360 Nezha Internet car-making "veteran" Zhou Hongyi appointed as new "product manager"

"As a veteran of the Internet industry, I can participate in the creation of the largest intelligent terminal in the future, and even in the transformation of the global intelligent car. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that should not be missed."

On May 11, at the 360 ​​Group Smart Car Strategy Media Communication Conference, 360 Group founder and chairman Zhou Hongyi asserted that this great transformation of the smart car industry is an opportunity for Chinese manufacturing and China's Internet to jointly define the rules of the automotive industry in the fourth industrial revolution. It is an opportunity to empower Chinese manufacturing with cloud computing, big data, and AI, and change the Chinese auto market and even the global auto market. It is also the second half that China's Internet cannot miss. "Veterans must stand up at critical moments. The greater the challenge, the greater the excitement. 360 must participate and contribute its own strength."

As a software engineer, Zhou Hongyi keenly realized that this transformation of the traditional automotive industry is essentially "experience equality" brought about by "technological equality", that is, through the power of technology, smart cars can be made affordable by ordinary people, and at the same time, their performance, experience, and safety are not inferior to cars that are several times more expensive.

Nezha Auto's concept of "making high-quality smart electric vehicles within reach" coincides with Zhou Hongyi's insight. He chose to jointly build cars with Nezha Auto in order to reorganize the DNA of the Internet and traditional cars, and to concretize the concept of "technological equality" into the practice of "building cars for the people", positioning the smart car at around 100,000 yuan to meet the needs of popular users.

"Users first, experience is king, and products win!" Zhou Hongyi has been practicing this principle all along, and Nezha Auto's spiritual proposition of "My destiny is in my own hands" makes him resonate even more. Therefore, he enthusiastically teamed up with Nezha Auto CEO Zhang Yong to form a new "product manager CP" and threw himself into it.

Seizing the future super entrance to network security, 360 will become the second largest shareholder of Nezha

"After computers and mobile phones, smart cars are expected to become the largest smart terminals, and the Internet of Vehicles will become the next super portal after the mobile Internet," Zhou Hongyi revealed the keynote of the layout of smart cars. In his view, the network security of smart cars and the security of the Internet of Vehicles will also become an important part of 360's security ecology in the future. Therefore, by actively deploying smart cars, 360 can not only participate in a century-long opportunity to promote the transformation of China's automobile manufacturing industry with the Internet, and provide more affordable digital products for the general public; it can also use Nezha as a model to conduct in-depth research on automobile network security issues, so as to better provide smart car network security services for all automobile companies and industry chain partners.

Regarding the way to participate in car manufacturing, "We choose to jointly build cars instead of building them ourselves," Zhou Hongyi stated bluntly, "We hope to use the Internet to genetically recombine traditional cars and edit new smart car genes."

After deciding to enter the car manufacturing industry, Zhou Hongyi began to investigate potential partners. Since it was an Internet car manufacturing industry, he first focused on new car manufacturing forces. Nezha eventually became Zhou Hongyi's investment target, and 360 will become the second largest shareholder. Zhou Hongyi has his own criteria for judging: "When we investigate partners, we first look at whether they are real entrepreneurs, whether their team really pays attention to user needs, whether they are real car manufacturing craftsmen, whether they are making cars that can truly provide users with a better experience and more value, whether they can build cars that carry such concepts, and whether they can really make users accept and buy them. We think Nezha has such a team and concept, as well as a rudimentary product and user scale."

In his opinion, the market has eliminated new car-making forces in multiple rounds based on the golden standards of whether they can build cars and whether they can be accepted by users. The remaining players are those with leading concepts and actions, and Nezha is undoubtedly the best among them. It is reported that Nezha Automobile has produced more than 40,000 cars so far, ranking first among new car companies. This proves that Nezha has withstood the cruel test and baptism of the smart car market, accumulated core seed users, and laid the foundation for market expansion.

(Note: At its peak, there were more than 300 new car-making forces. This picture only shows some of them)

(Data source: China Passenger Car Association, Bohai Securities; Statistical year: 2020)

The user scale is one aspect, and Nezha's user-centric concept is in line with Zhou Hongyi's consistent proposition. "Users are supreme, experience is king, and products win!" As an Internet veteran, Zhou Hongyi summarized the magic weapon for Internet success at the conference, "In this century-long technological revolution in the automotive industry, user-first is the core essence, and the ultimate user experience and product value are the only way to success."

Zhou Hongyi will serve as product manager, and Internet genes will fully empower Nezha

"I will work with Nezha CEO Zhang Yong to form a product manager CP, use 'technological equality' to bring 'experience equality', and jointly build a smart car for the general public, priced around 100,000 yuan!" Zhou Hongyi expressed his ideal feelings, confidence and determination to "build cars for the people."

In the opinion of industry insiders, in order to build a new energy smart car company, three capabilities must be possessed - the first is the ability to build a good car, the second is the ability to build a good new energy vehicle, and the ultimate is to build a good new energy smart car.

If Nezha Auto has mastered the first two skills, what can 360, as an Internet technology giant, do for Nezha? Zhou Hongyi shared from the perspective of software-defined world, "In the future, software will also define cars. Smart cars are essentially smart terminals. 360 will provide partners with comprehensive digital technologies covering cloud computing, big data, AI, the Internet of Things, and Internet of Vehicles security, bringing users 'experience equality' through 'technological equality', that is, making high-end cars no longer a plaything for a few people. Just like the mobile phone industry, through the empowerment of Internet technology, we will continuously balance the experience gap between high-end products and low-end products, so that more consumers can spend less money and have a better driving experience and service experience.

Zhou Hongyi said that 360 and Nezha will jointly build cars, and they will not make luxury cars. They hope to use the power of technology to make smart cars that ordinary people can afford, and at the same time make their performance, experience, and safety not inferior to cars that are several times more expensive.

As we all know, as the founder and chairman of 360 Group, Zhou Hongyi has always regarded "product manager" as an important position for himself, and he has frequently mentioned at meetings that making a good product is his ideal. It is precisely because of his pursuit of perfection and his daring personality that Zhou Hongyi has gained a large number of fans. At the same time, 360 has also become unique in the Internet industry and has successively created a series of national-level products, winning the trust of a large number of users.

Therefore, after joining hands with Nezha Auto, Zhou Hongyi also officially announced a new identity. He will officially become the product manager of Nezha Auto, and together with Nezha Auto CEO Zhang Yong, he will form a new "product manager CP" for Nezha Auto.

Zhou Hongyi promised that "360 will, as a strategic investor, empower Nezha Automobile in a long-term, continuous and comprehensive manner", and transform Nezha from a traditional car-making model to an Internet car-making model with Internet technology, Internet thinking and Internet product concepts. The empowerment ideas specifically include three levels: concept, experience and user:

In terms of concept empowerment, Zhou Hongyi said that as smart terminals, smart cars will follow the creeds of user first, ultimate experience, and rapid iteration in the Internet world. These will be the basic rules of the new energy smart car era, and 360 will continue to convey these concepts and adhere to and practice them together with Nezha Auto.

In terms of experience empowerment, 360 will empower Nezha Auto with its accumulation and innovation in the Internet, smart hardware, and network security, and integrate the ultimate experience into Nezha's products. At the same time, 360 will also jointly establish a product experience joint organization with its partners to deeply participate in the experience design, interaction, and iteration of automotive products.

When it comes to user empowerment, Zhou Hongyi said that 360's vast number of Internet users and smart hardware users will be introduced to Nezha Auto, and these 360 ​​fans will also be participants and promoters of Nezha Auto's product and experience design. In this context, the largest automotive product community in history is about to emerge, which will also become Nezha Auto's unique competitive advantage in its future development.

A storm starts with a small ripple. "The people's missed Zhou Hongyi" has made a high-profile appearance again. This time, he is carrying the idealism of "building cars for the people" and letting every user enjoy the value of "technological equality". Just like every time he appeared before, he brought about a huge change in the industry. In the past, it was the Internet security market, and this time it is the new energy smart car market.

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.