Along with the news that the "next door" long video represents the company iQIYI to lay off 20%-40% of the employees, the market has paid attention to it, and the rumors of the layoffs of the new giant Kuaishou in the short video field are also hotly discussed in the Internet circle.
A Kuaishou business officer confirmed the authenticity of the rumor to the first financial reporter: "(The company)a large number of direct business in beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen these four regions are either transferred or resigned." ”
For Kuaishou, a new giant in the short video field that was only listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on February 5 this year, behind the rapid layoffs attracted by high salaries at that time, it actually represented a drastic change in the company's business structure in a short period of time, because the business development model did not form a mature playing style, resulting in a change of day and night, and the swing of the overall structure.
"We feel that when the company is recruiting a large number of businesses to seek transformation, in fact, many things have not been clearly investigated, and they have started in a hurry but pressed the brake button sharply." Li Wei (pseudonym), a business officer who joined Kuaishou in the middle of this year, told reporters.
Single-month assessment, leaving the company in the month that does not meet the standard
The strict assessment system for business personnel reflects Kuaishou's eager expectations for the rapid roll-out of commercialization.
Wang Ying (pseudonym), a business officer who also joined Kuaishou in March this year, told reporters, "At the beginning, I said that the 6-month probation period was good, but after only 2 months, the assessment for business began." That is to say, from the third month of entry, Kuaishou requires business signing, issuing orders, and outputting performance. “
According to her, this model is called "low performance appraisal" within Kuaishou, that is, if the business cannot complete the minimum task goal, the company can choose to let you go this month; if the leader is willing to keep you, the task will be doubled next month, if the task is not achieved after doubling, the business can only leave.
Wang Ying and Li Wei's department is the direct business team within Kuaishou, which is the key commercialization reform direction and new business team of Kuaishou in 2021.
According to Wang Ying and Li Wei, around the beginning of 2021, Kuaishou began to vigorously pilot the "direct business" model while retaining the "agent system", and the business personnel of the direct operation center "added up to almost a few hundred people". The company began to pilot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen four cities, the establishment of direct sales center.
"The person in charge of direct business in Beijing was in place around December last year, and the direct business team in Beijing was almost recruited in the middle of this year." Wang Ying introduced.
The so-called "direct business" model refers to "the enterprise directly to sign cooperation with customers"; and before Kuaishou has been implementing the "agent system", which means that Kuaishou's internal agent team (such as KA team) first goes to find and contact customers, but after the customer comes, it does not directly sign cooperation with Kuaishou, but assigns the customer to an agent of Kuaishou (such as a public relations company), so that the agent can sign cooperation with it and serve customers.
A researcher who has been tracking the TMT industry for a long time told the first financial reporter that the agent model is more able to avoid risks for enterprises.
"If something goes wrong, the official can directly claim that he is only cooperating with the agent, and has not directly contacted the customer, and so on." TMT researchers said.
The direct operation model is more conducive to enterprises to hold customers in their own hands and quickly expand users.
The expansion of the direct commercial department is reflected in the composition of the advertising business revenue of Kuaishou's financial report.
According to the content of Kuaishou's third quarterly report this year, the online marketing service (advertising) revenue in the first three quarters of 2021 was 29.42 billion yuan, an increase of 120.5% year-on-year, accounting for 52% of the total revenue. In other words, online marketing business has become the most important source of revenue for Kuaishou.
With the increase in revenue from Kuaishou's online marketing services, the advertising value of the company's single users is also increasing.
In the third quarter of 2020, the advertising revenue of Kuaishou unit MAU (number of monthly active users) was 12.9 yuan / person, reaching 19 yuan / person in the same period of 2021; in the third quarter of 2020, the advertising revenue of unit DAU (number of daily active users) was 22.7 yuan / person, which increased to 34 yuan / person in the same period of 2021.
In the context of the continuous enlargement of the company's overall loss, it is not difficult to imagine the reason why Kuaishou has built a direct business team and accelerated commercialization - to improve its own hematopoietic ability.
In terms of product promotion and brand marketing, Kuaishou has invested heavily.
For example, in 2020, the company cooperated with CCTV To distribute 1 billion red envelopes; in 2021, it reached a Spring Festival Gala cooperation with 10 provincial satellite televisions such as Hubei Satellite TV and Chongqing Satellite TV to distribute 2.1 billion red envelopes.
In the overseas business battlefield facing competitors such as Tik Tok, Kuaishou also invested a lot.
For example, Kuaishou once focused on the short video social product for the US market - Zynn. In Zynn promotion, Kuaishou invested a lot, Zynn users can get up to $20 per new user invited, and invited five new users can get up to $110.
According to Kuaishou's third quarterly report data, the company's sales and marketing expenses in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 79.9% from 6.1 billion yuan in the same period of 2020 to 11 billion yuan, accounting for 53.8% of total revenue, mainly due to the increase in product promotion, brand marketing activities and overseas market business expansion expenses, resulting in increased promotion and advertising expenses.
In this context, the loss of Kuaishou continues to increase and the revenue growth rate slows down.
According to the quarterly report, in the first three quarters of 2021, Kuaishou's adjusted net loss was 14.511 billion yuan, compared with 7.244 billion yuan in the same period last year, an increase of 100.3% year-on-year.
In addition, in the third quarter of 2021, the total revenue of Kuaishou was 20.49 billion yuan, an increase of 33.4% year-on-year. Although Kuaishou's revenue continued to grow, revenue growth slowed down (revenue growth in the second quarter was 48.8% year-on-year).
For how the company balances the development of the main business structure such as advertising, live broadcasting, and e-commerce, the relevant staff of Kuaishou said in an interview with the first financial reporter that the company's revenue in the third quarter increased by 33.4% year-on-year, higher than the general expectations of the market. The company's revenue in the first three quarters increased by 39.3% year-on-year, and it is believed that "the revenue structure shows a stable trend".
However, for the company's business structure adjustment, team assessment and related layoffs, Kuaishou did not respond.
Employees pay for the pain of transformation?
For a company in an emerging industry, if you want to quickly change the original business model in a short period of time, it is bound to go through pain.
For example, the "inner volume" caused by the run-in adjustment period experienced after joining the direct sales business team in the original agent system.
In the view of Wang Ying and Li Wei, although they entered the company as a direct business officer of Kuaishou, they look more like "pro-son", but in the actual business operation process, there are many restrictions.
"First of all, many of the head education, e-commerce, tool and software companies in Beijing are already the existing customers of the company's internal agency team, and the company cannot distribute these customers to the direct business team." Wang Ying explained.
In addition, the direct business team divides the authority according to the region rather than the industry (Beijing Commerce can only sign cooperation with Beijing enterprise customers), which also hinders Wang Ying and Li Wei's business expansion.
"There is an example that impressed me very much, a head catering company has part of the team stationed in Beijing, but the actual headquarters with business decision-making power is in Hangzhou, originally we have talked with their Beijing team almost the same, but because the team can not cross-regional cooperation regulations, we can not go to Hangzhou to sign a contract, and finally this list can only be abandoned." Li Wei told reporters.
According to him, direct businesses would rather not cooperate and "let this piece of meat be lost in vain" rather than give customers to the agent team.
"Business depends on commissions, and customers are given to others, where is the profit?" Li Wei explained.
Another drawback of the large number of business people recruited is the increase in the cost of sales.
According to the financial report data, the cost of sales in the third quarter of Kuaishou increased by 37.1% from 8.7 billion yuan in 2020. Of the 12 billion yuan in the same period so far this year, the more obvious increase includes employee welfare expenses.
In the third quarter of 2021, Kuaishou's employee benefit expenses were 6.092 billion yuan, compared with 2.678 billion yuan in the same period last year; in the first three quarters of this year, employee welfare expenses were 16.009 billion yuan, compared with only 6.179 billion yuan in the same period last year.
After excluding the share consideration of about 6 billion yuan, the salary expense of Kuaishou in the first three quarters of this year was close to 10 billion yuan, accounting for 17.6% of the operating income.
In addition, according to Li Wei, Kuaishou's internal business team has adjusted its business direction many times.
"In the six months since I joined the company, the goals of the business team have undergone three shifts." He revealed.
"Originally, our main direction was network services, because these companies invested more in Kuaishou, but soon our main energy was on the e-commerce business, and since then, the service goal of the direct business team has shifted to 'service talents'." Li Wei explained.
On the evening of October 29, Kuaishou announced that Suhua would step down as CEO of the company, and Cheng Yixiao, co-founder and chief product officer of Kuaishou, would be appointed as the CEO of the company and report to Suhua.
Previously, Suhua focused more on the commercialization and internationalization of Kuaishou, responsible for the outside world; Cheng Yixiao was more partial to products and technologies, and controlled the commercial flow valves of Kuaishou. The latest division of labor is that Cheng Yixiao is responsible for overseeing the company's business and operation management, including leading daily operations, overseeing product-related matters and strategic investments and acquisitions, and Suhua is committed to formulating the Group's long-term strategy and exploring new directions.
According to media reports, in 2021, Kuaishou implemented the largest organizational structure change in the past ten years since its establishment.
The reporter noted that many business lines such as Kuaishou's main station, e-commerce, advertising, internationalization, and games have undergone reorganization, and the corresponding personnel arrangements have reached nearly 60.
While the stock price and performance are under pressure, it is perfectly normal for the new short video giant kuaishou to significantly adjust its business structure.
But the pain in the company's business transformation, how to avoid the situation of making a large number of new employees "pay"?
Li Wei believes that when the company establishes a direct business team, it should do a good job of research, for example, in addition to the agent system, it is necessary to leave a certain operating space for direct business, and whether it should be divided according to the industry rather than the region. Wait a minute.
"Everyone has begun to transform into 'service hosts' in the next few years, and the team has begun to divide permissions according to industry according to regions. But only a small percentage of people are able to successfully transform into 'service hosts', and most of the remaining people face dissolution. Wang Ying said helplessly.
![Knowing the video lost: demotion, team dissolution, and departure of the number one position[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)