Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 346 Zhiyun's Cultural Output

After Xu Shenxue returned to the group headquarters, he saw many strange things when inspecting various research and development projects.

The smart device control peripherals developed specifically for people with limb disabilities are just one of the less-noticeable small projects... Speaking of technology, it's just so-so, not very advanced, and they are all products made based on a mature supply chain.

But before this, few companies were willing to do this: the market demand was too small and it was not profitable!

However, in Zhiyun Group, there are actually many projects like this that appear to be loss-making at first glance.

Not to mention these separate R&D projects, there are many auxiliary functions in the Yun OS operating system, especially those for people with disabilities.

The R&D investment for this auxiliary function is relatively large, but to be honest, the proportion of users who use it is actually very low, which makes it very uneconomical in terms of cost-effectiveness.

However, Zhiyun Group will still do it, including the development of system versions in various small languages.

Because... Zhiyun Group's mobile phone products are products that target the global market and billions of consumers. They not only provide a good user experience for a certain group of people, but also provide a good user experience for everyone.

What we pursue is the most comprehensive adaptation possible, so that everyone can use our products easily and simply.

This concept will also be involved in the development of other projects.

Many projects in Zhiyun Group seem to be public welfare research and development projects... But it should be noted that Zhiyun Group is not really doing charity.

Many of its seemingly charitable projects can actually be seen as advertising projects.

Zhiyun Group has grown to its current scale, and ordinary advertising models are basically useless... Other smart terminal manufacturers will carry out various advertising campaigns and invite celebrities to endorse their products, but Zhiyun Group does not need to do this.

Because the two words "Zhiyun" themselves are the biggest advertisement and source of traffic!
For many years, only others, media, celebrities and even products of other companies have been taking advantage of Zhiyun’s traffic!
But there is no time when Zhiyun uses their traffic for advertising... To be honest, if Zhiyun releases the S series products and wants to find a global spokesperson, those celebrities will rush to come even if they are willing to pay for it.

Because if it is a real endorsement, it is not the celebrity who promotes the Zhiyun S series mobile phones, but the Zhiyun S series mobile phones, or even the Zhiyun Group, that supports the celebrity.

So, don’t even think about it, there are no such good things even in dreams!

Zhiyun Group never seeks celebrity endorsements, nor does it engage in conventional advertising.

However, this does not mean that Zhiyun Group does not engage in advertising and marketing!

Zhiyun Group's main advertising and marketing investment is partly invested in online public opinion, partly in product placement in some film and television dramas, and some online advertising, such as running splash screen ads in major apps in the early days of listing...

Then there are some charitable investments, various seemingly high-end charity projects, etc., and then some cultural output.

The advertising and marketing direction of Zhiyun Group has never been to promote a certain product, but the Zhiyun brand itself.

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At Zhiyun’s headquarters campus, Xu Shenxue was listening to a report from the advertising and marketing department in his office.

"From last year to this year, we have placed advertisements in 36 domestic film and television drama projects, especially some that can be exported overseas."

"In addition, we have also selected some film and television dramas and other cultural works overseas for advertising placement to promote the concept of Zhiyun technology life!"

Xu Shenxue listened and read the report. He was quite satisfied with some of the projects and the results were very good.

Because the core purpose of some of Zhiyun’s cultural output projects is to embody modern technology, the technological and life attributes of Zhiyun’s products are all very highly targeted.

For example, when it comes to advertising placement in film and television dramas, modern urban themes are often chosen.

The films show prosperous and developed Chinese cities, and the characters in them all use various high-end Zhiyun products, from ultra-thin business notebooks, Zhiyun S series mobile phones, tablets, Bluetooth headsets, smart watches, and then smart homes managed by smart home hosts.

These are often accompanied by various luxury smart electric vehicles and smart driving of Hailan Automobile!
This year, a modern urban drama invested in by Yihai Culture, a subsidiary of Yihai Technology Group, entered the entire Asian market with the support of Zhiyun Group and received quite a response... and even changed many people's perception of China's technological backwardness.

Because this TV series is a cultural export TV series specially created by Yihai Culture according to the strategic instructions of the group company, or more accurately, it is a "Zhiyun Technology cultural export product."

The drama does not consider the so-called artistic or even commercial benefits at all. Everything is only for the greatest dissemination. As a result, while the pure production cost reached more than 300 million yuan, the price of external licensing was relatively low, and the drama was also very considerate to translate various language versions into advance for overseas customers.

At first glance, it seems like a money-losing product... How can it be done this way? It's a total loss! …

But this is what Zhiyun Group wants to see!
Because... this is a fucking advertising TV series, everything is aimed at achieving the maximum advertising effect, making money is not the purpose.

The TV series begins in a modern, petty-bourgeois coffee shop, where the heroine sits and drinks juice while using the latest 16-model Zhiyun YunBook 13. Next to the computer is the Zhiyun S15 MAX.

The latest Zhiyun YunBuds noise reduction board is worn in the ears.

Even the watches on their wrists are the latest smart watches!
As the phone rang, the S15MAX screen on the desk lit up and vibrated slightly.

Then the heroine picked up the phone, unlocked it with face recognition, and answered the video call...S15MA***'s bangs were directly displayed to all the audience.

Then he left the cafe and came to the parking lot, directly using the Hailan car's APP remote control. Then the Hailan SEC, a very sci-fi and beautiful two-door coupe, came out of the parking space and slowly came in front of the heroine.

After getting in the car, just say the navigation destination by voice, and the Hailan SEC will start driving automatically!

Just from the first few minutes, you can tell what this TV show is about.

The following plot also shows a prosperous city and mainly high-tech companies... The company where the protagonist works is a high-tech startup that is actively seeking orders from a world-class corporate client.

When arranging the plot conflicts, the author constantly emphasized the various harsh conditions of this world-class corporate client, especially the extremely harsh technical indicators, which made the companies where the hero and heroine worked desperate, and they met and fell in love in the process...

Just think about it and you will know that the so-called "super big customer" in the TV series must be Zhiyun, because in China, except Zhiyun, there is no other company that has such a reputation and has such stringent technical requirements!
Zhiyun Group is well-known for its stringent technical requirements for supply chain companies. Some employees of companies in Zhiyun's supply chain sometimes describe Zhiyun's R&D requirements for supply chain companies like this: they are holding a whip and constantly whipping them from behind, urging supply chain companies to engage in R&D and reduce costs.

It would be bad enough to ask you to reduce costs, but they also require that everything you do must strictly comply with the Labor Law, or even exceed the standards of the Labor Law... Once Zhiyun finds out that a supply chain factory mistreats its front-line employees, it will easily be fined, and in serious cases, it may even be kicked out of the supply chain.

This will force supply chain companies to adopt more measures to reduce costs, such as technological advances, reduction of management costs, and optimization of processes, rather than simply squeezing workers' wages.

Supply chain companies that simply squeeze workers’ wages can’t actually get into Zhiyun’s supply chain…

As a world-class multinational company, Zhiyun has a series of requirements not only for itself but also for the companies in its supply chain. It even has requirements for the food in the workers' canteen, accommodation environment, working hours, etc.

Besides requiring your products to be good and priced low, they also demand that you have a sense of social responsibility!
This is outrageous... To be honest, it doesn't quite fit in with the business principles of some ordinary private entrepreneurs.

But Zhiyun has such a request, and the supply chain manufacturers have no choice... The reason why Zhiyun has this request is because others also require it to do so... As a multinational company that has attracted global attention, a large group of people, especially in overseas countries, are staring at Zhiyun with a magnifying glass.

Once it is revealed that a factory under Zhiyun Supply Chain mistreats its workers and behaves like a black-hearted factory, public opinion will explode in minutes.

For the sake of its own brand, Zhiyun naturally has strict requirements on its supply chain companies.

Of course, it is recognized in the industry that although Zhiyun has high requirements, it also pays a lot of money. Not only is the unit price high, the purchase volume is large, and the payment period is short.

Moreover, if your technical skills are not good enough, they will send engineers to help you solve technical problems. If you do not have enough equipment, they will coordinate resources to help you order equipment, and sometimes even provide low-interest loans.

Except for the high requirements, everything is good!
This is also the reason why domestic companies in the relevant industrial chain are trying their best to enter Zhiyun's supply chain, but only the top two or three companies in the country can enter.

The main storyline of this TV series is about a new product of a high-tech startup company trying to enter the smart cloud supply chain and the various difficulties and challenges it encounters.

Against this main background, what is displayed is China's modern urban convenient life and technological innovation, as well as some products of related companies such as Zhiyun and Hailan.

It’s even so overly beautified that it seems particularly fake to many domestic audiences... We all live in China, so why do we feel like we’re living in two different worlds?
The heroine is a young designer who just graduated and comes from an ordinary family. Her mother uses a full set of Zhiyun equipment and drives a Hailan SEC.

The male protagonist is even more awesome, a young engineer who drives a domineering sea blue SEV. Sharp-eyed netizens can tell at a glance that this is definitely a top-of-the-line model worth eight or nine hundred thousand.

He lives in a large flat with sea view in a first-tier city...The large flat with sea view that Xu Shenjia lived in back then was probably of this standard.

But that's not important!
What is important is the various elements of modern Chinese technology embodied in it, which were then shown to people in overseas areas, especially in ASEAN, who were all shocked and envious.

I envy the convenient modern urban environment where the male and female protagonists live; I envy the various relaxed and comfortable working environments in the high-tech companies where they work;

I envy them for their work in technological innovation and creating value for humanity;

Naturally, I envy the array of Zhiyun high-tech products they use, as well as the Hailan cars;
I also envied the grand spectacle of the rocket recovery by Nanmen Aerospace when they went on a date.

All the envy will eventually turn into recognition of Huaxia Technology and Zhiyun products!

Finally, one day when this overseas audience wanted to change their mobile phone, the first choice that came to their mind was: Zhiyun S series mobile phone!

Otherwise, why do you think Zhiyun Group has so many cultural export projects... isn't it just to sell more mobile phones?

This TV series is just one of the projects in Zhiyun Group's overall cultural export strategy, and there are many similar projects.

There are not only promotional plans specifically for the ASEAN market, but also various promotional plans for the South American market and the EU market.

Zhiyun not only directly exports modern urban life concepts and technological elements, but also vigorously cracks down on works that import backward and ignorant culture into overseas.

From suppressing works to banning related practitioners, no one is spared!

In particular, a group of so-called masters of art films and authors of some literary works are all on the blacklist of Zhiyun Group and its affiliated companies.

Xu Shenxue didn't care how they played at home, but if they wanted to use their ignorant works to discredit China and win awards and get publicity overseas, Xu Shenxue would have to take care of it.

I worked hard to build the concept of Chinese technology abroad, and let foreign consumers believe that Chinese technology products are advanced and good... But you came back with a smear campaign, saying how backward and ignorant China is. Damn it, a smear campaign wiped out Zhiyun's 100 million overseas publicity.

The marketing department of Zhiyun Group was kind enough not to send him a single bullet overseas.

In order to build its brand overseas and make people think that Zhiyun's products are advanced, top-notch and technological, Zhiyun Group invests tens of billions of dollars in marketing every year!

Therefore, once such idiots are discovered, they will be banned immediately.

For example, the comprehensive ban by Yihai Technology has had very good results.

Yihai Technology is the third largest Internet company in China. Its Doudong Video is not only the largest short video platform in China, but also the largest short video platform in many overseas countries, including the United States, the European Union, India, ASEAN, Japan and many other countries.

It has single-handedly driven the development of the entire short video industry and directly spawned many sectors such as the internet celebrity economy and video shopping economy.

By the way, Nanshou Video, the second-ranked short video platform in China, is actually also owned by Yihai Technology...

Yihai Technology has almost monopolized the entire short video track and is extremely strong...not only in China, but also abroad.

Then there are the long video platform Yihai Video and the comics platform Yihai Comics.

Then there is Yihai Reading, which is owned by Yihai Culture and produces IP.

Afterwards...Yihai Culture, a subsidiary of Yihai Technology, also owns several domestic film and television production companies, two of which are top domestic film and television production companies, as well as an artist agency, and is even involved in film and television drama distribution business.

Although the above-mentioned businesses are essentially for attracting traffic to Yihai Technology's gaming business, e-commerce business, and content value-added business, and then selling traffic, that is, advertising, by the way.

But its influence is still huge...

Then, Liuhe Holdings under Xu Shenxue also holds some shares of Weibo and Huhu. It also strategically invests in and controls the picture and text sharing platform Xiaohongshu... Basically, Xu Shenxue has more or less participated in all the well-known content platforms in China.

Although they almost never hold controlling stakes, they only hold partial shares.

But Xu Shenxue’s request was not to make money, but to maintain influence!
When Zhiyun Group expresses dissatisfaction with someone who engages in smear campaigns, most of these platforms will follow suit even if it is just to give Zhiyun Group face.

In recent years, some so-called art film directors, actors, scriptwriters, and some so-called local literature writers who went overseas to kneel and beg... have all disappeared in the long river of Internet history.

Of course, the ban is only limited to a small group of scum who want to take their backward and ignorant works abroad and kneel down. As long as you don't go abroad to promote and smear, it doesn't matter to you.

in the country...you can do whatever you want.

After this kind of thing happened a few more times, the domestic literary and art circles knew that they could no longer rely on smear campaigns to win awards. If they did, their jobs would be shattered!

If you did this in the past, at most you would be banned from directing or acting, but a few years later you can be a hero again and even win the favor of some art film fans.

Doing this now will be considered an industry ban.

There was a director of a local art film who was excited to make a so-called local film. Although he knew it would not pass the review, he still excitedly went to Europe to participate in the film festival, and then won an award to make a fortune.

Then after I got the award and came back, I saw... why was there no sound at all?

It’s an overseas award after all, so why is there no news about it on the Internet?

Then a large group of companies in the industry, such as film and television production companies, begin to avoid you, the plague god.

For any project you participate in, don’t expect any online promotion, let alone entering some platforms under Yihai Technology.

Xu Shenxue is serious about cultural exports!

Don't allow anyone to sabotage!
If Zhiyun’s products are to truly become top-notch products worldwide, consumers from all over the world must recognize them from the bottom of their hearts. Even opponents will have to admit that Zhiyun’s products are top-notch products!

In addition to hard conditions such as technology as support, this process also requires the support of soft power!
Therefore, advertising and marketing are very important, and within advertising and marketing, cultural output is a very important part!
For example...consumers in no other country would believe that a mobile phone company from India, such as Tata, would have world-class mobile phones!
Zhiyun Group already has hard power, but what it lacks now is soft power!

Therefore, in recent years, Zhiyun Group has spared no effort in various overseas advertising and marketing to promote the concept of "Zhiyun Technology Life".

Incidentally, it also promoted the concept of "Chinese modern technological life".

Then there is technological innovation, creating value for mankind, and so on.

The smart device control peripherals specially developed by the department for people with physical disabilities this time belong to this type of project.

Xu Shenxue even decided to move the release of this thing directly to the autumn flagship phone launch conference as a small bonus.

At the same time, there is also brain-computer interface project development, which is also a project that creates value for mankind through this kind of technological innovation.

When Xu Shenxue was checking out the many project groups at the headquarters, he also saw a sub-project in the brain-computer interface project group, a non-invasive brain-computer interface project that collects brain wave signals to output brain signals, which are then used in medical or augmented reality (AR) fields.

In addition, there is an invasive brain-computer interface project, which directly implants an electrode array into the brain and connects it to the human neural network. It aims to allow people with disabilities to control external devices, such as mechanical bodies, smart devices, etc. However, this project is extremely difficult and is still in the stage of theoretical and equipment development and animal experiments. It is far from the level of human experiments... The risk is too great.

After all, this thing is a device that is directly inserted into the human body, which is very risky.

Many of the projects undertaken by Zhiyun Group are scientific research projects that appear to be very high-end, but may not bring any visible benefits in the short or even long term.

But Zhiyun Group still does it, and does a lot of it.

There are all kinds of messy projects!
So many people say that a considerable portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars of research and development funds spent by Zhiyun Group every year are wasted by those scientists.

You spend at least tens of billions of dollars every year on these wasteful and useless R&D projects. What are you trying to achieve, Zhiyun?

Xu Shenxue didn't know how to answer this question... After all, he knew that most of these projects were useless, and many of them could not produce any commercial products, and even if they did, there would be no market for them.

However, for an enterprise of the size of Zhiyun Group, its technology research and development often adopts a strategy of casting a wide net to catch fish: trying to do everything.

Anyway, once the net is cast, whatever can be caught is what is caught.

If not, don't be discouraged, try again...

In short, if you do it, you may get something valuable, but if you don’t do it, you will definitely not get anything valuable.

Moreover, seemingly useless projects may have no value in themselves, but the by-products of the process often have huge commercial value.

For example, the unmanned project carried out by the Intelligent Research Institute has not achieved any significant results so far. It is still a long way from the L4 level of autonomous driving. As for the target L5, it is even further away.

However, many of the by-products of this project team, including technologies, have already been applied to the "advanced automatic assisted driving" of Hailan Automobile, and their commercial value is very large.

There are also many messy projects, which may develop some inexplicable materials in the middle, and may also play a great value in other fields.

Therefore, we can see that in addition to the technical research and development of core projects, Zhiyun Group also has a large number of miscellaneous project developments.

There is no limit on the scope, and even R&D personnel are encouraged to find their own project directions... The autonomy of technical personnel is highly respected.

It's not okay to disrespect them... We can't let a group of managers think about what projects to develop every day, that would be too difficult for them.

Therefore, Zhiyun Group's R&D model is quite special, following a "bottom-up" model.

The grassroots technical staff come up with a project and report it to the technical committee. If the technical committee sees that it is not a ridiculous project like a perpetual motion machine and the investment is not too large, then it will basically approve it!
If the project team can achieve some small results and prove the feasibility of the technical route, they can increase funding, expand the scale of the project team, increase priority, obtain more resource support, and finally upgrade step by step to the level of a key project.

Because Zhiyun Group is really not short of money, and is very lenient in approving R&D projects...

This also led to the fact that the R&D projects in Zhiyun Group were in a mess, with all kinds of stuff going on.

There are even smartphones for dogs... literally, smartphones for pet dogs. Of course, this project died not long after. It was not very reliable. Only specially trained dogs could use it in a limited way. The cost was too high, and the commercialization prospect was close to zero. In the end, the project was killed. (Some book friends mentioned it, it feels very interesting!)
This caused several young people in the small team to be disappointed with the living 'dog' and feel that the dog had let down their efforts.

Then he turned around and started developing a robot pet dog... Damn it, real dogs are too hard to please, so I decided to play with a robot dog.

As a result, Zhiyun Group has added a project team to work on robot dogs, but it is not focusing on the national defense field, but on the pet field. They want to make a pet robot dog!

This kind of scientific research environment also makes Zhiyun Group the most popular high-tech enterprise among scientific researchers!

After all, only an enterprise like Zhiyun Group can allow a few young people who have just graduated to develop smartphones for dogs, and allocate funds to them to let them play around with it.

After all the work, even though the project was a piece of shit, they didn't criticize or fire the person. Instead, when young people wanted to do it again and make a robot pet dog, they continued to set up the project and allocated funds!
The main focus is on being casual and having fun.

When technical personnel want to work on a project, as long as it does not break the law and does not cost too much, they can basically do whatever they want...the superiors don't really care.

At present, the only high-tech company that can achieve this level is Zhiyun!

It is precisely this relaxed and highly free R&D environment that has attracted countless scientific research talents from around the world and given rise to countless scientific and technological innovations.

These innovative technologies will become part of Zhiyun Group's vast technology reserve and will be applied to products when appropriate.

It has become a new technology and black technology that has shocked the world!

(End of this chapter)