Ma Huateng pro-enters Tencent to enter the war of war in the Internet

All along, there was a rumors related to Ma Huateng, said that his car is equipped with a "wearable device" - named an OBD hardware.

On May 5th, 2014, Tencent announced the first intelligent hardware in the area of ​​car networking - the Lubao box at the GMIC conference, and made an appointment for a price of one yuan. In just over two months, the number of Lobo Box reservations has exceeded 290,000, and this number has been rising. At the same time, Lubao Box is also conducting a small-scale test, and testers are said to have Tencent headed by Ma.

For the car networking industry where the business model has not been clear, Tencent's joining is an exciting yet exciting news. Many car networking companies are no strangers to the team of Tencent Lobo. Prior to the launch of Lubao Box, the team had visited a number of industry companies and had also sought cooperation with these companies. But in the face of Tencent’s olive branch, everyone reacted differently.

For pessimists, Tencent is an amateur in the car networking industry. Lobo Box will not only be like Tencent's products other than QQ and WeChat, and will not accomplish anything. It will also make the chaotic network water area more turbid. But for optimists, BAT, including Tencent, will bring a brighter future to car networking. In this regard, Tencent Lubao chose to temporarily low-key and silence, Lu Bao, the person in charge of the project from the project has been released so far, are evading the media interview request.

In any case, on the stage of car networking and even the automotive industry, BAT is an indispensable existence.

In mid-April, Tencent vice president Ma Yiren once used the internet thinking to elaborate on possible changes in the future automotive industry at an automotive industry forum. Baidu recently launched more than 20 smart hardware products at Baidu's Smart Hardware Summit, including a car networking smart hardware called CarNet. On July 4th, Gao De also released the first smart hardware product named Gao De Map Xiaomi. This product, which is called “magical on the steering wheel,” has features such as navigation and broadcast of road conditions. Behind Gao De, Ali's presence cannot be ignored either.

"Now Ali is cooperating with some car companies, but it hasn't been disclosed yet." At the end of June, when interviewed by this reporter, Tong Haoliang, general manager of the high-detailed car networking business center, said. He revealed that many auto makers are thinking deeply about mobile internet and are also very interested in Ali.

One side is a car networking company whose business model is not yet clear, and the other is an Internet giant that embraces the world in an open posture. In the face of a market with no standard answer, Tencent tried to cut into the car service market by connecting owners and vehicles. However, Tencent's attempt to date has not won the screams of people.

Longjing Second Industrial Zone C Building is located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. The first to third floors of this four-story building seem to have been abandoned. To go to the fourth floor, Shenzhen Langren Technology Co., Ltd. either takes the stairs or takes a lift marked as a freight elevator. There is also a square hole above the elevator car. .

"It will soon be moving," said Jin Xiangyu, general manager of Longren Technologies.

About six months ago, Longren Technology became the founder of Lobo Box. Longren Technology, established in 2010, is a startup company that focuses on the production and sales of automotive diagnostic equipment. Its 90% performance comes from overseas markets. Jin Xiangyu expects that in 2014 the company's turnover can reach 80 million yuan, net profit of 20 million yuan.

Like all start-up companies in the subdivision industry, Langren Technology is also facing double ceilings. First, the market for automobile diagnostics is limited in size. According to Jin Xiangyu, the “cake” in the global market is also worth several billion yuan a year. Second, the status of the leader of the field in this field (02488.HK) has been unable to shake. Langren Technology needs to find new breakthroughs.

When the Tencent team found Langren Technology six months ago, Jin Xiangyu thought this was an opportunity. Objectively speaking, cooperation with Tencent is not a particularly good business. Tencent Lubao accepts bookings for a price of one buck, and it can be imagined as a cost pressure for OEMs. There are rumors that Tencent did not pay development fees, and even the amount of orders did not promise. But Jin Xiangyu thinks this is not so important. "I know the gameplay of the Internet. I never ask how much I can. I think this thing can be sold by others. It must be able to sell better. Others can't sell it. It can also sell well."

What he sees is that cooperation with Tencent is a good opportunity for Langren to increase its popularity. For the current car networking industry, "Tencent's accession may change the pattern and Tencent has a lot of resources to educate consumers."

Tencent's layout related to the Internet of Vehicles is indeed becoming increasingly sophisticated. In January 2014, Tencent released an app called Lubao App. When the app is opened, a new map of NavInfo (002405.SZ) will appear. In May, Tencent acquired 11.25 percent of NavInfo's shares for 1.173 billion yuan. Although in many people's opinion, this app is not worth mentioning except for the navigation function; but the idea of ​​layout of software plus hardware has become an inconsistent idea among the participants in the car networking industry. Langren Technology's position is very clear, is to do hardware providers.

For Tencent, the seemingly simple hardware is not simple. Although the OBD interface is already standard on vehicles, reading information from different brands and different models from a standardized interface is a technical activity. It requires a strong industry background and data accumulation.

To this end, the Lobo team had eagerly and anxiously approached the technical power of the OBD industry to collaborate on the cooperation. This company is the Yuan Zheng technology mentioned above.

In fact, the initial function of the OBD is to provide the testing personnel with an interface for reading vehicle data. In the automotive diagnostic field, Yuanzheng Science and Technology has accumulated considerable depth, possessing more than half of the market share of China's auto diagnostic equipment and listing in Hong Kong in 2011.

For Lubao Box, if you want to achieve the desired effect in car diagnostics, Yuanzheng Technology is a potential collaborator who cannot bypass the past. In the past 20 years, Yuan Zheng Technology has sold more than 500,000 automotive diagnostic equipment, which are scattered in about 200,000 vehicle maintenance sites. For Tencent's desire to enter the automotive service market, this means huge offline resources.

However, the cooperation model proposed by Tencent did not allow Yuan Zheng to accept it. Tencent does not want the logo of the Yuan Zheng to appear on Lubao products, and the App is also directly used by Lobo's App. Yuan Zheng Technology rejected it. “We have worked so hard (in this industry for more than 20 years) that the technical content in this area is the highest. If we do not see the shadow of the Yuan Zheng on products, it is indeed difficult to accept at that time.” said Zhao Zhao, Vice President of Yuan Zheng Technology. . Different from the idea that Longren Technology followed the big Internet companies, Yuanzheng Science and Technology has a stronger self-awareness.

The industry accumulation of Yuan Zheng Technology increased its discourse power when it came to contact with the giant Tencent. Tencent later put forward a compromise solution. In this program, Tencent stated that it is possible to display the logo of golo (an OBD product of Yuanzheng Science and Technology) on the connector of the product, and it is also advocating that Yuanzheng Technology is the core supplier of Lobo and the data of Lobo for automotive diagnostics. It is provided by Yuan Zheng Technology. However, Yuan Zheng Technology has not yet taken over Tencent's olive branch.

After years of hard work in the traditional industries, Yuanzheng Science and Technology experienced the pressure from traditional companies to transition to the Internet. However, the company’s management chose to take the helm instead of handing the baton to an internet company. At the annual conference three years ago, Yuanzheng Science and Technology proposed to transform itself into an Internet company and develop its own OBD product. In the past three years, Yuanzheng Technology has recruited a team of 200 people and is engaged in the development of the Internet of Vehicles App.

On March 28th, 2014, Yuanzheng Science and Technology released its first OBD product sign golo in Shenzhen and the corresponding App. According to Huang Zhaohuan’s introduction, in the three months after its release, golo’s App achieved 40,000 downloads, has upgraded several versions, and will release 4.0 on July 22.

In addition to the industry leader such as Yuan Zheng Technology, some startup companies with good technical background are within the reach of the Tencent Lobo team. For example, the car technology. This Shanghai-based startup was founded in 2012 and one of its founders, Zhang Cheng, has been doing research and development at Shanghai GM’s Pan Asia Automotive Technology Center. Although its products are scheduled to be sold at the end of September, this startup company already has three rounds of angel investment, and the current A round has also started.

Zhang Cheng introduced that, unlike other OBD products, the products of Lianhe Science and Technology can collect the core data of the vehicle through the connection of the underlying data of the car, and can control the vehicle to the vehicle. The technical advantages make this startup company a partner of interest to many Internet companies. Lu Bao and 360's team have all had contact with Zhang Cheng.

However, Zhang Cheng told the reporter that the cooperation between the company and Tencent did not start. "Not every startup company wants to sell to BAT. At least we don't think so. I want to be our own product and do it well," he said.

From the perspective of the Lubao box founder who emerged later, the Lobo box still has a soft spot for companies that have accumulated diagnostic data in the automotive industry. Lang Xiang Technology founder Jin Xiangyu also used to be the former Ministry of Science and Technology. Yuan Zheng Technology spent three years developing OBD hardware and software, but when Tencent Baobao Box was released in early May, it only took a few months for the cooperation with Longren Technology to be finalized. For the Internet industry, what is more important than the fastest way to grab users? As for product improvement, it needs to be completed quickly.

From the current point of view, Tencent's car networking layout can go to a bright future, there is still a lot of uncertainty.

First, on the connection method, Tencent Road Po is connected via Bluetooth to the App on the owner’s mobile phone; and a friend of Jin Xiangyu once told him that the Bluetooth solution is a pseudo-program. “You think that the owner should open the phone after getting on the bus. Bluetooth, open App, in order to connect with OBD hardware. This intermediate process is too complicated.” Of course, the benefits of Bluetooth version is low cost, eliminating the trouble of user renewals, but OBD products of 3G or 4G modules will become mainstream in the future. This will not affect the acquisition of vehicle data regardless of whether the owner has opened the App.

At the same time, the way Lubao Box integrated resources also revealed the offensive temperament of the Internet industry. In the i-car life platform built by Tencent, they have brought PICC and Shell into their camps. In addition to the exclusive offers provided by the 40,000-person family-insured 4S shop and repair shop, it also allows users to experience the premium services provided by Shell's authorized National Thousand Auto Repair & Maintenance Network. In the eyes of peers, Tencent “has a big layout” and also puts chopsticks into the dealer group’s bowl. All along, the lucrative after-sales service profits are considered by the dealer group as their own bowl of meat. However, in Jin Xiangyu's view, "They are more like goalkeepers and do not want customers to lose, and Internet companies are trying to subvert this kind of thinking."