Reinventing the Millennium

Is mobile important?

It seems that it is indeed important.

This year’s smartphone shipments will officially exceed PCs according to estimates from international organizations.

However, unlike Baidu's previous understanding, the mobile search engine market did not spread naturally from the PC market like a stream, but emerged from a moth like Sogou.

According to everyone's thinking, Baidu provides the best search content in China, and then it will be naturally transplanted to the mobile terminal, using our engine.

Even if manufacturers don’t use it, users will.

Therefore, Baidu is not so early and not so eager to transform the mobile terminal.

Facts have also proved that in the smart mobile market in the past few years, the company has not exerted much effort and still occupies the largest share. Users have continued the inertia of use.

However, as Yike began to really focus on the entry-level market, the situation seemed to be getting a little tricky.

Lu Zhendong was recently in charge of negotiating with mobile phone manufacturers about the default search engine. He looked back completely and had to find Li Yanhong to report on the current situation and budget improvements.

500 million US dollars a year, which is at least 3.2 billion Chinese coins.

This is Google’s launch into the global market.

According to Samsung, if calculated in the Chinese market, if Baidu wants Samsung phones to be equipped with the default search engine, the annual cost will be 600 million Chinese coins.

Zhang Yuanji, President of Samsung China, calculated that in the first eight months of this year, China’s smartphone shipments accounted for 26% of the global market. The overall fluctuation for the whole year will not be too large. Compared with Google’s investment in non-China areas , Baidu’s amount should be calculated on a scale of 1 billion.

In addition, Samsung's sales in China this year are expected to exceed 30 million units. Regardless of the model, this is the number one smartphone market in China.

And, most importantly, Baidu needs Samsung, not Samsung needs Baidu.

Zhang Yuanji personally used a computer to do the calculations, which effectively proved that 600 million was already a discounted amount.

"Baidu is the most popular search engine for users. Even if it is not the default, users will still add it back by themselves." Lu Zhendong and Samsung China President stated their attitude.

"It is precisely because of this that if Sogou comes to us, it will not be at this price. It will be quoted at 1 billion." Zhang Yuanji relaxedly showed off competing products.

"Do you think Sogou will spend 1 billion to buy Samsung's default engine?" Lu Zhendong questioned.

Zhang Yuanji shook his head: "I don't know, maybe 1 billion is too expensive for Sogou?"

He asked rhetorically: "If we give it a 60% discount, will it be willing to bite the bullet?"

There is no answer to this question yet.

Lu Zhendong also put this issue in front of the boss.

Sogou has always relied on YMS series mobile phones in the mobile market. Will it spend money to buy positions from Samsung and Apple?

Sogou is a small company, and it is difficult for an existence of this level to make such a decision, but there are big investors behind it.

After hearing the latest feedback from the vice president, Li Yanhong asked twice: "Is it really $500 million that Google gives Yike a year?"

Lu Zhendong nodded, looking at Robin's surprise, he suddenly felt a lot of comfort in his heart. Look, he was not the only one who was shocked. Wasn't the Forbes rich man also shocked?

When he thought of the word "Forbes rich", another thought flashed subconsciously. There is a difference between rich and rich.

It's like, just like... giants and giants are also different.

Li Yanhong frowned and looked through the summary report of this period of work.

Domestic smartphone shipments last year reached 118 million, of which Android accounted for 53%. This year’s shipments and Android market share will obviously continue to increase.

Samsung has always developed its entire range of high, middle and low-level products. Yike used to develop an ecosystem on a separate level. This year, it also started to implement a similar strategy, which is bound to continue to increase the influence of its ecosystem in the next few years.

Search engines are now an affected part.

It's not that Baidu didn't see the wave of hardware trends, and it also launched its own OEM mobile phone, but... there was no splash at all.

Similarly, because of Penguin's failure in the communications field, it has greater enthusiasm and intensity in investing and supporting new mobile phone brands. However, this kind of attack on Yike's core business has failed.

Li Yanhong flipped through the documents and didn't speak for a long time.

He thought of Mr. Fang two years ago. The reason why Sogou was separated from Sohu was because of his efforts.

Sogou's transformation from a challenger to a powerful challenger today is not an instant success.

"Do you think Sogou will compete for this default engine?" Li Yanhong put down the document and asked Lu Zhendong's opinion.

"In the mobile search market, Sogou has exceeded 25%, and its growth is very, very fast. It is also the second opponent we have encountered to exceed this level of market share." Lu Zhendong talked about the data, "Google used to have the highest domestic market share of 09. 33% in 2018, no matter what, Sogou is increasingly becoming a challenger that we need to be prepared for."

Sogou has not grown to the same level as Google in the past, because the PC market is quite huge, but Baidu does not have as many advantages in the mobile market as it does over Google, with a market share of 40% today.

Baidu this year has made progress on the mobile side compared to last year. On the one hand, it benefits from the growth of the overall mobile market, and on the other hand, it also loses share to Yisou, which once occupied the second place in mobile.

Li Yanhong wanted to hear a more precise answer: "So, Sogou will compete with us for more default positions?"

Lu Zhendong wanted to say that he was not the vice president of Sogou, but when he recalled his contact with Yike Qihe and the information he had obtained during this period, he still made a straightforward judgment: "Yike did not hide their intentions. Sogou has announced that it will challenge us since the day it was founded. Since they have tepidly achieved the market share to this point, there is no reason not to continue. If we don't take it, our opponents will definitely take it."

He prefers to promote cooperation with Samsung.

"Then the decision is very simple. If it wants to take it, we won't let it take it." Li Yanhong agreed to increase the intensity of competition in the mobile market. "Let's talk with Samsung and Apple together."

He stood up and walked a few steps, and said with some emotion: "Sogou will definitely increase its investment. Fang Zhuo, over the years, he has done what he does to the end."

Lu Zhendong also had a similar feeling. When looking at Sogou, you should not only look at Sogou, but also Yike and Mr. Fang.

"Let's talk, Yike is indeed very powerful, but there are also Samsung and Apple. The future pattern of smartphones is probably relatively stable. If we get it, we will get it." Li Yanhong glanced at the vice president.

Lu Zhendong nodded. The pattern was stable and the money spent would produce results.

Li Yanhong made a joke: "In the past, international giants like Google came to compete with us. Now there is no need to be afraid. We have our own international giants to compete with us."

An international giant that is not very relevant in the field but is also powerful and has great style.

But Li Yanhong is very confident that Baidu is also a giant today.

…

On September 29, Yike held an overseas press conference in Silicon Valley as usual, and this year it was still hosted by co-founder Yu Hong.

After hosting press conferences continuously, both the media and consumers paying attention are quite familiar with this female president.

In the past three months, Yusanjia has released new mobile phone products one by one. Today, the last one, Yike, finally arrived.

This time, not only foreign businessmen and consumers are paying attention, but the domestic attention is more intense than any previous press conference, because the controversy over the restriction of ice cores has made everyone more aware that the core parts manufacturers of Yike products may face more difficulties. Serious problem.

Will the constraints on ice cores continue to deepen?

This is a very real risk.

It is precisely for this reason that titles such as "swan song" and "sustainable masterpiece" will be given to this flagship phone.

The press conference time is 7 pm in Silicon Valley and 7 am in China. Many people in China got up early to get a glimpse of the true face of Yike's flagship Lushan this year.

Yu Hong did not have as many tricks as Mr. Fang in hosting the press conference. In addition, news had been leaked one after another before. Therefore, after she briefly greeted the guests and the live audience, Yike’s Selfy3 this year appeared in front of the camera. , did not cause much surprise.

Compared with the previous generation of Selfy, Selfy3 only has regular upgrades, and is also equipped with Qualcomm’s flagship chip that has been unveiled on other mobile phones.

It is worth mentioning that just yesterday, Texas Instruments officially announced its withdrawal from the mobile phone chip market. This player that once divided up the world's high-end mobile phone chips has completely lost its luster.

Today's high-end mobile phone chip designers are Qualcomm, Apple, Yike and Samsung.

However, as a chip design company, Qualcomm's two major customers, Yike and Samsung, both have independently designed chips that are not inferior to Qualcomm. This is a huge uncertainty in the business.

Yu Hong talked about Selfy's still excellent photography ability on the stage, and repeatedly mentioned and thanked the supplier guest present this time - Sharp's president Okuda Takashi who just took office this year.

Since the iPhone 4S adopted Retina display, Samsung and Yike have also increased their requirements for screens. Fortunately for Samsung, it has been mass-producing OLED since October 2007, and Trump quickly followed up on the screen.

Yike only installed Sharp's OLED on Mars last year.

In Yusan's family, Samsung produces and uses its own products, Apple's screen supplier is LG, and Yike is Sharp. Everyone has their own circle.

"We have always had a pleasant cooperation with Sharp, and this time it also gave us great support." Yu Hong mentioned Sharp again.

This frequency of thanks has left many people a bit puzzled. Selfy does not seem to have received much upgrade on the screen this year.

Soon, Yu Hong revealed her intention to express her gratitude and took out the flagship products Mars 6 and Mars 6 Pro, which caused a commotion at the scene.

The press conference was presented on a large screen, and the contrast between the two products on the huge screen was very sharp.

As early as when the first generation of Mars was released, many media praised Yike for putting the entire screen on the body. However, the camera on the top and the function buttons on the bottom separated the size of the screen - the forehead. , screen, chin.

Now, without Yu Hong's explanation, everyone is keenly aware of this year's changes - the forehead and chin have disappeared, and only a hole is left on the entire screen.

"Yike worked hard and tried a lot with Sharp this year, and finally adopted an LCD screen based on IGZO technology, punched holes in its backlight layer, and removed the display elements corresponding to the LCD panel layer. This achieved a comprehensive The presentation of the screen.”

Yu Hong smiled and invited Sharp's new president to come on stage to introduce how to achieve this time's screen supply.

Mars 6 still uses an OLED screen, but Mars 6 Pro can only use an LCD screen in order to achieve a full screen. This is not to accommodate costs, but because Sharp still cannot come up with an effective solution for digging holes in the OLED screen.

Sharp and Yike have repeatedly studied and verified the black edges and beautification problems caused by blind holes and through holes. It will probably take a lot of time to make OLED in the future.

Okuda Ryuji took the stage with a smile on his face and talked endlessly about the technology used by Sharp this time.

He just took office in June this year. He was very happy to be invited here this time. Well... However, although Sharp has cooperated very closely with Yike, its overall development has been quite sluggish in recent years.

Sharp also wanted to seek an increase in capital from Yike, but unfortunately, this year, Yike was extremely shocked and called a suspension due to large-scale financial fraud by Japanese companies.

Okuda Takashi hopes that this full-screen display will boost some businesses, and has also restarted equity negotiations with Yiko.

Sharp's president talked endlessly, but everyone's attention was focused on Yu Hong, who kept showing her mobile phone to the camera at the back. She silently compared the Mars 6 and Pro versions...

Putting aside the aesthetics, the difference in screen utilization is immediately apparent.

When Okuda came down, Yu Hong said with a smile: "This year, our mobile phone design is a bit more radical, and we have spent a lot of time and cost on it. We named this model the Pro version, which is equipped with our latest quad-core Zhurong The processor carries our expectations for the full-screen era."

The screen on the back displays various information about the Mars 6 and Pro versions. Both are equipped with the same processor, but the front camera of the standard version is 6 million pixels, while the Pro version only has 3 million pixels. Moreover, the Pro version also cancels the fingerprint function... …

It seems that the specifications of the standard version and the Pro version should be changed.

But... the Pro version has a 5-inch full screen.

Along with Yu Hong's narration, the product purchase time was also released. Mars 6 and Slefy 3 are now accepting reservations and can be purchased through major channels in a week. The Mars 6 Pro version is currently only accepting reservations and is expected to be officially launched soon. In mid-November, one and a half months later.

Yike's press conference lasted for an hour and a half. In addition to product introduction, Yu Hong also talked about next year's product planning and officially previewed a wave of tablet and smart home ecology.

However, when all the products were unveiled, the head of Baidu, who was also paying attention to Yike's new products this time, no longer wanted to listen to the next chatter.

"Samsung won't be able to beat Yike, right?"

Li Yanhong thought about the full-screen mobile phone he saw today, and he couldn't help but have an idea in his mind. The market structure of Yusanjia is stable, but it seems... not so stable.

He casually clicked on the website and saw a report that news about new products related to Yike had been released in advance. The title used the words "Yike full screen is coming" in a very conspicuous way.

Li Yanhong pondered again, Samsung should be able to hold on, so that it wouldn’t suffer a disaster just after we signed the contract...