Lei Jun and several other co-founders drank a bowl of millet porridge, and a mobile phone company named Xiaomi was born.

In August of the same year, MIUI beta was released. 1 1 10 In June, Xiaomi officially released Xiaomi M 1, and the legendary journey of Lei Jun and his Xiaomi began.

Xiaomi's first generation of smart phones pioneered the customization system, and its own MIUI system incorporated more content in line with Chinese people's usage habits on the basis of Android, which was widely praised for its ease of use and helped Xiaomi's mobile phone achieve good performance in the market. Xiaomi 1 By the second half of the following year, the cumulative sales volume has exceeded 3 million units.

20 12 August, Xiaomi mobile phone 1s and Xiaomi mobile phone 2 were released, which were swept away by crazy consumers as soon as they were sold.

By 20 13, the number of MIUI users in the world has exceeded100000.

14 years, the cumulative sales of Xiaomi surged to 60 million units, which is a miracle in the industry.

15 years, the growth rate of Xiaomi sales began to slow down, but the cumulative sales of Xiaomi mobile phone 4 still broke the 10 million mark. So far, Xiaomi has monopolized the national smartphone market 15% and become the largest smartphone brand in China.

Summary: The main reasons for Xiaomi's achievements at this stage are as follows:

1. At that time, the smart phone market was mixed, and cottage brands emerged one after another. Although the price is low, the quality is worrying. Xiaomi succeeded in spoiling the game with its low price and high quality, and its low price strategy met the consumption level of most people in China at that time, thus meeting the demand for its smart phones.

2.MIUI system is the first customization system. Compared with other brands of native Android systems, Xiaomi's cancellation of system design such as application drawers is more in line with the usage habits of Chinese people.

3. Focus on the online market. At that time, online shopping was at the forefront, and the high convenience of the Internet allowed the Xiaomi brand to spread rapidly. At the same time, Xiaomi's forward-looking online strategy has saved a lot of channel costs, which has also become an important reason for the low price of Xiaomi's mobile phone.

After years of rapid growth and expansion, the growth rate of millet shipments finally declined in 20 15.

From the inside:

1. Although the low-price strategy helped Xiaomi win a large number of markets in the early stage, its shortcomings are also obvious: First, the meager profits have kept Xiaomi's capital chain in a state of tension; Secondly, the small profit margin means that the price reduction space is almost zero, which makes Xiaomi's ability to bear the risk of inventory backlog almost zero, forcing Xiaomi's mobile phone production and shipment to be stuck. The market reaction is that Xiaomi mobile phone seems to have been out of stock.

Lei Jun began to be named as "playing monkey" by the outside world; Moreover, the low-price strategy has made Xiaomi more and more synonymous with low-end silk reeling machines, and the brand image of Xiaomi has gone from bad to worse.

2. The strategy of focusing on the online market in the early stage is very effective, but with the gradual maturity of online shopping and the follow-up of other brand network channels, Xiaomi's online advantage is gradually disappearing; At the same time, the users of smart phones have gradually expanded from young people to all ages, including middle-aged and elderly people. The offline market has returned to the public eye-the offline market is a big shortcoming of Xiaomi, and what's worse, the online market has been resisted by some consumers, especially middle-aged and elderly people, because of counterfeit goods and other reasons.

From the outside:

1. China is in the incremental market of smart phones, and new forces such as Coolpad, Gionee, Bird and LeTV are constantly joining, many of which are cost-effective, and consumers have new choices besides Xiaomi.

2. The mobile phone market began to be subdivided under the continuous expansion. OPPO and vivo focus on young fashion, Huawei focuses on business, and Samsung, Apple and htc firmly control the high-end market. Xiaomi did not do a good job in brand positioning in time (or its "fever" positioning audience is too small), and it has been unable to win the favor of consumers only by cost performance.

These reasons have jointly led to the decline in the growth rate of Xiaomi's shipments. However, what Xiaomi didn't know at the time was that the decline in growth rate was only the beginning. In the next few years, they are about to face a high-altitude decline, and a battle without smoke has quietly started.

Summary:

It can be said that the influence of low-price strategy on Xiaomi has been exposed for a long time. Too obsessed with cost performance, let Xiaomi stand still and only look at his own site, but Xiaomi failed to respond to the segmentation and consumption upgrade of consumers' demand for smart phones in time. The re-emergence of the offline market is also an important reason. The offline layout of Huawei, OPPO and other brands can be described as pervasive, even in every city and even every town in the country. These low-end groups, which should most agree with Xiaomi's low-price strategy, have been pocketed by other brands. This has become the weakness of Xiaomi. The depth of the offline market of these brands is like a steel knife stuck in the middle of Xiaomi's heart.

20 16 February 24th, National Convention Center.

Still Lei Jun, still applauding, the price of Xiaomi 5 has been fixed-1999 yuan. Still 1999, Xiaomi ushered in its fifth-generation model: Xiaomi 5.

In fact, with the inflation and the "explosion" of flash memory cost in that year, it is self-evident that the price has left profit space for Xiaomi, but Xiaomi still insists on its own cost-effective concept and insists on making the most cost-effective mobile phone for consumers.

However, the market is cruel, and consumers' reaction to Xiaomi 5 is obviously not as strong as when rice noodles shouted out the price of Xiaomi 5 1999 yuan in front of Lei Jun-the final sales volume of Xiaomi 5 series was fixed at 9.2 million units.

In fact, for any mobile phone manufacturer, this is an excellent mobile phone sales performance. But the difference is that the price of Xiaomi flagship machine is low, and the sales volume should have been higher.

What's more, it is also 1999 yuan, and the sales volume of the previous generation Xiaomi 4 series reached140,000 units. With the collapse of its flagship, Xiaomi's annual shipment dropped from 64.9 million units in 20 15 to 4150,000 units in that year, and its market share plummeted from 15% last year to 8.9%, and its market share fell out of the top five, and it will soon become a member of "others".

20 16 is undoubtedly a difficult and failed year for Xiaomi. 20 17 Xiaomi seems to have made some changes.

20 16, 10, the classic Xiaomi Mix was released.

2017 65438+1October 27th, New Year's Eve, in front of the reunion dinner table, Xiaomi Mix appeared in the Spring Festival Evening and appeared on thousands of big screens. With the ringing of the New Year bell, Xiaomi Mix flew into the homes of ordinary people with a sky-high advertising space of 44.57 million yuan.

However, this gamble worth more than 40 million yuan ended in vain.

Xiaomi Mix has finally become a widely acclaimed textbook product. In fact, Mix itself is a dazzling product of Xiaomi, and its main purpose is to enhance the brand image. Poor sales are not its main problem.

As the first full-screen concept mobile phone that domestic users can really buy, Mix just made a good start and ended up with a dog's tail. Xiaomi Mix was widely praised by people in the industry once it was released, but the lack of publicity and education made the public unable to accept the "heresy" like Mix.

The advertisements of the Spring Festival Evening seem to be high-end, but in fact they are just a group of technical houses entertaining themselves. The audience of the Spring Festival Gala is ultimately a mass group. Rice flour may be able to see the outstanding features of Mix, but at first sight, the general public may think it is a monitor or a flat panel.

Therefore, this sky-high advertisement did not have any substantial impact on the outside world. In fact, the short promo of Xiaomi Mix in the Spring Festival Evening is only 30 seconds, which leads to extensive advertising, but it is not educational. The public is still confused about the concepts of "full screen" and "ceramic body". In addition, Xiaomi Mix has been out of stock due to production capacity and other reasons, which makes it extremely inconsistent with its own value of up to three or four thousand yuan.

In the end, Xiaomi Mix became the originator of domestic smart phones in the full-screen era, but it can only be an unforgettable memory in the hearts of rice noodles.

In April of the same year, under the eyes of the public, Xiaomi 6, the heart of countless rice noodles, was officially released.

Still Lei Jun and applause, but the starting price of 1999 is gone.

Perhaps Xiaomi 6 is excellent enough, or the cost pressure is too great. The price of Xiaomi 6 is finally determined to be 2499.

No matter how people evaluate it, Xiaomi 6 is an absolutely excellent product, or it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the best product in the history of Xiaomi. She is a classic in the hearts of countless rice noodles, a miracle and a work of art, and is talked about by people in the industry, and its influence continues to this day. She gave birth to a large number of "rice 6 nail households", and until today, the number is still huge.

Ironically, however, Xiaomi's excellent products are the most dismal sales in flagship machine.

From a professional point of view, Mi 6 is absolutely successful, but from a business point of view, Mi 6 is a complete failure.

The final sales volume of Xiaomi 6 was only 5.5 million units, making it the least sold model in flagship machine in the history of Xiaomi at that time.

The fall of Mix and Mi 6 became the last straw to crush Xiaomi. Since then, Xiaomi has almost entered a state of full combat readiness.

Xiaomi, do or die has arrived.

Summary:

The problems accumulated by Xiaomi for many years broke out in 16 and 17.

First of all, Xiaomi's neglect of the offline market is seriously beyond imagination. The shortage of offline market makes Xiaomi almost disappear in Shang Chao, mobile phone city and other places. In the mobile phone store, OPPO and vivo salesmen can be seen everywhere, and the Xiaomi counter is either out of stock or hidden in the most remote corner.

The third-and fourth-tier markets and even the village market are completely monopolized by OV, and Xiaomi has no chance. At that time, smartphones in big cities had entered the stock market stage, and almost all the growth of domestic smartphones came from the third-and fourth-tier markets.

These places happen to be places where the development of the Internet is relatively backward. Most people still don't have the habit of online shopping, or even online shopping. Although Xiaomi's long-term online market still has great advantages compared with other brands, it is aimless in small cities or towns, and it can only be a clever woman who can't cook without rice.

And OV, two offline channels that cost a lot of money and are difficult to operate, finally paid off and broke out at 17.

Secondly, adhering to the concept of cost performance for a long time has become an unbearable burden for the further development of Xiaomi. Xiaomi's long-term low-price strategy left an almost irreparable impression on consumers.

16, 17, when the mobile phone market is blooming everywhere, consumers' demand for smart phones has been upgraded from the needs of survival and development to the needs of respect and belonging, and smart phone manufacturers have also spent a lot of money to build their own brand image and corporate culture. Xiaomi is obviously far behind at this time.

Xiaomi, founded on 20 10, created industry myths again and again and broke the limit again and again, and finally got into big trouble.

Looking back at the mobile phone market of 20 16- 18, domestic mobile phones rose in an all-round way, Sony and htc disappeared, and Samsung also lost ground after the explosion of 16. However, this large piece of fat spit out by international mobile phone manufacturers hardly fell into Xiaomi's mouth.

Whether it is Huawei's long-term technology accumulation or OPPO and vivo's unremitting offline cultivation, it has achieved great returns around 20 17. On the other hand, Xiaomi seems to be a poor boy who wants nothing and deserves to be beaten.

On May 3, 20654381day, Xiaomi 8 was officially released. No expectation, no surprise, no disappointment. This is a ... mobile phone, or rather, the most prosaic mobile phone in Xiaomi's history.

Looking at it now, this may be a compromise of Xiaomi, but it is actually an emergency treatment of the crisis. The pain of Xiaomi 6' s applause may be too deep, and Xiaomi, who is already in the whirlpool of crisis, can't stand it anymore.

Xiaomi is not qualified to toss again.

Security has become the only way for Xiaomi: to build a mobile phone suitable for everyone, with sales as the core and profit as the program.

However, Xiaomi 8, which has no surprises or disappointments, has brought amazing sales.

Perhaps it is to make the irony on Xiaomi 6 deeper. This mobile phone, which is not favored by all rice noodles, has won the sales of100000 units, which has become a lifeline for Xiaomi.

The success of Xiaomi 8 in sales also helped Xiaomi return to the top five in the country that year, and the total annual shipment of Xiaomi exceeded 1 100 million units.

However, does the success of Xiaomi 8 mean the resolution of the Xiaomi crisis?

Obviously, superficial success can't hide the deep crisis. Xiaomi's crisis has not been solved, but has intensified.

First of all, although the annual sales volume of Xiaomi exceeds 100 million, most of the sales volume is on the head of the low-priced Redmi. These mobile phones are just a quantity, and the profit is meager.

Moreover, the success of Xiaomi 8 is only brought by the product function itself. It imitates the design of iPhone X from the front to the back of the fuselage, and has almost no characteristics of Xiaomi itself, which has become an unpopular explosion like a small era.

This kind of work may be used to make quick money and run away, but for a company of Xiaomi's size, this practice is comparable to killing the goose that lays the golden egg. In the long run, it will surely bring about its own destruction.

The market is cruel, and the side effects of Xiaomi 8 soon appear: Xiaomi's brand image and word-of-mouth accelerate the collapse.

More and more consumers with more economic ability choose to give up Xiaomi in the market. Middle-aged people choose Huawei's business flagship to show their identity, while young people choose OPPO and vivo to show their youthful vitality. Choosing Xiaomi seems to be a "poor diaosi" without pursuit.

"Friends" also quickly seized the opportunity and began to hit people when they were down: Glory began to "interact intimately" with Xiaomi frequently on social platforms, and even Zhao Ming, CEO of Glory, made a few remarks from time to time. There are more and more comments on glory flagship and Xiaomi 8 on video websites.

The purpose of glory to do this is simple: hold Xiaomi, make Xiaomi a brand at the same level as glory, and let Huawei enjoy the domestic high-end market exclusively. Facts have proved that to a large extent, glory is very successful.

At that time, Xiaomi almost became the target of public criticism: plagiarism, out of stock, monkey playing, hunger marketing and other doubts were endless.

OPPO and vivo have started the construction of high-end brands, and Huawei, the big brother of glory, is a monopoly, dominating the high-end domestic mobile phone market. More dangerously, OPPO and vivo have also launched cost-effective products such as Z, iqoo and realme for Xiaomi, which are mainly aimed at the online market.

Xiaomi faces the danger that not only the new market cannot be developed, but also the inherent market will be divided into a piece of meat.

The success of Xiaomi 8 seems to be the last shine of Xiaomi Company.

Summary:

The core reason for Xiaomi's continuous decline in the past three years is that it failed to capture market changes in time and did not make strategic adjustments in response to market changes. The failure of Xiaomi 6 in sales forced Xiaomi Company to launch Xiaomi 8. The design failure of Xiaomi 8 puts Xiaomi in a dilemma, even a darker abyss.

20 19 65438+ 10/0/8. Redmi is independent.

Needless to say, these four words are thunderous for Xiaomi.

On February 20th, Xiaomi 9 was released, with a round body, ultra-thin body and ultra-light feel. At first glance, it doesn't seem like Xiaomi's product.

In my opinion, Xiaomi 9 is a failed but great product.

The failure was due to its bleak sales: the poor sales of only 2.47 million units broke the lowest record of Xiaomi 6, and also brought her life cycle to an early end-Xiaomi 9 was announced to be removed from the shelves only nine months after its release.

But her greatness lies in her bold attempt. Xiaomi 9 is a completely different mobile phone from Xiaomi's previous thinking. Xiaomi 9 invested a lot of publicity in the early days, and even paid Roy to be the brand spokesperson.

Its thin and light design also belongs to a heterogeneous Xiaomi mobile phone. This shows that Xiaomi finally began to compromise with the market and began to study market demand, thus adjusting its strategy.

But Xiaomi was obviously carried away by the crisis and hurried to the hospital. Xiaomi 9 is completely a product of compromise to the market and the result of imitating the successful products of OPPO R series. It can hardly find any shadow of Xiaomi itself, and even the color of the fuselage is feminine.

Xiaomi ignored the needs of its own brand audience, did not do a good job in the integration of market demand and its own brand characteristics, and blindly catered to the market to launch Xiaomi 9. Not only did the public not accept it, but even rice noodles were kept at a respectful distance, and the sales volume naturally ended bleak.

But at least the appearance of Xiaomi 9 means that Xiaomi has realized the crisis of the enterprise itself and is seeking change. In fact, the change of Xiaomi really started from then on.

"Because Redmi is mainly positioned as a low-end entry model, Xiaomi's brand image is shrouded in the low end to a certain extent, which has dragged down Xiaomi's efforts in the middle and high end. It is better to operate Redmi alone. " Zhou, CFO of Xiaomi Group, said at the performance briefing.

Redmi's independence marks the official opening of Xiaomi's high-end road.

On may 28th, 20 19, Redmi K20 was released, but the applause was still thunderous, and it was still 1999, but the bidder on the stage was replaced by Lei Jun's land.

The return of the price from 1999 tells everyone that the once millet is back, and the millet that has undergone three generations of painful transformation has finally returned.

Since then, the banner of the low-end market has been officially handed over to Lu Weibing by Lei Jun. After that, Lu has been active in major Internet platforms, advocating red rice mobile phones everywhere and touching porcelain glory in a targeted manner.

On the video website, HONOR's horizontal test object has gradually changed from Xiaomi to Redmi. After the changes of several generations of models such as note7, k20 and k20pro, Redmi has completely settled in the low-end market.

And Lei Jun, he wants to do something really big.

Summary:

Redmi independence is a crucial move for Xiaomi. At that time, the deteriorating millet was excellent both inside and outside.

Internally, the product line is chaotic and the product positioning is unclear, which are the reasons that contributed to and aggravated the Xiaomi crisis. Excessive insistence on cost performance makes low-priced and high-equipped models affect the sales of their high-end machines from time to time.

In addition to the price/performance ratio, the products launched have no characteristics, and it is also a difficult problem for Xiaomi to solve at that time. From the outside, other brands are trying to nibble at Xiaomi's home base-online market, and the collapse of their own brand image has also put Xiaomi in an extremely passive position.

In the final analysis, Xiaomi has not found a breakthrough point suitable for the integration of its own characteristics and market demand, and is in a dilemma that it can neither fully focus on cost performance nor fully compromise with the market.

In February 2020, Xiaomi's first high-end products, Xiaomi 10 and Xiaomi 10pro, were unveiled, with prices of 3,999 and 4,999 respectively.

This is the real flagship.

Flagship configuration, flagship photo, flagship system, flagship experience and … flagship price. No matter what the outside world thinks, Xiaomi 10 blocked all the doubters' mouths with its amazing performance.

By the end of June 2020, the sales volume of Xiaomi 1 10 had exceeded 8 million. The high price of 3999 did not stop the enthusiasm of consumers.

In August of the same year, Xiaomi continued to pursue victory, launched Xiaomi 10 Supreme Commemorative Edition, and raised the price to 6000 yuan.

65438+in February 2020, Xiaomi 1 1 was released, and in March of February1year, Xiaomi1/pro and Ultra were released, and the price of Xiaomi mobile phone reached 7000 yuan.

However, it should be noted that Xiaomi's high-end flagship is not "cost-effective". Compared with competing products at the same level, Xiaomi's product configuration is often higher, and the materials used are often more sufficient. It can be said that the word cost performance is redefined.

At the same time, after gaining a foothold in the low-end market, Redmi launched an impact on the middle and high-end market, and the price climbed to 3000 yuan. Now, the product positioning of Xiaomi and Redmi is no longer a simple price difference: the price positioning of the two products overlaps. In the later development, Redmi is not only a low-end market, but also forms a part of parallel and clear consumer market with Xiaomi.

Summary:

At this time, Xiaomi has firmly occupied its own territory in the high-end market. In 2020, affected by the epidemic, the national mobile phone market was in a downturn, and the shipments of major mobile phone manufacturers declined. However, the shipments of Xiaomi increased by 24 million units against the trend, and the total shipments reached 65.438+0.46 billion units. After a series of strategic adjustments and practices, Xiaomi finally got a breathing space. However, shopping malls, like battlefields, are far from over.

In the early days of Xiaomi's establishment, with the rapid establishment of low-cost online channels, it realized the cost-effective advantage and quickly opened the market. Xiaomi's cost-effective concept helped him gain a large number of fans and helped Xiaomi sell a large number of products in the early stage.

However, in the process of business operation, the domestic mobile phone market is changing, the industry reshuffle is accelerating, and the number of eliminated people is gradually increasing. Xiaomi failed to capture the changes in the market and adjust its business strategy in time.

The so-called success also led to the failure of Xiao He, and Xiao He's cost-effective advantage eventually became a burden, which not only affected Xiaomi's brand image and reputation, but also hindered the overall transformation of Xiaomi.

In the process of the mobile phone incremental market sinking, Xiaomi failed to adjust the offline layout in time, resulting in missing the most valuable incremental market of third-and fourth-grade mobile phones.

But by what means did Xiaomi finally turn the corner, successfully resolve the crisis and get out of the predicament?

The first is the problem of brand positioning. Xiaomi's early slogan of "born for fever" is too small to resonate with ordinary consumers. Starting from 15, Xiaomi's new slogan "Let everyone enjoy the fun of science and technology" is obviously more close to the people and has a wider audience. Recently, the change of Xiaomi logo has further become younger.

Secondly, Xiaomi finally made some adjustments to his chaotic product line: first, it defined and subdivided various product lines, such as digital series and Mix series. Red rice Note series, k series, etc. It has changed the chaotic situation of product lines in the past.

Secondly, Redmi is separated as a sub-brand, focusing on online market and low-end market, streamlining Xiaomi product line and specializing in high-end market.

Another important reason is that Xiaomi accelerates sinking and fills the short board under the line. In 20 17, Xiaomi began to expand the flagship store of Xiaomi House offline. In the next two years, the number of Xiaomi homes increased dramatically, and so far Xiaomi homes have covered 270 counties and cities across the country.

Moreover, Xiaomi has also made great efforts in brand image construction and brand culture construction.

Lei Jun's "honest man" has been deeply rooted in people's hearts after years of accumulation. At present, Lei Jun himself is the best publicity platform for Xiaomi's brand culture and concept. However, the problem of cost-effective silk reeling machine, which was deeply troubled by Xiaomi before, has now been instilled with new domestic products, new ideas and rational consumption.

These measures have cultivated a lot of rice noodles for Xiaomi, and it goes without saying how horrible Xiaomi's fan marketing is.

In the end, Xiaomi realized the consumption upgrade with his rice noodles and avoided the fate of being eliminated.

Summary:

Intuitively, Xiaomi seems to have successfully reversed himself only through Xiaomi 10, which seems incredible, but it is not surprising in practice. Xiaomi did a lot of paving work before launching Xiaomi 10.

Xiaomi attracts the attention of the public through Redmi independence and Lei Jun's phrase "look down on life and death, do it if you don't accept it" and pass on his values by taking advantage of the situation.

Then, Xiaomi launched the concept product Xiaomi Mix α in September of 19. This kind of millet gimmick has never been listed, but it has earned enough attention for Xiaomi, and its price of 19999 clearly conveys the information that Xiaomi has hit the high end.

In Redmi, K series has also gained market recognition. Xiaomi gained 10 after gaining a firm foothold in the mid-end market, but we made a thousand phone calls and urged her to come to us, which was a blockbuster.

In fact, although Xiaomi has gained a firm foothold in the high-end market, the problems it faces are no less than a few years ago.

In addition, the current high-end of Xiaomi is limited to the high-end of terminal products and hardware, but it is still not like a high-end brand in terms of mobile phone system, ecological chain construction, after-sales service and supporting facilities.

Xiaomi must now adhere to the high-end thinking and big store thinking of the whole people. Similar to the previous series of public relations events, it is absolutely fatal to the construction of high-end brands.

Although there are many problems, as far as products are concerned, Xiaomi is still excellent enough. At least, as far as rice noodles are concerned, there is no need to worry about the cost performance of millet. Just buy it at buy buy.