Why is Xiaomi always being hacked? What is the real problem?

At Xiaomi’s autumn new product launch conference a month ago, Lei Jun said, “Consumers have many misunderstandings about us” and “I hope everyone will not criticize us.”

However, things did not go as planned. After the launch of the Xiaomi Note 2 dual-curved new product on the 25th, the reactions of the onlookers went to two extremes. One voice said that Xiaomi had been hacked for so long, and Lei Jun finally showed his black technology trump card; the other voice was still mocking, saying that "Xiaomi re-released the 'Samsung Galaxy Note 7' and 'Sharp Crystal' by pulling Tony Leung Chiu-wai to stand on the stage."

Why did Lei Jun, who was once hailed as the "unicorn" Xiaomi, the "Apple of China", and the "Chinese Steve Jobs", suddenly change his style from "Neon Genesis Evangelion", which lowered the threshold for Chinese people to use smartphones, to become infected with the tendency to attract negative attention?

At a summit more than half a month ago, Lei Jun said that due to the uniqueness and innovation of Xiaomi's business model, many people cannot understand it, so there are many misunderstandings about Xiaomi.

Is this really the answer?

The point of "black" is not to imitate, but to take it for granted.

How much Xiaomi is being criticized now can be seen from the launch of the Note2 dual-curved new product on the 25th.

Before the press conference was over, questions were already coming in. Among them, the "dual-curved screen" featured on the Xiaomi Note 2 was considered by some to be an imitation of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the protagonist of the Samsung battery explosion incident, because Samsung had done it first; and the MIX concept phone, which Lei Jun repeatedly laid the groundwork for and heavily launched, was also considered to be an imitation of Sharp's Crystal series mass-produced phones because of its design of no borders on three sides, no earpiece, and a camera placed at the bottom.

According to Sun Changxu, chief analyst of International Electronics Business, this is somewhat unfair. The screen of Xiaomi Note 2 is actually from LG's flexible OLED, not Samsung's; and under the guidance of the famous designer Philippe Starck, the all-ceramic texture, middle frame and buttons of Xiaomi MIX concept phone are much more upscale than Sharp's Crystal series.

But the problem is that these configurations that Xiaomi is proud of are indeed not new concepts.

You know, it was Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge that made the "dual-curved screen" design popular. Later, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which also have dual-curved screens, became Samsung's performance saviors, making its operating profit in the second quarter of this year a two-year high. The three-sided borderless design and bone conduction technology that were highlighted at the press conference have been used by Sharp for three years.

In addition to mobile phones, Xiaomi's second-generation VR glasses were also compared with Baofeng Magic Mirror. Even Feng Xin, the founder, chairman and CEO of Baofeng Technology, joined the complaining camp and posted on his Moments saying "Xiaomi VR~The appearance of Baofeng 4 and the plan of Baofeng 5", with the note "Abstract", obviously using other people's words to express his own thoughts.

In fact, when it comes to hardware, people are still happy to see the most powerful combination of components appear first in domestic products. The "black spots" of the "black fans" are not imitation or patchwork, but it is easy to attract "black spots" if they "naturally" put the selling point and publicity focus on this.

An interesting example is that at the launch of LeTV's Le Pro3 smartphone on September 21 this year, when Feng Xing, senior vice president of LeTV Holdings and president of LeTV Mobile, was asked about the "first launch of Qualcomm's 821 chip," he asked in return, "Is 821 produced by LeTV? Which Chinese mobile phone brand's core technology is 821? It's not any of them. I don't feel proud of being the first to launch it."

This is because, in the past industrial era that advocated product functions and technology above all else, China, as a latecomer, was once an imitator and follower of global technology. Reverse research and development, low quality and low prices, and small profits but quick turnover made it difficult for Chinese companies to enter the mainstream and survive in the process of globalization.

Nowadays, with the gradual rise of domestic manufacturers, a domestic manufacturer may only be able to break the Qualcomm myth or break through the patent blockade of some other international manufacturers, and it seems that only then can it be regarded as a "hardware giant" that people truly like to see.

Therefore, in today's world where hardware products such as mobile phones and VR are highly homogenized, since we have proposed the "new domestic products" strategy, we must work hard to achieve some real core technology and patent breakthroughs. Otherwise, Lei Jun's words "Xiaomi has been moving forward on the road of exploring black technology" and "breakthrough progress" will always make people feel that something is lacking, and will always become a "black spot" for "black fans".

Now it has a "business style", what should the fans of the previous generation who "were born for fever" do?

Looking back at the three products launched at the Xiaomi Note 2 hyperboloid conference, except for the VR, all of them deviate from Xiaomi's usual low-price strategy.

Among them, the "4G+64G" version of Xiaomi Note 2 has the lowest price among the mobile phones released this time, reaching 2,799 yuan. Xiaomi MIX has even raised the price of the "Premium Edition" to 3,999 yuan thanks to its "18K gold-plated" camera fingerprint decorative ring, all of which are within the pricing range of domestic high-end phones.

This may be because, with the saturation of the smartphone market, the main focus on "cost-effectiveness" has completely lost its advantage, and mid-to-high-end smartphones are the new growth point. Therefore, Xiaomi has also begun to transform from "cost-effectiveness" to "business style".

In order to quickly reverse the deep-rooted impression in consumers' minds, Xiaomi chose one of the most popular marketing strategies in the mobile phone industry - celebrity endorsement.

This time, Xiaomi invited Tony Leung to help out at the Note2 hyperboloid launch conference. This is not the first time that Xiaomi has used celebrity endorsements. In the last Redmi launch conference, Xiaomi used the trio of "Wu Xiubo + Liu Shishi + Liu Haoran" at once, trying to cover all age groups.

After all, rising mobile phone brands like OPPO and vivo are still insisting on using idol celebrity endorsements, while Huawei, Nubia and others are constantly seeking international superstars to strengthen their global genes. Even a brand that focuses on feelings, like OnePlus, has invited Han Han to be its spokesperson. Given this trend, how can Xiaomi be outdone?

Moreover, at the press conference, when Lei Jun asked Tony Leung on behalf of Mi fans which masterpiece better represented Note2, Tony Leung said, "On one side is "The Grandmaster", and on the other side is "In the Mood for Love", which seems to coincide with the slogan of Xiaomi Note2 "One side is technology, the other side is art".

However, for Xiaomi, this is a dilemma amid a new round of fierce competition in the mid-to-high-end market.

Unlike other brands, the largest part of Xiaomi's audience is the huge fan base it has accumulated over the past five years. These "Mi fans" have always been the protagonists of press conferences and the focus of Xiaomi's attention. Although they were once called "grassroots" by the outside world, they are Xiaomi's most loyal users. The reason they support Xiaomi is mainly because of the excellent "cost-effectiveness" of the product itself, not because of celebrities.

Inviting celebrities to endorse and the "business style" of mid-to-high-end mobile phones can indeed bring Xiaomi a higher-end fan base, but what about the fans of the previous generation who were "born for fever"? It seems that only Redmi is available?

Therefore, the challenges are also very obvious. Once the fans' income growth fails to keep up with the pricing growth of Xiaomi phones, or the gain of new fans cannot offset the loss of old fans, Xiaomi's celebrity endorsement strategy is likely to backfire, and "fans turning haters" is not impossible.

Xiaomi needs to "redefine itself"

If we go back to Xiaomi itself, its apparent tendency to attract negative attention is actually a problem that Xiaomi will inevitably encounter during its transformation phase. To use an old-fashioned term, it is called labor pains.

The root cause of this pain is that Xiaomi has not yet really found a positioning direction that suits itself.

The most intuitive manifestation is that in the press conferences of the past two years, we have hardly heard the familiar slogan - "Born for fever".

This is Xiaomi’s first and most classic slogan, and also its brand positioning. It has appeared intensively for four years since 2011. Since 2015, Xiaomi’s rhetoric has begun to change frequently.

Looking back at the history of Xiaomi, with the gene of "born for enthusiasts" and the slogan of "no design is the best design", the appearance of Xiaomi Mi 1 was once very shocking. The powerful configuration of "dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260", "1GB memory" and the low price of "1999 yuan" made it not only a simple promotional slogan, but also made the feature of "high cost performance" deeply rooted in people's hearts.

The Xiaomi Mi 2 of the following year and the Xiaomi Mi 2S of the following year took the "fever" to the extreme with their "4.3-inch 342 ultra-high PPI touch screen", "28nm quad-core processor", equipped with "2GB RAM" and "16GB body memory" and a new generation of "back-illuminated 8-megapixel main camera".

Since July 2014, the slogans that frequently appear in Xiaomi's dictionary have become "Let everyone enjoy the fun of technology" and "Our journey is to the stars and the sea."

A year later, on June 2, Lei Jun defined Xiaomi as a "new domestic product" at the SOHO China "Pan Talk" and wanted to promote the "new domestic product movement". Just one month later, with the birth of Xiaomi TV 2S, "new domestic product" completely covered "born for audiophiles" and became the new brand positioning.

On the surface, this move seems to be intended to showcase Xiaomi's vision and pattern, emphasizing that Xiaomi's fans and appeal are comparable to those of international brands. As the company's development stage changes, this change is understandable. However, this kind of slogan is somewhat far away from former consumers and is slightly inconsistent with the overall style of the Xiaomi brand.

Of course, Xiaomi seems to be aware of this. A source familiar with Xiaomi revealed to the reporter of "China Business Weekly" that Xiaomi is in a hurry to find a new slogan.

Back then, it was the precise brand positioning that allowed Xiaomi to expand its territory and gain a large number of fans, and also made Xiaomi a classic case in the marketing industry. Xiaomi Technology co-founder Li Wanqiang's words in Xiaomi's internal manual on word-of-mouth marketing, "Participation," "In the past, it was to split the mind, but now it is to penetrate the brain," has also become a famous saying in the marketing industry.

Now, if Xiaomi cannot "penetrate into the brain", it needs to find a new direction as soon as possible. Otherwise, the "economic base" and "superstructure" within Xiaomi and between Xiaomi and the outside world will be out of touch for a long time, and it will not be able to get rid of the embarrassment of being hacked for a long time.

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.