The long silent cool mobile phone returns to public view as a "new cool". "The 'new' of new Coolpad is reflected in the new team, new capital and new strategy," Chen Jiajun, chairman of Coolpad group (02369, HK), said at the media communication meeting held recently. Once upon a time, apple and Samsung represented overseas mobile phone brands, while domestic brands took "China cool union" as the leader. From 2012 to 2013, "China cool union" together accounted for nearly half of the market share, while the market share occupied by vivo was still "other", and oppo and Xiaomi had just started. In 2013, Coolpad ranked among the top five in the world for the first time, and its shipment volume was once higher than that of mobile phone brands such as Nokia and blackberry. However, with the sharp shrinkage of operator customization subsidies, the pattern of the four major brands that occupy half of the domestic mobile phone market has been rewritten. In recent years, Coolpad, which continues to lose money, has actively carried out self-help, but with little effect. Since this year, Coolpad has made frequent moves in the domestic market, hoping to find revival opportunities in China, the world's largest market. "There are great market opportunities now, and our goal is to return to the first echelon within three years," Chen Jiajun said. But what makes the outside world curious is, how does Coolpad promote its new strategy in the highly competitive domestic market? Now, is there any hope for cool? Photo source: photo network-500553887 Return to the domestic market with a new identity According to the previous statistics of major institutions, although other manufacturers have made efforts to seize the market share left by Huawei in the past few months, so far, there has not been a recognized "successor of Huawei". The scale stratification of Chinese mobile phone enterprises is becoming more and more transparent, and the head company has cut away most of the cake. IDC data show that in the second quarter of 2021, the shipment volume of China's smartphone market was about 78.1 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 11.0%. Among them, the top five smartphone manufacturers accounted for 81.9% of the market share, while the top five smartphone manufacturers accounted for 66.5% of the market share in the same period last year. The "Matthew effect" of the mobile phone industry is very obvious. At such an opportunity, returning to the domestic market seems to face greater challenges. Chen Jiajun believes that there are some deep opportunities in the industry. "First, the hardware iteration slows down, and it is difficult to differentiate by relying solely on hardware. Against this background, new brands have the opportunity to catch up with the top brands in hardware, especially in systems and services; second, the supply chain risk increases. In 2021, the predicted sales volume of the whole mobile phone industry surged, coupled with the shortage of chips at the supply side, hoarding and speculation flourished OK. At the same time, the growth on the demand side is less than expected. This gap between supply and demand may bring the risk of supply chain fluctuation. Cool is light and has more room for adjustment. Third, the shrinking stock will bring opportunities for channel change. " In order to compete for a place in the highly competitive domestic market, Coolpad has made preparations in three aspects: new team, new capital and new strategy. Recently, the announcement on the appointment of senior managers issued by Coolpad group shows that Qin Tao has been appointed as the senior vice president of the group since October 8, 2021, and Hu Xing, Li Yujing and Sima yunruitong have been appointed as the vice president of the group. According to the resumes of the four people disclosed by Coolpad group, the four executives had millet working background before joining Coolpad group. Among them, Li Yujing, vice president of Coolpad group and President of hardware product center, is responsible for product planning, hardware R & D, supply chain and quality management. He has more than 15 years of experience in product R & D and supply chain management in the communication industry. From September 2016 to December 2020, he successively served as the product director of Xiaomi group's mobile phone department and the director of the group's Staff Department, responsible for redmi mobile phone product line planning Hardware product system strategic planning and other businesses have the title of "father of Little King Kong" of Hongmi in the industry. Cool also introduced new capital. On October 4, Coolpad group announced that it had signed a HK $833 million share subscription agreement. The financing is led by SIG, an internationally renowned investment institution, and followed by institutions and individuals such as Honghui Investment Co., Ltd. Among them, Honghui invested and subscribed 800 million shares, which is indirectly wholly owned by Chen Jiajun. "Since the end of last year, Coolpad group has raised more than HK $2.1 billion in the capital market." according to Chen Jiajun, "after sig subscription and warrants are completed, these funds will also be used for Coolpad to establish new business channels, expand online and offline business channels, and sales and marketing of mobile phone business." How will you win a place? With the return of new cool, the company's new strategy also surfaced. According to Coolpad's plan, the company will start from three aspects: channel, supply chain and system innovation. In terms of channels, Coolpad does not adopt the common distribution channel mode in the industry, but the digital channel management mode. Chen Jiajun believes that the distribution channel model established 20 years ago needs to go through layers of agents, with high cost and low efficiency. Moreover, the way of earning price difference solely by hardware sales is also unsustainable. Digital channel management can change these pain points. "Our channel model can manage big data for a large number of service stations with high efficiency and low cost, and creatively share Internet revenue with channels, so that partners can obtain more stable and long-term returns. More importantly, we share Internet revenue and policy incentives for service station webmasters based on active users in the whole region, which solves the problems "The problem of cross-border goods in the industry for decades," said Chen Jiajun. The reporter noted that Coolpad has increased its exploration of the sinking market. According to Chen Jiajun, "the channel construction of Coolpad's township service stations began in June 2021, and up to now, more than 1400 service stations have been completed." the development of sinking market reflects the current positioning of Coolpad mobile phones. In May this year, cool released its first mobile phone cool 20 after its return, with a price of only 699 yuan. In the early stage of the return of Coolpad mobile phones, the support of the supply chain is very important, especially in the context of the global core shortage problem. "We give priority to those with domestic components. 80% ~ 90% of our mobile phones have been localized." Li Yujing believes that there are several trends and opportunities for chips at present. "The second generation semiconductors will switch to the third generation semiconductors. The third generation semiconductors represented by gallium nitride and silicon carbide have entered everyone's life, which is also an important field for us to layout in the future." It is understood that Coolpad is trying a new supply chain cooperation model and joint research model. For example, write the name of the domestic mobile camera operating system supplier at the camera on the back of the mobile phone. Qin Tao, senior vice president of Coolpad, said, "we hope to let more people know the heroes behind the industrial chain. We only know the mobile phone brand, which is unfair to the supply chain." At the mobile system level, Coolpad's direction is to lead the next generation of operating systems. "In the past six months or so, our Linux kernel core branch code contribution has ranked among the top 2 Chinese mobile phone brands." Qin Tao said that Coolpad will continue to invest in R & D on the operating system in the future. It is worth noting that when it comes to Coolpad's development goals, Chen Jiajun said bluntly: "our goal is to return to the first echelon within three years". It can be seen that Coolpad, which once occupied a place in the global market, is ambitious to return to the domestic market, but in such a fierce competitive environment, the final result remains to be verified by the market. From the beginning of this month to October 15, Coolpad group increased by about 26.47%. As of the closing on October 15, Coolpad group closed at HK $0.43/share, down 7.53%, with a total market value of HK $4.645 billion. (Xinhua News Agency)