錘子手機(jī)的情懷 賣(mài)的就是個(gè)性

HONG KONG — It looked like a classic tech productintroduction: There was a room packed with fans, ahuge screen lit with slick shots of smartphones, andan entrepreneur in dark clothes.

香港——乍一看，這是一場(chǎng)典型的科技產(chǎn)品推介會(huì)：現(xiàn)場(chǎng)粉絲云集，一塊大屏幕上展示著炫目的智能手機(jī)圖片，還有一位穿著深色衣裝的創(chuàng)業(yè)者。

But while Apple’s Timothy D. Cook would most likelygush over the aesthetics of the new iPhone andXiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, would earnestlyenumerate the number of cores in his latestphone’s processor, the man on stage, Luo Yonghao of the Chinese start-up Smartisan, warmedup the crowd with a comedy routine.

在這樣的場(chǎng)合下，蘋(píng)果(Apple)的蒂莫西·D·庫(kù)克(Timothy D. Cook)很可能會(huì)大談新iPhone的美學(xué)特征，小米的創(chuàng)始人雷軍大概會(huì)熱情地介紹最新款手機(jī)的處理器有幾個(gè)內(nèi)核。而臺(tái)上的這名男子——中國(guó)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司錘子科技的羅永浩——則用講段子的方式讓現(xiàn)場(chǎng)活躍了起來(lái)。

 

 

Looking up at a slide displaying the specs of his company’s first phone, he read, “QualcommSnapdragon 801 quadcore processor,” and then said:

他看著幻燈片上對(duì)公司第一部手機(jī)配置的介紹，同時(shí)讀到，“高通驍龍801四核處理器，”然后說(shuō)：

“As for the next few lines, frankly speaking, even though I’m the head of a cellphone company Idon’t understand them.”

“下面寫(xiě)了幾行字，坦率地講，雖然我是手機(jī)公司的老板，我看不懂。”

A laugh rolled through the room.

現(xiàn)場(chǎng)爆發(fā)出一陣笑聲。

Mr. Luo, a former English teacher and well-known Chinese Internet personality, is an expert atgetting attention. The product release last May was one of a series of presentations he hasgiven over the last two years, part of a plan to build a name for his new company.

羅永浩曾做過(guò)英語(yǔ)老師，是中國(guó)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)名人，精通如何吸引眾人的關(guān)注。去年5月的這場(chǎng)產(chǎn)品發(fā)布會(huì)是他在過(guò)去兩年主持的一系列推介活動(dòng)之一，也是他的新公司的品牌宣傳計(jì)劃的一部分。

It has been working. A video of the event has more than seven million views on the Chinesevideo site Youku. Sales of the first batch of the company’s phones were constrained bysupply chain hitches, but the company still sold nearly a quarter-million smartphones, said LiJianye, a vice president with the company.

此舉效果頗佳。這次活動(dòng)的錄像在中國(guó)的視頻網(wǎng)站優(yōu)酷上被觀看了逾700萬(wàn)次。錘子公司的副總裁李劍葉表示，第一批手機(jī)的銷售受到了供應(yīng)鏈問(wèn)題的影響，但仍然售出了近25萬(wàn)部。

Mr. Luo’s success points to a shift in the Chinese consumer market. These days, youngerChinese consumers are looking for cool in smartphones. Rising to meet the demand are a newgeneration of Chinese start-ups like Mr. Luo’s that recognize they are selling an identity asmuch as a phone.

羅永浩的成功反映了中國(guó)消費(fèi)市場(chǎng)的風(fēng)云變幻。如今，年輕的中國(guó)消費(fèi)者想要酷炫的智能手機(jī)。包括羅永浩的公司在內(nèi)的新一代的中國(guó)創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)紛紛迎合這一需求。它們意識(shí)到，自己銷售的不光是手機(jī)，也是一種身份的認(rèn)同感。

Emboldened by the staggering growth of the five-year-old phone maker Xiaomi, which inDecember closed a round of financing to make it worth $45 billion, these companies are takinginnovation and style risks with low-cost phones to shake up the established order.

受到手機(jī)生產(chǎn)商小米的驚人增長(zhǎng)的鼓舞，這些公司正在創(chuàng)新和風(fēng)格方面進(jìn)行大膽的嘗試，紛紛推出低成本的手機(jī)，希望能撼動(dòng)手機(jī)行業(yè)的現(xiàn)有格局。小米公司創(chuàng)立于五年前，去年12月完成了新一輪融資后，估值高達(dá)450億美元(約合2800億元人民幣)。

Though no smaller companies can yet compare to Xiaomi, the rewards for following in itsfootsteps can be big. On Monday, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced a $590million investment for a minority stake in Meizu. Once a maker of MP3 players, Meizu’s middle-range phones are popular with a demographic slightly older and more affluent than themillions loyal to Xiaomi. With the deal, Alibaba will be able to push its mobile operating systemon more handsets.

盡管還沒(méi)有哪家規(guī)模不大的企業(yè)可以和小米比肩，但效仿它的回報(bào)堪稱十分可觀。周一，中國(guó)電商巨頭阿里巴巴宣布向魅族投資5.9億美元，以獲得后者的少數(shù)股份。魅族曾經(jīng)出產(chǎn)的是MP3。與小米上百萬(wàn)的忠實(shí)粉絲相比，它的中端手機(jī)在年齡稍大、經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況也更好的人群中廣受歡迎。憑借這筆交易，阿里巴巴將能把自己的移動(dòng)操作系統(tǒng)推向更多的手機(jī)。

To compete with already established giants like Huawei and Lenovo, companies like Smartisanand Meizu use social media, the fame of their founders and just about any other Internet trickthey can think of to build a name for themselves.

為了與華為和聯(lián)想等老牌巨頭競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，錘子和魅族等手機(jī)公司利用社交媒體、創(chuàng)始人的名氣，以及他們能夠想到的其他任何的網(wǎng)絡(luò)招數(shù)，來(lái)為自己制造人氣。

“The big shift is the way they’re engaging their customers; all that social media interactionbehind the scenes is what’s building a fierce fan loyalty,” said Bryan Ma, an IDC analyst.

“他們對(duì)用戶的營(yíng)銷方式發(fā)生了很大的變化;所有基于社交媒體的互動(dòng)，真實(shí)的意圖是想贏得一批忠誠(chéng)的粉絲用戶，”國(guó)際數(shù)據(jù)公司(IDC)的分析師布萊恩·馬(Bryan Ma)說(shuō)。

For Mr. Luo, who has 10.6 million followers on the Chinese social media site Weibo, every postis an advertisement, Mr. Li of Smartisan said in an interview. Emulating Xiaomi, Smartisan alsotakes comments from fans on official company forums and encourages them to discuss thecompany’s products.

錘子科技的李劍葉在接受采訪時(shí)表示，羅永浩在中國(guó)社交媒體新浪微博上擁有1060萬(wàn)關(guān)注者，他的每一條發(fā)帖都是一次廣告。與小米一樣，錘子科技也會(huì)考慮粉絲在公司官方論壇上的評(píng)論，并鼓勵(lì)他們討論公司的產(chǎn)品。

These types of interactions are slowly creating a more personalized market.

這些互動(dòng)正慢慢地營(yíng)造出一個(gè)更加個(gè)性化的市場(chǎng)。

“In the old days, everyone wanted branded products and luxury goods,” said Ruby Lu, apartner at the venture capital firm DCM.

“過(guò)去，人人都想買(mǎi)品牌產(chǎn)品和奢侈品，”風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資機(jī)構(gòu)DCM的合伙人盧蓉(Ruby Lu)說(shuō)。

“But people born later, in the ’80s and especially in the ’90s, have a new desire,” she said. “They want a product that defines them, that speaks to them. They want to reject themainstream definition of who they are.”

“但是年輕人，80后尤其是90后，有了新的渴望，”她說(shuō)。“他們想要一種能代表自己的產(chǎn)品，能被打動(dòng)的產(chǎn)品。他們拒絕關(guān)于自己身份的主流定義。”

That in part is driving specialization, with different start-ups playing to different demographicsand tastes.

這在一定程度上驅(qū)動(dòng)了專門(mén)化的趨勢(shì)：不同的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司開(kāi)始專門(mén)來(lái)滿足不同的群體和口味。

One company, MFox, bills its smartphones as nearly indestructible and targets outdoor types.Yuandian, another small smartphone company, aims its products and marketing at people aged23 to 25, even taking into account which features stand out when phone users are atnightclubs.

一家名為云狐的公司就宣傳，自己出產(chǎn)的智能手機(jī)幾乎堅(jiān)不可摧，為戶外運(yùn)動(dòng)量身打造。另一家名為原點(diǎn)的小型智能手機(jī)公司的產(chǎn)品和營(yíng)銷策略，則專門(mén)針對(duì)23到25歲的人群，甚至考慮到了手機(jī)用戶在夜店會(huì)需要哪些功能。

Smartisan, which features a hammer in its logo, does a lot to try to separate itself from thepack. The company hired Ammunition, a firm founded by Robert Brunner, former Appledirector of industrial design, to design its phone. The phone’s software has a number offeatures that set it apart, including tilelike icons, a function that allows users to hide apps anda way to sort contacts by a variety of categories.

錘子科技的標(biāo)識(shí)就是一把鐵錘。公司下了很大力氣，嘗試把自己同競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者區(qū)分開(kāi)開(kāi)。它聘請(qǐng)了蘋(píng)果的前工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)總監(jiān)羅伯特·布倫納(Robert Brunner)創(chuàng)辦的公司Ammunition來(lái)設(shè)計(jì)手機(jī)。錘子的軟件有很多讓它有別于其他手機(jī)的特點(diǎn)，包括磁貼狀的圖標(biāo)和一個(gè)允許用戶隱藏應(yīng)用的功能。此外，用戶還可以對(duì)聯(lián)系人進(jìn)行多種分類。

Analysts say Smartisan’s software and hardware design at times outshines those of largercompanies, but they also argue that Mr. Luo’s celebrity is equally important to the company’ssuccess. Mr. Li of Smartisan said customers in part get behind the company because they lookup to Mr. Luo as a sort of freethinker in China.

分析人士稱，錘子手機(jī)的軟件和硬件設(shè)計(jì)在有些方面甚至比大公司都更勝一籌，但他們也表示，羅永浩的名氣對(duì)公司的成功同等重要。錘子科技的李劍葉說(shuō)，消費(fèi)者之所以支持他們的公司，在一定程度上是因?yàn)樽鹁戳_永浩在中國(guó)能進(jìn)行一定的自由思考。

“He tells students how cruel Chinese society can be because of the unfairness everywhere,” Mr.Li said. “He says you will face this when you grow up, but you want to keep your integrity andwarm heart.”

“他告訴學(xué)生，中國(guó)社會(huì)可能會(huì)因?yàn)闊o(wú)處不在的不公平而變得很殘忍，”李劍葉說(shuō)。“他說(shuō)等你長(zhǎng)大了，就會(huì)面臨這個(gè)問(wèn)題，但你會(huì)想要保持自己的正直和熱心腸。”

It’s a lesson Mr. Luo learned well growing up in a small, impoverished town bordering NorthKorea and closer to Vladivostok, Russia, than Beijing.

在貧窮小鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)大的羅永浩對(duì)這一點(diǎn)深有體會(huì)。那座小鎮(zhèn)與朝鮮接壤，并且距俄羅斯的海參崴都比離北京近。

“I was born in the 1970s in a small Chinese town on the border,” Mr. Luo wrote in an emailinterview. “During a time of malnutrition, I ate enough to become fat. In an environmentlacking stimulation, I quit school and read my way to being an intellectual.”

“我出生在上世紀(jì)70年代初的中國(guó)農(nóng)村，成長(zhǎng)在一個(gè)邊疆的小城鎮(zhèn)，”羅永浩在接受電子郵件采訪時(shí)寫(xiě)道。“在一個(gè)飲食營(yíng)養(yǎng)普遍不良的時(shí)代，吃成了一個(gè)胖子，在一個(gè)精神食糧嚴(yán)重匱乏的時(shí)代，輟學(xué)后靠自己讀書(shū)成為一個(gè)知識(shí)分子。”

In his 20s, Mr. Luo moved between low-paying jobs, at one point selling kebabs. At 30 he had asort of midlife crisis.

20多歲時(shí)，羅永浩不停地?fù)Q工作，但都是收入較低的崗位，還一度賣(mài)過(guò)烤串。30歲時(shí)，他經(jīng)歷了某種中年危機(jī)。

“I realized I couldn’t keep acting like a kid,” he wrote. “I needed to find a way to enter themiddle class.” That was when he decided to join New Oriental as an English teacher. NewOriental, a well-known private education company, runs classes complementing China’s schools.

“我感覺(jué)不能再像一個(gè)年輕人那樣沒(méi)心沒(méi)肺地玩下去了，”他寫(xiě)道。“于是決定找一份能迅速達(dá)到中產(chǎn)階級(jí)收入水平的工作。”正是在那時(shí)，他決定加入新東方，當(dāng)一名英語(yǔ)老師。新東方是一家著名的私營(yíng)教育公司，開(kāi)設(shè)校外教育課程。

He gained some fame in the early 2000s, when several students recorded his classes and putthem online. Around the same time he also became a figure in China’s early blogging scene,syndicating a number of outspoken — and eventually famous — bloggers on a website thatthe government shut down because of the politically sensitive nature of the posts.

本世紀(jì)初，當(dāng)幾名學(xué)生把他的課錄下來(lái)并傳到網(wǎng)上后，羅永浩有了一些名氣。大約在同一時(shí)間，他也成了中國(guó)早期博客圈中的骨干，將許多坦率的博客作者聚集到了一家網(wǎng)站上。這些人最終都出了名。后來(lái)，因?yàn)樘拥恼蚊舾行?，該網(wǎng)站被政府關(guān)閉。

Eventually he struck out on his own, starting up a tutoring service that was similar to NewOriental.

最后，他開(kāi)創(chuàng)了自己的事業(yè)，成立了一家類似于新東方的培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)。

A gadget enthusiast, Mr. Luo said he long wanted to start his own tech company. He was ableto realize that ambition because, like other young Chinese entrepreneurs, he found it relativelyeasy to attract venture capital investment in China, and to find cheap and capable contractmanufacturers there as well.

作為一個(gè)熱衷于電子設(shè)備的人，羅永浩說(shuō)他長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)一直想開(kāi)一家自己的科技公司。他之所以能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)這個(gè)志向，是因?yàn)?，與中國(guó)其他年輕創(chuàng)業(yè)者一樣，他發(fā)現(xiàn)在中國(guó)，吸引風(fēng)投和尋找廉價(jià)且能干的外包生產(chǎn)商都相對(duì)容易。

For his boldness, and early success, he has no shortage of fans who admire the self-made-man narrative he has carefully promoted. He also has no shortage of critics.

憑著大膽敢言和早期的成功，他不乏粉絲。對(duì)于羅永浩精心推廣的白手起家的故事，他們贊賞有加。然而，他也不乏批評(píng)者。

“A lot of people like him but a lot of people hate him,” Mr. Li said. “If you look online so manypeople insult him because he is very outspoken.”

“很多人喜歡他，也有很多人討厭他，”李劍葉說(shuō)。“如果上網(wǎng)看，很多人罵他就是因?yàn)樗闹笨诳臁?rdquo;

Some say he is merely mimicking Xiaomi’s business model, offering little that is different. Thosecritics have a point: Smartisan’s business model does borrow from Xiaomi. Nonetheless,analysts say the company, and other young Chinese smartphone start-ups, are ontosomething new, and causing real change in the domestic market.

一些人說(shuō)，他僅僅是在模仿小米的商業(yè)模式，幾乎沒(méi)什么不同。這些批評(píng)并非全無(wú)道理：錘子科技的商業(yè)模式的確借鑒了小米。然而，分析人士稱，該公司和中國(guó)其他一些年輕的智能手機(jī)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)都有一些新的東西，并且正在讓國(guó)內(nèi)市場(chǎng)發(fā)生真正的改變。

Their rise has made the previous generation of electronics giants adapt to compete. Huawei,ZTE and Lenovo have started new phone brands sold and marketed primarily online. DCM’s Ms.Lu also points out that a popular new Huawei phone, the Mate 7, shows the company hasstepped up attention to phone design.

他們的崛起促使上一代電子巨頭進(jìn)行調(diào)整，與其競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。華為、中興和聯(lián)想都推出了以在線銷售和推銷為主的手機(jī)新品。DCM的盧蓉也指出，華為頗受歡迎的新款手機(jī)Mate 7表明，該公司已經(jīng)增強(qiáng)了對(duì)手機(jī)設(shè)計(jì)的關(guān)注。

If Smartisan deserves plaudits for hipness in China, it has yet to take the ultimate test and feelout foreign markets. Other young Chinese smartphone start-ups are already having modestsuccess in those arenas.

如果說(shuō)錘子手機(jī)在中國(guó)配得起引領(lǐng)潮流的美譽(yù)，那么它還需要接受終極考驗(yàn)，去摸清外國(guó)市場(chǎng)的形勢(shì)。其他一些年輕的中國(guó)智能手機(jī)初創(chuàng)公司，已在這些領(lǐng)域取得了一定的成功。

Xiaomi is selling in a number of developing markets. OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone start-upthat began in August 2013, has exceeded the expectations of its founders by using non-Chinese social media, like Twitter and Reddit, to sell its phones across the globe.

小米已經(jīng)打開(kāi)了很多發(fā)展中國(guó)家的市場(chǎng)。通過(guò)在Twitter和Reddit等國(guó)外社交媒體上面向全球銷售手機(jī)，成立于2013年8月的中國(guó)智能手機(jī)初創(chuàng)公司一加也取得了超出了公司創(chuàng)始人預(yù)期的成績(jī)。

It lends credence to Mr. Luo’s prediction on what’s next for the industry.

這一點(diǎn)印證了羅永浩對(duì)這個(gè)行業(yè)未來(lái)的預(yù)測(cè)。

“I believe, at least in the low-cost segment, Chinese smartphone companies will dominate theworld,” he wrote.

“中國(guó)的智能手機(jī)會(huì)征服全世界……好吧，至少會(huì)先征服全世界的中低端消費(fèi)市場(chǎng)，”他寫(xiě)道。