Musk or Jia Yueting, can home appliance companies and antivirus software really change their destiny by making cars?

Let’s build a car!

When the hesitant Xiaomi decided to build a car, within just over a month, companies ranging from home appliance companies to antivirus software companies began to take action and strengthened their plans to build cars.

In this vigorous car-making movement, some of them have encountered difficulties in their original industries, some are trying to find new ways out, and some, although they seem to be ready to go, are still in the layout stage.

With so many companies building cars, is the track crowded?

360: An inevitable choice in the face of the Internet dilemma

During the Shanghai Auto Show, Zhou Hongyi, who had been hanging around the Nezha Auto booth, decided to participate in its Series D financing. It is reported that 360, the security giant, led the investment in this round of 3 billion yuan and is expected to become the company's second largest shareholder.

360 is not the first Internet company to enter the automotive industry, but it may be the company that most needs to seize this opportunity.

Since returning to the A-share market in 2018, 360's stock price has been falling all the way, and has plummeted by more than 300 billion yuan so far. The latest financial report shows that in the first three quarters of 2020, 360's net profit was only 1.647 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 68.11%. Advertising, one of 360's main sources of income, only generated 3.299 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of last year, a year-on-year decrease of 29.76%.

Since the rise of mobile Internet, 360 has been trying to get a piece of the pie, but has been frustrated time and again. 360 Browser, which once occupied a large market share on PC, is no longer as magical on mobile phones, and can only be classified as "other" in various market share statistics. 360 Mobile Assistant, which was once the leading distribution channel for Android, is also powerless in the face of the native app stores supported by the authority of major mobile phone manufacturers. As for the 360 ​​mobile phone, which was once highly anticipated, it has long disappeared.

360, which has fallen behind in the mobile Internet, naturally hopes to take advantage of the new energy vehicle market to make a comeback. In fact, it does have some unique advantages. The field where 360 ​​started out - network security, is undoubtedly one of the most concerned issues for today's smart car users.

The Automotive Cybersecurity Report released by Upstream Security in 2020 shows that the number of automotive cybersecurity incidents increased by 605% from 2016 to January 2020. Tesla, a representative brand of smart cars, has been plagued by security issues. In 2015, a Tesla Model S was hacked and stalled while driving; in 2020, Tesla suffered a series of malicious incidents such as APP crashes and vehicles being remotely started.

From these incidents, we can see that the network security of smart cars still needs to be improved. As a veteran network security manufacturer, 360 launched the "360 Automotive Security Brain" in 2018 to protect the communication system, entertainment system, networked terminals, internal network, supporting APPs and other aspects of smart cars, and built a security service system with the concepts of "dynamic protection", "offense and defense balance", "continuous improvement" and "situational awareness". According to statistics, the "360 Security Brain" has been connected to more than 1 million cars and intercepted more than 100,000 risks.

In addition, 360 has also launched related hardware such as driving recorders, and its 360 Artificial Intelligence Research Institute has also taken intelligent driving and visual SLAM as its main research directions. From the current news, 360 will first enter the car manufacturing industry as an investor. However, as experience accumulates, it should not be a fantasy for 360 to develop core components such as car autonomous driving sensors and even become a complete vehicle manufacturer.

Skyworth: A new attempt by a veteran in the automotive industry

On April 27, at the Skyworth Auto brand meeting, Huang Hongsheng, founder of Skyworth Group, announced that Tianmei Auto will be renamed Skyworth Auto. Huang Hongsheng's short-term goal for Skyworth Auto is to go public quickly and strive to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board next year, while the long-term goal is to become one of the top ten auto brands in the world.

It is not the first time that a home appliance company has entered the automotive industry in China. AUX, Midea and Gree have tried this before, but they all ended in failure. Midea and Gree have tried to make a comeback in the past two years, but both have failed. of We chose to cooperate with automobile manufacturers instead of fighting alone.

The biggest difference between Skyworth and them is that the founder Huang Hongsheng is not a newcomer to the automotive industry. As early as 2011, Huang Hongsheng invested in the establishment of Nanjing Chuangyuan Tiandi Investment Company and reorganized Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus, focusing on the manufacture of pure electric vehicles. In 2014, Huang Hongsheng changed the name of Chuangyuan Tiandi to Kaiwo New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. In 2019, Tianmei Automobile, a subsidiary of Kaiwo Group, was established, mainly developing new energy passenger vehicles.

Huang Hongsheng's reasons for being obsessed with new energy vehicles are similar to those of other home appliance companies. The home appliance industry has entered a bottleneck period of development and companies need to seek new growth points.

Taking the air-conditioning industry as an example, data released by Aowei Cloud Network shows that in 2020, the retail volume of China's air-conditioning market was 51.34 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.8%, and the retail sales volume was 154.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.9%. In recent years, the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry has made home appliance companies smell business opportunities. Home appliance manufacturers hope to seize new markets with their mass base accumulated over the years, and build their own ecosystem through the combination of smart cars and smart homes.

Huang Hongsheng learned a lesson from the failure of his peers. He made it clear at the press conference that Skyworth would not build cars, but would sign a trademark transfer agreement with Kaiwo Group to help Tianmei Auto expand the market with its own brand awareness. In addition, Skyworth Auto will also develop a complete set of intelligent car systems including autonomous driving systems and intelligent networking systems.

Huang Hongsheng revealed that Skyworth Auto has invested 10 billion yuan so far, and in order to achieve the goal of becoming one of the top ten in the country, another 30 billion yuan will be needed. Although he said that he did not build cars because it was "too expensive", such a large investment is a gamble that both Skyworth and himself cannot afford to lose.

OPPO: eager to try, but confusing

On April 28, news spread online that smartphone manufacturer OPPO was conducting research and considering entering the field of smart cars.

Although the news has not been officially confirmed, rumors about OPPO making cars have been around for a long time. CEO Chen Mingyong once said: "Even if we make cars, we will focus on areas that OPPO can do well" and "If car manufacturers can't make cars well, and OPPO has the strength to do so, we will try in the future."

In January this year, several automobile-related patents applied by OPPO surfaced, including "anti-collision reminder method, device, vehicle-mounted equipment and storage medium", "distance measurement device, distance measurement method, camera and electronic equipment", etc. It seems that OPPO's official announcement of entering the automotive industry should be ready, except for the east wind.

What is interesting is whether OPPO will directly manufacture cars. Judging from past examples, it is unlikely.

Take Huawei as an example. On April 18, Huawei held a new product launch conference for its smart car solutions in 2021, showcasing new products in the fields of smart cockpit, smart driving, smart car cloud services, and smart car control. On April 20, Yu Chengdong announced that Huawei will sell the Seres SF5 in stores, and the number of orders for the car exceeded 3,000 two days after the launch. But even though Huawei has made such a deep foray into the automotive field, they still haven't announced plans to build cars.

According to Counterpoint statistics, OPPO has surpassed Huawei in January this year and has become the No. 1 smartphone brand in China with a market share of 21%. Therefore, funds should not be an obstacle for OPPO to enter the automotive industry.

However, compared to Huawei, which has started selling cars, OPPO lacks both software and hardware development capabilities. Compared to Apple, which is rumored to be building cars, OPPO is still immature in areas such as chip research and development and supply chain control. Compared to Xiaomi, which has already officially announced its car manufacturing, OPPO does not have a complete smart hardware ecosystem.

Therefore, if OPPO wants to enter the automotive industry, it should first focus on areas such as car charging, autonomous driving, and entertainment systems. If the development goes smoothly, it will consider vehicle manufacturing.

Morgan Stanley released a report in January this year, saying that the global automotive market creates nearly $10 trillion in value each year. In comparison, the total effective market value of smartphones is $500 billion per year, and the scale of global home appliance consumption in 2020 is $588 billion. Faced with such a tempting huge market, it is not surprising that giants from various industries have entered the market across industries.

Everyone wants to build cars, in order to catch up with the trend and to change their fate. However, building cars tests a company's capital, technology, talent, supply chain management and even luck, among other factors. There are huge variables, and there are destined to be only a few successful people in the future. In this sense, new players such as 360, Skyworth, OPPO, and Xiaomi are actually standing on the same starting line. However, who will become Musk and who will become Jia Yueting in the end can only wait for time to verify.

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.