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"Clear your opponents and lower the entrance fee."
The source of this article is "IT Times" (ID: vittimes), which is reprinted by Tencent Venture with permission.
Author / IT Times reporter Fan Xinru
Editor/Qian Lifu Kicked Sister
When the country experienced a cliff-like cooling, the "wind chill index" of the charging treasure industry also soared. On the last day of November, the "first share of shared charging treasure" monster charging announced the third quarter of this year's financial report. It is noteworthy that after five consecutive quarters of profit, Monster Charging turned from profit to loss for the first time, with a net loss of 79.44 million yuan.
2021 was regarded by industry insiders as the "year of capital harvesting" for sharing charging treasures. Now, the third quarter of monster charging's financial report is undoubtedly a basin of "cold water" for the entire shared charging treasure industry.
Under this basin of "cold water", will the shared charging treasure industry accelerate into winter?
1
The "first strand" faded
In the third quarter of this year, Monster Charging still maintained a growth trend in some aspects. According to the financial report data, as of September 30, 2021, the POI (online store points) occupied by Monster Charging reached 820,000, compared with 771,000 in the previous quarter. That means that in three months, the Monster Charging POI increased by 49,000, or 6.3 percent. With the increase of POI, Monster Charging added 17.9 million new registered users, and the cumulative number of registered users reached 273.0 million.
However, the growth of POI and registered users has not stopped monster charging from profit to loss. According to the financial report data, monster charging's revenue in the third quarter was 930 million yuan, an increase of only 1% year-on-year, and a net loss of 79.44 million yuan. In contrast, monster charging achieved a net profit of 109 million yuan in the same period last year.
Monster Charging has been profitable for five consecutive quarters, but the losses in this quarter are not untraceable. In the past three years, the net profit margin of Monster Charging has been declining, with its net profit margin of 8.2% in 2019, 2.7% in 2020, and only 1.28% in the first half of 2021, and -8.5% in this quarter.
Monster Charging 2021 third quarter earnings
From profit to loss, Cai Guangyuan, chairman and CEO of Monster Charging, attributed the reason to the ongoing outbreak of regional COVID-19, arguing that the epidemic has led to "a decline in offline foot traffic and spending in both affected and unaffected areas, resulting in a decline in traffic to our location partners".
However, in the view of Zhang Yi, chief researcher and CEO of Ai Media Consulting, the most important reason for the monster charging from profit to loss is the fearless internal friction caused by the industry's "internal volume". However, Zhang Yi believes that today's charging treasure market has not yet formed a benign industry competition, and profits and losses are not enough to explain the problem.
2
Internal rolling makes it difficult to make a profit
In the competition of charging treasure brands, POI has always been regarded as an important indicator of business expansion. In order to win more POI, the competition between charging treasure brands can be called "crazy".
According to the "IT Times" reporter, the general charging treasure brand and the small merchant share ratio is 4:6. However, an industry insider told reporters that after the entry of large capital such as meituan, the price war between charging treasure brands was at its peak, and there was a 1:9 share between the brand and the merchant, and even the brand gave 100% profit to the merchant.
In some popular business districts, charging treasure brands want to enter, but also pay a high entrance fee, which has almost become an industry practice. Shi Huilun, an analyst at the Leopard Research Institute, said in an interview with the media: "Due to the scarcity of high-quality points and the strong independent pricing power of merchants, shared charging treasure companies have to pay high entrance fees and merchant sharing fees to occupy the points. ”
Source: IT Times
This has also led to the charging treasure brand becoming more and more like "working for merchants". According to the financial report of Monster Charging, in the third quarter of this year, the sales and marketing expenses of Monster Charging reached 814 million yuan, an increase of 156 million yuan over the same period last year, an increase of 23.8%.
According to the official statement of Monster Charging, the main reason for the increase is due to the increase in point coverage and the increase in personnel-related expenses, and the increase in incentive fees paid to location partners and network partners. Rather than saying that the epidemic has affected offline traffic, it is better to say that the increase in sales and marketing expenses has "eaten" a lot of profit space.
Industry analysts believe that the blind pursuit of expanded POI has led to a false boom in the industry to a certain extent. On a road in downtown Shanghai, the IT Times reporter saw that almost every store has a shared charging treasure. Some merchants even have two or three brands of charging treasures at the same time, but the rental rate of charging treasures is generally not high. Such a situation reflects the existence of the industry's "incremental and non-increased income" situation, although the number of points has increased significantly, but for brands and merchants, the income brought by the charging treasure is very small.
The owner of a hotel on the outskirts of Shanghai told reporters: "What is installed in the store is the Meituan charging treasure, and the price of the charging treasure is 3 yuan per hour." In terms of division, the US group and we are four or six. "Although it is not around a large commercial street, the shop area is also small, but because the neighborhood is a residential area, the flow of shops is OK. Even so, the monthly income that the store can get from the charging treasure is only about 200 yuan. "Compared to the monthly flow in the store, this income is negligible." Said the owner of the business.
"But brands have to 'burn money' to seize the point," said the above-mentioned industry insiders, "because the shared charging treasure industry pays attention to scale effects, the more points are paved, the easier it is to reach consumers, and the user experience will be better." ”
3
The "enclosure war" of shopping malls is fierce
If the battle for the charging treasure brand in previous years is still a simple POI battle. Whoever can win the POI can win the market share. The third quarter of this year's financial report of Monster Charging really shows that the simple pursuit of POI growth is no longer enough to support the profitability of enterprises. With the fierce competition, charging treasure players began to "stare" at comprehensive shopping malls with stable traffic and seek "exclusive" cooperation.
The "IT Times" reporter learned during the visit that the competition between the shared charging treasure brands has entered the enclosure mode and sought to "exclusive" the shopping mall. In Shanghai Zhongshan Park, Dragon's Dream and Raffles City Changning, as the two largest comprehensive shopping malls in the business district, present two completely different ways of playing the charging treasure brand.
In Raffles City Changning, the charging treasure still appears in the form of a shop. Unless it is a cooperative business, each store can decide whether to place the charging treasure and choose which charging treasure. But in the Dragon Dream Shopping Mall, the charging treasure is almost "wrapped" by the small electricity. Charging treasures are placed in the public areas of the mall, and there are about 3-5 charging treasure cabinets on each floor. In the shops of the mall, there is almost no trace of the charging treasure. The charging treasure that was usually placed in the restaurant was also moved to the common area in front of the restaurant. The reporter found through the search function of the charging treasure platform that only a few stores have set up other brands of charging treasures.
Shanghai Zhongshan Park Dragon Dream Mall is exclusively occupied by Xiaodian, Source: IT Times
An industry insider told reporters that comprehensive shopping malls have always been high-quality customers competing for charging treasure brands, but in the past few years, because there are many concerns about the safety of charging treasures, shopping malls are not willing to cooperate with charging treasure brands. In the past two years, shopping malls have gradually "loosened their mouths", and the charging treasure brand has also begun to directly talk about cooperation with shopping malls. The person confirmed that when negotiating with the mall, the charging treasure brand will take "clearance" as an additional condition for entering the mall, "but the real sense of 'clearance' is generally difficult to achieve, and the mall cannot prevent merchants from placing shared charging treasures in the store."
However, the reporter saw in a newly opened shopping mall on Changshou Road in Shanghai's Putuo District that in addition to the charging treasure of the cooperative brand in the public area, there was no trace of the charging treasure in each store. A milk tea shop clerk told reporters that the mall clearly stipulates that merchants are not allowed to place charging treasures in the store. "That must have been a reason that the merchant could not refuse, such as fire safety issues." The industry insider said.
Only the public areas of the mall have charging treasures of the partner brand, source: IT Times
According to public information, the enclosure movement of charging treasure brands targeting large-scale comprehensive shopping malls is not only this year. In July last year, Monster Charging was exclusively stationed in Jinan Shimao Plaza, and in February this year, it was exclusively stationed in Shanghai Century Plaza. In September last year, Xiaodian targeted Yintai and Wanda Plaza to cooperate exclusively with them. In January, Street Power acquired Superbrand Plaza in Pudong, Shanghai.
Moreover, in recent years, charging treasure brands are also seeking "exclusive" cooperation with large chain brands. However, in the eyes of industry insiders, it is still difficult to achieve exclusive delivery to brand merchants.
"The brand's business model is relatively complex." A charging treasure industry source revealed, "Whether it can achieve exclusive delivery depends on the brand's control over its stores." "For some franchise stores or stores with more remote geographical locations, the control of the brand is relatively weak, the store has more independent choices, and if you want to win the point, you have to talk to the store alone."
Compared with the large number of chain merchants with a divergent layout, the comprehensive shopping mall with concentrated traffic and stable customer source is a more ideal partner for the charging treasure brand.
4
Say goodbye to extreme competition to break the game
From the point dispute to the "enclosure movement", can the change of the charging treasure brand play become a turning point in the charging treasure industry?
"This kind of large signing is a moat," in the eyes of industry insiders, "its stability is certainly the highest contribution to the whole." ”
But whether this change can make the industry continue to be profitable, or even turn a loss into a profit, is still unknown.
From the current situation, the shared charging treasure industry is still wrapped in contradictions. On the one hand, high entry fees and high shares lead to high costs, which has become the biggest stumbling block to the profitability of charging treasures. On the other hand, the path of passing on costs to consumers through price increases has become impossible in the charging treasure industry. In August this year, the State Administration of Market Regulation regulated the prices of charging treasure brands on the market. In the next step, the market supervision department will further strengthen the supervision of the shared consumption field, requiring all enterprises to strictly adjust the internal compliance review process of price adjustment, and truthfully and timely publicize the pricing rules and pricing standards.
Image source: Oriental IC
"Because of the high entrance fee and high share rate, the shared charging treasure has changed from an industry with a good profit margin to an industry with low profits or even negative profits." A charging treasure industry practitioner believes that in order to achieve the healthy development of the industry, bidding farewell to extreme industry competition may be the way to break the situation. In his view, although the industry is still in the stage of "burning money" to seize the market, "the next charging treasure brand may narrow the entry fee when negotiating with merchants, otherwise the platform may really starve to death." ”
END
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