Amnesty Dialogue: Qualcomm can be at the forefront of investment, what is the super power?

Every year, tens of thousands of people are on the road to entrepreneurship, and the venture capital industry is also surging. When technology and venture capital meet, what kind of spark will it collide? Financial writer Wu Xiaobo and Qualcomm's global vice president and managing director of Qualcomm Ventures, Shen Jin, have recently had a dialogue between the big names.

In the past few years, Qualcomm Ventures has invested in nearly 40 companies including Xiaomi Technology, Zhongke Chuangda, Bell Robot and Zero Intelligence, and 3 of them have a valuation of more than US$1 billion. Compared with other investors who are keen on chasing the wind and the track, Qualcomm Ventures is more willing to judge the investment value of a startup from the perspective of medium and long-term trends.

Shen Jin focused on his own views on the field of venture capital and the future development of 5G.

Who is going to usher in the peak of expectations?

The Gartner curve (technical maturity curve) theory believes that the growth of any new technology will experience "technical start", "expectation peak", "disillusionment of the trough", "enlightened climbing period" and "saturation period of efficiency", etc. The five wave periods , the style and skill of the investors, all lie in the judgment of fluctuations.

In recent years, the Chinese investment community has changed a new enthusiasm almost a year, from the Internet of Everything, drones, robots, big data to last year's virtual reality, this year's artificial intelligence and blockchain, they are distributed in different Gartner curves. Location. Shen Jin believes that virtual reality has entered the "low valley of disillusionment", artificial intelligence and blockchain seem to be at the "expectation peak", while the Internet of Things has entered the "understanding climbing period" . According to Qualcomm's data, the chips used in the Internet of Things are shipped at 1 million units per day, equivalent to 300-400 million pieces a year, and this number continues to grow.

5G future, worthy of attention to all entrepreneurs and investors

5G can have multi-dimensional scalability, connect everyone and things, and access the cloud. At the same time, 5G will have higher speed bandwidth, lower latency, and support mission-critical services. Compared to 4G, 5G is 20 times better in terms of bandwidth, and the delay can be reduced by several times. Compared with other countries, China will undoubtedly become the most active country for 5G applications.

Technology is making the world younger and more radical, and so is venture capital. Shen Jin and Wu Xiaobo also came to an in-depth discussion across the scientific and investment community.

Wu Xiaobo: I just watched a video program of "Good Morning Britain". This robot anchor can change the expression!

Shen Jin: It can be said that this is also a development branch of the robot, people can manipulate its expression remotely. This robot can blink, but there is no light in the eyes. The technology that robots use to control muscles is indeed a level that is now fully achievable, and there are even more sophisticated techniques than this one. This robot is also characterized by changes in the mouth and face. With the maturity of 5G technology, the information transmission of robot applications will realize real-time transmission, and then there will be numerous application scenarios.

Wu Xiaobo: Last year, Sun Zheng’s Softbank acquired the British chip design company ARM. What is the relationship between ARM and Qualcomm? Is there an alternative relationship?

Shen Jin: It is a competitive relationship. First of all, in terms of cooperation, some of Qualcomm's chips also use ARM's design and instruction set. The instruction set can be understood as a standard, such as the standard of the length and width of the window and the proportion of the window in the specification of the house, the size and proportion of the length and width of the door, and the like. Qualcomm is compliant with this instruction set. The reason for compliance is that ARM's industrial chain is relatively long, and many companies in the industry use ARM, so its industrial ecology is relatively large. But in the mid-range and high-end areas, Qualcomm is more about its own custom design, which is different from ARM.

Wu Xiaobo: I have read the book "From Zero to One". One of the points is that the real promotion of human progress is actually the iteration of technology. The innovations introduced in China today are based on business models. This is happening in the area.

So why is Qualcomm a well-known company with patented inventions, and why is it entering the venture capital industry? After Qualcomm entered the industry, what is the role of the self?

Shen Jin: I am responsible for Qualcomm China's venture capital. We have two criteria for investing together: one is the financial standard, which is almost the same as VC.

Second is the strategic significance of Qualcomm. Each company has a different definition of strategic meaning. Our definition is considered in three aspects. These three aspects are the relationship of "or", that is to say, these three aspects are not all that we have to invest, but we can invest if we have a little.

First, our products and technologies have a direct complement to each other.

Second, we call it a probe. That is to say, in some industries where Qualcomm has not yet entered, we are investing as a “probe” to grasp the first-hand information of this industry and prepare for this related industry that Qualcomm may enter in the next five years and ten years. .

Third, the concept of the ecological chain . Qualcomm has evolved from 3G, 4G and now to 5G. As a technology company, we are very concerned about this industry chain. We hope to introduce other funds through our own investment, so we often use the method of joint investment.

Wu Xiaobo: If Qualcomm can help start-ups in the field of venture capital, what are the benefits of venture capital firms in the pure sense?

Shen Jin: Our insight into the industry is definitely much deeper than them. Because we have access to all aspects of the upstream of the industry, these are not accessible to other venture capital firms. In contrast, they usually understand the habits of consumers, such as the download volume of the application, the viscosity of the application, etc. These venture capital companies can learn from the companies they invest in, or through some reports. But in terms of the evolution and dynamics of the industry's most upstream, Qualcomm is not only an actual participant, but also one of the definers .

For example, people have recently speculated on what innovations the iPhone 8 will have and so on. If you have two front-facing cameras in your iPhone 8, you can activate some unimaginable scenarios. Once Apple activates an application, it will drive the development of the entire industry. For example, fingerprint recognition technology, screen touch technology, etc. actually activated a group of enterprises.

Therefore, the upstream trends of these industries, the general venture capital companies do not understand, and at least lag behind Qualcomm a year to a year and a half.

Wu Xiaobo: According to the data, Qualcomm has invested in a number of technology companies in the US and has invested in technology startups in China. In your opinion, how big is the difference between Chinese entrepreneurs or China's entrepreneurial direction and the United States?

Shen Jin: The difference between the past is very big, and the gap is now narrowing . In the past, the investment models of the United States and Israel were very similar. China was completely self-contained, India was integrated, and Brazil was integrated. Nowadays, India is imitating the model of learning China.

Wu Xiaobo: Nowadays, domestic companies package and export Chinese business models to the world. Similarly, a German company has packaged the European and American business models into the world.

So how do you see the trend of venture capital in the next three years? What changes will happen in the future in China?

Shen Jin: First of all, the most likely change is the advancement of information platform expansion. Look forward to smart hardware devices such as PCs to mobile phones, mobile phones to robots, drones, AR/VR, and IP Camera.

For example, Qualcomm also has a drone program, especially for miniaturization of drones. Qualcomm has invested in Chinese companies such as Zero Intelligence and Zero Technology. In the past, some drone companies have claimed to condense seven or eight boards together, but zero-degree intelligent control and zero-zero technology have done this, thus making the drone smaller and lighter, claiming to be "Pocket drone."

Wu Xiaobo: What do you think of Chinese-style innovations such as shared bicycles and shared charging treasures? I have talked with people in the industry. They think that sharing charging treasure is a fake thing. I thought that sharing bicycles is also a fake, at least at this stage will consume social resources.

Shen Jin: I have been optimistic about this industry for a long time, including sharing cars and bicycles. Of course, now that this business is extended to the field of charging treasures and umbrellas, I think it is overdone, and not all technologies can be shared. It seems that there has been some waste in the development of shared bicycles to this stage.

For example, because Qualcomm's technology can find a pre-selected car from five cars. But the over-resources have turned this into a false proposition. Now you can give you 100 cars somewhere, you don't have to find them.

Wu Xiaobo: China has this problem. The excess material has hindered the progress of technology .

Future technologies must first address the issue of accuracy. One of the characteristics of the Chinese market is that there are many people. After an industry emerges, more and more companies will enter the industry and the competition will become very fierce. For example, the live broadcast industry has not been done yet. If there is no new technology update iteration, the industry will basically stop developing.

If a new technology is generated, the artificial intelligence can be used to capture the data, and then reversed to the user relationship, it is possible to recreate the iteration. The Chinese market is currently such a process. It can be seen that Qualcomm, which develops technology, is still very great, and technology can change the world.

Shen Jin: The current development trend is quite good. Peter Till said a word: "We want a car that can fly, but it is 140 characters." But in fact, whether it is a 140-character or a flying car, we need it.

One of the two is the transmission of the object, and the other is the transmission of information. Of course, compared with the transmission of things, the information revolution is still the mainstream of entrepreneurial innovation, and there will be more investment.