"Skynet is a new idea I just had recently. To put it bluntly, it is to use various cameras to improve the monitoring of the entire city's public areas. Once there is an emergency, the public security agency can directly access the entire Skynet system. Camera surveillance information.”
As Li Mu said this, he gave a general introduction to the Skynet system that was known to ordinary people in his previous life. However, Li Mu also felt a little guilty. He was not from the public security department and had no idea how Skynet operated in his previous life.
After listening to it, Fang Xudong and Lin Qingya basically understood Li Mu's idea, but they didn't understand why Li Mu suddenly wanted to build such a public safety monitoring system.
The explanation given by Li Mu is: "First of all, as the Internet company with the strongest R&D capabilities in China, we have the responsibility and obligation to do our part for public safety. This is the sense of social responsibility we should have as a large enterprise."
After saying that, Li Mu paused and then said: "Secondly, with the development of society, the share of the surveillance market will become larger and larger. Whether it is the government, enterprises, institutions, private enterprises, self-employed people, or ordinary citizens, in the future, There will be demand for monitoring to a certain extent. It is foreseeable that the monitoring market will have an unexpected explosion in the future. This market space is very large. If you start to be at the forefront now, you may gain a lot in the future. A market with an annual scale of over 10 billion or even 100 billion.”
Fang Xudong is a master of technology, but his control of the market is not strong enough, especially his control of the future market, so he couldn't help but ask Li Mu: "Mr. Li, is the prospect of monitoring the market so great?"
Li Mu nodded and said firmly: "I'm only talking about the video surveillance market. If it were the entire security market, the scale would be much larger than this."
Although Fang Xudong and Lin Qingya were surprised by Li Mu's remarks, they both had one thing in common: they had no doubts about what Li Mu said.
Li Mu said that this is a market that may reach tens of billions or hundreds of billions per year in the future. Fang Xudong immediately cheered up and treated it as a market worth tens of billions or hundreds of billions, and then waited for what Li Mu would say next.
Li Mu said: “I generally classify the video surveillance hardware that I can think of in the early days into two parts, one is video hardware and the other is functional hardware.”
"Pure video hardware is easy to understand, it is a camera that is only responsible for video shooting. However, if it is broken down, there will be many subdivisions, such as: remote control cameras with movable pan/tilts, zoom cameras with variable zoom lenses, or Wide angle cameras, night vision cameras, etc.”
"Most of the functional hardware is for cameras. In the future, if the camera is equipped with detection radar, it can be used for security; with speed radar, it can be used for speed measurement and photography; with license plate recognition software, it can be used for license plate detection; with flashlight It can be used to capture photos at night; coupled with thermal monitoring, it can be used to prevent fires... "
After Li Mu said so much, he took a sip of water and continued to conclude: "In short, in the future, the entire industry chain of surveillance cameras will continue to develop horizontally and expand its scope, and eventually form a huge product cluster, and the market scope it covers will also be It will definitely get bigger and bigger, so if we start early, accumulate enough technical advantages and form technical barriers, we will be able to carry out in-depth vertical development at every entry point in the horizontally developing market, for all purposes. In one sentence: Maintain advantages and occupy the market.”
In Li Mu’s impression, the term “electronic eye” will not appear until two or three years. Whether it is traffic monitoring or public security monitoring, they have not really entered the initial stage yet, which is enough to prove that the monitoring field is driven by demand. development rather than product-driven demand.
The so-called demand-driven product development means that after there is a certain demand, someone will develop a product to meet this demand. Most industries have developed in this way, such as mobile phones. When technology has developed to a certain point, the reason why mobile phones were born , it is because humans clearly had this need at that stage and needed to get rid of the shackles of telephone lines and conduct mobile communications, so some people invented mobile communication products based on this need.
In addition, product-driven demand growth is a very cool thing. It is also a mobile phone. At that point, Steve Jobs launched the full touch screen iPhone. Before that, among the many needs of users for mobile phones, there was no such thing. This demand was not there, but Jobs used wonderful products to drive people's demand for full touch-screen mobile phones, and also established the iPhone's position as the dominant smartphone market in the future.
In Li Mu’s impression, there is a company in China called DJI, which is also very remarkable in his eyes. Before the birth of DJI, ordinary people had no need for aerial photography at all. They didn’t even know what aerial photography meant. Aerial photography was just a professional Only film and television producers have a demand, but through its continuous efforts, DJI has allowed aerial photography drones to continue to penetrate into the lives of ordinary people, allowing more and more ordinary people to have the need for aerial photography, and at the same time, it has also allowed DJI occupies 77% of the world's aerial photography market share. In terms of market share alone, DJI drones are more powerful than the iPhone.
What Li Mu wants is to get involved in the field of video surveillance in advance before there is a strong domestic demand for video surveillance. Once he enters, he will take root in making good products, solutions, and patented technologies. Like DJI, he will have his own Technical barriers, in this case, when the security monitoring market rises in the future, you will be able to take the lead.
Why can DJI occupy 77% of the market share despite the fierce competition among so many drone manufacturers in the world? A large part of the reason is its unique technology.
DJI’s own image transmission solution is the first in the industry. A civilian drone worth several thousand yuan can achieve 1080P high-definition and stable image transmission within a few kilometers. This is almost unparalleled in the field of civilian aerial photography drones;
At the same time, DJI’s flight control solution is also the first in the industry. The flight control solution ensures the stability of DJI drones in flight, and also ensures the quality of aerial photography, drone controllability and safety. Multiple indicators, the overall performance is greatly improved;
In addition, DJI even develops its own motors, cameras, and gimbals. Each has its own unique technology, which together form a stronger technical barrier.
Such a strong technical reserve ensures that DJI can lead all other competitors in the industry as a whole. This is what Li Mu particularly hopes that his company can achieve in the hardware field in the future.
If the Skynet system wants to be developed as soon as possible, with excellent comprehensive performance and expected effects, it is not enough to just buy some cameras and form a local area network.
We must work together from the three directions of hardware, software and the combination of software and hardware. Otherwise, even if Skynet is set up, it will be difficult to achieve the expected effect.
It is even possible that within half a year of installation, the comprehensive performance will be ahead of other products on the market. At that time, you will definitely fall into an embarrassing situation: if you don’t replace it, the performance will be insufficient; if you replace it, the cost will be too high. By that time, you will It has not made any contribution to society, but may cause major cities to have to spend another sum of money to upgrade the entire Skynet system just after they have invested huge sums of money to set up the Skynet system.
Fang Xudong thought carefully for a long time and said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, what you mean is that we want to acquire a powerful hardware manufacturer in advance and use the foundation of this hardware manufacturer to develop monitoring equipment with various functions. , and at the same time, we need to develop supporting software to finally come up with a complete urban surveillance solution. When we have enough advantages in technology, we can drive market demand and become a leading company in the field of video surveillance?"
"That's right!" Li Mu nodded and said, "This is my goal. First, accumulate enough strength and influence through the Skynet system, and then use the popularity of the Skynet system to promote the development of the entire video surveillance market. We are the Nokia of video surveillance."
As he spoke, Li Mu sighed: "Sooner or later, we will enter the hardware field. If we do computers, we will never escape the fate of machine dealers. The core hardware and software are almost all in the hands of oligarchs; if we do computers, For mobile phones, the water is too deep and the updates are too fast. We currently do not have enough experience, technology or strength to wade through this muddy water. It is better to take advantage of Skynet’s opportunity to contribute to society while accumulating experience in the hardware field. On the one hand, we can also seize a market opportunity.”
Lin Qingya agreed and said: "In this case, on the one hand, we can apply for R&D funds and project subsidies from the government, and on the other hand, we can also sign a purchase intention agreement with the government. In this case, from the beginning of research and development to the launch of the product, we have government support. Avoid risks as much as possible.”
Li Mu waved his hand: "The reason why no one has done this kind of project yet is probably because everyone wants to get the government to pay for it first."
I think back to when I was in college. What the school instructors liked to do most was to work on government projects. They would first draw a high-end pie and let the government invest money. After the government money was invested, they would take most of the funds and then throw it to outsourcing. When companies throw out rubbish, they don’t really want to do anything. They just want to defraud the government of some money. The more people like this, the more cautious the government will be in supporting high-tech initiatives in the future, and eventually some truly meaningful measures will be taken. The government no longer dares to invest in projects.
It was precisely because he had seen so many things like this that Li Mu decided to develop Skynet himself. Before Skynet was successfully developed, he would not ask for a penny from the government.
So, Li Mu added: "The Skynet System project is a concrete manifestation of Makino Technology's social responsibility. Therefore, we will not go to the government to apply for a penny of R&D funding. We will pay for it ourselves. Once it is done, take it out. If the government really thinks it is good and is satisfied, then it will purchase it. If it is not satisfied, we will never force it.”
"If we succeed, the Skynet system will be purchased by the government, and we will have huge profit margins; if we fail to succeed, we will lose tens or hundreds of millions at worst. Makino Technology has done nothing wrong until now. One step, as long as you don’t touch the foundation of YY and take the wrong path in other fields, you will just lose a little profit, not even a scratch, so why not do it?”
(End of chapter)