guest name: On June 13, Geely acquired Meizu 79.09% of the equity and gained sole control of Zhuhai Meizu. The shareholding ratio of founder Huang Zhang dropped to 9.79%. In Ke Mingjun's view, this transaction is a win-win situation for Geely, Meizu, Huang Zhang, and China's new automobile industry. We can also see Huang Zhang's transparency and the trends in the two major industries of automobiles and mobile phones. Huang Zhang is a Hakka from Meizhou. His academic qualifications are limited to high school, but he has very advanced innovative ideas, is a geek, and is the earliest godfather of China's fan economy, which is far better than many highly educated people. He has grown up with a company and an industry to this day, and now Meizu has been acquired, or said that Meizu has been integrated into a new ecosystem (car). In a sense, it is also building a "second curve" of innovation. has created a storm in an industry with one product. It can be said that it is the miracle created by Huang Zhang, a Hakka. Ke Mingjun wrote a Huang Zhang in 2017 (click here to read), and at the same time bought a Meizu mobile phone as a backup phone. Today, I will write about Huang Zhang and Meizu from a new perspective.
Car + mobile phone = car machine
Entrepreneurs’ insights into the industry
Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the domestic automobile giant Geely, officially acquired 79.09% of Meizu Mobile Phones and became the largest shareholder. At the same time, the founder of Meizu originally held 49.08%. Huang Zhang’s shareholding ratio dropped to 9.79%, and Taobao China, which holds 27.23% of the shares, chose to withdraw completely. Geely, which aims to open up the new energy vehicle market, has laid a key plan.
Economist Schumpeter divides innovation into product innovation, technological innovation, market innovation, resource allocation innovation, organizational innovation, etc. Xiong believes that innovation is the establishment of a new production function, and introduces an unprecedented new combination of production factors and production conditions into the production system. Only when innovative development is achieved can entrepreneurs and capital exist, and profits and interest can be generated. The function of entrepreneurs is to achieve innovation and introduce new combinations.
Huang Zhang, who has been working in the field of mobile phone terminals for nearly 20 years, and Li Shufu, who also started business early, are both entrepreneurs who have created successful innovations. The breakthrough and innovation they have done is to combine the mature mobile terminal communication elements of with travel cars to create a new combination.
Innovation Second Curve
Is this a new combination? In fact, those who make cars may have started thinking about integrating with mobile phones a few years ago. Dating back to the rise of taxi-hailing software, smartphones are like an accessory and an extension of the car. Finally, became the "heart" of the car. In turn, mobile phone manufacturers can also perform dimensionality reduction on cars to combat . For example, Huawei provides overall solutions including lidar , intelligent driving and other core systems. As long as car companies choose Huawei's solution, they can quickly develop a new energy vehicle, and the car company will become a puppet. But will the car companies be willing to become puppets? !
When it comes to user experience, the creator of this "heart" is often a thousand miles away. is like the difference between a sentient intelligent heart and a brick.
In terms of creating a communication experience for smartphone users, no one in China has invested in this earlier than Meizu’s Huang Zhang.
Li Shufu once responded to making mobile phones: "Mobile phones are portable mobile terminals that iterate quickly. They are application carriers for electronic product market verification and software innovation. They not only allow users to share innovative results as quickly as possible, but also transfer some of the safe and reliable results to cars. application to realize the close interaction between car, machine and mobile phone software technology.In the future, it has become a major trend to build user ecological chains across borders and build corporate moats in accordance with the law. mobile phones can connect to the Internet of Vehicles and satellite Internet to create rich consumption scenarios, strengthen the ecosystem , and provide users with more convenient, smarter, The multi-screen interactive life experience of the Internet of Everything . "
The future of the automobile industry is smart electric cars , and smartphone terminals can become the soul and heart of smart electric cars. If traditional car manufacturers do not seek change, they will become OEMs for smart electric cars, and they will be overwhelmed. At the bottom of the industry chain. I am afraid that no car manufacturer is willing to hand over its soul. The best and fastest way to build its own soul is to buy a company with more than ten years of relevant experience. Meizu has been making MP3 players for nearly 20 years, and it is obviously more efficient to build Geely's own human-vehicle interactive ecosystem than slowly poaching people from different mobile phone manufacturers and integrating teams. Meizu has tried Flyme for before. Car, it can be inferred that its software development team has experience in the two major fields of automobiles and mobile phones, so after Geely acquires Meizu, the two can be smoothly integrated in the business process later.
Also, many people say this is called Meizu. "Selling oneself" has a feeling of being late. In fact, this is not the author's understanding. Instead, I think it is the embodiment of Huang Zhang's "juvenile feeling". It is not called selling oneself. I think it can be called Link New Yuanyu . You know, with the The advancement of "carbon emission reduction" and other related systems, and the replacement of traditional fuel vehicles by new energy vehicles, means that will create a huge market with an average annual value of 20 trillion! Isn't this a change in the objective market environment? When it comes to quickly switching to the second curve of innovation or connecting to a booming industry, is a kind of "knowledge" and a kind of "sensitivity" that does not stick to the past and moves forward without hesitation. The glory is waiting for the price and the end is empty-handed. It is like a person who holds a stock that has soared but does not know how to stop losses or control risks, and the dream comes to nothing.
It is not the way of an entrepreneur to maintain freedom and embrace the future. Youthful feeling.
Hakka’s youthful feeling
Huang Zhang and Meizu’s innovation and growth
Huang Zhang, who created Meizu, was once a man of the hour in the mobile phone industry, and Meizu was a real pioneer in domestic smartphones. The Meizu M8, launched in 2009, represents Meizu's determination in the field of smartphones. It writes its own core algorithms, designs its own circuit board and chip layout, polishes its baseband, and even redesigns almost the entire UI of the Windows CE system.
Meizu
M8 was an epoch-making product at the time, allowing Meizu to successfully transform from an MP3 manufacturer to a mobile phone manufacturer and create the first hit model in the smartphone era. Two months after the launch of M8, sales reached 100,000 units; five months later, M8 sales exceeded 500 million yuan. At its peak, Meizu's annual mobile phone sales reached 22 million units, and 's market value also reached 12.9 billion, becoming a force that cannot be ignored in the smartphone market.
Meizu M8
However, with the intensification of market competition, the "small but beautiful" Meizu finally lost its market share in the "sea of machine wars" of smartphones. has now returned with other brands in the "Other" category. 3%.
’s choice as the founder and helm of the company at this time still reflects Huang Zhang’s true character. He did not put on a high-profile show, nor did he slap himself in the face, or bow with tears in his eyes and say sorry. Instead, chose to embrace the second curve of innovation - joining the new car camp.
Creating a consumer brand requires people who are good at fighting, brave enough to fight, and resistant to fighting. It takes time and dedication. Many people in business gangs prefer to make quick money and avoid the time-consuming, labor-intensive and creative costs of consumer goods.As a Hakka, Huang Zhang still showed the same spirit of daring to open ports as the Hakkas who went to Southeast Asia. At that time (2003), who in China dared to independently develop all products like and Steve Jobs ? He did it and created the domestic machine king.
In 1976, Huang Zhang was born in Meixian County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. His father was from Fengshun. Huang Zhang rarely appears in public and has not given any video interviews. Regarding him, many media can only piece together an image from his Weibo, sporadic reports and interviews with company employees.
Throughout the history of Meizu, it is full of wars, choices, temptations, competing with . It covers product innovation, technological innovation, market innovation, resource allocation innovation, organizational innovation, etc. mentioned by Schumpeter. Sometimes we catch it, sometimes we miss it, such as ecological innovation. But missing out is sometimes due to genes.
Huang Zhang has been obsessed with electronics since he was a child. He dared to spend seven yuan to buy a radio equipment with ten yuan in his pocket, and even dismantled the first TV set in the village.
6 years old, Huang Zhang was driven out by his father to make a living. Huang Zhang dug some agricultural products in exchange for travel expenses, and went to Shenzhen to work alone. He worked as a chef, studied Cantonese cuisine, worked as a porter, and worked in an electronics factory. In 2002 (26 years old), Huang Zhang served as the general manager of Aegean, a joint venture of Singapore .
Meizu co-founder Bai Yongxiang uses the words music enthusiast and digital madman to describe Huang Zhang. Looking at his equipment, Mr. Keming, this music enthusiast who pursues the ultimate, has reached the level of Ding Yuanying in " Tiandao " (" Distant Savior "). even surpassed Ding Yuanying. That was the ear of that era. the highest enjoyment. Huang Zhang lives in a villa in Zhuhai, less than 2 kilometers away from Meizu headquarters. The house built by the developer at that time was not in the style Huang Zhang wanted, and the Wenchuan earthquake happened. Huang Zhang felt it was unsafe, so he redesigned and renovated it and added many elements to make it easier to listen to HIFI in the basement.
"His enthusiasm for electronic products and pursuit of details are innate. He will hold Meizu's prototype at home for a month and then propose modifications to the curvature of the back."
"Many entrepreneurs will definitely be interested in it. He is more interested in business, but Huang Zhang is different. His pursuit of details and the joy and pleasure he gets from it are beyond our understanding. "
" At first, he was burning equipment, but later he thought there might be a problem with the power cord. I never believed that replacing a power cord cost hundreds of thousands.
Then I thought something was wrong with the house and the floor was resonant, so I replaced it. Then there was something wrong with the light, so I replaced it. There was a problem with the power cord and the wall was demolished. In the end, a transformer and a dedicated line were specially equipped for the sound.
The belt designed by Huang Zhang
Because of Huang Zhang’s forward-thinking vision, the company switched from VCD to MP3, which has a long standby time. The 128MB memory made the Aegean product popular for a while, but when relying on technology or advertising to open up a broader market, Huang Zhang insisted that products should mainly rely on excellent technology and superior functions to win the reputation of consumers. was founded by This had disagreements with shareholders and subsequently left the company.
At the end of 2002, Huang Zhang invested 100,000 in cash and founded Meizu. In June 2003, Meizu's first MP3 Walkman was launched. At the same time, Meizu's website and forum were launched, and Huang Zhang often interacted with consumers on the forum. Every department and every employee of Meizu goes to the Internet every day to understand various information fed back by users. Because the quality was adequate, Meizu quickly occupied the market and became the largest brand in the MP3 market. Huang Zhang’s insistence on quality has allowed Meizu to accumulate a large number of loyal users.
In 2004, IDG asked Huang Zhang to discuss investment cooperation, but the negotiations failed. In 2006, Huang Zhang discovered that the MP3 player industry was on the decline, so he resolutely gave up his position as the leader in the domestic market and joined the smartphone market.He led the team to independently develop Meizu mobile phones. In 2007, the release of iPhone ignited the domestic mobile phone market.
Huang Zhang’s own model
In 2008, Lei Jun began to contact Huang Zhang and Meizu as an investor on the recommendation of the leaders of the High-tech Zone. Huang Zhang also regarded Lei Jun as an investor and told the investor everything from the overall concept to how and why the mobile phone was made, the development process to supplier selection, production and sales, the company's status and plans to core personnel Introduction, contact and financial statements... Huang Zhang's office became Lei Jun's "base" , and Lei Jun's favorite Coke in the refrigerator became an indispensable drink. It was once rumored that Lei Jun would invest 30% in Meizu, but the rumors eventually ended with Lei Jun developing the MIUI system (in 2011) and launching and for Xiaomi mobile phones.
In February 2009, the first Meizu mobile phone M8 developed under the leadership of Huang Zhang was officially launched nationwide. Five months later, sales exceeded 500 million yuan. However, the M8 later developed a problem of partial failure of the touch screen. Huang Zhang decisively announced that in this case, he could replace it with a new model for free. In January 2011, on the day that Meizu’s latest product, the Meizu M9, was launched, it caused thousands of people in the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen areas. Scene of people queuing up to buy. Due to the large number of people pre-ordering the M9 across the country, the M9 did not begin normal supply until April 2011. The queue at the launch of Meizu M9 was even bigger than the queue at the entrance of any Apple Store today.
In 2010, Huang Zhang withdrew from the day-to-day management of the company and became full-time chairman. He retired in seclusion for four years and returned in 2014. 2014 is a watershed year for the mobile phone industry. The domestic mobile phone market has changed. Xiaomi has learned from Meizu’s Internet model and fan cultivation concept, and has rapidly and successfully emerged. LeTV , 360, and Smartisan have entered the game. Huawei, ZTE , and Lenovo The transformation of , and the later Gree , industry competition has become more and more fierce . Ma Qi, the former vice president of Meizu and the general manager of Flyme, took his team to join LeTV. Dozens of key members of the UI department resigned one after another. The software department was all wiped out within a week. LeTV made an offer to Bai Yongxiang with a salary of 0% more than the current salary. internal and external factors pose challenges to Meizu. When
came back, Huang Zhang said that the company would introduce investment, adopt employee stock and option incentive systems, attract more talents, and create a greater win-win situation with more sharing. After the meeting, about 150 senior executives and old employees received stocks. Huang Zhang also personally called some old employees who had resigned, saying that the company had received financing and was willing to give them stocks, hoping that they would return to Meizu.
In 2014, Meizu was at a critical moment of life and death. After Huang Zhang returned, Bai Yongxiang began to create "youth quality product - Meilan . Li Nan was responsible for this brand and achieved sales success. Meizu MX3 mobile phone prices were adjusted across the board and prepared to enter the US market. Meizu MX2 was announced at MWC International Communications in 2013 At the exhibition, it was praised by foreign media as "the pinnacle of China's mobile phone manufacturing." "
In early 2015, Huang Zhang led Bai Yongxiang, Li Nan, Yang Yan and other senior executives to Hangzhou, and made a special trip to meet Jack Ma. Huang Zhang drove 1,300 kilometers on this trip, and finally finalized a 590 million deal with Alibaba 's Jack Ma. Haitong Kaiyuan Fund invested US$60 million in Meizu, and Meizu received a total investment of US$650 million.
After that, Meizu continued to launch new products, and used stars in each press conference, and the name "Meizu Concert" began in 2015. In 2016, sales exceeded 20 million units, a year-on-year increase of more than 350%. When Meizu was launching a sea of machine wars, in June 2016, the greedy Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against Meizu, which had never used Qualcomm chips. The Intellectual Property Office claimed 520 million yuan because Meizu refused to pay patent fees to Qualcomm. In the end, the two parties settled.
At that time, he posted a photo with Jack Ma on Weibo with the text "I have benefited a lot." Later, Jack Ma set a goal for Meizu - to enter the top three in the domestic mobile phone market within three years. A few months later, Huang Zhang handed over the company's affairs to CMO Li Nan and retired again on the grounds that he was exhausted from staying up late for meetings and needed a rest. In the following years, Huang Zhang has been wandering between comeback and retirement, until Bai Yongxiang retired in 2017 and Li Nan resigned in 2018.
While competing products are using their business models and ecology to gain market share, Meizu still insists on polishing its software and hardware products. But the power of ecological backlash is very powerful.
In 2018, in order to stabilize the internal situation, Huang Zhang once again went out to adjust the structure and cut off Meizu's production line. So far, Meizu has completely given up on the low-end market. According to data released by BCI, from December 28, 2020 to January 31, 2021, Meizu’s market share was only 0.1%. In 2022, Meizu was acquired by Geely.
It is said that Huang Zhang likes two movies very much: "Kung Fu Panda" and "Up". The protagonist Po in "Kung Fu Panda" is fat and has no talent, but Po is convinced that he can Kung Fu and eventually become a hero. In "Up", the balloon salesman Carl firmly believes in Paradise Falls and embarks on the trip regardless of difficulties. Meizu Flyme's logo was inspired by the balloons from "Up". Huang Zhang gave each director a DVD of "Up".
Throughout the history of Meizu, like all enterprises, it is full of competition, thorns and thunders. And Huang Zhang also faced off again and again. This is very difficult. Sometimes you are forced to challenge, and sometimes you take the initiative to observe and respond to the challenge. Entrepreneurs had better look at the world like a mirror and actively fight against it.
There have been too many comments about Huang Zhang’s character: stubborn, persistent, conceited, true temperament, desire to control, inferiority complex, low emotional intelligence, focus, loneliness, persistence, ideals, Chinese Jobs, persistent product manager , a bad marketer, a contradiction of inferiority and arrogance... In fact, these were and are not. The
tags are all fixed. People change and are not perfect. people can't cut a boat and ask for a sword. Judging from Huang Zhang's performance in charge, he has been growing and adapting, has been hard-wearing, has been facing challenges, and has an open mind. Sometimes taking risks, exploring, or even trial and error, and daring to fight hard will also shield oneself from ineffective social interactions. Like a hermit, puts aside the sense of presence and ego that many other entrepreneurs strive to cultivate, so that can create with care. The product of your dreams. This is a Hakka man with blood and his own insight.
Finally, he took Meizu to embrace the car, which was still as bright, simple, real and adaptable as ever. Dare to innovate, be forbearing, resistant to wear and tear, tough-necked, and more accustomed to focusing on doing what they believe in. This is part of the Hakka character. This is also the reason why many consumer brands are created by Hakkas, such as Tiger Balm ( Hu Wenhu ), Jimmy Choo (Chou Yangjie), Oppein ( Yao Liangsong ), Vitasoy ( Luo Guixiang ), etc. .
Bodhi has no tree, and the mirror is not a stand. Some Hakka people have a youthful feel. dares to adapt the subjective to the objective, and dares to do things that ordinary people dare not do. are pretty cool.
Recommended reading:
html The history of the 19 Chinese Super League season | General Manager of Meizhou Hakka Club Cao Yang was the main defender of the Guangdong team that won the Sixth National Games, and led the Rizhiquan team to win the first place in the Provincial League, and competed in the Provincial and Hong Kong Cup five times ... …
Meizu Huang Zhang: The earliest geek known as "Chinese Jobs"
Yao Liangsong | The richest man in Meizhou started his career with Niangjiu , and his sister's unintentional words inspired a new industry
Reading history can be wise , culture can be enriched
Ke Mingjun's second book "Meizhou Football History" will be published soon, so stay tuned:
Ke Mingjun's other book "Looking for the Hakka"
presents the Hakka culture with rich pictures and texts written by
The taste, beauty, wisdom, charm, nobility and homeliness of Hakka
(available on all major platforms; search for "Xunwei Hakka" on Jingdong or Dangdang to purchase)
Welcome to follow the "Global Hakka Hall of Fame" video account and Public account
A ethnic lineage that pursues its goals carefully and has numerous celebrities
The culture passed down from our ancestors
blooms in our lives
