Text | China Business Strategy Pan Weiqiang
Holding a bought "broadsword", Oaks slashed Gree before the end of 202 1, reopening the past of the couple.
But unexpectedly, new players are cutting into the air-conditioning market, and it is a dimension-reducing blow beyond the times.
Oaks wins gree.
Oakes suddenly sued Gree and won.
In fact, this is a counterattack by Oaks-the two sides have long been caught in a patent litigation war.
Oaks bought this patent from Toshiba on 20 18. The patent application date is August 2000 1 1, and the patent protection period is 20 years. It was terminated on August 1 1 2020, but the time for filing a lawsuit was August 2065438 +0965438.
Gree submitted a jurisdictional objection to this case, but failed, and twice claimed that the patent was invalid to China National Intellectual Property Administration, and the response was that the patent was partially invalid.
On February 8, 65438, Gree also expressed his position. This is the first-instance judgment, and an appeal has been filed.
This is another long lawsuit.
But as old enemies, they are used to it.
Old enemy for many years
Compared with the United States, in recent years, the atmosphere between Gree and Oaks has become increasingly tense.
It seems that Oaks is not as famous as Gree, and Zheng Jianjiang, the boss of this enterprise, does not have the traffic effect like Dong Mingzhu, but he has made Oaks one of Gree's most difficult rivals (the other is beautiful).
According to the data provided by Euromonitor International, in 2020, Gree Electric ranked first in the world in the market share of household air conditioners, which was basically the same as that in 20 19, and Oaks Group ranked eighth (fourth in 20 19).
Gree does have an advantage in research and development, but Oaks has made itself the first echelon of the air-conditioning industry through strategies such as cost performance and transformation of e-commerce, and has also become a deadly enemy with Gree in the process.
Dong Mingzhu even said never to mention scalpers in front of her.
"It (Oak Garden) is worse than beauty. Beauty used to dig people from me, but now she doesn't. But even workers in Oaks dig here, and my people will change their names when they arrive in Oaks. They stole our technology and they also committed fraud. " On June 20 19, at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Gree, Dong Mingzhu criticized Ox for poaching people without a bottom line.
At the 20 19 China Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Chain Application Conference, Dong Mingzhu mentioned Oaks again when talking about the industry structure, saying that it is not necessary to see Oaks and Xiaomi, because (Gree and these two) are not at the same level.
Her reason is that if an enterprise relies on other people's technology or robs others of their people and technology by hook or by crook, "even if it can survive today, it will still die tomorrow."
In Boao, Dong Mingzhu once again accused Oaks of poaching Gree talents.
By the middle of 20 19, Gree reported the unqualified air-conditioning products of Oaks to the State Administration of Market Supervision, which responded that Gree used slander to conduct unfair competition.
This pushed the public opinion war between the two sides to a climax on 20 19.
In 20 18, both parties were also fighting patent lawsuits, and oaks was almost the losing party.
Also in this year, Oaks acquired Toshiba's patent and organized a decent counterattack.
In addition to the patent war, Gree also believes that Oaks has poached more than 300 key personnel from Gree.
However, Gree criticized digging people without a bottom line, not necessarily for Oaks.
At the 20 15 Zhuhai industrial transformation and upgrading work conference, Dong Mingzhu expressed his hatred for the furtive poaching, saying that (20 14) the leaders of well-known domestic household appliance enterprises took people to Zhuhai to dig Gree, and after learning about this, "Gree Electric sent people to beat each other up".
This caused an uproar.
Some people think that the company being beaten is beautiful, but Fang Hongbo, the head of Midea, said that he has never dug anyone, and he would never use anyone from Zhuhai "that enterprise".
Fang even said that the competition, cooperation and interaction between Midea and Gree promoted the development of air-conditioning industry in China.
But Dong Mingzhu may not think so.
Seeing the cooperation between Midea and Xiaomi, she bluntly said that "two swindlers formed a swindler group together".
Beauty and oaks are also unambiguous. They once joined hands with Chigo, Haier, Hisense and Changhong to launch an "exceptional action" to encircle Gree.
Now this patent lawsuit shows that the battle is still endless, but the market has changed and new players are eyeing it.
New weapons for new players
So far, the blink game between Gree and Oaks around the patent dispute has not stopped.
Correspondingly, they also put a lot of resources into litigation and various marketing.
Including Midea, these head players do not have the strength to eat their opponents and unify the air-conditioned rivers and lakes in the short term.
Gree once wanted to upgrade this industry battle by upgrading and installing services, but the effect was not obvious.
The market has changed.
After more than 30 years of development, as well as subsidies for home appliances to the countryside and energy conservation, although the penetration rate of air conditioners in China is lower than that in some mature markets in developed countries, the number of air conditioners has reached 540 million, and the market is basically saturated.
From this point of view, patent war is also one of the manifestations of more intense market competition.
However, it is still inconclusive whether competitors can be driven away or weakened by this way of competition in the industrial age.
The court's decision shows that this strategy has a certain effect, and it can also shock opponents through fines, but it doesn't work at all.
Another manifestation of market changes is that new competitors from outside the industry are breaking in with unprecedented new weapons.
5G, and the era of the Internet of Everything it represents, has arrived.
Internet giants like Xiaomi, after occupying the smartphone traffic portal, are also marching into the user's living room, including air conditioning, and have also specially formulated the dual-engine strategy of "mobile phone +AloT".
This is an ecological combination boxing, and it is difficult for air conditioner manufacturers to fight alone.
Just like Microsoft introduced IE browser in Windows, Netscape, the original browser overlord, soon disappeared.
The bet between Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun, amounting to 654.38+0 billion, actually predicted a terrible ending.
The gambling contract began at 20 13, when Xiaomi's revenue was more than 20 billion and Gree12 billion. After the 5-year gambling contract expired, Gree won 198 1 100 million and Xiaomi174.9 billion, but they all narrowly won and were exhausted.
In 20 19, Xiaomi easily surpassed Gree.
This situation is enough to bring enlightenment to Midea and Oaks.
Relatively speaking, the situation of Midea is better, after all, it has acquired KUKA.
Although Oaks has diversified for a long time, both mobile phones and cars are involved, but most of its new businesses have suffered setbacks.
As for Gree himself, mobile phones and cars are equally hard to say success.
A war without a winner
Many people may think that Oakes is just moving China Gree. Although Zheng Jianjiang's resume is not as legendary as Dong Mingzhu's, it is equally inspiring.
He started his business in the 1980s, with only seven employees at the beginning, and later made the watt-hour meter the first in the world.
What he is best at is fighting back.
When Zheng Jianjiang made electric meters, the largest electric meter enterprise in China was 500 times that of its factory. In five years, he became the No.1 in China and finally the No.1 in the world.
When Zheng Jianjiang started to build air conditioners, the largest air conditioner enterprise in China was 1000 times. In eight years, he became the top 3 in China.
He is not an amateur who directs blindly-whether it is an electric energy meter or an air conditioner, he will repair or even disassemble it himself, and his technical level exceeds that of a professional mechanic.
And he is also a reflective person.
After spanning many industries such as electric power, mobile phone, energy, air conditioning, hospital, real estate and logistics, Oaks began to reflect on diversification and put forward specialization.
In terms of management, he has also changed from a "tyrant" to a moderate decentralization person-once a quarterly and annual business meeting was held from 8 am to 2 am the next day, he was meticulous and his subordinates' PPT should be bold.
Oakes even wrote a book-Competition is to keep your opponent awake.
For Gree, whether he likes it or not, this is a tough opponent.
Now this opponent has directed a patent counterattack and won it. After all, the first trial won.
However, in the context of cross-border giants like Xiaomi impacting the air-conditioning industry, I am afraid there is no real winner in this involution.
No matter Gree, Oaks or Midea, they don't have the advantages of Xiaomi-traffic entrance, sticky fans, and explosive products that are endless and not limited to air conditioners.
In 2020, Xiaomi's smart TV sales exceeded120,000 units (10,460 units in 2065.438+09), ranking first in China for two consecutive years, and traditional TV manufacturers were pushed out of the circle.
In 2020, with the promotion of 6 18 e-commerce, the sales volume of Xiaomi air conditioner on the whole platform exceeded 20,000 units. In June18 this year, the sales volume of fresh air air conditioners was also the first.
Moreover, in every category, Xiaomi said that he did not make mediocre products, but played the concept of intelligence and the Internet.
This makes every penny invested by Gree and Oaks in the litigation war meaningless.
They want to control the industry rules and win the right to speak, but they are not players who really rewrite the rules.
It's time to jump out of the industry and see the world.
The effective judgment of the court should be handled in this way, but the way of survival and development in the era of Industry 4.0 is the truth that all families should pay attention to.
reference data
[1] "At least 78 lawsuits in eight years! The first trial gave 654.38+67 million yuan, and Gree responded. Yi Qijiang, Cheng Peng, National Business Daily
[2] Ye Liya, the IT manager of Oaks, thinks about diversity.
[3] Dong Mingzhu and the mutual tearing, beijing business today Today, Liu.
[4] "In the cold year of 2021,the domestic air-conditioning retail sales fell by 5.8%, and the industry expects that it will stop falling and pick up in the cold year of 2022", Zhang Qin of Beiqing.
[5] "Interview with Oaks Zheng Jianjiang: Master Plan behind Miracle Oaks" Corporate culture should be rooted in China.
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