Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 1415: Confusing (4k)

In late April, Yike's performance in the secondary market gradually stabilized.

On the one hand, the first half press conference was postponed to the last day of this month, with routine upgrades to tablet products, the focus on launching the Y-Book equipped with Intel's latest 14nm chip, and the release of some smart home products from partner manufacturers.

This shows that Yike's business activities are proceeding as planned and have not been greatly affected.

On the other hand, following the breakdown of foundry negotiations with Intel, Yike has released more news in this field, and is said to have had extensive contacts with Samsung, UMC, and TAIC.

Although the contact has not yet produced any results, this undoubtedly shows that Yike is actively reducing supply risks.

The doubts about YiKe have not been resolved, but such a successful company seems to have the inertia to successfully solve problems, which is commented by many analysts as "the temperament of a great company". However, a new problem is now facing us.

Who can stop Yi Ke?

The Mars 8.8 series brought great success to Yike, but it could not be glorious forever.

Especially when the ice core is restricted and the wafer manufacturing process is unlikely to bring a new generation of leap this year like last year, there must always be a hero who stands up to stop the big devil.

So, who is it?

On May 5, Samsung released a preview of its new flagship.

As if responding to public expectations, it took the lead and announced that it would hold a flagship new mobile phone product launch conference on May 5, launching new products based on Taiji's 21nm process chips and starting a new product series named "Glory".

Glory, brilliant.

Perhaps Trump is simply no match for Yike, so he can only launch a new series to create new glory for Samsung.

The flagship launch conferences of the Big Three in previous years were not much different. Samsung's move this time was undoubtedly due to the pressure of market erosion, and it released its flagship phone in advance to make up for its disadvantage.

This further led to a dive in the prices of Samsung's Trump phones, but there was no better way.

Following Samsung's move, unverified rumors circulated that Samsung made great concessions on price in order to prioritize Taiwan's production capacity.

Samsung and Taiwan are in competition, and Apple, a major customer, was poached by the other party. However, this time Qualcomm mediated and Samsung apologized with the price, which led to the new product.

However, although Samsung was the most affected by Yi Ke, Apple was not feeling well either. It announced similar news shortly afterwards and scheduled its new product launch for mid-June.

Both major rivals adjusted their new product plans. It was thought that Yike would also make some moves, but it did not release any news for several days. According to its US president Schroeder, the company's new products will still be released in the fall.

Wall Street analysts believe that even if Apple and Samsung launch new products based on Taiji technology, the Mars 8.8 series will still be competitive, so Yike is in no hurry to change its plans.

Another factor that cannot be ignored is that Yike may still be struggling with administrative issues when it obtains a temporary license from BIS. Regardless of which manufacturer it can add, Bingxin is the most suitable partner. If it can continue to use the best process technology, the quality of this year's flagship product can remain stable.

However, there are obviously variables with “temporary” licenses.

At present, it seems that Yike is trying its best to reduce the variables, and senior executives including Apple and Samsung have also talked about their own views in informal occasions. They do not think it is difficult for Yike to solve the manufacturing process.

According to the most likely scenario now, even if Yike cooperates with GlobalFoundries, its competitiveness will only be weakened.

Compared with Yike and its two direct competitors, the domestic hero seems to be Alibaba.

Since Alibaba's successful listing, it has been adopting a very proactive offensive strategy, taking the e-commerce market as the core, and engaging in direct competition with the Yike Group in many fields.

The outside world generally believes that this competitive situation comes from the huge gains made by Alibaba from its listing, but the top management basically believes in Feng Qingyang's judgment on the head of Yike.

——Mr. Fang has been doing this for many years. How could he back down at the critical moment?
Based on the extension of this judgment, Alibaba continues to consolidate its advantages in e-commerce on the one hand, and is also willing to spend money in areas such as travel, games, and social networking on the other.

The first area to see results was the mobile travel sector, which has been engaged in a price war for two years.

Alibaba increased its subsidies, and Uber finally didn’t want to play anymore.

Uber had been planning to enter the Chinese market for a long time and thought it had chosen a very good time to enter. The three brands had been fighting for a long time and it was the time when they were weak. The fact that it immediately acquired the business from Duji as soon as it entered seemed to confirm its own observations.

However, no one expected that the remaining three companies, Yike, Alibaba and Penguin, would be so resilient and determined!

The collapse of DuJi does not mean the price war is over, it just means we have entered the second half.

Uber had hoped to be matched by investor Masayoshi Son around the Spring Festival, and also saw other competitors' intentions. However, Yi Ke firmly rejected the proposal of a ceasefire, and Alibaba continued to increase subsidies. In the end...

On May 5, Uber officially announced a reduction in subsidies for the Chinese market, injecting a breath of fresh air into the fiercely competitive mobile travel market.

Subsequently, Holly, the senior vice president who was originally in charge of the Chinese market, was transferred and the vice president who was two levels lower than him was responsible for the relevant work.

This move was interpreted as Uber temporarily abandoning the Chinese market.

Before returning to the United States, Hawley gave a rather disappointing final media interview and predicted the future of the mobile travel market.

"There will probably only be two major brands in the Chinese market in the future, and Penguin will inevitably be out of the game soon."

"This kind of subsidy war is abnormal and unhealthy, but it is inevitable. Yike and Alibaba both have too much money, but this does not make people despair. The most despairing thing is that this is not only a competition of funds, but also a competition of various resources."

"How does Uber compare with Yixin and Alipay? They can all be built into the program, which naturally brings them closer to consumers."

"On this point, even Penguin can hardly compete with these two."

"We spent two years teaching consumers how to use electronic payments to hail taxis, but in the end, everything was just a wedding dress for Yizhifu and Alipay."

"Such competition is unfair, but the reality is that there is no question of fairness or unfairness."

Hawley's interview was not without resentment. Uber could not match Yike and Alibaba, which developed earlier, in terms of funds, resources, technology, etc. These two companies really seemed to be willing to do anything at all costs.

They are competing in mobile travel, but more importantly, they are competing with each other in payment application scenarios.

Since the Spring Festival, the promotion of Alipay and Yizhifu can be seen almost at any time. The competition between the two companies in this regard is no longer limited to traditional e-commerce fields such as Taobao and Yiguo, but has spread to the pan-e-commerce scenario.

In addition to well-known brands such as Dada and Kuaidi, Mituan and Koubei, the checkout of offline chain supermarkets and even the collection and payment of community stores have become battlefields for competition between Alibaba and Yike.

DuJi cannot match this kind of all-round three-dimensional competition. Its core search market is already shaky, and Penguin is also powerless. It knows the siphon effect of traffic overlords better than anyone else.

In the first half of 2015, the competition between Alibaba and Yike was very eye-catching. Ma Dian, as the head of the company, frequently appeared in the media spotlight to comment on the competition and development in many fields.

On the contrary, whether it was the press conference in the first half of the year or the multiple negative and good news about Yike Overseas, Fang Zhuo had no intention of stepping forward, and instead, Executive Vice President Yu Hong presided over the company's related work.

Occasionally, someone would shoot videos of Mr. Fang in different cities on Douyin, mostly when he was inspecting or on his way to inspect, but these short videos did not get much traffic.

Just on the eve of the release of Samsung's new flagship, Yike was exposed to a piece of news that caused a lot of media discussion. It is recruiting automotive-related industry practitioners, and there are many positions.

Last year, Apple was exposed to have an electric car project called "Titan". Has Yike followed suit this year?
Or is Yike just providing automotive-related chip solutions?

Many times, Yike and Bingxin can be regarded as one and the same. The latter has been providing automotive chip solutions in recent years, especially its factories in Germany have cooperated with many European brands.

Perhaps, after the ice core restrictions, Yi Ke took over some of this work?

The news was quickly verified, and the answer came from Yu Hong, co-founder of Yike.

In an interview with the media, she responded to the matter lightly: "We have indeed established a vehicle-related project. The development of electric vehicles has been very fast in the past two years both at home and abroad. If possible, Yike is also willing to try in multiple fields."

Because of this sentence and the confirmation of YiKe's complete vehicle project, stocks of domestic automobile-related companies have risen to varying degrees.

The reporter finally caught up with Yike's senior executives, who were at the level of President Yu, so he naturally asked: "What are Yike's goals in the electric vehicle field?"

"Yike has not set any goals yet, the project has just been established." Yu Hong said pragmatically, "Personally, if possible, I hope to bring something new to the traditional automotive industry, but this depends on the research and development of the project."

The reporter wanted to ask more questions, but Yu Hong waved her hand to indicate that she would not elaborate further.

Therefore, the reporter could only quickly inquire about Yike’s mobile phone plans, focusing on the price cuts of previous generations of Samsung and Apple and the arrival of new products.

"The price cuts by Samsung and Apple are just because their phones have found a more suitable position." Yu Hong commented on the other party's promotions, and added, "Whether it is chip performance or overall usage, Mars 8.8 is not outdated this year. I have seen Samsung's new Glory, the screen is indeed good, which is its strong point, but it did not bring me any surprises."

"Qualcomm's 810 had a heating problem last year, which made consumers very dissatisfied. Perhaps they can improve this problem this year."

"The flagship adjustments between Samsung and Apple are a healthy competitive interaction. Yike hopes there will be more such interactions."

Then, she answered reporters' more sensitive questions about BIS temporary license, Yike and GlobalFoundries' negotiations, etc., which were basically consistent with Yike's previous responses.

Yu Hong was interviewed at a public event held by Yi Ke in Shanghai, and the person on the other side was also from the central media, so she remained patient.

Until the end of the interview, the reporter couldn't help but ask about the man's whereabouts.

"We noticed that Mr. Fang has been very low-key recently. What is he busy with recently?" the reporter asked cheerfully.

Yu Hong smiled back and did not answer the question.

What can he be busy with? He has been busy with the guarantee and integration of various aspects of the ice core since February. Except for the online meetings of the general office on major matters, his voice is almost never heard.

I thought that I, the "King of America", was reducing the power of the vassal states, but I didn't expect that I would come back to inherit the throne.

She complained like this in her heart, but soon after the interview ended, she turned her thoughts to the next work at hand.

Due to the restrictions on Bingxin and the subsequent impact of Yike, the job tasks undertaken by Yu Hong, the executive vice president, were indeed a bit abrupt. However, she was very familiar with the company's affairs and had brought up senior marketing executives. Relying on the decision-making mechanism of the general office, there were no problems in handling the matter.

There was only one thing that surprised Yu Hong. Ali's offensive momentum in the first half of the year was too intense, almost as if it was going to fight a decisive battle with Yi Ke this year.

Fortunately, Yike thinks almost the same way and has been preparing for the integration and preparation of multiple platforms, intending to deepen the allocation of resources and go straight to Alibaba's core e-commerce.

Yike has rich experience in competing with giants. Facts have proved that the combination of bleeding non-core businesses and attacking core businesses is a more effective way of competition.

Although Yike may face the biggest challenge since its establishment this year, this will not hinder its competition with Alibaba.

On June 2, Yu Hong led the senior management of Yike to fly to Hong Kong, and rang the bell on stage as co-founder and executive vice president, completing Yike's secondary listing in Hong Kong.

Influenced by YiKe's recent market performance and the news of the new project revealed by Mr. Yu, YiKe's stock price rose sharply on the first day of listing on the Hong Kong stock market. Its market value converted into US dollars was nearly US$100 billion higher than that of Nasdaq. It finally closed at 2.94 trillion Hong Kong dollars, becoming the market value leader of Hong Kong stocks.

Domestic media spoke highly of Yike's listing.

However, just two days later, a piece of news from GlobalFoundries made Yike's prospects somewhat confusing.

GlobalFoundries CEO Sanjay announced the end of negotiations with Yike, declaring that the cooperation between the two parties had failed. This was not due to commercial factors, but because the SEC halted GlobalFoundries' stock issuance plan due to the sensitivity of advanced technology.

Sanjay was very dissatisfied with this. It was indeed advanced technology, but... this time it was someone else's advanced technology!

However, the SEC's intervention was very firm and left no room for mediation.

Yike's stock price fell again. After the cooperation with Intel fell through, GlobalFoundries was unable to become Yike's supplier. Therefore, in the next six months, the attitudes of TSMC, Samsung and UMC will become the key indicator.

This is likely to cause delays in Yike’s new products this year.

Even though Yike's Mars 8.8 series has chips of the same level, it is obviously not as competitive against new products from its two rivals, Apple and Samsung, as it was last year.

From the end of February to the beginning of June, Yi Ke's troubles went through many twists and turns and seemed to become a chronic disease.

The New York Times quoted Fang Zong as saying about this situation: Time is running out for Yi Ke.

(End of this chapter)