Chapter 477 Clear boundaries “A meticulous aerial photography drone: DJI Phantom!” "The drone market is booming! The profits are staggering! The flagship store of the e-commerce platform that sells drones for 4000 yuan has sold over 5000 units a month!" “The king of aerial photography! DJI innovates in a ‘diarrhea-style’ way, with a small update every six months and a big update every year!” “The accumulation of experience has led to a full-scale explosion of consumer drones!” Every morning, Guo Yang has the habit of browsing current affairs news. Early in the morning, he saw a lot of reports about aerial photography of China and drones. During the broadcast period, there is no need to worry about the popularity of Aerial Photography of China, as it will only get higher with each episode. The explosion of drones was a bit unexpected, but if you think about it carefully, it seems that when he first decided to invest in aerial photography of China, it was for the promotion of consumer drones. But later I went off track, became more and more obsessed with it, and only thought about making good films, but put the promotion of drones on the back burner. Now, after just a few circles, the original purpose has been achieved. After going out for a run, coming back to take a shower and have breakfast, Guo Yang went to the company.

It is still very early, and on the way to the company, there are more people getting up early to take a walk and exercise than those going to work. When he arrived at the office, Guo Yang started to make tea as usual, and changed the tea from hemp tea to Wenguan tea. Both kinds of tea have good health-care value. While sipping tea, I was also thinking about chatting with Mo Congwei and Wang Tao later. Occasionally, when I was checking my phone, I accidentally saw a familiar face on a news page. It was Xiong Shaofeng from Hanhe Airlines. Guo Yang clicked it. "If you know that consumer drones are so popular now, we would have made them a long time ago!" This is the first sentence of the article, said by Xiong Shaofeng, and written down by the reporter verbatim. "Hanhe has set up a branch company specializing in consumer drones, like DJI." “But it’s very difficult to reach the level of DJI Innovation. DJI currently has a 70% market share in the consumer-grade drone market. The difference in magnitude is too great!” "In addition to hardware equipment, the core of the drone industry is the algorithm in the flight control system. In this industry, you will spend a lot of money on this threshold in the first two or three years." "Hanhe Aviation has a technical background in military-to-civilian transformation, so there won't be many problems in the transformation." Guo Yang read the reporter's interview with Xiong Shaofeng one by one and shook his head secretly. Competitors like Hanhe no longer have a chance. In the field of drones, Fengkai and DJI have accumulated too many advantages. The explosion of consumer drones has benefited from the decline in the prices of sensors and computing chips, thanks to the maturity of the smartphone supply chain and the improvement of lithium battery technology, which has significantly reduced the cost and operating difficulty of multi-rotor drones. Fengkai completed this process over five years. From research and development to manufacturing, drones involve multiple fields. From the processing of cutting-edge materials such as titanium alloy, carbon fiber, and glass fiber, to the manufacturing and adaptation of various sensors and circuit boards, to the development of underlying flight control algorithms and image transmission technology, and so on. The price of a drone has dropped from hundreds of thousands of yuan to just a few hundred yuan today. Feng Kai has made his way through these pitfalls step by step. In terms of product strength, technology accumulation, service ecology, sales network coverage, etc., it can also be regarded as "far ahead".

At the same time, a complete supply chain support has been established behind this. Hanhe Aviation was originally positioned in the surveying, exploration, plant protection and other industries, and there are many similar companies. There are people who play with consumer-grade drones, but more than 90% of the drones on the market are "junk." There are only two or three cats of different sizes abroad, such as Parrot from France and 3D Robotic from the United States... In the entire drone market, only Fengkai’s agricultural drone has a higher brand awareness than DJI. But with the rise of consumer drones, it is likely to be surpassed. But that doesn't matter anymore. From now on, DJI will be in the limelight, while Fengkai will be "stealth" in the professional field. In addition, Fengkai and DJI's service systems are also the best among their peers. In addition to news from his peers, Guo Yang also saw a lot of attention from ordinary photography and aerial photography enthusiasts. These are all the publicity effects brought by aerial photography of China. Whether it is the miniature crabs in Hainan, the ferocious Siberian tigers, or various natural scenery, they can all be captured perfectly. Many people had this dream when they were young: to fly freely in the sky like a bird, overlooking the mountains and rivers under the clouds, and taking in the beautiful scenery. Now, this dream can be realized with just an aerial photography drone. After drinking two cups of tea, Guo Yang felt the urge to urinate so he quickly ran to the toilet. People started to come to work at this time. Compared to those who arrived early in the morning, Jiahe’s employees seemed to like to work overtime in the afternoon. Guo Yang couldn't understand this mentality. He was used to getting up early, although he often worked overtime in the afternoon and evening. In the toilet, he heard people squatting in the toilet chatting. "My son came back yesterday and told me that his geography teacher also suggested in class that students go home and watch aerial photos of China." "It's just a suggestion. My daughter's class has the assignments assigned by the teacher." "Hey, isn't it the same geography teacher?" "You don't understand, how can the experimental class be the same?" "..." Guo Yang felt that the other person had suffered a lot of harm. When he came back after draining the water, he happened to see Ji Zhuowen standing at the door of his office and looking inside. "I'm here. It's quite early. When did you get back?" Ji Zhuowen made way for Guo Yang and said, "I came back yesterday. I knew you were here, so I came here." "sit down." Guo Yang started to make tea again, "Have you tried Wenguan tea?" Ji Zhuowen smiled and said, "Not only have I drunk it, I've also given it to others as gifts. They all said it was very good. I guess many people will buy it privately."

Wenguan tea is recorded in many ancient Chinese medicine prescriptions, and modern pharmacological research has also discovered many medicinal ingredients. It also has a certain effect on patients with "three highs". In comparison, kenaf tea has the function of assisting sleep, but Wenguan tea is also helpful for gout patients. Both have their own merits. After drinking a cup of tea, Ji Zhuowen said with satisfaction: "The recent advertisements in Aerial China have received great returns." "I heard that they are the exclusive sponsor. The film is very popular, so it is normal for the return to be high. Is there a chance that the revenue will exceed 500 billion this year?" "is that OK!" Now it was Guo Yang's turn to be surprised, "So confident?" “In fact, the growth rate is less than 20%.” "Uh……" Guo Yang calculated in his mind, it is true, but you are also understating it. He thought of Ji Zhuowen's performance at the beginning of the year, and the same thing happened when the revenue exceeded 400 billion last year. Ji Zhuowen smiled and said: "The domestic milk consumption market has grown rapidly in the past two years, and overseas markets are also recovering, so we also want to go overseas and open up an international route." "That's a good thing. I support it." Guo Yang agreed without hesitation. He knew that Hexi had products sold overseas, but not many, and the main sales came from domestic sources. Guo Yang has always been supportive of going overseas. Ji Zhuowen pondered and said, "We need to build milk source bases and processing plants overseas. Some dairy cow breeds and forage grass varieties may also involve going overseas." Guo Yang understood what was going on. After thinking for a while, he asked, "How is Hexi's R&D and innovation system?" “A good mechanism has been formed.” Ji Zhuowen drank another cup of Wenguan tea and said, "At present, we are also leading in product research and development and innovation." Guo Yang smiled and said, "Then it's settled. Just do as you wish." Dairy cow breeds and high-quality forage have always been the core competitiveness of Hexi Dairy. Relying on high production, the raw milk cost of Hexi Dairy has been decreasing. Even though prices have dropped, profit margins have been maintained well, and revenue has expanded rapidly. If we want to go overseas now, we must bring these two technologies together. Ji Zhuowen must have encountered considerable resistance when implementing this strategy, so I came to ask about his attitude. Guo Yangting doesn't care. He keeps cherishing his own things, which will only tie his hands and feet. Only by actively participating in international competition and earning profits can the value of the variety be maximized. Ji Zhuowen sat for a while and drank a few cups of tea before leaving reluctantly. Not many people could drink tea brewed by the boss himself. Guo Yang felt that he had drunk too much tea early in the morning, and went to the bathroom again before he had time to contact Mo Congwei and Wang Tao.

It just so happened that Pu Fei and Guan Cheng were also free, so the five of them held a short video conference together. "In fact, the consumer drone market has clearly heated up since the beginning of the year, and now aerial photography of China has only amplified this sentiment." Wang Tao was wearing an "old Shanghai" style newsboy cap, with a spotless R&D laboratory behind him, talking about the situation of DJI drones. Guo Yang asked: "I saw a report this morning saying that a certain drone sold over 5000 units a month on an e-commerce platform. Is it DJI?" "Besides us, is there anyone else?" Wang Tao smiled and asked back, and then said: "That is just one of our ordinary products. Many high-end products are sold more in direct sales stores. In addition, the current overseas market is obviously higher than the domestic market. Overall, DJI’s turnover this year should reach 30 billion yuan!” "The growth rate is good." Guo Yang praised, and then asked: "What about the others? Tell us about them." Pu Fei's steady voice came, "In fact, Aerial Photography China has done a very good job in promoting aerial photography. CCTV Channel 9 is open to the whole world and has attracted a lot of attention overseas. The natural scenery in China is not only unfamiliar to people in China, but also full of curiosity abroad, especially among the overseas Chinese community.” Hearing him say this, Guo Yang remembered something. “Is the American film “Aerial Photography of America” online? How is the production quality?” After a moment of silence, Mo Congwei said, "If there is no aerial photography of China for comparison, the aerial photography of the United States is actually quite good and worth seeing." "Indeed, I also watched two episodes, which was quite helpful in understanding the market." "The two episodes produced by DJI are mostly about prisons. I have been too biased before. To be fair, the quality is still good." After hearing what everyone said, Guo Yang became a little more interested and planned to take a look at it when he had time. Then he got back to the topic. Pu Fei pondered and said, "Based on the current momentum, DJI's sales this year may catch up with Fengkai." No matter how much the price of agricultural drones drops, it still costs tens of thousands of yuan per unit, and the consumer group is even smaller, so it is not surprising that it has surpassed Guo Yang. But what Pu Fei meant by this is a bit intriguing. Does he want to combine the two into one? Even if the two are to be merged into one, it is Fengkai that acquires DJI and it is Fengkai that holds shares in DJI, not DJI that holds shares in Fengkai. After a moment's silence, Guo Yang said: "Fengkai and DJI will continue to operate independently." Mo Congwei breathed a sigh of relief and said, "In fact, Fengkai's service barriers are not available in other companies. As an aerial vehicle, it has a relatively high threshold for novices and a high probability of crashing. However, in terms of maintenance, compared with cars, mobile phones, home appliances and other products, the relatively niche nature of drones makes it more difficult to find local maintenance services. At this time, the coverage density and after-sales efficiency of the service network become very critical. For example, in China, many manufacturers’ headquarters are concentrated in Shenzhen and Yangcheng, making repairs very difficult for users in the north. Fengkai has established a complete system across the country. Even if there are competing products on the market, end users will still prefer Fengkai's products. In the past few years, Fengkai has been responsible for after-sales service, and this is also the case overseas, and all directly-operated stores are also managed by Fengkai.” From Mo Congwei's words, it was not difficult for Guo Yang to infer that the issues between Fengkai and DJI had already been discussed within Fengkai.

The starting point of drones in this life is different. In addition to the technology borrowed from Yamaha helicopter drones, the production costs of early drones have always been high. Therefore, Fengkai has always followed the professional route, that is, plant protection drones, or transport drones for transporting wheat straw in the desert. Through internal procurement and use of Jiahe, technology iterations were completed time and time again, and the establishment of DJI also drew on Fengkai’s technology. Nowadays, the consumer drone market is booming, and the market for agricultural drones seems to be niche. Guo Yang guessed that maybe Wang Tao had an idea. This is a very "competent" person who likes to work overtime. He can be called the king of compulsion. DJI is also the company with the strongest overtime culture in Jiahe. As a boss, Guo Yang is actually happy to see such a team that is combative. There is no need to worry about DJI’s innovation at all. Apart from Fengkai, DJI has no other financing. Wang Tao still holds 45% of the shares, which is higher than his previous shareholding, and has a high degree of autonomy over DJI. But he was controlled by Feng Kai for many years. Now that DJI is on the rise, we are thinking of resisting. After Mo Congwei finished speaking, there was a temporary silence and no one spoke on the screen. After analyzing for a while, Guo Yang said, “Let’s separate the after-sales services of DJI and Fengkai. DJI should establish a separate service system, and try not to overlap the businesses of the two.” If DJI wants to engage in agricultural drone business, Guo Yang will not stop it, at least to put some pressure on Mo Congwei. But the best outcome is that both have their own strengths. Pu Fei and Guan Cheng had no objection to this. Fengkai's main business was agricultural machinery, and their control over the drone business was becoming increasingly weak. Mo Congwei and Wang Tao also accepted this result. It is actually a good thing to have clear boundaries. (End of this chapter)