"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" on January 14 (reporter Huang Xinyi) "Mobile phones and VR business lines are gone. In the future, Black Shark will not have any new products on the market. A former Black Shark employee lamented the reporter of the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
Since Tencent's acquisition stranded, the Black Shark team has been reduced from more than 1,000 people in August 2022 to more than 100 at present, retaining only a few departments such as the Internet and functions.
According to former Black Shark employees, the layoff compensation "N+1" is not given at one time, but is distributed in six installments, which shows Black Shark's cash flow difficulties.
But even so, employees who were laid off in December 2022 did not receive the full initial compensation on January 10, which was originally scheduled. According to employee statistics, more than 80% of people only received 2,000 yuan.
A notification text message sent by Black Shark to employees due to failure to pay compensation in full
At the same time, Tencent's XR (extended reality) business line, which has only been established for about half a year, has almost reported news of adjusting its business direction. According to the reporter of the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily", after the acquisition of Black Shark was blocked, Tencent's original path of building XR hardware ecology by directly acquiring it will change, so some projects within the XR business line have been adjusted.
If you go back a year, when Black Shark Technology was waiting to be fully acquired by Tencent, and hired a large number of VR (virtual reality) personnel for this purpose. Tencent is also actively preparing for XR business and opening cross-department job transfers internally.
Now the outcome is probably something neither side expected.
▍Layoff compensation or more than 80 million yuan A number of subsidiaries strangely changed their legal representatives
Chen Kun (pseudonym), a former Black Shark employee, revealed to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter that after Tencent abandoned the acquisition, Black Shark experienced several rounds of layoffs internally.
As of August 2022, the company still has more than 1,000 employees; More than 900 people remained at the end of August; At the end of September, 50% of the staff was laid off, leaving more than 400 people; At the end of November, more than 200 more workers were laid off; More than 100 workers were laid off in December.
"In total, nearly 90% of the staff was cut, and now the remaining more than 100 people are in a few departments such as Internet, functions, and marketing." Chen Kun said.
On January 10, the compensation day, most employees received only 2,000 yuan. Only the peripheral team received 70% of the full amount of the redundancy compensation. "This is because the peripheral team was sold and packaged and sold to Shenzhen Mingyuan Game Technology shares." Employees revealed.
According to a former employee's estimate, Black Shark Technology needs to pay a total of more than 80 million yuan in layoff compensation, and the number of people who currently owe compensation has reached more than 500.
Still, many employees believe that Black Shark should be able to pay compensation. On the one hand, the company has sold some of its fixed assets; On the other hand, Tencent once paid Black Shark a liquidated damages, amounting to about 170 million yuan.
Employees who could not contact the company gathered in the 2022 annual meeting group to ask for salaries:
More employees who could not wait applied to the labor arbitration institution for arbitration, and the number of applicants has reached more than 100. An employee revealed that the labor arbitration institution here in Shanghai also specially opened an exclusive channel application for Black Shark.
However, in the end, whether they can get the due compensation through arbitration, employees feel uneasy.
It is understood that Black Shark previously established a subsidiary, Shanghai Zhonglian Technology Co., Ltd. The contracts of Shanghai R&D personnel are transferred from Nanchang Black Shark Technology to Zhonglian Technology. "This subsidiary has a registered capital of only 5 million yuan and is a limited liability company with an independent legal person, so we all applied for arbitration together with the parent company." Chen Kun said.
What makes employees feel even more strange is that the legal representative of Shanghai Zhonglian Technology was changed in October 2022, from Wu Weizhi, the company's financial director, to Gong Lixin.
The new legal representative Gong Lixin has never seen or heard of it, and there was no such person on WeChat before. Is this to evade responsibility? Chen Kun said.
The reporter of the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" noted that Nanjing Thunder Shark Information Technology Co., Ltd., another wholly-owned subsidiary of Black Shark Technology, also changed its legal representative in October, and also changed from Wu Weizhi, the company's financial director, to Gong Lixin.
Zhou Ying, a partner at Beijing Qinglu Law Firm, told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that employees can list both parents and subsidiaries as respondents.
"However, the arbitration commission may have special requirements when filing and reviewing cases, depending on the situation of each arbitration commission. Regarding the assumption of liability, it is necessary to consider various factors such as the reason for the change of entity, whether an agreement was signed, the content of the agreement, and whether economic compensation was paid at the time of the change. ”
▍Why did Tencent terminate the acquisition?
Previously, Black Shark Technology's business was divided into four fast: mobile phones, VR, peripherals and Internet services. Today, mobile phones and VR have been cut, and peripheral teams have been sold. The only remaining Internet services are retained because they still generate revenue.
"This is the soft revenue department of Internet mobile phones, for example, downloading games through Black Shark mobile phones will have corresponding income. Users who recharge the game through the Black Shark mobile phone will also have a share. Chen Kun said.
Tencent's termination of the acquisition is seen as the trigger for the large-scale layoffs of Black Shark. "We learned internally that the cancellation of Tencent's acquisition was in September." An employee said. Since then, Black Sharks have embarked on multiple rounds of cuts.
It is reported that Black Shark took the lead in cutting all mobile phone businesses and retaining VR business lines, hoping to seek new investors. Until the end of November, or because there is no new financing hope. In the end, Black Shark laid off its high-hopes VR business.
As for the reason why Tencent terminated the acquisition of Black Shark, some media reported that it was because the acquisition had not been approved by the relevant authorities. Earlier, a relevant person close to the acquisition also confirmed this statement to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter.
However, there is another explanation circulating within the company: "Tencent gave Black Shark 400 million yuan in the early stage, which was finished by the high-level Huo Huo within a few months, which caused Tencent's strong dissatisfaction and led to abandonment of investment." ”
This claim has not been confirmed in practice. However, some employees broke the news to the reporter of the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" that there may be a problem of embezzlement of funds within the company.
The internal asset system of Black Shark provided by the employee to the reporter of the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" shows that the original value of a Dell desktop with the model of OPTI 7060 is as high as 260,000 yuan. The original value of a Dell notebook 3410 reached 87,000 yuan. If the value shown by the system is the real purchase cost, it is 10 times higher than the actual market price.
▍ Fall on the eve of the dawn of the VR industry
As a representative of gaming and e-sports mobile phones, Black Shark has experienced a short period of glory.
According to IDC statistics, the gaming mobile phone market achieved 50% growth in 2019, and the overall mobile phone sales exceeded 1 million units. Among them, the black shark market share is 47%, accounting for the first proportion, followed by the Nubian Red Devils, accounting for 39%.
Later, with the entry of Realme, Xiaomi Redmi, iQOO and other brands, the market share of Black Shark Technology began to be eroded. According to the "2018Q2-2021Q1 Game Phone Tracking Report" released by Canalys, Black Shark ranked fourth with a share of 13%.
In 2022, the market for gaming mobile phones will enter a faster downward channel. According to data from the game research agency Whale Staff Officer, the cumulative sales of game mobile phones from January to September 2022 were about 3.2 million, down nearly 40% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales volume was about 7.6 billion yuan, down 39% year-on-year. Xiaomi ranks first in the field of gaming mobile phones with a market share of 45%, and the market share of Black Shark gaming mobile phones has dropped to only about 4%.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi, which seized the market share of Black Shark, has played an important role in its development process. In September 2018, Tianjin Jinxing Investment Company, wholly-owned by Xiaomi, invested 11 million yuan into Black Shark, accounting for 21.94% of Black Shark Technology's shares. After that, Xiaomi made additional investments. In October 2018, its shareholding rose to 46.44%.
According to Tianyan investigation, Xiaomi is still the largest shareholder of Black Shark Technology, and the shareholding ratio has not changed.
Some employees revealed to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter that after confirming the acquisition relationship with Tencent, Black Shark began to gradually decouple from Xiaomi.
"All of Black Shark's systems are starting to de-milify. Even the new version of the mobile phone system has been prepared, but it has not been released in the closed beta stage. Since August 2022, Xiaomi will no longer provide technical support for Black Shark's mobile phone system. ”
Intriguingly, in December 2022, Xiaomi President Lu Weibing repeatedly emphasized when promoting the Redmi K60 series that gaming phones are doomed to die. Lu Weibing said bluntly: In 2023, users no longer need an e-sports mobile phone.
Lei Jun also said at the Xiaomi 13 series press conference: "Xiaomi 13 Pro has such excellent performance, do you think you still need a gaming phone?"
Li Wenyuan, a senior game industry analyst, believes that now, gaming e-sports mobile phones are indeed pseudo-demand, on the one hand, the track is too narrow, on the other hand, the market is encroached upon by portable handheld game consoles such as Steam Deck.
"Gaming phones represent the market demand for portable gaming, which is a real demand. However, due to the fact that there are too many stakeholders to effectively integrate, there is no dominant role from game development and distribution to hardware terminals. Now, the market has turned its attention to handheld consoles, from GPD, AYANEO, OnexPlayer, and the advent of the Steam Deck. ”
It is understood that since its official release in February 2022, Steam Deck has been ranked as the top 1 in the sales list of game products on the Steam platform for 20 consecutive weeks. Eight months after its release, more than one million units were shipped.
It should be said that in the face of the loneliness of e-sports mobile phones, Black Shark did not choose to wait for death. But unexpectedly, the strategy of transforming VR accelerated its own decline.
"Black Shark's All in VR business in 2022 is a decision-making mistake, which led to the rupture of funds after the investor stopped the bleeding investment, which created the current situation." Some employees think so.
A black shark mobile phone enthusiast also said: Black Shark's sales have repeatedly ranked first in game mobile phones, if not for such fanfare to engage in VR, maybe it can last another two or three years in the mobile phone market.
However, from the general trend of industry development, although the strategic decision of Black Shark is radical, it cannot be called a complete mistake.
Right now, the entire industry is waiting for Apple's long-rumored MR (mixed reality) headset release. Well-known Apple analyst Guo Mingxi pointed out that Apple's MR headset may begin shipping at the end of the second or third quarter of this year.
In a previous interview with the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter, a number of consumer electronics industry insiders expressed optimism about the breakthrough progress of AR and VR devices in two years.
Xu Chi, founder and CEO of Nreal, pointed out that it is expected to witness the process of upgrading from the 2D Internet world to the 3D Internet around 2024.
Wang Congqing, President of HTC China, said: "If the XR terminal is compared to the development of mobile phones, we are currently in the stage of BlackBerry, and in the next two years, it is expected to enter an era similar to Apple's mobile phone."
"The end of 2024 may be the moment when AR and VR devices break through the basic limitations." An analyst said, "Qualcomm released a new chip solution, the headset device is reduced to a certain weight, and the perspective immersion can also be improved." The exploration of equipment such as force feedback gloves is expected to solve the problem of inconvenient control of the handle. ”
As a leading game company and the largest number of social users in China, Tencent will not give up its XR business rashly. It is reported that Tencent has selected a new person in charge for the XR business line, or will reorganize the XR business unit.
Throughout the history of most industries, there are countless explorers who fell on the eve of dawn. For players who are really enthusiastic about AR and VR, they can only hope that they can last until the dawn.