How the cottage is rising

The cottage has become a universal culture, a philosophy of survival, which is the inevitable outcome of a society as large as the population and the pressures of survival.

Copy to China becomes an alternative consumer-to-consumer, which refers to the Chinese companies will be foreign products or ideas, copy and paste to their products, that is, the so-called cottage. In a chat with mobile phone manufacturers, I couldn't help wondering what the reason for the rapid rise of Chinese shanzhai machines. The other side thought for a little while, the answer is concise and direct: "We are too close to the market and the factory."

The global interconnection of Information and the Global division of manufacturing make it fast for Chinese companies to acquire and replicate new products. From some point of view, the whole of China is a huge manufacturing machine, but also a huge market. A large number of mobile phone manufacturers are able to learn the first-level users of different models of preference, as well as the demand for potential functions. Then, quickly realized. In the early years, a domestic handset manufacturer did not disclose the internal information, so described the threat posed by mobile phones: "We develop a product cycle is 8 months, and Shanzhai machine only need 45 days."

If we put it to the larger level to explore the cause, the cottage has become the population and survival pressure of the same huge society, a universal culture, a philosophy of survival. There's a very prickly joke. This description: If a Jew opened a restaurant, the second Jew would open a shop next to it, and if it were Chinese, you would soon find a row of small restaurants.

The origin of the "cottage"

For many Chinese users, it is the variety of mobile phones, the first time the "cottage" this full of local flavor and coarse harsh words to push to them. From the data can be verified, "cottage" was endowed with the meaning of architecture, originated in the 780 's Hong Kong. At that time, Kowloon City, Sierra Leone, Guantang and other poor populated areas known as the Cottage City, there are many family workshops to produce counterfeit international brand clothing shoes and hats, locals call such goods as Shanzhai goods.

The cottage has since become synonymous with imitation and low prices. There was only huge market demand and no regulation.

Back Adi, The good times of the chest Nike

With the 890 's Nike as a representative of a series of international brand-name products into the mainland, the phenomenon of Shanzhai has also arisen. Just from the "Dacron" era came out of the Chinese, many people can not afford brand names, but they are wearing a "brand name."

Today's popular pure color, concise, go to the symbolic design style of hair and that era No. The pursuit of the label is defined directly as the pursuit of beauty and fashion. The market is starving, with Adidas behind it, and a Nike-flagged sweatshirt worn by young people on the streets.

The cottage was injected with a shot of stimulant. Those day and night the roar of the processing plant along the rough growth of the barbaric rapid expansion and replication, and then formed a number of imitation of a certain type of merchandise as the main regional industrial base, and Chi "famous" Chinese and foreign. Of course, the road to today, many companies are no longer limited to simple imitation, but began to do the design, to do their own brand. It has also become a typical evolutionary model for Chinese-style Shanzhai: imitation--an improvement--an independent brand.

This heat and influence has continued to this day. In India, Latin America, Africa and other fields, Chinese Shanzhai products have blossomed and even killed European markets. At the 2012 London Olympics, the Egyptian delegation dressed in fake Nike and was found to be spotted wearing a zipper that was Adidas--the responsible person actually said very strongly, the quality of the clothes is very good, we are ordered from China.

From Nokla to dual sim to iphone

"You find that no, six years have passed, now all mobile phones are the same as the iphone." ”

The owner of a mobile phone factory has lamented. In his view, almost all smartphones have been imitating Apple's iphone since 2007. "Compared with them, our Chinese Shanzhai machine is still creative." ”

At the counters and stalls that specialize in selling mobile phones, you'll see a flip-flop iphone, a sliding iphone, a dual-sim iphone, a battery-changing iphone.

The mobile phone's once-active creativity comes from the disregard of the mainstream handset makers ' demand for grassroots users. Dual SIM cards, big ringtones, oversized batteries, binoculars, camera cameras, exotic appearances-and, most importantly, prices you can't refuse.

It has been said that Samsung's success in the handset market lies in its magnified Apple's shortcomings. In fact, these things have been done by Chinese shanzhai machines--small processing plants in China can derive a variety of differentiated products from each generation of iphones. The reason they are not Samsung, and perhaps Samsung, is that their innovation is not systematic and continuous, and because of the price, so that products remain in a low and unstable state. The entrepreneurial enterprise can turn innovation into a high sales revenue, while in the relatively chaotic cottage area, those 90% imitation based on 10% of innovation, just to survive.

Chinese cottage machine Brilliant, and soon dimmed the light. From the earliest Shanzhai brand letters to the later Shanzhai appearance, UI, and even the system. When fortune is good, they sweep the markets of almost all developing countries; When the glory goes away, some change careers, some still keep the rest of the business small rich is Ann.

When the cottage encounters the Internet

Some people say, "Looking for your sister" suspected of plagiarism "Pictureka", "crazy guess figure" suspected of plagiarism "Icomania", in the back, Renren and Facebook very much like, Sina Weibo and Twitter also leave the relationship.

An entrepreneur who made 50 million users of mobile games told me that plagiarism is sometimes forced out. "China's entrepreneurial environment is to ask for money quickly, if your company will not live, now copy a game on the immediately can have 100,000 yuan, you copy?"

I can't answer him. After a little while, he said to himself, "If I were you, I might have to copy ..."

Another entrepreneur, who survived a controversial product, is now out of a precarious livelihood. When it comes to the past, he is still a little relieved. In short, can not copy, do not copy. At least, do not move completely, you have your own things, you have to sublimate it. ”

Sublimation, he said, refers to micro-innovation.

China's internet and mobile internet are now particularly willing to talk about micro-innovation. I took your game to play, but the role of the game replaced by the Chinese more familiar, is not plagiarism? I put your site logic and basic settings, to more in line with the national conditions of the content of the topic classification, is not an innovation? Most of the time, it's hard to tell the boundaries.

Between China and the United States, this kind of plagiarism phenomenon and controversy is particularly concentrated. Some people say that Zhongguancun is China's Silicon Valley, where there are returnee entrepreneurs, Tsinghua University graduates of the top, there is a hacker has a geek, in the Chinese and American entrepreneurs, product model is quickly passed, the spirit of innovation why not synchronous transmission?

A PhD student from Tsinghua University chose to quit his business. He made a mobile internet product that drew on LinkedIn. He said that the risk of entrepreneurship, the success rate is low, since someone outside the road, domestic is blank, why not do this chance of success is higher?

His ideas represent the voice of many entrepreneurs. The internet allows the Chinese to see the gap with the outside world, which is also an opportunity. From the portal era, the search age to the social era, every generation of Chinese internet companies, never stopped hope to the other side of the ocean.

On the one hand, the gap creates an empty window, which is an opportunity, on the other hand, China's overall economic income level and entrepreneurial environment, lack of tolerance for innovation.

The end of the cottage is innovation

Look at the past today, the United States Internet, there are basic Chinese. The gap between the Chinese and American Internet in product form is getting smaller. As you get closer to the leader, you become more and more nervous because you don't know where to go.

There is a word, called plagiarism is a moment, innovation is a lifetime. No one will always lead you to run, since the cost of imitation is so low, so fast, you always catch up with your own teacher. Perhaps, at that time, will force the Chinese Internet began to create their own things, forcing the entire capital market to give more support and tolerance of innovation.

Innovation can be grand, and it can be very small. You can even learn something more cow and bring it to your product. The key to innovation is that you have an attitude to change it, you have something you want to achieve--something other than money.

When we were young, we called this something ideal.