The most disparity in strength in the world is that you have used eighteen weapons, but the opponent does not accept them at all.
Recently, Gree had such an embarrassing operation on Xiaomi.
A few days ago, Gree's publicity official blog released a message saying that a certain Xiaomi electric fan infringed Gree's patent and was judged to lose the lawsuit. The court not only demanded that the electric fan could no longer be manufactured and sold, but also required the infringer to pay Gree 1.85 million yuan.
On the one hand, the bosses of both sides are Dong Mingzhu, who has repeatedly spoken amazingly, and on the other hand, Lei Jun, the number one Internet celebrity this year, is about to set off a vigorous "Internet business war".
But Xiaomi's next response stunned all the netizens who were waiting to see the excitement-
"What's inside, I don't know about it."
I still think that when Dong Mingzhu made a "bet" with Lei Jun for 1 billion yuan, Lei Jun, who was a "rising star", took the initiative to attack.
Dong Mingzhu took out the relaxation and self-confidence of the industry boss, and dropped a sentence "What is a dollar to bet, if you want to gamble, bet 1 billion".
Now the market position of the two companies is declining, and even the war of words has become Gree's first "attack", and Xiaomi is calm.
Not only did onlookers speculate: the giant Gree went down directly, and the "sniper" Xiaomi, which is not the first echelon in the air conditioning industry, is it really panicked?
01
Gree, who is full of battle,
This time it's on Xiaomi
After Xiaomi's response came out, the first thing many people were concerned about was: Does it have the technology to copy Gree?
This matter is actually very simple to say, the suspected infringing product is indeed the Mijia Xiaomi electric fan, but it is not Xiaomi itself that loses the lawsuit, but the supplier who cooperates with it.
Xiaomi implements an ecological chain model in the field of home appliances - it is equivalent to a Party A, putting forward needs with suppliers, and then intelligentizing and connecting to the Mijia ecology after the product is ready, basically not interfering in the supplier's decision-making.
The design of the infringing electric fan this time is an installation structure with screw holes, which is indeed not the part that Xiaomi is responsible for, and the parties in the court announcement are not Xiaomi.
What's more, this electric fan is already an old model that has been eliminated several years ago.
After the news came out, a reporter went to the Xiaomi mall to search and found that there were no products of this model on sale. Only third-party outlets are available on online shopping platforms, and the court's decision has little material impact on Xiaomi.
Therefore, some people think that it is true that Gree won the lawsuit, but the attitude of calling Xiaomi's name on the official blog with great fanfare is quite intriguing.
Some netizens even bluntly said that Gree will have a lot of infringement lawsuits to fight every year. "Staring at millet spray, it's not because people have been particularly popular recently."
Gree "chased Xiaomi", and there has been more than this recently.
On the afternoon of June 28, Dong Mingzhu also directly "cracked down" at Gree's 2023 annual general meeting of shareholders:
"Xiaomi said that it ranks first in air conditioning, but it all depends on other manufacturers to make products...... Who is the first, consumers have rod scales in their hearts. ”
But the embarrassing thing is that the so-called "Xiaomi says it is the first" is actually pure oolong news.
According to follow-up media verification, the source of this statement is a self-media article on the Internet, and Xiaomi has never made such a statement.
In fact, whether it is Gree or Dong Mingzhu himself, they have always been well-known for their love of spraying peers.
It's just that the original comments were all reasonable, mainly pointing out the problems of peers' products and technologies.
For example, in 2019, he angrily denounced the false energy consumption standard of Oaks air conditioner, and later Oaks was also administratively punished for this.
Earlier, he repeatedly criticized Midea's propaganda of "one kilowatt-hour of electricity per night" for having water, which artificially controlled the electricity consumption: "Midea won the so-called scientific and technological progress award by relying on this, which is completely unqualified." ”
At this stage, Xiaomi has not really stood in the ring to become a "competitor" of Gree.
In December 2013, Lei Jun said at the China Economic Person of the Year Award Ceremony that "Xiaomi's turnover can surpass Gree within 5 years", and everyone thought that he was "using Gree to lift coffee for himself".
Dong Mingzhu obviously didn't take him seriously, not only directly raised the bet to 1 billion yuan, but also criticized Xiaomi for only relying on marketing.
At that time, no one thought that 10 years later, Xiaomi would become an opponent that Gree needed to keep an eye on.
That bet was later won by Dong Mingzhu, because Xiaomi's turnover in the fifth year did not exceed that of Gree — it was exceeded in the sixth year.
Since then, the data of both sides has gone in two directions. In 2013, Xiaomi's revenue was less than half of Gree's, and last year's total revenue was nearly 271 billion, which is more than 60 billion more than Gree.
In the past two years, Dong Mingzhu has still not given up on his peers, but he has become more and more "virtual".
For example, she likes to point out that other home appliance brands "poach our people and steal our technology" in countless speeches, speeches and interviews.
There is also a famous saying of "don't jump employees": "I don't want people from fellow companies to jump ship, if you don't do it, you will be a spy." ”
@Tech planet
At the same time, Xiaomi has also been added to its own "luxury pain criticism package".
It has been said many times that it is a "thief company" that "relies on and even robs other people's technology".
Dong Mingzhu angrily reprimanded Xiaomi and Oaks.
If you say that Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun's bet ten years ago was like the first meeting between Ren Xing and Ling Hu Chong-
Although the bigwigs do not agree with the views and ideas of young people, they also appreciate young people in their proud attitude.
Now it's like suddenly discovering that Linghu Chong has become a peerless master, and his reputation in the sect is higher than his own. Every flaw in the opponent's tricks has to be taken out and weighed repeatedly.
02
Still sitting on the throne of the "giant",
But it's getting more and more unstable
Although Gree seems to have lived up to its fame, it is still an absolute giant in the field of air conditioning.
According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in the first half of this year, Gree's air conditioning sales still ranked second in the industry, and the fault line led the third place.
It and the first-place Midea occupy more than 50% of the market share, compared to the Xiaomi air conditioner only ranked fourth with 6.96%.
But on the other hand, the sales growth rate of Xiaomi air conditioners is quite amazing: online sales from January to May this year increased by 4.46% year-on-year; Offline sales increased by 8344.41% year-on-year.
The air conditioner in the Xiaomi store.
However, compared to the growth of the opponent, its own stagnation may make Gree feel more panicked.
It used to rely on the slogan of "good air conditioning, made by Gree" to establish a high-end and big-name market impression, but now the advantage is gradually disappearing.
Even in the comment area of some different brands of air conditioner evaluation videos, you can brush up on Gree's direct ridicule: "Excluding Gree, more than half of the problems can be avoided." ”
In the early days, Gree made a name for itself in the market, relying on the overwhelming advantage of technology and quality among its peers.
An industry insider once said in an interview that Gree's compressor technology stood out in the air-conditioning industry back then, so the quality is also unique.
However, with the progress of technology research and development in the domestic air-conditioning industry chain, the technology and quality of each company are actually not too far apart.
The former "killer feature" has become everyone's own, but Gree has never found a second "trick".
Although Dong Mingzhu has to publicly emphasize how many patents Gree has every once in a while, consumers often do not perceive how much difference there is in the product.
For example, she once criticized Midea's "windless air conditioner" for just adding a baffle with holes to make the wind smaller, and she also paved the way for half a day of research on her own related technology for 10 years.
But in the end, the effect is to let the wind blow upwards.
Later, it did high-end, but the real high-end market did not do well.
The most famous is the "Rose Air Conditioner" with a price tag of more than 30,000 yuan, which blew the sky wildly, and was finally scolded by netizens for being ugly and dirty.
One embarrassing thing is that Gree's high-end label is even having a negative effect on the brand impression.
High-end matching is a high price. Compared with its peers, the overall average price of Gree air conditioners is indeed higher.
In the offline market in 2023, the average price of Gree air conditioners will reach 4,641 yuan, higher than Midea's 4,355 yuan and Haier's 4,257 yuan.
But when it comes to the sales volume of high-end products, Gree can't beat the United States.
In the same year, for high-end models above 7,000 yuan, Midea's market share of sales reached 3.42%, and Gree's was 2.41%.
This not only did not help Gree consolidate the impression of "good air conditioning", but began to make it form an impression of "high price and low configuration" in the hearts of the public.
Some people even said: "The style of Gree 1.6 row copper pipes dares to sell more expensive than other double-row copper pipes, where did you get the courage?" ”
Its own development is stagnant, and its opponents are eyeing it.
To a certain extent, although Xiaomi is still some distance away from becoming an "air-conditioning giant", it has indeed achieved some kind of "dimensionality reduction" effect on Gree in form.
On the one hand, its product matrix in smart home has been formed, and it has also enhanced its brand influence in the field of home appliances.
Nowadays, on social platforms, it has been seen that some young people choose the whole house Xiaomi for electrical appliances when decorating, in order to realize the convenience of controlling the home on the mobile phone.
Young consumers' interest in the "automatic temperature adjustment according to the environment" function of air conditioners is probably far more than paying attention to Gree, and it has obtained several new patents.
What's more, Xiaomi's coffee position has gone up, and at the same time, it has not lost its own low-price advantage.
During this year's 618 period, although the total sales of Xiaomi air conditioners did not rush to the top three, they ran out of a star product with sales exceeding all old brands.
In terms of parameters and technology, there are actually no advantages, but it is cheap enough - the price of 1891 yuan is 746 yuan less than Gree's best-selling model.
Station B @Wilson seniors
03
once gritted his teeth to do "high-end",
Now gritting his teeth and cutting the price
In the increasingly competitive air-conditioning and refrigeration industry, Gree seems to be the most panicked one among its peers.
It is precisely because compared to other competitors, it is much more dependent on the single category of air conditioning - it can even be said to be all in.
Taking the financial report in the first half of last year as an example, Gree's air conditioning business accounted for 70% of the total revenue.
Midea's HVAC (including heating, ventilation and air conditioning related equipment) accounts for less than half of revenue; Xiaomi's smart home appliances account for only 29.56% of the total revenue.
But the air conditioning market is shrinking. According to the data of Aowei cloud network, the domestic sales and production schedules of domestic household air conditioning enterprises in June and July fell by 10.0% and 12.5% year-on-year respectively.
One point of view is that the purchase of air conditioners at five or six young people is closely related to the heat of real estate, after all, ordinary families often buy air conditioners because they buy a house or renovate a new house.
Nowadays, it is difficult for Gree to seize market share by spending money on advertising and relying on dealers to open stores.
The industry generally believes that these air conditioning manufacturers either have to provide new experiences through differentiated services and functions, so as to open up the high-end quality market;
Either you can only use the same products and start a price war with your peers.
It's embarrassing that price wars are exactly what Gree is best at.
At that time, Dong Mingzhu and Gree shouted the most energetic slogan, that is, although they were expensive, they were reasonable.
At the scene of the "bet" with Lei Jun, she has been emphasizing that Gree's technology is almost self-developed, "our Made in China is also created in China".
It's a pity that the story of "domestic brands can also go high-end" has been a popular story several years ago.
The consumer mentality of "pursuing low prices" has spread to the air conditioning industry long before Gree reacted to the taste.
In this year's "6.18" promotion, the average price drop of air conditioning products has reached about 18%, and the low-end models of various brands have almost reduced their prices to the cost limit.
Consumer attitudes are also evident. According to Jingdong's air conditioner hot list, Gree Yunjia air conditioner only sold 10,000 pieces a week before the end of the 618 event, ranking fifth, and opened an order of magnitude with the sales of more than 20,000 pieces of the top four.
The prices of the top few are 300-800 yuan lower than the 2688 yuan Yunjia air conditioner.
In the end, Gree also "relented" and lowered the price by 100 yuan in the last week. Perhaps this also means that Gree is about to join this cruel price war.
It's just that Gree, which has not completely gotten rid of the dealer model of "layer upon layer price increase", still has a long way to go if it wants to really fight with Xiaomi in the low-price market.
But no matter who the winner is, consumers are happy to see such a scene -
After all, the happier the merchants, the faster the price of the product will be reduced.