My Age of Investment

Wang Tao and Li Zexiang looked contemplative, expanding usage scenarios? How to expand?

Have!

Wang Tao suddenly smiled: "Mr. Xia, does it count to put bombs on the plane? We can try to sell the drone to... the Middle East!"

Li Zexiang gave his student a sideways glance, this brain hole is open enough!

The corners of Xia Jingxing's mouth twitched, and he tried not to laugh out loud.

DJI drones, Laiyang steel pipe factory, and Jingjiang gas tank are all well-known arms giants in the Middle East.

From bombers, to rockets, to mortars, the people of the Middle East have given full play to their war wisdom, and various magically modified weapons have emerged in endlessly.

However, this is definitely not a direct "arms sale", and DJI has not yet become famous, so it may not be able to sell well in the Middle East.

The most important thing is the cost. Cheapness is the main reason why the old iron in the Middle East is interested in Chinese arms.

"What are you thinking, kid?"

Li Zexiang said with a smile: "Bombs are still installed. Now it is a harmonious society. I think you want to go in and step on the sewing machine."

Wang Tao pursed his lips and said, "We only sell airplanes, how to modify them is someone else's business."

"Then how to open the Middle East market?"

Li Zexiang's question directly confused Wang Tao.

Then, Li Zexiang looked at Wang Tao with a smile, and said, "Send you to sell in the Middle East?"

Wang Tao shook his head violently, "I'm not going, isn't there Amazon and Ahri overseas stations? We use e-commerce channels."

Now, it was Li Zexiang's turn to be confused, he scratched his head, it seems feasible?

Xia Jingxing watched with a smile as the master and apprentice joked with each other without interjecting.

Arms sales are a stalk, accounting for a very low proportion of sales.

"Don't be whimsical, let's think about something practical."

Li Zexiang stopped the topic of arms sales and began to think about some civilian use scenarios.

"Why,

Mr. Xia, how about we sell drones to primary and secondary schools? The school can use it to organize some hobby classes. Li Zexiang's eyes lit up suddenly, and he put forward his own idea.

Xia Jingxing shook his head, "In the final analysis, it's just for fun, and it hasn't expanded into new usage scenarios.

What I mean is that in addition to controlling the drone to fly in the sky, give the drone some new functions. "

Li Zexiang quickly thought of a new usage scenario, and said, "How about spraying pesticides? Compared with agricultural aircraft, drones can be smaller and more flexible. They can fly at low altitudes and hover, and spray pesticides more accurately."

Xia Jingxing suddenly had a little admiration for the professor in front of him, no wonder he was able to be the boss, his mind was very flexible.

Solid Technology, founded by Li Zexiang, is a leading brand of motion control systems in China. It serves the B-end market. Its customers include microelectronics, robotics, CNC machine tools, electronic processing and many other industries. It is said in previous lives that it is about to go public.

"Professor Li, the idea you mentioned is very good. If the drone can reach a new level in performance, it can indeed be applied to agricultural production."

Xia Jingxing looked at Li Zexiang with a smile, "If you want to subdivide the usage scenarios and machine performance of drones, I will call this kind of drones that serve the B-end market industrial-grade drones, or industrial-grade unmanned vehicles. machine."

It was the first time Li Zexiang and Wang Tao heard about this concept, they were both interested and looked at Xia Jingxing without blinking.

"Not only in agriculture, but also in other usage scenarios, such as power oil and gas inspection, fire protection, emergency search and rescue, police law enforcement, etc., all have a place for drones to come into play.

It’s just that we have to add different modules to drones for different industries and usage scenarios.

For example, emergency search and rescue and police law enforcement require a loudspeaker and searchlight;

For agricultural use, a pesticide box and a sprayer are required;

Electric oil and gas inspections should be equipped with detectors and sensors..."

Wang Tao and Li Zexiang listened with gusto, and suddenly realized that the drone market is huge, and there are so many commercial markets that can be expanded.

Especially Wang Tao, he has never thought about how to make profits from drones before, just play!

He suddenly understood why Xia Jingxing was able to become the big boss, all he was thinking about was how to make money.

Li Zexiang feels differently. He has always advocated that colleges and universities turn the things in the laboratory into commercial products, and feed back scientific research through market-oriented profits.

In this regard, American colleges and universities are ahead of the world.

Hearing Xia Jingxing talk about so many business models, he felt that this big boss must have thought about it for a long time before he came up with so many wonderful ideas.

Why acquire DJI? It is also mostly to see the market prospects of future drones.

"Mr. Xia, what do you mean, DJI will mainly make industrial drones in the future? Expand and serve all walks of life?"

Hearing Li Zexiang's question, Wang Tao frowned. In his opinion, if he did this, wouldn't drones become a complete business? Lack of some feelings.

Xia Jingxing smiled and shook his head: "No, there is also a consumer-grade drone corresponding to the industrial-grade drone, serving the C-end market."

Hearing this, Wang Tao's furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

Xia Jingxing noticed the change in Wang Tao's expression, and he basically guessed what the other party was thinking.

The main reason why DJI started to expand the industry-level drone market very late in the previous life is that Wang Tao underestimated this market.

There is no doubt that the most beautiful and famous market must be the consumer market.

But the industry-level market should not be underestimated. Just like "Internet +", manufacturers need to think and discover which industries can give something real.

"If the consumer market wants to open up, the current functions of drones are far from enough. It must have more real value and be able to solve some pain points."

Xia Jingxing looked at the two of them, and said slowly: "Mobile phones solve the problem of inconvenient communication, so the global sales of mobile phones can reach 1 billion."

After pondering for a moment, Li Zexiang said, "Mr. Xia, you mean to add some equipment to consumer drones, just like adding pesticide boxes and detectors to industrial drones?"

"Yes, if you add some things, the function is not just to fly, but to achieve more functions through flight."

Xia Jingxing's words gave Li Zexiang a whole new way of thinking, but he couldn't think of anything to add to it for a while.

Wang Tao was also thinking about it, but he couldn't think of anything to add to the drone.

Seeing that the two of them still couldn't figure it out, Xia Jingxing stopped playing riddles and said calmly, "Add a camera!"

This sentence was like enlightenment, Wang Tao and Li Zexiang's eyes lit up, and their hearts were shocked.

"Mr. Xia, you mean to use drones to take high-altitude photos?" Li Zexiang asked.

"High-altitude and low-altitude shooting can be used. It can be called aerial photography. It is a new angle of photography that can take photos that are different from all current cameras, and can also record videos."

Xia Jingxing had a faint smile on his face. If you want to say how much drones are needed, it is not necessarily true. They will never meet the needs of mobile phones and computers.

Even if a camera is added to it, it is still fun, a hobby, not a necessity for life.

However, compared to simply flying and playing, the multiple functions of taking pictures and recording videos can be ten times or a hundred times more attractive than the current one.

Both Li Zexiang and Wang Tao are smart people who can see through one point, so they can naturally see through this point.

Wang Tao's face was full of joy, he remembered what Xia Jingxing had said, and muttered to himself: "Flying over mountains, rivers, canyons..."

Li Zexiang nodded heavily: "This kind of aerial photography is very useful for outdoor tourism. In some terrains that are difficult for manpower to climb, drones can replace people to take pictures, and they can take pictures from different angles to capture the most beautiful scenery of nature. One side loaded into the camera..."

As he spoke, a picture automatically appeared in Li Zexiang's mind: a drone soaring over the top of the snow-capped mountains, constantly changing the angle, turning towering snow-covered peaks into pictures, Or a stunning video...

I wish I had a device like this!

Wang Tao gave Xia Jingxing a thumbs up, with admiration written all over his face.

"Mr. Xia, I am completely convinced! The drone is equipped with a camera. Just based on what you think, the drone market will be completely changed, subverting the tradition, ushering in innovation, and redefining an industry."

Xia Jingxing smiled lightly: "DJI will definitely redefine drones!"

Addicted by definition!

This is Li Zexiang's first feeling. He defined mobile phones and cars, and now he is going to define drones. How can a person be so talented?

Li Zexiang said with emotion: "Mr. Xia, you are really imaginative. Just this one idea is worth a billion dollars, not much more."

"This kind of consumer-grade drone can sell 1 billion US dollars in sales?" Wang Tao looked at his mentor with doubts in his eyes.

Li Zexiang sighed in his heart, you are here to take down my stage, right?

He explained helplessly: "I don't want to jump to conclusions in China, but in foreign countries, this kind of drone with aerial photography function is definitely popular.

Because foreigners like to travel outdoors, take pictures, and all kinds of black technology products, if DJI can create a product that integrates aerial photography, they will definitely be sent to the altar by them! "

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly. The aerial photography drone was not the first of its kind in DJI. It was a foreign enthusiast who had a big brainstorm and modified a GoPro action camera to the drone, which formed a trend until it became an industry standard.

"But I have a question. Is the technology feasible to mount the camera on the drone?" Wang Tao asked suddenly.

"It's not a big problem, we just continue to verify along this design idea."

Xia Jingxing said with a smile, "I don't know if you have noticed the popular videos on Youtube recently? An action camera brand called GoPro suddenly became popular.

Surfing, skiing, skydiving, racing... Videos of various outdoor sports are transmitted to the YouTube website. Different from the third-person perspective in the past, these videos are all first-person perspective, and the video quality is amazing!

This is because video creators have bought a GoPro action camera, which has almost become the standard hardware for YouTube outdoor video bloggers.

The American VC fund of Envision Capital invested in this company not long ago. I know them very well, and the technical realization is not difficult. "

Wang Tao nodded. If there is no difficulty, then he will not worry.

Li Zexiang's heart moved, and he said, "Mr. Xia, in order to save time, can we cooperate with GoPro?

We provide drones, and they provide cameras. The combination of the two products is the integration of aerial photography. "

Xia Jingxing shook his head lightly: "Don't do it, it's not easy to divide interests, who is in charge? Who is in charge?"

Li Zexiang frowned, this is a problem.

In the previous life, DJI and GoPro also had a short-term cooperation, and there was a period of honeymoon period.

But not long after, the president of DJI North America signed a new cooperation agreement with GoPro on behalf of DJI without informing Wang Tao.

According to the content of the agreement, DJI can only distribute one-third of the profits, and GoPro will take the lead.

This move directly angered Wang Tao, and he quickly terminated the cooperation with GoPro, and since then embarked on an independent development path.

The North American president is also a mangy dog, claiming on LinkedIn that he is the CEO of DJI, constantly spreading rumors and making trouble, and even threatening Wang Tao to destroy DJI's North American branch.

When expanding the North American market, Wang Tao gave this person 48% of the shares, and the other party is indeed a good marketing expert. Using platform resources such as Hollywood, Facebook, and YouTube, DJI was fired up, and DJI was given the number one throne in the North American market. .

The other party wanted to exchange 48% of the shares of the North American branch for 16% of the DJI head office, but Wang Tao was only willing to give 0.3%.

The two parties eventually went to court, and DJI spent 10 million US dollars to settle the lawsuit.

Then, the president of the North American branch held a grudge and joined DJI's competitor, 3DDrones, the local drone leader in North America, and threatened to "make DJI pay a heavy price."

Xia Jingxing knew that there was a big hole in it, and now that DJI has Fuxing Industrial Group as its backer, there is no need to rely on GoPro for marketing and endorsement.

At that time, you only need to bundle DJI, ZTE mobile phones, and Tesla in bundled marketing, and the competition will naturally stand up.

Not to mention the marketing resources of Facebook and YouTube, he himself has tens of millions of fans on the two platforms.

Xia Jingxing looked at Wang Tao and said, "The fixed-wing design you insisted on has to be changed to multi-rotor.

Fixed-wing drones can't take aerial photography from so many angles, and can't achieve the best results. Multi-rotors are the future development direction. "

Wang Tao pursed his lips and remained silent. Xia Jingxing had persuaded him countless times. He had been persuading him to choose multi-rotor as the research and development direction since he first met him on the forum.

After thinking about it, Wang Tao seemed to have made a major decision, and said in a heavy tone: "Let's make an evaluation. If multi-rotors are really better, then choose multi-rotors!"

Xia Jingxing nodded and didn't say anything more. Wang Tao is very stubborn. To be able to say such a thing is probably a big concession in his mind.

Li Zexiang was very satisfied with today's discussion, which directly cleared up countless doubts in his mind.

Originally, he was unwilling to join DJI because he felt that Wang Tao was messing around and the market for drones was limited. Later, Xia Jingxing injected 100 million yuan and Xia Jingxing strongly invited him, so he agreed to join DJI.

Now, his inner thoughts about the DJI project have become extremely strong.