Feng se Xiao Zhen originated from The Temple of Oufei
Qubits | Official account QbitAI
Royole Technology, which has raised thirteen rounds of financing in ten years and was once valued at 52.5 billion, really can't do it.
From the consecutive years of losses in the financial report to the salary arrears exposed this year, all kinds of news that are true and false are now confirmed by Liu Shuwei.
Recently, as an independent director, she published nearly 2,000 words of long articles on WeChat public accounts and Weibo calling for:
Save Rouyu.
What happened to this former darling of capital and a technology company determined to break the Samsung-led mobile phone flexible screen market?
Is it the next LeEco?
Wait, speaking of LeTV, Liu Shuwei, as an "A-share anti-counterfeiting fighter", is known as its "gravedigger" - how can her attitude be completely different in the face of the same controversial company now?
Who is Liu Shuwei?
In the industry, one of Liu Shuwei's most famous titles is "Fighting Counterfeiters".
Liu Shuwei graduated from Heilongjiang University with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in economics from Peking University, and is currently a researcher at the Institute of Finance and Economics of the Central University of Finance and Economics and the director of the China Enterprise Research Center.
What made Liu Shuwei famous in the first world war was the "Lantian Incident" that caused a national sensation in 2001.
With a 600-word article, Liu Shuwei exposed the existence of a loan black hole in Lantian, known as "China's first agricultural stock", "completely relying on bank loans to maintain its livelihood", after which the relevant national banks have stopped issuing new loans to Lantian shares, and finally Lantian declared bankruptcy.
Liu Shuwei was also named "CCTV 2002 Moving Chinese" and "CCTV 2002 Economic Person of the Year".
What made Liu Shuwei famous again was her public questioning of LeTV in 2015.
At that time, the market did not take Liu Shuwei's doubts to heart, and even many insiders thought that she "did not understand Internet thinking at all". Until the outbreak of the LeEco crisis in 2017, Liu Shuwei's prediction came true and won the title of "LeEco Gravedigger".
During this period, she also criticized the united states and squeezed Baoneng, many companies have encountered her "bombardment", and she was once called "the most dangerous woman in A shares".
However, this time, she stood on the platform of a controversial company that was on the cusp of the storm, Royole.
In the open letter titled "Save Royole", Liu Shuwei listed the research and development achievements since the establishment of the company in 2012, the strength and funding of the current technology in the industry, and put forward the current difficulties and rescue suggestions for the company.
The letter believes that saving Royole is saving an "internationally leading technology":
Save Royole and maintain the mainland's international leading level in the field of flexible technology.
Liu Shuwei mentioned that now Royole's technology, even "South Korea will list similar technologies as the next generation of national research projects, led by Samsung to undertake development", but due to the shortage of funds, Royole is currently unable to carry out continuous research and development work.
In short, Royole has a very advanced technology, but there is no money to continue research and development.
This is not the first time that Liu Shuwei has stood for Royole, as early as last November, she had spoken out in the circle of friends.
In fact, Royole is not the first company that Liu Shuwei has publicly "stood".
According to royole prospectus, in addition to Royole, Liu Shuwei also serves as an independent director of Vanke, Gree and China Optics.
Previously, in Baoneng's acquisition of Vanke, Liu Shuwei had supported Vanke and questioned the source of funds for Baoneng's acquisition, and then she became an independent director of Vanke.
After becoming an independent director of Gree, Liu Shuwei also issued a document accusing the Guangdong Securities Regulatory Bureau, believing that it sent a "warning letter" to Gree instead of a "warning letter" to Midea, but Midea also disclosed its annual profit before the performance communiqué. Subsequently, Midea also received a warning letter.
According to the relevant provisions of the CSRC, the information disclosure obligor shall not publish information on the company's website or other media before the designated media, and shall not replace the reporting and announcement obligations that should be performed in any form such as news release or answering reporters' questions.
According to Sanyan Financial News, according to the annual salaries of independent directors disclosed by Vanke, Gree and China Optics (600,000 yuan, 150,000 yuan and 130,000 yuan respectively), Liu Shuwei's annual salary as an independent director in these three companies reached 880,000 yuan. In addition, although Royole did not disclose the specific remuneration of independent directors, the prospectus also showed that there were allowances.
However, this time, compared to her standing for Gree or Vanke, or playing fake LeTV and Lantian, the outside world's evaluation of her can be described as completely different.
After Liu Shuwei's letter was issued, the voice of doubt was overwhelming, and even some netizens angrily scolded her for "publicly standing for the scam company.".
Comments show that many netizens think that the company's "product is not good" and "the reputation among science and engineering engineers has long stinked".
So, what is going on with Royole, a company that has been pushed to the forefront again?
"Technological innovation" did not create wages
In fact, when Royole first asked the market, it was once famous for "flexible screen technology innovation".
However, ten years later, this company with "cutting-edge technology" has not ushered in the market.
The founder is young and promising, and the company has raised tens of billions of dollars in eight years
Liu Zihong, the founder of Royole Technology, can be described as having an extraordinary resume:
Jiangxi Fuzhou College Entrance Examination Science Champion, Tsinghua University Electronic Engineering bachelor's and master's degree, less than three years in Stanford University research "flexible display" less than three years in advance to get a doctorate.
He was only 26 years old and immediately joined IBM's Global Research and Development Center in New York, earning millions a year.
Three years later, he resigned and returned to China, founding Royole Technology, focusing on flexible display technology - it was still 2012, and the concept of folding mobile phones had not yet been shadowed.
In 2014, Royole Technology launched the world's thinnest full-color AMOLED flexible display with a thickness of only 0.01 mm.
In 2018, the screen was mass-produced in the Shenzhen park, and in the same year, Royole launched the world's first foldable flexible screen mobile phone - FlexPai ("Soft Pai").
As of 2020, Royole has integrated thirteen rounds of capital in eight years, with an amount of far more than 10 billion yuan.
As one of the world's fastest-growing unicorn technology startups, its valuation is as high as $6 billion, and founder Liu Zihong's value has soared over 10 billion, once on the Forbes China Rich List.
At the end of 2020, Royole applied for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
However, the financial position shown in the prospectus it submitted was a big surprise: three-and-a-half years of revenue of 500 million yuan and a net loss of 3.2 billion yuan.
It turned out that I had been burning money
Specifically, from 2017 to 2019, Royole Technology's revenue was 64.72 million, 109 million and 226 million, and its net profit was about 359 million yuan, 802 million yuan and 1.073 billion yuan, respectively.
In the first half of 2020, the revenue was 116 million yuan, and the loss reached 960 million yuan, which was almost the top of last year.
It turned out that Royole had been living by burning money.
The more serious problem is that the product doesn't seem to be working either.
The two FlexPai folding phones launched by its main force have been cold sales (FlexPai2 has only 2,000+ purchase reviews in the official flagship store of Jingdong in the past two years).
It can also be seen that many users complain about poor battery life, fever, and various quality problems that occur in a short time.
So now we still have to raise 14.434 billion yuan of listing funds for the "lion's big mouth"?
Suddenly, public skepticism peaked and it was labeled a "scam company."
Finally, 2 months later, Royole withdrew its prospectus.
But it didn't stop there.
At the end of last year, some employees began to expose Royole's salary arrears, and it has been up to half a year, from research and development to HR.
CEO Liu Zihong sent a circle of friends in the middle of the night to summarize the "darkest moment of life".
Immediately after april this year, employees were told that after the Qingming holiday, they would continue to take a three-month holiday.
During this period, internal employees revealed that Royole has shrunk from 1800 people in early 2022 to 700 people, and some core employees have been retained with options.
Nowadays, Liu Shuwei's help text is even more difficult to sit in The Royole under various rumors.
So, how did Royole, once valued as high as 52.5 billion, end up in such a situation in this era of folding mobile phones?
What's the problem?
From the surface, we can see that its products do not have market appeal, and the problem of folding screen mobile phones is not much to say.
At a time when apple, Samsung, Huawei, xiaomi, OPPO and other well-known manufacturers have launched or will launch such mobile phones, Royole, which is known for its flexible screen, has not appeared in the suppliers.
Facts have proved that through the previously announced prospectus, its fully flexible display can only sell tens of thousands of pieces a year, while the output in 2019 exceeded 300,000 pieces. Sales are also not good.
On the one hand, according to New Fortune, a veteran of the mobile phone industry has said that the low yield of Royole screen is the most fatal problem: "Technology is not an advantage, energy production is." ”
On the other hand, according to Beijing Business Daily, Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, directly believes that:
Royole did not master the core technology.
He said that China is a big producer of display equipment and a big producer of mobile communication equipment in the world, and is the largest potential market for flexible screens. If Royole Technology really masters the core technology, then normal business cooperation with related enterprises is enough to support its development.
According to interface news, a former engineer of Royole has revealed that the ultra-low temperature non-silicon process integration technology in Liu Zihongkou is essentially IGZO+ evaporation OLED process, which has long been done by people, and Royole is not exclusive.
In addition to technical reasons, there is a view that the timing is not right: a few years ago, the concept of folding screen is not mature, the related market is not mature; and now there are many developments, but at present, more than one royole can produce AMOLED flexible display, in the folding screen mobile phone, the giants have also poured in, Royole's financial resources and manpower can not match it.
Finally, leaving aside the core technology and timing, perhaps as Liu Shuwei said, Royole also has operational strategy problems.
For example, Royole did not focus on flexible screens, but instead made mobile phones, smart handwritten books, flexible clothes and hats, etc., which were dragged down by excessive product development.
Where is the road ahead?
In addition to sighing that "entrepreneurship is nine deaths in a lifetime", where should Royole go?
According to Interface News, Royole executives mainly summarized three paths:
First, wait for government funds or external financing to be injected;
Second, it was acquired by other screen factories;
Third, self-help transformation, supply mobile phone screens to Huaqiang North maintenance market, or supply screens to mobile phone manufacturers.
In response to the first road, according to the Beijing Business Daily, Liang Zhenpeng, a veteran industrial economic observer, said it was unrealistic.
Because he believes that walking on this road requires at least 10 billion or even 20 billion investment, but also to clarify the debt behind it and then make a judgment. At this stage, there may not be any willingness to invest additionally.
But Liang Zhenpeng said that Royole has really made products, indicating that there is a certain ability, with the maturity of the flexible screen market, Royole Technology in the future if it can launch stable and profitable products, there is still hope for revival.
This is the same view as some Royole employees: the company has flexible screen technology, production line and a certain amount of production capacity, and has the foundation for transforming into a screen factory.
In November last year, Royole took over a large order of 600 million yuan, and the customer was Huaqiang North Enterprise.
Finally, as the top management revealed, if these three roads do not work, there is only one last one left: bankruptcy liquidation.
Royole, will you get to this point?
Reference Links:
[1]https://weibo.com/2499262997/LohygrN4
[2]http://static.sse.com.cn/stock/information/c/202012/07c7ce69b6804c0f902de510cb70f65a.pdf
[3]http://api.chenshipin.com/wap/a/619b59a40c4e47157a3e12c6
[4]https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Zenm0ZgdSz75jQSCFnYjJA
[5]https://m.jiemian.com/article/7328510.html
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