"Is this kind of external statement reviewed?" When discussing the recent flare-up incident, Vivo employees can't help but comment on the previous Weibo post by Han Boxiao, the General Manager of Vivo's X series products.

Although these contents have been deleted after the incident escalated, it is still possible to find his response to the flare-up issue with the X200 Pro product's photography in the Weibo comment section on social media platforms: "Find the angle, the simplest way to avoid it, adjust the angle by about 5 degrees, and block the strong light with your hand."

This reply was later simplified on social media to the meme "Vivo: If there's a flare-up, just block it with your hand," which quickly spread and fermented, sowing the seeds for the Vivo flare-up incident. It wasn't until a well-known Bilibili UP main, Film Hurricane, apologized and provided the reason for the flare-up in the Vivo X200 Pro through comparative experiments that the incident fully developed into the Vivo flare-up gate.

From an occasional event to a product defect, the different nature of the incident ultimately forced Vivo Vice President Huang Tao to personally apologize and provide a solution.

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Before this, Vivo's official battle report showed that the sales amount of the Vivo X200 series across all channels exceeded 2 billion, breaking all historical new machine sales records of Vivo. After the incident, some bloggers claimed that the return rate of the Vivo X200 series reached 44%, which to some extent means that the most potential blockbuster in history could also become the shortest-lived blockbuster.

From the peak to the trough, what went wrong with Vivo, which fell in its comfort zone? This is also the answer that every Vivo employee is trying to find.

01 Vivo People Under the Flare-up Incident

"I wanted to buy some stocks at first, but now seeing the return rate and sales collapse of the X200 series, it's better to be more stable." Although skeptical about external public opinion, some Vivo employees still lack confidence when buying stocks.

The so-called buying stocks is a long-term popular employee behavior within Vivo. Thanks to this liquidity, although Vivo has not gone public, it has also built a profit-sharing mechanism, which covers most of the people from the grassroots to the top level of Vivo, and a certain proportion of people can get options every year.

As two of Duan Yongping's direct enterprises, the equity structure of Vivo and OPPO is that all employees hold shares, held by the union, and the proportion of employee shares even exceeds 60%. The all-employee shareholding system makes the teams of these two companies extremely stable, and there are few people who resign in the senior management team, even if someone is demoted or transferred.A senior executive at JD once commented: "The culture of these companies appears to be very relaxed, not like Huawei, which is known for its 'wolf-like' nature, but the employees are very enterprising. I think this can be attributed to the employee stock ownership system." The combat effectiveness formed under this system has enabled vivo to navigate through cycles and become one of the four major mainstream players in China's mobile phone market.

However, the combativeness of this sense of ownership is now beginning to shift towards scrutinizing internal issues. An employee at vivo reflected, "In fact, there were signs of this public opinion explosion beforehand. Mr. Han first criticized a black fan who promoted the accessibility mode using the OPPO Find X8 Pro. No problem there, but OPPO fans would be displeased. Then he criticized Redmi fans for not knowing about their 'Frenzy Mode,' which naturally led to resentment from Xiaomi fans, effectively turning the fans of both companies against himself. Hopefully, lessons will be learned."

This summary has a distinctly vivo flavor.

In the past, vivo has long implemented a culture of integrity, which is a corporate value practiced from top to bottom. In the bustling mobile phone market, when new phone products are released, it is almost always the CEOs who take the stage. However, when vivo releases new products, it is rare to see the founder of vivo, Shen Wei, making an appearance. Most of the time, he remains unseen, like an ordinary audience member.

Shen Wei's low profile is even reflected in his practice of never taking advantage of others and instead seeking responsibility within himself. For example, there is a rule at vivo that they never disparage, comment on, or compare with competitors in public, not even mentioning them. When someone talks about competitors, Shen Wei modestly expresses that there are many aspects of the competitors that are worthy of respect and learning.

This value of working quietly and focusing on the cause can help the company stay focused on its own business without distractions during the phase of catching up and climbing. However, when vivo has become the market share leader in China for several consecutive quarters, it is destined that being benchmarked by peers will become the norm. When focusing on their own work can no longer conceal their identity and the phase of quietly making a fortune has passed, how should vivo, now the industry leader, respond to the challenges of being at the top? Han Boxiao, who has been with vivo since graduation, has not yet found the right approach.

02 No Room for Maneuver in Products

vivo's loss in the public opinion arena is also spreading from the X200 Pro model to the entire X200 series.On social media platforms, users have reported that the standard edition of the vivo X200, which uses a screen from Visionox, suffers from severe screen ghosting under smart refresh rate settings. In response, a digital blogger has commented that screen ghosting is a relatively common issue in after-sales complaints. Essentially, it is caused by the TFT lag effect and is related to the luminescent materials and devices.

Upon the release of the vivo X200, it was revealed by influential figures that the screen suppliers for the vivo X200 series are not a single company but a mix, including both BOE and Visionox. Although many users do not have high praise for Visionox screens, the blogger believes that the screen experience of the vivo X200 is still quite good.

Using two screen suppliers can provide a certain cost competitive advantage and maintain the flexibility and stability of the supply chain. This is also a common strategy in the industry, which Xiaomi and Huawei have also adopted in some of their previous new product series.

However, with the "glare gate" incident, vivo is facing a magnifying glass-like examination of its products by many users. Under such scrutiny, the vivo X200 series is facing a social media battle that is as challenging as "jumping into the Yellow River to wash oneself clean." Some long-time vivo users have expressed that they were very optimistic about the X200 series before its release, but now they worry about potential failures and being ridiculed as users who pay a "tax on intelligence."

In addition to the negative reviews surrounding the X200 series, vivo also has limited room to maneuver in its main product line.

In March 2022, vivo discontinued the NEX series, which was dedicated to the pursuit of ultimate excellence. Vice President Jia Jingdong stated on Weibo that "any expectations for NEX can be answered in the new X series products." Since then, vivo has moved away from its previous strategy of launching a large number of devices and has streamlined its main product line to focus on hit products.

Taking the previous generation X100 series as an example, the cumulative sales on the first day reached 1 billion yuan, breaking all historical records for vivo's new machine launches, with a 740% increase in sales compared to the previous generation X90 and X90 Pro. After one month of market sales of the vivo X100 series, the overall net inflow of users reached as high as 69%. Among them, the vivo X100 Pro had a net inflow of users as high as 74%, with a 57% increase in the inflow of Apple users.

The hit performance of the X100 series was even mentioned separately by institutional analysts in a Counterpoint report, which believes that the series has helped vivo gain high recognition from consumers in the high-end market and has helped it secure the top position among domestic brands in the Chinese market for three consecutive years.

Focusing on hit products allows vivo to concentrate its efforts on major initiatives. However, if problems arise, there will be a gap in the product line. The potential failure of the vivo X200 series could lead to a vacancy in vivo's high-end market product line in the second half of the year, shaking the foundation of vivo's position as the number one domestic brand.

According to IDC data, the market share of high-end models in China reached 27.4% in 2023. The Chinese market shows a trend of high-end and low-end models squeezing the share of mid-priced segments, which also indicates that the high-end route and the cost-performance route are the more popular choices among consumers for the foreseeable future.Additionally, considering the extended replacement cycle, a high-end product series failure might not be just a temporary setback; it could even become a turning point for vivo's market share to decline from prosperity to decline.

According to official data from vivo, just 2 hours after the launch event, the sales volume of the vivo X200 series had already reached 130% of the previous generation, with the Pro version achieving a new breakthrough, with sales at 160% of the previous generation. After the glare gate incident, some digital bloggers revealed that the return rate of the vivo X200 reached 44%. However, some industry insiders assessed that the time affected was only the first few days, and it should still be controllable at present.

Will 03 be the next Samsung?

What impact will a product failure bring?

In July 2017, Meizu released the Meizu Pro7 series, which was then called the dream work after the founder Huang Zhang came out of the mountain. The biggest selling point was the "paint screen" on the back. Due to high expectations, a large amount of advertising was laid out, and a large amount of goods were prepared.

However, in the end, this model did not meet market demand and also did not reach the internal expectations of Meizu. As the saying goes, "how great the hope is, how great the disappointment is." In 2017, Meizu's sales dropped back to 20 million units, and the inventory of the Pro7 series was still being cleared during the "618" big promotion in 2018.

This "epic" failure directly led to Bai Yongxiang, who had followed Huang Zhang for many years, resigning. Until today, Meizu has been sold to Xingji Meizu Group and has become a worker of Geely Group.

Earlier, Samsung directly exited the Chinese market due to the "explosion gate" incident, and until today, its market share in China is still other. Although a single product is not enough to determine life and death, from the history of mobile phone brand development, the failure of the main product series often leads to a brand's decline from prosperity to decline.

However, opportunities are also brewing in crises. For example, after the release of the Huawei P30 Pro in 2019, it was accused of being suspected of P-picture in the "moon gate" incident. But in the end, the National Intellectual Property Administration announced a patent of Huawei called "a method for shooting the moon and electronic equipment," explaining the technology used by Huawei.

Since then, shooting the moon has become a label of Huawei's imaging technology. Does vivo have the ability to put an end to this glare gate incident? The answer may still need to wait until the final solution is implemented.It is worth noting a detail that in the apology Weibo post on the 24th, Vivo's Vice President Huang Tao referred to the incident as a "glare issue." However, according to the explanation from ByteDance's DouBao, "glare" usually emphasizes the attractive nature of light, referring to artistic light; "dazzle" focuses on the adverse effects and interference caused by light, which is a phenomenon that needs to be avoided or reduced.

To some extent, this may imply that the apology might not have been internally reviewed and instead leans towards a more personal approach to handling the situation. This also responds to the doubts of Vivo's employees mentioned at the beginning of the article, just as some Vivo employees privately grumble, "Public relations do nothing, and it exhausts the troops."