Hisense Zhou Houjian: Internet TV Has Not Revolutionized

On September 26, Huang Weiping, chief scientist of Hisense Group, told reporters that under the impact of the concept of the Internet, both content providers, operators, and terminal manufacturers in the traditional TV industry chain may face subversion.

Globally, Google and Apple are eyeing the TV industry. In China, LeTV, Xiaomi, and other cross-border players have launched Internet TV products. At the same time, Skyworth, TCL, Alibaba, Iqiyi, etc. Internet tv concept month.

However, according to Zhou Houjian, chairman of Hisense Group, the imagination of the Internet TV is very large. However, behind the current variety of products and cooperation, no one has yet seen a clear direction. “There is no model yet.”

TV industry uncertainties In 2012, Hisense Group achieved revenue of RMB 81 billion and profit of RMB 5.2 billion. In the first eight months of this year, its revenue grew by 17% year-on-year, and its profit increased by 22% year-on-year.

However, Zhou Houjian said that behind this "benign growth", Hisense's industry, especially the television industry, is facing "an uncertain future."

Zhou Houjian said that with the extension of the Internet's tentacles into the family living room, the competition for TV screens has become fierce. What the outside world sees is that the color TV industry has suddenly become bustling in September this year. On September 3, TCL and iQiyi released an Internet TV named "TV+" in Beijing. Prior to this, LeTV's Super TV has attracted extensive attention due to its so-called integrated model innovation of “hardware + software + services” and ultra-low prices, and has been stirred by the capital market. After this, Xiaomi TV was unveiled; Skyworth also released a new smart TV brand and launched strategic cooperation with Internet company Alibaba.

"I said two years ago that the traditional TV industry itself has a problem." Zhou Houjian said that the number of people watching TV is getting fewer and fewer, and they are getting older. The problem is that traditional TVs lack content, are complicated to operate, and are old in design. In particular, it is not attractive to the younger generation.

Zhou Houjian believes that the massive entry of Internet companies will inevitably greatly enrich the content and applications of smart TVs, which will have a stimulating effect on the total market for the amplified TVs. However, he has made a sharp turn. "So far, this drama has been on technology and business models. There have been no revolutionary changes."

"We sold more than 20 million Internet video terminals over the past four years. Even if our Android TV activation rate is 82% (40 percentage points higher than the industry average), we still dare not sell advertising." Zhou Houjian said that the Internet TV business model Still in the confusion period, everyone is exploring ways in their own ways. This exploration process is essential for the maturity of the final business model, but at least in the current industry there is no specific direction.

Although the concept of smart TV has been hot, but the actual share of smart TV with operating system accounted for only 30%, while the professional third-party "application" for the TV screen is still scarce, the application for TV is even more rare. Therefore, Zhou Houjian believes that television is still "seeing" rather than the "playing" and "use" era.

At present, what the new entrants of the Internet claim as “low-cost hardware + value-added services” shows only a price war. The price of two Super TVs released by LeTV is lower than that of the same-size smart TVs in the market. Among them, 60-inch products sell for 6,999 yuan and 39-inch products sell for 1999 yuan. Some smart TV manufacturers recently introduced smart TV products have also adopted a follow-up strategy on price. The three Internet TV products that Skyworth recently announced with Alibaba.com have also adopted follow-up strategies at low prices, with 42-inch 2D Youth Edition selling for 1999 RMB.

In this regard, Zhou Houjian said that the price war below cost cannot be sustained and Hisense will not follow suit. He believes that the flat-panel TV industry upgrading of CRT TVs and the temporary downturn of Japanese TV companies have given Chinese companies a temporary opportunity for globalization. "I hope the TV industry will not have a price war of more than a decade ago, giving quality to outsiders." High-priced market space."

“At present, some of the low-priced products of their peers are still confined to one or two models.” Zhou Houjian believes that this is a marketing gimmick. “If I have 100 products, what does it matter if I take one of them out and hit a special price?”

Hisense Touchnet Path “Traditional TV industry will not be able to see the subversive nature of the Internet.” According to Hong Bo, an independent IT commentator, Nokia’s more than 100-year-old Nokia has been beaten by Apple’s smartphone for only 6 years. Nokia's original disdain seems to be re-emerging in some television companies. "A lot of people are still showing results with TV makers over Internet companies, and they have not seen the disruptive nature of the Internet model."

Hong Bo believes that everyone should not overlook the Google TV model. Although its previous two generations of products were a fiasco, Google's Youtube actually changed the distribution mode of traditional TV content, which gave Google TV the basis for subversion.

Zhou Houjian admits that the disruptive nature of the Internet has brought great touch to him and Hisense. “Like everybody, we still cannot see the specific direction of the industry.” However, Hisense has always been reviewing the general direction and keeping a sense of crisis to discover And snatch the next opportunity.

He believes that in the future of Internet TV competition, hardware, control and content will be indispensable three links, "smart TV must be the sound quality, operating system and content applications "triple play."

Zhou Houjian stated that display technologies such as the definition and color saturation of televisions will remain the most important feature of the product, and this will be the advantage of professional TV manufacturers. “We will not weaken the original The traditional advantages of display and other hardware technologies."

Of course, in recent years, Hisense continues to increase its hardware investment while shifting the focus of its capital operations to high-tech industries in order to push forward the strategy of both hardware and software. In the past year, Hisense has acquired and controlled Jamdeo of Canada, Archcom of the United States, Multiplex, video chip business of Hua Ya and Video World in chips, software and internet. "It can be said that we have built a smart TV software platform and cloud platform, with Android's deep development capabilities." Zhou Houjian said.

For smart TV users, content is the core. Different from TCL's choice of cooperation with iQIYI, Hisense has reached cooperation with CNTV, HUAQI, iQIYI, Youku, PPTV, and LeTV.

"In addition to adhering to an open platform, Hisense also hopes to collaborate with family gamers, family education, and application developers based on social relationships between households and households," said Zhou Houjian.

“Some people may think that the involvement of domestic Internet companies has brought more intense competition to the traditional color TV industry. In fact, greater concern is not here.” Zhou Houjian said that in the future, the screen that can display images will be everywhere, the traditional TV The product concept may be replaced by a ubiquitous smart display, which is like the radio and film of the year. “This is the biggest crisis facing the entire industry.”