Can Lei Jun’s dream of creating a Chinese Sony come true?

What is Lei Jun's dream for Xiaomi? At Xiaomi's new product communication meeting yesterday, Lei Jun gave a precise answer: to become the Sony of China and lead the common progress of domestic mobile phone brands. On the fifth anniversary of Xiaomi, Lei Jun finally spoke his mind. In recent years, Xiaomi has grown stronger amid constant criticism and controversy from the media and users. At the end of 2014, Xiaomi's mobile phone market share in China ranked first. Time magazine recently compared Lei Jun to the king of mobile phones in China to praise Xiaomi's contribution to the Chinese mobile phone industry.

In the past year, Xiaomi's valuation has expanded from $10 billion to $45 billion. This rapid growth is jaw-dropping. How to build a company with a market value of $45 billion in 5 years? Lei Jun did it. From its founding in 2010 to 2014, Xiaomi went from being incomprehensible to being studied by everyone, and now becoming the leader of domestic mobile phones. Xiaomi's every move has been closely watched by the media. People have moved from feature phones to the era of smartphones, which is actually due to only three companies: Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi. These three companies have influenced the development trend of the entire mobile phone industry with their respective core competitiveness.

Is Sony the future of Xiaomi?

At the press conference yesterday, Lei Jun also tactfully expressed the media's particular harshness on Xiaomi, but he never took credit for Xiaomi's contribution to mobile phones over the years. Lei Jun confidently stated that "Although Xiaomi mobile phones have lowered the price of domestic mobile phones, they have also led the quality of domestic mobile phones to a higher level." In order to compete with Xiaomi, those mobile phone brands that compete with Xiaomi have to work harder to make better products. Smart phones have been reduced, but the quality of mobile phones has improved. Under the pressure of Xiaomi, the competitiveness of domestic mobile phone products has been improved by a level. As long as these domestic mobile phone brands are willing to go overseas, their main mobile phone products will not be unknown in any country in the world today, and they will be competitive products. OnePlus's overseas expansion is an obvious example.

Lei Jun compares the current Xiaomi to Japan's Sony in the 1970s, in order to break the prejudice of other countries, including Chinese people, against domestic brands. But the contradiction is that Xiaomi is known for its price killer. Even though the product quality has improved, Lei Jun does not have the courage to increase the price of the entire product to compete with international brands.

You should know that Sony in the 1970s was also bold in making various innovative attempts. The blood of technological innovation has basically been branded into Sony by Akio Morita. Sony dares to innovate and also dares to set a high price for innovative products to convince consumers. It is precisely because of the confidence in technological innovation flowing in Sony's blood that even in the current wave of Sony's decline, Sony still dares to set a high-end price for its products.

Product prices often represent a company's confidence in it. This attitude is in the blood of Apple, Samsung, and even Taiwan's HTC. This is the consumer's perception of their brand. An excellent brand must have its unique brand premium ability, which Xiaomi at least does not reflect. Perhaps it should be said that the quality and craftsmanship of Xiaomi phones are not enough to satisfy Lei Jun.

Lei Jun's product ecosystem from Xiaomi power strip

At yesterday's press conference, Lei Jun spent a long time explaining why Xiaomi makes power strips, including his complaints about the industrial design of traditional power strips. China has a market of 400 million power strips a year, which is about the same as smartphones. How could Lei Jun miss such a large and easy-to-make-money market? In the past, Bulls made money quietly. You don't think things that cost tens or hundreds of dollars are expensive, but in fact, the profits are very huge.

Lei Jun hopes to tell everyone that "99% of the products in life need to be redone" through a product like the Xiaomi power strip that people don't pay much attention to in their lives.

The socket strip released this time has a great impact on traditional socket strips, at least it can sweep a large area of ​​socket strips. After all, many socket strips on the market are copycat products with uneven quality. This socket strip made by Xiaomi is relatively cheap on the basis of its design. If you buy a mobile phone on the Xiaomi official website, you can also buy one. Then, in the future, Xiaomi mobile phones can even be considered not to be equipped with a charging head, because there is a USB interface directly on the socket strip, which can be directly plugged in without a charging head. This can further reduce costs. It happens that the cost of components is rising now, and this part of the cost can be subsidized to other components, just like mobile phone manufacturers now do not provide headphones as standard.

Xiaomi's current product strategy is to quickly copy popular products in the market, and then enter the market at a low price, creating a strong price difference for users, making users hungry for products and placing orders directly. Whether it is the previous Xiaomi bracelet, Xiaomi air purifier or the current Xiaomi socket version, all follow this rule. In essence, the author thinks that Lei Jun knows what kind of product Xiaomi fans like. High-end, low-priced, and good functions are the three major elements that Xiaomi enthusiasts require for Xiaomi products. As long as these three conditions are met, Xiaomi can quickly copy popular products on the market, and it is difficult not to impress those Xiaomi fans.

When you accept Xiaomi's price and quality, when you use Xiaomi's HD cables in your home, Xiaomi's power strips, Xiaomi's TVs, Xiaomi's HD boxes, Xiaomi's routers, Xiaomi's weight scales, Xiaomi's blood pressure meters, Xiaomi's air purifiers, and the Xiaomi bracelet on your wrist... will you find that Xiaomi is appearing more and more in various places in your home and on your body?

Lei Jun is increasing the added value of Xiaomi phones by transforming the necessities of people's lives. If Apple has built an ecological chain with its iOS system to attract App software developers to its own ecosystem, Xiaomi has tied up a large number of hardware developers with funds as a link, optimized production methods, brand reputation, etc. This seems to be in line with the trend. In an era where the threshold for hardware manufacturing is getting lower and the differences between similar hardware are getting smaller, resources are king.

Where is the boundary of Xiaomi?

Of course, Xiaomi is not omnipotent. It is not that it can quickly occupy the market and become the king every time it enters a market. For example, in the TV and headphone markets, Xiaomi must have its ceiling. From the current situation, Xiaomi's accessories can only be said to be cheap and easy to use, which is of course its biggest selling point. You can't compare Xiaomi headphones with top headphone brands such as Sennheiser, AKG, Audio-Technica, and Sony. Xiaomi can only make products in niche areas by investing in a company in a traditional related industry, using Xiaomi's marketing capabilities and huge fans, and adding new products in the niche market that Lei Jun has always entered, giving users a sense of getting a bargain. For example, this time the Xiaomi power strip was developed by the previous breakthrough company.

Today's Xiaomi is different from the Vancl that expanded in the past few years. Lei Jun at least has a certain control over product quality. He will not allow particularly unreliable products to be labeled with the Xiaomi brand. Such products appearing in the market will have a bad impression on the entire Xiaomi brand. Lei Jun may not require that the products produced by Xiaomi-related companies (Huami, Qingmi) must be top-notch, but he must hope that their products are popular. Lei Jun must have strict sales targets for accessory products with the Xiaomi logo. Lei Jun does not care whether Xiaomi-related companies can achieve this. Lei Jun only cares about the final result.

Lei Jun doesn't care how they develop products. He only cares about the final result. Its final sales basically represent the market users' recognition of its products. Once the final sales of the product do not meet Lei Jun's expectations, then this company will be abandoned by Lei Jun and invested in other companies. Xiaomi only gives those Xiaomi companies two years.

Xiaomi is forcing competitors in traditional industries to make better products in its own way, improve the product quality of the entire industry, and enhance the core competitiveness of Chinese products. However, whether Lei Jun's dream of becoming China's Sony can be realized remains to be tested by 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.