The Meizu mobile phones, from which Lei Jun once "learned tricks", have now become a hot potato for Geely.
In the technology industry, there are always some brands that stand out with their unique stances. Some are dedicated to the pursuit of minimalist aesthetics, while others are obsessed with the in - depth study of user experience. However, they often struggle to achieve market success. Meizu Technology (hereinafter referred to as "Meizu") is one of them.
This mobile phone manufacturer, which once launched the "domestic divine machine" M8, began exploring the form of smartphones as early as 2008, far ahead of "Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and VIVO". Huang Zhang (real name Huang Xiuzhang), the founder of Meizu, liked to interact with fans on the Meizu forum, discussing technical issues and UI design. With his "geek" and "craftsman spirit" persona, he attracted a large number of fans. It is no exaggeration to say that Huang Zhang was the earliest entrepreneur in the Chinese mobile phone industry to master the "fan economy", and today's "marketing masters" are his juniors.
Unfortunately, due to various reasons, Meizu was defeated by the torrent of the times. Now its market share in the mobile phone market has become part of the "Others" category, disappearing from the sight of mainstream users. Even after being acquired by Geely Group, there has been no progress in its core business.
Two years after Geely's entry into Meizu, Huang Zhipan, Huang Zhang's younger brother, took over as CEO again; while Huang Zhang still remained behind the scenes. The official statement said that he "focuses on the overall strategic direction and product - related work". The combination of Geely and Meizu has not only failed to achieve complementary advantages but has also been deeply trapped in the dilemma of resource integration and business promotion.
Three CEO Changes in Three Years After Selling to Geely
In June 2022, perhaps it was the darkest moment for Huang Zhang. He was 46 years old that year, and Meizu had been established for 19 years.
Hubei Xingji Times Technology Co., Ltd. officially acquired 79.09% of the equity of Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely Holding Group, and Huang Zhang both attended the signing ceremony.
After the acquisition, Xingji Times was renamed Hubei Xingji Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Xingji Meizu" as the brand - operating entity). Li Shufu became the actual controller through cross - shareholding in multiple companies. At the same time, the company holds a 50% stake in Zhuhai Xingji Meizu Information Technology Co., Ltd.; the other 50% comes from Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., which is 100% controlled by Wuhan Xingji Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. Huang Zhang's shareholding ratio is only 9.6915%.
In the following three years, Geely appointed Shen Ziyu and Su Jing to serve as the CEO of Xingji Meizu successively, but the performance did not improve. At the end of July 2025, Huang Zhipan's Weibo certification was changed to the CEO of Xingji Meizu Group, which meant the departure of Su Jing. However, according to Qichacha, Su Jing still serves as the legal representative of Xingji Meizu.
As Huang Zhang's younger brother, Huang Zhipan has always been his right - hand man. He joined Meizu in 2004 and was responsible for Meizu's finance, supply chain, and overseas business successively. In 2020, Meizu achieved profitability, and the high - end strategy promoted by Huang Zhipan began to show initial results. So in 2021, Huang Zhang stepped down as CEO and handed over the company to Huang Zhipan. However, with Geely's entry, Shen Ziyu was appointed as the new CEO, and Huang Zhipan was transferred to the position of executive vice - president and president of the mobile phone division. Meizu's overall strategy also began to change.
As Li Shufu's trusted subordinate, Shen Ziyu focused more on in - vehicle products when he served as the CEO of Xingji Meizu. Most of the Weibo posts he published during his tenure were only related to Polestar, an automobile brand invested by Geely. Of course, Shen Ziyu also made contributions. He led the development of the Flyme Auto in - vehicle system and integrated it into the in - vehicle systems of Lynk & Co and Polestar, at least achieving the original intention of Geely's acquisition of Meizu.
As for Su Jing, who has a financial background, his business experience is mostly in investment. He led Geely's acquisition of Meizu. In November 2023, he replaced Shen Ziyu, probably out of Geely's helplessness. During Su Jing's tenure, the strategic direction was adjusted, and Meizu's mobile phones once again targeted the cost - effective market, but the market share did not improve.
Along with the personnel changes, there have also been rumors of layoffs. According to the "BUG" column of Sina, an employee of Meizu's Beijing branch revealed: "I was told that the branch was being dissolved just one month after I joined, and I was forced to leave by June 30. Only a few people were left in Beijing, and it seems that all employees in Shanghai and Shenzhen were laid off." It is reported that the employee received a 2N compensation. Xingji Meizu has not responded to this matter yet, and the current status of its Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen branches is still "operating".
As of November 16, 2023, Xingji Meizu had completed a total of four rounds of financing, with a valuation of about 10 billion yuan. However, considering its current business performance, the road to IPO is long and difficult.
Lei Jun "Learned from" and Jack Ma Invested, but Now It Has Become Part of the "Others"
According to the IDC report, in the second quarter of 2025, the top five smartphone manufacturers in China (calculated by shipment volume and market share) were Huawei, vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, and Apple. Combining with previous data, Meizu's mobile phone market share was basically outside the top ten, completely becoming part of the "Others".
It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi's mobile phone sales increased by 3.4% year - on - year in the second quarter, while other brands all declined to varying degrees. When it comes to Xiaomi, we have to mention the relationship between Huang Zhang and Lei Jun. To some extent, the fates of both of them were changed by the Meizu brand.
Back in 2008, when the smartphone market was just emerging, the iPhone had not entered the Chinese market yet, and Google only released its first Android phone, the G1 (manufactured by HTC), in August. There were few capacitive screen phones capable of multi - touch on the market, and most domestic manufacturers were still making button phones. In this situation, Meizu, which started with MP3/MP4 products, wanted to get a share of the market.
Out of his love for electronic products, Huang Zhang wanted to create a unique mobile phone. Therefore, the Meizu M8 was designed to compete with the iPhone. It became the first domestic mobile phone equipped with a capacitive screen and supporting multi - touch; it was also equipped with a customized Windows CE system and could install apps. These features were very advanced at that time. After its launch in early 2009, the M8 sold more than 100,000 units in just two months and was hailed as the "domestic king of mobile phones".
Meizu M8
The success of the Meizu M8 naturally attracted the attention of some investors, including Lei Jun, who even bought one to use. At this time, Lei Jun, who had left Kingsoft and become an angel investor, had invested in a series of projects such as UCWeb and YY. The success of the Meizu M8 made him realize the huge potential of the smartphone market, so he decided to invest in Meizu.
The "Deep Web" column of Tencent once described in detail the process of Lei Jun's contact with Huang Zhang in the article "The Past of Chinese Mobile Phones": In 2009, Lei Jun was introduced to Huang Zhang by the Zhuhai government. He wanted to serve as the chairman of Meizu as an investor and introduced Lin Bin (co - founder and vice - chairman of Xiaomi) to Huang Zhang, hoping that Huang Zhang would offer 5% of the shares to attract Lin Bin to join. However, Huang Zhang rejected this request, which led Lei Jun to decide to enter the mobile phone business himself.
In 2010, Huang Zhang and Lei Jun had a "honeymoon period". Reports said that Lei Jun often visited the Meizu headquarters at that time, discussing how to make mobile phones with Huang Zhang. Meanwhile, Lei Jun quietly founded Xiaomi in April of the same year, an event that was generally regarded by the public as Lei Jun's "backstab" against Huang Zhang. Until August, Lei Jun even posted a photo of Huang Zhang on Weibo, calling him the "famous J.Wong" (Huang Zhang's ID on the Meizu forum). Of course, this Weibo post has long been deleted and only exists in the corners of the Internet.
It was not until December 2010 that Huang Zhang realized what had happened and publicly stated that he regretted sharing everything with Lei Jun without reservation before: "I even sent him the UI interaction document of the M9 (the follow - up model of the M8) for discussion. I think it's excessive for MIUI to disguise as a civilian team. Please don't post topics about MIUI on the forum." And with the launch of Xiaomi's first mobile phone in 2011, the rift between Huang and Lei was inevitable.
Perhaps out of unwillingness, Huang Zhang decided to carry out capital operations to compete with Xiaomi. In 2014, Meizu received an investment of $590 million from Alibaba.
It is said that Jack Ma once said during the cooperation discussion that he hoped Meizu could let loose and strive to enter the top three in the mobile phone market within three years. So Meizu launched a "sea of models" strategy and frantically opened offline stores, which was very different from its previous high - quality product route and also laid hidden dangers for its development.
To compete with Xiaomi, Meizu launched the sub - brand "Meilan" targeting the Redmi series. President Li Nan successfully positioned it as a representative of the mid - to low - end market with the label of "good products for the youth", successfully increasing Meizu's overall annual sales to 20 million units, of which Meilan accounted for up to 70%.
However, Huang Zhang seemed to turn up his nose at this. High cost - effectiveness and large - scale sales meant compromises in product design, which was inconsistent with his high - quality product concept and more of a compromise to capital operations. So in 2018, Huang Zhang unhesitatingly cut off Meilan, which caused great damage to the Meizu brand. On the other hand, Alibaba was also dissatisfied because Meizu failed to build an Alibaba Cloud OS flagship phone as agreed, accusing it of "breaking its promise". All these laid the groundwork for Alibaba's exit and Geely's takeover later.
In essence, Meizu's failure was due to its wavering strategy, and Huang Zhang was mainly responsible. During the development process, he wavered between the niche and mainstream markets, and his slow pace made it miss the dividend periods of mobile phone development, such as the performance competition and the imaging war. At the same time, it was left further and further behind by its competitors in terms of core technology R & D and supply chain management, and finally returned to the origin of "niche high - quality products". But by then, there was no room in the market.
Wu Xiaobo pointed out in his book "The Failure of Big Enterprises" that short - sighted strategy and confused brand positioning are the main reasons for brand failure. Like many enterprises listed in the book, although Meizu was once a pioneer in the Chinese domestic smartphone industry, it lacked a long - term strategy during its development and finally missed the opportunity to become a national brand.
Does the Market Still Need Meizu?
Under Geely's leadership, Meizu still maintains the rhythm of releasing new mobile phones every year. At the same time, it has invested some R & D resources in in - vehicle systems, trying to follow Huawei's example of "HarmonyOS Smart Mobility" to empower Geely's cars. Unfortunately, whether in the mobile phone or in - vehicle system market, Meizu today does not have enough appeal.
In April this year, Polestar, an automobile brand in which Li Shufu invested $200 million, announced the termination of its cooperation with Xingji Meizu, which means that its subsequent models will no longer be equipped with the Flyme Auto in - vehicle system. According to the latest retail sales data, in June this year, the sales volume of Polestar cars in the Chinese market was only six.
The official website of Xingji Meizu shows that currently, all models equipped with the Flyme Auto in - vehicle system are produced by Geely, including some Geely and Lynk & Co models. Li Shufu once said during the acquisition of Meizu that he would invest 10 billion yuan to focus on the high - end mobile phone market. He believed that Geely's foray into the mobile phone business would play a positive role in building a user ecosystem and constructing an enterprise moat. However, three years have passed, and Meizu's mobile phone market share has not improved, becoming a hot potato for the acquirer, Geely. Coupled with the rumors of layoffs, it is unknown where the mobile phone business of Xingji Meizu will go in the future.
After Huang Zhipan's return, he began to market the new Meizu 22 on Weibo, claiming to challenge the world's narrowest physical four - equal - side frame of 1.2mm, seemingly trying to revive the "craftsman" and aesthetic style of the Huang Zhang