3D printing business: What do you want to do Jintao

Become the Shapeways of China's 3D printing market? Just try to survive. June 2009, only two years after graduating from university, Jintao and two high school students of computer science have made the decision of starting a business in a week, resigned the original work, and incorporated the company. Three optimistic young people rented a nearly 300 square meters of a single plant, spending hundreds of thousands of yuan on a 3D printer and naming his company Magic Firm, they firmly believe that their good ideas will soon give the company a magical success and create a new situation in their lives. Business model? It's easy to give players in the World of Warcraft a game character that turns the magical heroes of the virtual worlds into objects. The three World of Warcraft players, confident their own company will get the blizzard production game character model authorization, in the face of such a large group of players, and foreign countries already have the same model figureprints success stories, the Ming exhibition network does not make money is simply impossible thing. However, due to poor income, and other reasons, in December 2009, Jintao and employees left the Hangzhou Silk Joint factory in the annual rent of 100,000 yuan of the single plant, moved to the north of the Northern Road, a 140 square meters of the three-room hall. One of the rooms is dedicated to 3D printers and other rooms are used for office use. The company created 6 months later, with Jintao two students to leave the company under the pressure of life, they find a job began to go back to work. At that time, the Ming exhibition Network offered a price of 400 yuan and 800 yuan two role printing, the use of color gypsum as a material model can print about 10 per day. 2010 only sold more than 400 a year. "I have a stressful life, but someone has to go on. And that's what I wanted to do. They did not get paid to work, but they did not withdraw their funds. Jintao told the timeline. Under great pressure, Jintao began to adjust the company's operation strategy. First stop the game business, and then specifically for the 3D Print Service to create a website, and through the purchase of Google "3D print" keyword and other methods to promote the network. "In the beginning, we weren't looking for clients," he said. 3D printing itself is a new thing, directly to find customers more difficult, you have to let others know how to find you. "Jintao said. Then some product design companies began to become print customers. At that time the most Jintao attention is for the CCTV MTV awards ceremony produced trophies. The trophy's designer, a foreign designer of a Shanghai company, hopes the trophy will be designed and manufactured to contain both cost and delivery in the shortest possible time. So they found Hangzhou, not far from Shanghai, to the Ming exhibition network with 3D printer to manufacture samples and final products. The equipment was able to print three trophies a day, and this batch of plaster-printed trophies took only two days to complete. The birth of Mbot 2010, the emergence of a customer from Australia, became the Jintao and Ming Exhibition network development inflection point. This is a 41-year-old electronics engineer, is also a seniorElectronic product players. He sent the drawings to 3D to print some parts. It was Jintao's drawing, because he had some knowledge of the desktop 3D printer and found that the parts were for desktop 3D printers. An exchange, said the other side is really going to do this relatively junior desktop 3D printer. So Jintao for him to print and make these parts. At the same time, Jintao is interested in this kind of desktop equipment, using a group of about 4,000 yuan worth of spare parts with the Australians to swap a machine. But do not know is the machine design reason, or Jintao assembly has the problem, this machine has never been able to run normally. Jintao helpless under only this machine to the other side mail back. Now, the Australians no longer assembled to sell 3D printers, he began to help the Ming exhibition network in the Internet to promote the machine. See the hand of the desktop 3D printer can not run, Jintao Heart has unwilling. In early 2011, he and a friend together bought a MakerBot second-generation 3D printer, which took two days to assemble. Finally, Jintao the first time in their own hands to complete the printer, to create a product, although those are only the machine with the software built in some of the snakes, squares and other simple 3D graphics. Before that, Jintao was interested in using open source design to develop and manufacture desktop 3D printers. He has been hesitant to adopt RepRap or MakerBot Two of open source models. What the Australians had sold him before was a reprap3d printer. Given its inability to function properly, Jintao naturally chose to use MakerBot's open source scheme. In order to study the MakerBot machine, Jintao seized the first generation of the opportunity to promote the old model, and then bought 3 units. The first generation of models gave Jintao a deep impression that the 3D printer worked so loud that no one would want to stay in its room once it was running. The process of creating an imitation of a MakerBot 3D printer in person is an important turning point for Jintao. Although previously interested in 3D printers, the Jintao role is more of a user. Professional is the computer programming Jintao in the circuit, mechanical aspects are not good, and in order to create a 3D printer, but also need to purchase large and small parts, all of these know-how cost Jintao nearly half a year, September 2009, the first desktop 3D printer network was finally completed. This machine looks almost the same as the MakerBot second-generation, even the name is full of cottage flavor--mbot. Compared with the model, Mbot replaced better pulley parts, enhanced stability, the biggest change is to solve the noise problem. The cost of such a desktop 3D printer was about 3000 yuan. 2012 Ming Exhibition Network desktop 3D printer Mbot sales have reached about 2000 units, completely through their own website and Taobao shop such as online platform sales. If the problem is not solved by phone, the user must pass the Express sideType the printer back to the company for maintenance. The company is preparing to set up its own offline channel business. Jintao expects 2013 domestic desktop 3D printer Market scale will reach 20,000 units, Ming exhibition network sales target is 3000 units. Full business model to create the network, Jintao actually has its own business logic. He wants the company to become a 3D print service provider that customizes print products for individual and corporate users. and hardware technology is not his advantage, so the development, manufacture 3D printer should not become the core competitiveness of the network, the original game role printing service began, but also because this is Jintao judge to attract users, enter the printing service market threshold is lower. But the Chinese market environment at that time, willing to use 3D Print service, even know 3D printing users are rare. 2010 The company's income is less than 500,000 yuan. Coupled with the departure of venture partners, that period of time is the Jintao after the most difficult time. After the personal computer, printer and other products market history of comparative analysis, Jintao recognized that an emerging product market, the first is the hardware sales market space, the most profitable. With the gradual popularization of hardware equipment, there will be a large number of users need corresponding applications and services. The PC is the process of dominating the market by the computer sales leading market, the rapid growth of the software market and the Internet service relying on the computer platform. And the current 3D printer market is in the initial stage, more suitable for the sale of 3D printer products. In the future, with the popularization of 3D printers, print services will usher in a huge market space. This is why then the Ming Exhibition Network has become one of the most complete types of 3D printing related business in China, which not only develops the sales of its own-brand desktop 3D printers, but also sells high-end 3D printers for foreign brands, as well as the core 3D Print Service and 3D user community business. "Before the print service had revenue, it helped the printer grow. As the sales of printer products increase, we will use the hardware profit to do shapeways print services. "Jintao to the timeline," said the whole business model I feel like no one else does. We've started with 3D print services, and we're never going to give up. I would like to offer a similar business based service, just as a courier. In the long run, we'll position ourselves as a 3D print service. "But the business model of the Ming-Zhan network has not been recognized by venture capital organizations." Jintao has seen a lot of venture capitalists, but the other side of the attitude that the desktop 3D printing equipment entry threshold is not high enough, on the other hand, they also believe that the printing service market size is not big enough. Jintao decided to take care of both 3D printer products and print services for two business, and another reason is that he found that there is a large overlap between the two types of users, each business can bring the other business opportunities. For example, a product design and development company, engineers want to be able to quickly create samples, then he is very much in need of a desktop 3D printer. After making the preliminary sample, after the modification confirmation needs to provide the customer with the more precise sampleProduct or can be directly manufactured, the company needs an exquisite industrial grade 3D printing model. They will consider buying the print services of the Ming exhibition network. Since the development and manufacture of printer products has just begun, the main revenue of the 2011 exhibition network is from print service. In 2012, in addition to selling its own-brand desktop 3D printer, Jintao also started acting as a high-end 3D printer for foreign brands to maintain its operations. In 2012, more than 60% of the 11-person start-up company's revenue came from 3D printer hardware sales. The company also moved from the residential district to Hangzhou East Software Park a set of 80 square meters of office, and in the next rented a 180 square meters factory to assemble the desktop 3D printer. Consumer electronics? The 2012-year Mbot printer of the Ming exhibition network differs from many desktop 3D printers on the Chinese market, as well as from open source technology. Jintao is starting to make his 2013-year model more special. In addition to the stability of the machine, what he would most like to improve on his 3D printer is the appearance of the machine and the interactive experience of the user operating the printer. "We are not competitive right now, the first year we completed the replication, the next year began to have some improvement things." "We'll do our own control software," Jintao said. The existing is too much like industrial control software, not for the mass users of the product. I hope the 3D printer will attract more consumers. To make it into consumer electronics, you have to improve. "In addition to PC-side software, Jintao also plans to develop applications on mobile devices that allow users to get rid of their computers and use their mobile phones to manipulate the device to finish printing." But in the 3D print community, which attracts more individual users, the network does not do well. Only some of the 3D drawings uploaded by company employees lack communication and sharing between users and users, designers and users. Due to the simultaneous conduct of a number of business, not short-term business interests of the community service has not been Jintao too much attention. His main focus is on the improvement and sales of 3D printers, as well as on the promotion of 3D print services. To maintain the optimistic Jintao of market development, but has always felt that the company's future development has a sense of crisis. He believes that the company's biggest competitor in the country is a low-key firm. "Because we do a lot of business, like print services, printer capacity, and so on." It may suddenly come out of a powerful company and do it all. Jintao said, "I'm worried about the competitors who don't make a sound at all, and they get out there and suddenly come out." ”