How does the hottest Unicorn yelight sit firmly in

[Unicorn] yeelight: how to sit firmly in the "first place" of domestic intelligent lighting

the estimated value of one billion yeelight, and how to sit firmly in the "first place" of domestic intelligent lighting

Qingdao yilianke Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "yilianke"), which has been established for six years, has entered the "blowout period" of development in recent years - the company's operating revenue was 100million yuan in 2016, 300million yuan in 2017, and is expected to exceed 600million yuan in 2018, The profit exceeds 50million yuan. The company has sold a total of 5.68 million sets of intelligent lighting products, with users covering more than 100 countries and regions, and the shipment volume in this field ranks first in the country

"double 11", the intelligence under yilianke has greatly widened the scope of the experiment. The lighting brand yeelight had an omni-channel sales of more than 50million yuan that day, of which yeelight intelligent ceiling lamp won the champion of the sales of all intelligent ceiling lamp

the continuous rise of the company's development speed has also attracted the attention of the capital circle. Not long ago, yeelight completed the 120million yuan round C financing led by Kaihui fund, and the company's valuation reached 1billion yuan

if the embryonic period of yeelight benefited from hax, the rapid development period began from Xiaomi

2014 is a turning point in the development of smart home in China. In this year, giants concentrated their layout and tried to dominate the smart home market. Due to its early entry into the industry, yellow has emerged in the domestic intelligent lighting industry and attracted the attention of many giants

"after contact, we found that it has a high degree of consistency with Xiaomi's concept and the closest ideology". According to Jiang Zhaoning, as a technology enterprise led by engineers, after becoming the first batch of Xiaomi's ecological chain enterprises, yeligh can focus more on the familiar product development and delivery links, while Xiaomi gives full play to the advantages of a large platform to provide the company with brand, supply chain, channels, investment and financing and other comprehensive support

since then, the development of the company has entered the fast lane, and new products have flooded out. From having only bedside lamp sheets to having more than 30 kinds of light source lamps such as ceiling lamps, intelligent desk lamps and atmosphere lamps, different sizes and categories can meet different application scenarios such as families, hotels and office areas

behind the endless emergence of new products is inseparable from the super execution of the team. And the surface friction coefficient is large. "The launch cycle of new products is about months, and the products are upgraded and iterated at the rate of adding 20 pieces every year," said Jiang Zhaoning. This speed is due to the flat management of the enterprise organization and the continuation of Xiaomi's management style. Yeelight's organizational structure is not multi-level, and is basically divided into three levels: the company's founder, team leader and employee. "We divide the R & D personnel into several small teams according to different product lines. Each R & D team is composed of people, the teams are independent, and multiple product lines are promoted synchronously", This "one pole to the end" implementation effectively reduces the time cost of task communication between levels, and greatly improves the speed of product iteration

"innovation" and "price advantage"

according to the data of LED research center of Jibang consulting, it is estimated that the global intelligent lighting market will reach 13.4 billion US dollars in 2020. In the face of such a huge market, traditional lighting giants such as Rex, OPP and mulinson have transformed one after another to "grab the beach" this new blue ocean

Jiang Zhaoning believes that in this "scuffle" in which more and more enterprises participate, "innovation" and "price advantage" are always the key to yeelight's victory

compared with other intelligent lighting products in China, at present, the number of AI voice control platforms connected to yeelight intelligent products is the largest, and it can be compatible with more than a dozen platforms such as Microsoft, Amazon, apple, etc. in addition, yeelight has the technical advantages ahead of its domestic and even international counterparts in the circuit device and control of light sources, and has applied for 144 patents at present

looking at the world, Philips can match it in terms of shipments and user size of intelligent lighting products. Compared with Philips intelligent lighting products, yelight takes more account of the habits of Chinese users in terms of technical solutions and design ideas. "Philips products need to control other intelligent products through a centralized node similar to a router. Consumers need to buy central equipment first and then lighting products. While yelight is WiFi direct connection, with low cost, it is more suitable for the early market of this kind of intelligent lighting in China"

Jiang Zhaoning told that as an enterprise focusing on R & D and products, yelight spends up to 30million yuan on product R & D every year, accounting for more than 25% of the enterprise's operating costs. "In addition to product innovation, we also pay attention to innovation in many aspects, such as user experience, company operation efficiency, product sales channels, etc. only 2. Confirm the continuous innovation of hammer quality can we find a living space in the highly competitive environment"

in addition to its technical advantages, "high cost performance" is the general evaluation of buyers for yellow smart lights. Take the ceiling lamp as an example. According to the size and model, the price ranges from 300 to 1000 yuan. "This price is only 10% to 20% higher than the ordinary ceiling lamp". Jiang Zhaoning told that yeelight, like other brands of Xiaomi, lowered the threshold of "early taste" and priced far lower than the price of similar smart products, "The reason why the cost can be reduced is mainly because our distribution cost is low, small profits but quick turnover. At the same time, because the shipment volume is large enough, the R & D cost is also diluted."

dual channel parallel

yeelight intelligent lighting products have the advantage of market share in the domestic market, which is also the most attractive reason for Kaihui fund. "As the field of smart home ushers in explosive development, there is enough market space for smart lighting, a large segment, to incubate successful start-ups, and yeelight has formed its own unique advantages and market awareness in terms of R & D, product category richness and cost performance. It has gradually become a well-known brand in the industry and has been recognized by consumers," said caimingpo, founder and chairman of Kaihui fund

with the development of the company, yeelight has gradually established its own marketing and brand capabilities - from relying solely on Xiaomi before 2016 to now, the sales of Xiaomi channels and self owned brands account for half of each. In words, we can feel that today's Jiang Zhaoning emphasizes the building of private brands more. "In the next step, we will continue to increase the proportion of self operated business, but this does not mean that we should make Xiaomi smaller, but achieve growth synchronously."

in addition to the major domestic e-commerce platforms, the former yeelight's self owned brand sales channels have also "made great strides" into overseas markets. "Cross border e-commerce and overseas strategic partners are two ways of overseas sales, and now the overseas market share can account for about 20% of the company's overall business." according to Jiang Zhaoning, as overseas users improve their Chinese brand image, yellow will continue to develop high-value-added and high-performance intelligent lighting products to obtain better overseas reputation and profits. In addition to exporting self owned brands overseas, Jiang Zhaoning revealed that the company is still trying to diversify - involved in the investment and financing of overseas projects. "We have now invested in an Italian professional lighting brand. In addition to continuing to invest in product research and development and team construction, a large part of the c-round financing funds will be used for external investment"

at present, the operating income and net profit of the company have met the profit requirements of China GEM Listing and the main requirements of Hong Kong main board. In order to raise funds and meet the needs of rapid business development, yeelig5 Whether the synchronous belt or reducer is damaged due to the growth of service time HT has taken landing in the capital market as an important goal in recent years. "Small companies rely on hard work, large companies rely on luck", Jiang Zhaoning believes that as long as you touch the pulse of the times and dig deep into any subdivision, you will become a real Unicorn company