Zhang Jun of Sina Technology

"on the road of life, choosing who to go with is more important than the destination." Join XIAOMIIn March, Zeng Xuezhong, vice president of XIAOMI and president of the mobile phone department, said to Sina Technology when talking about his entry experience.

As a veteran of the communications industry, Zeng Xuezhong was familiar with XIAOMI executives such as Lei Jun in his early years. But he admitted that it would be a very different feeling to really take a close look at XIAOMI from the perspective of internal employees.

XIAOMI's R & D investment has been criticized by the outside world, but Zeng Xuezhong said that Lei Jun has been promoting innovation and engineer culture internally, and XIAOMI's R & D investment, such as cameras, is regardless of cost. The deficiency is that XIAOMI still needs to strengthen his external communication.

In the third quarter of this year, XIAOMI just returned to the top three positions in the global smartphone market. Zeng Xuezhong said that next, XIAOMI will continue to fight against China, deeply ploughing key countries and regions, and XIAOMI will have a better market performance next year.

Continue the dual-brand strategy R & D investment regardless of cost

At the beginning of 2019, XIAOMI officially announced that Redmi would be split independently and adopted XIAOMI + Redmi dual-brand strategy.

Zeng Xuezhong said that in the future, XIAOMI will continue to adhere to the dual-brand strategy. XIAOMI brand includes MIX series, digital series and youth edition, while Redmi brand includes K series, X series, Note series and digital series.

The two series will adhere to the idea of making boutique and explosive products, and the high-end technology used on the XIAOMI brand will be gradually devolved to the Redmi brand. "because Redmi users in the tens of millions of magnitude, will also train a group of high-end users for the XIAOMI brand, and become a virtuous circle."

And the back support of this strategy is technology investment. According to the data released by Lei Jun at the XIAOMI developer Conference, XIAOMI invested more than 10 billion yuan in R & D in 2020, has a R & D team of more than 10,000 people, and will enroll another 5000 engineers next year.

Lei Jun has previously laid down three iron rules for XIAOMI in the future: technology-oriented, cost-effective, and do the coolest products. Zeng Xuezhong says that in the mobile phone department, there is also a great emphasis on technology. "sometimes the investment in R & D is regardless of the cost," he says.

A typical example is the camera. Miao Lei, director of camera products in XIAOMI's mobile phone department, recalled that XIAOMI's camera department was established in May 2018, with only 122 people, but now it has reached 850, a more than six-fold increase.

On the camera, XIAOMI first started with ultra-definition, the industry debut 48 million pixels, 64 million pixels, and 100 million pixels; recently in telephoto, XIAOMI's 10-supreme commemorative edition released in August has achieved 120x zoom. At the developer conference, the telescopic camera technology being developed by XIAOMI was also officially unveiled. Miao Lei believes that after mass production, this technology will be a revolutionary progress.

"I believe that with XIAOMI's continuous investment in camera technology regardless of cost, we will certainly be number one in the world." Miao Lei said.

Deep ploughing of key countries and regions in China

Zeng Xuezhong believes that whether in the global market or the Chinese market, the smartphone industry has entered the stock era, and the competition will be more fierce in the future.

"with the development of XIAOMI today, there is no doubt that it is impossible to defend, so how to face the future, (Lei Jun) put forward to return to the innovative mentality, like start-ups, start-ups have to work very hard." He revealed that many senior executives of XIAOMI hardly leave the company before 11:00 in the evening, and it is normal for employees to leave the company at 10:00 in the evening.

Such a struggle also corresponds to the market performance of XIAOMI this year. In the third quarter of this year, in addition to returning to the top three in the global market, XIAOMI is the only leading brand in the domestic market that is growing.

According to the data released by Zeng Xuezhong, XIAOMI's mobile phone market share has entered top5 in 50 countries and regions. In 47 high-end markets, shipments of 500-700 euros in the price range of 500-700 euros are expected to increase by nearly 300% this year. Shipments in the price range above 700 euros are expected to grow by more than 300% this year, and have entered 51 operators in 50 countries and regions around the world.

He regards 2020 as a connecting link between the past and the future for XIAOMI. Next, XIAOMI's mobile phone will continue to hit China, while making further breakthroughs in the high-end European markets, such as Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. "ploughing deep into key areas and countries, these markets will strive to do better, and next year will certainly be a more brilliant year for XIAOMI than this year."

Zhang Guoquan, general manager of the system software department of XIAOMI's mobile phone department, also believes that this year is full of opportunities and challenges for XIAOMI. Judging from XIAOMI's current growth trend of shipments at home and abroad, "We feel that there is a great opportunity for next year." He said.