ryethenovel Chapter 58 Storm and Bombardment
Chapter 58 Storm and Bombardment
The day after Su Chen's media conference, the news exploded.
The title of the article on Hardcore Innovation is "Not a Drone Company: Hongyuan Intelligent's Flight Control Platform Ambitions".
36Kr's headline is "While others are making drones, this small Shenzhen factory is making 'Android for agricultural products'."
The headline on YuChen.com is "Flight Control Platform Model: How Far Can Hongyuan Intelligent Go?"
What surprised Su Chen the most was the article from Pencil News. Its title was very direct: "A small factory with 300 employees building a platform: Is it wishful thinking or a correct bet?"
The article provides a detailed analysis of Hongyuan's business structure, number of SDK clients, and the scale of its Toyota channel, and even quotes Professor Chen Hongyuan's assessment that it is "at the top level in China." However, it also sharply points out the risks: the team is too small, the client concentration is too high, and the limits of the personal capabilities of the key figure, Su Chen himself.
Su Chen read the article from beginning to end.
The reporter from Pencil News wrote very professionally. The questions were also very accurate. Su Chen agreed with every risk mentioned in the article—the team size was indeed a weakness, the customer concentration did need to be diversified, and his personal ability limitations were indeed the biggest single point of risk for the entire company.
But he already knew about these problems. And he was working on solving them.
Recruiting to expand the team has already begun. The stock option program is designed to retain talent. New clients for the plant protection SDK are steadily increasing. And his personal capability—the virtual disassembly lab—is his biggest secret weapon. But this is something he can't tell anyone.
Su Chen shut down the computer.
What surprised him was not the media's reaction—but the industry's reaction.
That afternoon, Zhou Ming received three phone calls from strangers.
The first company was a power line inspection company in Shenzhen, who asked if Hongyuan's flight controllers could be OEM-produced for them.
The second one is a plant protection distributor from Zhejiang who wants to become an agent for Hongyuan plant protection machines in Zhejiang.
The third is a venture capital firm—they want to know Hongyuan's financing intentions.
Su Chen asked Zhou Ming to write it all down and not to reply immediately.
But he knew in his heart that yesterday's media briefing had already begun to have an effect.
The concept of "flight control platform" began to spread in the industry.
Dissemination implies awareness. Awareness implies opportunity.
But it also means that competitors will notice.
Lu Weimin's response came faster than Su Chen had expected.
Just three days after the media reports were published, Tianying's official WeChat account published a long article titled "Making Products or Creating Concepts? Let's Talk About the Pragmatism and Idealism of the Drone Industry."
The article doesn't directly name Hongyuan, but every sentence points to him.
"Recently, some companies like to label themselves as 'platform companies,' 'ecosystem companies,' or 'technology companies.' But I want to ask: How many employees do you have? What is your annual revenue? How many units of your products have you sold to date?"
"Tianying Technology has 3,000 employees. Its annual revenue exceeds 300 million yuan. It has sold more than 100,000 drones in total. This is not a concept—it is a real number."
"We never call ourselves a 'platform company.' We only call ourselves a product company. Because customers don't pay for the word 'platform'—they pay for the product."
"So my advice is—less creating concepts, more making products. Less talking about 'ecosystem,' more selling machines. Don't let the entire industry be misled by a few fancy concepts."
Half an hour after the article was published, Lu Weimin reposted it on his personal Weibo account and added a comment:
"A factory with 300 employees calling itself a 'flight control platform'—what's the difference between that and the pancake stall outside my neighborhood calling itself a 'catering platform'?"
This statement immediately caused a stir in the industry.
The drone industry is small. Lu Weimin's words spread to all major media outlets and industry WeChat groups within an hour.
The term "pancake stand" immediately became the dream of the entire industry.
Various media outlets immediately followed up with reports.
36Kr's headline is "Tianying CEO slams Hongyuan: 'Pancake stalls don't deserve to be called a platform'".
The title of the article on Hardcore Innovation is "The Battle of Flight Control Platforms: The Roadmap Battle between Tianying and Hongyuan".
YuChen.com is even more direct: "Lu Weimin vs. Su Chen: Who is making the product, and who is making the concept?"
Discussions in industry forums and WeChat groups were even more intense.
One group of people thinks Lu Weimin is right—it's too early for a company of 300 to talk about a platform; they should focus on scaling up first.
Another group believes that Lu Weimin is diverting attention—the evaluation data of the Falcon Industrial Edition is completely suppressed by the Hongyuan F3, and now he is using the "pancake" analogy to attack Hongyuan because he cannot win at the product level.
That evening, the blogger "Feige Talks About Machines" posted a long thread analyzing the real reasons behind Lu Weimin's attack:
"Why is Mr. Lu in such a hurry? Because the Falcon Industrial Edition is being utterly crushed in the county-level market by the Hongyuan F3. Everyone has seen the comparison review on Yuchen.com—the F3's flight control data completely outclasses the Falcon. Now, small business owners in the county only ask two questions when buying a machine: 'Do you have a Hongyuan one?' 'If not, a Tianying one will do too.'—Note the order. Hongyuan is the first choice. Tianying is the backup."
"So Mr. Lu wasn't discussing the concept of a 'platform'—he was shifting the focus. Because if we're talking about the product, Tianying has no chance of winning."
This analysis was widely shared.