Meizu can’t see the future.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account ” Wise Finance” ( ID: onecaijing), author Zijiang. Authorized to reprint.
There was such a mobile phone born in 2009, which rewrote the development of Chinese domestic mobile phones, and it is an important lifeline in the history of the mobile phone industry.
The virgin machine was snapped up on the day of the sale, with sales reaching 100,000 units in just two months, and sales exceeding 500 million yuan in five months. In these dazzling performances, some people compared him to Jobs and praised him for “having Steve’s geek temperament.”
Is this a successful product? Is this a successful sale?
All.
This is the first mobile phone of Meizu, the first domestically produced touch screen mobile phone by its founder Huang Zhang. In 2009, there is no domestic touch screen mobile phone listed, including Huawei and OV.
In the mobile phone industry, a total of two people are known as “China Jobs” title, they are Mei Zhang founder Huang Zhang and Xiaomi founder Lei Jun.
And their fate was rewritten ten years later, and they are also synonymous with the development of Chinese mobile phones – conservative and radical.
According to the market research organization IDC released the latest smartphone shipment report, the shipment of Xiaomi mobile phone in the second quarter was 11.7 million units, down 19.3% from the same period of last year, only after the OV, the fifth place was apple.
1, loss 1.6 billion
In the mobile phone industry, Meizu was a pioneer.
In the past ten years, Meizu has completed the transition from the first mover to the follower. This has once caused Meizu and Huangzhang to appear in public view many times. Meizu changed again, and Huang Zhang remained.
In 2012, Xiaomi, a mobile phone brand based on the Internet, was established. The following year, Huawei officially became an independent Internet brand, and OV followed suit to transform into the Internet mobile phone model.
All turning points occurred in 2015. At this time, Mi OV has been vigorously laid out in the market, and Meizu is facing a dilemma due to the problem of capital chain. A former Meizu employee told Wise Finance, “From the time of at least three years behind, when others are playing in the mountains, we are worrying about food and clothing.”
When Meizu solved the problem of food and clothing, he wanted to eat a fat man. Although Li Nan led the charm blue to kill a bloody road, but after all, he failed to withstand the test of the market. At the same time, he and Huang Zhang also had some friction.
In July of this year, Meinan’s former vice president Li Nan wrote that he had left Meizu to start a business. He thanked the future in the letter and said, “I hope to do something different with a group of interesting people.”
And shortly after Li Nan sent a letter, Huang Zhang said in reply to netizens in the Meizu community, “It is talent for the company to make money, and it is money to lose money.”
At the same time, Huang Zhang also admitted that Meizu had a rough development in the past few years, and used losses to change the scale. “When the capital tide retreated, Meizu’s management committee including me had to change the company’s strategy.” The way to change the company’s strategy is to “enable some younger and more backbones with stay hungry stay foolish.”
The former Meizu staff told Wise Finance that during the development of Meizu company, Huang Zhang never looked for problems on his own, but instead gave questions to others. “Does your own company’s losses have nothing to do with yourself?”
The loss of Meizu is still going on.
“Wise Finance” was exclusively informed that Meizu’s loss in 2018 continued to increase. Its total turnover last year was 7.2 billion yuan, and the total profit was 1.6 billion yuan. In other words, in 2018, Meizu’s profit was in a loss state.
Two years ago, Tianyin Holdings reported in the earnings report that Meizu’s survival. According to its announcement, Meizu had a net loss of 1.037 billion yuan in 2015 and a net loss of 304 million yuan in the first half of 2016.
And, “Wise Finance” also learned that Meizu only paid social security contributions in the year 2018 to 17.77 million yuan, and the payment base was 285 million yuan.
as currently based on 1694 peopleCalculated, Meizu’s monthly social security contribution base is about 13,774 yuan, and social security contributions are about 875 yuan. It can also be said that the current salary level of Meizu Company is about 13,774 yuan per person.
According to “Wise Finance”, the total number of Meizu employees has changed a lot, from more than 4,300 in 2017 to more than 3,000 in 2018, and by 2019, the number was only 1,694.
In the near future, Meizu has once again been reported to have 30% job cuts. According to this ratio, Meizu will optimize more than 500 people and eventually reach more than 1,100 people.
A former Meizu management person told Wise Finance, “Meizu is losing a lot more than a year, and the salary of employees is not low. I don’t know if there will be improvement after this financing, but I think Huang Zhang himself does not Change, Meizu has not changed much. In addition, it also has problems in strategic offensive and defensive”
The above-mentioned people said that in the past, Meizu was proud of the unique operating system and design of its mobile phone. No one came to fight it. It felt nothing. But when the real soldiers came, it did not have the strength to fight. “Meizu’s technology is good, mainly funds and personnel play.”
This is undoubtedly playing with fire and self-immolation. When Huawei, Xiaomi, and OV rushed into the market with weapons, Meizu discovered that the weapons in their hands were like the Qing army and could not fight the British army.
A sharp contrast is how they did when Xiaomi was glorified a few years ago and OV was challenged by Huawei.
1. Laying products at each price segment; 2. Siege downline and 3rd and 4th line sinking market; 3. Putting a lot of manpower and resources into R&D and marketing; 4. Building your own wall; 5. Strengthening Self-internet thinking.
The most important thing for Xiaomi is to directly block the products of each product and price segment, and use a large number of marketing methods to attack and defend each other online. The most important practice of OV is to compete with Huawei on the high-end machine. High.
Therefore, we can clearly see that the price of the OV model has touched the price range of 4000-5000 yuan with Huawei, while Xiaomi has been lingering with the glory in the price range of 2000-3000 yuan.
But the key is that every battle is closely followed by the friendly, and it is a battle with a little action. Whether it is the main research and development of Huawei, or the main innovation OV, or the main cost-effective millet.
“The times have become too fast, but Huang Zhang is not going to change, even if the structure is changed, it is useless, because he is still playing according to his own routine, just like someone else’s new machine will have a follow-up mechanism. However, Meizu does not, and it will always be long-lasting.” A former Meizu management person told Wise Finance.
“Let Huang Zhang change?” said another former employee. “Even if you change, can you catch up?”
Second, turbulent Meizu
“This year’s Meizu turmoil is very powerful. Now Bai Liyang (Bai Yongxiang, Li Nan, Yang Yan) are gone.” A Meizu insider told Wise Finance.
Changes in Meizu management directly led to low morale. At the end of the second quarter of the second quarter, Meizu company was shrouded in a layer of dark clouds, and no one even dared to gasp.
The 2015 Huang Zhang still has confidence in Meizu. “In 2014, Huang Zhang said that he would introduce capital when he met in a meeting. Later, Li Nan found Ali and had that investment.” A former Meizu middle layer revealed to Wise Finance.
After that, Meizu introduced the largest investor, Ali, for the first time. The latter injected a $590 million intensive agent into Meizu. Since then, Meizu has begun to expand wildly, and the employees once reached more than 4,000.
Huang Zhang decided to do a big job.
When the determination of Meizu’s top management is passed down, no one dares to shake the heart. The Charm Blue series came into being at this time. At the same time, this was the beginning of Mei Nan’s vice president Li Nan.
In the same year, LeTV began to attack in the mobile phone market, and its appearance disrupted Meizu’s rhythm in the market.
The Meizu, who is deeply threatened, is starting to fight back. Only 11 conferences were held in 2016, and 14 new products were released. At the same time, Meizu began to weaken the Meizu MX series, expand the flagship PRO product line, stop the Metal product line, and replace it with the E series.
Li Nan’s sea tactics have deeply influenced the Meizu brand, and the charm blue has also become the best-selling thousand yuan machine series in the market at that time. “Since the financing, Meizu has spent a lot of money, and it feels like it’s not spending its own money. The cost of a light conference is about 10 million yuan. It’s probably spent more than 100 million in eleven games.” A former Meizu brand is responsible for People said.
In the years when Huang Zhang “retired”, Meizu has been stable in warm water, but it does not know how fast the world changes, and warm water will one day become boiling water.
A former Meizu employee said, “The Meizu did not do anything in the past two years, and they all reorganized internally, and the vitality was damaged in their own people.”
In 2018, Meizu technology personnel turmoil, internal guilt, its pen Ge technology closed, Yang Lan, Bai Yongxiang, Meizu senior vice president, Flyme business unit president Yang Yan resigned, mass layoffs, which makes Meizu competitive In 2018, the market was lost again.
In the first quarter of the same year, the top four smartphone sales in China were Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, and Apple. Meizu’s market share dropped 10.6% from 16.8%. In the second quarter of 2019, the Chinese smartphone market was shrinking again, and Meizu’s figure completely disappeared from the rankings. At present, the living space of small and medium-sized mobile phone brands is shrinking sharply.
When the yellow seal in the warm water chooses to go out again, it adjusts the overall Meizu company.Architecture and play, but the final effect is minimal, it is still operating in a decade ago mode.
In early 2016, Meizu’s founder, Huang Zhang, said in his speech at the company’s annual meeting that Meizu’s goal for 2016 was “steady growth, profit creation, and advance into IPO”. Bai Yongxiang, then president of Meizu Technology, also mentioned that IPO will be carried out. The goal is 2017 or 2018. The upper board is Bai Yongxiang’s expectation for Meizu.
But for the time being, Bai Yongxiang could not wait until Meizu went public, and he rushed out in 2018, followed by Mei Yan, the head of Meizu marketing and Yang Yan, senior vice president of Meizu Technology.
The same is in 2017, Meizu offline stores closed more than 500, and now it is exposed that Meizu offline stores will only retain 2-3 provinces and cities.
Three, disappeared channels
“A lot of us have switched to other brands, Meizu’s goods have long been cleared.” A dealer in Zhongguancun told Wise Finance that he and some of his partners had already cleared the last batch in the middle of last year. Meizu mobile phone, while it is no longer doing Meizu brand.
The Meizu store in Beijing has also been greatly reduced, from the previous seven to four, and the two major suburban stores in Fangshan and Huairou have been cancelled.
In addition to Beijing, other provinces and cities are also closing stores. For the Meizu large-scale closing phenomenon, the former clerk of Meizu store sighed on “Wise Finance”. “In fact, two or three years ago, the store has been shut down one after another. The products are not good, there is no profit under the line, and the cost of the store is still to be maintained. .”
Distributed stores in various regions began to transfer, and some specialty stores specializing in Meizu products began to change their face and became the new address of Huawei or OV stores. “Wise Finance” noticed that the original Meizu store in Beijing has already changed its face and replaced it with the blue-green interlaced OV brand.
In fact, the business situation of Meizu stores has become more and more early in 2018. According to a clerk who once worked at the Meizu store, there are only 2-3 customers who come to the store every day to buy a new machine, sometimes not even, and most of the customers they receive are basically coming to repair the phone.
At the same time, more than 70 agents jointly protested to Meizu company, and the main contents of the protest included solving the problem of supply hoarding in the store, the price difference between online and offline, the problem of goods, and the store. The proportion of the goods and the specific amount of goods, one by one, the Meizu side should be resolved.
“We did have this problem when we sold it. How many years have passed, the official website engages in promotional results. Our goods are not distributed, and you can’t do it.” An original Meizu dealer told Wise Finance.
Another dealer in Beijing Muxiyuan said that the price of many previous dealers exceeded the online promotion price, while for the large-scale closing of the store, Meizu sideAvoid any communication.
“Some of my friends have also withdrawn from the store. They were withdrawn in 16 or 17 years, but there was a deposit in 16 years. After 17 years, there was no such thing. After others heard that Meizu had no play, they all withdrew.” The above dealer said.
Many original Meizu dealers expressed their dissatisfaction with Meizu on “Wise Finance”. Most of them believe that regardless of the development of Meizu, they should give the dealers an account and let the dealers bear everything including the loss of goods. Responsibility has lost the image of Meizu.
And a dealer in Zhongguancun also said that many goods are cleaned out by mistake, Meizu does not care. “Let them solve them and drag them. The time to wait is not as good as my own.”
The dealer dissatisfaction was once fermented, but there was no one in Meizu who had come out to communicate and coordinate. Even Li Nan and Yang Lan claimed that they did not know, and the Meizu public relations department responded: Uninformed, investigating.
For the store turmoil, a former Meizu executive said that Meizu is mainly reducing all expenses, including offline stores, after all, Meizu’s annual losses are doubled. “When I left last year (at the beginning of the year), the press conferences have been reduced, and the number of invited media is very small. I rarely see the dynamics of the previous masses in the circle of friends.”
In addition, “Wise Finance” also learned that Meizu has defaulted on a consulting company’s service fee of up to one million yuan, and this amount should have arrived at the beginning of the year, but still has no news.
Write at the end
Meizu wants to turn over too much.
But the market structure has been basically adjusted. With OV launching Realme, iQOO and other price-performance brands, Meizu will welcome competitors.
Reverse view of Meizu, which will release the Meizu 16S Pro new model at the end of this month, and in its poster, “Wise Finance” found some keywords, such as Meizu high-level, change and unchanging, Whampoa Military Academy in the mobile phone industry, Celebrity endorsements, mobile phone design, etc.
According to the 2018 China smartphone market report released by research institute Sino, the total sales volume of Meizu mobile phones in 2008 was only 9.48 million units, a year-on-year decline of 46%, and nearly 20 million units sold in 2017. .
Wise Finance was on The “China Mobile Phone Opens the Second Battlefield” mentions that there will be more mobile phone manufacturers in the international market and battlefields other than mobile phones, such as IOT eco-chain products. Etc. But Meizu has no achievements in these aspects, and still stays in the “original” state.
“Meizu will not withdraw the store again?” A Meizu store clerk in Beijing smiled bitterly. “I don’t know this, but our store should not shut it down.”
No one wants to see the forerunner of the mobile phone industry leave, but no one can see the future of Meizu.