Changan Automobile in the first half of the incremental difficult to increase profits, independent new energy brand sales accounted for only 20%, Avita half a year to sell less than 30,000

Recently, Changan Automobile (000625.SZ) has been moving frequently. After the dark blue G318 was launched in June, it has launched new products non-stop. The official account of Deep Blue Automobile said that the dark blue S07 was officially launched on July 25. Recently, Changan Qiyuan E07 has also been officially launched. It has opened blind ordering and plans to be officially launched within the year.

Securities Star noticed that the cumulative sales of Changan Automobile hit a new high in the first half of this year, of which the independent brand new energy increased by nearly 70% to 299,100 units year-on-year. But this is not without hidden worries. Since the "Shangri-La" plan was announced in 2017, Changan Automobile has been accelerating the pace of new energy transformation, planning to bid farewell to traditional fuel vehicles in 2025. But at present, fuel vehicles are still the keynote of Changan Automobile to maintain the market, and the sales of independent brand new energy only account for 20% of the total sales. Among the three independent new energy brands, Avita ranked last, with sales of only 29,000 units in half a year. In the face of the slow transformation, Changan Automobile has stepped up its offensive of new energy products.

Although the total sales are good, but the performance of Changan Automobile is disappointed. The company expects that the net profit attributable to the parent in the first half of this year will drop by 67.33%. What is puzzling is that the net profit after deducting non-profit in the same period last year in the performance forecast shows that it is 1.242 billion yuan, which is 267 million yuan less than the data reported in last year’s interim report. According to the data reported in last year’s interim report, the net profit of Changan Automobile after deducting non-profit in the first half of this year has declined properly.

The pace of transformation is slow

According to the data, Changan Automobile’s main business covers the R & D, manufacturing and sales of complete vehicles, as well as the R & D and production of engines. The company actively develops intelligent networked new energy vehicles, and builds five independent automobile brands: Avita, Deep Blue Automobile, Changan Qiyuan, Changan Attractive Force, and Changan Kacheng to promote the electrification transformation of independent brands. At the same time, it produces and sells joint venture brand models through joint ventures Changan Ford and Changan Mazda.

In order to better adapt to the wave of new energy, Changan Automobile announced the launch of the "Shangri-La" plan in October 2017, that is, to complete the creation of three new energy special platforms in 2020; to completely stop the sale of traditional fuel vehicles in 2025, to achieve the electrification of the whole spectrum of products, and to invest 100 billion yuan in the entire new energy vehicle field. With the acceleration of transformation, Changan Automobile has now deployed three smart electric brands: Avita, Deep Blue Automobile, and Changan Qiyuan.

In the first half of this year, Changan Automobile handed over a bright sales report card. The company’s cumulative sales in the first half of the year were 1.3341 million vehicles, an increase of 9.74% year-on-year, a new high in seven years. Among them, the cumulative sales of self-owned brand new energy in the first half of the year were 299,100 vehicles, an increase of 69.87% year-on-year.

Securities Star noticed that Changan Automobile has been developing in the field of fuel vehicles for many years, and its models are mainly fuel vehicles, and new energy vehicles have not yet formed a strong influence. According to the plan, Changan Automobile will stop selling traditional fuel vehicles next year, but the current sales of its own brand new energy account for only 22%. It can be seen that in the nearly 7 years since the "Shangri-La" plan was proposed, the development of new energy of Changan Automobile has been rather slow.

In terms of sub-brands, Changan Qiyuan delivered 73,000 vehicles in the first half of this year, Avita delivered 29,000 vehicles, and the delivery volume of dark blue vehicles increased by 96% year-on-year to 83,900 vehicles.

Avita and dark blue cars are brands built to cater to the mid-to-high-end market, but they are not as good as expected in terms of sales. In 2023, dark blue car sales will be 137,000. This year’s sales target is 280,000 domestic sales, and the global sword is 450,000. Looking at China alone, dark blue cars will double sales this year. But it has only completed about 30%, and about 33,000 cars will be sold every month in the second half of the year to complete the task.

Securities Star noticed that there were three products on sale before the dark blue car, namely the dark blue G318, the dark blue SL03 and the dark blue S7, of which the dark blue G318 was just listed in June this year. This also means that the sales responsibility for the first five months of this year is the dark blue SL03 and the dark blue S7. It is not easy to hit the annual target with only two products.

On the other hand, Avita’s sales performance has not been very good since it was delivered in December 2022. Although the sales volume in the first half of the year exceeded that of the whole of last year, the half-year completion rate was about one-third of the annual sales target, and it was also at the end of a number of new power brands.

Faced with the slow pace of transformation, Changan Automobile has started a new round of product offensive. Earlier this year, Changan Automobile declared a number of new models to MIIT in one go, of which Changan exclusive 6 models. Judging from the product launch in the second half of the year, in addition to the dark blue S07, which was officially launched on July 25, the dark blue car will launch L07 in September, and the S05 will also be launched this year. In addition, Changan Qiyuan will launch Changan Qiyuan E07 in addition to the current A05, A07, and Q05; in the second half of the year, Avita will fully enter the range extension field, and then Avita 07 will be launched, as well as a new sedan product.

Past data has changed, and sales in other sectors account for nearly 30%

2024 semi-annual performance forecast shows that Changan Automobile is expected to achieve a net profit of 2.50 billion yuan – 3.20 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a decrease of 58.19% – 67.33%; the corresponding net profit after deduction 800 million yuan – 1.50 billion yuan, an increase of -35.58% to 20.79%.

For the sharp decline in performance, Changan Automobile said that the main reason is that in 2023 Quarter 1 acquired Deep Blue Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., the original holding of its equity was re-measured at fair value to confirm non-recurring profit and loss of 5.02 billion yuan. It is reported that in 2023 Quarter 1, Changan Automobile spent 1.332 billion yuan to acquire a total of 10.34% equity of Deep Blue Automobile from Changxin Fund and Undertaking Fund, and the shareholding ratio of Deep Blue Automobile became 51%, thus forming a controlling stake.

Securities Star noted that in the first half of last year, Changan Automobile’s net profit and net profit after deducting non-profit were 7.653 billion yuan and 1.509 billion yuan respectively. The net profit after deducting non-profit shown in the performance forecast was 1.242 billion yuan, with a difference of 267 million yuan in the middle. Changan Automobile did not explain the reasons for the change in the data in the performance forecast, nor did it correct it in the previous announcement. If the data is reported in the first half of last year, Changan Automobile’s net profit after deducting non-profit in the first half of this year fell by 0.6% -46.99% year-on-year.

Due to the increase in income and decrease in profits of Changan Automobile in the first quarter of this year, the overall profit performance in the first half of the year was dragged down. The current revenue was 37.02 billion yuan, an increase of 7.14% year-on-year; the corresponding net profit attributable to the parent was 1.158 billion yuan, a decrease of 83.39%.

Fortunately, the performance has improved in the second quarter. The net profit of the parent is expected to be 13.4 to 2.04 billion yuan, an increase from the same month; the net profit after deducting non-profit is expected to be 6.9 to 1.39 billion yuan, an increase from the same month. Changan Automobile said that it is mainly due to the upward trend of the company’s brand, the optimization of product structure, and the stability of its own brand profitability; The profitability of the joint venture business has gradually improved.

In the field of joint venture brands, Changan Ford and Changan Mazda sold 19,500 and 5,500 vehicles respectively in June, both of which decreased year-on-year. However, the cumulative sales in the first half of the year still achieved growth, of which Changan Ford sold 111,600 vehicles and Changan Mazda 36,800 vehicles, an increase of 13.36% and 14.44% year-on-year respectively. During the same period, the sales of independent brands 1.1213 million vehicles, an increase of 9.88% year-on-year.

Securities Star noticed that the current support for the overall sales volume of Changan Automobile, in addition to Chongqing Changan, which accounts for the largest proportion, is the second largest other sector.

The June production and sales express shows that 375,000 of the cumulative sales of over 1.30 million vehicles in Changan Automobile came from other sectors, accounting for 28.11%, an increase of 0.48 percentage points from 27.63% in the same period last year.

It is reported that other segments of Changan Automobile include sub-segments of joint ventures such as Changan Leapfrog and Jiangling Investment. The main products of Changan Leapfrog are light trucks, minibuses, special vehicles and new energy vehicles. In addition to a few minibuses, more are freight vehicles.

In contrast, SAIC Motor Group (600104.SH), its cumulative sales volume in the first half of the year was 1.827 million, and the sales volume of other sectors was 16,800, accounting for 0.92%; GAC Group (601238.SH) sold 863,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, and other sectors recorded sales volume of 3897 vehicles, accounting for only 0.45% in the group.

The national industrial Internet platform empowers Deepin to launch in Nanjing, and Caos helps build a data space ecological chain

On May 10-11, supported by the Information Technology Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Industrial Internet Platform Empowering Deepin Bank (inaugural event · Nanjing) conference was held in Jiangning, sponsored by the China Institute of Information and Communications Technology and the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology. The conference focused on the theme of "platform empower, work together for a win-win situation". Han Xia, chief engineer of MIIT, attended the forum and delivered speeches. Representatives of local industry and information technology authorities, subordinate institutions, industry experts, and leading enterprises attended the meeting.

CAOS COSMOPlat was invited to attend the conference as a key domestic industrial Internet platform. Xie Haiqin, deputy general manager of Haier CAOS IoT Ecological Technology Co., Ltd., attended the launch ceremony and congratulated the launch of the "Industrial Data Space · Ecological Chain" partner plan. Hu Jin, deputy general manager of Haier Digital Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., delivered a keynote speech entitled "From the Integration of the Two Networks to Promote the High-Quality Development of Enterprises", and had in-depth dialogues with platform enterprises and industry users to explore the strategy of deeply empowering the Industrial Internet.

Work together for a win-win situation to build an industrial data space ecological chain

Data is the lifeblood of the Industrial Internet, and the industrial data space is the infrastructure for data to flow across organizations. MIIT also made it clear in the new three-year action plan that it supports enterprises, institutions, industrial organizations, etc. to establish industrial data spaces in key industries. By 2023, promote the Industrial Internet data sharing initiative and explore the establishment of industrial data spaces in no less than three key industries.

In this context, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology has joined forces with more than 30 enterprises and universities to jointly create industrial data trusted sharing technology architecture standards and solutions, and took this conference as an opportunity to officially release the "Industrial Data Space · Ecological Chain" partner plan to build a solid foundation for enterprise digital transformation.

As a co-sponsor of the "Industrial Data Space · Ecological Chain" partnership program, COSMOPlat will work with various partners to continuously improve the industrial data space technology solution and productization, cooperate to promote the application of industrial data space in more scenarios, and at the same time, also face practical work needs, explore a variety of industrial data space business models for sharing, trading, and equivalent exchange.

In fact, as early as in cooperation with the European Cloud and Data Association (Gaia-X), COSMOPlat complemented the implementation architecture and best practices of data sovereignty through mass customization models, and began to explore the establishment, formation, implementation and growth of digital ecosystems, to promote the cross-industry and cross-field transnational application of digital space, and further enhance the international voice over Chinese enterprises in the field of industrial Internet.

Deeply cultivating the Yangtze River Delta, deeply empowering across industries and regions

The construction of the data space ecological chain is an innovative exploration of production factors and business models in the Internet of Things era, especially in the face of differentiated user requests and experiences in different scenarios, enterprises need to change the traditional model, with the help of the Internet, big data, etc. to achieve from production to consumption to consumption to production.

As the relevant person in charge of COSMOPlat mentioned at the forum, the integration of consumer Internet and industrial Internet is the second half of the spiral integration of the Internet economy and the real economy, and it is also the inevitable development of the economy. Among them, the consumer Internet is the demand side, the industrial Internet is the supply side, and the mass customization model is the link between the two networks.

Based on the exploration of the mass customization model centered on user experience, COSMOPlat is based on the pain points of the industry and provides a full-process empower solution for the digital transformation of enterprises. It not only empowers across industries, but also builds 15 industry ecosystems such as molds and chemicals. Through cross-regional deep empower, it has realized the replication and promotion of empower results in 7 regions across the country and 20 countries around the world.

In the practice of empowering the Yangtze River Delta region, COSMOPlat has undertaken the national intelligent manufacturing strategy, from the Loki G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor to taking root in Shanghai and deepening the industry, from the implementation of regional layout of "one core and two wings" to the coordinated development of "three provinces and one city", and has always been steady and steady.

Today, COSMOPlat has provided innovative practices and empowered landing for many industries in the Yangtze River Delta region, such as medical and health care, automobile manufacturing, heavy industry machinery, etc., covering a number of key tasks such as logo analysis construction, advantageous platform construction, and industrial ecological cultivation in the Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, driving the rapid development of the "engine" of the Yangtze River Delta.

In the future, COSMOPlat will continue to deeply cultivate the practice of cross-industry and cross-regional empowering the industrial Internet platform, solidly promote the construction of industrial data space and the landing of scene applications, empower the depth of the platform, and help enterprises strengthen the comprehensive competitiveness based on the industrial Internet, thereby enhancing the level and strength of intelligent manufacturing in our country.


Ruizhong Insurance × NIO jointly held the event "Looking for Ruizhong’s destined people"

At the beginning of mid-summer, Hefei Shannan Vertical Shadow Park ushered in a unique event. Ruizhong Insurance joined hands with NIO to jointly launch the "Search for Ruizhong’s Destined People" action, inviting elites and participants from all walks of life to enter NIO’s Hefei factory and Hefei Shannan Vertical Shadow Park. "Come with you, everyone enjoys beauty", orchestrated a series of brand experience day activities, allowing each participant to deeply explore the perfect integration of financial culture and innovative technology.

This event specially invited new and old customers of Swiss Public Insurance’s "digital edge", "namesake edge" and "guardian edge" to participate in this meaningful event. The "Finance and Law" forum held on the spot, with senior lawyers in-depth interpretation of economic tools, provided participants with professional legal perspectives. At the same time, financial experts answered questions on insurance trust and shared new strategies and models of wealth management and inheritance in the context of continued downward interest rates.

Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, our country’s new energy vehicle industry has been strongly promoted. NIO, as a leader in the new energy vehicle industry, has been committed to building high-end intelligent electric vehicles since its establishment in November 2014, and provides excellent user experience to provide users with a pleasant lifestyle. This coincides with the brand slogan of Ruizhong Insurance "Ruizhe Lifetime, Everyone Enjoy Beauty". The cooperation between Ruizhong Insurance and NIO this time is not only a positive response to the national strategy, but also an important measure to integrate into the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

In June 2024, Swiss Public Insurance celebrates the first year of Swiss Public Insurance. During this special period, the company announced that it will launch a "Search for Swiss Fate" campaign to celebrate this iconic year. The campaign will run from June to September and cover the whole country.

It is understood that the "Finding Ruizhong’s Destined People" activity aims to deepen the connection between Ruizhong Insurance and customers, and through a series of interactive sessions, find those who are destined to match the company’s brand philosophy. Participants only need mobile phone numbers, ID numbers, etc. to contain specific numbers, or their names contain words related to Ruizhong Insurance’s brand slogan "Ruizhe Lifetime, Everyone Enjoy Beauty", or the items around them are linked to the company’s product name to have the opportunity to become "Destined People".

As part of the event, the lucky lucky ones will receive a series of special experiences, including a visit to the headquarters of Ruizhong Insurance, experience the culture of the capital, and have the opportunity to receive "exclusive" certificates of fate and exquisite merchandise gifts. This is not only a grateful feedback to the lucky ones, but also an opportunity to deeply understand the spirit of the Ruizhong Insurance brand.

Through this event, Ruizhong Insurance demonstrated its commitment to customer care and its determination to continuously innovate and enhance the customer experience. The industry generally expects this event to further deepen the connection between the company and its customers and provide participants with an unforgettable experience.

Ruizhong Life Insurance Shaanxi Branch

Li Shufu has been building a car for 20 years from "car madman" to "dream catcher"

Compared with 10 years ago, few people now describe Li Shufu as a "car madman". This is not because he is not as "crazy" as before, but because many statements and practices that were considered crazy before have finally become a reality.

In 1997, the policy had not yet opened the floodgates for private enterprises to build cars. Li Shufu’s dream of "building cars" was an idiotic dream to the world, but he did not give up. Five years later, in 2002, Li Shufu officially obtained the policy "birth certificate" and became the first person to build a private car. In 2002, when Li Shufu said at an internal meeting that he wanted to buy Volvo, even insiders thought he was "crazy". Eight years later, he officially married the proud "Nordic Princess" despite all difficulties.

Li Shufu once dreamed of "building a car like Mercedes-Benz", but he started from scratch technically. When he first entered the business, he had to be skilled and dismantle the Mercedes-Benz car he bought for millions of dollars to learn and imitate. Later, he became the largest shareholder of Daimler Automobile Group.

According to the first half financial report released by Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Automobile", 0175.HK) on August 22, the operating income of Geely Automobile in the first half of 2018 reached 53.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 6.67 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54%, making it the most profitable car company for its own brand.

At the same time, Geely Automobile sold 767,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, up 44% year-on-year, becoming the top three brands in the domestic market.

When he first entered the business, Li Shufu said that his biggest dream was to "let China cars travel all over the world, not let the cars of the world travel all over China". Everyone thinks that this is simply a distant fantasy. But at present, Geely Automobile has begun to enter ASEAN countries, and plans to enter mainstream markets such as Europe and the United States in the next step.

I’m not a car maniac.

Li Shufu’s classic sentence of "a car is just four wheels and a sofa" is widely known in the industry. At that time, this sentence caused a lot of criticism. Many years later, people are still willing to "bring up the past" to remember the past and talk about the leap-forward changes of Geely Automobile in the past 20 years.

But Li Shufu himself doesn’t like to mention this sentence very much. He has explained the background and reasons for saying this sentence on many occasions, and stressed that it is not appropriate to simply understand this sentence as "Li Shufu thinks building a car is very simple".

Before entering the automobile industry, he started his business five times, and the first bucket of gold in his life came from taking pictures of people. The older generation of Taizhou people still vaguely remember such a picture. In 1982, in Li Jiacun, luqiao district, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, a boy wearing a straw hat was often seen on a worn-out bicycle. He walked around the streets to take pictures of others to make money, and promised not to like it or ask for money. At that time, when the monthly salary was no more than 50 yuan, Li Shufu earned 2,000 yuan a year, and he soon opened a photo studio with the money he earned. This was his first venture. That year, he was only 20 years old.

In the great wave of reform and opening up, Li Shufu boldly tried various market opportunities. From photo studio to refrigerator manufacturing, decorating materials and producing motorcycles. With a keen market sense and a down-to-earth attitude, Li Shufu can succeed almost every time he enters an industry. In 1989, the output value of his refrigerator factory has exceeded tens of millions of yuan. The output reaches 600 to 1000 units a day, and there are long queues of foreign trucks pulling goods. But the swarming imitators made him feel helpless and forced to move to a new industry.

Later, Li Shufu set his sights on the car. At that time, private enterprises have not been approved to enter the field of car making, and the players in the market are all state-owned enterprises. Cars are far from entering ordinary families. A Santana with a price of more than 200,000 yuan still needs to find a relationship to buy. But "in the United States, one year’s salary can buy two cars. In China, we can’t buy a car for ten years’ salary, so this car can’t be popularized. Li Shufu thought that if a car of about 50,000 yuan can be built, there must be a huge market space. At the same time, "I think automobile is a highly comprehensive and complicated business, and people can’t easily enter this industry and destroy the whole pattern". These two factors determined him to devote himself to the automobile industry.

Li Shufu, who was not yet in the water, was not very clear at that time how high the barriers in the automobile industry were and how big the challenges were. But like the previous five ventures, once he thought of it, he began to act. Some people laughed at him, and a private enterprise actually came to build a car. Li Shufu was unconvinced: "Isn’t a car just four wheels and a sofa?" When this was said, people even thought it was a joke. The name "car madman" spread slowly.

But he doesn’t care about the outside world’s views. "I study very hard, watch the news broadcast every day, see what Obama is saying, and see how the automobile industry changes every day." Later, he said more than once that the timing for Geely to enter the automobile industry is the best, "not one year earlier, not one year later". Facts have proved that this is also the case. After Geely, the market also experienced a "car-making fever" of private enterprises. Oaks, Midea and other enterprises all entered the automobile industry across the border, but they all failed.

Please give me a chance to fail.

Li Shufu was born with a flexible mind, and he couldn’t build it himself. He started with imitation and "built" the first Geely pride car by hammer and hand. What really makes him feel the pressure is that there is no "birth certificate". Li Shufu saved the country by curve, and finally successfully acquired a bus manufacturing enterprise in Deyang, Sichuan, and produced it with the acquired bus qualification.

Strictly speaking, this is not in line with the specification. Geely’s development can’t always rely on the edge of the ball. At that time, Li Shufu’s investment in the automobile industry had reached more than one billion. He joked that he had "put his life and life on the line", but he had no choice but to wait on how to get the production qualification. In 2001, China’s automobile industry policy changed from catalog management to announcement management. Li Shufu quickly reported the improved models of two new cars of Geely to the relevant state departments, hoping to enter the new issue of Announcement of Vehicle Manufacturers and Products.

He was full of expectations for the loosening of the policy, but the result disappointed him again. "When someone told Li Shufu that Geely was excluded from the catalogue on the day when the Announcement was published, he didn’t even have the courage to pick up the newspaper that published the Announcement himself," wrote a report in China Entrepreneur that year. But he still didn’t want to give up. At that time, a company in Zhejiang Province wanted to buy Geely, and the two sides talked back and forth several times. In the end, Li Shufu did not sell it. "Geely is someone who wants to buy it, but I will not give it. I would rather fail and I will not sell it." "Please give me a chance to fail," he said to Zeng Peiyan, then director of the State Planning Commission, who came to inspect. This sentence is still widely circulated today.

Wu Xiaobo, a financial writer, talks about the biggest difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur. He thinks that "being good at discovering and tapping market opportunities, acting according to the situation, pursuing profits, and carefully calculating risks and benefits" is a necessary condition for a successful businessman, while entrepreneurs will concentrate more on a certain cause, persevere, and sometimes even do whatever it takes.

It sounds like Li Shufu had some "entrepreneur" potential at that time. In people’s eyes, Li Shufu, a "car madman", began to gradually transition from that arrogant layman to a very persistent and fanatical "dream catcher".

Geely finally got the production qualification on the eve of China’s entry into WTO, and Li Shufu was overjoyed. However, people at that time were pessimistic about the prospect of Geely building cars.

Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo Group, said when he participated in the CCTV program: "I think Li Shufu has not got cheese now, but he has only got the right to look for cheese." He added that having the right to look for it and being able to get it are two different things, and it’s really not possible that there may be eighteen layers of hell behind it.

More than ten years later, in 2017, Geely acquired the equity of Daimler Group and became the largest shareholder of the other party. Liu Chuanzhi, who was worried about his future at that time, felt that Li Shufu bought Volvo and became a major shareholder of Mercedes-Benz, which was "a shame for the parents of China enterprises".

According to Liu Chuanzhi’s standards, in just 20 years’ pioneering course, Li Shufu’s face for the parents of China enterprises is far more than buying Volvo and taking shares in Mercedes-Benz. Starting from zero, it took only 20 years, and Geely’s annual sales volume has exceeded 1.2 million vehicles, with sales approaching 300 billion yuan, making it the first private company. Through overseas mergers and acquisitions and cooperation, Geely has owned many brands such as Geely, Volvo, Link, Taxi to London, Proton and Lotus. There are four core R&D institutions in the world, with more than 10,000 R&D personnel. Besides having production bases in Britain and Malaysia, there are also ATLAS factories in Belarus, and the products have been sold in ASEAN and Russia, and will enter the European market in 2020.

Not long ago, Fortune Global 500 was released. Among the six China car companies on the list, Geely is not only the only private enterprise, but also the one with the highest profit rate. On Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people, Li Shufu became the richest man in China’s automobile industry.

Many people want to know, what is the secret of Li Shufu’s success? In a sharing activity held by Geely in November 2013, Li Shufu summed up his years of experience as 24 words of "truth": "pursuing ideals, grasping business opportunities, persisting in faith, not afraid of failure, making decisions with heart, and gathering strength" as the secret of his success.

So, can you replicate success by knowing the secret? After Geely completed the acquisition of Volvo, a reporter asked Li Shufu a similar question, and he replied: How to copy it? There is only one Volvo and only one Geely.

Because of love, "snake swallows elephant"

Although overseas mergers and acquisitions are nothing new in the automobile industry, successful cases are rare. It is rare that there are successful mergers and acquisitions, and then they can be as successful as Volvo today in the process of operation.

When Geely acquired Volvo, the latter sold only 370,000 vehicles worldwide, and by this year, Volvo’s global sales are expected to exceed 600,000 vehicles. Under Ford, Volvo faced huge losses in 2008. After being acquired by Geely, Volvo achieved the best performance in history in the first half of this year, with an operating profit of SEK 7.8 billion, or about RMB 5.9 billion. In fact, before the acquisition of Volvo, Geely also acquired Australia’s DSI automatic transmission company and completed the acquisition of London taxi company, but these two mergers and acquisitions did not bring an immediate leap to Geely’s development, and the attention aroused in the industry was far less than that of the acquisition of Volvo.

Geely’s acquisition of Volvo attracted wide attention, not only because it was the biggest overseas acquisition of China car companies at that time, but also because it reflected Geely’s forbearance and persistence in defying all difficulties, as well as Li Shufu’s keen sense of smell and management wisdom with oriental philosophy.

In 2002, Geely just got the qualification of car production. Li Shufu first talked about wanting to buy Volvo at an internal meeting. At that time, Yang Jian, An Conghui and other senior executives attending the meeting were shocked. Although Volvo was "committed" to Ford at that time, Volvo enjoyed the same brand reputation as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi all over the world throughout the 20th century. Geely, a little-known China enterprise, wants to buy a world-famous luxury brand, which is tantamount to a fable.

But Li Shufu asserted at that time that both GM and Ford would go bankrupt, and Ford would eventually choose to sell Volvo. The "wild talk" that was recognized at that time was fulfilled one by one a few years later. Li Shufu was ready when Ford planned to slim down and began to find buyers for its assets including Volvo under the strategy of "one Ford".

Since 2007, Geely has started internal transformation in order to gain more points in the process of merger and acquisition. At first, Ford didn’t pay attention to this pursuer whose strength was far from Volvo, but Li Shufu was not discouraged, and went to the door again and again, and finally gained the goodwill and trust of the other party. Although it was recognized by Ford, at that time, Volvo employees and trade unions were still full of distrust about whether Geely, a China enterprise with little influence in the international market, could lead Volvo to the bright future.

At the end of the acquisition preparation, Li Shufu met with the trade union for the first time. A trade union representative asked him in slightly hostile words, can you explain why you want to buy Volvo in one sentence? Li Shufu said loudly: "I love you!" At that time, I won the favor of the other party. Later, when Li Shufu was interviewed by CCTV, the host asked him, was this answer prepared before? Li Shufu replied: "I have always thought so."

Li Shufu loved Volvo so much that he cried when the merger marathon, which lasted for several years, finally came to an end. On March 28, 2010, in London, England, he bowed his head and signed the documents half a meter high on the table one by one. He lay motionless on the table. After a long time, when it was time to connect with Hangzhou Geely headquarters, Li Shufu looked up. Yin Daqing, then CFO of Geely Holding Group, found that Li Shufu’s tears fell like broken beads.

At the beginning of 2010, when Geely’s acquisition of Volvo entered the most difficult negotiation stage, Li Shufu said in an interview with China Entrepreneur: "If I can choose again, I would like to choose a more free career: journalist, lawyer, poet, writer, painter and singer."

Li Shufu had a special hobby in his early years — — Write poems and lyrics. He once wrote: "People are on a journey, who knows how many roads there are ahead, and the ups and downs have long been left in the depths of memory. The sunshine and starlight guide me in the morning and evening, and hope is not far away in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Don’t bow your head, don’t admit defeat, dry your tears and stick to it. I will suffer the pain, and I know the way to go. " This passage was later set to music and sung by the singer Chen Lin.

"release the tiger to the mountain"

At that time, some people described this transnational merger as "snake swallowing elephant", but Li Shufu disagreed: "A snake is a snake, and an elephant is an elephant. A snake can never swallow an elephant." He doesn’t want to describe the relationship between Geely and Volvo with father and son, but chooses appropriate "alienation". Geely is Geely and Volvo is Volvo.

In a speech after purchasing Volvo, he said: "Under the new ownership framework, we need scientific management, and the best way is to put Volvo ‘ Release the tiger to the mountain ’ 。” Anders gustafson, then general manager of Volvo Car Sweden, was deeply impressed by this sentence, which was not only vivid, but more importantly, "this kind of words can’t be said by western entrepreneurs". He felt that Li Shufu talked more about philosophy than business. "He is a businessman with internal driving force, not limited to making money."

Although at that time, Li Shufu and Volvo’s management had differences in product positioning and other fields, Li Shufu still followed his promise. "I just want the general direction to be right." He said more than once, "They (Volvo’s management team) know more than me. If they don’t know how to pretend to know, it’s dangerous." In an interview with the outside world, he also mentioned many times, "Volvo is a big tree. We don’t want to move it. We just water it and loosen the soil."

Li Shufu’s humility and equality in dealing with Volvo, the acquired brand, and the good development of the latter completely dispelled Volvo’s "defense" and wait-and-see attitude towards Geely, and the cooperation between the two sides also entered the deep water area. Shortly after Geely’s acquisition of Volvo, Geely established the European R&D Center (CEVT) in Gothenburg, where Volvo’s Swedish headquarters is located, to jointly develop the CMA modular platform architecture for Geely’s upcoming brand Link and Volvo.

Li Shufu’s thinking is very simple. Cars are an industry that wins by scale. Volvo has many very advanced technologies that Geely can use, and Geely can bring advantages to Volvo in terms of cost control and localized procurement. In addition, the two can also cooperate in production capacity, such as Volvo’s European factory, and the next step will be to produce new cars for Geely Link to help Geely enter the European market.

Li Shufu has a strong sense of crisis and cooperation. At the same time, he has childlike interests and fantasies. He seems to be interested in every forward-looking automobile technology, such as autonomous driving and flying cars. Earlier, Geely announced the formal acquisition of the American flying car company. Li Shufu stated that he wanted to make "the dream of cars flying in the sky come true". At that time, some people laughed at him, but now Geely announced that its flying cars will be listed in 2019. He said that he wanted to build a car that was not available in the world. "You sit here, the car will come automatically; When you say go home, the car will automatically take you back … …”

He has predicted many times on different occasions that there may be only two or three traditional car companies left in the future. Geely wants to be not only a survivor, but also a great company. Whether it is the acquisition of Volvo, or Proton and its shareholding in Volvo Group and Daimler, the starting point is win-win cooperation. "In fact, we are under great pressure now, which is even greater than before. The automobile industry is undergoing changes, and what changes this change will bring to the automobile industry is still unknown. " He said. Therefore, Geely hopes to accelerate its pace in the field of new technologies and business models through the mode of "integrating Lian Heng".

"It is impossible to have a great car company in such a huge market as China." Lin Jie, vice president of Geely Group and general manager of the sales company, said that this has always been the view of the chairman (Li Shufu). His dream is that Geely will become such a great car company, not only hoping to enter the same camp with Volkswagen and Toyota in sales volume, but also becoming a "respected enterprise".

After 20 years in the business, with the tempering and tempering on the road of chasing dreams, Li Shufu has continuously gathered his edge and become more and more low-key. After purchasing Volvo, Swedish culture changed him. In an interview with CCTV, he said: "No matter how rich they are, they travel in economy class, and I don’t fly in business class now."

Wu Xiaobo once described Li Shufu like this: "His low-key, humble, and even a little polite and shy once gave me the illusion that I had met a ‘ Fake Li Shufu ’ . At the beginning, in the eyes of the media, it was a bit arrogant, paranoid, and even ‘ Acting talent ’ The car madman has disappeared; Standing in front of you is an automobile expert who talks about automobile manufacturing and can talk about Kan Kan from safety technology, green energy saving to car networking and intelligence. "

On the way from grassroots to international entrepreneurs, Li Shufu slowly cultivated. The era of "car madman" has passed. At present, he is keeping a low profile on the road of "dreaming".

Counting the sci-fi milestones of Japanese animation

  With the release of the film version of ghost in the shell, its theatrical animation prototype, which is a classic of science fiction, has once again entered the public’s field of vision. It has been found that Japan’s "second element" is not only a commercial and entertainment industry full of exquisite pictures and bloody stories, but also a large number of excellent works that have reached a high level in artistry and ideology.

  Below, let’s take a look at these sci-fi milestones in Japanese animation.

  Worship of machinery: the "ingenious" interpretation of huge machinery

  Due to the experience of rapid westernization in modern times, Japanese culture has an inexplicable love for huge industrial machinery. This emotion has evolved into a persistent interpretation of giant weapons in animation after being strengthened by the thinking of "weapons only" and "decisive weapons" during World War II.

  The beginning of mechanical worship is nothing more than the Cosmic Warship Yamato, which was broadcast in 1974. In this film, the super battleship "Yamato" of the old Japanese navy set sail again as a space warship, and single-handedly entered the base camp of the interstellar invaders, completing the grand task of saving the earth. The main gun of the Yamato completely hit the hearts of the Japanese audience in the Showa era and achieved great success. The concept of "Yamato" even influenced many later works. The main gun of the human space battleship in the famous game StarCraft was called "Yamato Gun".

  In 1979, a sci-fi film "Mobile Suit Gundam 0079", which reflected the "war of independence" between the space colonial satellite and the earth, appeared on the screen. This time, the huge machinery has become more anthropomorphic, and steel giants such as "Gundam" and "Zagu" have simply become the physical extension of the driver’s will. "Gundam" has since become a long-lasting industrial brand, and today, it continues to introduce new works to adapt to the new era. Compared with Yamato, which triumphed all the way, Gundam’s depiction of the war is more real and profound, depicting the great damage caused by the war to the lives of the people on both sides of the war, instead of blindly rendering "justice".

  At the same time, some animators began to reflect on this "mechanical worship", so the work "Mobile Police" appeared. Although the film takes the "special car two lessons" of driving police robots as the leading group, the film no longer highlights the giant humanoid machinery, but focuses on depicting the ups and downs of these "grassroots policemen" in their daily lives. This "naysayer" deconstruction, relying on the story of "grounding gas", also won the love of a large number of viewers.

  Although this mechanical worship of Japanese animation has a slightly paranoid thinking foundation, it is also thanks to this "ingenuity" that Japanese animators have designed a large number of beautiful and exquisite sci-fi mechanical settings. Even Avatar, the top American blockbuster, is full of "Japanese-style" precision beauty in mechanical settings.

  Armageddon: cruel aesthetics under the consciousness of hardship

  As well as "ingenuity" deeply rooted in Japanese culture, there is also their sense of hardship, which can be seen in film and television works with the theme of "destruction" such as The Sinking of Japan and Godzilla. In animation, the first screen show of Miyazaki Hayao, a Japanese animation master, is an epic depicting the struggle and coexistence between the remaining human beings and nature after the destruction of civilization — — Valley of the Wind. Nausicaa, the heroine in the film, bravely leads her people to survive tenaciously on the destroyed land. Wearing a blue dress and flying in the sky with white wings, she became a memory of a generation in Japan.

  After entering the 1990s, with the collapse of the economic bubble, Japanese society fell into an unprecedented depression. At the end of the century, TV animation with strong religious elements to render the end of the world — — The Gospel Warrior in the New Century caused a sensation in the whole Japanese society. The boys and girls in the film are driving biological robots from human beings and fighting desperately with the "apostles" who intend to destroy human beings. The film uses a large number of shocking lens language with psychological implications, which successfully synchronizes the complex inner world of teenagers with the devastated external world and presents a cruel aesthetic feast for the audience. The heroine Ayanami Rei, who has almost no self-personality, has become a new generation of animation goddess after Nausicaa. Compared with his heroic predecessors, Ayanami Rei’s gloomy temperament clearly reflects the changes of social times.

  After entering the new century, with the haze of the cold war and economic crisis gradually dissipating, the conflict of social thoughts has become a new contradiction. The theater animation Harmony released in recent years is such a work. The highly developed future of science and technology in the film, under the seemingly beautiful and harmonious appearance, is a gentle strangulation of human nature, which has to be said to be a wake-up call for Japanese culture. At the end of the film, human beings completely give up self-awareness, and the whole society is integrated into a whole that "does not distinguish between you and me". Although this kind of destruction has no "big scene" of landslides, it has more realistic symbolic significance and deserves reflection from all people in modern society.

  Dolls and people: a grim prospect of artificial intelligence

  With the revolution of electronic technology, the interpretation of artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction and other technologies has become a new theme of Japanese animation. Osamu Tezuka, the founder of Japanese animation, is most famous for Astro Boy, which tells the story of intelligent robots seeking themselves. Then another classic with great international influence — — Robot Cat is also based on an intelligent robot from the future — — Doraemon is centered on it.

  However, when it really touches the core of these technical issues, the style of Japanese animation has become more and more cold. The comic classic "gunnm", which describes the semi-mechanical girl Gary’s self-pursuit in the battle, has been bought by the famous director Cameron and is making a film. The animated film Yukikaze, which tells the coexistence of human pilots and artificial intelligence fighters, completely abandons the "anthropomorphic" artificial intelligence that is often depicted in most artificial intelligence science fiction works. As the soul of a high-performance tactical reconnaissance plane, the artificial intelligence "Yukikaze" in the film is endowed with an out-and-out "inhuman" attribute by the author. She has neither worldly desires nor love/hate, but she has a completely different thinking ability from human beings. In the critical air battle, she has repeatedly made decisions and behaviors that are completely beyond human beings. Looking back at this forward-looking animation now, we will find that the agent most similar to Yukikaze is the artificial intelligence AlphaGo that is sweeping the world of Go.

  Another classic that has to be said is the sci-fi animation classic — — Ghost in the shell. This work has five versions: comic book, theater animation, two TV animations and live-action movies, but it basically tells the story of "Nine Public Security Courses" led by Grass seed, a fully mechanized reformer, to crack down on high-tech crimes. Among them, two theater animations directed by Mamoru Oshii, an animation master who is equally famous with Miyazaki Hayao, are the most classic. The film deeply discusses the alienation and evolution of human nature in a high-tech society with an increasingly high degree of integration between human beings and machines through long and even empty shots, supplemented by a large number of symbolic pictures. The film is permeated with a kind of transcendental "super-humanism" atmosphere. As the protagonist, Suzi even completely abandoned the concrete body in the film and gained freedom and rebirth in the torrent of information network. At this point, it is an understandable regret that the live-action movie version failed to fully carry out these discussions in order to take into account the audience and rhythm of commercial movies. The TV animated version, at the beginning of the century, foresighted the social problems we are facing now, such as the spread of network memes and refugee crisis, which is also a rare classic.

  After decades of development and accumulation, Japanese animation is full of a large number of commercial works with bright appearance but lack of connotation, but it also produces a large number of outstanding works with profound humanistic and artistic feelings, including many sci-fi masterpieces. These excellent sci-fi animations have artistically imagined and interpreted the development of science and technology through the unparalleled picture expression of animation, which deeply reflects the ideological trend of their times and has far-reaching influence. Limited by space, there are still many excellent Japanese sci-fi animations that cannot be introduced one by one, but the unique charm of Japanese sci-fi animation can still be seen through these classic works.

Adjust integrated PC version of Google Play game to unlock more cross-device marketing opportunities.

Play Install Referrer API makes cross-platform game distribution and monitoring easier and more efficient.

March 13th, 2024, Beijing–Adjust, a leading monitoring and data analysis company, today announced the integration of Google Play games for PC, which not only created a precedent in the industry, but also became a key milestone in empowering game application developers, marketers and studios, and made the launching and monitoring of cross-platform marketing promotion activities easier, smoother and more efficient. By adding the Google Play Install Referrer API, Adjust can directly attribute the installation to PC-side promotion activities, strengthen the monitoring ability of PC| host, help application developers better grasp the channel performance, and find the channel that can attract the most application users from Google Play Store.

For a long time, the development and performance monitoring of cross-platform games are quite difficult and require a lot of resources. Now, relying on the PC version of Google Play game, Android game developers can publish Android applications on the computer webpage, providing players with a more immersive and smoother cross-platform game experience. But how can we carry out efficient monitoring on the PC side? Adjust this new integration is the long-awaited answer for marketers.

"Cross-device game is not only a function that players dream of, but also a channel for users with unlimited potential. Its rise has brought huge opportunities to mobile game developers." Dr. Gijsbert Pols, Director of Adjust Internet TV and New Channels, said, "After Adjust Android SDK integrates Google Play Install Referrer API, developers can better adjust their marketing strategies and broaden their application coverage."

In a recent questionnaire survey, as many as 71% of American respondents said that if their favorite mobile games were transplanted to PC or host platform, they would be willing to download or buy them. It can be seen that the demand of players for cross-platform game functions is getting stronger and stronger, and this demand also promotes Adjust to make unremitting efforts to continuously develop innovative and easy-to-use solutions.

The direct integration of Adjust and the PC version of Google Play game Play Install Referrer API opens up more growth opportunities for game application developers, marketers and studios, which can provide seamless cross-platform game experience and efficient monitoring, and promote the continuous growth of ROI.

Relying on Adjust’s powerful PC | host monitoring solution, marketers can carry out efficient and effective cross-platform monitoring, fully cover players and expand the game efficiently. By evaluating the actual influence of PC and host platform marketing activities, marketers can expand new channels, optimize ROI, and make the most of every penny of the budget.

"Today’s consumers are willing to interact with advertisements and will play our games on various platforms such as PC and mobile. Therefore, we also need attribution service providers that can cross devices and platforms. " Robert Zhao, head of data analysis and marketing of Take Two Interactive Software, Inc, said, "Adjust supports multi-platform monitoring, has powerful reporting functions and innovative monitoring tools for PC version of Google Play games, which enables us to streamline the management of promotion activities and monitor the game LTV confidently and accurately no matter which platform we face."

Introduction to Adjust

Adjust, a subsidiary of AppLovin, aims to help mass applications achieve multi-platform monitoring and business growth from mobile to connected TV, and is trusted by global marketers. Whether it is a fast-growing digital brand or an entity company in the field of testing water applications, Adjust can escort its application marketing journey. Adjust’s powerful monitoring and data analysis suite can gain insight into marketing performance, draw key insights and provide a variety of necessary tools to help marketers achieve excellent marketing results.

Disclaimer: This article is reprinted by our website, aiming to provide readers with more news information. The contents involved do not constitute investment and consumption suggestions, and are for readers’ reference only.

[Editor: Zhong Jingwen]