Lei and media three hours: Millet ecology is open

Author: Song

Source: 11 Financial people

December 17 is Lei's 45 birthday the next day, this morning, he and more than 10 media in the Millet office chat for three hours. Starting with the millet ecology, he answered dozens of questions without interruption-why invest in beauty instead of Haier? What is the truth of millet ecology? Why invest in 100 hardware companies? Is millet really a bully in the hardware industry? Can the millet mode be replicated? is millet really not short of money? Will there be an IPO? Wait, Lei made a candid, in-depth answer.

In the interview, Lei repeatedly stressed that the millet ecology is open, not exclusive, we believe that "millet dry" is a big misunderstanding, millet's core principle is to restrain greed, to focus on, Millet is a border.

Lei said that in his 40 birthday he put down the past to do millet, on the 45 birthday, he received two gifts, one is 360 investment alliance Cool, the other is Huawei issued the Glory 6 Plus, "The industry's competition horror is a mess." ”

How should millet go? Lei said that last year a friend gave him a word to make him gain a lot: stick to the original road. For an unlisted company, the profit is not important, increase investment, do not be engaged in the market.

The following is the essence of dialogue--

Why does millet do ecology?

The wave of smart homes was driven by Google's takeover of Nest in January 2014, reminding all of us to speed up.

Make Millet mobile phone before, for the first mobile phone or do first router, we are hesitant. We now have three core products: mobile phones, television, routing, these three products are in accordance with the extension of the ecological chain, we cast the equipment, products are highly and eco-chain-related. Eco-chain competition, short-term can not see how much effect, but within 3-5 years to see. Now the change of the ecological chain has just begun.

Mobile phones are platform-type hardware products, very dependent on the growth of the eco-chain, hardware competition has always been multidimensional competition, not to sell a phone less to sell a phone, but the whole ecological chain of competition, which is the basis of all.

Besides, why does the ecology of millet start from hardware? The reason is that in the existing bat pattern, only this model can break through. In the competition, we step by step, we look for and bat is not the same point of entry, at the same time, our pursuit of profit is very flexible, (such as we and Baidu cooperation investment love singular), we are not inch.

Only in this way, can make millet become tens of billions of companies, become the world's first. What is the value of your 1 billion dollar company? It's worthless to copy yourself again and again.

What does millet ecology include?

We set up the millet eco-chain last year, the plan is to invest 100 hardware enterprises, of course, the future may be far more than this number. Millet is the core of the ecology of the cell phone, the surrounding is the investment of millet ecological chain enterprises, and then around the millet are allied, investment enterprises.

The ecological chain enterprise also includes three layers, the first layer is the intelligent hardware ecological chain, the second layer is the content industry ecological chain, and the third layer is the cloud service. (In the hardware eco-chain we invest in hardware startups; in the content ecological chain we invite to Chen, investment Youku and Archie Art; in cloud services, we invest in Jinshan and century interconnection)

Millet has invested so many startups, mature companies and even listed companies, what is the boundary of millet?

First of all, millet has boundaries, millet itself only focus on three types of products: mobile phones (including tablets), routing (including boxes), television. We do not invest in eco-chain to do more products, it is to focus. Each product line goes hand in hand is very messy, very dangerous. Now we are clearly moving forward according to the rhythm, our key words today is--restraint, focus, and steady progress.

Before internationalization, we do six or seven areas at the same time, now is focused on the breakthrough in India, for internet finance, our idea is to prepare to do after.

The core principles of millet are three points--1. Restrain greed, do less things, do the core things well; 2. To be as broad an ally as possible and to work together; 3. Through the ecological chain of the way to promote the transformation of the entire industry, upgrading.

When I was investing in Angels, Sequoia's Shen gave me advice, he said, "You are too conservative, you will miss a lot." But as a VC, you lose 100 cases does not matter, as long as there is a success, enough. The world does not see how much you lose, but how much you win. So I said, to relax, to say plainly, I invested in the 100 companies millet will help them, but life and death is the CEO of their own things, I eat and sleep does not matter. I believe there will always be a few successful, there will always be more than billions of dollars.

Shun fund once browsed 7,000 cases, they summed up, as long as a homerun (home run), have won back. As long as a success, all hung up indifferent.

Three net of millet:

Millet has several nets, the first is not only the mobile phone company, or mobile internet companies, so our first platform is mobile internet platform. Example， The November one-month millet game business running water is 173 million yuan, very considerable; the second platform is E-commerce platform, whether it is turnover or scale, especially intelligent hardware, can be ranked in the top three, why we attach importance to the intelligent hardware industry chain, one of the reasons is to supplement the product line millet; The third platform is cloud services.

In the cloud service, Millet also has a three-layer strategy, the current millet itself to provide the cloud services focused on the application side, the middle tier is Jinshan, mainly data mining and utilization, infrastructure (computer room, etc.) is provided by the century Interconnection, division of cooperation, each other, independent of each other's business strategy.

Why the final choice of beauty?

We started preparing the router early last year, and we designed the router as a home server and a home storage center, in doing the router at the same time, we began to do intelligent hardware eco-chain, initially we want to find large companies to cooperate, at the beginning of the year we and home appliances giants in communication, and finally spent August or September time, and the United States reached a strategic partnership.

We welcome companies like Haier and Hisense to cooperate, even gree. But for these traditional large enterprises, if there is no successful case, it is difficult to really start cooperation, so, the United States is a cut mouth.

Investing in the United States is an extension of the smart home strategy we developed two years ago. Our first step is through the intelligent hardware industry chain investment, so that our industrial chain began to prototype, so as to convince the United States and our cooperation, the second step is to invest in the United States. We would like to through the partnership with the United States, to achieve the millet equipment and the United States the interconnection of equipment. We would like to have all the equipment connected to millet in five years time.

Evaluation Mingzhu

The enterprise cannot be so willful, the strategy and the wager have nothing to do with. We want to work with gree, too. Laugh）

Now there are "millet department", "Lei department" of the argument, this is not a kind of line? You have been talking about openness, are they contradictory?

The basic principle of millet is not exclusive, not in the same, open. Our alliance, investment companies, we do not require a line, open is the foundation of the establishment of ecological chain. For example, we are in the content industry ecological chain, we invested in Youku and Archie Art, the two are the best video site is also a direct competitor, we do not participate in the content industry competition, just the pursuit of content industry and our cooperation. For example, we chose Jin Shanyun as the cloud provider, but we may also choose Amazon (Amazon also supports some of the cloud storage of millet), Jin Shanyun is not the only supplier of millet, but the main supplier.

The premise of our cooperation is not to invest in our investment as a prerequisite, investment is only the implementation of millet strategy, the purpose is to strengthen our own.

The core purpose of Millet investment 100 hardware company is to enhance the competitiveness of millet mobile phone

Millet is definitely not an investment company, these 100 companies who can come out who can not, I do not care. Millet attitude is-you are not profitable profit is your business, which is only one of the truth, is to do ecological chain is to enhance the competitiveness of millet mobile phones. The ecological chain is their own business, we just play a good shareholder role, the greatest benefit we can get is that they support our strategy.

My concern is always, first, we invest in these companies are not in line with the millet strategy, to help enhance the competitiveness of millet; second, do not lose money.

These 100 companies can play a demonstration role, drive the entire industry chain, and then we will invite more partners to join, but we have a selection criteria. Standard core to meet the millet values and millet user base, which is not related to the price of the product itself, such as nest products good price, but not in line with the mainstream needs of millet users, so we will not introduce nest products.

At present, there are many excellent, suitable products in the Millet network sales, but we are not to do all day cats, Jingdong, such a comprehensive platform for the introduction of more equipment (in the Millet network sales), we are not ready.

Two-year protection period

For our investment companies, Millet has a two-year protection period, to ensure that the same type of the same area of the company to vote for only one, but two years later, we will invest in other companies, yes.

Millet Direct and non-direct company to enjoy the millet resources are different?

The amount of resources to enjoy, and investment does not have a relationship, the higher our strategic support, the more we support. Millet inside is developing a set of guidelines, the product classification, according to the level to configure different cooperation, resource programs. But the details are not yet out.

Do you think hardware startups like you?

This is a very controversial issue. We have invested a lot of companies, but those who can not get our investment companies scold us, but millet is open, we welcome you, you can find us to invest, to find our connection ah.

Millet does not want to become an incubator

Millet does not want to become an incubator, air purifier is a very special example. In order to ensure that the company has the ability to combat, we will enter more supply chain ability to the partner, will also help them docking vendors, with millet reputation for their endorsement. But the premise is, with the Millet brand of all industrial chain products must be my approval.

The reason Millet can win is high efficiency

With the example of Ren Tong, Wal-Mart and Costco, (omitted here 1000 words, may refer to Lei in Lenovo's internal speech similar, among them fu to the Chinese cabbage price in Costco buys two new beauty, attracts Lei to Costco to run the card), proves the commercial essence is the efficiency, the cheap behind is also high efficiency, and efficiency is the absolute reason for the victory of Millet.

How does millet do? The first is the real material, high-performance, high experience, the key word is to exceed user expectations; second, E-commerce Direct, efficient operation, obvious advantages, our operational efficiency is absolutely the world's leading level; the second is word of mouth, produce super high reputation, can save a lot of advertising marketing costs. The first one did not do well, 10 times times 100 times times to make up for the first (real material).

Millet is not replicable, but millet mode can be copied

It is difficult to copy a millet, but the millet pattern can be reproduced and popularized. Our aim is to help 100 traditional companies transform. In the traditional industry to do things, consider the most is the cost, and we research and development products are not hesitate to invest. With cost pricing, we want our peers to learn from us.

The three major challenges of the future

There are many challenges, the first smartphone industry has many problems, now in the technical bottleneck, such as electronics and battery technology, which is the slowest consumer electronics, not only to solve technological innovation, but also to solve the reliability and mass production problems, not easy.

In the first half of last year, I threw out the first generation of red rice in a total of 400,000 units, had placed orders, but because did not meet the standard, all thrown away. Such things will only be more, we rely on a huge amount of work to control risk. Millet usually prepares a few sets of plans, the final listing only one set, which of course will bring huge waste, but this waste is necessary.

In addition, the patent Challenge, patent warfare is millet rite. How about this rite of propriety? Millet next year is expected to 1300 patents, of which 300 international invention patents, now the key is that time is too short. What we need most is time, we have to turn inventions into patents to hold tickets for this round of competition. For 5-10 years, the patent war is part of the rules of the game.

The biggest challenge beyond patents is privacy, and the goal of Millet is to become the most comprehensive company in the world for the protection of user privacy, and we will soon launch a white paper on millet privacy.

It doesn't make sense to hate millet.

Recently Wang said that I am very agree-no matter what industry you are engaged in, if you think that your industry has nothing to do with the Internet, in a year or two the industry will not matter with you. Now everyone hates millet no reason, mobile interconnection and intelligent home wave has come, the same will die.

Millet has no walls, but millet has fences.

In the era of IBM, it was an open ecology, and in the Apple era, it became closed. Millet is not the same, we are intermediate mode, IBM basic regardless, laissez-faire market, so the mixed. But Millet is with management intelligence, we to the market, products, partners to choose and manage, millet no wall, but millet is with a fence.

What is the future of the smart hardware market?

The future of intelligent hardware is roughly two categories, one is the public goods explosion, very cheap, the other is personalized, do a premium, future smart hardware direction. Or you use millet mode, or you and this pattern dislocation, this is the reality.

But industrial products cannot be the only oligarch market, and the non-millet system can certainly succeed.

With so much investment, millet is not short of money.

Millet has done a lot this year than the IPO is not necessarily bad thing, is to send 1 billion U.S. dollars in debt, many big banks are involved, these banks to participate in the demand is far more than 1 billion U.S. dollars. Our principle is to reserve food in the good harvest, we are in the rich premise of cash issued debt. Before the Golden Hill almost closed, I know that an enterprise to survive first to ensure high cash stock.

This year we invest in Thunder, Archie Arts, Century interconnection and other enterprises, spent a billion of, but far above the safety line. Only Jinshan software has 1.2 billion of cash, Thunder account has 500 million cash, we have shun, millet is not an isolated individual, but a whole large system, we in every investment, have used a lot of money lever, millet not lack of money.

No IPO plan for five years

Now we are the control of four listed companies, (Jinshan, Cheetah, Thunder, YY), listed companies have many short-term investors, making long-term goals distorted. So in the next five years we do not have any IPO plan, we also do not pursue short-term profit target, but for talent investment, technology, research and development investment is massive, also will invest heavily in Logistics center and Service Center.

Ten years later, Millet changed China

The positioning of millet is a national enterprise, we are doing is to promote this round of industrial revolution, the symbol of change in industry society is the first to make all products are high quality and low price. We've spent three years changing the smartphone industry, and all the products are getting better and cheaper. Ten years from now, you will see that millet has changed China, at least in industry. We also want to be the world's first, let the world enjoy the joy of Chinese science and technology innovation.

Domestic enterprises need to unite together, muzzle elevation a foot, aimed at foreign enterprises, do not always aim at the millet attack.