Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 416: A Factory, a City
On August 7, at the Zhiyun Group headquarters, Xu Shenxue once again convened a meeting on the S series of mobile phones, focusing on discussing subsequent marketing adjustments and production supply chain adjustments.

"Now the work of launching the first batch of products has been basically completed. You all have done a good job and there are no mistakes!"

"Our next focus will be on follow-up marketing and supply work in the first batch of listing areas, while also launching distribution and marketing work in the second batch of listing areas!"

Xu Shenxue pointed to the world map sales diagram displayed on the large screen in front and said: "Although the second batch of listing regions are all developing countries, they are still very important, especially ASEAN, South America, West Asia and other regions. These are important market growth spaces in the future. Although the current sales volume is not high, there is a lot to look forward to in the future!"

The world sales map in front shows in detail the sales of Zhiyun Group's mobile phone business in various countries.

At this time, Ji Chenghe also said: "The second batch of listings will include 40 countries or regions, mainly South America, ASEAN, West Asia and African countries, and also some small and medium-sized European countries with underdeveloped economies!"

"After these two batches of launches, our S17 phones will cover our main markets, accounting for about %. For the remaining % of the market areas, most of them have some troublesome issues. We will need some time to coordinate and complete the local market launch work, but it will not affect the overall situation."

"After all, our main markets are still concentrated in China, the EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, India and a few ASEAN countries. The sales volume in many small and medium-sized backward countries is too small to have any actual impact!"

Xu Shenxue looked up at the sales world map in front of him and naturally knew why Ji Chenghe said that.

This has a lot to do with the sales of Zhiyun S series mobile phones.

There is no doubt that Zhiyun Group's largest market is the domestic market. The rapid economic development in recent years, the rapid increase in people's income level, and the large population base have brought huge market growth space for Zhiyun mobile phones.

Of course, this is also because Zhiyun phones are sold in China at relatively cheaper prices than abroad... Although the MAX series is very expensive, there are also a large number of standard versions, as well as the relatively affordable A series and SX series, and finally the C series.

The prices of Zhiyun phones range from over 3,000 to over 10,000, which can meet the needs of different groups of people.

Last year, Zhiyun’s domestic sales volume reached 130 million units, which is a very large number... Not only because Zhiyun’s mobile phones are excellent, but also because the country’s economic level has increased significantly.

At the same time, the Chinese people’s admiration and support for Zhiyun is also an important factor... People are willing to support domestic companies like Zhiyun, and think that buying a Zhiyun phone is supporting domestic high-tech industry innovation... This is actually somewhat similar to South Korea.

Koreans blindly support four stars.

Most Chinese people who are able to do so unanimously support Zhiyun phones.

This is also the reason why Zhiyun mobile phones have such large sales in China, and the main products sold are the not-cheap S series mobile phones.

This is the result of many factors, which is almost impossible for other companies to replicate.

The second largest market for Zhiyun mobile phones is the European market. Zhiyun Group's mobile phones are very strong in the European market, with sales reaching about 80 million units.

Especially in relatively high-income European countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, Zhiyun phones occupy almost half of the local mobile phone market share, especially the S series, which sells quite well. At the same time, the MAX series in the S series is also mainly sold in these developed countries.

In addition to these two major markets, the third largest market is Japan.

Although Japan is small, it has a large population, a developed economy and high incomes. This country has contributed more than 10 million units in sales to Zhiyun Group.

Then there are countries like Canada, Australia, Mexico, etc., which basically have sales of several million units... It is worth noting that the sales in Canada and Mexico also include a portion of sales in the United States.

According to statistics from some third-party statistical agencies, in the first half of this year, at least more than 400,000 Zhiyun S series mobile phones entered the US market through legal or illegal channels.

It is hard to say whether this data is true or false, but it is a fact that a large number of Zhiyun phones are brought in privately or smuggled into the United States by illegal gangs.

At the same time, in the Latin American market including Mexico, such as Brazil, Chile and other countries, Zhiyun phones also have certain sales in these countries, of course, the quantities are not large.

The main reason is that the S series of mobile phones in Zhiyun Mobile are too expensive, and the income levels in these countries are not very low, so the overall sales proportion is relatively low.

Zhiyun's market share in Latin America is only about 7 or 8 percentage points, and the proportion of the S series is not high.

This situation also includes the ASEAN market, West Asia and Africa market... In these places, the Zhiyun S series mobile phones are typical of being well-known but not having high sales... The Zhiyun S series mobile phones are expensive, but the local income level is not good!
Too poor to afford Zhiyun S series mobile phone!

For example, in a market like India, although there are more than one billion people and the sales volume of smartphones is around 130 million units, the sales volume of Zhiyun S series phones in the local market is very average. It is considered to be a good seller in the first half of this year, with a total of more than 200 units sold. It is estimated that there will be more than 5 million units sold for the whole year.

The average selling price of Zhiyun S series mobile phones in the global market these days is over one thousand US dollars... and in most market statistical analyses, a mobile phone that costs six hundred US dollars, or roughly more than four thousand yuan, is positioned as a high-end phone.

However, the Zhiyun S series of mobile phones are ultra-high-end mobile phones...

On the contrary, the SX and SXL series phones, which are sold exclusively for some overseas markets, are selling well in the Indian market...

Based on the economic level of some overseas markets, in order to increase sales, it is also to destock, improve gross profit margin, expand market share, and seize the second-hand Zhiyun flagship market.

After launching the SX series, Zhiyun Group officially launched the SXL series of mobile phones.

Today's SX and SXL series of mobile phones are actually revived versions of the S series flagship phones from earlier years, one has a 4.7-inch screen and the other has a 5.5-inch screen.

For example, the S16XL, which was launched on the market in March this year, uses the integrated aluminum alloy body of the S13 mobile phone and a -inch LCD reticulated screen using technology from N years ago.

The traditional fingerprint sensor module uses a 16-nanometer chip, the same S703 chip as the S series phones.

Basically, the appearance is a resurrected version of the S13 mobile phone. There are some changes in details, but not big. In terms of hardware, except for a scary SOC, the rest are old products from a few years ago. In order to control hardware costs, the two versions are priced at 3599 yuan and 4199 yuan in China.

In addition, there is the S15X launched at the same time. This is a 703-inch version, the chip used is also S3299, it also has an integrated aluminum alloy body, and other hardware is also old products... but because of its SOC, its performance is actually quite outstanding, and the entry-level price is only 3899 yuan and yuan.

S16X以及S16XL，其实就是智云集团用来取代已经停产的S15标准版以及Pro，并且融合了S12/S13早期的铝合金机身风格。

This is a typical case of clearing inventory, and at the same time replacing the old S series flagship phones to occupy the 3000-4000 yuan price range of mobile phones.

This mobile phone is mainly aimed at the domestic market and other developing countries... For example, many people want to buy Zhiyun S series mobile phones, but when they can't afford the new models, many people will try to buy second-hand phones.

In this case, Zhiyun Group gives consumers who want to buy second-hand phones a choice: Don’t buy second-hand goods with various problems, come and buy my official inventory, it only costs more than 3,000, which is very cheap!

At the same time, it also provides a channel for people in many overseas countries to purchase relatively cheap Zhiyun S series mobile phones... They can't afford the new models, and as for the old models... In order to maintain the brand value of the flagship phones, Zhiyun Group often chooses to discontinue the production of the old flagship entry-level models.

Even the older models on sale are often high-end models, with prices ranging from around four thousand to five or six thousand.

For example, last year's S16 series of mobile phones, the entry-level model of the S16 standard version, which is the 5199 model, has been discontinued. Only the 16GB version of the S128 standard version is left, and the price is still more than yuan.

Of the earlier generation of the S15 series, only the S15 MAX is still on sale, while the S15 standard version and Pro have been discontinued!

In other words, it is actually impossible to find any S series flagship models with fingerprint sensors on sale now.

All the S series flagship models on sale are 3D face recognition models.

The S series flagship phones have to maintain their brand style and price structure. The cheapest old S16 model costs yuan.

However, the market demand for prices below 4,800 yuan does exist.

Zhiyun Group’s previous strategy was to supplement the price range of more than 4,000 yuan through the A series of mobile phones, and to supplement the price range of more than 3,000 yuan through the C series of mobile phones...but it was not very ideal.

The A series of mobile phones are getting worse year by year. This year's A16 model with under-screen optical fingerprint and water drop screen is not effective.
It was a little lively at the beginning, but soon no one paid attention... How to put it, consumers feel that the A series phones without 3D facial recognition are not Zhiyun flagship phones... Since they are not Zhiyun flagship phones, they are naturally not worth the price. Consumers who can afford more than yuan often add a few hundred yuan to buy S series phones.

Only those who really hate bangs but like the Zhiyun system are able to buy A series phones.

At the same time, the water drop screen of the A series looks very similar to that of Vico and other mobile phones... What's the problem here?
It’s too similar to other domestic mobile phones, which is a problem in itself!

Therefore, no matter how hard Zhiyun Group tried, after the A16 was released and launched, the sales were barely acceptable at first, but then they plummeted at the speed of light. It is estimated that the sales volume of million this year cannot be maintained.

The C series is similar. For example, this model is basically unsellable online, and its main sales come from the domestic offline market and overseas markets.

The domestic offline market mainly deceives those knowledge-sensitive groups such as uncles and aunts who don’t know much about mobile phones into buying a Zhiyun LOGO.

Market research has found that in the past two years, the proportion of young users among new users who purchased C series mobile phones has been getting lower and lower, even below 15%.

It can be seen how much young people nowadays dislike C series mobile phones!

Many young people would rather buy a second-hand Zhiyun S series than a C series mobile phone.

It’s okay in overseas markets, but in overseas markets, the C series mainly goes through operator contract channels, and it doesn’t work in the traditional retail market, which is very embarrassing.

Faced with the embarrassment of the A series failing to recover and the C series sales declining year by year, it is gradually losing young users.

Zhiyun Group has been immersed in research on the SX series... First, it expanded the screen of the SX series from 15 inches to 16 inches, and launched the SX and the SX released this spring.

Then came the 15-inch S16XL, and this spring the SXL.

At the same time, because these mobile phones also start with the S series, such as S16X, S16XL..., people are also accustomed to saying that these mobile phones are part of the S series.

Even when Zhiyun Group itself counted the sales of the S series, it included the SX and SXL models together.

This strategy successfully led to a continued slight increase in sales of the entire S series of mobile phones, and compensated for the difficulties caused by the decline in sales of the A series and C series, and overall maintained Zhiyun's total sales of around 300 million mobile phones.

If there were no SX and SXL strategy, it is estimated that the total sales volume of Zhiyun mobile phones this year would have fallen below 300 million units... The S series flagship phones are limited by the economic levels of various countries and cannot be priced higher.

At the same time, the A series and C series have been continuously eaten up by other mobile phones, such as the Xiaolan MAX series, the four-star Galaxy series, and fruit phones... and their market share has also been squeezed out by the second-hand market of their own S series old models, resulting in a decline in sales year by year.

Under such circumstances, if the SX and SXL with enlarged screens had not come on board, Zhiyun’s sales volume would not have been able to maintain 17 million units. This is no longer a question of whether the S series flagship phones are good or not. The S phone is awesome and amazing enough, but the analysts inside and outside Zhiyun Group basically have an idea of ​​how many it can sell… This has nothing to do with whether the S series flagship phones are good or not, but the problem of the limited capacity of the high-end market.

The capacity of the high-end market is so small, and no matter how much the S17 phone is hyped up, it can only sell so many... unless it is sold at a reduced price.

But Zhiyun Group would rather not sell it than lower the price!

In this world, no mobile phone manufacturer cares about the price system of its flagship phones more than Zhiyun Group. In order to maintain the price system, they refuse to bargain, and when the products cannot be sold, they would rather stop production than reduce prices for promotions.

The SX and SXL series just happened to come up and effectively make up for the declining sales of the A and C series. It is estimated that the sales of these two models this year are expected to reach about 15 million units, plus the sales of the S series flagship models S16MAX, S17 series, S series, and the A and C series.

The sales volume of Zhiyun mobile phones as a whole is still expected to remain at 300 million units this year.

If the S17 series of mobile phones performs well in the market, especially if the S16 standard version, which is the main shipment, can boost sales after adopting an OLED screen and a smart capsule, then it is even expected to reach sales of around million units.

As for the outside world's forecast for Zhiyun's mobile phone sales this year, different analysis agencies generally believe that it will be between 300 million and 320 million units.

Regardless of whether it is 300 million units or 320 million units...there is no doubt that Zhiyun Group will continue to maintain its position as the world's leading smartphone industry, and will be far ahead in sales of Six Star and Wecoo Electronics.

As for Fruit, they estimate that they won’t be able to maintain sales of 150 million units this year, and the gap with Zhiyun will be even bigger.

Manufacturers that come later, such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OV, etc., generally have sales of around 100 million units, while second- and third-tier mobile phone manufacturers further behind them have sales of tens of millions of units.

This is also what makes Zhiyun Group’s peers despair... Not only does it sell a lot, but it is also the most expensive, with the average sales price far exceeding that of other mobile phone manufacturers.

This is a very confusing point for outsiders in the mobile phone market, that is, the mobile phone market is big at both ends and thin in the middle.

Sales in the low- and mid-range markets are huge…but sales in the mid-range are low, and then when it comes to the high-end, sales pick up again.

Zhiyun Group and Fruit, plus the four-star Galaxy series, have together achieved sales of more than 400 million high-end mobile phones, accounting for about 32% of the entire smartphone market.

The smartphone industry is different from other manufacturing industries. It does not have a pyramid structure or a T-shaped structure. Instead, it has a structure that is large at both ends and thin in the middle.

In this special market structure, Zhiyun Group has undoubtedly gained the greatest benefits and has almost occupied most of the high-end market share.

Such a high-end market share brings not only sales figures, but also huge revenue and gross profit.

An analysis agency released a statistical analysis report stating that in the global smartphone market, Zhiyun Group alone accounted for about 60 percent of the profits, and the fruit industry also accounted for about 25 percentage points of the profits.

The remaining ten points of profit were taken away by Sixing Electronics and Weiku Electronics respectively. The remaining single-digit profits were divided up by a large number of mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, OV, and Dami.

In fact, many second- and third-tier mobile phone manufacturers are making losses and have no profits at all.

Similarly, these situations are also because Zhiyun Group attaches great importance to the mobile phone business, especially the S17 series of mobile phones this year, and also attaches more importance to the S16X and S16XL models released this spring.

If nothing unexpected happens, this year and even next year, the S series will be the driving force to maintain the revenue and profits of the entire mobile phone business.

As for the A and C series, there has been no improvement after years of struggle within Zhiyun Group, and we don’t expect too much now... Just keep selling them and sell as many as we can.

Xu Shenxue, Ji Chenghe and other senior executives discussed the second batch of listings and finalized the sales strategies in some regions, especially ASEAN and South America.

Then I talked about supply chain issues with supply chain executives such as Gu Zhiming.

Zhiyun Group's supply chain is under the control of Gu Zhiming and others, so there are no major problems.

As the world's most technologically advanced and efficient supply chain system, Zhiyun Group's supply chain management model is basically the supply chain management model for large companies on the planet!

The so-called supply chain of other companies is nothing more than a logistics management system, procurement, delivery and the like.

But Zhiyun Group's supply chain is very complex.

Sales outlets, warehouses, transport vehicles, aircraft and production plants around the world are equipped with a large number of various sensors. A large amount of data is uploaded to this supply chain network at all times, and then directly connected to the world through Zhiyun Satellite's satellite communications.

This enables Zhiyun Group to accurately control sales, transportation and production on a global scale, with production capacity accurate to the hour.

Therefore, when Zhiyun Group purchases parts and issues OEM contracts, it will also require suppliers to strictly control the delivery time...not early, not late.

Because it is too early and the cargo planes haven't arrived yet, you can't ship the goods away even if you supply them early.

If you are late, the cargo plane will have to wait for you, and then a series of downstream factories will have to wait for you, and the loss will be huge.

Therefore, doing business in Zhiyun Group's supply chain is quite stressful. In addition to the strict technical requirements, it is also related to Zhiyun Group's very strict management of the supply chain.

In order to supply goods to Zhiyun Group, many suppliers attach great importance to it. When encountering the peak production season, company executives and even the company's CEO are often in charge of the production line... Otherwise, once the supply is delayed, it will be a violation of the contract and a huge compensation will be required. In serious cases, they may even be kicked out of the supply chain, which will be a huge loss.

At the same time, some local places often give priority to ensuring the normal operation of these smart cloud supply chain companies, from power supply and water supply to assisting in recruiting workers, etc.

Although these suppliers may only make small parts and are not very noticeable in the entire Zhiyun supply chain system, they are actually serious high-tech manufacturing industries with huge output values ​​and employ many employees, often in the thousands or even tens of thousands.

Even in some second- and third-tier cities, they are basically the local first-class manufacturing industries.

If it is in small and medium-sized cities, they are basically the local leading high-tech companies, and their influence is also very large.

This type of enterprise is generally the one that all places like to invest in the most... High-tech enterprises are prestigious to talk about, and they create many jobs, have particularly high output values, and contribute a lot of tax revenue.

Therefore, all companies in the Zhiyun supply chain can also receive strong external support during the peak production season.

For example, the output value of Weiku Industry in Ancheng accounts for more than 95% of the local GDP, and its exports account for more than 98%.

Weiku Industry also provides a large proportion of direct tax revenue to the local area. What’s more important is that it has more than 300,000 employees...and these employees all need to consume.

The consumption of these employees alone will directly and significantly boost the rapid development of the local tertiary industry...which in turn will drive more employment and increase the income level of local people.

Nowadays, Ancheng is undergoing massive construction every day, and the city is becoming more beautiful day by day...because as long as you have money, you can build infrastructure.

Then, with more external funds brought in by Weiku Industrial, the increased consumption of more than 300,000 people in the tertiary industry further stimulated the entire consumer market, thus forming a good virtuous circle.

The Ancheng production base of Wecoo Industrial is huge in scale and has a large number of employees. In addition, it is an open industrial zone... It is too large to be completely cordoned off, so there are all kinds of living and commercial facilities inside, even schools and hospitals.

So much so that some people say that this place is a factory and a city.

Therefore, Ancheng’s top priority every year is to ensure the normal production of Wecoo Industry... and to be honest, without the strong coordination of the local authorities, Wecoo Industry would not be able to maintain the operation of its super production base with more than 300,000 people!

The required workers alone are not easy to recruit...not 300, 3,000, but more than 300,000. The number of normal employees leaving and joining the company every year is a huge number.

Then there are a lot of other matters as well. If local authorities don’t get deeply involved and coordinate, it will be impossible for the enterprises to handle them on their own... there are too many people.

Therefore, Weiku Industry and the local area are in a situation of mutual cooperation and interdependence.

The situation of Weiku Industrial in Ancheng is considered a special case...there is basically no other example in the country.

However, Weiku Industrial's Ancheng production base is only a part of the huge Zhiyun supply chain... Weiku Industrial has production bases of the same scale as the Ancheng production base in both Dongguan and Shenzhen, but the base in Shenzhen is slightly smaller now, and the scale of the Dongguan base is still expanding, but it is somewhat scattered and not as concentrated as the Ancheng base.

In addition, Weiku Industry has more than a dozen smaller production bases with tens of thousands of employees across the country.

Such Weiku Industry is just one of the three major OEM factories under Zhiyun Group.

In addition to Weiku Industrial, BYD and Luxshare are also the main OEM factories of Zhiyun Group, and the latter two also have large OEM scales.

The three major OEM factories are just OEM factories that assemble finished products and manufacture some parts...and then there are also suppliers of various parts.

A mobile phone has thousands of parts and there are many suppliers. Especially for a supply chain system like Zhiyun Group that has direct access to raw materials and has very deep control over suppliers, there are naturally more suppliers for the public.

Then, the production, transportation, and sales supply chain of Zhiyun mobile phones is just a part of Zhiyun’s huge supply chain!

In addition to mobile phones, Zhiyun Group also has other smart terminal products, robot products, peripheral products, some spare parts products and very important semiconductor products, each of which requires a supply chain to maintain.

This shows how large the scale of Zhiyun Group's supply chain is. In order to maintain the operation of this huge supply chain, Zhiyun Group is forced to set up satellite companies, its own shipping companies, and land transportation companies. It even specially developed a highly intelligent supply chain management system and applied some artificial intelligence technologies.

It is precisely because of such a large, professional and highly intelligent global supply chain system that Xu Shenxue and his colleagues can easily discuss the monthly production capacity of 17 million S mobile phones in the office!

After finalizing this marketing and supply chain meeting, Xu Shenxue felt relieved and began his new round of inspection trip, preparing to personally visit each supply chain production base to learn about the production status of each core product.

In addition to paying close attention to the production situation of the mobile phone business, he also wants to take a look at the production expansion of the robot business.

After all, the mobile phone business is the present of Zhiyun Group, but the robot business is the future of Zhiyun Group!

Xu Shenxue and other senior executives of the group all attach great importance to this robot business!

(End of this chapter)