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Today, the news that Meizu Technology is going to build a car has attracted a lot of attention in the industry because Meizu's recruitment announcement has been exposed online. While browsing the relevant information about Meizu, Automotive Industry concern found that Meizu has updated the demand for a number of jobs related to vehicle manufacturing on the recruitment website. Including new energy vehicle sales consultant, automotive media public relations, senior intelligent cockpit test engineer (Wuhan), on-board system product manager (Wuhan), intelligent cockpit project management expert (Wuhan), auto parts / spare parts orders, mechanical structure engineer, chassis electric control engineer and so on. Among them, the recruitment website information shows that the requirement for chassis electronic control engineer is 3-5 years or more working experience in vehicle manufacturing company.

For the above job recruitment information, it is speculated that Meizu is going to develop in the direction of vehicle manufacturing. In response to rumors that Meizu is suspected of entering the auto industry to build cars, Meizu Technology PR responded to the media: "the company is indeed storing relevant talents in the automotive field."

In fact, it is not surprising that Meizu will join the ranks of car buildings. after all, Xiaomi, which is also a mobile phone brand, has already started to build cars. Prior to this, Meizu has also attracted a lot of attention in the automotive industry, because there have been rumors in the market that Geely will buy Meizu-branded phones, but this rumor was not officially confirmed until July this year. In addition, Meizu has applied for a number of patents related to the car machine system this year, including automatic body cleaning, face recognition to open the trunk, automatic body dust cleaning, vehicle camera video communication, and so on. In response, a number of media reports pointed out that Meizu, acquired by Geely, does have an intention to enter the car-building industry. Once Meizu starts building cars, it will become Xiaomi's number one competitor with the support of Geely's relevant technology.

In January this year, there was news in the market that the mobile phone company of Geely Group was in contact with the mobile phone manufacturer Meizu to discuss the acquisition. "the deal is still under way and due diligence is being done," said several people close to the deal. " In terms of the purchase price, as the transaction is not yet over, the price is not clear. Geely Holdings declined to comment on the market rumors. Star Age's high-end mobile phone research and development business is progressing in an orderly manner, and we hope to build an open and integrated ecological partnership. Meizu responded that thanks for your concern for Meizu Technology. On July 4, Meizu officially announced that Meizu officially held a controlling stake of 79.09% in Meizu Technology and gained separate control over Meizu Technology. According to the shareholding structure, Geely Group (Ningbo Co., Ltd.) is the first generation shareholder of the era, holding 32%. Li Shufu holds 6.1%. Since then, Geely has formally acquired Meizu, while Meizu Technology will continue to operate as an independent brand.

Meizu Technology (MEIZU) was founded in 2003, is a well-known domestic mobile phone manufacturer, founder Huang Zhang. Meizu was founded not to make mobile phones, but to develop high-quality MP3 products, and created many "firsts" in the history of domestic MP3, becoming a high-quality representative of domestic MP3. Meizu officially withdrew from the MP3 industry in 2006, and the MP3 market began to decline at the end of 2006. due to the fierce price war, the MP3 market flourished and declined after entering 2007, and there were few MP3 brands left on the market. Huang Zhang, founder of Meizu, seems to be aware of the decline of the MP3 market. At the end of 2006, Huang Zhang revealed to the outside world the idea of making a smartphone.

In 2008, MEIZU developed high-end smartphones in the field of mobile phones. Meizu M8, the first large-screen full-touch-screen smartphone in China, was officially launched on February 18, 2009. since then, Meizu has gained fame and reached its peak in 2010, but its history is always strikingly similar. after a brief highlight, Meizu quickly fell into a trough, and Huangzhang also announced its withdrawal. Xiaomi mobile phone was born two years later to compete with Meizu. In 2012, Xiaomi shipped 7.19 million units, while Meizu shipped more than 1 million. By 2013, when Xiaomi had a target of 20 million, Meizu shipped only 2 million phones.

In order to reverse the decline, Huang Zhang announced his return to the post of CEO of Meizu on February 8, 2014. with the return of Huangzhang, Meizu, a domestic mobile phone company, has sent a signal that it will become bigger and stronger. On December 23, 2014, Meizu Technology (MEIZU) officially launched a new sub-brand, Meizhuan, as well as its first product, Meizhuan note phone. On January 28th, Meizu Technology officially launched Meizlan mobile phone. Meizu Technology and Alibaba Group jointly announced that Alibaba Group will invest US $590 million in Meizu. With the support of Ali, Meizu and its Meilan brand have released a total of 25 phones in two years. On September 23, 2015, Meizu announced the launch of a new high-end brand PRO in Beijing, and launched its first high-end mobile phone product, Meizu PRO5. In October 2015, Meizu shipped 21 million smartphones, far surpassing the then hot Samsung and Xiaomi phones. Meizu also shipped more than 20 million units in 2016, the highest in Meizu's history.

In terms of product release speed, MEIZU's layout of the high-end smartphone market is extremely fast, but the aggressive expansion strategy makes Meizu face serious revenue and cost pressure. In April 2017, Meizu closed more than 2500 stores across the country in one month. Meizu's share of the mobile phone market shrank sharply in the three years from 2017 to 2020, gradually becoming an end-of-stream mobile phone brand. Meizu's market share was only 0.1% at the end of 2020 and lost market share after it was acquired by Geely in 2022, according to BCI.

The layout of Meizu in the automotive field may be related to its current development position in the mobile phone market. It should be noted that Meizu has no experience in the automotive field as a mobile phone brand, and it is not easy for Meizu to gain a certain position in the highly competitive automotive field.

Cross-border entry into the automobile industry is a trend in the automobile industry in recent years. Since the birth of new forces such as Ulai, Xiaopeng and ideal in 2015, a large number of new players have poured into the car industry since 2019, among which there are many well-known Internet companies, including Baidu, Ali, Xiaomi, 360th, oppo, Apple and Sony, which have joined the ranks of car building in different forms and caused a lot of shock in the industry. When joining the car-building track, Xiaomi said: "leading the team myself, this will be the last major start-up project in my life. I am willing to bet all the achievements I have accumulated in my life and all my reputation to fight for Xiaomi cars!" Recently, it even shouted directly: "the only way for Xiaomi to succeed is to become one of the top five, and ship more than 10 million vehicles a year." In addition, Apple Automobile, which has previously said its product will sell for more than $100000, will launch its first electric car by the end of 2024 at the earliest.

"Automotive Industry concern" believes that whether it is Meizu or Xiaomi or other technology brands, entering the bureau to build cars may be the trend of market changes, but as the industry has been saying, "it is not easy to build cars, cross-border cars are even more difficult." car building is by no means as simple as four wheels and a battery, and with the increase in the number of entrants, the threshold for car building is much higher than before. At the end of December last year, Li Bin, founder of Xilai, said: "the capital threshold for building a car needs reserves. A few years ago, I said 20 billion, but now it may not be possible to do it without 40 billion. It does not mean that there is no chance (less than 40 billion). But the risk will be much higher." Xiaomi Lei Jun also invested 10 billion yuan in the early days of car construction, and it is expected to invest 10 billion US dollars in the next 10 years. When launching from the tourist brand, Li Yinan said he expected to raise at least $3 billion to build a successful car, while Evergrande invested 30 billion in three years and lost 10 billion yuan.

At present, the automobile industry continues to be hot, such as BYD, Wei Xiaoli, Nezhu and other brands continue to grow, which also means that the automobile market will face more fierce competition in the future. Of course, brands in any field will need a lot of capital investment once they enter the car-building field. If the car-building fails, it will face a huge loss.

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