As the ambition to seize the entire technology market ended with the court and the arrest of the CEO's property.
Creation of the largest streaming company in China
The history of LeEco began with the creation of the LeTV service in 2004, which became part of the Leshi Holding. It was opened by a Chinese businessman Jia Yueting with his friend Liu Hong.
For the first two years, they established contacts with suppliers and producers of films, TV series, cartoons and music, and also participated in all competitions and festivals to promote their brand. The company did everything to become the first major service to replace traditional television and cinemas.
In 2006, LeTV launched the first version of a P2P platform for downloading and watching media content on the Internet for free. In the same year, the company's first online novel, titled '给 支烟 一支烟' premiered, Google suggests translating it as 'Give me a cigarette'. You can still find the entire first season of the series on the Internet. He did not have a continuation, so it is difficult to say something about success.
In 2007, LeTV switches to content streaming and opens its own department to develop a new client for computers. At the end of the year, they released the first version of the application. I never managed to download it, but most likely it's just a content directory with a built-in player.
The search for information on the Internet did not fully understand when the LeTV website was launched. The web.archive.org service, which allows you to open archived versions of sites, shows the very first working version for February 26, 2008. Even then, LeTV showed not only local TV series and films, but also foreign materials. For example, there are all the 'Simpsons' episodes and Miyazaki cartoons.
The LeTV service took over from Hulu and Netflix and introduced a paid subscription – one month cost 30 yuan. At the rate for 2008, this is a little more than 100 rubles. At the same time, there were no ads on the site at all.
LeTV hosts exclusive film and film premieres, and in 2009 the service switched to HD format and an app for iPhone appeared. Also at this time, LeTV entered the top 50 most valuable companies in China.
The company will then be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and expand its content to overseas sporting events — live NBA and NCAA basketball matches. So LeTV, which will become LeEco in the future, conquered the Chinese media market. But this is only the beginning of the company's development.
TV sets
In March 2013, LeTV announces a partnership with Foxconn, which was already famous as a major device manufacturer Apple. The talks between LeTV Director Jia Yueting and Foxconn CEO Terry Guo are a separate interesting story, which I will tell you about a little later. The result of joint cooperation was the release of the SuperTV line of televisions.
Photo: Engadget China
The flagship X60 TV ran on Android with a modified interface and LeTV services. Then Android TV was not yet. 60-inch panel with Full HD resolution was ordered from Sharp. The chip was taken from Qualcomm – a quad-core Snapdragon MPQ8064 (S4 Pro). Such a TV cost 6990 yuan, or about 36 thousand rubles at that rate.
Also, along with the X60 model, they presented an inexpensive S40 TV with a 39-inch display and Full HD – resolution. Price – 1999 yuan or 10 thousand rubles.
In 2013, LeTV sold 20,000 TVs worth 100 million RMB.
Jia yueting
The story of LeTV (LeEco) is hard to look at without the attention of CEO Jia Yueting. He was born in 1973 in the Chinese province of Shanxi, graduated from a local university and got a job in the support service of the tax office. There he worked for only a year, and then moved to a company engaged in coal mining – his position there is unknown.
Jia yueting
As in the history of almost any businessman, Jia Yueting got tired of working for someone and decided to open his own business. His company was named Sinotel Techonologies. As a field of activity, he chose the resale of telecommunications equipment to state-owned companies.
The business proved to be successful, with a head office in Beijing and an entry into the Singapore stock exchange with a market capitalization of about $ 16 million. The company is still working.
In 2003, Jia Yueting met Liu Hong, who was then working as a journalist for the Internet publication Week in China. And a year later, they together founded LeTV, which has dramatically become one of the largest media companies in China.
However, the most interesting episode in Jia Yueting's life, which shows him as an ambitious businessman and a bit of a manipulator, happened in 2012. At a public event, the young businessman met with Foxconn CEO Terry Gow and asked him to set up a meeting to discuss possible cooperation. Terry Gow, already a serious and respected businessman, said he could only give him 5 minutes before lunch.
Terry Gow
Jia Yueting did not miss the chance and went to meet with the head of Focxonn. As a result, the five-minute discussion turned into large-scale negotiations that lasted a week. The result of the cooperation was a joint business for the production of SuperTV televisions, from which Foxconn received 20 percent of the shares. Another investor was Kai-fu Lee, former head of Google China and employee Microsoft.
The main argument in persuading the head of Foxconn, Jia Yuetin, was the proposal to destroy Samsung using an ecosystem of TVs, software and content from LeTV.
Creation of smartphones and an attempt to overthrow Apple
By 2015, the LeTV company was engaged in online cinema, cloud storage, TV production and even created a website for the sale of wines. The market capitalization of LeTV has already exceeded $ 12 billion, and 400 million people use its services every month. But they were not going to stop there.
LeTV Le1, Le1 Pro and LeMax
On April 14, 2015, LeTV presented its first line of smartphones. The lineup consisted of three models: LeTV Le1, Le1 Pro and LeMax. Smartphones did not have any amazing characteristics or 'chips', so I see no reason to talk about them in detail. But for the company, it was a big step towards expanding its business and a small step towards a plan to conquer the US market.
Together with smartphones, LeTV planned to sell its services and televisions in America. She spent about $ 250 million to open an office in California and wanted to hire 12,000 employees. Now the range of the company includes more than 15 models of smartphones.
From LeTV to LeEco
On January 18, 2016, LeTV renamed itself LeEco and introduced a new logo. At the same time, the company announced that it was entering the Indian market with the Le 1S smartphone – there is a separate article about it on Mobile-Review.
Together with the new name, the most interesting events began in the history of the company, which also affected the Russian market.
Electric cars or how Jia Yueting became China's Elon Musk
Faraday Future, a startup company, opened in California in 2014 to develop an innovative electric vehicle. By 2016, the company had already collected more than a thousand employees, and the main investor was the already familiar Jia Yueting. The company has positioned itself as Tesla's main competitor. In 2015, she announced the development of an electric car that is 15% more efficient than the Tesla Model S. But the car itself was shown only at CES 2016, and it was just a concept.
FF ZERO1
In parallel with Faraday Future's work, LeEco had a partnership with Aston Martin and sponsorship of Atieva startup Lucid Motors. Apparently, Jia Yueting was inspired by the idea of creating an electric car and on his blog on social network Weibo told about plans to start a new business:
We intend to overtake the traditional Japanese and Korean industry giants by creating an effective solution to urban smog and congestion, allowing everyone on Earth to drive a supercar and breathe clean air.
Photo: Engadget
On April 21, 2016, LeEco unveiled its LeSee electric car. At the presentation, they said that in all respects he was better than all competitors from Tesla. But things have not gone further than the prototype of the car presented on the stage, and, apparently, the idea will remain a beautiful concept.
LeEco bike
In March, LeEco unveiled its Le Super Bike with 'smart' features. In fact, a small smartphone was built into it at Android, which works as a tracker. It sold for about $ 800. He never became successful.
LeEco in Russia
This is the most interesting episode in the history of LeEco for us. The division of LeEco in Russia and Europe was named LeRee – short for LeEco Russia and Eastern Europe. The company planned to move its ecosystem from online services, content and devices to Russia. It all started with plans to buy some service. According to Victor Xu, LeEco's director for Eastern Europe and Russia, the company was ready to provide $ 100 million. Negotiations were underway with Megogo, Ivi, Okko, Tvigle and TVZavr. LeEco was never able to launch its services in Russia in September 2016, as originally planned. This did not happen later. In September, the company announced that it had shelved the idea:
The problem we faced was that the primary construction of modern legal online cinemas took place in the 'well-fed' years, when millions of dollars were invested in companies and a five-year planning horizon would allow the services to reach payback and even profitability. Victor Xu, LeRee Director
So in September 2016, LeEco had to introduce smartphones without branded online services. Le 2 and Le Max 2 smartphones were announced in Russia. This was accompanied by an expensive presentation with the host Dmitry Khrustalev, invited guest rapper Noize MC and video blogger Wylsacom, who broadcasted online before the main part of the event.
All the material I tried not to show a personal attitude, but here I want to speak. This presentation was more like a poorly organized circus. Everything was terrible: from postponing the start of the presentation by almost two hours and ending with ridiculous jokes aside Apple and other companies. Although Jia Yueting himself also liked to play a trick on competitors with or without reason.
More details about the presentation can be found in the article by Eldar Murtazin.
The launch of sales and prices for Le 2 and Le Max2 smartphones was announced at the presentation. The company chose very good prices for its devices, and in five days, customers could get a certificate for a 5 thousand rubles discount. However, even here it was not without strange decisions: in the LeEco online store there was a counter for the number of pre-orders, which showed the number at random. That is, when the page was refreshed, this number changed.
In addition to selling smartphones, LeEco decided to once again take up a new business. On September 22, Viktor Xu spoke about plans to import Baikal water from Russia to China and sell it through his own taxi service.
LeEco store opening
On October 15, LeEco opened a brand store in Moscow in the Atrium shopping center. There was a little excitement at the opening, the first visitors could buy discounted smartphones, accessories and look at the Le Super Bike. LeEco also sponsored the fifth season of The Voice on Channel One.
First problems
In November 2016, LeEco began a difficult period. Director Jia Yueting sent a letter to employees admitting financial problems – the company is running out of money. He pledged to cut his salary to 1 yuan, slow down the decline, and lead the company to growth.
The company entered the American market unsuccessfully. Back in July 2016, LeEco announced its intention to buy Vizio, an American electronics manufacturer. So they wanted to strengthen their position in the new market. The deal was to amount to $ 2 billion. But in April 2017, it was announced that the deal was canceled due to 'opposition from regulators. The collaboration between LeEco and Aston Martin also stopped.
In May 2017, the company laid off 70% of its employees in its American office in California. They sold the land and property to the Chinese company Han. The remaining LeEco employees took up a quarter of the old floor space, and management was forced to pay rent.
The Russian market has not yielded striking profits either. Although LeEco representatives continued to call it a priority. But the company really spent a lot of money on promoting products in our market, perhaps too much. And for all the time LeEco has sold about 200 thousand smartphones.
LeEco store in Moscow
On August 1, 2017, LeEco closed a brand store in the Atrium shopping center – rent is too expensive. Jia Yueting stepped down as CEO of Leshi Internet Information and Technology (formerly Leshi Holding) and LeEco, but remains chairman of the board. His post was taken by Liang Jun, the main shareholder of the company.
A lull has begun in the history of LeEco.
Attempt number two
In the summer of 2017, LeEco decided to once again enter the Russian smartphone market, but under a slightly different name – LeRee. According to Victor Xu, they plan to occupy 12% of the budget smartphone market by the end of 2017.
LeRee Le 3
They entered the market with the LeRee Le 3 smartphone, a redesigned smartphone from Coolpad, which joined Leshi Internet Information & Technology in 2015. Much less money was allocated for the launch of the device, so the start of sales went smoothly and without a rush. In my opinion, the smartphone was generally invisible to most of the users.
I suggest reading a detailed review of LeRee Le 3 from Pavel Kryzhepolsky.
Court, debt and bad reputation
In July 2017, a Shanghai court ordered the freezing of the assets of Jia Yueting, his wife and three persons associated with him. Blocked a total of 1.24 billion yuan – about $ 183 million. This happened due to non-payment of debts on the loan, which the company took to develop the production of smartphones.
A few days after the court's decision, Jia Yueting stepped down as chairman of the directors, but remained the main shareholder of the company. He announced that he wants to work on the Faraday Future project and has been living in California since then.
This is not to say that Jia Yueting fled and hides, but since retirement, he has only been to Hong Kong once to find a new investment for the Faraday Future electric vehicle. But investors and companies are shunning Jia Yueting because of the bad reputation associated with LeEco's debt. Although experts consider the FF electric car very promising.
Last news
In October, rumors emerged that Faraday Future was planning to file for bankruptcy and wanted to sell the project to American investors. But the LeEco press service denied this. On November 17, Jia Yueting stepped down as CEO at Coolpad. This is the latest news for the moment that is related to Jia Yuetin.
From time to time, leaks of images and characteristics of new LeEco smartphones appear on the network. But there is no information yet on plans to release the devices to the market.
LeEco Le X950 smartphone render
LeEco has almost completely disappeared from the information field. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy and is somehow trying to get out of this situation. But so far there are no prerequisites for this. There is only hope for the online cinema le.com, from which the history of LeEco began.