In the next five years, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu’s gambling will continue, but they no longer have such strong incentives.
“In the early days, I was ignorant and fearless in manufacturing, and I was ignorant and bet with Dong Sister.”
At the recent commemorative meeting of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the China Quality Association, Lei Jun talked about the one billion gambling contract with Dong Mingzhu. Everyone is concerned about whether the 1 billion bet will really be honored. Dong Mingzhu said: “Five years ago, I gambled with Lei Jun for 10 billion. Others care about 10 billion for you. I said I don’t want it. I hope that in the next five years, I will gamble with Lei Jun.”
In this regard, Lei Jun also readily accepted the move: “Dong Dajie said, 10 billion is not to be, I have to play with me for another five years, I am still willing to continue to try.”
On December 12, 2013, at the 14th China Economic Year of the Year Awards Ceremony hosted by CCTV Financial Channel, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu argued about the Internet model and the traditional manufacturing model, and hit 1 billion Yuan’s sky-high price gambling. Lei Jun said that the turnover of millet will exceed Gree in five years. If it exceeds, I hope Dong Mingzhu can lose one yuan. Dong Mingzhu’s domineering response, if more than willing to lose 1 billion.
Five years later, Lei Jun lost the bet. In 2018, Gree Electric’s revenue was 20.04 billion yuan, and Xiaomi Group was 174.915 billion yuan. Gree won by more than 25 billion yuan. However, the gap between the two has been greatly reduced. In 2013, Xiaomi’s revenue was less than 26.5 billion yuan, while Gree’s revenue was 120 billion yuan, more than 4 times that of Xiaomi. This is enough to prove the success of Lei Jun’s Internet mobile phone model. But the failure of the billion-dollar gambling has also made many people realize that the strength of the traditional manufacturing giant is not easily surpassed.
Currently, Xiaomi is a growth enterprise, and Gree is at a mature stage. With the difference in revenue growth between the two, it is very likely that the next five years of millet revenue will exceed Gree.
Lei Jun had vigorously advocated the Internet model to make mobile phones in his early years. Xiaomi used this in the early stage to grow rapidly. In just two and a half years, he achieved the first mobile phone shipments in China and the third in the world. Revolutionary changes in the industry. However, this model also has its limitations. After Xiaomi slipped into the trough in 2016, Lei Jun began to learn from the traditional OPPO, vivo, plus code offline channels.
Today, Lei Jun does not need to prove the subversive and destructive power of the Internet model. In the next five years, although he continues to bet with Dong Mingzhu, their gambling is no longer as symbolic as the previous one. On the contrary, Lei Jun is more concerned about how to break through the limitations brought by Internet mobile phones.
On June 18 this year, Lei Jun emphasized at the internal meeting that Xiaomi’s goal in the Chinese mobile phone market in the next three years is to stabilize the situation. The path to achieve is exactly 5 billion yuan of special funds to build a new retail channel for Xiaomi. (offline channel).
Compared with the overconfidence of the Internet model five years ago, today’s Lei Jun respects competitors and market rules more. He said : “We are still young, and the foundation is not solid enough. Later, it was normal by Huawei. This is normal. Many people ask me why Xiaomi can’t surpass Apple and can’t exceed Huawei. I think every entrepreneur must have Such determination. But it takes time and needs foundation.”
However, the current pressure on Lei Jun is very high. The global shipment growth of Xiaomi mobile phone is weak, especially the share of the Chinese market is in jeopardy. In the four consecutive quarters, the double-digit volume of shipments in China has declined. In May of this year, Lei Jun had personally served as the president of China, and set up a major business division, plus black power to open up the white electricity market, to share the pressure on mobile phones.
The header image is from Xiaomi