Xiaomi Box and TV sales exceeded 15 million. What will be Wang Chuan’s next move after the Premier League event takes place?

"The cumulative sales of Xiaomi Box and Xiaomi TV have exceeded 15 million, and the average daily power-on rate is 68%." Wang Chuan, co-founder of Xiaomi and head of Xiaomi TV, revealed the current market situation of Xiaomi TV products at a small media communication meeting on August 2.

In the first half of the year, Xiaomi TV products had a very high exposure rate. In addition to regular new product launches and promotional activities, they also received recognition from many users and authoritative organizations. In the first half of the year, they won 11 industry awards including the Red Dot Award.

In the past four years, Xiaomi TV has been controversial and received praise. In the vicious circle of the domestic color TV market where volume growth but no revenue growth exists, where will Wang Chuan lead his Xiaomi TV team?

Chen Tong submitted another answer sheet

"Today I am here to fulfill my promise!" said Chen Tong, vice president of content operations and investment at Xiaomi.

Two months ago, Xiaomi TV obtained the broadcasting rights for the European Cup. At that time, Chen Tong said that Xiaomi TV would provide users with a series of exciting events in the future. Today, Xiaomi Box and BesTV jointly announced that they will gradually open BesTV special areas on Xiaomi Box, and BesTV's high-quality sports, film, television, variety shows, children's programs and other content will be gradually introduced to Xiaomi Box.

This includes the broadcast and on-demand playback of all 380 exciting matches of the 2016-2017 Premier League season, which will be first launched on Xiaomi Box. The Premier League package is priced at 39 yuan/month and 299 yuan/year.

According to Lu Gang, vice president of BesTV Internet TV Technology Development Co., Ltd., BesTV had been in contact with Xiaomi since 2012, but due to the policy, market environment and the immaturity of both parties, the cooperation was not officially reached until today. "We also hope that through this cooperation, BesTV will be more market-oriented and explore video operations in the market. Together with Xiaomi, we will obey policy supervision, serve the vast number of users, and respect the laws of the market to make our Internet TV in China a success."

2016 is a big year for sports, and all Internet TV brands have increased their sports content, and Xiaomi is no exception. This year, Xiaomi TV launched the "Golf and Tennis Channel", from which users can watch golf events such as the PGA Tour; subsequently, top tennis events such as the Australian Open, US Open, China Open, and WTA have also been launched on Xiaomi TV; during the European Cup, Xiaomi TV cooperated with Future TV to bring all 51 games of the 2016 European Cup in France and on-demand playback.

Chen Tong said: "Xiaomi TV and Xiaomi Box will continue to provide more blockbuster sports events for Mi fans and fans."

Important information revealed by Wang Chuan

In addition to Chen Tong's answer, Wang Chuan also revealed a lot of important information in a brief speech of more than 2,000 words at the communication meeting. On the one hand, he responded to the doubts and speculations of the outside world, and on the other hand, he sorted out the next direction of Xiaomi TV products. He also summarized this.

First, the sales of Xiaomi TV products. Chen Tong said that the cumulative sales of Xiaomi Box and Xiaomi TV have exceeded 15 million, with an average daily power-on rate of 68%, affecting more than 60 million people. And with the release of more products and functions, the activity will be further improved.

It is believed that the sales volume of Xiaomi Box should account for a large proportion of the 15 million sales. According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the retail volume of OTT Box market in the first half of 2016 was 7.107 million units, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%. The retail volume share of Xiaomi Box was second only to Tmall at 20.0%. In terms of the power-on rate, Hisense previously announced that the daily power-on rate of Hisense users was 52%. According to the OTT data of Aowei Cloud Network in April, the average daily power-on rate of smart TVs in April was 56%. Comparing the two data, Xiaomi TV users love watching TV more.

Secondly, Wang Chuan admitted that Xiaomi TV has achieved profitability, although only a small profit. "So far, our business is profitable, which means we are in a healthy state of development. I did some calculations before, and some manufacturers lose 800-1000 yuan on average for each TV."

He explained that a big part of the reason why Xiaomi TV is profitable is that "so far, we have not bought any content. We have adopted a win-win attitude with everyone. Many people have been questioning us, thinking that this path is not feasible and Xiaomi will return to buying content sooner or later. But so far, it has proven that we are very, very successful."

It is difficult to judge whether Xiaomi TV has achieved profitability for the time being, but Xiaomi's open attitude towards content is obvious to all. It has established cooperative relationships with many licensees such as Future TV, GITV, Mango TV, and BesTV, which is rare among other Internet TV brands.

Finally, Xiaomi TV will continue to focus on sports content, "within a week, another major event will be launched, which is no less than the European Cup." In addition, Wang Chuan also revealed the plan for Xiaomi Box products to enter the overseas market. "On May 19, Google released the Xiaomi Box at the Google Developers Conference. Currently, many American retailers are looking for us to discuss and hope to be the agent of Xiaomi Box in the United States." In addition to Google, Xiaomi is also negotiating cooperation with other American companies such as Netflix.

Recently, LeTV acquired Vizio, the second largest TV manufacturer in the United States, for US$2 billion. Hisense and TCL have also made arrangements in the American market. It can be seen that the overseas expansion of Internet TV products has become a general trend.

A small dramatic turn is that after Xiaomi TV announced the introduction of the Premier League, New England Sports, the owner of the all-media copyright of the Premier League matches and related Premier League unveiling in the mainland, issued an official statement on this matter, saying that BesTV obtained the IPTV and Internet TV broadcasting rights of the Premier League from New England Sports, but there was no sublicense. Therefore, whether the Premier League can be successfully landed on Xiaomi TV in the future is still unknown.

The copyright fees for sports events have always been very expensive and prone to disputes. Previously, Internet TV brands such as Weijing and LeTV have all encountered copyright issues of varying degrees. As of press time, Xiaomi has not officially responded and will continue to pay attention to this matter.

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.