樂視美國首秀遇意外

LeEco, the Chinese tech group, announced its arrival in the US at a splashy but haphazard event in San Francisco on Wednesday, unveiling a suite of connected TVs, smartphones and a new video streaming service, as well as concepts for a virtual reality headset and electric cars and bikes.

中國科技集團樂視(LeEco)周三在舊金山舉行了一場盛大但略帶波折的落地美國發(fā)布會。樂視在會上揭幕了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)電視、智能手機和新的視頻流服務(wù)，以及概念款虛擬現(xiàn)實頭盔、電動汽車和自行車。

However, LeEco’s planned climax to its two-hour press conference had to be scrapped at the last minute after one of its prototype electric cars was involved in a crash during its drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Another prototype was flown over from London, where it is appearing in a forthcoming Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay, but the flight was delayed, missing the beginning of the show. Instead of being driven on stage by an autonomous car, LeEco’s founder YT Jia ran up on foot.

但樂視為這場兩小時新聞發(fā)布會設(shè)計的高潮在最后一分鐘卻不得不放棄。一輛原型電動車在從洛杉磯運往舊金山的途中遇到了一場車禍。另一輛原型車用飛機從倫敦調(diào)運——這部原型車會出現(xiàn)在即將上映的由邁克爾•貝(Michael Bay)執(zhí)導的《變形金剛》(Transformers)中——但由于航班推遲，錯過了發(fā)布會開場。樂視創(chuàng)始人賈躍亭原本計劃乘坐電動汽車登臺，結(jié)果改成跑上臺。

“Our path to development [of the company] has been full of obstacles,” he joked in Chinese. “It shouldn’t be me who is running out here because that is really not too exciting.”

他用中文開玩笑道：“LeEco的發(fā)展之路充滿坎坷……我不該跑出來的，這樣真的不夠刺激。”

The prototype “Le SEE” car, which has adjustable seating and a steering wheel that disappears into its dashboard, arrived later and was shown to attendees after the stage show ended.

Le SEE原型電動車于稍晚時間抵達，并在發(fā)布會結(jié)束后向觀眾展示。這款車擁有可調(diào)節(jié)座椅，方向盤隱于儀表盤中。

LeEco said last month that it had raised $1bn for its electric car venture alone. It is also partnering with US-based Faraday Future, a secretive but well-funded developer of autonomous cars in which it is also an investor, to build LeEco’s mobile and content services into Faraday’s vehicles.

樂視上月表示僅電動汽車項目就籌集到10億美元資金。樂視還與美國公司法拉第未來(Faraday Future)合作，計劃將樂視的移動和內(nèi)容服務(wù)嵌入法拉第未來的車輛中。法拉第未來是一家神秘但資金充足的自動駕駛汽車開發(fā)商，樂視也投資了法拉第未來。

Despite LeEco’s own car failing to appear on stage, Mr Jia revealed that Faraday Future would “perhaps” unveil its first production car in January at the Consumer Electronics Show. That announcement appeared to come as a surprise to a Faraday Future executive sitting in the audience, who was shown shaking his head and seeming to gesture to Mr Jia that he did not want the news — shared privately before the stage show began — made public. The executive smiled politely as Mr Jia, addressing the audience in Chinese, went ahead anyway.

盡管樂視電動車未能現(xiàn)身舞臺，賈躍亭透露法拉第未來“或許”會在1月份消費電子展(Consumer Electronics Show)上發(fā)布首款量產(chǎn)電動車。賈躍亭宣布這一消息時，坐在觀眾席里的法拉第未來的一名高管面露詫異，他搖了搖頭，似乎示意賈躍亭他不想將該消息公之于眾。發(fā)布會開始前該消息在私下傳過。不過賈躍亭繼續(xù)用中文對觀眾講了下去，這名高管也禮貌地微笑著。

LeEco is the latest Chinese consumer electronics group to cross the Pacific, following DJI’s drones, Xiaomi’s smart TV boxes and mobile accessories, Yi’s action cameras and Huami’s fitness trackers.

樂視是最新一家跨越太平洋的中國消費電子集團，此前進軍美國市場的有大疆創(chuàng)新科技有限公司(DJI)的無人機，小米(Xiaomi)智能電視盒子及移動配件，小蟻(Yi)運動相機和華米(Huami)健身追蹤器。

With its broad challenge to Apple, Google, Samsung and Amazon, LeEco claims that its differentiator is providing a consistent experience across its “ecosystem” of devices. It is also aggressive on pricing with its LeMall ecommerce store, which will sell a 7ft ultra-high-definition television for $5,000 and a flagship smartphone for $400, with extra discounts offered through its LeRewards loyalty programme.

樂視對蘋果(Apple)、谷歌(Google)、三星(Samsung)和亞馬遜(Amazon)形成全面挑戰(zhàn)，該公司聲稱自己與眾不同的地方是讓用戶在由其各種設(shè)備構(gòu)成的整個“生態(tài)系統(tǒng)”中擁有無縫鏈接的體驗。此外樂視商城(LeMall)在定價方面做法大膽，該平臺將推出每臺5000美元的7英尺超高清電視，以及每部400美元的旗艦智能手機，并將通過LeRewards忠誠用戶計劃提供額外折扣。

“The ambition is eye-watering but history shows that breaking into the US market is a fearsome task,” said Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight. “They will have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to move the needle.”

“此番雄心令人折服，但歷史表明，進軍美國市場是一項艱巨任務(wù)，”技術(shù)咨詢公司CCS Insight的分析師本•伍德(Ben Wood)說，“他們將不得不燒掉天量資金才能有一定作為。”

Rob Chandhok, LeEco’s chief R&D officer for North America, said the company was “reconstructing the value chain” of electronics and media, while providing a more “elegant and intuitive bridge” that will “solve the problem of a fragmented user experience”.

樂視北美首席研發(fā)官羅伯•錢德霍克(Rob Chandhok)表示，樂視正在重構(gòu)電子產(chǎn)品與媒體的價值鏈，同時提供一座更“優(yōu)雅、直觀的橋梁”來“解決用戶體驗分散的問題”。

However, Mr Wood said that consumers may find the large number of different LeEco products and brands “confusing”, despite the “very punchy pricing”.

然而，伍德稱，消費者或許會覺得樂視大量不同的產(chǎn)品和品牌“令人迷惑”，盡管“定價非常有力度”。

LeEco’s online video service in China has 730m users and it has sold 70m smartphones there in the past year. To prepare for its US move, it recently acquired US television set manufacturer Vizio for $2bn and purchased 49 acres of office space in Silicon Valley from Yahoo, where it intends to house 12,000 employees. Executives from film studio Lionsgate, media group Vice and chipmaker Qualcomm appeared on stage at Wednesday’s event. Each is providing content and technology to LeEco.

在中國，樂視的在線視頻服務(wù)擁有7.3億用戶，并且樂視在過去一年銷售了7000萬部智能手機。為進軍美國，樂視最近還斥資20億美元收購了美國彩電制造商Vizio，并在硅谷從雅虎(Yahoo!)手中購買了49英畝的辦公場所，計劃容納1.2萬名員工。獅門影業(yè)(Lionsgate)、傳媒集團Vice以及芯片制造商高通(Qualcomm)都有高管現(xiàn)身周三發(fā)布會的舞臺。這幾家公司都在為樂視提供內(nèi)容和技術(shù)。

Mr Jia said America was LeEco’s top priority before expanding to the rest of the world.

賈躍亭表示，美國是樂視在全球最為重要的市場，只有成功打開美國市場，樂視才能進軍世界其他地區(qū)。

“Some say that LeEco is the Chinese Netflix and some say that it is Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Tesla and Disney all together,” he said. “Others say LeEco is crazy to come to the back yard of these companies to get their piece of the pie . . . The path is long and arduous — but isn’t the meaning of life perpetually trying to explore the unknowns of the world?”

他說：“有人說，LeEco是中國的奈飛(Netflix)，也有人說，LeEco是蘋果+特斯拉(Tesla)+亞馬遜+奈飛+迪士尼(Disney)等等，還有人說，今天LeEco居然要來到這些偉大公司的主場打擂，肯定是瘋了……前路漫漫，荊棘重重，但，生命的全部意義不就在于永不停歇地去探索未知世界嗎?”