Zhongxin Finance, March 9 (Ge Cheng) Internet companies are busy building cars, and car companies are busy building mobile phones. The term "crossover" is no longer new.

Some people ridiculed: "The end point of mobile phone manufacturers is to build cars." What kind of disputes are hidden behind these phenomena?

Two-way "cross-border" between the Internet and car companies

　　In the 2021 annual work summary report recently released on the official website of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, Baidu Auto has completed the industrial and commercial registration of "Jidu Technology Co., Ltd." in Beijing, and the information of setting up its headquarters in Yizhuang is impressive.

It is reported that Baidu will enter the automotive industry as a vehicle manufacturer, and Geely Holding Group will become a strategic partner of the new company.

　　Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, said: Jidu Motors has completed the visual and functional design of the car robot concept car, and it will arrive as scheduled in April.

The first concept car will debut at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2022.

　　In addition to Baidu's Jidu, Xiaomi, which has attracted much attention, has also accelerated its pace in the field of car manufacturing.

After Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, announced in a high-profile manner that he would invest 10 billion US dollars to enter the field of car manufacturing, there were frequent actions.

From registering a company to recruiting people, to determining a self-built factory, step by step.

The Xiaomi Majuqiao manufacturing base located in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone is already under construction.

　　While Baidu and Xiaomi stepped up to build cars, some car companies announced their entry into the field of mobile phone manufacturing.

In September 2021, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, officially announced its entry into the mobile phone field.

　　Recently, rumors about NIO's entry into the mobile phone field have continued. Although NIO insists that it has no information to disclose, it has frequently posted positions related to the mobile phone business on its recruitment platform, including BSP engineers and Android system engineers. , communication test engineer, imaging chip design engineer, etc.

Weilai intensively publishes positions related to mobile phone business on the recruitment platform

　　There are actually precedents for car companies to manufacture mobile phones, but most of them stay at the OEM level.

Wang Chuanfu, executive director of BYD Co., Ltd., once publicly stated: "We OEM many mobile phones, and most of Huawei's mobile phones are made by us."

All to build an ecological chain moat

　　When talking about why it made mobile phones, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, said: "Mobile phones are portable mobile terminals with rapid iterations, and are application carriers for electronic product market verification and software innovation, which not only allow users to share innovation results as soon as possible, but also make Part of the results that are safe and reliable are transferred to the application in the car, and the close interaction between the car machine and the mobile phone software technology is realized."

　　In the process of transforming traditional cars to intelligent networked cars, the importance of ecology is self-evident. Mobile phones and cars can become the entrance and terminal of the ecological chain.

Cui Aiguo, Chief Software Architect of Smart Car Solutions BU of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. believes: "The automobile industry is facing changes. With the popularization of smart cockpits, users can have a better experience in the enclosed space inside the car."

　　Cui Aiguo believes that "the software of smart cars will gradually move towards a platform + ecological model. The future cooperation model will be a car factory-centered platform + ecological cooperation model, and gradually move towards platform + opening to bring more openness and innovation."

　　Regarding the control of the ecological chain, the speech of Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor, is very representative.

He once said in response to shareholder questions that if a company provides us with a holistic solution, then it becomes the soul and SAIC becomes the body.

For such a result, SAIC is unacceptable and must take the soul into its own hands.

　　Whether it can fully control the autonomous driving technology is a "soul torture" for traditional car companies, and the anxiety of car companies is increasing day by day when the entire ecological chain is changed.

In this regard, Li Shufu has repeatedly emphasized: "In the future, it has become a general trend to build a user ecological chain across borders and build a corporate moat in accordance with the law."

　　It can be seen that whether Internet companies build cars or car companies build mobile phones, they seem to be focusing on each other's products, but in fact they are competing for related ecological chains.

From this perspective, car companies are defending, while Internet companies are attacking. Who can be the final winner in the entire ecological chain?

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