What is GPS? Not only are automotive industry professionals familiar, even today's owners, can speak the way, because as the GPS commercial application leader in navigation, today has entered millions of households.

And more than ten years ago. For Zhang Jiatong, founder of SEG Navigation, it is very difficult to explain to everyone what is GPS. Do not talk about customers and owners. Even reporters who come to interview often do not understand. The first thing Mr. Zhang was interviewing was to help reporters to popularize GPS knowledge and common applications. This is often the beginning: GPS is an abbreviation of the English alphabet, the full name is the Global Positioning System (Global Positioning System) ... is usually low-key, Zhang is not easily interviewed, because 360 ​​car network "to find the first person in the automotive industry" The opportunity received a visit by a reporter. As the first person to commercialize GPS in China's automotive industry, President Zhang took us into the tunnel of time and reviewed the entire commercialization of GPS in the automotive industry.

360 car network: When did you start commercializing GPS? What was the environment at that time?

Zhang Jiatong: In an accidental opportunity in 1993, when I chatted with my friends, I talked about the future of GPS signals after civilian use. At that time, the public security in the country was not very satisfactory. Cars were stolen and robbed. Occasionally, even armored cars were involved in frequent accidents. Therefore, I realized that this was a GPS business opportunity and the Xiamen Public Security Bureau was found as a pilot project.

In the initial development of the equipment, it was really a matter of crossing the river. I first tried a GPS module for my friend at Stanford University. Initially, I still used a broom to fix this module. When I slide it out of the window, the computer screen can see a white point moving. The colleagues are very excited. At that time, there were no electronic maps. We all took a paper map, scanned it first and then described the longitude latitude with a computer. So many people do not know that I am actually one of the first people to draw electronic maps in China. Through such painstaking exploration, GPS technology equipment and operational ideas have gradually taken shape.

In 1994, I undertook and successfully developed the Xiamen Municipal Public Security Bureau project to provide navigation services and location management for police vehicles. This is also China's first GPS commercial project, which has created a terminal + background operation monitoring model.

Zhang Jiatong visited OnStar’s headquarters in 2006. The specifications received by the US are very high. The Vice President personally received Zhang Zong (President of OnStar is also President of GM Group, which is not local at the time), and even the corporate CDs played are carefully Zhang Jiatong plays Chinese subtitles. When asked why they are so grand, the US said: SEG is a very respectable Chinese company. When there are no teachers or other companies that can learn to imitate, you lead the team to build a self-contained service value and Strong ground service network, great!

360 car network: SEG development to today, how many users? And these owners of vehicles pay monthly premiums every month, which makes the car network that has not yet landed on a large scale to be envied.

Zhang Jiatong: Now the car networking industry is discussing the issue of business models. Is it a forward fee or a backward fee or free, but I don't think there is a business model where no profit is called.

Our SEG has grown to more than 500,000 users today, and more than 93% are private cars. This is very different from the case of more than ten years in the group business. On average, we recovered one stolen car every day. We dropped more than 300 vehicles throughout the year and recovered nearly 4,000 vehicles in 12 years. This prevented vehicles from being stolen in tens of thousands of vehicles in a timely manner. One-click navigation services, each user calls more than 10 times a month, showing strong satisfaction and dependence. There are more regular voice services.

I think the essence of the car network is that every car is a node of the Internet. It is also the receiver of information release and the content provider. The Internet of Things (Vehicle) network and the mobile internet are obviously different. In terms of timeliness in application, they are in a state of follow-up, and it is very important that they cannot use the free economy model.

The reason is that in the first place, the second owner of the vehicle can't stay on the screen for a long time, so the later advertisements and value-added rewards are unpredictable. Second, the free mode is to quickly increase the number of users by low threshold applications, but the difference between the mobile phone and the car base is too far. There are mobile phones you will download applications, but it is difficult to buy a car for the application. Therefore, it is necessary to discover the needs of car owners from the outset and make them recognize the value of services, so as to avoid the trap of free economy in the car networking industry staged.

Zhang Jiatong is obviously different from ordinary business entrepreneurs who talk about business. Some of his public speeches are cross-enterprise and cross-industry. For example, his comments on microblogging on authentication are mostly related to people's livelihood and politics. He highly integrated the economic responsibilities of entrepreneurs with social responsibilities, which represents the responsibility and conscience of a contemporary Chinese entrepreneur.

360 car network: Zhang can predict the future development trend of car networking.

Zhang Jiatong: I think the development of the Internet of Vehicles market will go directly from the Spring and Autumn Warring States era to the oligarchic era. why? Because our domestic vehicle structure is basically monopolized by the three European, American and Japanese cars. Therefore, the former loading plant ONSTAR and GBOOK represent 70% of the market for the depot. Although on-line service represented by current OnStar, the renewal rate of customers in China is not high, because its centralized service is difficult to meet the needs of the country in terms of languages, road differentiation skills, and so on. However, the car network will certainly become an important tool for the front loading plant as a brand feature, customer marketing, and premium method.

The remaining 30% of the market will be occupied by the alliance of the post-installation TSP and the local 4S shop group. Because selling cars is increasingly not profitable, 4S Group will not always receive high price increases and high ratios of vehicle networking products. Therefore, the car network will be a new source of profits for the 4S stores. Afterwards, the online car networking company will become a supplier and strategic partner of the 4S store group.

As a national entrepreneur, I am full of worries about the future of IoT. Car networking is a strategic industry. It has the function of understanding vehicle location information and controlling vehicles. Even the vehicles of the government, military, banks, and enterprises are all under the control of the back office. Therefore, once the market monopolizes foreign brands, today's changing international political situation will be a potential risk. I call on the ethnic enterprises and people of insight in the industry to pay attention to this trend and present their opinions to the government's legislative and management departments.