Hisense smart TV changes leadership: turn around or go straight?

Last night (June 9), news of a personnel change came out in the smart TV industry: Hisense, the leader in smart TVs in the traditional TV industry, suddenly decided to remove Kaohsiung Yong, CEO of the smart function design team - Hisense Cloud, and appointed Yu Zhitao, a young figure in Hisense, to take over. No adjustments have been made to other personnel for the time being.

Who is Kaohsiung Yong? In 2008, he joined Hisense, which was in urgent need of reform, as an Internet elite. The most glorious four years on his resume included the period when he worked under Chen Tianqiao to develop Shanda Box, which was one of the main reasons why he joined Hisense. After joining Hisense, he first served as the deputy general manager of Hisense Media. In the second half of 2013, he was transferred to the CEO of Hisense Cloud Technology Co., Ltd., mainly responsible for the product planning and operation of smart functions in Hisense smart TVs. Hisense Vidaa TV was designed during his tenure.

Logically speaking, as an elite talent that Hisense hired from outside the industry at a high price, he not only has a good background in the Internet but is also able to design a product that can be accepted by users. His image is positive. Why was he suddenly fired? According to an unnamed senior executive from Hisense, one of the reasons for his marginalization may be that his achievements are too great for his boss: from the industry's perspective, many industry partners only know Kaohsiung Yong and his team about Hisense smart TVs, and are completely unfamiliar with other related departments. The press's praise for Kaohsiung Yong as the father of Vidaa TV may make Hisense's top management feel uncomfortable.

From the perspective of the smart TV industry, Kaohsiung Yong's departure has a huge impact:

First, it slowed down the development momentum of Hisense smart TV.

Prior to this, Hisense smart TVs already had considerable advantages over traditional TV manufacturers: judging from Vidaa's interactive process and operating experience, Hisense Vidaa has made significant improvements over the smart systems developed by traditional TV manufacturers, and there is still a lot of room for improvement; at the same time, Vidaa, as a brand of smart TVs and interactive systems, has gradually been accepted by the industry and consumers, and is planning to "go global" to expand its user base. According to Hisense insiders, Vidaa has already launched an overseas strategy and is preparing to launch smart TV services in Japan. The forms considered include providing a full set of Vidaa software to a certain brand of Japanese TVs. If this strategy can be implemented, the reputation of "counterattacking the TV nest" will be a great value advertisement for Vidaa and Hisense brands.

Second, will the road to video aggregation go smoothly?

The video aggregation application Juxiangkan released by Hisense on March 18 this year is a highly controversial product in the industry. It covers almost all the main video content of video websites and a completely free user business model, which has a great impact on the backward-paying user business model adopted by smart TVs based on video websites such as LeTV. It is understood that in the functional planning of the next generation of Vidaa products, a video aggregation application with a unified interactive method and a user single-piece payment function is already under development. This will not only significantly improve the user experience, but also provide video websites participating in the video aggregation system with the opportunity to get real income. Although the payment ratio of a single piece is not high, if combined with Hisense's huge user base, there is still a great opportunity to form a stable source of income. Coupled with the patch advertising system that will definitely be launched in the future, it is no longer a pipe dream to create a new and healthy ecological system on smart TVs.

Third, the timing of the implementation of joint ventures with Internet giants is uncontrollable.

If Hisense Smart TV had not changed its mind at the last minute, this shocking news would not have spread so quickly: Hisense is discussing with an Internet giant to establish a joint venture to jointly develop the smart TV market, including the procurement and operation of video content, as well as the development and cooperation of game applications. The Internet giant's operational capabilities in Internet content, coupled with Hisense's rich experience in TV manufacturing, and Vidaa's more than a year of production and sales experience, have given Hisense a preliminary understanding of how the Internet works. If such a joint venture can operate smoothly, it is believed that it will have a huge impact on the current product development and operation model of the smart TV 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.