On September 5th, Europe's largest consumer electronics exhibition - Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show (hereinafter referred to as 'IFA') came to a close. Chinese and foreign color TV manufacturers are also 'eight cents across the sea', show their latest TV products, reflecting the Internet TV industry New developments. The latest data shows that the market share has shrunk to 10%, and the Internet TV market has not recovered. Some companies have changed their names and continue to launch new products to compete for the market, such as LeEco; some companies suffer huge losses, such as storms. The Internet TV, which marks fierce competition for five years, is ready to enter the second half. Industry experts said that after the brutal price war, the industry's spoilers will eventually be out, only a few quality products can stand out.
Lower and lower market share
According to data from Ovi Cloud, the market share of Internet TV brands in the first quarter of this year fell by 0.9% year-on-year, shrinking to 10%. Internet TV has not yet emerged from the cold winter.
Some brands are still active in the public eye. At IFA, the long-lost Letv Super TV has also appeared with the public in front of the public. Letv Super TV is almost the weather vane of China's Internet TV development. In 2013, LeTV After the launch of Super TV, it also kicked off the Internet TV war. Since then, Internet companies such as Storm, PPTV, Micro Whale, Barley, CAN Watch, Popular, Thunderbird have entered the market to launch their respective TV brands. The price advantage, the novel product experience, to a certain extent, the traditional commercial color TV brand's 'commercial cake'. But with the upstream LCD panel price increase, the color TV market competition is intensifying, most Internet TV brands are seriously losing money. Market development has entered a bottleneck period.
Relevant data show that in 2017, China's color TV retail sales reached 47.52 million units, down 6.6% year-on-year, the largest decline in 2003. The share of Internet TV brands is still further declining. Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that in the past six months, popular, micro Internet TV brands such as whales and storms have all withdrawn from the high-end TV market. It is rare to see any announcement about Internet TV products.
Liang Zhenpeng, a home appliance analyst, said that the development of Internet TV is characterized by low quality and low price. Consumers have already formed an understanding of Internet TV. If it is not low, there is no reason to buy it. But since last year, Internet TV brands have gradually withstood No loss.
It is reported that from the first half of 2016 to the present, the price of LCD panels has soared, increasing by 50%-100% according to different sizes, and the proportion of LCD panels in TV manufacturing costs accounted for more than 50%. As the panel makers have soared, they have only increased by 10%-20%. The direct result is that the profit margin of the whole machine manufacturers has dropped. The situation of Internet TV is also related to the rise of LCD panels. 'Liang Zhenpeng said.
Gradually price war
Since 2013, LeTV and Xiaomi have taken the lead in the emergence of Internet TV products that have emerged in the market. Many Internet companies without physical industry backgrounds have jumped into the river. This stage of the TV market has ushered in a big brand. In the outbreak phase, the industry also referred to these Internet TVs as 'spoilers'.
Although Internet TV has the advantages of free source selection, short advertising time and rich functions, they can quickly become the darling of the living room entertainment market. The more important reason is the low price. 2015-2016 is the struggle of Internet TV brands. In the most serious period, Internet TV manufacturers who shouldered various costs such as foundry fees and copyright fees began a round of vicious competition. The 55-inch TV is more than 2000 yuan. 'You sell TV to members, I sell members to TV', 1. The phenomenon of selling one lost one has become the norm in the market.
This price war has also laid a mine for the company. Recently, the 2018 semi-annual report disclosed by Storm Group showed that the company achieved operating income of 792 million yuan in the first half of the year, down 4.21% year-on-year; net profit for the same period last year was 15.72 million yuan. The Group's previously released 2017 financial report disclosed that last year's storm TV sales reached 840,000 units, hardware revenue was 1.283 billion yuan, cost was 1.375 billion yuan, gross profit margin of sales products was -7.15%, and the main subsidiary of Smart TV was stormy. The loss was 320 million yuan, which led to the overall loss of the storm group.
Industry observer Hong Shibin said that under the current situation that the overall demand has reached saturation, if TV manufacturers do not want to fall into the trap of price war, they can only seek new value and develop high-end market, thus making new breakthroughs.
Le Rongzhi new COO Wang Zhi believes that throughout the entire TV industry, 'price killing' has been like 'prisoner's dilemma', not only consuming the overall interests, but also has no development after its own development. It is understood that Lerong is the newest product Zero 65 Positioned within 10,000 yuan, this unfired TV will be listed in October this year.
a unicorn
Wang Zhi believes that the strange thing about the domestic color TV industry is that, until now, the market has no unicorns. Like air conditioning, Gree is the most powerful, the range hood is Fangtai, the boss, but the six major traditions of the Chinese TV market. Manufacturers have always existed, coupled with Internet TV manufacturers, no one has emerged as an industry unicorn.
Liang Jun, founder of New Vision Technology, said that although Internet TV has entered a short period of low tide, this does not mean that the industry should be put to an end, and the next wave of China's Internet smart TV will be even more exciting.
Hong Shibin said that although the era of dividends from the beginning of the super TV has passed, there is still a lot of room for the intelligent ecology of the TV industry in the future. The core competition is content and interaction. The advent of the new products and new technologies in the color TV market will become more intense. Technical competition will become the key to the manufacturers' strength, and will also become a breakthrough in profit improvement.
'With the development of the entire industry, the gradual maturity of technology, a TV can not meet the needs of users, users need a more technological sense, can change his original lifestyle, based on this, the TV will become us in the future A central point in the whole business, with it as the center, to radiate the entire family. 'Wang Zhi said.
In addition to the Letv Super TV, Xiaomi TV is also a unicorn in the TV market. Ovi Cloud data shows that in the second quarter of this year, Xiaomi TV won the Chinese sales champion. Xiaomi company co-founder, Xiaomi TV leader Wang Chuan said, In the first half of the year, we will increase channel construction and strive to win the first shipment this year.
Analysts said that there is a fundamental difference between Xiaomi and LeTV. When LeTV TV was sold below cost, Xiaomi TV was different. Its hardware is not losing money, and it is profitable. Xiaomi looked for the industry last year. Analysts did research, analysts said that the average price of the 32-inch small-screen smart TV market is more than 1,000 yuan, if the millet wants to go, the price needs to be sold below 1,000 yuan. Then in September last year, Xiaomi launched the 32-inch Millet TV 4A price of 999 yuan. This explosion helped Xiaomi quickly seize the market.
This approach is similar to the red rice mobile phone. Xiaomi TV uses Internet thinking, online channels mainly rely on official website direct sales, offline is mainly based on Xiaomi home, compared to traditional color TV manufacturers, Xiaomi has almost no channel premium .