Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun were promoted to "Betting"
Gree and Xiaomi compete secretly for expansion and reform
■ Our reporter Jia Li
The bet between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun has only expired for two months, and the market is in a situation of "Gree is rushing and Xiaomi is catching up".
Recently, Gree Electric Appliance The release of the first three quarters of 2018 performance forecast shows that the company's estimated total operating revenue is about 150 billion yuan, surpassing the 148.2 billion yuan of last year. The latest figures released by the market research company Gartner show that the growth rate of millet in the third quarter of this year reached 80%, far exceeding that of its peers.
Industry insiders believe that: "From the current development trend, the annual revenue of Gree and Xiaomi this year will either reach or close to 200 billion yuan, the gap between the two sides is gradually narrowing, and the result of the bet is still in suspense. However, now the 'bet' between the two sides is not only a contest of revenue scale, but also further upgraded to the contest of business model and status."
Betting continues to increase
The authenticity of the "bet" is not so important, but Gree and Xiaomi, which are different in architecture, strategy and other aspects, often have intersection in many fields, and even the actions of both parties have the meaning of secret competition.
Earlier, during the NPC and CPPCC sessions, Lei Jun responded to the reporter's question "Does your bet still work?" and said laughingly, "Go and ask Sister Dong."
In April this year, when asked by the media about the bet, Dong Mingzhu responded that the National Audit Office would be asked to audit the two enterprises at that time. "This bet will continue to be performed and taken seriously." Now it seems that this bet is not only continuing, but also escalating.
Xiaomi has tested the air conditioning industry for many times, and officially entered the "headquarters" of Gree's air conditioning industry this year. In the in-depth organizational structure reform last month, the newly restructured TV department, plus incubated air conditioning and other new businesses tried to expand the household appliance landscape. Gree also started Xiaomi's business early - mobile phones, expanded the field of smart home, and accelerated its pace in new energy vehicles, smart equipment and other fields to seek new profit growth points to support scale expansion.
"Although we don't wear military uniforms, we can still win the war," Dong Mingzhu said in a public speech recently. In the opinion of Dong Mingzhu, who shows his arrogance, he has always been full of confidence in the outcome of the bet with Lei Jun.
Judging from the current results, Gree Electric just released its performance forecast for the third quarter, which showed that its total operating revenue in the first three quarters was 149 billion yuan - 150.8 billion yuan, maintaining a growth rate of more than 30%, and the revenue in the same period last year was 112 billion yuan, still leading the way. The third quarter report of Xiaomi has not yet been released, but in the first half of this year, Xiaomi achieved a revenue of 79.6 billion yuan, only 12.4 billion yuan less than Gree's revenue of 92 billion yuan, and its growth rate reached 75%, with a great potential.
Liang Zhenpeng, an industrial economy observer, said: "Judging from the current development trend, the annual revenue of Gree and Xiaomi will reach or close to 200 billion yuan this year. Gree's performance has grown rapidly in the past two years. In addition to the steady performance of its own products, it also benefits from the growth of the overall market size of air conditioners. In order to maintain the high growth of its performance, Gree needs to cultivate new businesses as soon as possible to get rid of dependence on changes in the overall market size of air conditioners. "
Fight in the dark
Once the "bet" came out, it seemed calm, but both Xiaomi and Gree secretly carried out large-scale sprints and made changes in various fields, especially this year.
Xiaomi sprinted to scale, expanded offline channels, stimulated business income growth through flattening of organizational structure, and promoted industrial scale. Industry insiders believe that: "Lei Jun's intention to stimulate the scale of Xiaomi's reform is very obvious."
In addition to stimulating scale growth through expansion in multiple fields such as intelligent equipment and automobiles, Gree also announced this year that it will carry out channel reform, which will set off a storm of change internally.
Wang Ruchen, an industry analyst, said: "Gree and Xiaomi were originally in two fields with different business formats, but they have more and more intersections and are not giving way to each other. However, their revenue models and the cycle of business income are different. Xiaomi's revenue is diversified, and its business has more profit points, but its business income is more short-term, and more stable business needs to be cultivated. Gree's air conditioning business is more stable, but its diversified business still needs to be mature.
Industry insiders believe that if Xiaomi maintains a high growth rate in the third quarter, it will further narrow the gap with Gree in revenue in the second half of the year, which makes the bet between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun more suspense.
This contest, true or false, has stimulated the rapid growth of both enterprises. Regardless of the outcome, this "bet" is a win-win for both parties.
Editor in charge: Li Feng
