478: Chapter 478 Rice's New Business: Drones

"Lu Weibin definitely went over to manage the mobile phone business, and it is highly likely that they will create an Honor brand, just like Huawei!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present turned their eyes toward him.

[Remember the domain name of this site]

No one here is a fool; after all, Xiaomi's domestic market share is ostensibly around 10%, but in reality, it has already dropped to about 7%.

If Transsion creates another cost-effective sub-brand, they will really need to find a new way out.

Seeing everyone like this, the anger in Lei Jun's heart grew even greater.

What made him feel even worse was that this wasn't the first time Shen Fei had intercepted them.

Every time he thought he had seized an opportunity, he would end up being backstabbed by Transsion early on.

"Let's put aside the matter of people for now."

Lei Jun suppressed his anger and turned to look at everyone.

"Let's talk about the current state of our business.

How is the Full-screen Display technology for our phones coming along? When will Google's new framework be usable?"

Hong Feng looked troubled, stammered for a long time, and finally said:

"Although we've obtained a 4.5% stake in Google, we've been arguing with them these past few days. There have been many meetings and various votes, but there haven't been any updates to the code.

The current Android Full-screen Display is just a PowerPoint presentation; it has already been delayed until April 2015!"

"April next year? Then what's the point of playing this game?

If I'm not mistaken, Transsion's sub-brand will arrive this year. Even if we have the Full-screen Display by then, it will be useless!"

"That feature is just the icing on the cake; in the end, it all comes down to performance. Now, Honor has already learned our tricks inside and out!

They're disparaging us in every way, and I suspect that after Lu Weibin goes over there, it will only get worse!

What are we supposed to do then?"

The meeting room erupted into a cacophony of discussion again.

The direction of the discussion made Lei Jun so angry he felt like vomiting blood.

At first, it was fine; Xiaomi has money now. But as they talked, it turned into Xiaomi having money but being unable to buy core technology. They thought, might as well have focused on R&D from the beginning; our position might be better now.

Now... half of this money will likely go to Transsion for patent fees, since our product rhythm is always one step slower... Xiaomi has long lost its pricing power.

The dark look on Lei Jun's face deepened. These people were actually boosting the morale of the enemy and dampening their own; he really wanted to replace them all.

Why can't Xiaomi do its own R&D? This is over 4 billion USD, over 20 billion Chinese Yuan!

If we really invested in R&D, could Xiaomi possibly have no results? Paying all of it in patent fees—how is that possible?

Of course, what Lei Jun was most unwilling to admit was that these people were questioning his initial decisions...

After a while, he knocked on the table, and the people who had been discussing immediately quieted down.

"Alright, let's move past this for now! Let's talk about the automotive business."

After saying this, Lei Jun looked at the head of the Automotive Department, which had been established just last year.

"How are the negotiations with Hu Zhengnan from Geely going?"

"Hu Zhengnan has already loosened his stance and is willing to bring his core team to join us for joint R&D."

Wang Xiaoyan spoke up. Although this was good news, she didn't feel confident in her heart.

"It's just that... the car manufacturing cycle is long. From R&D to mass production, it will take at least three years.

But Transsion's fifth new energy vehicle model is about to hit the market, and their cumulative sales have already exceeded 1.3 million units. They are firmly in the first tier of domestic new forces.

By the time our car hits the market, the market landscape will basically be set."

"So what if it takes three years?"

Lei Jun slammed his fist onto the conference table, trying to awaken their fighting spirit, and then berated them:

"In the past, we didn't have money, so if we couldn't catch up in phones or cars, that was one thing.

Now we have over 4 billion USD in our hands; can we still not catch up?

There is a way to fight when you don't have money, and a way to fight when you do.

Can't you learn from Transsion and just buy it?"

Everyone in the meeting room was instantly enlightened. That's right, they have money, they can buy it too!

The power of money has never been the exclusive technology of any one company; Xiaomi can do it too, as long as they have the money.

If they run out of money, they can just raise funds. After all, they are the white gloves of the United States tech industry. Everyone's minds instantly became active.

Just then, Department Head Liu De, who is in charge of the supply chain business, spoke up:

"Lei Jun, investing 10 billion in the automotive track is enough. After all, Transsion has already laid out too much in this sector; we simply can't catch up!

It would be better to choose a track that Transsion hasn't seen before, and one where there is only one big player in the country, with significant market potential."

"Department Head Liu De is right. We must take a path that Transsion hasn't walked, so we can prove our technological prowess."

Lei Jun's eyes lit up, but soon he fell into a state of despondency, as Transsion's investments had long occupied every industry:

"Speak quickly, what industry is it?"

With the shift in Lei Jun's attitude, the atmosphere in the meeting room relaxed significantly.

"Consumer drones!"

Department Head Liu De also walked to the projector and searched for relevant information.

The appearance of the data was instantly seen by everyone as the key to breaking the deadlock.

"In the current consumer drone market, DJI accounts for over 70% of the market share.

This company is purely technology-driven; their products are indeed good, but their marketing is terrible, and the prices are expensive. Entry-level models cost thousands, close to 10,000, which ordinary consumers simply can't afford.

More importantly, Transsion has never set foot in the drone sector; it's completely blank for them."

As soon as these words were spoken, the meeting room immediately became lively.

"That's right, drones! How did I not think of that?"

"Isn't it just a few batteries, a complete set of algorithms, and some cameras?

The bulk of the cost is in the algorithms; the rest is basically pure profit."

"Looking at this data, they are just a company of tech geeks who only know how to bury their heads in R&D and don't understand users or marketing at all.

If we enter the market, as long as we bring in the same strategy we used for mobile phones, taking down DJI will be simple."

"Back in the day, didn't Honor and us rely on cost-effectiveness to beat traditional manufacturers in mobile phones? How hard can drones be?"

"Poach some engineers, stack some specs, bring the price down to half of DJI's, and sales will definitely explode."

Everyone chimed in, getting more and more excited, as if they could already see the scene of drones selling well and Xiaomi finally holding its head high.

Lei Jun sat in his place, also constantly thinking about this direction.

They couldn't beat Transsion in other areas, and drones were a brand-new track.

As for the industry bully...

So what if DJI has strong technology? Consumers want cheap, easy-to-use, and prestigious products; Xiaomi understands this game best.

Using cost-effectiveness to attack the market, then relying on channels to distribute goods, and using marketing to build hype—Transsion hasn't stolen this method yet.

And he believed that by the time Transsion reacted, Xiaomi would have already occupied the market, and by then, they might even be able to turn around and acquire DJI.

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. The pent-up frustration he had been feeling instantly vanished, and his eyes were suddenly full of fighting spirit.

"It's decided. Establish the drone project team immediately, with Department Head Liu De leading it, and an initial investment of 2 billion Chinese Yuan.

Go poach the best flight control engineers for me, configure the supply chain to directly benchmark against DJI, produce a prototype in three months, and achieve mass production within half a year!"