Apple and Huawei’s mobile phones peak against Foxconn and Huawei’s hourly wages exceed Apple’s.
Apple released the iPhone15 series, Huawei released Mate 60 Pro and pre-sold Mate 60 Pro+ and X5, and the high-end mobile phone market ushered in a peak confrontation. The most obvious change of iPhone15 is that the chip is upgraded and the charging port is changed to USB-C. On the day of its release, Apple closed down 1.71%, and its total market value fell below 2.8 trillion US dollars. It is understood that Shenzhen Longhua Foxconn has entered the peak season, and the hourly wages of relevant departments of Huawei exceed those of relevant departments of Apple. In the terminal market, many consumers in Huawei stores have asked about the booking and delivery of new machines. Some analysts believe that although Apple’s new machine has disappointed consumers, it still has advantages.
Comments: Apple’s "toothpaste squeezing" innovation has been going on for many years. The essence is that Apple’s advantage in the high-end market is still obvious. In China, the part taken away by Apple after the decline of Huawei’s mobile phone share is expected to be taken back by Huawei, but there are still problems in Huawei’s mobile phone production capacity, and it will be a gradual process to get back the market share. It is worth noting that in recent years, many domestic mobile phone brands are also taking the high-end path. The return of Huawei’s mobile phone business may have an impact on these brands that are still climbing high-end. How will these brands respond?
Zhang Yong officially stepped down as the new CEO of Alibaba Group and issued a full letter.
On September 10th, Cai Chongxin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, issued a full letter announcing that he had completed the handover of the management position of the Group on the same day as planned, and Wu Yongming was appointed as the CEO of the Group. At the same time, Ali’s board of directors accepted Zhang Yong’s request to step down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, and this position will be concurrently held by Group CEO Wu Yongming. In the staff letter, Wu Yongming announced the establishment of two strategic focuses of Alibaba: users first and AI-driven.
Comments: Alibaba announced that it will invest 1 billion US dollars to support Zhang Yong to set up a future-oriented science and technology fund. In the future, Zhang Yong may be transformed into an investor. Whether it is the promotion of Alibaba’s organizational change or the three major shifts of "returning to Taobao, returning to users and returning to the Internet" proposed by Ma Yun for Taotian Group, it can be seen that under the new development situation, Alibaba, a huge commercial group, is seeking new directions and goals.
Sales are under pressure, AITO asks the world to speed up the pace of new car listing
On September 12th, AITO asked the public to release the M7 five-seater new car, and plans to release the M9 in the fourth quarter. As a brand jointly launched by Huawei and Cyrus, there is a distance between the sales volume of the world and the new force of building cars on the head. According to the data of the Federation, in the wholesale sales list of new energy passenger cars in August this year, Cyrus sold 5,018 vehicles, which was not ranked among the 20. Many car companies are considering cooperation with Huawei. Whether car companies are willing to hand over the "soul" to Huawei is the key to doubts. Under this circumstance, Huawei is making efforts to do a good job in the field with the deepest cooperation and set a benchmark.
Comments: AITO was born in 2021. Compared with other new car-making forces, it looks young, and there is still room for trial and error, but sales are still very important. Yu Chengdong, managing director of Huawei, CEO of BG and CEO of BU, a smart car solution, has previously said that the annual output of head car enterprises in the future will not reach 5 million or even 10 million, so it will be difficult for enterprises to stand on their feet. Subsequently, the release of new cars is expected to improve the situation of the industry, and the industry will also release the M9. Yu Chengdong once boasted that the M9 should redefine the best car within 10 million.
Xiaohongshu announced the closure of the self-operated store welfare society.
Following the announcement of closing the self-operated e-commerce platform "Little Oasis" not long ago, Xiaohongshu announced again on September 15th that it would close the self-operated store "Welfare Society", and since then, Xiaohongshu’s self-operated e-commerce platform will be closed. In a letter to users, Xiaohongshu Welfare Society said that in order to better meet the rapidly growing needs of users, Xiaohongshu will concentrate resources and strength to serve the development of more buyers, managers, businesses and brands in e-commerce. The Welfare Society will stop selling goods on October 16th and officially close its stores on November 16th.
Comments: Regarding the reasons for the closure, some people close to it said that Xiaohongshu would like to concentrate on energy and resources to develop diversified e-commerce in the form of buyers. While closing self-operated e-commerce, Xiaohongshu buyers and live e-commerce have developed rapidly this year. The industry believes that at this stage, under the main strategy of buying a flashlight, Xiaohongshu needs the support of relevant mature teams. It is more critical to concentrate the teams of existing e-commerce companies for investment promotion and drainage, and decentralized forces will blossom more and be insufficient everywhere.
Unity’s announcement of "taxation" based on game downloads caused controversy.
On the evening of September 12th, Unity, a game engine manufacturer, announced in official website that it would levy a runtime fee "Unity Runtime Fee" on eligible game products from January 1st, 2024, with a price range of 0.01-0.2 USD per installation. Unity’s announcement caused a shock in the game circle, and many developers expressed their dissatisfaction on social platforms. Unity said in the latest explanation on September 14th that the Runtime fee model has a high threshold, and more than 90% of customers will not be affected by this change.
Comments: A person in charge of the game studio told CBN that the team is already considering the plan to change the game engine, and a person in charge of the independent game team said that it has not been affected yet, but will pay attention to the domestic engine alternative choice in the future. Some engine industry practitioners believe that the commercialization of public engines has always been very difficult due to the pattern of game engines in the industrial chain, and the income that engine manufacturers can obtain is difficult to match the high investment. From the perspective of outsiders, it is difficult to understand a series of commercial actions and layouts of engine manufacturers, in fact, they are all trying to reshape the commercial value of engines.
Huawei and Xiaomi reach a global patent cross-licensing agreement
On September 13th, Huawei and Xiaomi announced a global patent cross-licensing agreement, which covers communication technologies including 5G. Previously, Huawei and Xiaomi had several entanglements in the patent field. On March 1st this year, according to the information in the Announcement on Acceptance of Administrative Adjudication on Major Patent Infringement Disputes published in the 2nd edition of China Intellectual Property News, Huawei has sued Xiaomi for four patent infringements. Judging from the patent content, the patent dispute mainly involves 4G/LTE technology, mobile phone photography and unlocking technology.
Comments: Earlier, Shen Hongfei, vice president of Huawei’s legal department and director of major projects department, said in an interview that many China companies are participating in the global mainstream patent pool. Usually, large manufacturers are both rights holders and users, so the licenses between large manufacturers are usually cross-licensing. "In the cross-licensing agreement, each party obtains the patent license of the other party, and ultimately which party pays the license fee to the other party depends on the patent value and market conditions of both parties."
This year, the world’s largest IPO was born, and the market value of Arm soared.
On September 14th, local time, Arm, a chip design company of Softbank, was listed on Nasdaq, which not only became the largest IPO in the world this year, but also the largest IPO in the US stock market in the past 16 months.
The subscription of Arm before the public offering was very popular, and it was supported by cornerstone investors including Apple, Google, NVIDIA and TSMC. On the first day of listing, Arm’s share price soared by 25% and its market value rose above $65 billion.
Comments: In 2016, Softbank acquired Arm for $32 billion. Two years ago, Invista planned to acquire Arm for $40 billion. The latest share price shows that Arm is more valuable than ever before. However, Arm faces the risks brought by the decline in the growth of the smartphone market. In order to combat the decline in the field of smart phones, Arm stressed before listing that cloud computing will become the company’s next growth driver.
Kelu Electronics, a subsidiary of Midea Group, set up an energy storage company in the United States.
On September 12th, Kelu Electronics (002121.SZ), a subsidiary of Midea Group’s industrial technology business group, made its debut at the American Photovoltaic Energy Storage Exhibition, and unveiled Kelu American Energy Storage Company. Fu Yongjun, vice president of Midea Group, president of Midea Industrial Technology and chairman of Kelu Electronics, said that energy storage is becoming a breakthrough for Midea Group to cut into the new energy track, and the establishment of Kelu American Energy Storage Company will further narrow the distance between Kelu and the global market including North America.
Comments: As of April 2023, the filing volume of electrochemical energy storage in the United States reached 30.2GW, up 89% year-on-year. The United States is the fastest growing energy storage market except China. In 2023, Midea Group officially controlled Kelu Electronics. Leveraging Midea’s capital and R&D resources, Kelu Electronics has accelerated the development of energy storage business and overseas markets. Not only Midea, but also many China enterprises, such as TCL and Skyworth, which started from home appliance business, are actively laying out the energy storage market.
Wenye Technology acquired Fuchang Electronics for $3.8 billion.
On September 14th, Wenye Technology Co., Ltd. ("Wenye Technology" for short) said that it acquired 100% equity of Canadian IC distributor Future Electronics in an all-cash transaction of $3.8 billion. The delivery of the two companies is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024.
Comments: Gartner’s previously announced ranking of global semiconductor channel sales revenue in 2019 shows that Wenye ranks fourth in the list, while Fuchang Electronics ranks seventh in the list. Through the above acquisition, the industry predicts that the global layout of Wenye Technology’s electronic product line will be further expanded, and it is expected to rank among the top three in the industry. It is worth noting that this is the second wholly-owned acquisition case reached by Wenye Technology in the past two years. Previously, the company also acquired Singapore electronic component distribution giant Shijian Technology through a 100% owned subsidiary.
ASML will test new tools in the product line. What’s the next step for EUV lithography?
Recently, Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML, a lithography giant, said that the first testing tool will be launched in its next product line as planned this year. It is understood that this extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine with high numerical aperture is only the size of a truck and costs more than 300 million euros each. Top chip manufacturers need these machines so that they can produce smaller and better chips in the next decade.
Comments: In the opinion of analysts, EUV lithography technology is not the only way to advanced manufacturing process. "In the next few years, there may be so-called next-generation lithography technologies, such as NIL (nano-imprint lithography)." Wang Yiyan, head of research department of Yifang Capital, told CBN that the traditional EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) mask aligner will encounter its physical limit when manufacturing transistors. The biggest advantage of NIL mask aligner is that the light source is relatively cheap, that is, it is not necessary to use the EUV laser source with low energy conversion efficiency, but only some DUV (deep ultraviolet lithography) or more mature light sources can be combined with nano-coating method to realize the mass production of one to two nanometer processes.
Multi-platform force instant retail
On September 14th, Meituan Flash Shopping said that it would launch seven platform initiatives for businesses, including traffic support, digital system and city team. It’s not just the US group that is targeting the business side. On September 7th, JD.COM released the new system "Hongtu" at home, and launched the "Double Billion Brand Plan" for brand owners, announcing that in 2024, it will help more than 10 brands to break through 1 billion. In addition to the merchant side, the recent platform has also collectively opened a "volume" for the consumer experience. For the upcoming iPhone15, several platforms have slogan such as "Hours".
Comments: From the perspective of the industry, instant retailing is in a stage of rapid development. Instant Retail Industry Research Report (2023) shows that in recent years, instant retail has maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 50%, and it is estimated that the size of instant retail market will reach three times that of 2022 in 2025.
With the development of digital economy, local instant delivery has gradually become a necessity for users and penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives. No matter JD.COM or Meituan, they are constantly upgrading their own performance ability and supporting infrastructure to consolidate their core competitiveness. Platforms also mentioned the instant retail business more in recent financial reports. However, the platform still has a long way to go if it wants to establish a competitive advantage.
Venture capital weathervane
According to Tianyancha information, there were 79 investment and financing events this week (9.10~9.15). From the perspective of the industry distribution of financing events, the number of medical and health, manufacturing and automobile traffic-related events ranks in the forefront, with 13 cases, 12 cases and 8 cases respectively.
From the distribution of financing events, angel round, A round and Pre-A round are in the forefront, with 25, 15 and 7 cases respectively; Judging from the "number of shots" of investment and financing institutions, traditional VC coexists with industrial capital, and investment institutions are becoming more diversified. Northern Lights Venture Capital and Tencent Investment are all on the list.
Among them, there were 13 cases in the medical and health field this week, and the financing amount of Hanteng Bio, Shengqiang Technology and Gravel Bio exceeded 100 million yuan; There were 5 financing incidents in the artificial intelligence industry, of which the amount of financing for Guiyi Intelligence exceeded 10 million yuan; In the advanced manufacturing industry, there were 6 financing incidents. In terms of financing amount, the financing amount of Star Space and Bibo Semiconductor was nearly 100 million yuan, and the financing amount of electromechanical financing exceeded 100 million yuan.