Dragged down by LeTV with an annual loss of 4.4 billion yuan, riding on the popularity of HarmonyOS and being criticized, whether the former "domestic number one" returns to Coolpad shielding material suppliers and whether they will make a comeback

In the commercial market, riding two boats can be considered a big taboo. For example, in the early days, Meituan introduced its investor Alibaba from the B-round of financing, but later merged with Tencent's stake in Dianping, ultimately leading Alibaba to let go of Meituan and cultivate a strong competitor, Ele.me. Fortunately, with Tencent's support, Meituan is now thriving. But luck is not for everyone.

For example, the veteran domestic mobile phone brand Coolpad can generate up to HKD 1.3 billion in annual revenue in the era of feature phones, and is also at the forefront of domestic smartphone competition, known as the "China Coolpad" along with Huawei and ZTE. But at the time of the industry's red ocean, Coolpad simultaneously flirted with 360 and LeEco, and was eventually abandoned by 360. LeEco suffered an annual loss of 4.38 billion yuan after the storm, and almost disappeared from the domestic market thereafter.

Founder of dual card technology, with an annual revenue of 1.3 billion

Many people know about the Coolpad brand, which began with the emergence of the name "Zhonghua Coolpad" after Xiaomi's rise. However, if we carefully study the development history of these companies, we will find that ZTE and Huawei's initial business was communication equipment, Lenovo was a group computer manufacturer, and Xiaomi's founder Lei Jun was a software engineer before making smartphones. Coolpad, which has been making pagers since 1993, is the closest company to the mobile phone industry.

Since the end of the pager era, Coolpad's mobile phone business has been gaining momentum in the era of feature phones. The achievements it has made can also be considered a significant contribution in the domestic mobile phone industry. For example, the first domestic CDMA color screen mobile phone was released, and the first GMS dual card technology was developed.

Due to its technological leadership, Coolpad had already achieved nearly 1.3 billion yuan in revenue through its mobile phone business before Huawei, ZTE, and other companies paid attention to the mobile phone market. At that time, Coolpad could be said to be the most favored domestic mobile phone brand. However, the market was constantly changing, and with the popularity of the Android system, Coolpad realized that its position, which it had worked hard for many years, was not so stable.

Stepping on two boats, dragged down by LeEco, with an annual loss of 4.4 billion yuan

In the era of feature phones and even in the early days of smartphones, Coolpad's annual revenue performance can be said to have doubled, rising from HKD 1.3 billion in 2007 to HKD 24.9 billion in 2014, and even ranking first in domestic 4G phone sales in the first quarter of 2014. However, as a comparison, Xiaomi, which released its Android phone one year later than Coolpad and was just starting out, achieved a revenue of 68.4 billion yuan in 2015 after surpassing 10 billion yuan in 2012, almost three times that of Coolpad.

Perhaps due to the prevailing Internet thinking at that time, Coolpad, which was in the bottleneck period of its career, began to seek cooperation with Internet enterprises. First, it separated its brand "God" and cooperated with 360 to establish Qiku Technology. Afterwards, 18% of the company's shares were sold to LeEco. However, the ambiguous relationship between Coolpad and LeEco caused dissatisfaction among 360, who stated at the time that they would sell their equity to Coolpad at twice the market price according to the terms of the shareholder agreement.

The final dispute between Coolpad and 360 ended with Coolpad losing control of Qiku Technology. Turning around, Jia Yueting, who was suffocated by his dreams, also led LeEco into another abyss. This wave of operations by Coolpad can be said to be laborious and unrewarding. By 2016, Coolpad's annual revenue had dropped to HKD 7.9 billion, with a loss of nearly HKD 4.4 billion. In the following four years, it continued to suffer losses for three years, and in the domestic market, it hardly made much of a splash.

Returning to ride on the popularity of Hongmeng once again, making a three-year commitment

Surprisingly, when such a former outstanding figure once again sparked controversy, it was due to a negative news report. In June of this year, Coolpad posted a poster on Weibo that read "Salute to HarmonyOS Tonight", which made many consumers think that Coolpad had joined the HarmonyOS camp and participated in the construction of the HarmonyOS ecosystem. However, when I entered the Coolpad live streaming room that night, I saw that the entire live broadcast had nothing to do with HarmonyOS, so I was immediately scolded by many netizens for riding on the heat.

In December, Coolpad held another press conference to share its five-year journey. During these five years, LeEco suffered a loss of 7 billion yuan and has been deeply cultivating overseas markets. Now, it has finally turned losses into profits and built a brand new Coolpad building. Coolpad can be said to have a completely new appearance today, but the market it faces is also brand new.

Although Chen Jiajun, the chairman of Coolpad, claimed to return to the top tier of domestic mobile phones within three years, almost a month has passed and the sales of Coolpad's new phones on JD's self operated stores are still only over 200 units. It seems that this old brand does not have much emotional attachment in the eyes of consumers, and for Coolpad, the three-year contract may still be far away.