Apple ignores doubts and buys Beats: Don’t spoil my fun!
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Buy, buy, buy!!! This phrase has been very popular on Weibo recently, perfectly reflecting the lavish spending and domineering attitude of the rich to take over anything they like. In the field of acquisitions, Internet giants Google and Facebook have always been synonymous with the rich, while the richest Apple is always careful in its acquisitions. The largest acquisition in Apple's history was the acquisition of NeXT for $400 million in 1996. The greatest significance of that transaction was that it welcomed back co-founder Steve Jobs, thus starting the most classic rapid growth in the technology industry. But spending $3 billion to acquire the headphone manufacturer and streaming music service provider Beats may mean that Apple's acquisition style has begun to change. After all, Apple is now far from being a niche manufacturer, but a giant company that is rich enough to rival a country. Apple is not only the technology company with the highest market value, with a current market value of $537.5 billion, but also holds the largest cash position of more than $160 billion. The $3 billion to acquire Beats is just a small fraction of Apple's. However, why would Apple spend a lot of money to acquire a pop music headphone manufacturer? This deal has been puzzling the outside world since the rumors were exposed, but these doubts have not shaken Apple's determination to acquire. After two weeks of delay, Apple's largest acquisition deal has finally been settled today. Completely ignoring the doubts of the outside world, Apple executives must have made up their minds. So what does Apple want from acquiring Beats? Not the headphone brand, not the streaming business, but the connections in the music industry. When announcing the deal today, Apple said that the Beats headphone brand will continue to operate separately as an independent business. Although Beats occupies half of the market share in the high-end headphone industry in the United States, this headphone brand, which was founded in 2008, does not have much technical advantage, but has achieved rapid growth through celebrity effect and brand marketing. If Apple wants to make headphones, they can completely create high-end headphone products by themselves. After all, Apple itself is a valuable brand. At the same time, iTunes and Beats streaming services will continue to run simultaneously in the future. Although Apple's iTunes music business has not been successful in the streaming field and has been preempted by Pandora, Spotify and Google Music, this is more because Apple itself focuses on the original paid download model. If Apple really intends to promote the streaming business, iTunes with 75 million users is still the best platform, and even the acquisition of Spotify and Pandora will have a more obvious effect. Because the user base of the streaming business launched by Beats this year is only a few hundred thousand, it is difficult to bring a substantial boost to Apple. Although Apple is rich, it is still smart. The acquisition price of $3 billion is only equivalent to the three-year sales of Beats headphones. Compared with Google and Facebook's sky-high acquisitions of some startups with no profit model, the price of Apple's acquisition of Beats is at least relatively realistic. Compared with headphone products and streaming business, perhaps Apple pays more attention to the two founders of Beats - rap music superstar Dr. Dre and music industry expert Jimmy Iovine. They will also join Apple with the transaction and join the team of Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Apple's Internet business. This transaction was achieved under the strong promotion of Cue, and he and Iovine have known each other for many years. The music business is an important cornerstone of Apple's rise in the past decade. Ten years ago, it was Jobs who spent a lot of time and energy to reach agreements with record companies and create the iTunes music store, which changed the entire music industry. Jobs made the record industry, which was plagued by piracy at the time, see new revenue hopes from the paid download model. His good relationship with music superstars such as U2 also attracted great popularity for Apple iPod. But Apple was still a small company at the time. Now it has grown into the richest industry giant, and record companies hope to gain more benefits from cooperation with Apple. The main consumption method in the music industry has also shifted from paid downloads to online subscription listening. The most important thing is that Apple no longer has an ideal partner like Jobs to negotiate cooperation with the music industry, which directly led to the delay in launching the streaming media business. Now almost 60% of smartphone users in the United States are using streaming music services. The two founders of Beats are the music business powerhouses that Apple needs most in the post-Jobs era. Irvin is the owner of a record company himself. He has been operating in the American music industry for many years and has extensive connections and relationships; he is the best person to lead Apple's negotiations with various record companies. Dr. Dre can bring a star effect to Apple. The 49-year-old rap star is not only a legendary figure himself, but also has cultivated a large number of star descendants such as Enimem, 50 Cents, Snoop Dogg, etc. He is the most influential and successful producer in the field of hip-hop music in the United States. His personal influence is enough to bring Apple back to super popularity in the United States. Perhaps because of this, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised the two founders of Beats. "They are really different, very rare and hard to find talents." It is worth mentioning that Apple has recruited a large number of senior people from non-tech industries in the past two years, such as Angela Ahrendts, who once headed the luxury brand Burberry for eight years, and Paul Deneve, the former CEO of Yves Saint Laurent. They will all become capable people for Apple to expand new businesses. Perhaps at Apple's annual event WWDC next week, Alvin and Dr. Dre will appear on stage; Dr. Dre, who is in a good mood, may also sing to liven up the atmosphere. The superstar is full of favor for Apple. He has excitedly said that he will become the first billionaire in the American hip-hop world because of Apple's acquisition. As long as Apple is willing, with Dr. Dre's prestige, every Apple event in the future can have a few raps by first-line stars. Can street rap filled with dirty words such as FxxK be on the WWDC stage? Times have changed. At least now the world can see young people wearing eye-catching Beats headphones and shaking their heads to rap hip-hop. For them, this kind of music and Beats are popular fashion. Dr. Dre and his proud disciples such as Enimen and Snoop Dogg have performed on the Grammy stage many times, shouting "Malefak" to tens of millions of TV viewers. I remember that not long ago, Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway and American famous TV host Jimmy Fallon adapted three classic rap songs in the style of Broadway musicals on a TV show. All of them were disciples and juniors strongly supported by Dr. Dre. The first song was "Gin and Juice" produced by Dr. Dre for Snoop Dogg, describing a party full of alcohol, beauties and marijuana. The second song "In Da Club" also came from Dr. Dre's favorite disciple 50 Cents, and the theme was also fine wine, women and drugs. (Most of the content of rap is the accusation of reality and the pursuit of pleasure.) The last rap sung by Hathaway was very appropriate, singing out the attitude of Apple and Beats executives towards the outside world. "Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe", translated into Chinese, "Bitch, don't kill my fun!" As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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