小米跻身世界智能手机第三巨头

 

小米跻身世界智能手机第三巨头

HONG KONG — In China, the smartphone battle used to be Samsung versus Apple. But not anymore.

香港——在中国，智能手机之战的双方原本是三星(Samsung)与苹果(Apple)。现在情况变了。

Over the summer, a Chinese company, Xiaomi, took the No. 1 position in China’s competitive market and became the world’s third-largest phone maker in the process.

这个夏天，中国公司小米在竞争激烈的中国市场上取得了第一名的位置，并且在这个过程中成了世界第三大手机制造商。

Founded in 2010 as a lean start-up to sell smartly designed phones at cheap prices over the Internet, Xiaomi was decidedly late to the game. Its first handset came out around the time of the iPhone 4S.

小米2010年成立之时只是一个薄弱的初创公司，通过互联网以低廉的价格出售设计得体的手机。毫无疑问，在这场竞争中，它来得太迟。它的第一款手机是在iPhone 4S上市前后推出的。

But a clever social media strategy and a business plan that emphasized selling services that work on the phone helped Xiaomi build frenzied support from young and trendy Chinese.

但是，利用聪明的社交媒体策略和强调销售手机服务的商业计划，小米获得了中国时尚年轻人的热烈追捧。

With people in China expected to buy 500 million smartphones in 2015 — more than three times as many as will be sold in the United States, according to the research firm IDC — Xiaomi is poised to cement its place as one of the most powerful phone makers in the world’s most important market.

据预计，中国人将在2015年购买5亿部智能手机——调查公司IDC表示，这将超出美国预计销量的三倍——小米有望在世界最重要的市场上巩固其名列最强大手机制造商的地位。

Now the company’s founders, who include the Chinese entrepreneur Li Jun and the former Google executive Lin Bin, hope that status will help them take their brand globally.

如今，包括中国企业家雷军和前谷歌(Google)高管林斌在内的公司创始人都希望，这个地位能帮他们带领他们的品牌走向世界。

Though Xiaomi already sells internationally, next year will be the true test of whether it can continue its rise beyond China. Shunning markets like the United States and Europe, Mr. Lei and Mr. Lin are looking at huge developing countries like Brazil and India. And they hope to use e-commerce networks to sell cheap, high-quality phones and recreate their Chinese success.

小米已经开始在国际市场上销售，但明年才是真正考验它能否继续在中国以外市场发展的时候。雷军和林斌回避美国和欧洲等市场，把目光投向了巴西和印度等庞大的发展中国家。他们希望能利用电子商务网络来销售质优价廉的手机，重现他们在中国取得的成功。

But there are considerable challenges. Xiaomi does not yet have much of a patent portfolio, leaving it vulnerable to lawsuits from competitors. Last week, the company was temporarily blocked from India because of a patent complaint by the Swedish telecommunications manufacturer Ericsson. And other low-cost manufacturers from China have the same idea about pushing into those emerging markets.

不过，他们仍然面临着巨大挑战。小米目前还没有多少专利资本，从而很容易遭到竞争对手的起诉。上周，小米因为瑞典通讯制造商爱立信(Ericsson)的专利投诉，暂时被印度市场阻拦在外。来自中国的其他廉价产品制造商同样也想进入新兴市场。

“Selling the phone to users is a good start, but it’s really not the end of the business,” Mr. Lin said in a recent interview. “It’s actually the beginning of the business. It’s after the user buys the phone and starts using the phone that will generate extra value, to users and to us.”

“向用户销售手机产品只是一个好的开始，但它并不是我们整个商业模式的全部，”林斌在最近的一次采访中表示。“卖手机只是起点，用户购买了手机并开始使用它的这个过程，才是对用户以及对小米公司不断产生增值的过程。”

Striking similarities between Xiaomi’s well-attended product unveiling ceremonies and Apple’s tightly choreographed media events have meant that Xiaomi is often described as the Apple of China — largely successful because, some experts say, it produces cheap knockoffs of Apple’s and Samsung’s high-end phones.

小米的新品发布会观众云集，和苹果精心编排的媒体活动存在惊人的相似性，所以小米经常被称作中国的苹果——有些专家称，它之所以非常成功是因为它生产的是苹果和三星的高端手机的廉价仿制品。

Yet the company is more than a copycat. In its business model and marketing, Xiaomi has out-innovated all comers in China.

然而，小米不仅是家山寨公司。在商业模式和营销方面，小米的创新比中国其他市场参与者都多。

The online-first approach has earned Xiaomi the greatest accolade a company can receive in China: Its rivals are now copying it. The well-known telecommunications equipment makers Huawei and ZTE both have lines of phones they sell primarily online. Companies like OnePlus and Smartisan also focus on well-designed products with high-end components and sell them at a relatively low price.

这种网络第一的策略为小米赢得了一家公司在中国能获得的最高荣誉：它的对手正在效仿它。知名电信设备制造商华为和中兴都拥有一些主要通过网络销售的手机产品线。一加和锤子科技等公司也开始专注于使用高端配置、设计精良的产品，然后再以相对低廉的价格出售。

That imitation could prove dangerous. Analysts point out that Huawei and Lenovo can use their control of the manufacturing of parts that go into a phone to gain a cost advantage. And hipness is hard to maintain. The head of Smartisan, Luo Yonghao, for example, has made a name for his company with product announcements that resemble stand-up comedy routines. The events are so popular, the company charges admission.

事实可能会证明，这种模仿具有危险性。分析人士指出，华为和联想可以利用它们对手机部件生产的控制，来获得成本优势。此外，保持最新潮是很困难的。例如，锤子科技老板罗永浩就利用类似说相声的新品发布会为公司赢得了关注。这些活动非常受欢迎，公司甚至会收取入场费。

To be sure, Xiaomi is treated with respect by its competitors. Li Nan, vice president of the rival Meizu, which began in the early 2000s by making digital music players and aims at customers slightly older and wealthier than Xiaomi’s, likens the devotion of Xiaomi supporters to a religion.

可以肯定，小米是受竞争对手尊敬的。对手之一魅族的副总裁李楠认为，小米支持者的忠诚就像对宗教信仰的虔诚一样。在21世纪初成立之时，魅族是一家制造数码音乐播放器的公司，其目标客户比小米的用户年纪稍长，也更加富裕。

“Xiaomi fans have a high level of organization,” he said. “They love Xiaomi. It’s a form of idolatry.”

“小米的粉丝已经是高度组织化的群体，”他说。“他们爱小米。这是一种偶像崇拜。”

Han Yu, a 24-year-old studying for his master’s degree, is one of those idolaters. He, with tens of thousands of others, helps Xiaomi test its user interface by looking for bugs and offering suggestions. Mr. Han moderates several pages on the company’s online forum, which averages 200,000 posts a day and is where fans interact with the company.

24岁的在读研究生韩宇就是一名小米的崇拜者。他和其他数以万计的崇拜者一起帮助小米测试用户界面，寻找漏洞，提供建议。韩宇负责管理小米网络论坛上的几个版面，该论坛平均每天有20万个帖子，是小米粉丝与公司互动的平台。

Much of his personal life revolves around Xiaomi, and he says he has met many friends that way. He said he was honored when his suggestion to create a private photo folder was adopted on phones by Xiaomi.

韩宇的个人生活大部分都以小米为中心，他称自己通过这种方式认识了很多朋友。他表示，小米采用了他提出的在手机上创建私人照片文件夹的建议，这让他倍感荣幸。

“I really enjoy the sense of participation,” Mr. Han said.

韩宇说，“我真的很享受这种参与的感觉。”

Though Xiaomi makes some money on phone sales, the company’s plan is to increase profitability by selling services like entertainment and apps through the phone. The company has also started to sell other devices, like a smart television, a tablet and a fitness band, that work on its finely tuned user interface, which it built atop Google’s Android operating system.

虽然小米通过卖手机挣了一些钱，但公司计划通过手机出售娱乐内容与应用程序来增加利润。该公司还开始出售智能电视、平板电脑、健身手环等设备，这些设备使用的用户界面设计精良，都是以谷歌的Android操作系统为基础开发的。

Xiaomi’s marketing efforts still attract plenty of attention. After an executive meeting in December, Mr. Lin proposed a “planking” competition to management.

小米的营销举措获得了大量关注。今年12月，在举行完管理会议后，林斌向管理层提议开展“平板支撑”比赛。

Holding their bodies rigid in a push-up position, the executives looked markedly different from traditional Chinese executives, who are rarely seen outside formal conferences. Mr. Lin, who had a Xiaomi tablet perched on his back, eventually collapsed in exhaustion.

保持俯卧撑姿势的高管们看起来与传统的中国高管明显不同，传统高管很少在正式会议之外的场合露面。林斌做平板支撑时在背上放了一台小米平板电脑，他最终疲惫不堪，倒在地上。

He lost, but the contest was an advertising victory. A photo of the competition quickly went out on social media and was shared on the service Weibo more than 3,000 times in the first 24 hours.

林斌输了，但此次比赛是一次非常好的广告宣传。社交媒体上迅速出现了比赛的图片，相关微博在头24小时里被转发了逾3000次。

For all its success, Xiaomi’s biggest challenge looms outside China. In September 2013, the company hired Hugo Barra, an old friend of Mr. Lin’s from Google, to lead the company’s international expansion. Using social media to spread word of product launches and parties, Mr. Barra has opened a number of markets in Asia.

尽管取得了巨大成功，小米面临的最大的挑战是在国外。2013年9月，公司聘用了林斌在谷歌的老朋友雨果·巴拉(Hugo Barra)负责开拓国际市场。巴拉利用社交媒体公布有关产品发布及聚会的信息，在亚洲开拓了一些市场。

Though some aspects of Xiaomi’s business model play on the peculiarities of China, Mr. Lin said he believes it can work abroad. In particular, he said the company will target markets with large populations, a developed e-commerce infrastructure and weak telecom carriers. The last point is important because if large service providers give consumers significant handset subsidies, the edge Xiaomi gains by selling cheap phones evaporates.

虽然小米商业模式的某些方面利用了中国的特性，林斌表示，他相信这种模式也适用于国外。尤其是，他表示，该公司将瞄准人口众多、电子商务基础设施发达、电信运营商薄弱的市场。最后一点非常重要，因为如果大型服务供应商给予消费者大量手机补贴，小米通过出售廉价手机获得的优势就会减弱。

“I would put China No. 1, India two, Indonesia three, then hopefully follow with Brazil and Russia,” he said. “The developed countries with tightly controlled carrier networks are not in the top five.”

“我会把中国市场排在第一位，其次是印度和印度尼西亚，接下来希望进入巴西和俄罗斯，”他说。“那些运营商受到严格控制的发达国家，不在我们圈定的海外市场前五名之列。”

The countries Mr. Lin identifies all have large populations who still have not bought their first smartphone, meaning Xiaomi has a chance. Still, analysts say the company will have to be skillful in adapting to the local demands of each market.

在林斌提到的这些国家中，有很多尚未购买智能手机的人，这对小米来说是一个机会。但分析人士表示，该公司需要巧妙地迎合当地市场的需求。

In India, for example, Xiaomi, before the court order blocking it, had the foresight to cooperate with the local e-commerce firm Flipkart. Nonetheless, it must square off against several local Indian phone makers who are fighting to become homegrown heroes, much like Xiaomi.

例如，小米在印度法庭对其下达禁令之前，有预见性地与当地电子商务公司Flipkart展开合作。尽管如此，小米必须与印度当地的几家手机制造商展开竞争，这些公司正在努力成为像小米一样的本土英雄。

For now, investors like its chances.

就目前而言，投资人喜欢这种机会。