Zhidu (000676.SZ) said on the investor interactive platform on March 18 that the company has continued to explore and invest in the field of blockchain technology in recent years, and the main application scenarios are blockchain supply chain finance and meta-universe related businesses.
The company announced on January 17 that it had established a "meta-universe" joint venture. (See the announcement on January 17 "Announcement on the Joint Investment in the Establishment of Guangzhou Zhidu Universe Technology Co., Ltd. and Related Party Transactions") According to the announcement, the Company and Zhidu Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhidu Group"), Guoguang Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Guoguang Electric Appliance", securities abbreviation: Guoguang Electric Appliance, stock code: 002045. SZ) jointly signed the Joint Venture Agreement on the Establishment of Guangzhou Zhidu Space Technology Co., Ltd. on January 16, 2022. The tripartite capital contribution is as follows, Zhidu shares account for 48% of the registered capital of the new company, Zhidu Group accounts for 42%, and Guoguang Electric Appliances accounts for 10%.
The joint venture initially focuses on the development of social games based on VR environments and digital art meta-universe projects.
Social games: Social game projects based on VR environment mainly use virtual reality, holographic vision and other technologies to connect cultural tourism and pan-entertainment content, and mainly use VR terminals as the main entrance in the early stage to achieve the specific theme atmosphere required for various script plots, and experience panoramic immersive live-action interactive scenes;
Digital art meta-universe community: Through VR, AR, MR, blockchain, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies, the integration of online and offline virtual and real scenes is realized, with VR terminals as the main entrance, providing rich creative tools and display methods, and creating virtual exhibitions of artists with different themes and styles.
On January 18, the day after the company announced the establishment of the meta-universe joint venture, the company announced that it had received a letter of regulatory concern, which asked about the "actual relevance of the joint venture's proposed investment project to the meta-universe". In its January 19 response to its letter of concern, the company said:
The social game project and digital art meta-universe community project that the company intends to invest in the development of VR environment adopts the vr hardware of the meta-universe core equipment as the entrance, based on the main atmosphere of the script plot and the structure of the real art community, through holograms, VR, AR, MR and other meta-universe core technologies to restore the reality structure to the parallel digital world, combined with the company's blockchain technology with independent intellectual property rights, to provide users with "full immersion, low latency, strong interaction" type of interactive game entertainment and digital art life experience. This has the same properties as the basic logic of the virtual reality of the metaverse and the sense of immersion and experience embodied in the metaverse, and follows the application setting of the metaverse.
However, recently some investors proposed on the interactive platform: "The company's major shareholders basically have to reduce their holdings once a month, are you not optimistic about the development prospects of your company?" "Is the zhidu universe company, a joint venture between your company and Guoguang Electric Appliances, a hot spot in the yuan universe?" " and other sensitive issues.
According to the company's announcement, the author does not completely count the company's reduction in the past two years, take the first 20 statistical results as follows, pay attention to the time interval of the announcement, and then combine the ten major shareholders announced in each financial report, on the whole, it is true that as the investor said, the company has reduced its holdings frequently.
The company's question on the above sensitive issues is as follows:
Zhidu Shares (000676.SZ) said on the investor interactive platform on March 18 that the company's shareholder reduction is a normal reduction behavior carried out by shareholders based on their own capital needs.
The company's disclosure of this outbound investment transaction is prudent, and there is no situation of rubbing the hot concept of "meta-universe".
For the current progress in the metaverse, the company also said:
At present, the "Meta Other Shore" art meta-universe community has completed the research and development and release of the public beta version of the PICO VR and Android mobile applications, and has launched "Listen to the Sound of the Yellow River - Xu Huijun", "Take a Walk, Stop!" - Duan Innovation" 2 Meta-Universe Art Pavilions, providing users with exhibitions of well-known artists' works, online social interaction, immersive perception experience and limited digital collection services based on the company's blockchain platform.
The company's specific answer is shown in the figure below.
Regarding the "Meta Other Side" art meta-universe community, the company said in another question to investors on March 18:
Since the public beta, "Meta Other Shore" has opened 2 pavilions of well-known domestic artists to users, and exhibited a number of works of art, providing exhibitions of works by well-known artists, online social interaction, immersive perception experience and limited digital collection services based on the Zhidu blockchain platform.
The "Meta Other Shore" not only has an art exhibition hall with the artist's personality style, but also breaks the time and space restrictions through functions such as art curation in the community, and holds art exhibitions in the metaverse in a more convenient, fast, innovative and interesting form, providing a new way for art to open. (See figure below)
Regarding the company's advantages and core competitiveness in the meta-universe business, AVIC Securities made the following comments in the research report in December last year:
The golden track advantage of the card bit universe is significant.
Hardware advantages: the "auditory organs" of the metacosm. Guoguang Electric Appliance, which directly holds 11.5% of the shares of the company, has produced acoustic modules in VR equipment for the international top platform company M Company, which is expected to become an important entrance to the application of the meta-universe industry.
Software advantages: the "patch stone" of the metaverse. The company's blockchain technology is an important infrastructure of the meta-universe, which is used to ensure the security of users' digital assets and digital identities, carry out value transmission and incentives, create conditions for the generation and circulation of value in the meta-universe economic system, and do a good job as a "safe scavenger" on the highway of meta-universe industry development. With the first-mover advantage in hardware and software and technical barriers, the company can quickly cut into the "meta-universe" track, accelerate the commercialization process, and continuously extend the application scenarios.
At present, the company has also announced the 2021 performance forecast, and in 2021, the company expects the operating performance to turn a loss into a profit, deducting non-net profit adjusted to 70 million yuan. The main financial data is shown in the chart below.
The company believes that there are three main reasons for the turnaround in 2021:
1) Optimize the structure of digital marketing business and improve the overall gross profit margin. The company has shrunk the effective marketing business with lower gross margins in the digital marketing business and focused more on its core customers and markets. The company in September 2021 and Huawei to carry out advertising agency business, with the expansion of Hongmeng business territory, a variety of intelligent terminals can join the Hongmeng system, such as smart screens, smart speakers, smart TVs, automatic driving, etc., the future volume will continue to increase, Huawei ecology will release greater commercial value, the overall advertising revenue is considerable, and the unique plate of Zhidu shares (games, social, tools) is the largest sector of HUAWEI Ads, which is expected to thicken the company's profits.
2) Marginal improvement of negative factors, overseas Internet media business opened up room for growth. Overseas SPE companies and CFIUS have settled, and the signing of this agreement is conducive to eliminating the uncertainty of business development, with its technology-driven advantages, high-quality distribution strategies and optimized operational experience, commercial liquidity capabilities continue to increase.
3) In the same period of the previous year, the company made an impairment charge for the goodwill of some subsidiaries, and the relevant subsidiaries involved in goodwill operated well in the current year and did not involve goodwill impairment matters; in the same period of the previous year, the company made a substantial credit impairment loss on accounts receivable, etc., and the provision was small in the reporting period.
The author inquired about the company's year-on-year growth rate of attributable net profit in recent years (the official financial report has been released, as of the third quarter of 2021), as shown in the following figure, in a single quarter, the year-on-year growth rate of attributable net profit is not very stable, such as a sharp decline in net profit growth in 2020, one of the reasons is that the company has carried out a substantial goodwill impairment in the 2020 annual report.
Author: Xu Yuanyao