Only by grabbing a lot of market share from the iPhone 4s can the xphone 1 continue to advance rapidly next month!

And this is not easy, it has to completely crush the iPhone 4s.

What the iPhone 4s has, the xphone 1 also has, and it’s even better.

What the iPhone 4s doesn’t have, the xphone 1 also has!

This is why we need to use AI voice assistants!

If the xphone 1 also has an AI voice assistant similar to Siri, then there is really hope that it can overtake the iPhone 4s in the domestic market.

But it’s not that easy to develop it yourself.

However, stones from other mountains can attack jade.

Wang Yi remembered that the AI ​​voice chat assistant was not pioneered by Siri, let alone Apple, but by a domestic company - Xiaoi Robot!

In 2001, Yuan Hui, who was working at Microsoft, saw the power of Microsoft and sighed in his heart, "If the empire has such a great company, Xia must also have one!"

Therefore, Yuan Hui resigned from Microsoft and started his entrepreneurial journey, creating Yingsi Software, the predecessor of Xiaoi Robot.

Like most entrepreneurs, Yingsi Software started out in embarrassment, financial constraints, and difficulties.

Yuan Hui and eight employees were squeezed into an office space of just over 20 square meters, and business was not going smoothly.

Until 2003, an ordinary summer night.

Yuan Hui, who had just finished working overtime, was exhausted both physically and mentally. He opened MSN and prepared to find someone to chat with.

But I found that no one could be contacted, and my friends were either offline or busy.

A fearful feeling of loneliness swept through his body, and Yuan Hui couldn't help but think: "It would be great if there was an AI robot to chat with me!"

Thus, Xiaoi Robot was born and developed rapidly, with more than 400,000 users in three months.

By 2004, Xiaoi Robot had already logged into Msn and QQ.

That's right, the robots that originally chatted with users on MSN and QQ were all Xiaoi robots!

It also gained the attention of IDG and directly invested US$500,000.

In 2005, Xiaoi Robot cooperated with Sina and other companies to launch the world's first SMS version and WAP version intelligent chat robot.

In 2006, we cooperated with domestic officials to launch a Chinese intelligent customer service robot in the government field.

And become strategic partners of giants such as Microsoft and Yahoo.

In 2007, IDG invested an additional US$700,000 in Xiaoi Robot and brought in several investment institutions.

The parent company of Siri was only established in 2007.

It was not until 2010 that Siri's parent company was acquired by Apple for US$200 million, and it was launched on iPhone 4s in 2011.

It can be said that Siri is the younger brother of the Xiaoi robot.

When Siri was first established, Xiaoi Robot was already very mature and had a broad business.

In addition, the implementation mechanism and mode of Siri are exactly the same as the Xiaoi robot, which can be said to be completely infringing.

So Xiaoi Robot took Apple to court in 2012!

In a previous life, this lawsuit lasted for more than ten years and went through many reversals.

[In the first round, Xiaoi Robot sued Apple for infringement and infringement of its invention patent rights.]

Apple immediately applied to invalidate the Xiaoi robot patent, and the first round of litigation was suspended.

[Second round, is Xiaoi Robot’s patent valid? 】

Game 1: In September 2013, the Patent Reexamination Board made a decision to maintain the validity of Xiaoi Robot’s patent. Xiaoi Robot won.

In the second round, Apple refused to accept it and filed a lawsuit. The first instance judged that the patent was valid and Xiaoi Robot won.

In the third round, Apple was still dissatisfied and continued to appeal. The second instance ruled that the patent was invalid and Apple won.

In the fourth round, Xiaoi Robot refused to accept the decision and continued to appeal to the High Court for trial.

The High Court revoked the result of the second instance and upheld the original judgment of the first instance. The patent was valid and Xiaoi Robot won the case.

So far, eight years have passed.

The second round of litigation is finally over, and the Xiaoi robot patent is valid!

The third round of litigation: In August 2020, Xiaoi Robot sued Apple, demanding compensation of 10 billion yuan and a ban on the sale of iPhones.

That’s right, it’s back to the first round!

In the fourth round, in 2022, Apple will sue for non-infringement of patent rights...

The third and fourth rounds of litigation, until Wang Yi was reborn, had no final outcome.

Who knows how many more years it will take?

After all, even if you lose the first trial, you can still have the second trial, the third trial...

Although the Xiaoi robot patent is valid, it is still difficult for Apple to completely lose the lawsuit and make compensation.

After Apple loses the case, it can sue again, conduct a review, and keep delaying the case.

The patent protection period of Xiaoi Robot is also coming soon.

As long as the Xiaoi robot patent expires, it won't matter.

Until Wang Yi was reborn, there was no result in this case.

Due to various factors, the subsequent development of the Xiaoi robot in its previous life was not satisfactory.

In 2011, the Xiaoi robot encountered a fatal crisis!

Xiaoi Robot focuses on the C-side and requires a large amount of capital investment every year, but it is difficult to find a monetization model.

Apple has a big business and can invest hundreds of millions or even billions of RMB every year in research and development to improve Siri.

Even if you don't make money, you will lose money every year.

After all, with Siri around, the iPhone becomes unique and can sell a lot more.

If Siri loses money, the iPhone will still make money, but it will still make money without losing money.

But Xiaoi robot does not have this ability!

Continuing to spend money to develop the C-end will only burn money without any return.

If this continues, Xiaoi Robot will only go bankrupt and cannot survive at all.

Coupled with the economic crisis in 2008, the Internet industry suffered a critical blow, and Xiaoi Robot has become even more difficult in recent years.

By 2011, Xiaoi Robot was in an even more embarrassing situation. With over 100 million users, it still couldn’t find a monetization model!

All you can do is waste money!

Because there is no profit point in sight, capital institutions such as IDG are not only unwilling to continue investing, but also withdraw their capital one after another.

This directly dealt a fatal blow to Xiaoi Robot, which could not even pay wages.

In order to survive, the two founders had to borrow money from everywhere to maintain the company's operations.

But all the borrowed money has been spent, what should I do?

In desperation, I borrowed a loan shark with an interest rate of 24%!

Abandoned by capital, with no way to realize cash, and heavily in debt, we can only rely on loans to survive, maintain operations, and pay employees.

It can be said that the current stage is the most difficult stage for Xiaoi Robot, and it is also the stage with the lowest valuation!

Wang Yi checked the information.

Sure enough, in July 2011, Zhu Jiani spent 3.5 million to purchase a total of 35% of the shares from the two founders.

The valuation is only 10 million yuan!

The equity structure becomes: Yuan Hui holds 5% of the shares, Zhu Jiani holds 35% of the shares, and Li Wei holds 5% of the shares!

That's right, Xiaoi Robot, which was shorted by capital, is on the verge of bankruptcy again, with a valuation of only 10 million yuan.

Wang Yi remembered that at the end of December in his previous life, a company also bought 20% of the shares of Xiaoi Robot for 8 million, with a valuation of 40 million!

It can be said that the current valuation of Xiaoi Robot is up to 40 million!

It is precisely with the borrowed money and these two funds that Xiaoi Robot maintains operations, and in 2012, it gave up the C-side and turned to the B-side!

By providing intelligent customer service services to large customers such as China Unicom, China Mobile, Telecom, and banks, Xiaoi Robot has a way to monetize and barely survives.

In 2013, Xiaoi Robot was once again favored by capital and received an investment of 20 million from Alibaba, with a valuation of 200 million!

With Alibaba's endorsement, other investment institutions have also given certain support, giving Xiaoi Robot a chance to breathe.

But this amount of money is just a drop in the bucket and far from covering R&D investment.

After all, for this kind of AI chat software, speech recognition is only the foundation, and the algorithm is the foundation!

And algorithms mean burning money, burning money endlessly.

An AI chat software with a R&D investment of 50 million a year and an AI chat software with an R&D investment of 500 million a year are by no means on the same level.
To be continued...