Two English teachers want to rule the world? What will happen if Hammer "gets on board" with Alibaba?

"Two English teachers are going to rule the world." Regarding the rumors that Alibaba has invested in Smartisan Technology, some netizens gave such an exaggerated and playful comment. However, Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma and Smartisan Technology founder Luo Yonghao have never met before, nor are they friends.

On June 29, reporters verified with several people in the industry who were close to the negotiations that Luo Yonghao did pledge part of his shares to Alibaba for financing to ease the supply chain funding pressure of Smartisan, but the two sides are still discussing the specific details of the subsequent investment. "Ali first injected capital to help Luo Yonghao out, but the amount of funds from Alibaba is not as large as the outside world imagines. The specific amount is unknown because the current valuation of Smartisan Technology is not very clear." An industry insider told reporters.

As of press time, Alibaba has not given an official response, while Smartisan said that everything is subject to official announcement. According to public information, Luo Yonghao pledged a portion of Smartisan Technology's equity to Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. on June 18, causing his shareholding ratio to drop from 56.3% to 28.46%.

"Getting close to" Ali?

While its peers were launching new products to compete for the summer market, Hammer made headlines due to news of equity pledge.

A reporter from China Business News saw on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System website that Smartisan Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. registered a pledge of equity on June 27, 2016. The pledger was Luo Yonghao and the pledgee was Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. The specific amount of equity was 2,053,817,600 shares and the registration number was 911101085977433169_0.

This can be understood as Alibaba issuing a convertible bond to Smartisan Technology, and Luo Yonghao used part of the company's shares as collateral to obtain this money. In the future, this convertible bond can be flexibly redeemed, or used to repay loans or sell shares. However, some analysts told reporters that Alibaba's usual operations show that Alibaba is not short of this money and is very likely to enter Smartisan Technology as a shareholder in the future.

In fact, rumors about the cooperation between Smartisan Technology and Alibaba have been brewing on the Internet for a long time. On April 6 this year, Luo Yonghao appeared as a manufacturer at the Dream Town, a technology incubation park in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. Jack Ma was also present at the time. After that, Luo Yonghao attended many activities of Alibaba's operating system YunOS, but he kept a low profile on whether the two sides would further cooperate.

But just at the end of last month, Smartisan Technology changed the name of its original Smartisan Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. to Smartisan Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. The change of company type often means that the company is about to go public or increase the shareholder limit.

In the early days of Smartisan Technology, Wu Yongming, one of Alibaba's "Eighteen Arhats" (founders), invested in Luo Yonghao's angel round, and thus got in touch with Smartisan Technology. Last July, Suning invested in Smartisan Technology. Then Alibaba and Suning joined forces, making the relationship between them closer. According to an Alibaba insider, "Several executives admire Luo Yonghao very much. This is more like an emotional investment."

Alibaba has also made a lot of "investments" in the mobile communications field before, such as its investment in Meizu and its increased promotion of 3C home appliance categories on Tmall, the introduction of 360 mobile phone executives, and its collaboration with Suning to "create festivals" in the mobile phone field.

However, the reporter learned that Alibaba Group Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai was not responsible for this investment.

Feelings eventually return to reality

"I have no advantages or confidence in running a company like IKEA. I am crazy about digital products, and the only smart person in this industry (referring to Steve Jobs) happens to be dead, so I think our chances of success are still great." Luo Yonghao, head of Smartisan Technology, said when he founded Smartisan that he wanted to build a company like Apple.

At that time, the mobile phone market that Luo Yonghao saw was in the midst of a blowout period in smartphone sales, and many emerging mobile phone manufacturers began to pour into the industry, and there was also a lot of capital willing to invest in "small and beautiful" mobile phone brands.

According to incomplete statistics, in March 2012, in addition to the 9 million yuan investment from angel investor Wu Yongming, in the following two years, Hammer also received 70 million yuan in A-round investment from Zihui Ventures and Momo, and 200 million yuan in B-round financing from Jinshi Investment, Haitong Creative Capital, Zihui Ventures and Hejun Capital. In the middle of last year, it received 100 million yuan in C-round financing from Jinshi Investment, Jiuyi Investment, Baotuan Technology, Xunyou Network and Hejing Capital.

But competition in the mobile phone market is fierce.

After adjusting the supply chain and going through many wars of words, the sentimental Smartisan T1 announced a price cut just one year after its release. At that time, Smartisan Technology responded to the reporter of China Business News, "After the release of Smartisan T1, we were unable to quickly resolve the supply chain issues, so it took us four months to achieve normal production capacity, missing the golden sales period of the product (the popularity of new digital products usually only lasts about three months), so now we choose to sell at a lower price."

Luo Yonghao quoted Jack Ma's words and said: "Entrepreneurs' hearts are filled with grievances. I didn't feel much about these things at the beginning, but now I still feel deeply about them."

Not long ago, Smartisan T2 also announced a full price cut. The price of 16G Smartisan T2 was adjusted to 1799 yuan, and the price of 32G Smartisan T2 was adjusted to 1999 yuan. However, Smartisan is obviously slow in launching new products. Smartisan told reporters that there will be action in the next few months, but did not disclose specific details.

"Lao Luo (referring to Luo Yonghao) ignored the characteristics of the mobile phone market." Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the Mobile Phone Alliance, told reporters that the competition in the mobile phone market is extremely fierce. Lao Luo is indeed a master of marketing, but he ignored the most important characteristics of Chinese consumers. Especially on the Internet, there are two concerns that cannot be ignored. One is that people will see whether this thing is free, and the other is to see whether it is cost-effective.

"Especially when there is no market position, talking about development and supply chain is all fake. In this regard, Hammer faces great challenges in the future," said Wang Yanhui.

However, Luo Yonghao, who chose Alibaba, seems to have thought through his problems and gradually returned to reality from sentimentality. Perhaps Hammer has already started its "do-or-die battle."

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.