Internet, home appliance manufacturers "dark war" intelligent TV

When you come home and turn on the TV, you may not think that a "dark war" is already unfolding around this TV set.

The Battle of the Internet enterprise has been laid out: Le video tv sold 25,000 units, Ali busy with all the power plant to discuss cooperation, Archie Art this September to push TV. Traditional household appliances manufacturers are also trying to take, Hisense launched the Vidda TV, Skyworth released a godsend operating system, Changhong to create "home Internet."

However, the two sides appear to be against each other, but the camp is gradually no longer clear. Ali's partners have finalized the Haier, and August 27 news showed that Archie art to push the TV will have Tcl's blood. In this industry change, the parties whether infighting or subterfuge, the winners are mostly embracing change, the beneficiaries are likely consumers.

This is the war on the elimination of the television industry, but also on the television products of the war of imagination.

The "chaos" of the Mandarin duck spectrum

Ali and Haier combination, Archie Art and TCL combination, the Internet companies interested in this market and traditional appliance manufacturers have begun to look for "marriage" object.

If it is said that the television industry has brought some surprises and a flurry of news, the entry of Alibaba has officially announced that internet companies are going to do TV.

July 23, Alibaba United Hua several media launched Ali Box and announced the establishment of Ali Intelligent TV Ecological Alliance, Ali said that Skyworth, Changhong, Konka, Haier and other household electrical appliances enterprises were invited to join the system.

Subsequently, Skyworth, Changhong has denied cooperation. Changhong spokesperson Radian once told the Beijing News reporter that Changhong did not join Ali Intelligent TV ecosystem, Changhong to do their own "home Internet." In the current Alibaba proposed mode of cooperation and conditions, Changhong will not agree to cooperate with the use of Ali's system, Changhong to provide hardware this road is not workable.

Even so, Ali has not given up his plan for cooperation. It is understood that Ali is still in the home appliances manufacturers lobbying.

At the beginning of August, Haier first announced that it would cooperate with Ali to launch an intelligent TV product with Ali TV operating system. Who's next, Konka, Changhong? Beijing News reporter learned that at present Ali is with Konka, changhong negotiations.

"We are also examining the Ali system, including its user experience effect, and whether our products match." "Konka Multimedia global Research and Development Center deputy General Manager of the instrument, said the Beijing news reporter."

Ali and Changhong negotiations are also in progress. It is understood that Ali took the initiative to send people to find the Changhong's door. "Now, the technical department has basically reached a consensus on the level of negotiations, Ali proposed to continue to talk with the high-level." Changhong insiders told the Beijing News reporter.

Ali still talking, no wind no results, Archie Yi "suddenly" to cooperate with TCL to push Smart TV. August 27, TCL and Archie Arts also issued invitations to the media, the two sides will hold a new conference on September 3.

TCL spokesman Liang told the Beijing News reporter, "This is true, but the marriage has not yet closed, temporarily can not disclose details." ”

However, the Beijing News reporter learned from the tcl inside, in fact, Tcl has been the right to marry the object is.

Tcl and Tencent had two collaborations last year.

"The cooperation product sells very bad, but the high-level still is very apt to do with the Tencent, because Ma Teng holds TCL stock, Li is also Tencent's independent director, the two people relations are very good." But Tencent does not seem to have much interest in doing TV business at this time, Archie Art to find us, so the cooperation. Tcl insiders told the Beijing News correspondent.

In this round of marriage tide, only Hisense and Skyworth movement is very small. Gao Xiongyong, deputy general manager of Hisense Media Network Technology Co., said to Beijing News reporter, Hisense early in 2010 has begun to cooperate with the major video sites and game sites, cooperation is limited to content application level. Skyworth Group of Software Research Institute Dean Wang to Beijing News reporter said, skyworth and Internet company's cooperation has been talking, have been cooperating to find them, they are looking for cooperation.

Parties to the Dark war "control power"

The core of the smart TV industry is the operating system, which controls the dominance of the platform, and companies are unwilling to suspend dominance over others ' hands.

In the current chaotic situation, the giant Ali with Ali operating system on the emergence of the traditional appliance manufacturers to bring an aggressive trend, but also the appliance business and the internet business of the war of words, upgraded to "battle platform."

The connotation of intelligent TV includes three aspects: sound quality, operating system and content application. Sound quality is the traditional appliance manufacturers for many years of internal strength, content application is the technology of Internet merchants, operating system is to connect the bridge and platform.

Lio Fucheng, Director of Basic Technology Institute of Changhong Technology Center, told the Beijing News reporter that Changhong to do their own platform, the product upgrade control in their own hands, if with an internet company to talk about collapse, upgrade after we can directly remove its application, and then with another Internet company, the right to speak in their own hands. If the Internet company mastered this platform, home appliances manufacturers become hardware manufacturers, it can use Changhong today, tomorrow can use TCL, we have no right to speak.

"TV manufacturers if they do not have their own technology, without their own dominance, will be reduced to other people's processing plants, if the TV manufacturers become processing plants, it is not far from death." "Hisense Media Network Technology Co., Ltd. Deputy general manager Gao Xiongyong told the Beijing News reporter.

A high level of research and development in a household appliance industry has been familiar with Ali's people and contacted many times. In his view, Ali's goal is to want to be more dominant, in the mobile phone entrance, PC entrance, the use of Ali operating system, Rob TV entrance.

"I have a joke with Ali's friend, I build a house, you help me to repair the door, the key to you, I live in the house, my heart is not afraid, I have no privacy." The person said, "I built a villa, this door if not repaired you gave me a small window, the user can not go into the course." If the gate is broken, you repair or I repair, users will find who, tenants will find? These are the problems. ”

In fact, in the appliance circle, the operating system is not uncommon. Skyworth in April this year issued a godsend operating system, Changhong also has its own voice browser version of the operating system, Hisense in this year's latest release of the Vidda TV on the MSC operating system, each home in the "Android" on the basis of their own buried "doing" their own operating system. Before all this, the Sino-Chile Alliance (founded by Hisense, Changhong and TCL) published its first smart television operating system in 2012.

"Three of them have contributed, and finally although the outside propaganda system landed, but it did not in any one product really landed." This is an ideal state. "Changhong an insider told The Beijing News reporter," mainly is each Huaiguitai, five home Use this thing, everybody's product still have what difference? There is no competition. ”

The lack of unified standards and content platform, Smart television development is difficult. The industry has failed to provide a unified environment, and many developers have struggled to generate interest in the development of television applications.

"Everyone wants to be the boss, the standard is difficult to unify, but eventually there will be a thing to win, the television industry must have a more public acceptance of the platform." "Wang said.

So, Ali is still lobbying around, hope that each home TV with its operating system, Skyworth providential operating system has been in 20,000 television test water, the second half will cover millions of new products. Changhong will be launched in October this year equipped with voice browser and shaft operating system products, Hisense Vidda contains the Hai ' an operating system has been fully listed.

"Which system is the most convenient, fastest, experience the best, for the industry chain chip dealers, the fastest integration of developers, this must be the market decision." "Maybe within a year, it's going to be a winner," Wang said. ”

"Market large enough to accommodate six or seven listed companies"

Only the size of the hardware market, including boxes and smart TVs, is estimated at 120 billion, and this does not include value-added services such as video-on-demand and gaming.

What kind of market is this? Today's smart TV is equivalent to "TV (terminal) + Internet + intelligent operation." In China, there are two kinds of intelligent TV, one is the television, that is, intelligent TV or Internet TV set, one is smart TV set-top box.

Someone has counted such an account. The number of households in China is 400 million, the number of TV is higher than 400 million, the annual sales of color TV is 40 million units, of which 40% is intelligent TV, according to 300 yuan a box calculation, the market size of the box is 40 billion yuan.

An intelligent TV based on 5000 yuan, the market size of Smart TV is 80 billion, add up to 120 billion of the market size, and this 120 billion is only the market size of hardware. After the market matures, there will be video-on-demand and other value-added services, including video games and other imaginative space.

Shawiding CEO, said the market is big enough. At least six or seven listed companies can be accommodated.

Such a large market, the traditional home appliances manufacturers certainly will not miss.

In fact, the first concept is not internet companies, but home appliances enterprises. 4 years ago, Internet TV appeared, which was able to surf the internet, but the TV was not installed on the Android system, users can not install the application. Today, the Android system moves to the TV, the TV becomes intelligent, and various applications are dazzled. With the improvement of TV intelligent function and the development of broadband technology, the value of intelligent TV is attracting more and more attention.

At the same time, the thin hardware profits are forcing home appliances manufacturers have to step up the exploration of smart television market prospects. Beijing News reporter learned that in the past decade, the home appliance industry competition, price war frequently, TV's gross profit margin has been hovering 15% to 20%, far below the air-conditioning and other white 25% margin level. Home Appliance Industry Observer Liang said, "some enterprises even difficult to maintain the existing gross profit, so the concept of television over the years has emerged, smart television can indeed bring value-added products, improve gross profit." ”

For internet companies, television screens are a new continent. Yi-Bao, founder of cultural communication agency, said the news, the Internet is now really no better to do things, the number of netizens reached a high, no demographic dividend, business space was, Ali, Tencent these big guy "monopoly". With the advent of the era of intelligent television, television this screen, as the PC, mobile phones, tablets after the "four-screen", internet companies began to covet this "entrance."

"The main marketing" of home appliances manufacturers "need to innovate"

Some home appliance manufacturer's enterprise culture, cannot support the innovation. Want to compete with Internet enterprise, need to rebuild research and development team, reengineering enterprise culture.

Wang, dean of the Software Research Institute at Skyworth Group, said that the Internet business entered, making him feel that the most threatening is speed and money. Gao Xiongyong, deputy general manager of Hisense Media Network Technology Co., Ltd. said that in this competition, home appliances manufacturers must have the consciousness of technology and transformation to win.

The habit of home appliance manufacturers has always been a marketing war, not a technical war. From the 80 's hundreds of companies to now only dozens of, called the name of not more than 10, in the price war all the way to the current home appliance manufacturers, has a strong marketing team, they love to say a word is, "no matter what products, marketing done well I can sell you out." ”

But after the internet has joined, it's all changing.

In Wang's view, the Internet to do television, without accumulation instead of the need to consider too many complex red tape factors, so they are fast. In addition, the Internet enterprises generally have a large amount of money, often take a billion of or several billion to do new products business, this is the home appliance manufacturers can not. "In the speed and financial strength of the support, they continue to collide, there is always the possibility of hitting a product to satisfy the user, perhaps that is the key to success." And when the appliance business in the tangle to do a what kind of products, the market has the views of the market, the internal internal views, many people have a lot of people's opinions, repeatedly tangled after the product is often stale. "Wang said.

Technical executives at another well-known home appliance manufacturer agree with this view. He said that the home appliance industry is a meager industry, investment pay attention to return. Internet companies to invest money, vote for people, in the home appliance industry is difficult to do.

"For example, do user research, find a first-class company to do research, to spend 500,000, the company thinks the cost is too high, only willing to spend 100,000, it is conceivable that this survey to do back certainly is a second-rate thing." "Many home appliances manufacturers ' corporate culture cannot support innovation, which is a big bottleneck," said the source. The idea is to change, not the number of people hundreds of people patted the head, including team building and corporate culture reengineering. ”

Gao Xiongyong said, "If just shout wolf to come, useless, want to change a wolf to be only OK." "The above research and development personnel agree, at present in a few big appliance manufacturers, Hisense investment in research and development of the largest, the importance of research and development is relatively high."

It is understood that over the years the surface of the calm Hisense has been experiencing the pain of adjustment, the internal number of people are eliminated. In the research and development team, the proportion of hardware and software has changed from 8:2 in the past to 2:8 now. At the same time, the research and development personnel's evaluation index has added the collection rate, the active degree several new content.

Gao Xiongyong said that the traditional enterprises have a difficult transition process, there must be a part of the interests of people hurt. "When I was planning Vidda TV, I also went through a downs, with very strong internal resistance," he said. A lot of people do not understand my plan at all, so leaders at all levels round to open demonstration. In the meantime, the program was shot several times, the most serious one of the plan was killed, I spent 10 days without thinking about what I should do, almost desperate. Gao Xiongyong said, "From the beginning did not understand the later slowly understand, the process is very painful." Because it is too risky, Hisense has not done this product, home appliances enterprises often can not make mistakes. ”

Both sides are still exploring how to win

Although the current traditional manufacturers and Internet manufacturers are actively seeking cooperation, but the profit model of cooperation between the two sides is still in the exploratory stage.

The development of the intelligent TV industry Yi, the whole TV industry is not very good. "Why TV is weakened because there are so many channels, the user's time is fixed for 24 hours, spending a lot of time on other channels, there is no way to spend too much time on TV." The big trend in the TV industry is to either embrace the Internet or be eliminated. "Yi said.

This has been recognized by most traditional household appliance practitioners.

"I am personally willing to cooperate, and I am willing to put a low profile to cooperate, we can help them to do software and hardware, they put the internet business in," said Lio Fucheng, director of the Basic Technology Institute of Changhong Technology Center. ”

Skyworth Group of Software Research Institute Dean Wang said, we have no direct competition with the Internet, I would like to cooperate with the Internet, to develop them and we all want good products, the Internet to play the advantages of the Internet, the traditional manufacturers to play their advantages, so as to win.

But cooperation also has a bottom line. Hisense Media Network Technology Co., Ltd. Deputy general manager Gao Xiongyong said, internet companies will do the internet business, Ali Taobao, Alipay is the need for smart TV, but we really do not need an operating system, we can cross, but do not overstep the bounds.

"As for the mode of cooperation, there are a lot of possible appliance manufacturers and content companies to do joint ventures, according to the amount of money invested to determine the proportion." There are also two-party cooperation, a contribution to the content of one side, a contribution platform, divided by WHO to operate, joint operations, who sold more things, who score more achievements. "We're not obsessed with cooperation, but how to get the best out of the product and, under this premise, explore each other's efforts and concessions," Wang said. ”

It is understood that although the current traditional manufacturers and Internet manufacturers are actively seeking cooperation, but the profit model of cooperation between the two sides is still in the exploratory stage.

December 3 last year, Skyworth TV and the three-party cooperation of the Southern Media launched the "Straight to Hollywood", the standard monthly fee of 35 yuan, 360 yuan a year, the first in the industry to test water charges. Skyworth said 2013 goal is to sell 300,000 cards, sales 80 million.

Gao Xiongyong said that the cooperation between Hisense and Internet companies has not yet involved the issue of profit-sharing. "At the moment, the Internet is a big investment, and when they live well enough, partitioning is natural." At present, the real problem is that many users use pad, mobile phone to watch video, can let the young people back to the television, this thing done, the business model naturally produced. ”

View

Future market or winner take all

What's the future of TV? At present, the main appliance manufacturers to our concept is: large screen, interactive, voice operation, mobile phones, tablets, computers, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances highly coordinated.

When the user is walking on the road, has already used the cell phone to put the film dot good, go home to turn on the TV to see, do not have to do any operation on the television; When users are sitting on the couch watching TV, do not care about the air-conditioning is cold hot, do not have to care about the washing machine inside is not quickly washed, just to see the TV, you know.

After the desktop internet, mobile Internet, the concept of home internet to consumers unlimited imagination, but also bring unlimited space for television practitioners.

What will be the pattern of the future TV industry? Bao, founder of the Cultural Communication Agency, said that the entry of Internet enterprises would not bring much subversion to the overall pattern of TV industry, but would bring innovation to the existing pattern. The big picture is still dominated by traditional players, and the new players will have a small amount of success in the traditional stable pattern, and in the traditional stable pattern they will bring some changes, and they will change themselves.

Gao Xiongyong that the future of the pattern must be one or two internet companies to do enough cattle, hardware manufacturers will have one or two enough cattle, the share of 20%-30% or even higher, may be part of the enterprise was eliminated. "As long as the internet comes, the final pattern is the Internet model, winners take all." The rules of the game are changing, to fight the technology, strength and sensitivity to the market, we all have plans to see who can hold. ”