Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 398 Global Multinational Corporations
In August, at the Zhiyun Group headquarters, the marketing department reported to Xu Shenxue on the sales of the machines over the past six months, especially the sales of the two entry-level robots, Yun Robot C6 and C7, which had just been launched on the market.

Ji Chenghe said: "In the past six months, the sales of our general-purpose robots have increased along with the increase in production. As of August, we have shipped a total of more than 330,000 robots!"

"Among them, the first-generation Yun Robot A wheeled robot released at the beginning of the year has cumulative shipments of 80,000 units, and the Yun Robot B bipedal robot also released at the beginning of the year has cumulative shipments of 180,000 units."

“There is also the newly released Yun Robot C model in July, with sales of the C6 wheeled platform reaching 7 units, and the C bipedal model reaching units.”

"The rest are the D-type four-legged platforms and the E-type six-legged platforms, which together total about 3,000."

“Overall, among our general-purpose robots, bipedal robots are obviously more popular. Whether it is the high-end and flagship bipedal models of the B series or the newly released C7 entry-level bipedal model, they have all been recognized by the market!”

"Especially the C7 bipedal model, which was released only half a month ago and is currently only sold in China and a few overseas regions, has already achieved a shipment volume of 7 units. According to internal analysis by our marketing department, the market potential of this C robot will be very large, and in the future it may even achieve annual sales of more than units."

"Relatively speaking, after the initial market benefits, the market potential of wheeled mobile platform robots is rapidly declining. Even the newly released C6 wheeled model has not achieved the expected market sales. We have already provided feedback to the supply chain department and adjusted the production capacity of wheeled models appropriately!"

"We also sent the corresponding market report to the robot R&D department, asking them to pay more attention to the development of bipedal robots. We plan to make the entire C series of robots into an entry-level bipedal robot series, and match them with the high-end and flagship bipedal robots of the B series, to form a bipedal robot product array covering entry-level, mid-range and high-end."

"As for the four-legged and six-legged mobile platforms, they have not achieved much success in the civilian consumer market. We found that the customers who buy the four-legged and six-legged platforms are mainly corporate customers, who buy these robots mainly for industrial production in specific fields."

“In addition, we have also found that some customers who purchase wheeled platforms are also corporate customers.”

"Many companies are trying to use our general-purpose robots to replace previous professional industrial robots for some precision processing operations."

"Although our general-purpose robots are positioned as consumer-grade robots, they actually still have good industrial production capabilities. They are more adaptable than some industrial robots with greater limitations and can perform more types of work!"

“After all, we have also opened up advanced mode subscriptions for industrial categories in general robots. Users can subscribe to specific advanced modes to gain capabilities that are no less than those of professional robots!”

Xu Shenxue looked at the report in his hand and said, "This C7 robot is selling quite well. We have shipped units in just half a month. And it is currently only sold in China and a few other countries. It has great potential. Your marketing department should also hurry up and launch it in more countries as soon as possible, especially in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea where labor costs are high!"

"And the US market, how are the talks going?"

Ji Chenghe said: "Our marketing department is actively working with the International Affairs Department and other departments to promote the launch of the robot business in more countries around the world. We have successfully obtained marketing authorization in major markets such as the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Canada."

“As for the US market, it is still quite troublesome. We have previously tried to position our robot business as industrial equipment and toy equipment for export, but the other party still positions our robots as smart terminal devices, which leads to a series of data security issues!”

“Not only did they ask us to prohibit the collection of robot usage data, they also asked us to set up the data center that provides robot operation in the United States and hand it over to American companies for hosting. Finally, they also proposed to review the underlying data code of our robots, that is, they want to review our artificial intelligence underlying code!”

“And we rejected all their requests!”

"Based on this, our universal robots are still not officially available for sale in the US market!"

"But it is worth noting that we monitor the operation of the robots in the background and found at least 5,000 robots running in the United States!"

"A considerable number of these robots were purchased by Americans from Mexico or Canada and brought back to the United States by themselves, and some were smuggled into the United States from Mexico."

At this point, Ji Chenghe himself laughed: "Now in the United States, individuals buying our Zhiyun terminal products from abroad or smuggling them from Mexico has become a trend and even a dedicated industrial chain."

The United States has banned the sale of Zhiyun's smart terminal products in the U.S. The ban applies to Zhiyun itself and its corresponding dealers...but it cannot ban Americans from buying Zhiyun products from abroad and bringing them back for use.

In recent years, a very unique personal smuggling model has developed on the US-Mexico border... Many Americans travel back and forth between the US and Mexico every day, buy Zhiyun products at the Zhiyun duty-free store on the Mexican border, and then take them directly back to the United States.

Although these Zhiyun phones still need to pay customs duties when passing through customs, they can still make considerable profits once they are resold.

Therefore, there are many people who make a living by smuggling Zhiyun products on the US-Mexico border.

The same is true in the field of general robots.

Zhiyun Group cannot directly sell general-purpose robots in the United States, but there are many Americans who want to buy robots.

Therefore, many people go to the Zhiyun Duty Free Shop on the Mexican border to buy them.

By the way, Zhiyun Group’s distributors in Mexico have opened Zhiyun duty-free shops specifically for American consumers in many border cities.

So although Zhiyun’s smart terminal products are banned from sale in the United States, there are still many people in the United States who use Zhiyun phones...even many public figures use Zhiyun phones publicly.

This is also quite interesting.

At this time, Ji Chenghe said: "Although we cannot enter the US market, we can basically enter the markets of other countries. After all, our robots have no competitors, unlike the Hailan Automobile next door, which will pose a threat to the local country's automobile industry."

"Our robots have no competitors, and these consumer-grade robots will not impact the local industrial chain, so our robots can enter most markets around the world."

"Our team is applying for licenses for the C7 robot in multiple countries and expects to be able to enter the EU market within a month."

"Thanks to the good feedback from the domestic and foreign markets, especially the good market feedback from the C7 model robot, the total sales volume of our robot business is expected to reach about units this year, exceeding previous expectations. After sales of more than units, our robot business has begun to turn losses into profits and enter a high gross profit state!"

"In January next year, we will also release the second generation of mid-to-high-end robots with better performance and relatively lower prices. We will control the price of the B series robots at around 250,000 yuan, further expanding the market capacity!"

"At the same time, this autumn and next spring, our two robot production lines will be put into production one after another, providing more sufficient supply to the market. At the same time, the increase in sales will also reduce costs, giving us more room for price cuts!"

"By next year, we will push the sales of robots to over one million units and completely develop the robot market!"

"As long as the robot sales reach one million units next year, the costs of our robot business will be spread out to a very low level. By then, we will have a real bumper harvest in the robot business, and the hardware gross profit margin is expected to reach more than 30%."

“At the same time, software revenue will also bring in very considerable income!”

Xu Shenxue said: "Sales of one million units is an important indicator. With this base number as a foundation, the manufacturing cost and R&D cost can be very well controlled, so your marketing department still has a heavy task."

No matter how good the robot business is, if sales are not high, it will not be profitable due to the high manufacturing costs and R&D expenses of robots.

According to the strategy formulated by the senior management of Zhiyun Group, the goal is to lower prices as much as possible, expand market capacity, sacrifice early gross profits in exchange for greater sales and dilute more costs.

According to previous cost calculations, once sales reach 500,000 units, the robot business, which has significantly lowered its selling price, will be able to turn losses into profits.

If the sales volume can reach one million units, the hardware gross profit margin will be able to reach more than 30%, and the more units sold, the higher the gross profit margin will be.

Because the more robots are produced, the lower the average manufacturing cost.

When the R&D expenses are fixed, the greater the output, the lower the average R&D cost.

Therefore, for Zhiyun Robotics, the more it sells, the higher its gross profit margin will be.

Of course, the prerequisite is to be able to achieve sales of 500,000 or even 1 million units. And this is not easy!

To be honest, only a behemoth like Zhiyun Group could sell more than 500,000 expensive robots in the first year after they were launched on the market.

If other companies were to come up with equally good products, they would not have such sales capabilities.

Zhiyun Group is not only technologically advanced, but also has strong supporting capabilities for markets in various countries and sales channels all over the world... and the latter is also very important.

For example, it is not easy for other domestic companies to export their products overseas... It is difficult for them to sell their products to almost every country in the world like Zhiyun Group.

To achieve this, in addition to advanced technology, capabilities in other areas are also needed.

For example, different adaptations need to be made for different countries. Not to mention anything else, the language issue alone will stump many countries... You can always just have an English version in overseas markets, but at least some mainstream languages ​​have to be available, such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, etc.... There are so many languages ​​in the world, and it is not easy to adapt them all.

At the same time, the laws and customs of countries around the world are the same, but there are huge differences between them, and it is necessary to optimize and modify the laws and customs of different countries... This is even more difficult for ordinary companies.

But for Zhiyun Group, these are not a problem... Zhiyun Group has the largest number of talents in minority languages ​​in China and even in the world. For any language that is used by more people on the earth, Zhiyun Group will have a dedicated language project team to provide language adaptation and optimization for its products.

Some people say that the best career path for people majoring in minor languages ​​in China is to work at Zhiyun Group...
In addition, Zhiyun Group has a large number of R&D centers around the world. One of the important tasks of these overseas R&D centers is to optimize the group's products locally to comply with local laws, customs, language, etc.

At the same time, the legal department of Zhiyun Group has professional legal teams dedicated to various countries, and also cooperates with some top international or local law firms.

Zhiyun Group is actually very good at playing with the law!

After all, this is a global multinational giant that has been involved in lawsuits all over the world, either as a defendant or as a plaintiff, and is often embroiled in lawsuits.

The executive president of the legal department of Zhiyun Group is also the senior vice president of Zhiyun Group and a full-fledged group executive.

The above-mentioned language, customs, laws and other issues are important obstacles that restrict many companies from launching their products into the global market... However, these obstacles do not exist in Zhiyun Group.

The last one is the channel problem that everyone knows...this is also quite troublesome.

It is possible to open channels in one or two countries, but it would be very difficult to open channels in ten or a hundred countries.

If you want to expand your sales channels all over the world like Zhiyun Group, it will be extremely difficult.

It is not only difficult for domestic companies to do so, but also for some other multinational giants.

This involves a series of very complex issues, such as the product itself is not suitable for global sales and is not competitive.

And Zhiyun Group is, unfortunately, very adept at this aspect!

Because the core product of Zhiyun Group is the mobile phone, and it is also a world-renowned top mobile phone brand. Relying on mobile phones as the leader, Zhiyun Group can easily establish sales channels in various countries.

Subsequently, various other types of smart terminal products were laid out, such as computers, tablets, smart watches, Bluetooth headsets, VR glasses, smart TVs, home consoles and other products.

At the same time, along with the channels of smart terminal products, the subsequent software and Internet services, various semiconductor products have also entered the markets of some countries.

Now, Zhiyun Group’s robot products have also used this set of global sales channels to enter markets in various countries.

So, even though Zhiyun Group was able to sell more than 300,000 robots within half a year, it would be difficult for other companies... In fact, it is not like that.

If another company were to sell the same robot...it wouldn't be able to sell at this volume, let alone reach a million sales next year.

Zhiyun Group’s reputation as a global multinational giant is not exaggerated. Its tentacles really spread all over the world... Even in the United States, it provides various semiconductor and software services to various companies.

After Ji Chenghe left, Xu Shenxue continued to look through the business report of the robot. He pondered over it for another half an hour before putting it down.

After a short break, I continued to read reports from various companies.

Hailan Automobile Company reported on the progress of its factory in Brazil, which is generally going smoothly and is expected to start construction by the end of the year. At the same time, the confirmation of the factory project will make it easier for Hailan Automobile to enter the Brazilian market. The other party will give greater tariff preferences to electric vehicles, which will be beneficial to Hailan Automobile's exports in Brazil.

At the same time, Hailan Automobile reported that its partner companies in Europe tried to restart negotiations and stated that they had given up some unreasonable demands and only had requirements for the local production rate of spare parts. Currently, Hailan Automobile and the other party are in a new round of contact.

In response, Xu Shenxue said: We can talk, but the bottom line cannot be crossed and core technology must not be transferred.

Previously, the European group tried to obtain many core technologies of Hailan Automobile, which made Xu Shenxue so disgusted that he unilaterally suspended the negotiations and withdrew all investment plans.

After several months of internal debate, the other party finally came over to try to negotiate the introduction of Hailan Automobile, while using tariffs as a bargaining chip.

In this case, the negotiations still need to be negotiated... When it comes to business, a falling out yesterday will not affect the new cooperation today. As long as the other party's conditions are suitable, it is still possible for Hailan Automobile to build an assembly plant in Europe.

This also involves a tariff issue. The EU is currently planning to raise tariffs on Hailan Automobile... They think that Hailan Automobile's electric cars are sold too cheaply and are too competitive.

The automobile industries of France and Germany are also major players in promoting electric vehicles, and their electric vehicles are also very successful...at least that's what it seems like.

However, their electric vehicles are far behind Hailan Automobile in terms of technology and cost control.

In the past, HaiLan Automobile sold high-end models, and they didn’t care much... But now that HaiLan Automobile sells HaiLan SLMC and HaiLan MEV for more than 300,000 yuan, these relatively cheaper models have begun to impact the automobile markets of these countries.

Therefore, some people began to talk about raising tariffs to prevent the domestic automobile industry from being impacted by Hailan Automobile.

This is also quite funny. Everyone in the world knows that Hailan Automobile is a high-end brand, and the cars bought here are extremely expensive...and even with such an expensive price of Hailan Automobile, a group of European car manufacturers still can't compare!

Because the electric cars they make have worse cost-effectiveness, not only do they have poor performance, but they are also extremely expensive...they cannot compete with HaiLan Automobile.

Xu Shenxue maintains an open attitude towards building a factory in Europe. If the other party is willing and the conditions are good, then he will build a factory there.

In particular, Tesla also wants to build a factory in Germany.

As one of the main competitors, HaiLan Automobile is still paying close attention to Tesla's movements.

If Tesla goes there, Hailan Automobile will most likely also go there to build a factory in order to maintain its competitive advantage in Europe.

But if the conditions are not right, then don’t go.

The automobile market is inherently very complex, and it is impossible for HaiLan Automobile to take over all automobile markets in the world... This has nothing to do with the quality of HaiLan Automobile's products, but is a problem of local protectionism in the automobile industry.

In short, when it comes to the automotive industry, Xu Shenxue’s attitude is to do it if you can, and forget it if you can’t... But if he wants to transfer core technology, there is no way, let alone a window!
(End of this chapter)