When you combine Netflix, Apple, Netflix, Samsung, Amazon and Tesla, what would you get? If you ask the founder and Chairman of LeEco, the company who bought #1 TV seller in Irvine, California-based Vizio yesterday for $2 billion, he will tell you that his company defies all the business models as none of them could define this new visionary company that promises “complete ecosystem, groundbreaking technologies, and disruptive pricing.”
Just a couple of months ago back, LeEco unveiled a new, 80,000 Square Foot North American Headquarters in Silicon Valley, with ribbon-cutting ceremony by Chinese Consul General in San Francisco Luo Linquan and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. The new facility can support up to 800 new workers.
Last year LeEco’s TV business sold 3 million units in China, about half the size of the industry leaders in the Chinese market. LeEco is known as the “Netflix of China” and the company started in the realm of video content, and looks to differentiate itself through entertainment. It’s invested in creating and licensing content like movies, sports, and music, and also owns the means of distribution through TV and their own smartphones — which LeEco calls “superphones”. “LeMax 2”, the new flagship phone of LeEco, is offering powerful features and specifications inside an iPhone-like body for a relatively low price. The most distinctive feature of the phone’s design is that LeEco is the first smartphone manufacturer who omits the headphone jack in favor of USB-C. Above all, it also has a compatible VR headset, allowing you to watch all the 3D titles they licensed from US and China. Last year LeEco sold around 3 million smartphones in China, but estimates it will sell 15 million units in 2016.
Not ambitious enough? In CES this January LeEco is also bankrolling Faraday Future, the California-based EV startup that is currently building a $1 billion factory in Nevada. Besides, LeEco is also working with Aston Martin on its first electric car, the RapidE. In April it just introduced its own first electric car ahead of the Beijing auto show called LeSEE, and this concept sedan is designed to be fully autonomous with a fold-away steering wheel. Last, but not least, it is planning to build an Andriod-powered bicycle with 4GB of RAM (watch out, it may be in the next version of Citi Bike in New York city).
For the critics, many will doubt how a relative small company with revenue of $1.6 billion and around $14 billion on the Shenzhen stock exchange can conquer all these markets. However, for a company that was recently named one of Fast Company’s 2016 “Most Innovative Companies,” and Alphr’s “Best of Mobile World Congress – Most Innovative Company”, anything is possible. After all, LeEco is pursuing both the American and China dreams.
Blog by Savio Chan 