After the explosive popularity of Xiaomi SU7, almost all products associated with Xiaomi have won market attention, but some companies are eager to disassociate themselves from the Xiaomi brand in search of a new market positioning.

A decade ago, Xiaomi innovatively proposed an ecosystem model for companies, aiming to incubate a large number of smart hardware startups to create bestsellers and quickly dominate the smart hardware track through "investment + management." Ten years later, as the ecosystem companies have grown and strengthened, more and more companies are launching their own brands and seeking greater autonomy, with Ninebot being one of them.

In the past period, Ninebot has undergone a process from relying on Xiaomi's ecosystem to gradually establishing its own independent brand and market channels. The major test of "de-Xiaomization" has essentially ended, and new challenges have also arrived.

Market value has plummeted, falling by 70%.

As is well known, Ninebot was an early Xiaomi ecosystem company, which achieved rapid growth by manufacturing balance boards and scooters for Xiaomi and selling its own products through Xiaomi's channels. In recent years, after implementing the "de-Xiaomization" strategy and detaching from Xiaomi's brand resources, the proportion of Ninebot's income from Xiaomi has been continuously decreasing.According to disclosures by the company, in 2018, the total revenue was 4.248 billion yuan, with 2.434 billion yuan coming from Xiaomi, accounting for a staggering 57.31% of the company's total revenue. By 2021, the revenue from Xiaomi had dropped to 32.3% of the company's total, and this proportion further shrank to 4% by 2023.

Advertisement

It is undeniable that the aggressive de-Xiaomization of the company has had an impact on its performance, which is also directly reflected in its secondary market performance.

At the beginning of the listing, benefiting from the endorsement of the Xiaomi brand, as well as the performance support from the balance car and scooter business, the company's stock price reached a peak of 112 yuan per share at the beginning of 2021, with a market value once approaching 77 billion yuan. Now, the company's stock price hovers around 30 yuan per share, with a market value of around 20 billion yuan, a cumulative decline of more than 70% from its peak.

On one hand, after going public, the company has been continuously reducing its business dependence on Xiaomi, seeking a more profitable channel structure. This strategy, while helpful in enhancing the company's own brand building, has also led to the loss of sales and channel advantages brought by cooperation with Xiaomi, causing a significant impact on overall performance.

On the other hand, Xiaomi and Sequoia Capital have been successively reducing their holdings in the company's shares, affecting investor sentiment and market expectations. The market often interprets this as a lack of confidence in the company's future development by these major shareholders, or a non-recognition of the current valuation, and this interpretation quickly reflects on the stock price, leading to a decline.The market value's failure to hold not only reflects the market's concerns about the future growth potential of the company, but also embodies investors' uncertainty and risk perception towards the company's strategy of de-Xiaomization.

Eager to learn to walk independently

After losing the exclusive supply advantage from Xiaomi, the company faces the challenge of a declining market value, which makes the company's pace to seek independent development more urgent.

In order to achieve independence, the company has adopted a dual strategy: on the one hand, it is committed to building and strengthening its own brand to enhance brand influence and market position; on the other hand, it actively expands into overseas markets, looking for new growth points, to diversify its strategy to cope with market changes.

Firstly, the company has continuously enriched and improved its own product matrix of self-balancing vehicles, scooters, electric two-wheelers, and service robots, achieving growth in performance.Financial report data indicates that in the first half of this year, the self-branded retail sales of electric scooters by the company reached 518,100 units, contributing revenue of 1.031 billion yuan; the sales of electric two-wheelers exceeded 1.2 million units (with 1.1984 million units sold in China), generating revenue of 3.383 billion yuan; the sales of all-terrain vehicles reached 12,100 units, with revenue of 507 million yuan; and the revenue from the emerging business of lawn mowers reached 449 million yuan.

Secondly, the company has deeply implemented a globalization strategy, transitioning from exporting products, brands, and technology to exporting entire industries, which has significantly increased its overseas market revenue.

Financial report data shows that in the first half of this year, the company achieved overseas revenue of 2.803 billion yuan, accounting for 42% of total revenue. Among this, the company's Segway all-terrain vehicles achieved sales revenue of 507 million yuan in developed European and American markets, a year-on-year increase of 78.25%; the global sales revenue of the Navimow intelligent lawn mower reached 449 million yuan, a staggering year-on-year increase of 316.69%.

It is worth mentioning that during the Paris Olympics, the Paris municipal government designated Tier-Dott, a leading global shared micro-mobility operator, to deploy 15,000 E-bikes for the 2024 Olympics, and the producer of these E-bikes for Tier-Dott is none other than the Chinese company, demonstrating its undeniable global influence.

In summary, while the company has been moving away from its reliance on Xiaomi, it has independently built a diversified brand matrix and precisely targeted overseas markets, ultimately achieving a splendid transformation from dependence to self-reliance.Continuous Growth Remains an Unknown

It is undeniable that Company No. 9 has achieved certain successes in building its own brand and global layout, but whether this growth can be sustained in the future is an unknown.

Firstly, with the rapid development of the smart short-distance transportation and service robot markets, more and more companies are entering this field, making market competition increasingly fierce.

Taking smart two-wheeled electric vehicles as an example, the reason why Company No. 9 was able to rise rapidly in the electric two-wheeler field is, first, due to its differentiated product positioning, and second, relying on excellent R&D and marketing capabilities. However, now established brands such as Yadea and Aima are intensifying their efforts to enter the mid-to-high-end smart electric two-wheeler market, not only deepening the intelligent upgrade of their product lines but also actively innovating design concepts and marketing strategies, putting great competitive pressure on Company No. 9.

Therefore, whether Company No. 9 can continue to maintain this growth advantage in domestic and international markets in the future will depend on how it responds to the challenges from its competitors.Secondly, one of the main driving forces behind the "becoming oneself" of No. 9 is technological innovation. However, technological innovation is characterized by uncertainty and high risk. Whether Ninebot can continue to introduce competitive new technologies and products in the future will directly affect its market position and growth potential.

Financial report data shows that Ninebot's R&D investment has been growing continuously, with a cumulative R&D expenditure exceeding 1.7 billion yuan over three years. In contrast, Yadea Electric Vehicle's R&D investment in the past year alone exceeded 1.1 billion yuan, an increase of about 7.8% compared to 2022, with a cumulative R&D cost exceeding 4.78 billion yuan. The difference in R&D investment between the two is quite significant.

In light of this, facing the increasingly diversified consumer demands and technological upgrades, Ninebot needs to flexibly adjust its product and market strategies, which is a great test of the company's market insight and rapid response capabilities. How the future unfolds will require time to reveal its full picture.

Clarify the new positioning and strive for high growth.

Undoubtedly, Ninebot has stepped out of Xiaomi's comfort zone and truly achieved independence, but it faces no shortage of market challenges that it needs to tackle on its own. A clear dilemma now lies before Ninebot: against the backdrop of exploring technological cycles and differentiated competition, how to find its own unique method of growth?On one hand, new scientific and technological achievements continue to emerge, constantly breaking down existing technological barriers and propelling the technological cycle forward. The evolution of the technological cycle implies the continuous change of the market environment and competitive landscape. If Company Nine wishes to maintain its competitiveness in the rapidly changing market, it must keep pace with the technological cycle, understand, and predict the development trends of technology.

The most direct manifestation is the successive emergence of new technologies and products such as two-wheeled smart electric vehicles, smart lawn mowers, and all-terrain vehicles, which continuously drive enterprises to innovate technologically and upgrade their products. In the future, Company Nine will need to continue to increase R&D investment, promote technological innovation and industrial upgrading, and form a more robust technological barrier.

On the other hand, shedding the label of a Xiaomi ecosystem enterprise is the first step for Company Nine towards independence, and clarifying a new positioning is essential for going further.

In the fiercely competitive market environment, differentiated competition is the key for a company to stand out. Company Nine needs to clarify its unique positioning in the market, that is, to clarify its differences from competitors, build its own brand barriers, which will help Company Nine find new growth points in the market and explore new market spaces.In summary, the "independence war" of Company Nine is still ongoing. In the future, it should clearly define its positioning, delve into technology, and deeply understand user needs, steadfastly pursuing a long-term development path, while maintaining its innovation and competitiveness. It should continue to work diligently in the fields of intelligent short-distance transportation and robotics, stimulating and striving for high growth.