小米的浴火重生之路

Xiaomi, once the world’s most valuable unicorn, looked set to become one of China’s biggest unicorpses: it burnt cash, and stumbled with supply problems. Now, with fortunes improving, it is staging its next act: Chinese phoenix.

一度是全球估值最高“獨(dú)角獸”的小米(Xiaomi)，前一階段貌似會(huì)淪為中國(guó)最大的“獨(dú)角尸”之一：燒錢，深陷供應(yīng)困境。如今，隨著時(shí)運(yùn)回升，小米的好戲進(jìn)入下一幕：浴火重生的中國(guó)鳳凰。

The Beijing-based tech company, which makes products ranging from smartphones to smart rice cookers, re-entered the top five of global smartphone makers in the second quarter, as shipments surged 59 per cent year on year to 21m, according to the IDC research firm.

據(jù)咨詢公司IDC表示，第二季度，這家總部位于北京的科技公司再次進(jìn)入全球智能手機(jī)制造商五強(qiáng)之列，出貨量2100萬(wàn)臺(tái)，同比增長(zhǎng)59%。小米生產(chǎn)從智能手機(jī)到智能電飯煲的各類產(chǎn)品。

The recovery, noted founder and chief executive Lei Jun, “follows a year of setbacks that collectively signify the most challenging period in our company history”.

小米公司的創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官雷軍提到，此次恢復(fù)元?dú)庵敖?jīng)歷了“一年的挫折，可以說(shuō)是我們公司史上最具挑戰(zhàn)的時(shí)期”。

“We needed to slow down,” says Shou Zi Chew, the company’s youthful chief financial officer, speaking in Xiaomi’s surprisingly small headquarters in Beijing’s northwestern tech district.

“我們需要放慢速度，”該公司長(zhǎng)相年輕的首席財(cái)務(wù)官周受資(Shou Zi Chew)在小米北京總部表示。地處北京西北高科技區(qū)的這個(gè)總部小得讓人意外。

“From zero to $10bn in revenue, excluding the year we didn’t have a smartphone, it took four years. Think of the organisational challenge. We needed to build organisational strength.”

“除去我們沒(méi)有智能手機(jī)的一年，營(yíng)收從零到100億美元，我們用了4年。想想這里面的組織挑戰(zhàn)。我們需要打造組織實(shí)力。”

While history is a relative concept in China’s entrepreneurial world — Xiaomi is a mere seven years old — there is no disputing the setbacks.

盡管“歷史”在中國(guó)企業(yè)界只是一個(gè)相對(duì)的概念——小米僅僅成立了7年——但小米經(jīng)受過(guò)挫折是不爭(zhēng)的事實(shí)。

The company was valued at $45bn in a late 2014 fundraising, exceeding Uber’s then-$40bn, but missed its 2015 handset shipment targets as smaller rivals grabbed market share.

在2014年末融資時(shí)，小米的估值達(dá)到450億美元，超過(guò)了優(yōu)步(Uber)當(dāng)時(shí)400億美元的估值，但是由于被較小的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者奪走了市場(chǎng)份額，小米沒(méi)有實(shí)現(xiàn)2015年手機(jī)出貨量目標(biāo)。

It ceded its top three China ranking to upstarts Oppo and Vivo, smartphone stablemates that, like Xiaomi before them, came out of nowhere to rank as the second and third most popular handset makers in China, respectively, in the second quarter of 2016, according to Gartner.

小米的中國(guó)智能手機(jī)三強(qiáng)位置讓給了后起之秀Oppo和Vivo。據(jù)高德納(Gartner)表示，Oppo和Vivo就像之前的小米一樣異軍突起，在2016年第二季度分別成為中國(guó)第二大和第三大最受歡迎的手機(jī)制造商。

Also, like their predecessor, they achieved this by selling heavily online and thus scooping up sales in third- and fourth-tier cities.

同樣，和它們的前輩小米一樣，Oppo和Vivo注重網(wǎng)上銷售并因此搶占了三四線城市的銷量，由此取得佳績(jī)。

“A few years ago, we rushed too fast, achieving a miracle in the history of modern business growth, but we also overspent a portion of our growth,” a humbled Mr Lei wrote in a memo posted on his WeChat account and on Facebook in January.

“前幾年我們沖得太快，創(chuàng)造了現(xiàn)代商業(yè)史上的成長(zhǎng)奇跡，但也提前透支了一部分成長(zhǎng)性，”痛定思痛的雷軍今年1月在其微信(WeChat)賬號(hào)和Facebook上發(fā)表的備忘錄中寫道。

“We must slow down and earnestly learn from our mistakes. Prevention is better than having to fix things later.”

“我們必須放慢腳步、認(rèn)真補(bǔ)課，而且早補(bǔ)要比晚補(bǔ)好，文火慢補(bǔ)要比急火猛藥好。”

Many industry observers give Xiaomi full points for doing just that. “A monster quarter has brought Xiaomi back into contention as a major player in the smartphone industry,” wrote Radio Free Mobile’s Richard Windsor in a recent note to clients.

很多行業(yè)觀察者因此給小米打了滿分。“一個(gè)好季度讓小米作為智能手機(jī)行業(yè)重量級(jí)選手重返競(jìng)技場(chǎng)，”Radio Free Mobile的理查德•溫莎(Richard Windsor)最近在寫給客戶的簡(jiǎn)報(bào)中寫道。

The company has gone from 10,000 to 14,000 employees in the past year as part of what Mr Chew calls a long-overdue recruitment drive. “We had the same valuation yet a fraction of the staff of our peers,” he says.

過(guò)去一年該公司的員工總數(shù)已經(jīng)從1萬(wàn)人增加至1.4萬(wàn)人，周受資稱，這是拖延已久的招聘活動(dòng)的一部分。他稱，“我們和同行擁有同樣的估值，但是員工數(shù)量?jī)H為他們的一小部分。”

Sustainability is the big question. “This recovery needs to be more than just a product cycle for it to stay there,” says Mr Windsor.

可持續(xù)性是大問(wèn)題。“此次恢復(fù)需要持續(xù)不止一個(gè)產(chǎn)品周期，才能使它保持強(qiáng)者地位，”溫莎表示。

Xiaomi’s formula for its turnround is three-pronged: improving technology, broadening distribution and going global.

小米的轉(zhuǎn)型方案是三管齊下：提高技術(shù)、擴(kuò)大分銷以及全球化發(fā)展。

On technology, it has moved to design its own processor, enabling it to reduce battery weight as well as its reliance on foreign makers like Qualcomm. It has applied for more than 16,000 patents so far, and has been granted 4,000.

在技術(shù)上，小米已經(jīng)開始設(shè)計(jì)自己的處理器，以減輕電池重量并降低對(duì)高通(Qualcomm)等外國(guó)制造商的依賴。迄今小米已申請(qǐng)逾1.6萬(wàn)項(xiàng)專利，并獲得了4000項(xiàng)專利。

Mr Lei is also banking on the combination of supplementing online sales with physical stores, the seamless “new retail” being pursued by the likes of tech giant Alibaba, and conquering new markets, specifically India.

在銷售上，雷軍還寄望用實(shí)體店補(bǔ)充網(wǎng)上銷售——也就是阿里巴巴(Alibaba)等科技巨頭追求的無(wú)縫“新零售”——以及征服印度等新市場(chǎng)。

That same strategy helped Oppo and Vivo pick off customers beyond the bigger and wealthier parts of China, where many people were not online.

同樣的策略曾幫助Oppo和Vivo在中國(guó)富裕大城市以外的地區(qū)贏得顧客，這些地區(qū)的很多人不上網(wǎng)。

But Xiaomi has taken its stores a step further, adding a range of household appliances to its shelves — all items that come with apps for smart deployment and are a potential revenue stream, according to Hans Tung, partner at GGV, and an early investor in Xiaomi while at Qiming Ventures.

紀(jì)源資本(GGV Capital)合伙人、在啟明創(chuàng)投(Qiming Venture)時(shí)成為小米早期投資人的童士豪(Hans Tung)表示，小米讓實(shí)體店更進(jìn)一步，在店內(nèi)銷售一系列家用電器——所有產(chǎn)品都帶有App，使其可形成智能家居，并且開辟一條潛在的營(yíng)收來(lái)源。

“Every single product has an app that controls it; as people spend more time on these apps, so you can sell ads,” he says. For instance, a home assistant speaker is a logical extension. From that, internet services can be bolted on such as gaming, as well as online ads.

“每一件產(chǎn)品都有可以控制它的App;當(dāng)人們?cè)絹?lái)越多地使用這些App時(shí)，你就可以賣廣告了，”他表示。例如，智能家居助手音箱是合乎邏輯的延伸產(chǎn)品。接著可以添加互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)，比如游戲，以及在線廣告等。

The strategy is showing signs of success. Xiaomi is now the world’s top-selling maker of wearables such as fitness bands, with its 13.4 per cent market share putting it a whisker above Apple and Fitbit, the latter the one-time doyen of the sector.

該策略正在表現(xiàn)出成功的跡象。小米如今在可穿戴設(shè)備上是全球銷量最高的制造商，在健康手環(huán)上占據(jù)了13.4%的市場(chǎng)份額，高于蘋果(Apple)以及曾經(jīng)是該領(lǐng)域老大的Fitbit。

Xiaomi now has 137 Mi stores across China, and prides itself on keeping the same prices online and in-store, while also managing the near-impossible task of keeping operating margins the same — the cost of a sale in-store is the same as online, thanks to blending on and offline, the company claims.

如今小米在中國(guó)各地開設(shè)了137家“小米之家”，以線上和線下統(tǒng)一價(jià)標(biāo)榜自己，同時(shí)還做到了保持運(yùn)營(yíng)利潤(rùn)率不變這一近乎不可能的事情——該公司聲稱，由于線上線下相結(jié)合，實(shí)體店銷售成本和線上銷售成本相同。

Global expansion is perhaps Xiaomi’s boldest step. The company has set its sights largely on emerging markets.

全球化擴(kuò)張或許是小米最果敢的一步。迄今該公司主要著眼于新興市場(chǎng)。

It claims to be the third-biggest handset seller in Indonesia and fourth in Russia. It is particularly focused on India, where Oppo and Vivo have won legions of fans largely through a canny use of cricket sponsorship.

小米聲稱在印度尼西亞的手機(jī)銷量位列第三，在俄羅斯的銷量位列第四。該公司格外注重印度市場(chǎng);在印度，Oppo和Vivo主要通過(guò)贊助板球聯(lián)賽的精明之舉贏得了大批粉絲。

It is, says Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and chief executive of India’s Hike Messenger, a Tencent-backed messaging unicorn, a niche brand but a well-respected one, in a fickle market. “Smartphones get rotated every 12 months, that’s the average in India,” he says. “It’s all about price and features.”

騰訊(Tencent)支持的印度獨(dú)角獸公司Hike Messenger的創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官凱文•巴蒂•米塔爾(Kavin Bharti Mittal)表示，小米是小眾品牌，但在這個(gè)易變的市場(chǎng)深受尊重。“智能手機(jī)每12個(gè)月?lián)Q代一次，這是印度的平均水平，”他表示，“關(guān)鍵在于價(jià)格和功能特色。”

Neha Dharia, a senior analyst at telecoms consultancy Ovum, concurs: with brand loyalty to handsets a thing of the past, Chinese brands are mopping up in India, she says.

電信咨詢公司Ovum的高級(jí)分析師內(nèi)哈•達(dá)里亞(Neha Dharia)表示贊同。她說(shuō)，隨著人們對(duì)手機(jī)品牌的忠誠(chéng)度成為歷史，中國(guó)品牌正在橫掃印度市場(chǎng)。

Xiaomi says that over 95 per cent of its phones sold in India and Indonesia are made locally, although given the complexity of supply chains, this often means assembled rather than fully manufactured.

小米表示，在印度和印尼銷售的小米手機(jī)95%以上是當(dāng)?shù)厣a(chǎn)的，盡管考慮到供應(yīng)鏈的復(fù)雜性，這往往只是指組裝，而非完整制造過(guò)程。

But Ms Dharia notes that the market remains fickle, and the rise of domestic telecoms operator Reliance Jio will further disrupt the market by boosting demand for 4G (aided by the provision of $63 phones).

但達(dá)里亞指出，手機(jī)市場(chǎng)仍然多變，印度本土電信運(yùn)營(yíng)商Reliance Jio的崛起將通過(guò)提振4G需求(得益于該公司提供的63美元的手機(jī))進(jìn)一步擾亂這一市場(chǎng)。

It will fall to which manufacturers can keep up with supply, something that proved an Achilles heel for Xiaomi during its downturn.

未來(lái)將取決于哪些制造商能夠跟上供應(yīng)，這一點(diǎn)曾被證明是小米的致命弱點(diǎn)。

For now, Mr Lei has a “humble” revenue goal of Rmb100bn ($15.3bn) this year and a target of shipping 100m smartphones in 2018. Beyond that, he becomes somewhat more ambitious, claiming Xiaomi’s future “is as vast as the constellations and beyond”.

目前，雷軍定下的“小目標(biāo)”是今年達(dá)到1000億元人民幣(合153億美元)營(yíng)收，2018年出貨1億部智能手機(jī)。對(duì)于更遙遠(yuǎn)的未來(lái)，他變得有點(diǎn)更為雄心勃勃，聲稱小米的未來(lái)就像“星辰大海”。

Xiaomi chief models company on retail rather than tech icons

小米CEO模仿的是零售企業(yè)，而非偶像級(jí)科技企業(yè)

Lei Jun, founder and chief executive of Beijing-based Xiaomi, is often referred to as the “Steve Jobs of China”, write Yingzhi Yang and Yuan Yang in Beijing.

總部位于北京的小米科技創(chuàng)始人和首席執(zhí)行官雷軍，經(jīng)常被稱為“中國(guó)的史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)”。

But Mr Lei has his sights set on a business model from the much less glamorous world of American retail rather than Silicon Valley.

但在業(yè)務(wù)模式上，雷軍學(xué)習(xí)的目標(biāo)不是硅谷，而是不那么光鮮的美國(guó)零售業(yè)。

“We have the same value system as Costco,” the serial tech entrepreneur once said. The company’s executives are obsessed with efficiency in manufacturing and distribution chains, as much as they are with new gadgets.

“我們擁有與好市多(Costco)同樣的價(jià)值體系，”這位多次創(chuàng)業(yè)的科技企業(yè)家曾表示。該公司的高管像癡迷新產(chǎn)品一樣，癡迷于制造和分銷鏈的效率。

Xiaomi, which means “millet grain” in Chinese, was founded by Mr Lei in 2010 after a simple meal of millet porridge with its first employees. In his early 40s then, he was already a billionaire and had enjoyed success as a start-up founder.

雷軍在2010年創(chuàng)立了小米科技，當(dāng)時(shí)他請(qǐng)首批員工簡(jiǎn)單地吃了一頓小米粥。時(shí)年40歲出頭的雷軍早已是一名億萬(wàn)富翁，享受過(guò)作為初創(chuàng)企業(yè)創(chuàng)始人的成功。

Born in 1969 in central China, Mr Lei copied a childhood friend in choosing to study computer science, reading about Steve Jobs’ achievements towards the end of his time at Wuhan University.

雷軍1969年出生于中國(guó)中部，他效仿一個(gè)兒時(shí)伙伴選擇學(xué)習(xí)計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)，在武漢大學(xué)臨近畢業(yè)時(shí)讀到了史蒂夫•喬布斯的成就。

His first job was working as an engineer in the early days of software company Kingsoft, where he later became president and led it to an IPO.

他的第一份工作是在初創(chuàng)時(shí)期的金山軟件公司(Kingsoft)擔(dān)任工程師，后來(lái)成為金山的總裁，并帶領(lǐng)公司上市。

While at Kingsoft, he also started an online bookstore, joyo.com, before selling it four years later to Amazon for $75m.

他在金山任職期間還創(chuàng)辦了在線書店卓越網(wǎng)(joyo.com)，并在四年后以7500萬(wàn)美元的價(jià)格出售給了亞馬遜(Amazon)。

Mr Lei is also a serial venture capitalist, who invested in 56 start-ups between 2014 and 2016, including social platform YY, the originator of China’s now-ubiquitous live-streaming platforms, and UCWeb, a web browser bought by Alibaba in 2014.

雷軍還是一位閑不住的風(fēng)投資本家，他在2014年至2016年間投資了56家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)，其中包括社交平臺(tái)YY直播和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)瀏覽器UCWeb。前者是中國(guó)當(dāng)下十分流行的各種直播平臺(tái)的鼻祖，后者于2014年被阿里巴巴收購(gòu)。