Despise "new business"

Produced by Tiger Sniffing Business Group

Title map | Defying technology

After the IPO storm and the recent data privacy vortex, the low-key contempt finally appeared, and the new logistics team was announced for the first time.

10 On June 5th, at the conference of "Defying Smart Logistics Strategy and' AI+ Logistics Industry Alliance'", Defying officially announced the positioning and strategic layout of smart logistics business, released the new progress of smart logistics business, including river map version 2.0, seven new AI+ intelligent logistics hardware products, and initiated the establishment of artificial intelligence logistics industry alliance.

The release of this series of software and hardware products, together with the establishment of the artificial intelligence logistics industry alliance and the newly formed new leadership team, all show the determination to turn a blind eye to the logistics industry.

Tang Wenbin, co-founder and chief technology officer of Defiance, said that in the past, Defiance has been working on one project after another. "We don't talk about words like' fancy' and' artificial intelligence'. The key is to do the project, provide good service for each customer and deliver value.

To put it simply, I began to concentrate on the business I despised. After all, there are only a handful of stories I can tell the outside world and the capital.

At present, the development of AI has moved from pursuing capital to rationality. Logistics, as an industry that AI can empower, the best landing scene may be a life-saving straw that ignores better stories to make money.

On the one hand, it is a contempt for the weak commercial liquidity of the AI industry, and the losses are getting bigger and bigger; On the other hand, Party A of domestic artificial intelligence is still dominated by government agencies, and the contempt of AI enterprises is no exception. This kind of contempt focuses on the urban Internet of Things business, but the realization channel is relatively narrow.

The prospectus submitted in August of 20 19 shows that in the first half of 20 16 -20 19, Defiance achieved revenue of 67.8 million yuan, 3130,000 yuan,142,700 yuan and 949 million yuan respectively. However, in terms of net profit, the loss is even more serious, with a loss of 5.2 billion yuan in 2065438+the first half of 2009 alone. According to the prospectus, in the first half of 20 16 -20 19, the net profit of contempt was-343 million yuan,-759 million yuan,-335/kloc-0.0 billion yuan and -52 billion yuan respectively.

Therefore, the Internet of Things in the sea and supply chain has become two directions to expand the market. The supply chain Internet of Things focuses on logistics. In terms of going to sea, it is reported that joint ventures or offices will be set up in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the Middle East to expand market share.

Liquidation breakthrough

At the scene, Tang Wenbin teased himself, and many people would ask: despise, don't you do computer vision? How does the computer vision company do the direction of logistics? Everyone is very strange.

Tang Wenbin thinks this is not surprising, because it ignores the whole development route of technology (now called CV+ (Computer Vision+)), which started with computer vision and relied on deep learning, but ignores that computer technology has evolved to the level of computer vision.

How to make computer vision get better images and videos in the future (ignoring computational photography), and what will happen after computer vision? Tang Wenbin said that it needs exercise, and only exercise can transform the physical world and create greater value, which is regarded as the control of visual feedback.

"We can make AGV devices create value for the scene by giving them more capabilities, such as intelligent scheduling ability, visual ability and eye ability. This is a contempt for starting from CV and bringing more new possibilities through CV+. "

In fact, before entering the logistics industry, I have done several projects in different industries, such as providing face recognition services in mobile phone scenes, empowering cameras and the Internet of Things in cities, and making cities smarter.

Now, the former belongs to personal networking business, and the latter belongs to urban Internet of Things business.

By 20 17, we will be deeply involved in the supply chain scenario. We should start with smart logistics and use the capabilities of AI, automation and computer vision to bring the value of reducing costs and increasing efficiency to the logistics scene in this way.

After a period of brewing, in April of 20 18, the company brazenly announced the acquisition of Iris Robot, and officially entered the intelligent robot business.

At that time, Tang Wenbin said that it was not a "sudden" thing to ignore the acquisition of Iris. "Inky put forward' 4+2+X' before." "4" refers to faces, people, cars and words; "2" refers to the hands and legs of the robot; "X" refers to the rapid customization technology of Brain++ platform, which makes the scene truly form a complete product chain.

"4 is equivalent to the eyes. The core of contempt is to do visual perception technology. With the data, we need to do actions through eye-hand linkage and eye-leg linkage, and robots are an important behavior carrier, which is the thinking logic behind our acquisition of robot companies. " Tang Wenbin said.

Based on this, in mid-October, 20 19 10, Defiance announced two strategies at the Defiance Robot Strategy Conference: First, focus on building the AIoT system; Secondly, Hetu, the cooperative brain of intelligent robot network, is introduced.

It was also during this period that Iris Robot was integrated into the internal business department. Later, it was called the supply chain Internet of Things business, covering logistics and robots. As a member of'1+3' strategy, it is driven by personal network and urban internet of things business.

From this, it is enough to see the importance attached to logistics.

The so-called 1+3 strategy refers to the networking between Brain++ platform and individuals, urban internet of things, and supply chain internet of things. "Brain++" is a self-developed "deep learning framework" and a core competitiveness.

Tang Wenbin said, "The Internet of Things in the supply chain is an important pillar of the strategy of"1+3 "and a key engine to support the continuous growth of contempt. Defiance will firmly make long-term investments and deepen the field of smart logistics. "

In terms of contempt, AI-enabled logistics is unique because it is not available to peers. At this level, differentiated products and differentiated services can be produced.

The business that was despised in the early days is not commensurate with the Internet of Things. Why are the three despised businesses: personal Internet, urban Internet of Things and supply chain Internet of Things all suffixed with the Internet of Things from 20 19?

This is mainly due to the optimism of founder Yin Qi. After the strategic upgrade was confirmed in June 20 19, Yin Qi said that with the advent of the Internet of Things era, the goal of AIoT was despised and anchored. He thinks that the next 5- 10 years will be the best period of development opportunities for China.

New leading group

In the process of deepening the logistics industry, Tang Wenbin himself has a particularly great feeling. He feels that every industry in this industry has deep "water".

As recruits in the logistics industry, although the staff of the contempt team are excellent in algorithms and software, their planning and execution ability of logistics projects, as well as their understanding of architecture, machinery and electrical appliances are far from enough. "We need industry experience," Tang Wenbin said. This matter is crucial, and it is contemptible to really introduce experienced teams.

In other words, if you want to wander in the logistics industry, it is not enough to have the ability of algorithm software. AI set is useless. Lack of industry experience or empty talk is equivalent to having the underlying logic but lacking the superstructure.

Logistics itself is a relatively grounded industry, and empty talk about technology and landing ability will not work and will not last long. Ignoring needs experts with industry experience, combining the technology with industry scenes to realize two-wheel drive of technology and experience. Only in this way can contempt go further.

Tang Wenbin said that to do these things well, contempt will be done from two dimensions. First, to fully respect the industry, we must hold a humble heart and firmly practice basic skills; Second, everything you do, including new technologies and new products, is creating the most critical value for customers. We must adhere to value traction and empower users and scenarios with technological innovation.

Under the above background, from June, 20 19 to now, we have gradually introduced three people with industry experience to form a new logistics leading team (Peng Guangping, founder of Iris robot, now working in the urban internet of things). They are:

Xu served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Logistics Division, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robot Products Division (RPG), and Wang Yinxue served as Vice President of Logistics Division and Head of Strategy and Planning Development Center. All three of them are in the logistics industry and have more than 20 years of industry experience.

In fact, in defiance of the internal, the supply chain IOT plate is divided into two combat teams, one is Xu's team, which is mainly responsible for the front desk business, and the battle is ahead; The other is Wang Hongyu's team, which is mainly responsible for manufacturing robot products. It is an intermediate platform, which mainly provides a "shell" for Xu team.

Why is this split?

Wang Hongyu explained that this is mainly because in the previous industry experience, he found that if the fighting team fighting in the front line makes products, when there are more and more projects, it can't concentrate on product research and development, and it is slowly shelved. Many peer companies have this experience. Once the war in front is tense, the research and development of grain and grass in the rear will stop, which is unfavorable to product research and development as a whole.

In order to avoid this problem, we decided to form two teams: one is a combat team and the other is a product team in China and Taiwan. This can ensure that in the process of constantly pushing new products to the ground, the shells will be continuously transported to the front.

During this period, Wang Hongyu also released 7 kinds of robots, intelligent logistics equipment and river map version 2.0.

Wang Hongyu believes that contempt has always adhered to the product layout of software and hardware to accelerate the commercial landing of AI, and it is the hardest AI company. "Because contempt mainly focuses on AI-enabled intelligent logistics equipment, rather than competing on homogenized products".

"The underlying ai algorithm is the core competitiveness of ignoring the entry into the logistics industry." Xu said that ignoring the technical strength with the underlying AI algorithm as the core has created a scene of differentiated intelligent robots.

Brain++ plays a connecting role in the middle, which is to realize the connection from technology to product transformation. On the one hand, ignoring continuous investment makes it better, "because this system is really complicated and needs constant iteration"; On the other hand, in a more open way, this scenario will not only empower despised devices and systems.

Provocatively define 2020 as the first year of AI+ logistics. They believe that with the rapid development of industry technology, demand will continue to rise, which is a good thing for the whole industry.

Tiger Sniff learned that at present, based on AI, algorithms and other core technologies, three logistics bases have been formed in Beijing, Ningbo and Suzhou, which are mainly used for the research and development and production of logistics hardware to accelerate the innovation of its own mobile robot products, which is also a determination of Tiger Sniff's long-term investment in the logistics industry.

Is logistics AGV(AMR) easy to make money?

Having said that, is the logistics industry easy to make money? This is what many people care about, but the answer is obviously that it is not easy to make money (it is a bit complicated), and so is the intelligent hardware such as AGV mobile robot, which is determined by the characteristics of this market.

The Report on Market Demand Forecast and Investment Strategic Planning of Intelligent Logistics Industry in China shows that the market size of intelligent logistics in China will reach 489 billion yuan in 20 19, and the report predicts that the market size will reach 585 billion yuan in 2020.

In terms of AGV market sales, the sales volume of China AGV market in 20 14 was 3400 vehicles, up 33.3% year-on-year. In 20 15, the sales volume of AGV in China reached 4,500 vehicles, up 34.4% year-on-year. By the end of 20 17, the sales volume of AGV in China had increased to 13500 vehicles, up by10/0.6% year-on-year. In 20 18, the sales volume of AGV in China reached about18,900 vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 39.5%.

According to the statistics of China Mobile Robot (AGV) Industry Alliance and New Strategic Robot Industry Research Institute, there were 33,400 new mobile robots in 20 19, an increase of about 12.8% compared with 20 18. In 20 19, the market scale of China mobile robot (AGV/AMR) reached 665,438+75 million yuan, an increase of 45.2% compared with 20 18, among which 18 enterprises earned over 100 million yuan.

At present, in China Mobile Robot Industry Alliance, there are more than 300 parts and complete machine enterprises, of which about 80 enterprises do complete machines. However, in 20 19, the overall scale of the mobile robot industry was only 61750,000, and only 18 companies had revenues exceeding 100 million.

Therefore, in terms of scale, the capacity of this market is actually not that big, but it looks lively, accounting for a very small proportion in the 489 billion yuan intelligent logistics market in China in 20 19.

In this small market, in addition to companies that make AGV robots, e-commerce giants such as Jingdong Logistics, Suning Logistics, Amazon and Ali Rookie have also greatly increased the layout of intelligent hardware such as AGV.

How to realize automation and how to reduce logistics costs through intelligent hardware such as mobile robots are the most urgent needs of many enterprises. Ignoring this point, I think AI technology and algorithm software can play a key role in reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and can be used as a logistics brain to coordinate the scheduling of robots in warehouses, such as the river map version 2.0 iterated this year.

River map version 2.0 can not only dispatch devices that despise themselves, but also dispatch devices of third parties. It can also realize the visualization of the whole production process, early decision-making, adaptive dynamic scheduling and so on. These functions can better enable customers to reduce enterprise management costs and improve operational efficiency.

The starting point of this product and idea is very good, including seven new products and intelligent hardware released by them, but how effective it is, whether it can help open the market, provide competitiveness and consolidate the market position, it will take some time for the bullets to fly for a while.

The competitor who despises them is Hikvision, a robot subsidiary of Hikvision, which was born in the security field. However, in the mobile robot market, new manufacturers such as Geek+, Kuaicang, Guo Zi and Intelligent Technology, which have risen in recent five years (they are also increasing their investment in AI), as well as established mobile robot manufacturers represented by Song Xin, Kunchuan and mechanical engineering, can not be ignored.

In the field of mobile robots, Geek+and Kuaicang belong to the head enterprises of this industry, and the visual inspection is within 10.

Next, the logistics mobile robot industry may usher in a wave of reshuffle, because when an industry develops to a certain extent, or investors become more rational when investing to a certain extent, the whole industry will face reshuffle.

In Buffett's words: When the tide recedes, we will know who is swimming naked!

This article comes from Tiger Sniffing Network.