360 Mobile executives make their debut: Zhou Hongyi fights Lei Jun again

96 days after injecting US$409 million into Coolpad, the management team of the joint venture between 360 and Coolpad made its first media appearance on March 19.

Yiguancha learned that the executive structure and division of labor of the joint venture have been clarified: Coolpad Chairman Guo Deying is the chairman of the joint venture, but will not be in charge of specific business. Zhou Hongyi is the CEO of the joint venture, in charge of the company's daily operations. Coolpad Executive Vice President Li Wang will be in charge of the joint venture's supply chain, production and other modules; 360 Vice President Pan Zhiyong will be in charge of the joint venture's marketing, sales and other modules; Coolpad Mobile Internet and E-commerce President Zhu Fanghao will be in charge of the new joint venture's product development, software experience and other modules.

Li Wang told "Yi Guancha" that both Coolpad and 360 will downplay the concept of the joint venture, and the company will be positioned as a startup team combining hardware and software. Both shareholders have clearly stated that they will support the development of the joint venture to the greatest extent, and are still working hard to recruit various talents to improve the new team.

[[129961]]

(From left to right: Pan Zhiyong, Vice President of 360, Li Wang, Executive Vice President of Coolpad, and Zhu Fanghao, President of Coolpad Mobile Internet and E-commerce)

360 OS will be based on Coolpad Cool UI

360 recently released a promotional picture of 360 OS on Weibo, codenamed AK47, and said "This may be an OS more suitable for Xiaomi than MIUI", with obvious provocation. Zhou Hongyi reposted this Weibo and said: "The new mobile phone brand is kept secret for the time being. The predecessors had Xiaomi, and we have rifles, so the codename is AK47", which is very provocative. Pan Zhiyong, vice president of 360, said: AK47 is just a codename for the new product of the joint venture, continuing the name of the first product in the 360 ​​special machine era, but the specific name of the new product will have to wait for the market planning after the new brand is announced.

Li Wang said that the joint venture will definitely launch a new OS, but it will not be built from scratch. The underlying layer is based on Coolpad's cool UI, and it will combine more advantages of 360 and Coolpad. "In addition to security, there will be more features." Li Wang believes that the market and history of the past few years have proved that an OS without hardware support will definitely not succeed. Most of the independent OS attempts launched by Internet companies before have ended. At the same time, domestic hardware companies do not have much chance to make OS alone. The market is now in an era of "hardware and software integration", so many opportunities will be created. It is an inevitable choice for Internet giants to enter the hardware industry, and there will be more combinations of Internet giants and hardware companies in the future.

The new product of the joint venture will be equipped with no less than 2GB RAM

Interestingly, Coolpad, which has been established for more than a year, and the new brand to be established, all target Xiaomi in their publicity. Li Wang said: As the "first rich man", the competitor (Xiaomi) is doing various expansions and scale-ups, and its goals are no longer focused, and its products are no longer extreme. Compared with the competitor (Xiaomi), the joint venture should be more focused, and the core is to create a good experience and product system around smartphones or Internet phones.

Before the executive team of the joint venture between 360 and Coolpad made its debut, Coolpad released a new mobile phone, the "Dashen F1 Speed ​​Edition", equipped with a Qualcomm MSM8916 quad-core processor, a 5-inch 720P screen, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera + a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, 2GB RAM + 8GB ROM, built-in cool UI5.7 version, support for TD-LTE/TD-SCDMA/GSM three network standards and dual-SIM function, priced at 699 yuan, and claimed to "crush Redmi".

Li Wang said that the products launched by the joint venture between Coolpad and 360 "will not be products below 5 inches, and will not be new products with less than 2GB RAM." Li Wang claimed: The goal is not only to make products with high cost performance, but also to define a "new benchmark for domestic mobile phone flagship products."

Denying cooperation with Gree: Aunt Dong is courageous in making mobile phones

Interestingly, one day before the Coolpad and 360 joint venture executive team debuted, Gree Group Chairman Dong Mingzhu exposed the Gree mobile phone in a speech at Sun Yat-sen University. Dong Mingzhu had previously claimed that "Gree mobile phones are fully functional and can be used for three years without replacement." Some people in the industry had inferred that "Gree mobile phones will cooperate with 360" based on the conspiracy theory that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." However, the Coolpad and 360 joint venture management team explicitly denied this.

Li Wang revealed to Yiguancha: Gree mobile phones are actually OEM products, while smartphones are a system engineering. "Uncles and aunts enter the mobile phone industry with the goal of gaining access to the mobile Internet, but relying on storytelling to survive does not conform to business logic." Li Wang commented: "Aunt Dong is courageous in making mobile phones."

Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun: Old grudges not yet resolved, new grievances

As the new joint venture between 360 and Coolpad has a clear structure of executives and division of labor, Zhou Hongyi has also been frequently cheering for the joint venture on Weibo recently. After the Spring Festival this year, Zhou Hongyi led the 360 ​​mobile phone team to Shenzhen and encouraged the employees present, saying: "Follow me, Old Zhou, and you will have a good life. If you still have to rent a house in a few years, it will be my shame!" Zhou Hongyi also talked about his 360 "Navy SEAL Plan", claiming that "if we want to make it, we must make the best mobile phone", and the background of his speech was an image of Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara.

Regarding Zhou Hongyi's role and position in the joint venture, Li Wang called Zhou Hongyi "the most product-savvy and passionate product manager among China's Internet giants." Pan Zhiyong described him as "an important brand representative and corporate image spokesperson," and the leader who "looks at the direction" of the joint venture. Zhu Fanghao said that Zhou Hongyi is "the best product manager in China. For Internet companies, understanding users is very important, which helps the joint venture get closer to users in product design and social media communication."

Yiguancha believes that in the nearly five years since Xiaomi was founded, the biggest test it faced in terms of brand and public relations was Zhou Hongyi's intensive "fire" against Lei Jun and Xiaomi in 2012 in order to promote the "360 Special Edition Phone". Although the "360 Special Edition Phone" ultimately failed due to many problems such as partners, Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun had a deep grudge and left the name of "Red Cannon" in the industry. With Zhou Hongyi's $409 million investment in Coolpad, 360 will return to the mobile phone market in 2015, and the war between Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun will continue and expand to the field of smart ecology. However, Lei Jun is no longer a rookie in the mobile phone industry, and Xiaomi has grown into the world's fifth largest mobile phone company (IDC fourth quarter 2014 data). Zhou Hongyi, who is still aiming his "gun" at Xiaomi, can he successfully take advantage of the situation this time?