The eternal law of Internet thinking: content + terminal

Last week, the investigation of LeTV's set-top box caused a sensation, and many pirated set-top box manufacturers were shut down. It is reported that compared with LeTV's suspension of set-top box sales, Xiaomi only changed the name of the "Sohu Zone" in Xiaomi TV to the "Hot Zone". Although there is no major change in the content, the intention to implement the radio and television rectification policy is obvious.

LeTV and Xiaomi can be said to be the two fastest-growing Internet companies in the past two years. After LeTV sued Xiaomi for infringement of content on its platform, the two companies, both of which adhere to the "content + terminal" Internet thinking, began to be constantly compared.

It can be said that LeTV and Xiaomi, which have too many intersections in this life, were actually very different in their previous lives. As we all know, LeTV got rich through video websites, while Xiaomi started with mobile phone hardware. To sum it up with Internet thinking, it can be summarized as: content and terminals.

But after LeTV slowly turned to the field of Internet TV and comprehensively built the LeTV ecosystem of "content + platform + terminal + application", Xiaomi, which is still engaged in lawsuits with copyright content companies, seems a little powerless no matter how you look at it.

Back then, most video websites relied on traffic to make money, but only LeTV insisted on being the legitimate version. In the past two years, people's copyright awareness has become increasingly high, the determination of the radio and television to implement Document No. 181 has become increasingly strong, and the payment model has been continuously formed, so LeTV's advantage in content has become more and more prominent.

Xiaomi, which wanted to get a piece of the pie in the content market by entering the Internet TV field, was not good at making apps and games, so it could only enter the content market through the pleasing online video field. This led to a lawsuit between it and several content copyright companies.

In fact, compared with LeEco, which has entered the terminal market with content, Xiaomi, which has won the hearts of the people time and time again with hardware development, is almost impossible to win more and more traffic in China's mobile Internet with terminals without content. Because in the current market competition, hardware advantages are the key, but the copyright dispute is more intense.

In particular, the news that LeEco will truly enter the smartphone market has become increasingly clear, and Xiaomi's hardware advantage may also fade away. From the official establishment of "LeEco Mobile Intelligent Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd." on May 6 to the poaching of former Meizu Vice President Ma Lin and Vice President of Marketing Mo Cuitian, LeEco's strong involvement in the smartphone industry and its determination to further improve the LeEco ecosystem have become more and more determined.

It is undeniable that LeTV is indeed building the so-called LeTV ecosystem through content companies such as LeTV.com, LeTV Pictures, and Huaer Pictures, and through smart terminals such as LeTV Super TV, LeTV Box, and LetvUI. These are incomparable to Xiaomi, which only produces 4K TVs but has no 4K content.

I wonder if Xiaomi will wake up from the 150,000 yuan fine after experiencing the copyright dispute with LeTV, and whether it will, like Alibaba, build its own huge copyright world by investing in film and television, acquiring content companies, etc., and then turn around and bring the content-rich Xiaomi TVs, Xiaomi boxes, etc. to truly compete with the LeTV ecosystem.

After the high-profile launch of the Hammer smartphone faced quality issues and insufficient production capacity, which led to a full refund, what kind of surprises will LeTV, which also develops smartphones, bring us?

Will LeTV, which has truly created a complete ecosystem through perfect PCs, mobile phones, PADs, TVs and other screens, become the next model for the industry?

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.