At the beginning of the year, I had a friend at a big game factory who said that he had been laid off. He thought it was a surprise, after all, last year the company was still hiring a lot, the game research and development department was full of colleagues, and as a result, almost everyone went to the building this year.
After the Spring Festival, he has been looking for a job, but the opportunity for the game company is small, he can only change his career to become an Internet product manager, and the salary is lower than before.
While the gaming industry is temporarily sluggish, it doesn't mean it's not worth investing in. In fact, the game industry, like the logic of liquor, has a high degree of addiction, and it is a profiteering business. Domestic Internet giants like Tencent and NetEase, the game business contributed nearly half of the revenue, and good games can eat dividends for a long time, a "Glory of the King" let Tencent eat for 5 years.
I looked at the pattern of the domestic game market - the boss Tencent accounts for half of the country, and the second is NetEase Games.
These two are familiar to many people, ranking third in the "Three Seven Mutual Entertainment", not many people have heard of it: I see that many fund companies are optimistic about it, the company's top ten circulating shareholders list, there are Xingquan Xie Zhiyu, Fuguo Wang Yuanyuan two star fund managers heavy position:
Is the spring of game stocks coming? Let's also take a look at the industry from the earnings report. *Risk Warning: The stocks mentioned in this article are for illustrative reference only and have no interest. Investments are risky and decisions need to be made with caution.
01, What game to make the most money?
Let's start by taking a look at the game industry in general.
According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" jointly released by the Game Working Committee and the China Game Industry Research Institute, the sales revenue of the whole industry in 2021 will be about 296.5 billion yuan. Industry revenue is mainly subdivided into three segments: mobile games account for more than 70%, client games account for nearly 20%, and web games account for only 2%.
This data can be verified in real life -
Usually take the bus subway, look around, almost all the young people around them hold smart phones or tablets to play games, using fragmented time to entertain. Mobile games can be said to be the general trend of this era, so game companies conform to this demand, and it is also the direction of their vigorous development.
Specifically, looking at the source of revenue of 37 Interactive Entertainment, more than 90% of them are mobile games, and the proportion of web games is very small:
In addition, there is another point that prompts game companies to focus on mobile games, which is that it is more profitable than client games and browser games. The gross profit margin is listed according to the product classification in the financial report, which can compare the high and low earning power. Specifically, mobile games are about 85%, and browser games are about 70%: it is estimated that many people will wonder, since the game is so profitable, and the large number of players does not lack a mass base, why is there still a slump in this industry?
02, without the "game version number" there is no source of income
The answer is actually not complicated: domestic games are greatly affected by policy regulation. When the policy is loose, the industry is relatively prosperous, but as long as the policy is tightened, it will soon enter a cold winter. In the past few years, the game industry has fallen into a trough twice, but in fact, it is one reason - the game version number is suspended. The "game version number" is the approval number of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (hereinafter referred to as Xinguang) to approve the publication and operation of the game.
As early as July 1, 2016, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced that all mobile games must apply for a version number to operate.
In other words, the game version number is the "quasi-birth certificate" of the game company. With this card, the game can be officially launched; The lack of a game version number means that the game company's financial resources have been cut off. The first game version number was discontinued
In March 2018, due to the reform of the national regulatory authorities, the approval of the game version number was suspended, and the approval of the version number was resumed by the end of December of that year, a total of about 8 months.
The second game version number was discontinued
In August 2021, the state issued anti-addiction supervision requirements for minors, and since then, the domestic game version number has been suspended again, and it was not restored until April this year, which also took 8 months. The suspension of game version numbers can also reflect the attitude of regulators to the game industry. Whenever the game industry is overheated, the regulatory authorities will stop issuing version numbers, wait until the industry is almost cooled, and then restart the release of version numbers.
From the perspective of the first version of the reboot, the stock price of some game companies has gained a good increase, such as 37 Interactive Entertainment rose by 60%+, and another gigabit rose by nearly 200%:
Of course, there are also people like Perfect World who do not rise and fall, which is worse.
Therefore, not all game stocks have benefited from the industry recovery, the key is to look at the strength of the game company itself -
If new games can continue to be launched, the number of paying players continues to increase, and the company's performance rises, the stock price may rise.
03, the game company "annual salary million" is not a dream
Referring to the trend after the restart of the last version, the current game companies that are worth paying attention to are two: 37 Interactive Entertainment and Gigabit. As for which one to choose —"
If you play games regularly, you can check the "Games Section" of the mobile app store.
See which game is at the top of the leaderboard, the number of popular games is large, and the performance of the company will be better.
In addition, we can also judge from the average cost of employees.
This can be analyzed in the financial report.
Employee salary is equivalent to the labor cost of the enterprise, and if the cost is controlled low, the profit of the enterprise will increase.
The total remuneration paid by listed companies to employees is reflected in two places in the financial report: one is "cash paid to and for employees" in the cash flow statement.
It includes employee wages, bonus subsidies, social security provident funds, etc., which can be counted as "pre-tax wages". The other is "Compensation Payable to Employees" in the balance sheet.
It refers to the salary that the listed company should pay but has not yet paid to the employees, such as in December of each year, some companies pay wages in November, and the salary in December is paid in January of the following year, then this month's salary is included in the "salary payable to employees".
The company's "remuneration payable to employees" for the whole year can be calculated by subtracting the closing balance from the opening balance.
The total annual remuneration of the company's employees = cash paid to and for employees + the ending balance of the remuneration payable to the employee - the opening balance. Calculate the total annual compensation divided by the total number of employees, so that we can roughly calculate the average annual salary of a company. Then I compared the average salary of the three game companies and found that the game industry was really good, with a per capita annual salary of not less than 400,000:
In particular, gigabit is a company that not only has an annual salary much higher than other companies, but also has an amazing rate of salary increase, rising from more than 700,000 to 1 million in just three years. But from an investment point of view - gigabits spend too much on personnel expenses, which has a certain amount of ingestion of corporate profits; The employee cost of 37 Interactive Entertainment is relatively low, but it has certain advantages. By the way, this method can also be used to find a job. For example, if you want to jump ship to a listed company, you don't know how much the other party's salary level is, you can calculate the approximate amount through the financial report, so that when you talk about treatment, you have a number in mind. To sum up,
The advantage of the game industry is that it is more profitable, and its addictive characteristics ensure the stability of long-term demand;
The disadvantage is that it is greatly affected by policy supervision, and the suspension of the game version number means that the industry has entered a cold winter, so it is best to invest when the game version number is open, and the income will be better.
Once you find out that there is no game approval result in a certain month, which means that the game version number is suspended again, then you can also consider quitting at this time.
Well, let's talk to you about the game industry first.