Once upon a time, the mobile phone business was the source of TCL's revenue. It once occupied more than 80% of the group's total profit. Among them, 2015 is the 'last glory' of TCL Communication. In that year, TCL's global mobile phone sales reached 83.546 million. Ranked fifth in the world, it also became the first overseas sales of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers. However, since 2016, TCL communication has suffered continuous losses, and mobile phone sales have experienced a cliff-like decline.
TCL Group's financial report data shows that its mobile phone sales in 2016 and 2017 were 68.766 million and 43.767 million, down 17.7% and 36.2% year-on-year. In 2016, TCL Communications lost about 800 million yuan in the whole year, and in the first half of 2017, TCL The loss of communication has exceeded 800 million yuan. At this point, TCL communication has become a serious business sector dragging the group.
After a decline in performance, TCL Communications conducted a series of 'adjustments'. In September 2016, TCL Communications announced its privatization and delisting from the HKEx; in February 2017, TCL Communications Global COO and China President Yang Hao resigned In October of the same year, TCL Group transferred 49% of TCL Communication's shares for HK$490 million. On December 19th, TCL Group Chairman Li Dongsheng personally led TCL Communication as CEO. Now, according to the announcement, this year In the first half of the year, the loss of TCL communication will be greatly reduced. However, in the outside world, TCL communication has not changed much in the past few months. In the product, only one BlackBerry key2 was released in the first half of this year, but it has not caused much wave. .
'Retrieving the information released by TCL, can't find the basis for TCL Communication's substantial loss reduction. At the market sales level, we can't see the signs of TCL mobile phone improvement, at least in the domestic market is still highly marginalized; At the product level, the outside world I have not seen any amazing performance of TCL mobile phones. ' Industry observer Liu Buchen pointed out to Times Finance that the loss reduction of TCL communication in the first half of this year may be related to the significant reduction of TCL mobile phone and the reduction of marketing expenses. But he also said that such cost reduction is not possible. continuous.
Since the end of 2016, in order to reduce costs, TCL has cut 30% of its workforce and laid off about 10,000 employees in various industries. TCL Communication also cut off its marketing center in Beijing at the end of 2016, involving hundreds of people in brands, marketing, sales and other departments. .
TCL Group mentioned in several announcements in the past two years that the decline in mobile phone sales is related to the downturn in the overseas mobile phone market. The global mobile phone industry has indeed bid farewell to previous high-speed growth, but more importantly, TCL has not kept up with smartphones. Rapid development, but not sure of the domestic market.
In recent years, the focus of TCL Communication is mainly on overseas markets. The overseas shipments account for 80%-90% of total shipments. Before the delisting, the first half of 2016, North America, Europe and Latin America market In the top three markets of TCL Communications, the total sales accounted for 83.7%.
At that time, domestic mobile phone manufacturers actively expanded overseas, local brands also rose rapidly, and mainly through the operator channel sales, functional machines accounted for a large proportion, the lack of high-end smart phones TCL gradually lost advantages in such a competitive situation, The performance suffered a dip in its turnover in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The domestic mobile phone market is everywhere in the Red Sea, Huawei, Xiaomi, OV harvest most of the market share, TCL wants to share a piece of cake is no longer easy.
Today, the two trump cards in TCL communication are mainly Alcatel and Blackberry. Among them, Alcatel, the main function machine and low-end intelligent machine, is difficult to break through in the tide of overall consumption upgrade. Can hold up the sales of TCL.
According to Counterpoint Research, Alcatel ranked 10th in the world with 20.7 million units sold last year, but this figure plunged 39% compared to its 34.10 million units in 2016. It is the most serious decline in sales among the top 10 mobile phone brands in the world. One.
As for the BlackBerry, IDC analyst Franciso Jeronimo said that the BlackBerry shipments for the whole year of 2017 were only 850,000. And such a data, there is no possibility of comparison with other brands.
In Liu Buchen's view, the main reason for the current TCL mobile phone dilemma is the aging of its brand image and the unclear positioning and personality of its overall products. On the one hand, the image of TCL traditional home appliance enterprises cannot form an endorsement of technical and quality aspects of their products. Especially for mobile phones, which have high technical requirements and short iteration cycles. On the other hand, compared with Huawei's technology-driven, millet's high cost performance and OV's fashion, TCL failed to bring a sense of presence to current users. .
Despite the poor performance and sales, TCL has never intended to give up the mobile phone business. Li Dongsheng repeatedly stressed in public that TCL will not give up the mobile business.
Although Li Dongsheng personally traded TCL mobile phones, in the face of such a dilemma, it has not been recovered by the so-called BlackBerry feelings and classics. Finding the brand positioning, seeking innovation and breakthrough may be the key to the recovery of TCL communication.