When it comes to OPPO, vivo, glory manufacturers, our more impressive products are usually mobile phones, when mentioning Huawei, in addition to mobile phones, we will also think of 5G base stations, communication services, and when it comes to Xiaomi, it is estimated that many people will think of IoT products in Xiaomi grocery stores (Xiaomi Mall).
In fact, in addition to the products that are well known to the public, Xiaomi has another business that is developing rapidly, that is, the To B business for enterprises. Although not many people understand, Xiaomi has not been in the market for a long time, but Bai Peng, vice president of Xiaomi's To B business, has revealed that it is expected that the revenue of the business will reach 10 billion yuan next year.
Many enterprises that do To B business full-time have annual revenues of less than 10 billion yuan, and Xiaomi, a latecomer, actually dares to make such a big statement, indicating that not only has confidence in the market, but also has confidence in its own strength.
Xiaomi started late, but can it catch up later?
On January 1, 2021, Xiaomi Group's To B Division was officially established. Nine and a half months later, Xiaomi Group held the first enterprise service summit, To B business vice president Bai Peng said that Xiaomi To B business is divided into two parts, namely customized terminals, intelligent ecology, is estimated to reach 2 billion yuan in 2021 revenue.
In the nine months of 2021, Xiaomi's To B business has achieved coverage in 15 cities, and the sales volume of customized terminals has exceeded 1 million units. At present, Xiaomi's well-known To B products include 100-inch large-screen TVs and enterprise-level routers. In the future, Xiaomi To B products will still be based on terminal products such as mobile phones, TVs, speakers, tablets, etc., and build a perfect general solution for the five major industries of residential, hotel, apartment, office and pension.
Compared with Huawei, a company that also grasps both mobile phones and To B business, Xiaomi To B business is still very young, but Xiaomi does not need to be in a hurry, after all, it is a latecomer, the first year of entering the To B business, it can achieve 2 billion yuan of revenue has been a lot, and Xiaomi also has a very obvious advantage.
When it comes to Xiaomi's brand impression label, of course, it is indispensable to the term "cost performance". Although today's Xiaomi mobile phones have begun to impact the high-end and leave the cost performance to Redmi, it is still difficult for Xiaomi products to get rid of the cost performance image. When doing the To B business, Xiaomi's products continue the inherent concept of cost performance.
Take the electronic water card (advertising machine) just released by Xiaomi, other products of the same level, the price is basically about 5000 yuan, some of which are only 1080P resolution, Xiaomi electronic water card supports 4K resolution, but only sells 3999 yuan. Not to mention that the Xiaomi electronic water card can be associated with the Xiaomi mobile phone, which can be easily controlled through the App, which is more convenient to use than other similar products. In contrast, Xiaomi To B products also highlight the not low cost performance.
Xiaomi also has an advantage, that is, it can cross the river by feeling the stones. The forerunner should try the water depth is not deep, the cost of the early stage is higher, and the latecomer of millet may be difficult to rush to the front in the short term, but there are so many lessons from the past, millet can take fewer detours, pay less cost, can make profits to cooperative enterprises, and it is easier to obtain enterprise cooperation.
To B business, unlimited prospects?
The advantage of The To B business is that it is long-term stable and the user stickiness is extremely high. Xiaomi has reached a cooperation with a company, then the cooperation between them usually lasts for a long time, and if the company needs a new To B product, it will generally give priority to partners. Profits may not be very high, but this stability can ensure that when the company's other businesses are impacted, they will not hurt the fundamentals.
In addition, the To C business is very susceptible to the impact of the head enterprise, users are very easy to lose to the head enterprise, such as mobile phones, community group buying and other fields, once the market solidified, small brands will be difficult to turn over. To B business concentration is low, as long as you can establish a stable cooperative relationship with several enterprises, you will not worry about the business will not be able to do it in the future, and there will be a long enough time for stable development.
Domestic Internet or technology giants almost all have the idea of entering the To B business, and the well-known brand is Huawei. Huawei's revenue is composed of To C business, To B business, and carrier business, although the To C business now accounts for the majority of revenue, but the other two services can also bring hundreds of billions of revenue to Huawei every year.
In recent years, Huawei has been targeted a lot, the 2021 financial report disclosed that the Revenue of the To C business is almost waist-cutting, but fortunately, the operator business can remain stable, the revenue is close to 300 billion yuan, and the To B business has brought many surprises to Huawei, and the revenue has risen to 102.4 billion yuan. Last year, we frequently saw Huawei's presence in the To B business, and it has begun to develop into the industrial field, launching a mining system suitable for mining.
No matter how much other businesses are affected, Huawei can rely on the To B business to survive and look for opportunities for a comeback.
To C business revenue is high, but the stability is insufficient, once the product loses competitiveness, consumers may be lost on a large scale. Look at Xiaomi, which once entered the top three domestic mobile phone sales, but now it has fallen to fifth. For these enterprises, with a more stable To B business as the foundation, they can not be afraid of wind and waves.
Xiaomi does To B and cannot ignore these challenges
The more business the enterprise operates, the higher the stability will be, but if you do not consider its own situation and blindly expand the business, then the end will be like LeTV, the capital chain is broken, and the company is almost collapsed.
Xiaomi has made great moves in recent years, restarting the tablet business, a variety of PC serials, smart home new products continuously, the most important thing is Lei Jun's last venture - Xiaomi Car. In the early days of the official announcement of entering the automotive industry, Xiaomi said that it would invest 10 billion yuan in research and development funds for the first time, and invest another 10 billion US dollars (about 65.5 billion yuan) in research and development funds in the next five years.
The profit margin of entity enterprises is generally not high, and in 2021, Xiaomi Group's revenue in 2021 will reach 328.3 billion yuan, but the net profit will only be 22 billion yuan, and the revenue and profit growth of the To C business will be limited. The cost of building a car every year is about half of the net profit of Xiaomi Group, and for Xiaomi, the pressure is not insignificant.
Although the To B business is stable, but if you want to beat the bidding opponents, be favored by the company, the product must also have superiority, and a large amount of research and development investment is indispensable. But Xiaomi has to take the cost-effective route, the product profit is too low, if the step is too large, it is likely to have problems.
Fortunately, in response to this situation, Xiaomi has a lot of experience. When it was laid out in the smart home, Xiaomi realized that it was unrealistic to want to eat the entire market with its own ability, so it chose a win-win cooperation solution. Xiaomi not only does its own smart home, but also provides the platform of Xiaomi Mall to other enterprises, so many companies with insignificant reputation have joined the Xiaomi smart ecology.
With Xiaomi on the quality control, consumers will be slightly relieved when buying products in the Xiaomi Mall. With this advantage, Xiaomi quickly led other companies and made the Xiaomi Mall into a "Xiaomi Grocery Store".
Xiaomi To B products can also adopt a similar scheme, through cooperation with other manufacturers, reduce their own R & D investment, first of all, the brand and reputation to do, as for the early profit may not be high, it is not too important. As long as the brand is made and the reputation is established, it is equivalent to having a hen that lays golden eggs, and is not afraid of not making money in the future.
Now Xiaomi's To B business is in its infancy, it still needs time to grow, with Xiaomi's integration ability and brand awareness, it should not take too long to achieve great results. According to the scenario of Xiaomi To B business, the development space is very large, and it is not difficult to achieve tens of billions of annual revenue in 2023, and higher results may be achieved in the future.
If Xiaomi is really successful, it may lead more mobile phone companies to set up a To B business unit and enter another field. The addition of many enterprises may lead to the rolling up of To B products and the price drop.