It is very dangerous to learn millet in the field of home appliances.

The big-screen refrigerator you paid for automatically plays advertisements, allowing consumers to enjoy elevator treatment at home.

The magical function of Mi Yun refrigerator makes many consumers vomit, which is no less controversial than the mandatory 30-second start-up advertisement of smart TV. Behind the refrigerator in Mi Yun is Mi Yun Science and Technology, a promising smart home rookie and the leader of Xiaomi's ecological chain.

From the day it was born, it was branded with a deep "millet model".

In 20 14, Xiaomi was pushing forward the strategic cooperation with midea126.6 billion yuan, and Chen Xiaoping was then the technical vice president of midea's household appliances division and the general manager of rice cooker company.

Before and after the cooperation was reached, Xiaomi co-founder &; Vice President Liu De led a team to visit Midea Group and met Chen Xiaoping by chance.

At that time, Chen Xiaoping had been working in Midea Group for 15 years, and gradually moved from the grass-roots level to the position of senior manager, and had formed profound opinions on many household appliances.

During the chat, Liu De and Chen Xiaoping talked about the water leakage of almost all water purifier products on the market at that time. Liu De believes that water leakage is a typical industrial-grade pain point. If it can break through, Xiaomi can enter the water purifier industry.

Chen Xiaoping suddenly said to Liu De, "Brother De, come and invest in me, and I'll do it."

Although Chen Xiaoping has no experience in developing water purifiers, he is a veteran with 65,438+05 years experience in household appliances. Liu De agreed to invest almost without hesitation. Mi Yun Science and Technology was established in May, 20 14, and became a screw in Xiaomi's smart home layout.

The water purifier industry is basically innovated every five years. On the other hand, the founding team of dozens of people in Mi Yun has no experience in research and development of water purifiers. If you can't come up with a solution as soon as possible, you are likely to be left behind by the speed of market iteration and miss the opportunity.

Under such anxiety, Chen Xiaoping took a group of employees to discuss three sets of technical solutions, and selected the strategy of "three bets". Because Mi Yun can't afford the risk of starting all over again after failure, R&D personnel "grit their teeth" and push forward three schemes at the same time, and try and make mistakes in parallel.

With dozens of employees working overtime, the first-generation millet water purifier made in Mi Yun was officially unveiled in July 20 15, and it only took more than one year before and after.

This practice of keeping up with the industrial outlet is just in line with the outlet theory advocated by Lei Jun in his early days: "Entrepreneurship is a pig standing on the outlet" and "following the trend".

The book Notes on the Field of Xiaomi Ecological Chain points out that the Xiaomi water purifier adopts an innovative "integrated waterway" design, and more than 400 patents have been formed in the design process, including more than 100 invention patents, and the innovation rate of parts has reached more than 90%, which is known as a great innovation that promotes the whole industry every five years.

In addition, the price of this water purifier is 1299 yuan, which is far lower than that of similar products on the market at that time, such as Midea water purifier 2499 yuan and Qinyuan water purifier 2999 yuan.

With good experience and low price, Mi Yun became famous in World War I.

However, only six years later, consumers' impression of Mi Yun has undergone a great reversal: from the upstart water purifier with a sense of science and technology to the big bluff of "just advertising bad money".

At present, there are numerous complaints about Mi Yun products in various forums; Since 202 1, the company's share price has dropped by 70%, hovering around $5. The latest refrigerator, advertising door, got Mi Yun whipped again.

(Mi Yun 5G Internet refrigerator)

Liu De once liked to use the "bamboo forest effect" to describe the relationship between Xiaomi and eco-chain enterprises.

"Today's Internet companies are more like bamboo. As long as the time is right, a spring rain can grow up overnight. "

In the early stage of growth, the enterprises of Xiaomi ecological chain spread each other and grow together based on Xiaomi's model, flow and channels. Many enterprises really grew up overnight like bamboo forests.

But the bamboo forest grows fast, but it is delicate. Bamboo roots generally grow horizontally, instead of rooting down to resist wind and rain, and they are shallow in the soil, grow slowly in the later stage, and have higher requirements for soil and water.

Once separated from the group and suitable environment, bamboo will have problems.

Soon after the 20 15 water purifier became famous in World War I, Mi Yun embarked on a road of "millet removal". Not only do you want to get rid of the single identity of "OEM for Xiaomi", but you even want to be another Xiaomi.

In 20 16, 20 17 and 20 18, Mi Yun Science and Technology launched 17, 18 and10/respectively, and the products extended from the kitchen water purifier to the living room and the living room.

On September 25th, 20 18, a bell rang and Mi Yun was listed on NASDAQ, announcing the birth of "China's first home Internet of Things".

Chen Xiaoping, the proud founder on the stage, said that he would like to thank two people: the first is Mr Xiaomi Leijun, and the second is Mr Fang Hongbo. Lei Jun made him systematically learn the methods of Internet, and Fang Hongbo's years of work experience cultivated his industry experience. "The combination of the two has created the whole house Internet appliances in Mi Yun today."

By 20 19, Mi Yun simply released an open IoT (Internet of Things) system, which changed the business model from selling home appliances to providing home IOT solutions, and also released an IOT chip code-named "Wukong".

To put it simply, from the perspective of business layout, Mi Yun has almost become another millet except for a few years of not making mobile phones. If Mijia is the smart home "grocery store" launched by Xiaomi, then Mi Yun can be called "the grocery store in the grocery store".

The reason why Chen Xiaoping wants to get rid of Xiaomi is easy to understand.

According to the agreement signed between Mi Yun and Xiaomi, the water purifier and its supporting products provided by Mi Yun to Xiaomi are specially designed for Xiaomi and can only be sold to Xiaomi. In addition, the retail price of related products is shared by Xiaomi and Mi Yun according to the poly-cost-effective strategy * * *, and the sales gross profit is shared by both parties according to the ratio of 50:50. On the other hand, as mentioned above, the price of water purifier made in Mi Yun is lower than that of similar products.

Once in and out, the profit of Mi Yun water purifier was diluted. According to the prospectus issued by Mi Yun Science and Technology 20 18, the gross profit margins of its intelligent water purification systems in the first half of 20 16, 20 17 and 20 18 were 23.4%, 30% and 33.2% respectively. In contrast, the gross profit margin of domestic water purifier manufacturers such as Bi Shuiyuan and Sunrise Oriental exceeds 40%.

After becoming famous through Xiaomi channel, it is not uncommon for Xiaomi eco-chain enterprises to improve their profit margins with their own brands. However, unlike No.9 Robot, Roborock and other eco-chain enterprises that set up new brands around the original products, Chen Xiaoping repeatedly stressed that Mi Yun's positioning is to be a "smart internet in the whole house", and it is obviously difficult to achieve this goal just by making a water purifier.

Therefore, aiming at the whole smart home track like Lei Jun and making a comprehensive attack on the product line has become the only choice for Mi Yun. However, this road is not easy.

At present, Mi Yun has more than 60 product lines. Judging from the completeness of product categories, it can almost rival Chen Xiaoping's old club Midea Group. However, judging from the feedback from consumers, Mi Yun is suspected of being "lax in everything".

Search Mi Yun refrigerator, Mi Yun washing machine and Mi Yun range hood on the consumer service platform "Black Cat Complaint". As of126 October, there were 190, 106 and 57 complaints respectively, most of which were about various quality problems such as broken refrigerator liner, abnormal sound of air conditioner and smoke from range hood. And mixed with dissatisfaction with the after-sales service is not in place.

Consumers described to Jiji. com that the large-screen refrigerator they bought had problems such as the voice assistant speaking without instructions after using it for one month. In the after-sales process, the official commitment of 24-hour or 48-hour on-site maintenance is often about a week behind, and the master's two visits have not completely solved the problem and can only be replaced. "After-sales service is very slow, and this intelligent thing is difficult to repair. My family is using a new refrigerator now, and I don't want to sell it if there is a problem in the future. Too much trouble. " She said.

Yan Yu, a senior practitioner in the home appliance industry, analyzed that the frequent product quality problems in Mi Yun are inseparable from the OEM mode adopted. Mi Yun Science and Technology describes its business model as a light asset model, which is different from the integration of R&D, production and marketing of Midea and Gree. Instead, most of the product production is outsourced to foundries, and transportation, logistics, installation and after-sales service are outsourced to third-party service providers.

(Mi Yun Dishwasher)

Yan Yu told the market: "OEM is an innovative mode of production, there is nothing wrong." Enterprises do not need to invest huge sums of money to build factories, but can focus on product research and development. For example, in the mobile phone field, there are several well-known foundries in China, which are also very professional. In the field of home appliances, there is no specialized foundry enterprise in China. OEM enterprises are often those third-tier enterprises. If your own products can't get great sales and reputation in the market, you will help others to do OEM work. There are no strict standards in technology and quality control, and the entrusting party may not be able to supervise. "

Yan Yu mentioned that the washing machine in Mi Yun was contracted by Nanjing Skyworth, the range hood in Mi Yun was contracted by Hesheng (Guangdong Hesheng Electric Appliance), and the refrigerator in Mi Yun was contracted by Hefu Xueqi Electric Appliance, Foshan Xiaoxian Interconnection Electric Appliance and Nanjing Skyworth.

Search market data, in 2020, the above four OEMs will rank behind the top ten in all product fields.

The OEM mode has brought about problems such as uneven product quality and inadequate after-sales service, but Mi Yun has found a group of loyal users by virtue of its price advantage.

Li Zhengqi, a consumer who just bought a refrigerator in Mi Yun, was circled for this reason. He mentioned: "Under the premise of the same configuration and space, no other refrigerator is cheaper than Mi Yun."

From the data point of view, there are not a few people who recognize Miyun's cost-effective strategy. The epidemic in 2020 prompted the smart home market to break out, and the cloud rice laid out in advance caught up with the wind. The annual revenue increased by 25.3% year-on-year, and the total number of household users exceeded 565,438+10,000. Mi Yun Chen Xiaoping has publicly stated that the user reference rate of Mi Yun brand is as high as 28%, which means that 28% of new users in Mi Yun are transformed through word of mouth.

In fact, it is one of Xiaomi's familiar ways to let consumers pay the bill with cost performance, turn consumers into fans, and then get sales growth through fan recommendation.

"Sales and Market" magazine once summarized the early "millet model" into five points, namely, developing fan economy, connecting online and offline, creating "explosive model", social marketing and event marketing.

It is undeniable that the early millet did quickly open the market with the above five points. However, Sales & Market magazine also mentioned that Xiaomi conducts model marketing on the premise of "accurately meeting the needs of different users and making great efforts in the process of making products". In contrast, Mi Yun, which lacks phenomenal explosions and advertising refrigerators, obviously lacks the "skill" comparable to Xiaomi.

Wei Li, a researcher in the smart home industry, believes that kitchen appliances with screens actually have real market demand. "For example, if someone rings the doorbell while you are cooking, if there is a screen on the range hood, you can transfer the image to the visual doorbell." But compared with the doorbell, brushing Tik Tok and watching videos are unnecessary functions, which increases unnecessary costs.

Villi revealed to the market that Midea has launched a high-end positioning range hood with a screen, in which the cost of a small screen is about tens of RMB, which will not greatly increase the overall cost of the range hood.

Liu Buchen, a senior observer in the home appliance industry, believes that Mi Yun's vigorous marketing strategy is out of date. "Mi Yun imitated Xiaomi's Internet marketing everywhere in the early days, but today, Xiaomi has gradually abandoned its early ideas and transformed into a technology company, and Mi Yun, as an imitator of Xiaomi, still stays in Xiaomi's early operating concept and model."

This is also reflected in Mi Yun's performance. In 2020, Mi Yun's R&D expenditure will be 266 million yuan, which will be distributed to more than 60 product lines, and each category will receive about 4 million yuan. Wang Leyan, who worked in the smart home industry in R&D, told City Weekly that the scale of R&D was relatively small. "Not only is there a big gap with giants such as Midea and Gree, but there is also a big gap with companies with lower rankings such as Changhong."

In 20 18, 20 19 and 2020, Mi Yun's sales and marketing expenses are 3.06 times, 2.59 times and 2.24 times of R&D expenses respectively.

Under the background of vigorous marketing, from 20 17 to 2020, the gross profit margin of Mi Yun science and technology showed a trend of "three consecutive declines", which were 3 1.5%, 28%, 23.3% and 18.6% respectively. To some extent, this shows that for Miyun, Xiaomi's old road is not easy to walk and it is difficult to get through.

Negroponte, the author of Digital Survival and a professor at MIT, once said: "The innovation in the Internet of Things era should be to put a chicken in the microwave oven, and the microwave oven knows how to cook this chicken, instead of turning on the switch of the microwave oven through the mobile phone."

In the Red Sea market of home appliances, smart home is indeed a good entry point. However, there are first established strong players Gree and Midea in the market, and then there is Xiaomi with first-class supply chain integration ability. If you want to be a saboteur, Mi Yun needs to achieve the same technological innovation as the "microwave oven that can roast chicken".

(Bai, Li Zhengqi, both pseudonyms)

References:

1, Notes on Xiaomi Ecological Chain Battlefield, Xiaomi Ecological Chain Barn College.

2. Xiaomi Mode 3: Mi Yun Science and Technology, multipoint flowering, Founder Securities.

3. "Miyun big-screen refrigerator becomes a big-screen advertising machine. Is the home appliance with screen" pseudo-intelligence "?" , interface news

(Author Dong, editor)