In 2018, the CES Consumer Electronics Show in the United States just ended in Las Vegas. The organizer CTA (American Consumer Technology Association) has begun preparations for the CES Asia Consumer Electronics Show, and five months in advance. The first batch of nearly 30 companies confirmed to participate in the CES in Asia have been announced. Most of them are also exhibitors from the CES in the United States. Among them, Chinese companies include Haier, Huawei, HKUST, Skyworth, and Suning.
As the "trump card exhibition" of the global scientific and technological community, the United States CES Consumer Electronics Show has always been an important occasion for the global technology giant to display the most advanced technology. In addition, the ceremonial arrangements outside the exhibition are more ritual. For example, the keynote speech on the previous day and the keynote speech on the day were very eye-catching. It was also an important criterion for measuring the strength of speech companies. In contrast, CES Asia has a weaker sense of ceremony.
The difference between Asian CES and American CES is obvious. From the perspective of two CES exhibitors, the gap between China's consumer electronics companies is also obvious. The First Financial reporter conducted interviews in the direction of automobiles and Home Appliances, trying to find out the gap between Chinese and foreign companies in different fields.
Automobile: Disparity in Chinese and Foreign Strength
A year ago, LeTV was extremely popular during 2017CES. LeTV Investment's Faraday Future (Faraday Future) released the FF91 concept electric car in a high-profile manner, aiming to attract more attention through CES. Although the FF91 announced the data and features, it is a stunning work.
Unfortunately, the dream of redefining the car failed to shine in reality, and the questioning and nightmare followed closely after the release of the new car. At 2018CES, the hard-fought FF91 is back, but it is much lower-key than last year. It is only a small scale media experience. This new car is considered to be the second-generation test vehicle of the FF91 and has not achieved a mass production plan from 0 to 1.
Xiaopeng Automobile took the first step and held the G3 launch ceremony at 2018CES. This is the first mass-produced version of the Internet car released by China's new car builders at CES. G3 is the product of Xiaopeng Auto 2.0. It completed iterations on the basis of the release of version 1.0 in October 2017 and further improved the autopilot configuration. Along with Xiaopeng’s CES counterpart at this CES, Beittan, a new Chinese vehicle builder, was on the eve of CES to hold the world premiere of BYTONConcept, the first concept car. The new car is positioned as a smart luxury medium-sized SUV with a maximum cruising range of 520 kilometers. The mass production version will be completed at the Nanjing plant in China in the future and is expected to be available at the end of 2019. Chery is the only traditional console factory in China from 2018CES and dispatched Ariza 5 to participate. Chery has signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Baidu and plans to establish Chery’s Silicon Valley Research and Development Institute in Silicon Valley. In 2018, it will launch a new model equipped with a car networking system.
In the international arena of CES, although the appearance of Chinese car companies began to appear, compared with the giants of multinational car companies, it is still a trivial task.
Traditional international car giants have increased horsepower to sprint smart connected electric technology, especially Toyota.
During this year's CES, not only has the avant-garde black technology been announced, but it has also announced that it has transformed from a car manufacturer to a mobile travel service provider and has directly challenged tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Facebook. Its empiricism comes from its own technological reserves and changes. Toyota will release e-PaletteConcept, a new generation of electric vehicle (EV) dedicated to mobile, logistics and product sales, which will be used for mobile, logistics and product sales. Once it is put into practical use, it will be used in the automotive industry and the Internet technology industry. Both are big upsets.
In the intelligent connected electric competition, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Ford, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, etc. have introduced unmanned electric vehicles, compared to the new forces of the Internet builders who are still trying to build technology, these traditional car prices. The giants not only have accumulated technical, production and management experience for decades or even hundreds of years, but more importantly, they have sales of millions of vehicles and even tens of millions of vehicles each year. They can develop blood transfusions for new technologies. Among them, Toyota's revenue for fiscal year 2016 was 27.6 trillion yen, and VW’s operating income for fiscal year 2016 was 217.27 billion euros. In 2016, Volkswagen and Toyota's annual sales were 10.31 million units and 10.175 million units respectively, which took away the champions and runner-up of global car sales. In 2017, the sales volume of these two car companies once again exceeded 10 million.
SAIC Group, which ranks first in sales in China, reported revenues of 765.416 billion yuan in 2016 and sales of 6.489 million units. In 2017, sales increased to 6.93 million units. Even if the company owns joint ventures with giants such as Volkswagen and General Motors, there is still a certain gap between the SAIC Group and international giants such as Volkswagen and Toyota. From the perspective of brands, although Geely's skyrocketed sales of its self-owned brands last year won sales of 1.2 million vehicles, compared with Volkswagen, Toyota and other brands, it is obviously not the same level of competition in the international market.
The newly-started Chinese automakers are still far behind the mainstream domestic automakers in terms of overall strength, and are even more disparate than international giants. At present, the funding of Weilai, Xiaopeng, and Weimar, which have a high reputation among the new players in the Internet construction industry, is generally around 10 billion to 20 billion yuan. Although there is a gap with the traditional car companies, it does not affect the desire of these companies to seize the opportunity of the automobile reform period. Wei Lai’s founder, Li Bin, recently expressed to the media including First Financial that the domestic autonomous car companies are actively deploying, and international giants of traditional multinational car companies may not occupy such a high market share as today.
Appliances: "Not to that amount, but to take up that bit"
Zhou Qun, Managing Director of GFK China, told the Chief Financial Officer that, objectively speaking, the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) application of international companies is still ahead of domestic enterprises, in addition to automatic recognition, more interaction in the English environment, how to do in the Chinese environment Keeping pace is a big challenge. This involves the differences in the technological path between overseas markets and the Chinese market.
In fact, Google and Amazon’s two artificial intelligence platforms compete for Chinese companies. Like the use of intelligent speech engine, Skyworth cooperates with Google Assistant, and Hisense cooperates with Amazon Alex. At the CES in 2018, Haier also demonstrated its cooperation with Amazon.
At present, China is the world's largest producer of household electrical appliances. However, in the era of Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, whether the intelligent products of China's home appliance companies can only become importers, and in overseas markets, they must rely on the Internet giant's artificial intelligence platform.
In this regard, Zhao Feng, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of Haier Home Appliances Industry Group, did not agree. He believes that Haier has launched UHomeOS, the operating system for the Internet of Things. For example, if a user calls "open air-conditioning high-wind mode", the GM artificial intelligence platform may think that "(early or evening) peak mode", Haier artificial intelligence platform will recognize that it is "high wind" rather than "low wind" mode. "Haier's artificial intelligence platform hopes to lead in the vertical field of smart home, and of course it will cooperate with other platforms."
Brand is another gap. In the high-end home appliance market in Europe and America, the brand of multinational companies still occupies a dominant position. Both Haier, Midea, TCL and Hisense are all working hard to establish overseas brands. Like TCL, it is set to become the third largest brand of color TV in North America by 2020. Another example is that Haier’s own-brand refrigerators have been sold for more than 100 euros in France and Germany. Li Huagang, vice president of Haier Group and China Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) admitted to the first financial reporter that it takes time and accumulation to seize the high-end markets of Europe and the United States. “Perhaps we did not get to that amount, but we must take up that position.â€
In fact, China's home appliance companies have achieved a breakthrough in core technologies, patents, and standards. According to the “2017 Global Innovation Report†issued by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters IP & Technology Division), in the field of home appliances, Midea’s 2016 invention patent ranks first in the world, followed by Gree and Haier. All three are companies from China, and this has been the case for three consecutive years. In December 2017, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), headquartered in New York, USA, adopted a proposal for Haier to lead the large-scale customization of general requirements standards.
Even so, it is still challenging for Chinese home appliance companies to seize the leading position of smart homes in the era of artificial intelligence in the future. The two South Korean companies like Samsung and LG not only have a complete line of color TVs and white goods, but also have the right to speak in the upstream areas of memory chips and display panels. China’s leading home appliance companies have their own strengths, such as Gree’s air-conditioners and Haier’s refrigerators. And washing machines, the United States in the small home appliances, TCL and Hisense in the color TV, so how the future will be more open-minded, integrate more resources in the industrial chain, but also China's home appliance companies to a higher level of the required course. (First Financial)
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