Luo Yonghao (Luo Yonghao): Saint of explosion - the self-proclaimed 'Steve Jobs of China' rose from failure

The life of Chinese technology entrepreneur Luo Yonghao (Luo Yonghao) can be made into a movie. After founding the famous smartphone brand Smartisan, he fell into trouble again. This person's condition is so dire that he is blacklisted, cannot fly, cannot travel by high-speed train, cannot go to high-class hotels, nightclubs, golf clubs, buy expensive insurance or send their children to expensive private schools.

After many unsuccessful investment deals, it seems that Yonghao is struggling again. Luo announced on his Weibo account that he will move into the field of e-commerce through livestream and find partners who want to promote products.

"Even though I'm not good at selling lipstick, I believe I can be a great salesperson for many products," Luo said, referring to her desire to become a male beauty blogger with as many fans as Austin Li, who famous for his selling skills.

Despite previous failures, La Vinh Hao is passionate about being an influential livestreamer. His areas of focus will be technology products, designer goods, books, home appliances, fast food.

As soon as the site paid off part of the debt thanks to the livestreamer job, he decided to return to the technology field, even aspiring to enter the metaverse market.

The self-proclaimed "Steve Jobs of China"

Luo Yong Hao was born in 1972, is quite famous in the Chinese technology picture, but not because of his talent, but thanks to his flamboyant personality. He was originally an English teacher, joined the New Oriental platform in 2001 and quickly became famous for his sense of humor when teaching. Gradually, his talks became famous online, attracting a large number of followers. He even set a Guinness world record for the number of people attending the technology product introduction event on May 15, 2018 with 23,152 people.

In 2006, he set up an information aggregator site, but only 3 years later it was shut down by the Chinese government. In 2012, he surprised the technology world when he founded the smartphone manufacturing company Smartisan, developing his own phones, headsets and Smartisan OS.

During his time running the phone company, Luo constantly made outrageous statements such as "killing" blockbusters like the iPhone, "the best in Asia" or promising to acquire Apple. When launching a phone with 1 TB of internal memory in 2018, La Vinh Hao also affirmed that Apple would "imitate us like crazy".

"I see Apple's successful model as easily repeatable. Everyone thinks what Steve Jobs did is unprecedented, but I think differently. It's important that you find people in charge of the areas. the most important. If yes, then nothing can't be done," Luo said in an interview with Engadget in 2014.

According to this interview, Luo believes he has what it takes to become the second Steve Jobs.

However, reality has proven that he is just an "explosion saint". In China, Smartisan's market share lags far behind big players like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo. Products sold did not achieve sales as expected, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

In 2019, La Vinh Hao said that Artisan owed about 600 million yuan (more than 94 million USD). From a famous CEO in the industry, Luo Yonghao ended up on the Chinese government's blacklist when he couldn't pay his debts. He was not allowed to fly, speedboat, stay at high-class hotels, buy high-value properties or send his children to expensive private schools...

At the end of 2019, Smartisan also reached an agreement with ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to transfer some technology and personnel rights. This is an important step for ByteDance to launch the Smartisan Nut Pro 3 model, also known as the "TikTok phone".

Rise from failure

Then, to pay off a huge debt of up to $85 million, he started livestreaming sales on the video sharing platform Douyin. Success came to him unexpectedly when only in the first premiere in April 2020, La Vinh Hao earned $ 15.5 million with 48 million viewers.

"I don't feel disappointed in myself because I have found a way to repay the debt. Now, I am clearly making money as an advertising salesman," he wrote on his personal Weibo after being bullied. Many people laughed at the first broadcast.

Luo's subsequent broadcasts were not as successful, but he still sold millions of dollars in merchandise each time. He used many tricks, such as walking on a treadmill while selling goods to "exercise and sell in 2 hours".

In the past 3 years, his Douyin account has owned nearly 200 live videos, earning nearly 140 million USD for partners.

During the broadcast, La Vinh Hao also encountered many scandals. In December 2020, he had to post a video apologizing for the problem of selling counterfeit goods during the previous broadcast. According to Luo, his company was tricked by a partner with fake certificates.

In early 2022, according to information from a credit monitoring service, the restrictions on movement and activities of La Vinh Hao have been removed.

Despite certain success in the field of online sales, this man still dreams of becoming the leading bird of the technology world. On June 12, sharing on Weibo, he said he planned to leave all social networks to focus on developing his virtual reality device company.

"13 years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Now I will give up all social media to get back to business again," he wrote.

In an interview with LatePost, La Vinh Hao said that he is about to pay off his old debt, which is expected to be completed in November at the earliest. In October 2021, he also confided on Weibo that he would start a new business as soon as the debt was paid off.

However, according to Sixth Tone, his livestreaming business will not end overnight. Some staff members who work with Luo said he will still appear on broadcasts as a guest.

The former CEO of Smartisan also plans to continue to represent brands to pay off the remaining debt and raise funds for his new company.

Luo's redirection has become a hot topic of discussion on Chinese social networking forums. His fans expressed regret at having to say goodbye to him, but also did not forget to send their best wishes under Weibo posts.

"It's sad that Luo Yonghao quit because I feel so happy every time I see his content. But fortunately he is back where he belongs," Zhang, a viewer, shared with Sixth Tones.

In the life of La Vinh Hao, it can be said that it is typical of a successful style of stepping on public opinion. Although many people still mock him with the title "Chinese explosion saint", it is undeniable that his great influence in the development of the field of online sales livestream.

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