Explosion, for artificial intelligence enterprises, is an unreachable dream since its birth. How to get rid of the "artificial mental retardation" hat that is frequently detained, so that ordinary consumers can change their views, and offline experience has become a wooden bridge that must be crossed.
In the first half of the year, the revenue of intelligent hardware exceeded 400 million, and the growth rate exceeded 40%. On September 25th, Iflytek opened ten "Iflytek Direct Stores" in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Nanjing.
For artificial intelligence enterprises eager to "split a penny in two", this large expenditure is hardly reminiscent of Iflytek, who has long been ridiculed as "performance depends on government subsidies".
When interviewed by Observer.com and other media, Zhao Xiang, executive vice president of Iflytek Consumer Group, who cut the ribbon personally, said, "This is just the beginning. After careful polishing of direct stores, more and bigger new stores will open. "
What are the chances of Iflytek making up his mind to go out in person? Did AI explode?
Zhao Xiang, Executive Vice President of Iflytek Consumer Business Group
AI hardware is in the stage of market education
Direct operation mode belongs to heavy asset operation. The reason why Iflytek changed the cooperation mode with dealers for many years was that he personally valued the user experience.
Iflytek was founded on 20 16, 1 1. In the past five years, the consumer business has developed rapidly, and its products have spread all over translation machines, smart voice recorders, smart office books, AI learning machines, translation pens and other products.
During this period, more consumer hardware was sold online, with an annual growth rate of over 30%. It is radical to find the location of Iflytek card on the artificial intelligence application track.
For ordinary consumers, the complex product line has caused considerable "selection difficulties".
Take the recording pen as an example. According to the incomplete statistics of observers. There are as many as 7 models and 13 recording pens with different functions in "JD.COM flagship store of Iflytek recording pens", and the prices range from 369 yuan to 5999 yuan.
In the direct store, Iflytek also displayed more than 10 recording pens of different models. Although there are many target groups to choose from, it is very difficult to choose and buy, which tests the store's service shopping guide ability.
"This time, ten direct stores in Iflytek opened at the same time, in order to better narrow the distance with consumers and let consumers fully feel that AI technology and products can empower office, study and even life." Zhao Xiang told Observer.com. ..
"First of all, we must ensure good service to consumers." He revealed: "Direct-operated stores adopt membership system, from the store manager to the clerk are all' member consultants', not for the purpose of pure sales, but for serving consumers."
Zhao Xiang further stated: "The member consultants are all recruited by Iflytek. After three months of rigorous training, we ensure that we can clearly and correctly convey the characteristics and selling points of our products to consumers, and ensure that we can feedback the questions in the first time. "
The former general manager of Lenovo's new retail business joined Lenovo in 2000, engaged in sales, operation, overseas business and strategic work successively, and joined Iflytek in his early forties on 20 18, focusing on the trends and prospects of the artificial intelligence industry.
However, in his view, the current artificial intelligence hardware is still in the stage of market education, and it needs to bring consumers a more visible and tangible experience in order to be more conducive to market expansion.
Zhao Xiang pointed out: "Some of the benefits of artificial intelligence technology and products are explicit and some are implicit."
"Dominant position, such as speech recognition, image recognition, etc. Consumers can understand it in seconds. But for example, some technical advantages of Iflytek based on natural language understanding and cognitive intelligence are hidden. "
Take the learning machine as an example. "At first glance, Iflytek Learning Machine is a tablet computer. If you don't experience it, it's hard to feel the real selling point of the product. " .
Zhao Xiang thinks: "Only by establishing physical stores can Iflytek better display its products. Let consumers see, touch and feel the help brought by AI technology, so that they can better understand the advantages of Iflytek products. "
It is worth mentioning that the brand-new Logo of "iFLYTEK Iflytek" was adopted at the front door of the direct store, which changed the previous practice of taking the full name as the brand name.
For this adjustment, Zhao Xiangrao mentioned with interest: "The reason why it was reduced to two words is because most well-known brands in the market are named after two words, which has opened up the market awareness and made consumers remember."
The 10 new stores opened at the same time are all located in first-tier and new first-tier cities.
In Zhao Xiang's view, the purpose of artificial intelligence technology is not to replace people, but to reduce simple repetitive work. "Consumers in these cities are more willing to adopt early adopters and have enough purchasing power. They are willing to use some new technologies and new products to improve work and study efficiency."
While spending huge sums of money to build a direct store, Iflytek did not give up the possibility of joining the model.
Zhao Xiang thinks: "First of all, we should polish the direct store into a product. Only by establishing its own training system and service system can it be gradually opened to franchisees. "
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Iflytek announced: "From September 25th, direct stores in Iflytek will upgrade their support for flash service, making it convenient for users with urgent needs and making AI more efficient. Users who need to send in the same city can buy their favorite AI products through the flash app. "
The epidemic interrupted the "explosion"
According to Observer.com, due to the epidemic situation, the demand for overseas travel has basically frozen, and the translation machine, which is the "explosion" of consumer goods in Iflytek, has been severely impacted, and its income has plummeted by 90%, which has also contributed to the reform of retail channels to some extent.
At the end of 20 16, Iflytek established a consumer business group, and Hu Yu, then vice president of Iflytek, served as the president of the consumer business group. Together with the smart city business group led by Chen Tao and the education business group led by Wu Xiaoru, three business groups in Iflytek were formed at that time.
In addition to the Iflytek input method, the first product of consumer business is the first generation of Iflytek translation machine released on 20 1 16.
In Iflytek's eyes, the release of this product "created a new category of AI translation, solved cross-language work and life needs for mass consumers, and became an explosion of AI hardware in the consumer market".
In 20 17, the company sold nearly 200,000 translation machines, and the company's intelligent hardware revenue exceeded 299 million yuan, up 24 1% year-on-year.
In 20 18, the annual sales of translation machines exceeded 300,000 units. With the launch of Iflytek Heard APP, M 1, Iflytek Intelligent Conference System and Iflytek Transcriber, the annual revenue of intelligent hardware exceeded 8130,000 yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 172%.
In the 20 19 annual report, Iflytek mentioned: "On the basis of the successful application of Iflytek input method and Iflytek translator, the company took the lead in releasing a variety of intelligent hardware such as Iflytek voice recorder and Iflytek smart office book, further expanding the layout of the C-side consumption field."
During the reporting period, the company's intelligent hardware revenue reached165438+72 million yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of 44%. Together with the Iflytek learning machine released in the same year, the company's To C business income was 3.625 billion yuan, up 44% year-on-year, accounting for 36% of the company's total revenue.
However, due to the epidemic, the sales of translation machines in Iflytek declined. In the first half of 2020, the growth rate of intelligent hardware revenue dropped sharply to 1.58%.
Although the company emphasized eliminating the influence of translators, other hardware revenue increased by 140% year-on-year, but the weight of translators was too large, which caused heavy losses to consumer business.
In the first half of 200210, the company's intelligent hardware sales have not been repaired, with a total income of 426 million yuan, which has not yet recovered to the level of 20 19.
The bigger the brand, the more you can't just stay online.
In mid-2020, Li Chuangang, vice president of Iflytek and vice president of consumer business group, revealed that in 2065438+2009, Iflytek's online and offline revenue will each account for 50%. "The most ideal ratio in the future is at least 7:3, and offline income accounts for 70%."
At that time, there were more than 2,000 offline stores in Iflytek, and the target was 3,000. But most of them are regional agents, distributors and other forms of marketing channel layout.
Analysis of "Observer" by insiders. Com: "Direct stores have many advantages in product quality, shopping environment, customer service, product types, prices, store location, product display and so on, which is conducive to promoting customers' buying behavior and enhancing the buying experience. "
As Zhao Xiang said, direct stores can ensure the service quality in Iflytek, make consumers tangible and build better trust with them.
However, the above-mentioned people also reminded: "Iflytek's offline direct stores have just started, and the revenue ratio is not high. Due to the large fixed expenses such as store rent and personnel salary, the offline direct store business will still drag down the performance once the sales revenue fails to meet expectations. "
Although the sales of translation machines plummeted, Iflytek did not suspend product updates.
In May this year, Iflytek released a dual-screen translation machine, aiming at achieving more efficient two-way communication.
Jiang Tao, secretary-general of Iflytek, once pointed out that human cross-language communication is just needed and an inevitable trend, and the epidemic will not affect long-term demand.
At the same time, Iflytek's various product lines are still rapidly iterating. Iflytek A 1 and H 1 recording pens, smart office book X2 and flagship AI learning machine T 10, which further explore the entry-level market, were also released intensively this year.
Whether the AI explosion has arrived or not, it is better to hand it over to the market for inspection.
This article is the exclusive manuscript of The Observer. Unauthorized reproduction is not allowed.