Feng Xin, founder of Storm Group
'The video business is really boring, so I said that I did something wrong, but I don't regret it. If you let me go back, I will leave at most. ' Feng Xin crossed his legs and sat on the wooden sofa in his office in a position close to meditation. Pour the black tea that has been soaked from the mug into the delicate white porcelain cup in front of it, then ignite a cigarette.
The storm is still in the midst of the storm. In early June, the storm replaced the $1.8 billion refinancing application that was withdrawn a month ago with a financing plan of 50 million yuan, which once again triggered external tensions on the storm and will become the next concern of LeTV. Then there was a big drop.
When interviewed by the Beijing News reporter, Feng Xin appeared calm, and the content of the conversation consisted mainly of one-in-one retreat - the withdrawal of the video from the video copyright war, the focus on the TV business. The latter is also the storm proposed by Feng Xin in order to distinguish it from LeTV. The place of hard work. In January this year, the storm proposed the 'All for TV' strategy, and the TV business became the core business. According to Feng Xin, more than 90% of the group's focus is on TV.
From the creation of storm video to the long video copyright battle, from Gao Guang landing capital market to multiple mergers and acquisitions, whether it is decided to leave the video circle to fully invest in storm TV, standing in the center of the stage sang "Following Dreams" Xin started the 'second venture'. In his eyes, this 'secondary venture' about hardware is not only about the user's mind, the competition for market space, but also for replenishing the supply chain, capital operation, etc. Fully invested in physical strength and time.
Brilliant away
World Cup moment 'black horse' no longer
At midnight on June 19, Feng Xin watched the second half of Poland's World Cup group match against Senegal. On the same day, he just took the technical team to solve the problem of an interactive connection with Storm TV.
Feng Xin remembers very clearly. The last time he saw Senegal playing in the World Cup or 2002, Senegal played for the first time, defeating the defending champion France in the first round, and finally entered the top 8 and became the biggest black horse. The first half of 2002 The performance was not satisfactory. Feng Xin encouraged everyone to relax at the mobilization meeting. He also jumped on the stage to dance in Senegal. 'In the second half of the year, we will easily fight and win,' Feng Xin said.
Now the storm group faces a difficult time. Its 2018 quarterly report shows that the storm suffered a loss of 29.5417 million yuan and a loss of 16.4478 million yuan in the same period of 2017. The cash flow from operating activities was -293.68 million yuan and the debt ratio was 65%. Feng Xin at 2018 The World Cup once again watched Senegal. However, Senegal only won the third place in the World Cup this time, missed the top 16.
The 2018 World Cup is the biggest hot spot in the current video industry. Some sources have revealed to the Beijing News that the price of the 2018 World Cup copyright is about 1 billion yuan, and Youku is about 1.5 billion yuan. The stormy office area also hangs the World Cup. On the battle table, but storm video and storm sports are just spectators.
The long video field used to be Feng Xin's most familiar and brilliant field, but now he chooses to leave, because of the unlimited investment in copyright and original content.
The video business is both fresh and old. What's new is that this business has only developed in China for less than 20 years. The old one is that it has experienced multiple rounds of power change or is nearing the end.
On the occasion of the Italian team's victory in the World Cup in 2006, YouTube, a US-based video site that was established only one year ago, was acquired by Google for US$1.65 billion. This has stimulated China across the ocean, and hundreds of video sites have been whipped up. In the same year, Youku.com, Cool6.com, and LeTV, which was established earlier, Tudou. Fengxin invested 500,000 yuan in 2005 and founded the hot video of the main video player.
The arrival of the 2008 winter capital, the cost of bandwidth, servers and other high consumption of a large number of online video sites quickly disappeared, and after STORM Xin Feng transformation can support multiple video formats, quickly became the industry's first video player Department of players, and even once occupied the first position in the field, which is familiar with the product Xin Feng logic.
In 2010, copyright wars video stir the political arena, once cabbage price to buy the TV rights, this single integrated maximum rose more than 1 million video website owners complain incessantly Feng Xin evaluation, said: 'Health buy the copyright, money consumed raw, This is not the battlefield that we (the storm video) can be familiar with. '
The most beautiful thing in 2014 was Youku Gu Yongzhen, who acquired the old rival potato, almost unified half of the rivers and lakes. But he soon found that the video rivers and lakes were even more fierce, because the competitors became Tencent, Baidu.
On March 24, 2015, Storm Group listed on the A-share GEM and became the only video company listed in China. In the 40 days of the listing, Stormwind won 36 daily limit, and the stock price soared from the issue price of 7.14 yuan to 307.56. Yuan, the market value soared to 36.9 billion yuan. At that time, some people in the market laughed, because the storm was listed, it has created 10 billionaires, 31 multi-millionaires, 66 millionaires.
When talking about the highlights of landing A shares, and the recent setbacks in the process of mergers and acquisitions, Feng Xin said: 'Every stock market has its advantages and disadvantages, but for companies operating in China, A-share listings are always more correct. You also see that many companies still want to come back because they will get more support.
For Storm TV to be merged into the listed company in the future, will it be questioned again? Feng Xin believes that the future of Storm TV may be relatively smooth regardless of the business logic or the relationship with the parent company.
'拼拼' game
Lei Jun once said: You have chosen the wrong battlefield.
Waiting for the listing for four years, A shares suspended IPO for nearly two years. At the end of 2013, Feng Xin even contacted Ali for nearly two months. The two sides have already talked about each other's equity, follow-up investment and details of resource replacement. Feng Xin did not agree. He said that he does not fully recognize Ali's investment philosophy - the external evaluation of Ali's investment 'eat it is his own, eat it and chew it'; accept Ali's funds, meaning the storm may no longer be by him Leading.
Feng Xin was born in Shanxi Yangquan. He quickly cited two fellow villagers, Li Yanhong and Liu Cixin, and immediately denied that Jia Yueting, a native of Shanxi, was a place. Shanxi’s history was the birthplace of Shanxi merchants, and later evaluation of Shanxi merchants was heavy. Yi, Feng Xin said, 'I don't have the cognitive sense of Shanxi people'. He grew up in Liaohe Oilfield. He spent only four years in Shanxi during the middle school period. Every time he returned to Shanxi, he was treated as a foreigner.
In some matters, Feng Xin has a clear and unobtrusive persistence.
'If someone wants to turn the storm into an asset and sell it to others, I don't accept it. It's just getting wealth. My premise is that no matter who comes, but give me enough resources to do this platform. ' Feng Xin tone Calm, although the control of the storm is restrained, but self-evident.
Feng Xin's restraint is also reflected in his investment logic: First, holding, participation without acquisition, capital integration rather than control, alliance rather than integration; second, there must be a 'high product connectivity rate between the investment company and the storm. ' .
Video Jianghu eventually became the battlefield of BAT. At the beginning of this year, Yiqiyi founder and CEO Gong Yu, Alibaba Group’s rotating president and president of Dayouku Yang Weidong expressed the same point of view on different occasions. The long video industry is nearing the end. It won't be a big one, and it will be a monopoly pattern of 'Teng Aiyou' for a long time.
Faced with the impact of this online video platform on traditional players, Feng Xin commented that the market has been upgraded. Market upgrades mean more capital investment, and there is no advantage in the storm under the competition rules of mergers and acquisitions. Feng Xin has limited It acknowledged that the storm was definitely a step backward in the progress of turning to the online video battlefield, but because these later found out that the wrong decision was made by the knowledge and level at that time, Feng Xin concluded that 'can’t talk. Regrets.
Feng Xin said that he is not a player who is good at capital games. His work experience has not given him these skills. He can't lead the storm to do as Tencent, iQiyi and Youku are skilled in seeking traffic support and using a lot of money. 'Even if I let me renew today. Fighting this war, I may choose to move earlier, instead of going to the battle. 'Feng Xin is increasingly eager to leave the war that he can't adapt to.
Feng Xin has repeatedly said that Lei Jun has taught himself to follow the trend. In the summer when Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi reached a value of 10 billion yuan, Feng Xin and his boss in Jinshan had a communication. Lei Jun told him, 'You may choose the wrong one. The battlefield is over.'
Exhaustive experiment
VR 'throw when you use it', only two TVs left on the screen
Leaving the long video battlefield, Feng Xin and the storm almost all the possible options were tested by the exhaustive method. Finally, the strategic contraction focused on the selection of the smart TV.
The first attempt of the storm switch track was VR. In September 2014, Storm released the first generation VR product storm mirror, priced at 99 yuan. After the storm mirror quickly absorbed users with low-cost strategy, Storm Group 2015 Annual Report The size of the user of the mirror has exceeded 1 million units. At the beginning of 2016, the storm mirror completed 230 million yuan of financing.
VR was quickly confirmed to be a vent of capital overdraft. The immature market development made it difficult for the product experience to rise. 'Early VR users are more early adopters. Our biggest contribution at the time was to pull the threshold at once. Too low, Feng Xin said in an interview that the early adopters throw away when they run out, 'This is terrible'.
Storm Mirror has been stripped from the listed company system. According to the annual report of Storm Group 2015 to 2017, the receivables of Storm Mirror have increased year by year. VR business can not carry the future of storm, Feng Xin gives the countermeasure is conservative treatment - Keep investing while waiting for the market to break out.
Two months after the storm went public, Feng Xin proposed the DT entertainment strategy in May 2015. This strategy was later reincarnation into the N421, in which the storm proposed to focus on four screens, namely PC, mobile phone, VR and TV.
Feng Xin admitted that the idea of four screens was over-packaged at the time, 'we won't win because of the two screens of PC and mobile phone', which will revolve back to the hard-burning money to buy the copyright battlefield. The remaining breakthrough is VR and TV, he hopes to get 'very high status' in the two screens in the future.
In July 2015, Storm TV was established. Liu Yaoping, vice president of the original Wei Cai Electric Business Department, served as CEO; in December 2015, Storm TV released the first TV product; in May 2017, the first artificial intelligence TV was released.
Storm launched the storm TV two years later than LeTV. 'Compared with various emerging markets, usually the storm will delay launching its own industry products in a year or two. I personally think this is a conservative approach and safer. Xiang Lei, who worked in R&D at the storm, told the Beijing News reporter that before the launch of Xiaomi Box in 2011, he once asked Feng Xin whether he would consider hardware devices based on Internet video. Feng Xin clearly said that he would not do it.
In response to the content presented on the four screens, Storm's N421 strategic plan revolves around the film industry and sports, but the progress is not smooth. In March 2016, the storm announced that it plans to purchase 3.1 billion of Ganpu technology, straw bear film, Lidong Technology Three film and video games companies. Among them, the straw bear film industry was founded by Wu Qilong, and Liu Shishi holds a 12% stake. The acquisition was rejected by the China Securities Regulatory Commission because the company's profitability has greater uncertainty. Feng Xin had accepted the acquisition five months later. In an exclusive interview with the Beijing News, the acquisition was made for the film industry. The failure to succeed also delayed the film layout time.
The rest of the business arranged by the storm, such as Storm Sports, Storm Finance, etc., can not form a scale return in the short term. The TV business has become the trump card in Feng Xin's hands. In Feng Xin's own words, TV is back to the market he is familiar with - 'Market of products'.
put all one's eggs in one basket
Return to product orientation: Feng Xin said that the calculation is good.
Feng Xin does not shy away from his product complex, and the product orientation of the storm. At the beginning of the interview, he talked about the video war that Feng Xin decided to quit. He defined the place where the storm is different from the competitors in the 'we are products.' It can be considered that the polished product gives Feng Xin freedom and a certain degree of relaxation. He told reporters, 'When I make a product, I feel different from doing other work. I feel that some of the feelings inside are my own. .
The turmoil in the industry has also provided a good time for Storm TV. In 2017, the Internet TV leader LeTV suddenly retired, and the market regained its separatism. Feng Xin regards this as a major benefit to other competitors including the storm: The first brand no longer exists, and each family returns to the equal starting line of competition. In the face of this market situation that Feng Xin said, 'I have never seen it in the past', he decided that it is time to do all the TV, 'this time the fools are Can see clearly.
In January 2018, Stormwind Group officially published "Storm 2018: All for TV", which focused on AI TV and smart families as 'the biggest strategic transformation in the past 12 years.' Feng Xin forwarded and commented on his commitment at the end of the article. : If the TV business reaches its profit forecast at the end of this year, the listed company will consider increasing its shareholding and inject the storm TV business into the listed company as a whole.
More than 90% - this is Feng Xin's current level of investment in the TV business, resource supply and manpower allocation, including Feng Xin himself; he smiled in the interview, he will be next week Moved from the office on the 13th floor to the 6th floor where the TV team is located.
The four screens of the N421 strategy eventually returned to the only TV screen. Feng Xin's expectations were very high. He decided that doing TV is the 'most critical link in the whole link'; the future of the storm is tied to the TV line, 'put it Well, other possibilities are coming. But it's not good here, everything else is fake, it's all untenable.'
However, Feng Xin does not think that he is facing the pressure of the so-called 'backwaters'. He once again mentioned his rationality: 'I am a science student. When I calculate it clearly, I will make decisions based on my calculation results. I am more rigorous in calculating. It won't be too optimistic. The direction of the storm depends on Feng Xin's rational calculations. Once he makes a decision and thinks that it is correct, he will do it. As for whether the decision is too desperate, he will be full of mistakes. Lose, 'This thinking is almost in my mind,' Feng Xin said.
From video player to TV, the span from software to hardware is no different from the second venture. Feng Xin recognizes the statement of 'secondary entrepreneurship' and expresses strong feelings. According to him, making 90% of the decision to invest in TV It is determined from last year, and gradually adjust and adapt after the Spring Festival this year. In March, Feng Xin wrote an article for Storm Group to focus on Internet TV and home Internet tasks, clearly indicating that user resources, business resources, product technology should be Resources and brand resources are poured into Storm TV.
The assessment of storm executives is also linked to the TV business. 'All VPs of Storm have to think about what I can do for TV this year. If they can do something for TV this year, they will keep up; if they didn’t do TV for this year What, they actually have backwards. ' Feng Xin said.
Short board reproduction
Countermark Millet TV: Storm lacks money
Similar to LeTV, this is the question that the storm has always been questioned in the interview – the main business is not strong enough, and the rest of the business is scattered. Feng Xin’s answer is 'so we want to focus on Storm TV'.
At the beginning of June, the storm re-launched a loan plan of less than one month after withdrawing 1.8 billion yuan of refinancing applications, and re-launched a financing plan of 50 million yuan. The difference between the two financing amounts before and after, caused the outside world to worry about the tightness of the storm capital chain.
Feng Xin explained the change of the two financing plans of the storm. According to him, the financing of 1.8 billion yuan proposed last year is expected to be used for copyright purchases, but as the storm determines that it will give up the money to subsidize copyright, this Financing planning has been out of date, so it was actively withdrawn. Storm financial staff added that the newly issued 50 million yuan financing will be used for information flow, client transformation, VIP membership system and other storm listed companies, and does not involve TV business; Storm TV is still independent development and independent financing.
But the funds have always been the advantage of Feng Xin, he does not like the contest of money.
The TV market is regarded by Feng Xin as a market where technology and time can establish barriers, and capital is difficult to play a decisive role. He combed the reporters to do the TV cycle: from contacting hardware suppliers, producing prototypes, repeatedly debugging to construction Online and offline channels, it takes at least two years for all the processes to go. This is Feng Xin’s view of the time difference that Storm TV currently holds. 'In fact, our opponents are richer than me,' but these richer opponents Unable to enter immediately and compete with the storm.
In the smart TV arena, Feng Xin believes that the old TV brands such as Hisense and Skyworth are not rivals of Storm TV, because consumers do not want to buy traditional TV; new brands such as Thunderbird jointly established by Tencent and TCL are not rivals, because 'two The interest groups together are actually a rabble.
Industry observer Hong Shibin agrees with Feng Xin's judgment on the storm competition: 'At present, the commercial channels of Internet TV are still groping. I think the challenge of the storm does not come from peer competition, but from the setting and collision of future business models. . '
Xiaomi is the subject of Feng Xin's joy. Storm TV launched a limited-time promotion event 'Rose Storm' twice in May 2016 and April this year. According to Feng Xin, it is the same tactics as the low-priced mobile phone market. In February of this year, Feng Xin mentioned that the competition with Xiaomi TV will intensify in 2018. This statement is attributed to 'Feng Xin said that storm and millet must have a battle'.
As for the industry status of Storm TV, Feng Xin clearly stated that he would fight for the first and second. He immediately added: 'But now the first probability is that the millet is bigger, and the second should be ours. I am going to work hard. But I didn't take the first as the goal I have to do.'
'At present, Xiaomi has great advantages in terminal, R&D and brand. In addition to comprehensive strength, from Xiaomi's product ecological chain and Lei Jun's personal influence, it is estimated that the storm is difficult to shake the big tree. 'Hong Shibin and Not optimistic about the competition between storm and millet.
Feng Xin admits that 'the resources we lack most now may be really money', and it is a big number. I also admit that there are venture capitalists interested in storms, but I don't want to elaborate on them.
Two hidden concerns
R&D decline channels are limited, where the storms go
Funds may not be the only problem Feng Xin needs to worry about.
Storm video is conservative in copyright disputes, which means that there must be customer churn. Feng Xin acknowledged the loss of members and said that this is a storm ready to accept. According to him, the loss of audio and video business has been supplemented by TV business. Come back, 'the TV business is much bigger than this.'
According to the annual report of the storm, the proportion of R&D investment in the company including AI TV projects has been decreasing for three years, from more than 20% in 2015 to less than 12% in 2016, and then down to 9.1 in 2017. %. Storm, a former employee who is engaged in research and development work, Feng Xin, who is a salesman, is not concerned about investment technology, but pays more attention to how existing technology sells better.
In addition, the threat posed by traditional TV brands and Internet companies' joint venture TV brands is real.
For example, in terms of sales volume and channels, traditional TV brands still have obvious advantages. According to data provided by Storm, in May this year, Storm TV shipments reached 140,000 units, setting a record for the highest monthly shipments of Storm TV in three years. Storm 2014 According to the annual report, last year's storm TV sales were 840,000 units. Traditional TV, in the case of Skyworth, sold 7.86 million units in the Chinese market in the past year.
After the previous 618 e-commerce promotion, Storm TV celebrated the sales of TV in the new retail channel increased by 186% compared with last year, but did not announce the specific sales; Xiaomi TV announced that it had achieved the first double sales of Jingdong Tmall TV category sales.
Storm 2018 quarterly report shows that the storm TV online channel has deployed Suning, Tmall, official website and other platforms. The offline channels currently accumulate 7246 retail stores, covering more than 2,000 counties/district administrative areas.
In the Storm TV official website to query the offline experience store, we can find that the offline retail channels of Storm TV are mostly deployed in the second and third tier cities.
At the end of June, the reporter visited Dazhong Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. in Shuangjing, Chaoyang District, Gome, and Suning Tesco, located in Xidawang Road. The three stores did not sell the storm brand, only traditional TV brands. Dazhong Electric store staff said, Xiaomi Brands such as Storm and Storm are sold online; as for the storm Internet TV concept mentioned by the reporter, the clerk smiled and said that 'TV is now the Internet'.