Billionaire Wang Xuehong: The Most Powerful Woman In The Wireless Industry

Wang Xuehong does not want to be called a billionaire (though it is a fact). She prefers to talk about something else: as one of the most powerful technology company leaders, she is undoubtedly the most influential woman in the wireless industry. Of course, the $6 billion 800 million fortune she shared with her husband Chen Wenqi also made him the top of Forbes's 2011 Taiwan richest list, and her late father was also a billionaire. When we first tried to interview Wang Xuehong for Forbes's billionaire report, the co founder and chairman of the Taiwan mobile giant HTC declined. Those interviews focus too much on wealth and lack of concern for business. Therefore, after more than 6 months of planning, when we first met Wang Xuehong in July, we talked about business issues.

Wang Xuehong chose the interview venue at the University of California (Berkeley) teacher's activity center, which is her favorite neutral place. When I entered the room and did not turn on the tape recorder, Wang Xuehong stood up and welcomed me. Pointing to the iPhone on my hand, she said with a smile, "you have the wrong choice of mobile phone". Her husky voice is very much like Lauren Bekaul (Lauren Bacall, American TV series, movie actress, famous for her low and sexy voice line inside and outside the Hollywood).

As a clear sign of increased competition, Apple and HTC have been involved in litigation on patent infringement worldwide. In some respects, HTC is fighting Google on behalf of Google (Google) Android system, and Samsung has disputes with apple on similar issues. HTC has lost its recent lawsuit. The ITC ruled that iPhone did not infringe the technology patents owned by HTC, although the court considered the patents to be effective. HTC's response is that ITC's lawsuit is just the beginning, and the company intends to continue to take measures to defend its intellectual property rights, which will also become a protracted war.

The rise of HTC has become one of the leaders of the smartphone market. This is a surprise. Just a few years ago, the company known as High Tech Computer Corp was a little-known Taiwan contract manufacturer, and now it is among the largest players in the global wireless handheld device market. The market value of HTC is US $21 billion, which is more than that of the dynamic research company (RIM) with a market value of US $12 billion. It only lags behind NOKIA (Nokia), which has a market value of 23 billion US dollars.

Although HTC is headquartered in Taiwan, its main business is not in Asia. Half of its phones are sold in the US market while the other 35% are European markets. According to Canalys, a market research firm, 1 of the 5 smartphones sold in the US market in the second quarter came from HTC, making it second only to Apple's mobile phone manufacturers, occupying 25% of the market share. HTC continues to move forward: its sales in September amounted to 1 billion 500 million US dollars, up 68% over the same period last year. The company's sales in the third quarter amounted to $4 billion 500 million, up 9% from the previous quarter, up 79% from the same period last year. And now, HTC is starting to strengthen in the Chinese mainland market.

Wang Xuehong handed over the company's day-to-day operations to his old friend, CEO Zhou Yongming, HTC, who started the position from the very beginning. Wang Xuehong himself spent more time in Silicon Valley than in Taiwan, and more than HTC's US headquarters. To mention it, the headquarters of HTC is located in Baer, Washington, Washington, which is only 5 miles away from Microsoft (Microsoft) headquarters. Although Silicon Valley is good for Wang Xuehong, it also raises questions about her participation in company affairs. However, no one doubts her prominence in the Asian business community. In addition to playing the role of HTC, Wang Xuehong is also Weisheng Technology (Via Technologies) chairman of the board, her husband Chen Wenqi is the Taiwan chip company's CEO, the two in 80s of last century and others in California's core logic chip manufacturer Symphony company founded on the basis of Weisheng.

Please don't make a mistake. The vision behind HTC's success comes from Wang Xuehong. "I often exchange views with him on company strategy, development direction, mergers and acquisitions, major personnel appointments, legal affairs, government relations and risk management." Wang Xuehong refers to Zhou Yongming. Now her vision for HTC is no longer limited to becoming a mobile phone manufacturer. Instead, she hopes to provide more content services and richer experience for her device users. In order to achieve this, HTC is expanding its patent portfolio and spending a lot of money on mergers and acquisitions.

In November 2010, HTC reached an authorization agreement with the Intellectual Ventures, founded by Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive, and gained more than 3 patents from Nathan Maiwald Intellectual. In April of this year, HTC paid $75 million to buy nearly 100 mobile technology patents and applications from infrastructure provider ADC Telecom. In July of this year, HTC paid $300 million to buy S3 Graphics, a company owned by Weisheng and Wang Xuehong controlled company. It owns 235 patents and applications in mobile graphics rendering, and the authorized vendors of its patented technology include Microsoft, SONY (Sony) and Nintendo (Nintendo).

Although some people criticize HTC's acquisition of S3 as a left-handed right-handed transaction, HTC has very good reasons to buy S3. In July 1st, the US International Trade Commission ruled that Apple infringed HTC's two patents in image compression and image data format. Coincidence? Ha, no! Google transferred 9 patents to HTC in September this year to help it fight Apple patent lawsuits.

While these legal conflicts continue, HTC's long-term plan is unique in the mobile phone market, and the company will provide a unique HTC experience on its Android mobile and WP (Windows phones) mobile phone products. HTC Sense is the beginning of this effort. This customized user interface software provides excellent functions and interface optimization for mobile phones. Ergo is a weather application on HTC mobile phone. It can provide animated animation to show the weather: when it rains outside, it will simulate raindrops on the phone, and when the thunderstorm happens, the screen will also shine. To make the HTC phone quiet, users just turn it over. In order to make it easier for users to find ringing phones in pockets and backpacks, HTC phones will make more noise in the dark environment, and automatically reduce ringtones when they get light. HTC phones also integrate with social networks. When users' friends call, the screen will pop up each other's status updates. If it happens that a friend's birthday is coming, the user can also see the news when the bell rings.

Beyond mobile phones, HTC wants something to do. At the beginning of 2010, Hongda invested $40 million in OnLive company, which is a start-up company founded by WebTV investor Steve Steve (WebTV Perlman). Its service is based on the network to provide multi-user gaming platform. Although OnLive's current software is mainly located in personal computers with high-speed network connections, with the popularity of 4G mobile networks after 2012, the service is likely to expand to mobile devices. To some extent, HTC regards its handheld device as a game platform. When asked when Onlive would log on to HTC phone, Wang Xuehong just said, "hurry up, it's coming soon." Recently, HTC has invested $30 million to buy a majority stake in Beats, the headphone maker co founded by rap singer Derory Dre (Dr. Dre) and music producer Jimmy Ayowen (Jimmy Iovine). The idea behind this investment is that the user's cell phone is not just for making phone calls, but also for entertainment. High-quality audio experience is one of them.

HTC Flyer is the first attempt for HTC to enter the tablet market. The Android based flat panel product has not taken too much market share, but HTC's originality in this product should also be affirmed. 7 inch Flyer has a stylus, which is based on the idea that users will have another way of doing records outside fingers and virtual keyboards when using some applications. One of the cool functions of Flyer is that users can record and synchronize them while making records, which makes it easier for users to review their work. Wang Jinghong, who is the chief marketing officer of HTC, is a good summary of the company's concept in the tablet market, which is not related to Wang Xuehong. android pad Quietly brilliant, which is also the slogan of HTC.

Wang Xuehong is a natural entrepreneur. Her late father, Wang Yongqing, is the founder of Formosa Plastics Group. The Taiwan petrochemical company currently has approximately 100 thousand employees. Wang Yongqing is legendary. He has 3 wives and 9 children. He is the leading millionaire in Taiwan. He died in Short Hills, New Jersey, without leaving a will.

When Wang Xuehong was only 15 years old, her father sent her to the United States to live with her sister Wang Xueling, who was then in Losangeles. Shortly after Wang Xuehong arrived in the United States, Wang Xueling moved to Detroit due to changes in her husband's work. The elder sister did not bring Wang Xuehong to Detroit, but let her go to an expensive university preparatory school in Oakland, California. Before returning to school, Wang Xuehong found a Jewish family in Oakland who was willing to provide accommodation for her. In this way, the "Princess" of the Taiwan business family went through their high school years together with the pediatrician family.

After graduating from high school, Wang Xuehong went to University of California at Berkeley. She first learned piano for several weeks, then changed her major to economics. After finishing her studies, Wang Xuehong began working on First International Computer, founded in 1980 by Wang Xueling and her husband, Jen Ming Jen. In the mid 80s of last century, Wang Xuehong ran Europe by train to sell the main board of mass computer production. In the same period, Wang Xuehong also launched the name " Leo computer "(Leo Computers) brand, but actually not listed. Later, she also led the acquisition of Everex by Volkswagen computer. "I always think about brand products," she said.

During those trips, Wang Xuehong was eager to have some portable computer equipment so that she could run around in briefcases or pockets. She occasionally mentioned this demand to his friend, Huo Huo Tu, who was an employee of the Digital Equipment Corp. Taiwan branch for 11 years, and was also one of Wang Xuehong's clients. Later, Zhuo Huo TU was promoted to be the head of the Engineering Department of the company.

In 1997, a Microsoft contact found Wang Xuehong, hoping that she could help find a manufacturer of Windows CE system equipment. Wang Xuehong said, "I can do it myself." then she persuaded Zhuo Huo Tu to join the group and set up HTC's handheld device company. At that time, the technology of making handheld computers in Wang Xuehong's ideal didn't exist, so HTC chose to start with the more familiar products of laptops, but these efforts failed. HTC has no competitive advantage. "We failed completely." Wang Xuehong said so.

HTC has switched to the B plan, and has begun to be a substitute business for PDA and mobile phones. The company's first victory took place in 2000. It signed an agreement with Compaq to design and produce a handheld computer called Compaq Aero. Although this product was not sold, it brought more orders for hmdc to Compaq, Palm and other companies. At the same time, it also won the favor of operators such as Germany Telecom (T-Mobile), orange (Orange) and O2 company. Google The first Android mobile phone G1 was built by HTC.

At this point, Wang Xuehong has been closer to the dream of making HTC's own brand products, and she has worked hard for many years. "One day, Yongming asked me," snow red, do you really want to make your own brand phone? "She said," my answer is as soon as possible. " With a little progress towards this goal, HTC first worked with some operators to play the trademark on both sides of the mobile phone, and then stopped the practice, focusing on HTC's own HTC brand. In the process, HTC has been actively promoting the research and development of high-end mobile phones, and so has the big screen mobile phones, the first 4G mobile phone and the first 3D display technology mobile phone. In addition, HTC will soon launch the first WP8 based mobile phone.

They know that the decision to launch their own brand phones will have a negative impact. HTC's share price has plummeted by half in 2006, and it did not recover until four years later, because the company had to invest in other brands while increasing production investment in its own brand. "For a year, the situation we faced was very difficult." Wang Xuehong recalled, "many people do not believe in the message we send to the outside world."

However, since 2007, HTC has launched more private brand mobile phones. As a representative of the industry and commerce, the company has established a solid cooperative relationship with the four big operators in the United States, which is the short board of NOKIA. Now, HTC has made good use of this relationship. Whether it's American Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (AT&T), Werrison Wireless (Verizon Wireless), or Deutsche Telekom and Sprint, HTC mobile phones are their best-selling models. HTC has also maintained a strong cooperative relationship with Microsoft. Despite its reputation as a Android mobile phone, HTC has also made many mobile phones based on the WP7 system, and will become one of the first manufacturers of the WP8 test system next year.

Google recently announced the acquisition of Motorola mobile (Motorola Mobility), which raises questions for HTC and other Android mobile manufacturers: if Google chooses to operate Motorola's mobile phone business, its competitive relationship with other Android authorized vendors will become more subtle. So far, HTC has been claiming to support Google's acquisition of Motorola, because Google's patent resources can protect Android mobile phone manufacturers from patent infringement litigation filed by apple and other companies. But Wang Xuehong said recently that HTC might buy an operating system for itself, which may be a signal to Google to "let it go".

Although Wang Xuehong did not see her father very often after going to school in Oakland, she admitted that she was pursuing her father's footsteps. She confided that her father would write to her, sometimes 20 pages to give her advice on life, wealth and business. "He will write to tell me what he thinks." Wang Xuehong said, "and how he manages affairs, I have to take responsibility for the wealth and the people around me, and bring value to others. These are the things that really affect me. He also told me that you must find the root cause of the problem, dig deeper and try to be a perfectionist.

When the interview ended, we got up and left Berkeley's teacher's activity center. Wang Xuehong courteously accompanied me to pick up the car. The past parking spaces in my parking space were reserved for Nobel prize winners, and there were some jokes. Wang Xuehong took out his HTC cell phone and took a photo of the sign and laughed. You know, if the Nobel committee starts awarding smartphones, she will definitely pursue the parking space in a low profile.