Seven years after leaving the Science and Technology Spring Festival Gala, Luo Yonghao once again stood in the spotlight. On the evening of December 30, the annual scientific and technological innovation sharing conference "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads" was held. Compared with being 30 minutes late for the last Hammer Technology conference 7 years ago, the start time of this conference was delayed by a full 48 minutes, setting a new record for his longest lateness (47 minutes).
In the early morning of the next day, Luo Yonghao posted an explanation for his tardiness on Weibo, saying that it was mainly related to his ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder). He also bluntly stated that if subsequent ADHD medication changes fail, or if exercise cannot completely improve physical fitness problems, he will not hold such large-scale events again.
The start was not smooth, but Luo Yonghao’s powerful IP still attracted enough traffic and attention. After the press conference started, "Luo Yonghao Technology Spring Festival Gala" and "Luo Yonghao is late" quickly jumped to the top two on Weibo's hot search list. 28 minutes into the live broadcast, the number of people in the live broadcast room on Weibo platform exceeded 2 million.
At the press conference, the event venue, which can accommodate 4,000 people, was packed with seats. On the day when tickets went on sale a week ago, the highest-priced tickets of 1,000 yuan were sold out instantly. About two hours after the tickets went on sale, all tickets at all price levels were sold out.
Wu Tiao Ren Band, film and television hurricane Tim, talk show actors He Guangzhi, Niao Niao, Hu Lan and others also appeared at the conference, further boosting the atmosphere.
It was more than lively, but the technological quality of this "Technology Spring Festival Gala" was slightly lacking.
Luo Yonghao originally planned to introduce 15-20 innovative technology products that have not yet been fully recognized by the market, but in the end only 8 products were launched. Most of them are mature products that have been verified by the market, and there are not many surprises at all. Compared with similar products already on the market, "Qie Ting", an AI reading software independently developed by Luo Yonghao's team, has little innovation and is significantly different from the outside world's previous expectations.
There were constant surprises during the entire press conference. Even Luo Yonghao himself had to admit that the conference had a "shattering feeling". This was also the largest number of audiences to leave the show midway among all the press conferences he had held.
But what is different from 7 years ago is that Luo Yonghao's mentality has changed. He is no longer the radical technology entrepreneur who considers himself a craftsman, but has accepted his identity as an Internet celebrity more calmly. He does not mind making money by "talking the talk" while making products.
For Luo Yonghao today, it does not matter what the program of the "Technology Spring Festival Gala" is, but it is more important to make it lively.
The quality of technology is slightly lacking
"Technology Spring Festival Gala" is usually used to describe technology conferences that attract high attention and have industry benchmark significance. Apple's autumn new product launch conference, International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), OpenAI Developer Conference, etc. have all been given this title.
Unlike these conferences, Luo Yonghao's "Technology Spring Festival Gala" is more of a joke among netizens, referring to all the new product launches of Smartisan Technology. At that time, press conferences often lasted for several hours, with dense content and tight rhythm. Coupled with Luo Yonghao's personal style and on-site interaction, he once attracted a group of fans.
In a Weibo post before the conference, Luo Yonghao confidently stated that since the failure of Smartisan Technology’s mobile phone business in 2018, China’s true technology Spring Festival Gala has disappeared, leaving only some “local TV Spring Festival Galas” (i.e., launch events with low attention and limited influence) in China’s technology community.
Therefore, he restarted the "Technology Spring Festival Gala" with a high profile, aiming to expose more innovative products. Luo Yonghao also announced the product selection rules for this technological innovation sharing conference. The product team and Luo Yonghao himself will take the initiative to select 15 to 20 innovative Chinese technological products that are impressive but have not yet fully entered the public eye.
"The most important first criterion for product selection is innovation. If there is no innovation, no matter how good the product is, it will have nothing to do with this conference."
In fact, the number of technology software and hardware products finally selected was reduced to 9, and one of them was "squeezed out" because the press conference seriously overtimed.
These products include DJI neo 2 drones, Jike exoskeleton robots, Tuozhu Technology desktop 3D printers, leisure ergonomic chairs, CIC dishwashers, Ying Ling panoramic drones (an independent drone sub-brand incubated by Insta360), bean bags, and smart speakers Lava Studio.
Picture source/Screenshot of Luo Yonghao’s Annual Science and Technology Innovation Sharing Conference
From the perspective of technological content and market performance, these products themselves are representative to a certain extent. For example, Doubao has more than 100 million daily active users and has grown into a national-level AI application; DJI has occupied more than 70% of the global consumer drone market share in the past decade; Shadowstone once occupied more than 80% of the panoramic camera market; and Tuozhu Technology is known as one of the "Three Musketeers" of Shenzhen's smart hardware.
However, for these products and brands that have long been "household names" in the technology circle, Luo Yonghao's introduction is more like a sales promotion, rather than allowing the audience to truly understand their technical value through in-depth content output, which is far from the "exploring early innovative products" expected by the outside world.
Especially for home office products such as ergonomic chairs, the "live broadcast smell" is even stronger.
Among the many products being introduced, perhaps only the CIC dishwasher best meets Luo Yonghao’s previously announced product selection criteria: immature innovative products made by currently immature startups will not encourage consumers to buy, but they are particularly worthy of attention.
On social platforms, some netizens who watched the live broadcast summarized this technological innovation sharing conference as Luo Yonghao’s year-end thank you to brand customers and fan meeting.
The barrage in the live broadcast room is also full of complaints about "Isn't this just a live broadcast to bring goods?"
This perception is not without reason.
Some of the products on stage and the founders of the companies behind them have more or less business dealings with "Luo Yonghao's Crossing".
For example, Douyin, which belongs to the same Byte family as Doubao, provided full live broadcast support for this conference and is also one of the two exclusive live broadcast platforms; the leisure ergonomic chair is a product that Luo Yonghao has been using in podcast programs; Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360, has just participated in the recording of the latest episode of "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads".
Luo Yonghao seemed to be well prepared for the audience's reaction. In the easter egg section of the conference, he announced that all viewers who had purchased tickets on site would receive a full refund. In addition, he would donate an equal amount of the ticket revenue of NT$1.66 million from his own pocket to the Tai Po Wang Fook Court Assistance Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government.
A pay-to-view "Technology Spring Festival Gala" suddenly turned into a large-scale live broadcast for free to watch.
Perfunctory AI software
Whether it is fans who are willing to pay real money to watch live, or viewers who insist on watching the live broadcast for more than 3 hours online, what they are more looking forward to is what kind of blockbuster self-developed product Luo Yonghao, who has returned to technology entrepreneurship with a high profile, will "deliver".
Although in the message area of Luo Yonghao's Weibo account and the live broadcast of the conference, there were constant calls for "Lao Luo to make mobile phones", Luo Yonghao had already announced before the conference that hardware would not be released this time, but an AI software product would be launched.
"After ushering in the AI era, Thin Red Line Technology has been intensively developing some practical AI software internally, hoping to meet everyone on a larger stage rather than in the information flow of social media."
For Luo Yonghao, who is accustomed to subversive narratives, the first new product released after 7 years seems particularly conservative in terms of wording.
As his only use of the word "practical" suggests, the AI software called "Qie Ting" itself does not have many radical innovations. Qieting is positioned as a voice listening library that provides in-depth explanations of good books in the AI era. The reason why it uses "Listening Library" instead of "Book Library" which is more in line with the characteristics of the product itself is mainly because naming it as "Book Library" requires some additional qualification certifications.
Picture source/Screenshot of Luo Yonghao’s Annual Science and Technology Innovation Sharing Conference
From a functional point of view, the core selling point of "Qie Ting" is not complicated: it focuses on AI-driven in-depth dismantling, background extension, and cognitive upgrading. Taking advantage of AI's ability to read massive amounts of data, we can provide a deeper interpretation of the information in the book, or use cross-validation to point out errors in the views or arguments in the book, in order to avoid information cocoons and the spread of misinformation.
Such a product cannot be said to be completely devoid of innovation, but compared to people's expectations for it and Luo Yonghao's previous high-profile campaign, it is a bit perfunctory.
In an interview not long ago, Luo Yonghao once revealed, "Last year Thin Red Line developed an AI intelligent hardware solution that combined software and hardware. If it could be delivered on time, it would definitely be the best product last year. However, there was an accident in the engineering and there was a problem with the software."
In addition, he also said that out of the 7 days a week, 5 days are busy with the thin red line, one day is for rest or no rest, and the other day is used for blogging.
For a company where Luo Yonghao invested most of his time and energy and almost made the "most awesome" AI smart hardware last year, "Qie Ting" is obviously not a new product of sufficient weight.
This contrast was further intensified in the one more thing session at the end of the press conference. There was a burst of exclamation from the audience. Just when everyone thought Luo Yonghao had hidden some "big move", his one more thing was a blind box set of Luo Yonghao figurines.
Looking back at the entire press conference, if there were no "coverage" of technological products in the previous delivery process, the technological content of this so-called "Technological Spring Festival Gala", which was restarted after 7 years, would be pitiful.
But from another perspective, this large-scale live broadcast, which brought together brands, technology practitioners, fans, and passers-by, also once again verified the commercial value of Luo Yonghao’s IP.
As he said on stage, half jokingly and half seriously, "Every time I want to eat with my mouth, I can eat with my mouth." This sentence sounds Versailles, but it is indeed true.
Recognize yourself after repeated defeats
At an event in June this year, Deepseek founder Liang Wenfeng told Luo Yonghao, "Your ability to eat by mouth is definitely among the best in the country."
This comment struck a chord with Luo Yonghao's situation to some extent. As a technology entrepreneur, Luo Yonghao has encountered many obstacles and failures along the way, but as an Internet celebrity, it has been smooth sailing and always efficient.
In 2012, after experiencing two not-so-successful entrepreneurships at Niubo.com and Lao Luo English Training, Luo Yonghao invested 8 million yuan in start-up capital for the first time in his dream of technology entrepreneurship. In May of that year, he founded Smartisan Technology, dreaming of bringing disruptive changes to the smartphone industry like his idol Steve Jobs.
In the following six years, Smartisan Technology has successively launched Smartisan OS system, Smartisan T series mobile phones, Nut series mobile phones and many other products. Compared with the products, Luo Yonghao’s stand-up comedy press conference is more well-known, hence the name “Technology Spring Festival Gala”.
But the good times did not last long. Entering 2018, Smartisan Technology repeatedly encountered rumors of supply chain arrears and wage arrears. Eventually, the capital chain broke at the end of the year, and Luo Yonghao also owed a debt of 600 million yuan.
At this point, the failed entrepreneurial experience comes to an end. In March 2020, Luo Yonghao joined Douyin to start live broadcasting and sell goods, and quickly grew into a leading anchor. He paid off most of his debts through two seasons of "True Returns". This time, he made the right move.
But Luo Yonghao could never let go of his obsession with technology entrepreneurship. In June 2022, he quit the management of "Make a Friend", invested in AR entrepreneurship and founded Thin Red Line Technology.
Luo Yonghao, who is over 50 years old, regards this entrepreneurial venture as the last one in his life. He will work for 10 to 20 years to build the next generation personal computing device platform after smartphones by developing systems and software in the AR field.
Reality quickly poured cold water on the situation. In the three years since its establishment, the company has not developed smoothly. At a public event in June this year, Luo Yonghao admitted that Thin Red Line spent more than a year burning a lot of money, confirming that it is unlikely that AR glasses will be commercialized within ten years, and the team has turned to software development.
When Thin Red Line faced financial pressure again, Luo Yonghao once again picked up the most familiar and certain tool - content. He started a podcast. "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads" was launched in August this year. So far, this podcast has been played more than 300 million times across all platforms, with an average of more than 20 million times played per episode.
Picture source/Screenshot of Station B
It was precisely with the success of "Luo Yonghao's Crossroads" that Luo Yonghao was able to restart the "Technology Spring Festival Gala" after being away from the technology stage for 7 years.
At the end of the press conference that lasted more than four hours and was constantly going on, a slightly tired Luo Yonghao sat down on the stage and talked about "True Return", calling it the greatest blessing in his life.
Perhaps, while repaying this huge debt, Luo Yonghao recognized himself. Maybe he is not a qualified technology entrepreneur, but he has the ability that most people can only ask for: transforming self-expression into commercial value.
Instead of betting on a product that will disrupt the industry, it is better to start from a more practical perspective and use your own traffic and resources to be a technology connector and an accelerator for startups, so that you can stay at the technology table and make money at the same time.
The story of entrepreneurship can be told slowly, but the Spring Festival must be celebrated every year, and the Spring Festival Gala must be held every year.
*The title picture comes from a screenshot of Luo Yonghao’s annual science and technology innovation sharing conference.