At the end of the year, the 2024 music season of China Symphony Orchestra arrived as scheduled. On December 9, the launch conference of the new music season of China Communications was held in Beijing Concert Hall. For the upcoming 2024 music season, Yu Zhou, secretary of the Party Committee of the China Symphony Orchestra, said: "The China Symphony Orchestra will bring the highest artistic enjoyment to the national audience with the most full input, the most full spirit and the most extreme interpretation." Li Xincao, honorary chief conductor of the 2024 Music Season of the China Symphony Orchestra, and Jing Huan, permanent conductor, shared the details of their diplomatic relations with China and expressed their expectations and prospects for the future.

In the new music season of China Communications, honorary chief conductor Li Xincao, permanent conductor Jing Huan, honorary art director Tan Dun, specially invited conductor Lin Daye, permanent conductor Wang Linlin and assistant conductor Yin Jiongjie will all make wonderful appearances. At the same time, the audience can also appreciate the conductors Shui Lan, Yu Long, Lu Jia, Zhang Yi, Liao Guomin, Chen Lin, Qian Junping, Jiao Miao and Chen Bing; Performers Yin Chengzong, Liu Yunzhi, Ning Feng, Huang Bin, Chen Xi, Qin Liwei, Li Zhuoyu, Shen Lu, Rao Hao, Wu Wei; Singers Liao Changyong, Zhu Huiling, Shi Yijie, Guo Sen, Song Yuanming, Qiu Zhiqian, Xue Haoyin, Ruan Yuqun, Liu Shen and other three generations of artists.

Yu Zhou, Party Secretary of China Symphony Orchestra.

More international faces will be active on the stage of the China Symphony Orchestra, including conductors David Hohs, Andres Delvers, Mikhail Agriste, Gunter Newhold, Hubert Sultant and Mark Bereyi; Performers Jehad Ortiz, Li Yuyin and Stephen Chechiff will all be on the stage of diplomatic relations. In a concert with a more international perspective, fans can appreciate the unique interpretations of different styles of works by musicians from all over the world, and also feel the artistic sparks of the collision between eastern and western musicians. In 2024, in the journey of dialogue with the world, China’s diplomatic relations will spread all over Asia, Europe and America, transmitting China’s voice to the world with music and telling China’s story with notes.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of brukner’s birth, the 160th anniversary of Richard Strauss’s birth, the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death and the 175th anniversary of Chopin’s death, the State Council of Communications will launch a series of commemorative concerts, and at the same time, Puccini’s classic opera "The Artist’s Life" will be staged in the annual opera concert. Classical fans will be satisfied with large-scale works and high-quality performances throughout the year.

Li Xincao, Honorary Chief Conductor of China Symphony Orchestra

This year is not only the Great Year of Western Symphony, but also the 120th anniversary of the birth of China composer Huang Zi and the 100th anniversary of Luo Zhongrong. In such a landmark year, the State Communications Department will rearrange the excellent works of many composers such as Huang Zi, Luo Zhongrong, Chen Peixun, Shi Wanchun, Zhao Jiping, Tan Dun and Chen Qigang. The year 2024 marks the 85th anniversary of The Yellow River Cantata’s premiere. In addition, Guojiao and many universities promoted national classics among the younger generation. At the same time, they used the results of re-arrangement to perform the symphonic music Shajiabang in cooperation with local orchestras. In addition, there will be a symphony with strong "Chinese style" created by German composer Schneider, which will give fans a glimpse of "China music written by western composers" from another dimension. In terms of newly created works, China Communications will launch the second concert of "Symphony of the Years in Peace"; Join hands with other brother orchestras to create a symphony suite "Revival" with the theme of celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC); At the same time, it undertakes the creation and performance of the project "Changjiang Chorus" directly managed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and promotes the prosperity and development of symphony creation with realistic themes in the new era.

The chorus concert will take opera as the "highlight", and the concert will be sung on three occasions, including "Salute to Verdi and Salute to Puccini", which commemorates the centenary of Puccini’s death, and will form an anticipated opera theme performance with the opera concert. Chorus concerts, such as Colorful Nationalities, Appreciation of Chinese Poetry, A Lu Ge and Poetry, which aim to build up the sense of Chinese national community and carry forward Chinese traditional culture, will integrate the beautiful tunes of Tang poetry and Song poetry and ancient and modern folk songs, which will let the audience feel poetry and distance in the great national style and explore the eternal context and national soul of Chinese civilization.

The new music season will also present nine sets of chamber music performances with distinctive themes and colorful colors. Various forms of ensemble and duet chamber music combination will bring a series of western classic works, Chinese and foreign art songs and chamber music works with national music characteristics, which are both difficult to interpret and beautiful in melody. Compared with the past, in 2024, the cooperation modes of chamber music performance of the State Communications University are more diverse. In addition to the concert hall, it will also cooperate with many universities such as Immersed Performing Arts Space, Peking University and Tsinghua to better integrate chamber music into aesthetic education.

Photo courtesy of China Symphony Orchestra

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Tian Yuting

Editor/Gong Lifang

Even if the current consumer venture capital ebbs, are we still optimistic about cutting-edge consumer brands?

There is no doubt about the answer.

Consumption is a track with a long slope and thick snow. Brand development is not overnight, but once it is established, it will not die easily. We see that after a round of high-speed growth pains, some new brand companies have loyal users, and then they have gained considerable scale and even profits, and entered a new stage of steady growth. Most of them were born after 2014, and they took advantage of the hot air of investment in 2019 to win in the fierce competition.

Based on this, 36Kr’s future consumption decided to select 36 new consumer brand companies, and continue to track their development by means of interviews and case studies, and gather them in "Houxue Company 36"In this column.

UR store, brand for the picture

Interview |Yaolan Yang Xuan

Text |Yao LAN

Edit |Qiao Qian

Source |Future consumption in 36Kr (ID: LSLB168)

Fast fashion has a wonderful beginning in China. What people see is that the Spanish brand ZARA officially entered China in 2006, but neglected its corner in Guangdong. That year, its strong rival was born.

Before 2017, ZARA, H&M, GAP and other international fast fashion brands spent their time in golden decade. They occupied gold shops in major shopping malls in first-and second-tier cities with an area of thousands of square meters, and played an important role as a "passenger flow driver". Nowadays, in China, they are not only replaced by Lululemon offline, but also slow in the face of emerging e-commerce channels.

There are many players overtaking in corners in domestic brands. On June 18th last year, on the Tmall women’s sales list, the champion was no longer Uniqlo, which had dominated the list for a long time, but URBAN REVIVO (hereinafter referred to as UR), a local fast fashion brand that had ranked second the year before, while ZARA was always behind UR, falling out of the top ten all the way.

UR seems to have jumped into the public eye overnight. In fact, it has been quietly growing offline for more than ten years, and has completed five rounds of financing in a low-key manner, and its annual sales scale has exceeded 6 billion yuan.

In this "fast war", UR showed its "slow" side. Known as "ZARA’s Apprentice in China", UR has adopted the practice of "holding high and beating high" since its birth, and opened "luxury stores". However, before it was released to join in 2015, the number of UR’s stores was small, and its founder Li Mingguang chose to spend financing on the construction of buyers and designers, supply chain construction and digital system, which lengthened its profit schedule.

After ten years of dormancy, in 2017, UR achieved sales of nearly 3 billion yuan by relying on about 200 stores, making a profit for the first time. To know that clothing is a high-margin industry, it is not difficult to make quick money.

Li Mingguang regards clothes as spiritual products. He said that the essence of fast fashion clothing industry is "fashion", not "fast". "China’s clothing enterprises generally only have a glorious period of about 20 years. It sells well, but it is not fashionable. This is the reason why many brands have declined. "

"Fashion" is perceptual and individualized in Li Mingguang’s eyes. Just as he plays his favorite alternative music in UR stores, he advocates that designers and buyers should often watch art exhibitions, concerts, operas, travel and stay in good hotels. "These are all about improving aesthetics". Today, UR has about 400 stores around the world, and the designer development team has more than 500 members, while ZARA, which has more than 1,900 stores around the world, has only 600 designers.

He Yu, the founding partner of Black Ant Capital, still remembers his first meeting with Li Mingguang. "The first feeling is that people are glowing, dressed in white, clean and refreshing, which is very consistent with their store temperament." He Yu said that Li Mingguang was the founder of "meaning-oriented", and he had higher pursuit besides making a big company and making profits.

How to always keep "fashion"? How to lead the company from the scale of one billion to the scale of ten billion? The following is a dialogue between 36Kr’s future consumption and UR founder Li Mingguang:

UR founder Li Mingguang

Future consumption in 36Kr: How did the brand name "UR" come from?

Li Mingguang:I will buy a lot of foreign music discs, and the cover design of some discs is really emotional. Seeing the beautiful Logo, I was thinking, I will be a brand in the future, and how to use it. UR’s name is inspired by a music disc released at the beginning of the new century, hoping to convey the creative aesthetic concept that can span the times and an international vision.

36Kr’s future consumption: UR is actually your fifth entrepreneurial practice. From the beginning, did you clearly know how to be a "brand"?

Li Mingguang:It should be said that I have always liked and pursued "beauty" since middle school, but I didn’t understand the matter of "making a brand" from the beginning.

In 1998, I started my first business, prepared 50,000 yuan, and opened a foreign trade clothing store in an alley in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, with a pavement of 30 square meters and a monthly rent of 2,000 yuan. A year later, I went to Guangzhou’s high-end business district-Good World Plaza to open a shop, and the monthly rent was 40,000, and the business was really better. But it is difficult to develop rapidly, or it is difficult to copy, because I am engaged in miscellaneous brand retail, not brand.

36Kr’s future consumption: Your brand road seems to have started from acting as an agent for the men’s wear brand VJC in 2000, and you also opened this store in the most fashionable Shanghai. This is a big step, and you are very courageous.

Li Mingguang:But the performance is not satisfactory. Basically, this store loses money every month. In just one year, I have spent almost all the money I have accumulated in the past two years. It is certain to close it. If I have any experience this year, I have a deeper understanding of how to make price positioning and communicate with consumers. Most importantly, we have strengthened our determination to create our own brand.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: How did you decide to be a "fast fashion" brand?

Li Mingguang:In 2003, I saw the domestic media reports about ZARA, and then I went to Japan to see ZARA’s physical store, and soon realized that "fast fashion" was the blue ocean in the Red Sea of China clothing at that time. I called to ask ZARA if she could join us, but they said she didn’t. I don’t think this is high-tech (laughs). It’s not that difficult to do, is it?

In 2006, we formally established UR brand, and ZARA entered the China market in the same year. UR opened its first store in Zhengjia Plaza, Guangzhou. At that time, a shop was more than 100 square meters. I told the mall that you had opened all eight shops, and I wanted to build a brand with a brand-new business model. In fact, Zhengjia Plaza in that period didn’t develop so well, and they were very happy to be taken away by self-employed people like me.

After opening the store for three months, UR’s sales performance is very good. I used to have a jeans brand BC jeans, which also opened a store in Zhengjia Plaza. The store area is 100 square meters, and the monthly rent is more than 100,000 yuan, but the sales volume is also more than 100,000 yuan, so the sales volume has not increased. Finally, I decided to close the jeans brand that opened seven or eight stores.

Future consumption in 36Kr: In the second year after UR opened its first store in China, another fast fashion giant H&M came. ZARA’s first store is located in Nanjing West Road, Shanghai, and H&M’s first store is located in Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai. You are also targeting first-and second-tier cities. In terms of point selection, these overseas giants have priority. What does UR rely on to compete with them head-on?

Li Mingguang:At that time, in Zhengjia Plaza, Guangzhou, UR was the largest brand in the single clothing store except the department store giant Friendship Store. After driving out, I obviously feel that consumers think that we are a "big brand" and will have a sense of trust. Through the dimensions of shop size, decoration materials, lighting and music played, consumers can judge what brand this stall is.

UR store, brand for the picture

For a long time, few local clothing brands dared to open stores over 200 square meters. At that time, studying this business model, we knew that the store should be big enough and the store style was "luxury". UR didn’t invest much in marketing before, and the store itself was an advertisement. Brand is a kind of belief. Our store wants to be like a "church", and many art installations have been added in the store. In this atmosphere, consumers will have a feeling of admiration for the brand.

36Kr’s future consumption: I heard that you like listening to music very much. Will you play your favorite music in the store?

Li Mingguang: Yes, I want consumers to hear songs that are different or have never been heard before. I like House and Lounge styles which combine modern musical instruments with national elements, and I like the music of Buddha-bar best. Buddha-bar is located in Paris, which is a pub and a restaurant. There is a giant Buddha statue in the store, and the music played includes Middle Eastern elements, Japanese Sanxian and traditional music in China, etc. The styles are diverse and very special. Like listening to music, but also the pursuit of "beauty" performance.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What did UR learn from ZARA?

Li Mingguang:In the past, clothing enterprises often attended some training courses, and I also attended them, but I found that I didn’t learn what I wanted to learn, so I stopped attending them later. To learn it, our channels are more media reports.

You will find "fast fashion". There is nothing summative for you to learn in China, so you have to grope for it by yourself, and then come back after learning something wrong. In the past, we read those reports that ZARA stores changed goods once a month, so we changed them once. Later, it was found that it was wrong. When people changed them once, they did not change them all, but partially. Among them, the trendy models may be updated once a week. Simply put, the traditional clothing brand is "a small amount of money", and ZARA has achieved a breakthrough of "a large amount of money but a small amount".

In 2006 and 2007, when ZARA was mentioned, many people didn’t know what brand it was. UR was the verifier and beneficiary of this business model in China. We have now precipitated our own "fast fashion business model".

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What do you think is the essence of "fast fashion business model"?

Li Mingguang:As the name implies, it is fast and fashionable, among which "fashion" is the core element.

UR women’s wear, brand for the picture

36Kr’s future consumption: Why is "fast" not the core element?

Li Mingguang:The supply chain of China garment industry is very mature, and so are some other industries. If you only compete for "fast" in this respect, UR is ahead. But this is not enough. We want to be a "fashion brand". The essence of clothing industry is fashion, and creative aesthetic ability is not only the core competitiveness of UR, but also the core competitiveness of clothing industry.

In the fashion industry, especially luxury brands, there are generally two parallel positions, one is CEO and the other is creative director. And in many cases, the creative director is a more decisive role. When luxury brands fail to grow, they often change creative directors and CEOs, because the brand itself has gone through a long period of time, which shows that organizational construction usually does not have problems, and more creativity is not good. Clothing enterprises in China generally only have a glorious period of about 20 years, and then they go down, because it is no longer fashionable.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What’s Your Role?

Li Mingguang:You can understand that I have more roles as creative director. In the early days, I will follow the details of each model. Now, I am more concerned with controlling the overall direction, such as internationalization, being too young, being too old and so on.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What’s the difference between UR and ZARA from a product perspective?

Li Mingguang:Compared with ZARA, UR is not the most international, but it is this difference that makes us do well in China. UR is more localized in terms of format, size, color and design details. ZARA is a European style, and many clothes need to be very tall to control, and the whole is a little mature.

36Kr’s future consumption: There are dozens of fashion styles popular in the market today. It’s hard to say which style dominates the market. How can your team grasp the latest fashion trends?

Li Mingguang:This actually depends on everyone’s fashion potential, because fashion is a perceptual and individual thing, and it cannot be standardized or copied. But it has a learning method, that is to say, as a designer and a buyer, you should not only pay attention to industry information, but also often watch art exhibitions, concerts and operas, travel more and stay in some good hotels, all of which are improving your own taste.

Recruiting designers and buyers, I also care about whether TA is willing to invest enough time in this matter, that is, "crazy about fashion". People who often have potential will be "madly in love". Dress and makeup are the first factors to judge "crazy love". Secondly, I will ask some professional questions.

36Kr’s future consumption: Apart from personal potential and "crazy love", is there a mechanism to ensure that UR is always fashionable?

Li Mingguang:The biggest difference between us and traditional clothing brands is that the product design is dominated by buyers rather than designers. Designers help buyers to realize the landing of products, and designers can play freely, but buyers should control them well and make products have two dimensions at the same time-leading fashion and selling well, so as to achieve the best balance between aesthetics and commerce.

UR designers may have a stronger digital thinking, and clearly understand why each model is easy to sell or not, which will help TA to have a clearer direction when designing the next model. However, we will never suppress TA’s creativity, not completely maximize sales. I don’t want UR products to sell well, but they are not fashionable. It sells well, but it is not fashionable, which is the reason why many China brands have declined.

UR women’s and men’s wear, brand for the picture.

36Kr’s future consumption: When it comes to "selling well", what is UR’s definition of "explosion"?

Li Mingguang:Reach a certain sales volume, and the gross profit is within the standards we set, which is the explosion. If you can sell 10 thousand pieces without making money, it is definitely not an explosion.

Future consumption in 36Kr: What is the earliest supply chain?

Li Mingguang:At first, we produced 30 pieces at a time, and many suppliers were unwilling to cooperate, which forced us to build our own factory in 2007. Slowly, for some reasons, the workshop worker opened a factory with 10 or 20 people outside with his wife or several fellow villagers, and then asked me for goods. With the increase of UR volume, the scale of these factories is also expanding, and UR is always their core customer. You can understand that these factories were hatched by us and gradually formed a small supply chain cluster around UR to serve UR. Up to now, bigger suppliers have also come to us.

36Kr’s future consumption: the most criticized issue of "fast fashion" is quality. How do you evaluate the product quality of early UR?

Li Mingguang:We have always believed that "quality" is an important factor driving consumers to continue to buy fast fashion brands. In the early days, many suppliers pursued profit maximization without considering quality at all, and each version was different. How can we talk about building a brand? So, later we built our own factory and R&D center. At present, the trend and quality of products are improving rapidly every year, and the speed of supply chain is also at the leading level in the industry. From design to store shelves, UR can take 6 days at the earliest.

36Kr’s future consumption: The international fast fashion giants represented by ZARA are no longer so beautiful in China. What do you think are the reasons for this situation?

Li Mingguang:I admire ZARA very much. The "fast fashion" it represents has deeply influenced the clothing industry in China.

In the past, ZARA has made great transformation and adjustment. For example, many stores have been closed in Europe, and many offline stores have gone online. At the same time, it raises the sense of quality to cope with the competition of some low-end brands. These actions made its sales and profits last year very good. There are two main reasons for the poor performance in China. First, the products are not localized enough, so it is difficult to go to the third and fourth lines, and it is impossible to develop on a large scale; Second, the main industrial chain is in Europe, so it is difficult to supply the latest products to China quickly. I firmly believe that its development in China is still worth looking forward to if it can get through the supply chain and make a big breakthrough in product level from this year.

Future consumption in 36Kr: Besides quality, serious homogenization is also a problem faced by fast fashion brands.

Li Mingguang:Just like Gucci and LV, both belong to the luxury field, making products related to aesthetics, which are non-standard categories. The same dress, the styles designed by each brand are absolutely different, because there are DNA of each brand in it.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: But Uniqlo is living well in China.

Li Mingguang:Uniqlo is the basic model for winning quality, and its customer base is relatively wide. Nowadays, Shopping Mall, Uniqlo and UR in China are two major clothing brands that they prefer. One focuses on basic models and the other focuses on fashion models, which can attract different customers. Uniqlo now strengthens its quality positioning with a sense of science and technology, and we focus on the trend and fashion.

36Kr’s future consumption: more subdivided styles and richer styles, in fact, the requirements for the supply chain have been further improved. Some people compare SHEIN to "advanced ZARA". What do you think of this opponent from China?

Li Mingguang:SHEIN is called "Super Fast Fashion", which is another brand-new business model. By simple comparison, we are positioned a little higher than it. What I want to say is that every model and style has its market opportunities.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What consumer goods companies do you admire in China?

Li Mingguang:At present, there are many powerful consumer goods companies in China, especially some consumer brand companies that have accumulated over time, such as Arowana and Gree. I quite appreciate a suit company that is partial to production in the clothing industry. It has made a flexible supply chain system, which is very powerful and can meet the personalized and fast needs of consumers.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: Not only in the field of consumption, which China companies do you like?

Li Mingguang:I like two China enterprises, one is Huawei and the other is Vanke. Let’s talk about Huawei first. It is famous for its heavy investment in R&D. What impressed me most is the wolf management concept. Vanke is a very professional company, and the standardization and modernization of management are very good. This is what I particularly want to learn, because I am more emotional. I hope UR will have its own scientific management system in the future, which will ensure the sustainability of enterprise development.

36Kr’s future consumption: Before launching e-commerce, UR grew silently offline for more than ten years. From 2020 to 2022, UR’s ranking on the Tmall 618 sales list rose all the way, and finally won the championship, surpassing Uniqlo. Do you think it will be easier for clothing brands to go online from offline?

Li Mingguang:In my opinion, offline can build a more stable user base. Doing online, to put it bluntly, is to open a store on the platform. Of course, it also tests the operational ability, such as how to play different live broadcasts. However, the offline chain is very long, involving multi-city management, and site selection is only the first step, as well as space design, decoration, water and electricity fire protection and other links, which cost more. Where is the cashier, how wide the door is, and how to move the line? These questions are trivial. For big stores, atmosphere building is a science.

36Kr’s future consumption: Shanghai is UR’s "base camp", and there are more stores than ZARA. What is your logic of opening stores?

Li Mingguang:We call it the onion principle. In China, Shanghai should be opened before other cities, because Shanghai is the fashion capital of China. If you stand there, you can follow the trend and influence other cities. In Shanghai, it’s best to start from Huaihai Road or Nanjing West Road. You can’t suddenly open a very biased suburb for you to open, so you should stick to it.

UR store, brand for the picture

36Kr’s Future Consumption: Why did you choose to join in 2015?

Li Mingguang:After the successful financing in 2010, I found that the direct store has a large investment in a single store, about 6 million stores, and the funds are limited. In addition, the China market is so big that we have to let go of joining in the end. A very clever thing happened in this process. A Shopping Mall in Zhengzhou asked me to open a shop. I saw that the location of this Mall seemed not very good, so I dared not open it. Later, he said that I would invest, so you can help me manage it. At that time, we were short of money, so I agreed, and the result proved that the effect was good.

After joining in 2015, the scale ran out. The pace of opening stores every year is very stable, basically 50, even in the past three years, there are 40~50.

Future consumption in 36Kr: Since 2015, UR has started brand transformation and put forward a new positioning. You don’t want to be called "ZARA’s China Apprentice" any more.

Li Mingguang:Before 2015, we developed in Shopping Mall. Many people said that we were the second ZARA. To tell the truth, we were a little unconvinced at that time. Many successful brands in China, such as Internet brands, are transformed from foreign advanced business models. I don’t understand why this is not easy for clothing brands, so I want to build a unique UR in the world.

At the peak of fast fashion, there were three criticisms, namely, lack of originality, poor quality and environmental protection. So I put forward the positioning of "fast luxury fashion" again, trying to find a blank spot in the market between "fast fashion" and "light luxury"-the design is more fashionable and the quality is higher, so the price will naturally rise accordingly; At the same time, don’t update too fast to solve environmental problems.

Later, everyone will feel a little contradictory, and "fast" and "luxury" can’t have both. The team is now rethinking how to describe the new UR positioning.

36Kr’s future consumption: To become the unique UR in the world means that UR’s ambition is not just to compete with giants at home.

Li Mingguang:The strategic theory will tell you to make China bigger and stronger before going out, but I don’t think clothing brands with higher aspirations should do this. So, in 2016, UR opened the first overseas physical store in Singapore.

36Kr’s future consumption: Why not go through the China market before going to sea?

Li Mingguang:UR’s brand positioning and vision determine that we must be international. First, although China’s clothing market is also large, it only accounts for a quarter of the global market. To achieve over 100 billion revenues, a single brand must be globalized. You will find that there is no single clothing brand with a scale of more than 30 billion in China. It is true that all styles can survive, but as consumers’ aesthetic preferences become more and more international, brands with more international styles can have a longer life cycle. If you can gain a foothold in the world, it proves that your fashion has reached the international level.

Second, many clothing brands in China compromise a lot when they go down. Although sales will increase for a period of time after the compromise, after a while, consumers will abandon you if they think you are not fashionable enough, so this will test the strategic strength of the brand. UR is not only sinking at home and forcing itself to compromise. Why not go abroad and accept the challenge first? Singapore has a high degree of internationalization, and our stores are growing well. Now it proves that our strategy is correct.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: Will China sink the market? Do you need to compromise?

Li Mingguang:Sooner or later, it will sink into the market, but when to sink and where to "compromise", the inside is still thinking. UR is a link between the preceding and the following. It can not only upgrade its style in the international market, but also meet a wave of consumers who are temporarily weaker than the international level in fashion in China.

36Kr’s future consumption: UR didn’t make a profit in the first ten years. Looking back on this period, what does it mean to you and UR?

Li Mingguang: This decade is a stage of laying a foundation and practicing internal strength. I started financing in 2009, and in 2010, I got 10 million dollars. In 2011, I was short of money, and I got 60 million yuan. In other words, there is a lack of money between its establishment and 2017. UR has made 1 billion yuan and still hasn’t made any money. Some investors told me that many of your clothing peers have made 500 million yuan. Then we went to check whether the number of people was too large and the cost was not well managed. After checking them all, it seemed that none of these problems existed.

When we reach 2 billion yuan, we are still not profitable. Then investors asked me why I haven’t made any money yet, and I couldn’t find any other reason (laughs). Our own summary may be determined by our business model. UR is a brand that holds high and hits high.

36Kr’s future consumption: what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Li Mingguang:I opened a big store as soon as I came up, and I attached great importance to the image of the store. I may not have done so well in controlling the cost of decoration. After 10 years of long accumulation, we have finally established a relatively high barrier, and other brands can easily come in without a little capital or an idea.

From an unplanned stack of goods to a series of strategic ones, the store space has never been very good and is getting better and better, so we have gradually formed our own business model. In 2015, I let go of joining, and it developed rapidly at once. This decade has been slow, and I am right in retrospect.

36Kr’s future consumption: what challenges will it bring to the company if it spans different revenue scales?

Li Mingguang:The core reason why UR can go today is that our business model has not changed much from beginning to end. Large-scale expansion will have an impact on efficiency. Recently, we are thinking about how to make UR, which has grown into a big company, more flexible.

I have read many reports that 100 million is a barrier, 5 billion is a barrier, and 10 billion is a barrier. I am constantly experiencing the different feelings of each barrier. In the early days, I would worry or question, can I really do 1 billion or 5 billion with my own and my team’s ability? But now, we are moving towards a scale of 10 billion.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What was your "anxiety" in the past three years?

Li Mingguang:My biggest experience is that cash flow is very important. Especially in November last year before the opening of the epidemic, I felt that enterprises would fall at any time. I had never felt this anxiety before. However, the CFO is more anxious than me (laughs). I actually thought about it. If this really happens, how can I make UR make a comeback? The answer is that I can still do a good job in maintaining the essence and basic ability of clothing, and that is our design.

UR women’s wear, brand for the picture

36Kr’s Future Consumption: If you started your business in the clothing industry today, would you choose a different incision?

Li Mingguang:If today I find that there is no second leading brand in the fast fashion industry except ZARA, I will still choose this incision.

Clothing is a very competitive industry. I call it "cake cutting market", and the market share of each enterprise is relatively low. It is not a sunrise industry, but it is not a sunset industry. The good point is that the market capacity is large and the demand is stratified and diversified. Uniqlo’s founder has been ranked as the richest man in Japan for many times, LV’s president is the richest man in the world, and ZARA’s boss is the second richest man in Europe. I was just wondering, why do you think that such a traditional so-called clothing fashion industry has produced outstanding enterprises and entrepreneurs in such developed countries as Japan and Europe? My understanding is that clothing is a spiritual product. After material satisfaction, clothing is needed to meet spiritual needs, and technology cannot solve this demand. Therefore, clothing is also an industry that can achieve great enterprises.

Creative aesthetic ability is a difficult point in this industry and an important factor affecting the fluctuation of the industry. Investors often ask me how to keep my creativity. I think the fast fashion industry seems to have some ways to make this fluctuation smaller.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What is UR’s way to make this fluctuation smaller?

Li Mingguang:Digital construction is the key. For example, we have explosions, best-selling models, flat-selling models, unsalable models and ultra-unsalable models. Explosions will have commonalities, so maximize this commonality and add this factor to the best-selling models. Generally speaking, UR will make efficient decisions with the help of IT system, and also rely on the perceptual ability of buyers and designers. In the whole product structure, sales-oriented and creative products account for half each, and we will make a good balance.

We have long established two strategies-fashion UR and technology UR, with fashion as the root and technology as the foundation. The core competitiveness of the company is fashion, and technology can help improve operational efficiency. Our IT team is close to 200 people, which is rare in clothing companies with large offline revenue. Our investment in this area is second only to product research and development.

Future Consumption in 36Kr: What is UR’s latest thinking about brand building?

Li Mingguang:I used to think that the store is our best advertisement, and the core is to provide consumers with a unique experience from the perspective of vision and space. If the product is good, it will get twice the result with half the effort, but now I find that this strategy alone may not be enough. In the past ten years, UR has driven brand development by product power. In the next 10 years, I hope to add a brand power to realize two-wheel drive of product power and brand power. Starting from this year, we will make great efforts to build brand strength and make the brand’s personality and spirit more distinct. The fashion industry has always needed to be expressed.

36Kr’s Future Consumption: What do you want UR to look like in the end?

Li Mingguang:Many overseas fashion brands have come to China and set up stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and other places, but no China brand can be opened in London, new york, Munich or Los Angeles. In the next 10~20 years, there will be such a brand in China. Why not UR?

If clothing enterprises want to develop on a large scale, they will definitely take two paths, one is brand globalization, and the other is multi-brand. In the future, UR these two roads will go hand in hand.

Future consumption in 36Kr: Will you often go back to the first store now?

Li Mingguang:If that store is still in its original state, I may go back often, but it has become another store.

36Kr’s future consumption: what changes have you made?

Li Mingguang:People must be getting older and quieter. The love of clothing, the pursuit of beauty, and the firmness of brand mission and vision have never changed.

On December 6th, Beijing time, the Chengdu Table Tennis Mixed Team World Cup is about to usher in the first day of the second stage. At present, the group stage has ended, and the list of the top eight teams has been released. Although the China team lost by Manyu Wang, the other seven main players remained unbeaten, and they have been qualified for promotion and continue to attack the championship.

According to the arrangement, Guoping will play at 19: 30pm on December 6th against the average Slovak team, and the top three seeds, Germany, Japan and South Korea, will also continue to play. Please see below for the detailed situation, latest schedule and highlights of each match.

This mixed World Cup has adopted a brand-new 8-win system in 15 games. The first stage is to calculate the points to decide the outcome, and so is the second stage, which means that each team should try to make a quick decision and open the gap as early as possible to get 8 points. At the same time, the losing team need not be discouraged, as long as the total score is enough, it can still win medals and even hit the championship.

As mentioned earlier, Guoping has advanced to the top eight. Among the eight main players, only Manyu Wang lost 1-2 to Puerto Rico’s Diaz, while the other seven players, Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, Ma Long, Lin Gaoyuan, Sun Yingsha, Chen Meng and Wang Yidi, remained unbeaten.

In addition to Guoping, the others have been promoted by Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Slovakia, France, and China Taipei. Next, except for the teams that have met in the first stage, all the others have to play again. Take Guoping as an example, whether you want to win the championship or not, you have to play six more games (Sweden has already touched it), and finally calculate the total score to determine the ranking.

According to the arrangement, the first two games to be played at 13:00 pm on December 6th were Japan VS China Taipei and South Korea VS France. Among them, the pressure on Japan was relatively small, because the three main players of China Taipei, Lin Yunru, Chuan Chih Yuan and Zheng Yijing, didn’t come, and the threat was not great.

The battle between South Korea and France is quite interesting. The former has eight generals, including Zhang Yuzhen, Lin Zhongxun, Li Shangzhu, Ahn Jae hyun, Shen Yubin, Tian Zhixi, Jin Naying and Li Shiwen, all of whom are first-class in foreign associations except Li Shiwen. The latter has four masters, lebrun Brothers, Simon and Yuan Jianan, and the rising star Pawad is also very influential. Although it is inferior to South Korea, it may not be impossible to score points.

At 19:30 pm, the table tennis match against Slovakia is not a big problem. The battle between Germany and Sweden may be fierce. Both sides have several main players absent. At present, the strength is even. Sweden may win with the advantage of men, but it may not lose.

So who do you think will win the first prize in the second stage? Welcome to write your own prediction in this message!

On the second day of the table tennis World Cup quarter-finals, there was a fierce confrontation. Players from China, Japan, Korea, Germany, France and Sweden showed their high-level skills and tenacious fighting spirit, bringing a wonderful table tennis feast to the audience.

On the second day of the table tennis World Cup quarter-finals, the players from six teams, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France and Sweden, showed their top skills and strong desire for competition. The audience witnessed a thrilling confrontation in the tense and exciting competition.

The first is the contest between the Chinese and German teams. China sent powerful players Malone and Fan Zhendong, while the German team was composed of Bohr and Ochalov. In this game, the players of both sides played inextricably, and the superb skills and the tenacity of psychological quality became the key to victory or defeat. In the end, China beat the German team 3-1 and advanced to the semi-finals.

Next, the Japanese team and the French team launched a fierce confrontation. Japanese players Jun Mizutani and Zhang Benzhi played against French players Liang Jingkun and Lucretier respectively. The whole game was full of skill and speed, and the wonderful moment when the players competed for each ball on the stage made the audience stare. In the end, Japan beat France 3-0 and advanced smoothly.

At the same time, the confrontation between South Korea and Sweden is also expected. South Korea sent Xu Xin and Yin Hang, while Sweden was made up of Okalov and falk. In this game, the players showed high competition skills and strong willpower. After fierce competition, South Korea narrowly beat Sweden 3-2 and advanced to the semi-finals.

In this wonderful table tennis feast, the players’ fighting spirit and top-level performance are amazing. They brought unforgettable matchups to the audience with the wonderful moments of each ball.

The table tennis World Cup quarter-finals will continue, and the four promotion teams will further compete cruelly. The audience are full of expectations for the next game, and they are looking forward to seeing more jaw-dropping wonderful rounds and exciting victory moments.

On the stage of this table tennis World Cup, the players from China, Japan, Korea, Germany, France and Sweden showed top-level skills and indomitable spirit. No matter who can win the championship in the end, these players have become legends in the table tennis world and brought us unforgettable table tennis feasts.

Let’s continue to pay attention to the wonderful events of the Table Tennis World Cup and cheer for these excellent players! Let’s witness the brilliant moment of the table tennis world together!

At 0: 00 on January 24, World of Warcraft officially ended its operation in mainland China. It was the fault of the developer or the agent, and the hard work of more than ten years finally passed and dissipated. At the beginning of the 15-minute countdown to the server shutdown, strangers said goodbye to each other on the channel, "May the wind guide your direction".

With the character in Naglan forced to return to the login interface, and with the prompt that there is no available server, the world that has been with him for more than ten years has ended "temporarily".

Because of World of Warcraft, I have kept my game habits for many years. I tried several MMOs with my old friends in YY during the Spring Festival holiday, but they couldn’t fit in well and fell into a dilemma.

Sword net 3:

Whether it is the official version or the nostalgic version, the optimization is not satisfactory. Whether it is the 4090 graphics card or the 2080 graphics card, all graphics cards are equal in front of Sword Net III, and it is impossible to achieve a smooth frame number like World of Warcraft. The multi-stage jumping in its proud Lightness Skill system will make newcomers feel puzzled, because the Lightness Skill System will only show the corresponding function buttons after the player jumps, and the newcomers can’t even find a way to land quickly when they start trying.

But after all, "Sword Net III" is also an old game for many years, with a strong social atmosphere. The PVE copy game comes with a gold team assistant, and the copy is simple and the equipment is cheap. Direct 54 yuan also presented gold coins, and selling the gold coins actually only required about 5 yuan.

Guild Wars 2:

It’s really a refreshing game experience. Jumping music and world event design are great, and you can also experience magnificent battle scenes in the wild. The biggest innovation of the game is that it is out of the triangle mode of warfare, law and animal husbandry. Different occupations are not a single skill group, and switching to different weapons will have different skills. Players can play different output cycles by switching weapons in battle. Old people in the game are also very kind to newcomers, and often provide a set of equipment to novice players for free. However, for old players of Warcraft, there will be a certain cognitive gap because they are not in the mode of warfare and grazing.

> > > > > Stop taking Warcraft, and try Guild Wars 2, a good time for the lion city to go online in into the pit. < < < < <

FF14：

It may be very suitable for players with formal clothes to play the game, because there are certain requirements for the DPS of T and N in the replica battle, but the battle mode will be different. The GCD of FF14 is long (various 2.5S skills in the early stage) and the judgment is delayed, and the fluency of the battle is not as good as that of World of Warcraft, and the plug-ins that players are used to in Warcraft are basically defined as plug-ins that cannot be used in FF14. For the old Warcraft players with nostalgic clothes, I am afraid that some older players are not good at accepting the picture and mechanism.

Swords of legends OL:

The optimization is average, and the game is really conscientious. The copy battle also has technical content and the picture is very good. Basically, every profession has two kinds of functional gameplay, and there are different genres to choose from under different functions. For example, the school of Imperial Sword can be divided into the rainbow of the air Sect and the flying star of the sword Sect. Shenhong can be divided into two schools: Blasting Sword and Yunlong. Under the current version, a set of equipment can freely switch attributes according to different functions (the additional attributes of the equipment need to be selected by the player himself), and the function selection of the team becomes more flexible in the copy battle, similar to the switching specialization in Warcraft, but there is no need to prepare an additional set of equipment.

It’s just that the overall feeling of playing the game is mediocre, and everything has no characteristics, that is to say, the game is good except PVP, but it’s not fun, and PVP is almost abandoned because there are too few players playing PVP activities as a whole.

Anti-cold veteran clothes:

The game has a good sense of attack and a strong Jianghu atmosphere, and it is worthy of being a breathing Jianghu. Just as a veteran’s clothing with classic equipment and mounts in Warcraft as the attraction, the skin to be given needs to be copied to get fragments before it can be finally obtained, which has a sense of deceiving players. And as a Warcraft player who has to spray the card for several years, it is inevitable that there are some psychological obstacles to play an improved version of the game that requires money to breathe, and I am really uneasy about the subsequent development of this game. Although numerical props are not sold in the game now, who knows what will happen in the future?

After several similar MMO games were tried and the substitutes were fruitless, a group of old players of Warcraft nostalgia service faced the dilemma of being helpless. I wonder if I can try another game mode. After all, the influence of World of Warcraft is too deep, and similar games can’t play the taste of Warcraft at all. Maybe the new game mode is easier to integrate without the game type of Warcraft itself. With this mentality, I decided to search for turn-based online games that can be played by office workers.

I searched, and there really is a game called Peach Blossom Garden 2, which is dedicated to office workers.

"Peach Blossom Garden 2" is just the sixth anniversary in official website, and it is also a domestic game that has been in operation for many years. In any case, domestic games will never have to worry about the contradiction between agents and developers, which will lead to the dilemma that the game will stop serving and the players have nowhere to go.

The core gameplay of "Peach Blossom Garden 2" is consistent with the traditional turn-based gameplay. In theory, you can easily play the game by choosing the output sect and automatically hanging up. It is relatively troublesome to treat and control the sect because it needs point-to-point operation in difficult battles.

The gameplay of Peach Blossom Garden 2 basically integrates the common gameplay in turn-based games, which is similar to daily tasks such as mentoring and running rings and other activities. When you first enter the game, you may be at a loss because of the rich content and no game experience, but there are corresponding guidelines in the game, which can reduce the learning cost of players.

At the same time, in order to increase the experience of new players, the game also has built-in novice login activities to reduce the resistance that players encounter in the early stage of the game. Newcomers will be given a set of weapons and equipment as well as powerful beasts and fairies for free when they log in on the 7 th.

There are also new service target activities, in which players can obtain a variety of valuable resources such as in-game currency and role training by reaching a series of goals such as combat power, crusade, manor, achievement and official position.

Seven days before the new service, players can get lucky draw opportunities when they reach 50, 100 and 150 every day, and they can draw high gold tickets, Taoyuan points, appearance props, etc., and even have a chance to get Goku!

Of course, for office workers, the biggest feature of Peach Blossom Garden 2 is zero cost, which is much better than other turn-based games, which require tens of thousands of inputs to get a group number.

Without blizzard and Warcraft, as office workers, choosing turn-based games can also be a choice. Peach Blossom Garden 2 is the latest product of the turn-based classic IP Peach Blossom Garden series. There is no mall in the game, all the items fall, and the props can be traded. Turn-based classic gameplay is available here, plus you can send advanced mounts and high-funded beasts when you log in, which can accompany players to visit Xanadu!

Recently, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Bureau of Statistics held a national promotion meeting on financial education investment and education funds statistics. The meeting systematically summed up the main achievements in the statistical work of financial education investment and education funds since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, exchanged typical experiences, and made arrangements for the work this year and the next period.

The meeting emphasized that it is a strategic plan made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to give priority to the development of education to ensure that the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure to GDP is generally not less than 4%, that the fiscal general public budget education expenditure only increases year by year, and that the average general public budget education expenditure according to the number of students in school only increases year by year. All localities should always give priority to the development of education, further intensify their work, and ensure that the responsibility for investment is put in place.Ensure that the "two increases only do not decrease" are put in place and that the annual budget is implemented in place. It is necessary to strengthen management and ensure the standardized and efficient use of education funds.

The meeting emphasized that the statistics of education funds is an important comprehensive and basic work to systematically reflect the information of education economy, an important starting point to promote the implementation of the responsibility of education investment, and an important support to formulate and improve the education investment policy. It is necessary to actively adapt to the requirements of high-quality development, further improve the statistical system of education funds, and establish and improve the dynamic monitoring mechanism for the implementation of education funds. It is necessary to further improve the statistical standards, indicators and systems of education funds, improve the statistical quality and ability of education funds, and give full play to the supporting role of information consultation, monitoring and supervision and decision-making.

Responsible comrades of relevant departments and directly affiliated units of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the National Bureau of Statistics attended the meeting at the main venue, and responsible comrades of education, finance and statistics departments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), cities with separate plans and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps attended the meeting by video at the sub-venue.

Source: Ministry of Education website