LeEco goes from massive global launch in the U.S. to cost cutting programs in China to India becoming the company’s future, all in three weeks
Nov 10, 2016, 17:25 IST
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After a-tell all letter to employees from the LeEco founder, the global internet conglomerate has made an effort to reaffirm the Indian consumers how important the India market is for the company. YT Jia, co-founder and chairman, LeEco said, “India represents the future and its user value may surpass China in a few years,” Jia said at the company’s investor meeting in Beijing on November 10. “No matter how hard it is to crack the India market, we will try our best to grasp the opportunity there,” Jia said.
The self made Chinese billionaire CEO, Yueting Jia wrote a long letter to his employees last week about how the company’s rapid growth was leading to stagnation and management problems at LeEco, he also highlighted the measures to lessen the company’s burden in his letter saying that the company will immediately begin cost-cutting programs, decrease subsidies for customers and focus on existing businesses instead of new ones, and he also announced that he would invest $10 million into the company and cut his salary to 15 cents.
The letter quite surprisingly followed LeEco’s massive global push with a huge splashy launch event last month in the U.S. Le Eco launched two new smartphones and a VR headset in the U.S. at its big launch event that was telling of the company’s expansion into highly competitive markets and the huge expectations that the company had from these markets.
But the letter painted a different picture, “No company has had such an experience, a simultaneous time in ice and fire,” Jia wrote in a letter, obtained by Bloomberg News, describing LeEco’s rise and subsequent issues. “We blindly sped ahead, and our cash demand ballooned. We got over-extended in our global strategy. At the same time, our capital and resources were in fact limited.”
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LeEco products and services include video streaming, TV, smartphone, content production and electric vehicles. It is also keen to expand its ecosystems around the world with presence in Hong Kong, India, Russia and the US.
According to a previous letter sent to the employees, the 12 year old Chinese Tech company believes it’s embarking on a new phase of its development, from capital-fuelled expansion to building a stronger hold of existing markets and achieving higher profit. “We will focus on China, American and India and achieve breakthroughs in these three valuable regional markets,” Jia had written in the earlier letter.
Since its entry into India in January this year, LeEco has introduced two generations of its ‘Superphone’, one generation of ‘SuperTV’ and entertainment membership services in the country. LeEco reiterates it is committed to the Indian markets and will be launching new products in India in the coming weeks.