deltrittennovels Chapter 23 Forum
Chapter 23 Forum
2 PM, the multi-functional hall on the second floor of the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center.
The "2016 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry Development Forum" started on time.
The multi-functional hall can accommodate about 300 people, and it was almost full at the moment. The first few rows were reserved for invited guests—DJI's Vice President of Technology, Tianying's CEO Lu Weimin, ZeroTech's co-founder, and several experts from universities and research institutions.
The middle rows were the media area, filled with reporters and editors wearing various media badges. Su Chen glanced around and saw several familiar industry media logos—YuChen.com, Global Drones, and Hardcore Innovation.
The back rows were occupied by ordinary attendees—representatives from various exhibitors, as well as some industry professionals who had come specifically to attend.
Su Chen sat in the second-to-last row, near the aisle. Zhou Ming sat next to him.
The forum's theme was "The Next Five Years for Consumer Drones".
The moderator, a senior editor from an industry media outlet, gave a brief introduction to the forum's agenda: first, keynote speeches from the guests, followed by a roundtable discussion, and finally, an open Q&A session.
The first speaker was DJI's Vice President of Technology, a short-haired woman in her forties, whose presentation was titled "Consumer Drones in the Era of Visual Intelligence." She spent fifteen minutes explaining DJI's technological expertise in computer vision, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and intelligent following, accompanied by a beautifully designed PowerPoint presentation and demonstration videos, which drew continuous applause from the audience.
Su Chen listened attentively, occasionally jotting down key points in his notebook. He was already very familiar with DJI's technological direction in his previous life, but hearing the specific way the other party described it at this particular point in time still allowed him to glean some valuable information.
The second speaker was Lu Weimin, CEO of Tianying. His speech was titled "Mass Manufacturing and the Path to Popularizing Consumer Drones."
Su Chen noticed that Lu Weimin's speech focused almost entirely on sales volume, distribution channels, and brand—how many units were sold per month, how many provinces were covered, and how many distributors had been signed. Technology was only mentioned in passing.
This is completely consistent with his attitude of refusing to invest in flight control research and development at the internal meeting of Skyhawk.
Heavy on marketing, light on technology.
This is the gene of the Sky Eagle, and also the reason why it was ultimately eliminated in its previous life.
Next was the roundtable discussion. The four guests sat around the stage, and the moderator raised several topics—when will the industry reshuffle arrive, where is the boundary between consumer and industrial grades, and the impact of regulatory policies on the industry, etc.
The discussion was conventional; everyone was saying things that were correct but uninteresting.
Su Chen's attention was half on the stage and half scanning the entire venue.
He's looking for someone.
Shen, a female partner at Mingyuan Capital, is around 40 years old.
His gaze swept back and forth between the middle rows and the back rows. Investors weren't listed separately on the forum's attendee list, but Su Chen knew that these industry forums were investors' favorite hunting grounds—sitting in the audience listening to the bosses talk, observing industry trends, and then discreetly handing out business cards during tea breaks.
He saw several faces that might be investors—wearing business casual attire, without media or exhibitor badges, sitting in the back row on the side, holding pens and taking notes in notebooks.
But he couldn't confirm which one was the person he was looking for.
After forty minutes of roundtable discussion, the moderator announced the start of the open question session.
"Thank you to our four guests for their insightful presentations. We now open the Q&A session. If you have any questions or differing opinions, please raise your hand."
As soon as he finished speaking, several people in the media area in the first few rows raised their hands.
The host chose a young reporter who wore glasses.
"I'm a reporter from Hardcore Innovation. Mr. Zhang from DJI, will you be launching an entry-level Phantom series priced below 3000 yuan in the future? There's currently a huge demand for drones in the 2000 to 3000 yuan price range, but DJI doesn't have any products in that price segment."
DJI's vice president smiled and replied, "DJI's positioning has always been to make the best products. We will not sacrifice product experience for the sake of lowering prices. The entry-level price for the Phantom series has been decreasing year by year, and we will continue to optimize our cost structure in the future, but we will not deliberately pursue low prices."
The standard response from a major manufacturer: We disdain price wars.
Several more people asked questions, all of which were fairly standard – when will the regulatory policies be implemented, how long can the consumer market continue to grow, and when will industrial applications take off?
The guests' answers were all standard, formulaic responses.
The forum started to get a bit dull.
At this moment, a middle-aged man sitting in the row in front of Su Chen raised his hand.
The host called on him.
"I am Qian Zhiming, the general manager of Feiyue Technology." The middle-aged man stood up, took the microphone, and first introduced himself—a drone OEM factory in Dongguan with an annual production capacity of about 50,000 units.
"What I want to say is that the profit margins for consumer drones are getting thinner and thinner. When DJI lowers its prices, small and medium-sized manufacturers like us can't survive. I think the problem is that everyone is vying for the same market—aerial photography enthusiasts and photography aficionados. This market is only so big; DJI takes 70%, and dozens of companies are fighting for the remaining 30%. How much profit can there be?"
He paused for a moment, then said something that made Su Chen's brow twitch slightly:
"I believe consumer drones have no future. The future lies in industrial applications—surveying, inspection, and logistics. Consumer drones are just a waste of resources for DJI; we should transform our business as soon as possible."
The guests on stage had various expressions. DJI's vice president remained expressionless, while Lu Weimin frowned slightly—Tianying's main source of revenue is consumer products, so saying that consumer products have no future is tantamount to saying that Tianying has no future.
The host then picked up the conversation: "Mr. Qian's viewpoint is very representative. Are there any other viewers in the audience who have different opinions?"
Su Chen raised his hand.
His seat was in the second-to-last row. According to the conventions of this kind of forum, the host usually wouldn't call on people so far back.
But today we were lucky—perhaps because very few people in the back row raised their hands, Su Chen's hand, which was raised very high, stood out when the host's gaze swept over.
"Young man in the back row, please."
A staff member jogged over and handed the wireless microphone to Su Chen.
Su Chen stood up.