hear Xiao Mo's special speech!"

"Who can disagree? It seems like he's been keeping a low profile these past few years, only saying a few words at the annual internal meeting. I'm even worried he might retire early."

(End of this chapter)