This muddy moment is also an opportunity for Lei Jun – a time to reflect on the entrepreneur’s IP strategy, the time to let Lei Jun “retreat” backwards, and the time to change Lei Jun’s image anchor from “good idol” to “good entrepreneur”.
Jack Ma once said: “People can deify you, but you must not deify yourself.” I am an ordinary person, it is the times of life that have created me, and I am not alone in those things. ”
But at present, the deified person not only cannot deify himself, but also consciously refuses to be deified.
This was told to Lei Jun.
On May 10, after suspending the update of personal updates on Weibo for more than a month, Lei Jun began to share his personal life again.
“The past month or so has been the most difficult time since I founded Xiaomi, and I was in a low mood, canceling some meeting schedules and business travel plans, and pausing a period of interaction on social media,” he said. ”
Two months ago, it was difficult for many people to expect such a scene. At the end of February this year, Lei Jun was still stacking the richest man buff: at that time, Xiaomi’s market value climbed to HK$1.4 trillion, and Lei Jun once ascended to the throne of China’s richest man.
Pulling the timeline back to 1 year ago, after the success of Xiaomi’s “3-year grinding SU7”, Lei Jun is still the “newly created god” in the public opinion field.
Only one year has passed, and the situation has changed.
In my opinion, this muddy moment is also an opportunity for Lei Jun – an opportunity to reflect on the “entrepreneur’s IP dependence”, an opportunity for Lei Jun to “retreat” backwards, and an opportunity to change Lei Jun’s image anchor from a “good idol” to a “good entrepreneur”.
Why should we persuade Xiaomi to cool down the IP strategy of entrepreneurs appropriately, and persuade Lei Jun to condense his “hot search physique” in a timely manner?
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This is based on several judgments:
1. Enterprises should stay away from the fan circle – even if they are automatically found by the fan circle.
Say the important thing three times: the fan circle is poisonous, the rice circle is poisonous, and the rice circle is poisonous.
2. Entrepreneur IP far exceeds the product strength of enterprises and is prone to top-heavy symptoms.
When playing a tailwind game, entrepreneurial traffic can bless products out of the circle; In the headwind situation, it will “add leverage” to the word-of-mouth reversal when the product has an accident.
3. Being worshipped by too many people is often the beginning of danger.
Even if you are “added to the yellow robe”, don’t become the leader in the hearts of countless people. Facts have proved that the line in Stephen Chow’s version of “Wu Zhuangyuan Su Qier” – “You have tens of millions of beggars, and if you don’t disband for a day, how can I feel at ease?” “It is advanced.
01
These days, there are two ultimate absurd versions of “teaching people to do things”: one is to teach Zhang Xiaolong to make products, and the other is to teach Lei Jun not to build cars.
If Lei Jun has the interest in refuting “rocket coal”, he can pay tribute to Zhuangzi: Zi is not me, how do I know that I don’t know the difficulty and cost of building a car?
It must be seen that those who do business can win once in a historic opportunity, even if they are kings. Most entrepreneurs have climbed to the top once on the outlet of the times, and then strive to find a smoother landing curve.
But the great thing about Lei Jun is that he has achieved a “win-win” win twice: once in the wave of smartphones and once in the tide of new energy vehicles.
If there are only a handful of domestic entrepreneurs who are worthy of being canonized, then Lei Jun should be among them. Zhou Hongyi transformed into a tenth-level scholar of the Leixue Research Association, Dong Mingzhu regarded him as a shaking + envoy, and Liu Qiangdong’s “don’t compare marketing with Lei Jun” was returned, all of which were plated with more gold leaf for his golden body.
The reason why Lei Jun became a “newly created god” last year can be summarized for a bunch of reasons: he is not pretending to be unruly or dadly, not manic, not greasy, can write code and market, is 1.81 meters tall, and his figure is out of shape……
Walking Xiao Nai, Shuangshang Online Boss, Intellectual Sexuality Excellent Object, Overlord Theme Royal Prototype, Lei Xue Research Society’s best specimen, and spiritual idol suitable for Chinese physique cannot fully summarize him. So much so that some fans said flatteringly: Mr. Lei’s only drawback is that he has dimples, which is not domineering enough and lacks majesty.
There is no doubt that he has a super personal charm. The cultivation base of this personal charm lies in two points: 1. People-friendly and down-to-earth; 2. Sincerity and non-pretense.
A friend said: Which Internet boss responds to the ghost joke of “Are You Ok” with a joke, you will think it is an April Fool’s Day joke, and the boss of a car company will open the door to the car owner, you will think it is a show, unless that person is Lei Jun. Lei Jun has a simple and simple temperament that other entrepreneurs can’t learn.
Lei Jun has countless fans, because of his unique temperament and the current popular social mentality – not necessarily admiring the strong but definitely admiring the strong who are good at “showing weakness”, which can be called a perfect fit.
In terms of personal charm alone, Lei Jun is indeed worthy of being admired by many people. He and some entrepreneurs who love “big and small daddies everywhere” or have conceit and paranoia seem to have their own “clear stream VS mudslide” end.
Le Pen said in “The Rabble”: Fame is related to several factors, and success is always the most important one. Lei Jun continued: Success is important, but several factors cannot be ignored.
02
Admiration and deification were originally separated by several dark rivers. It’s a pity that many rice noodles directly drive an emotional boat and sail forward.
As a result, Lei Jun was pushed to the altar. This kind of apotheosis also shows a strong reflexivity, making Lei Jun the god in charge of traffic in ancient Greece.
Looking at it now, Lei Jun has entered the “most difficult moment since the founding of Xiaomi”, which is inseparable from his deification.
Since April this year, Xiaomi seems to have fallen into a bad year, and every time there is a negative exposure, Lei Jun will be frequently Cue.
After the collision and deflagration accident of Xiaomi SU7, many people directly shouted Lei Jun to respond – this is rare in other car companies, have you ever seen netizens shout their boss after a BBA accident?
After Xiaomi was recently exposed to the carbon fiber front hatch controversy and OTA horsepower restriction incident, many people pointed the finger at Lei Jun: the key is not whether the 20,000 points compensation discounted to the 2,000 yuan car purchase discount is reasonable, but the trust has been betrayed.
China Automobile Quality Network has released a new energy vehicle quality ranking for the first quarter of 2025, Xiaomi SU7 ranks last, and there are still many people on Weibo @Lei Jun, let him come out and take a few steps.
Even the revelations of the “9105 work system” on the pulse led to the discussion initiated by Lei Jun of the 996 series (there is no conclusive evidence yet), and burned the fire to Lei Jun.
In the past two days, there have been media reports that a number of SU7 Ultra owners have asked to return the car, and some owners have put on a “wrong payment” posture.
“Find Lei Jun when you don’t make a decision” has become the habitual attitude of many netizens. However, in the past, he used his Weibo as a cyber wishing pool, allowing him to enter the home improvement industry and rectify the chaos of sanitary napkins; Now looking for him is to use him as a punching bag and let him come out to respond to everything. Even if the “creditor” here is separated from Lei Jun by several layers, this does not prevent some netizens from using him as the official spokesperson of Xiaomi.
The reason is simple: in the eyes of many people, Xiaomi = Lei Jun.
Although not all, it is true that some rice fans buy Xiaomi cars, and there is logical isomorphism with fans calling idols, at least they believe in Xiaomi cars because they believe in Lei Jun.
Of course, Lei Jun cannot be responsible for everything, but the ubiquitous cognition of “Xiaomi = Lei Jun”, as a derivative of entrepreneurial IP, will inevitably coerce him.
This is the same as Musk’s slashing magic as “Minister Ma”, which aroused public anger, and many people burned their anger on Tesla.
03
Although it has entered a period of frequent negative public opinion, I don’t think it is time to kick Xiaomi out of the ranks of “an extremely good company”: Xiaomi is not as godly as many rice fans say, and it is not as weak as many people who jump on the other extreme think.
Xiaomi has been entangled in a number of negatives, including problems with product quality or external publicity (Xiaomi has also responded in a timely manner), but two important factors have not been ruled out:
The first is the law of large numbers.
Today, almost no car company has not had a safety accident, as long as it is on the road in batches, it will definitely be involved in the risk of accidents. The number of accidents is related to product quality, but whether there are accidents or not depends not on product quality but on the base effect.
Taleb said in “Black Swan” that the probabilities in the real world are not strictly distributed according to the Gaussian bell curve, and over time, small probability events in the long-tail region will definitely occur. When a large number of SU7s appear on the road, accidents are inevitable, and the same is true for other brands, the difference is only in the probability of occurrence.
The second is the public opinion hitchhiking effect.
Public opinion always presents a domino effect: when there is a negative aspect of a company, the negative of this company often follows. This is not accidental: after entering the range of social attention and media supervision, all parties in society will always be “from one point to another”.
As a cutting-edge in the automotive field, Xiaomi already has its own topic effect, and it is inevitable that it will be focused.
Saying this, it is not to excuse Xiaomi, whether the OTA horsepower limit of “showing off horsepower when selling the car and saying safety after delivery” infringes on the owner’s right to know, and whether the front hatch cover is worthy of the 42,000 yuan optional cost, all need to be faced by Xiaomi, but to find a more neutral scale between seeing Xiaomi’s accident and reasonably evaluating Xiaomi as a company, and look at it with a telephoto lens.
But for Xiaomi, while actively solving the problem, it should also be seen that after public opinion uses the “god-making habit” to increase the popularity value of Xiaomi cars, it is also using the “god-killing impulse” to bring vulnerability to Xiaomi cars.
We must believe in the “law of conservation of energy” in the field of public opinion: enjoying traffic dividends and encountering traffic backlash have a potential mapping corresponding structure, which is the inherent contradiction of the top stream – the reason why the top stream becomes the top stream is often the factor that makes the top stream overturn.
This determines the inevitability of “reputation to destruction”, and also determines the shortness of the life cycle of the top stream.
04
Xiaomi now seems to have fallen into a “super traffic retaliation cycle”: when it is tailwind, netizens see its advantages, even if some people say it is not good, they will be drowned in one-sided praise; When headwinds, many netizens will magnify its shortcomings, saying that its merits have become “public opinion is incorrect”.
This is the two-sided nature of public opinion. Le Pen said: The group will only do two things – the icing on the cake or the bottom line. Reality shows that groups are usually the icing on the cake when people are proud and fall into the trap when they are frustrated.
Lei Jun may still be the same Lei Jun, and Xiaomi may still be the same Xiaomi, but public opinion has never “stabilized the core”.
When many netizens put the icing on the cake for you, they don’t need much reason, just one thing: you are successful at the moment. To put the icing on the cake, you can always find a bunch of reasons to praise in 360°.
When you fall into the trap, you don’t need too many reasons, just one thing: you are currently frustrated. If you want to fall into the well, you can always find a bunch of batches of evidence in 360°.
The two sides of public opinion will become more and more uncontrollable after being mixed with the extremes of the fan circle, which will make the public opinion position supported by hardcore fans naturally unstable.
You must know that roses are thorny, the fan circle is poisonous, and the destructive power of fan circle fans is mainly reflected in two aspects:
First, after the powder turns black, the extreme behavior will be moved from the previous “powder” to the later “black”. Le Pen said: People worship idols on the surface, but subconsciously want to bring down idols, and everyone has an inexplicable social impulse. The group of people who are most passionate about killing gods is also the group of people who are most excited about creating gods.
Second, their fanaticism will lead to the “silent majority of people” who will be disgusted with Wujiwu and resist the company because they are disgusted with the fan circle.
After experiencing this round of public opinion, Lei Jun and Xiaomi may have more thoughts on the previous way of relying on entrepreneurs’ IP.
Creating entrepreneurial IP is not a bad thing, but if you encounter a public opinion environment where “all toys can be fan circles”, many things must be cautious.
No one can guarantee that you are sowing the idea of “pet fans”, and you will reap rational rice noodles or fanatical fan circle people. The group of people who can be poisoned by the fan circle have no sense of boundaries, and they can easily slip from “loyal to character and talent” to the pit of personality cult of “my idol is unquestionable”.
This is not a worry: after the Xiaomi SU7 accident, a large number of fans ran to the Weibo of the victims’ families to abuse, which was a disguised black name for Lei Jun and Xiaomi – although they couldn’t control that group of extreme fans.
05
This is not to say that Xiaomi is deliberately raising Gu, let alone that Lei Jun should not take the mass route, but just a little reminder: Lei Jun and Xiaomi may wish to consciously resist being coerced into the fan circle.
In fact, Lei Jun actually consciously refused to be deified before –
In April last year, in the face of rumors of the male protagonist of Shuangwen, Lei Jun clarified: “I am not the hero in Shuangwen, nor have I ever scored 700 points, let alone have 4 billion at the trough of my life.” ”
In December last year, in the face of rumors that “Xiaomi only spent more than 10 billion yuan to build a car”, Lei Jun also refuted the rumors in his New Year’s Eve speech: “This is really a misunderstanding, we spent more than 13 billion yuan on car research and development, in fact, we have factory construction, more than 10,000 people’s salary expenses, we have spent about 30 billion so far.” Although I think Xiaomi Auto is also doing a good job, but it is not so good that the marketing account is said to be a god, everyone don’t deify Lei Jun, Lei Jun is also an ordinary person like everyone. ”
Lei Jun may not have intended to go to the altar, but the seeds of “entrepreneur IP” fell on the tree that grew on the generalized soil of the fan circle, lifting him to a high place.
In this context, Lei Jun and Xiaomi may be able to “go further”. Limited to my short knowledge, I would like to make two suggestions for reference only:
1. The next time Lei Jun talks about the product, don’t talk about the good things, but also the bad ones.
Someone once concluded that Lei Jun’s expression has extraordinary magic: he can describe something very good.
Some netizens once wrote that the same is to sell a bowl of noodles, most of the people are doing phenomenon descriptions, saying what kind of professional background the chef who makes noodles has, what kind of cooking techniques he uses, and what the final color and fragrance are like.
Lei Jun’s style of speech is: After 300 consecutive days and nights of big data research by our employees, it was found that 97% of humans will have obvious hunger at 7:03 in the morning, which is a 57% increase compared to 7 o’clock sharp. In order to solve this problem that has plagued mankind for thousands of years, our employees repeatedly studied and compared and found that the satiety of flour is 21% higher than that of rice, so we specially found the birthplace of flour and spent a lot of money to develop the most satiating noodles so far, which is 73% higher than that of traditional noodles.
Its characteristics are: good use of data and very scientific. The characteristics behind the characteristics are: it usually talks about those good data, but does not mention those bad data. The ensuing situation is: it will raise the expectations of many users, and once the actual product is different from the expectation, it is easy to form a backlash.
I still remember that Yu Chengdong revealed when he was a guest on CCTV’s “Meet the Big Coffee” that on the day of the recording of the show, Ren Zhengfei criticized him, saying that he should not talk about what is good about his products, what are the shortcomings, and no product is perfect. This is actually the strategy of “lowering expectations in the early stage and reducing negative reviews in the later stage”.
2. Let Lei Jun make a “strategic retreat” and let the Xiaomi brand move forward more.
If entrepreneur IP matches the product strength of the enterprise, it may complement each other. If there is an imbalance, the consequences may be: entrepreneurs standing in the foreground have to endure the firepower of public opinion from corporate negligence (even if it is occasional).
Xiaomi makes cars to overtake in corners, and all corner overtakings are partial catch-ups at first, and the parts outside the parts are likely to be made up at the cost of paying tuition fees. As an Internet celebrity brand, Xiaomi Auto is more likely to attract attention, which will increase the number of times Lei Jun is pushed to the public opinion grill.
What’s more, it is difficult for a good entrepreneur to do a good job of idols, and idols are responsible for providing the fantasy of “perfect idols”, but no entrepreneur can withstand the logical scrutiny of perfect people, and they cannot be without angularity and personality in operation and management.
Huang Renxun is very good as an entrepreneur, but if he becomes an idol, then his frequent scolding of employees will also make his filter fall to the ground. Lei Jun is very friendly and humble, but if you have to hold a magnifying glass 360° to find his shortcomings, you won’t find it.
For Lei Jun, appropriately reducing the exposure of active social media, changing from a general on the front line to a commander who grasps management and strategy behind the scenes, and shifting from highlighting personal IP creation to strengthening corporate IP shaping, is not an option worth considering.
Like Musk, “one person tops a bunch of public relations departments”, the companion effect is likely to be: the first thing everyone thinks of after the accident is this person, not this company. Li Xiang, the “king of Weibo” in the original car circle, significantly reduced the number of social media appearances after the setback of MEGA public opinion, that is, “eat a trench and grow a hundred wisdom”.
Lei Jun may have been pushed onto the altar instead of taking the initiative to step onto the altar, but since the heights are cold, it is time for him to take the initiative to step down from the altar.
