Author: Yu Peng
On May 11, 2021, 360 Group held a smart car strategy media communication meeting. At the meeting, Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Group, officially announced that 360 Group invested in NIO and released 360 Group’s smart car strategy.
It is understood that after completing the D round led by 360, 360’s strategic investment will become the second largest shareholder of NIO.
Because Zhou Hongyi often appears in public wearing a red POLO shirt, he is jokingly referred to as the “Red Polo Master” by the public.
The “Red Polo Master” who claims he can’t drive, only ride, has chosen to “build cars” this time.
Zhou Hongyi believes that “cloud intelligence, big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things” have opened the second half of the Internet, and digitization is where its value lies. As the jewel in the crown of the manufacturing industry, car making is a pioneer in digitization and is a “very, very important field that cannot be missed”. He also called on “Internet companies to be able to see bigger things, to see the transformation of the automotive industry by the digital industry, to recombine with the digital industry gene, and to create new business models, and new product experiences.”
In Zhou Hongyi’s view, the new car-making track has just begun, so he set a “small goal” with an annual sales volume of more than 10,000 units. Currently, there are NIO, Ideal, XPeng, WM Motor, NAI Zhazh and Lingzhi on this level. Among these six companies, except for a few that have already been financed or listed, Zhou Hongyi believes that NIO’s concept and team are the most in line with 360. Zhou Hongyi jokingly referred to NIO as a typical representative of “achieving success in silence”. Despite not being prominent in promotion and publicity, the sales volume of NIO is not to be underestimated, as the 40,000th mass-produced car has recently been launched.
At the media event, the 50-year-old Zhou Hongyi responded to social questions with “My fate is in my own hands,” and expressed his willingness to be a product manager with the founders on both sides, to try to create a user-welcomed product in the digital transformation of the automobile industry.
Regarding the cooperation in car-making, NIO’s CEO Zhang Yong said that the main reason for joining forces with 360 is due to three aspects: 360’s software technology, Zhou Hongyi’s marketing philosophy and methods, and the expansion of financing and IPO paths.
“The Chinese auto industry has to some extent achieved overtaking by changing lanes, and intelligent networked cars are inevitably software-defined cars. The engine used to be the soul, but in the future, horsepower will become computing power, becoming intelligent driving and intelligent cabins. Whether a car can be made well depends not on the car itself, but on software technologies such as cloud computing and chips.” Zhou Hongyi said.He emphasized that 360 will not independently manufacture cars but participate in car manufacturing through investment in NETA Auto. The result of car manufacturing is NETA, which combines the common genes together to form a breakthrough under pressure.
So the question is, what is 360’s corporate DNA?
In the name of the people, do safe business
We believe that 360 is essentially a network security company.
Once upon a time, the image of information security experts from 360 Group talking confidently in machine rooms to journalists became almost standard in Beijing TV news reports on network security.
After defeating 99% of antivirus software brands in personal computer security, 360, lacking entry points in mobile terminals, vigorously pursued the first-party smartphone to open the mobile Internet market. However, the strategy that emphasized cost-effectiveness has long lagged behind the performance market dominated by major brands such as Xiaomi and OPPO and refined marketing. In 2019, 360’s mobile phone business withdrew in dismay.
On the other hand, after years of promoting the C-end IoT market, 360’s home security cameras, driving recorders, firewall routers, children’s watches, and so on have become its best-selling hardware categories.
Security is the most prominent gene of this company.
In early March 2020, 360 held its car networking strategic new product launch conference in Beijing. At the conference, 360 released the anti-hacking protection product for automotive networks-360 Car Safety Brain. According to related media reports, this product had already been installed on more than one million cars by then.
Regardless of the current market share of 360 Car Safety Brain, we can see that 360 is laying out the next key business area.
“Intelligent connected cars are like a ‘big mobile phone’ on four wheels, integrating a large number of sensors such as cameras, radar, speedometers, and navigation systems. This leads to security problems that existed in past smart terminals being “shifted” to smart cars or endangering personal safety and public safety, causing irreparable losses.” In the two sessions of 2021, the fourth-time participant Zhou Hongyi emphasized in his proposition.
This is also the second time Zhou Hongyi has proposed a proposition on smart cars after 2019.
Zhou Hongyi further proposed in the proposition that there are three important safety issues for smart cars:
The safety hazards brought by the networking of smart cars are enormous, attackers can remotely control cars, including remotely opening doors, remotely starting, remotely turning off, etc., severely threatening smart car safety driving;
The safety issues of smart car suppliers can also affect others;
The risk of data collection leakage in smart cars is enormous.
What the red-dressed leader said is not a rumor, and these issues are indeed not exaggerations.
The hackers only sought for money in the past, but they are probably going to pay with their lives from now on.It is not a fresh thing to launch remote attacks on intelligent connected cars through technical means.
In September 2016, a video released by Tencent Security Cohen Lab caused a great sensation. In the video, they followed the principle of “responsible vulnerability disclosure” of white hat hackers and carried out a network attack on a 2014 Model S P85, as well as a retest on a new Model S 75D. At that time, both vehicles had the latest firmware installed, but they were still “breached” rapidly. The team successfully controlled important components such as skylight, turn signal, seat, and door, and even remote control of the vehicle’s braking could be achieved.
After submitting to Tesla for 10 days, Cohen’s team received a $40,000 bonus, was selected for the Tesla Security Researcher Hall of Fame and received a personal letter of thanks from Musk.
As we all know, there are few things in the world that can make Musk publicly “yield”, which shows the significance of Cohen’s team’s cracking that time.
Today, the security issues faced by the entire intelligent automobile industry are still severe, but we are fortunate that we have not yet encountered a serious enough case to prove its seriousness. However, please believe that if one day, intelligent cars on the street are suddenly hacked and become out of control like in the movie “The Fate of the Furious”, people will not even have the mood to care about whether the appearance of the hackers are as beautiful as Charlize Theron.
This is not an exaggerated talk. On May 12, 2021, Tencent Security Cohen Lab released new achievements, and this time Mercedes-Benz’s in-car entertainment system MBUX was “teased” by white hat hackers.
It should be noted that at this moment, the intelligent automobile has not even passed its first decade.
Under the overall trend, what is the true intention of 360?
Coincidentally, also on today, the National Internet Information Office, in conjunction with relevant departments, drafted the “Regulations on the Management of Automotive Data Security (Draft for Comment)” and publicly solicited opinions from society.
Both the government and the industry have noticed that policies and measures should be explored and taken in advance, which is much better than trying to remedy the situation later.
We must admit that whether it is setting up an information security laboratory and recruiting teams, or collaborating with professional security teams to establish joint laboratories, the efforts of car companies in information security can be seen.In the proposal for the 2021 “Two Sessions”, Zhou Hongyi put forward a solution for cybersecurity in the automotive industry: firstly, to make the network security system a standard feature of smart cars, similar to “seatbelts”; secondly, to advance mandatory testing of the network security of smart cars; finally, to strengthen the supervision of data security generated by smart connected vehicles.
“360” emphasizes that promoting comprehensive cybersecurity in the automobile industry is crucial.
After becoming a shareholder of NETA, 360 plans to provide its security capabilities to the brand, and verify them on various models of NETA cars.
We believe that 360 wants to continue its success in the personal computer era by promoting its security products in more vehicles.
To achieve this goal, 360 has chosen what appears to be a more practical approach: to work closely with new car players first, understand the technical details related to vehicle network security, accumulate experience, and form early-mover advantages. As vehicle networking becomes more popular, 360 will quickly open up new growth areas in new business fields with its strengths in network security.
In short, using its years of experience in network security, 360 wants to become an information security system builder and the largest “security” supplier in the era of vehicle networking. If successful, regardless of whether automakers want to hand over the security “keys” to third parties, 360 and its security standards will be an unavoidable presence.
Compared to this, whether 360 manufactures cars or poses a challenge to existing players may not be worth mentioning.
In conclusion, although colleagues at the GeekCar editorial department have different opinions regarding 360’s entry into the auto industry, we wish the founder good luck.
As the positive influence brought by Tesla as a pioneer is gradually diminishing, the domestic market needs more catalysts to enhance the competitiveness of the next stage.
Heroes do not inquire about their backgrounds, let alone the large characters “serving the people” still hanging prominently in the 360 headquarters.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.