Text | Sina Technology Zhang Jun
Recently, two leading brands in the home projector market: Jimi and Nut have engaged in a war of words around different technical routes.
After some controversy, the two sides also competed in the 618 war report, and both labeled themselves as "the first in the industry".
The dispute between the two sides is mainly two points:
The first is who is superior to who is inferior in technology? The second is marketing, who is willing to throw money?
However, the current Chinese home projector market is far from the outbreak stage, and insufficient user penetration and poor user experience have become pain points in the industry. According to a survey initiated by Sina Technology, nearly 40% of voters believe that projectors are chicken ribs. Netizens have persuaded: there should be no competition in speech, but should benefit the public.
Therefore, the war of words between the two is more like self-hiding, or creating momentum for the upcoming 618 collective.
Who is better or worse than the two routes?
The focus of the dispute between the two sides is the mixing technology of Jimi and the three-color laser technology of nuts.
On May 10, JIMI launched the third-generation projection light source technology Dual Light Super Mixing at the 2023 Spring New Product Conference. During the press conference, the product manager of JIMI pointed out the problems of the three-color laser. The product manager said that everyone thought that the three-color laser brought ultra-high brightness and excellent color, but as early as five years ago, Jimi made a prototype of the three-color laser and found some unsolvable problems, such as severe speckles, and the viewing was like a veil; It will also bring serious color edge problems, easy to fatigue and dizziness.
"The tricolor laser is a technology with outstanding advantages and disadvantages, the brightness and color are good, but the viewing comfort is extremely poor, and in the end we gave up the tricolor laser."
According to the introduction of Jimi, super mixing technology is to combine laser and LED light source into one, make up for the LED short board with pure red laser, and bring ultra-high color gamut and ultra-high brightness through the improvement of red color gamut and the gain of laser brightness; And use full-color LED to make up for the laser short board, so that the natural spectrum does not get tired for a long time.
These evaluations of Jimi's three-color laser have become one of the main reasons why Nut CPO Will bombarded Jimi. Nut CPO Will said that as the industry leader, Jimi did not talk about its products well at the conference, and half of the time was used to smear three-color lasers and mislead consumers. He also believes that Jimi's super mixing technology is a cheap solution for single-mixed red lasers in LEDs, which is shoddy technology and reverses the industry.
According to the statement recently released by JIMI Guanwei, JIMI said that super mixing technology is currently the most suitable light source technology for home projection, which can bring ultra-high brightness, ultra-high color gamut, ultra-high color accuracy and super comfortable experience. Jimi chooses super mixed light instead of three-color laser, the fundamental reason is that three-color laser has two major problems of speckle and color edge, which is a congenital defect of the three-color laser light source and cannot be completely solved.
Nut CPO Will believes that the three-color laser is a more advanced next-generation home projection light source. "We respect different manufacturers to choose different technical routes, but do not accept false guidance such as 'three-color laser is pseudo-technology', consumers should have the right to freely choose their favorite products after fully understanding the real information."
He said that the choice of three-color laser stems from nut's belief in more advanced technology and respect for user needs. This road does have difficulties and obstacles, but the choice of nuts is to overcome it with research and development, and use innovation to provide consumers with a more perfect experience, rather than the so-called "super mixing" such shoddy "reversing" technology to confuse the facts.
The war of words between the two sides has also attracted the attention of other manufacturers.
Zhu Shuqin, chief brand officer of Vidda of Hisense Group, commented that in fact, this matter is very simple, three-color laser is a better display technology, not self-talk, but a large number of real users after actual use of the conclusion, but also the global professional theater line is upgrading the program. This is not a fact that can be covered up by the trolls with the direction of the wind, nor is it a wave of the times that can be hindered by thinking. If you sincerely respect the user, you must return to the origin, do a good job in the product, and avoid detours, which is the pattern that the industry's leading brands should have.
However, an industry expert who did not want to be named told Sina Technology that mixing technology and three-color laser technology have their own advantages and disadvantages. Mixing technology can improve brightness and color saturation, but it is slightly inferior to tricolor laser technology in terms of black expression and contrast. Tri-color laser technology can provide better black performance and contrast, but is slightly inferior to mixed light technology in terms of brightness and color saturation. At present, the mainstream technology in the industry varies by manufacturer and product, and there is no obvious leader.
Who is doing money-burning marketing? The earnings report is revealed
Another point of contention between the two sides is whether Jimi has burned money marketing to suppress innovators.
Nut CPO Will believes that Jimi, as the industry boss, has earned the most profits in the industry, and does not use the real money given by users to promote industry innovation and progress, but uses shoddy cheap technology and money-burning marketing that reverses black and white to suppress innovators.
Jimi believes that nuts are touching porcelain marketing, and Jimi's sales expenses and R&D expenses are shown in the financial report, "It is better to do these things well when there is time, and make the product well, and make the cake bigger together." ”
According to data released by IDC, the total shipment volume of China's projector market in 2022 will be 5.05 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%. Sales were CNY 19.85 billion, down 7.4% y/y. The top 5 manufacturers in terms of shipment volume are Jimi, Epson, Nut Nuts, Fengmi and Dangbei, with a combined market share of more than 45%.
If we look at the consumer market, China's home projector shipments will be 4.162 million units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 19.5%. Sales exceeded CNY 13.54 billion, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. In the overall household market, Jimi, Nut Rice, Fengmi, Dangbei and Epson ranked among the top five in terms of sales.
At present, Jimi has been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Nut parent company Huole Technology has completed a pre-IPO financing of 1 billion yuan in 2022, and has not officially submitted an IPO application, so it is impossible to directly compare the profits of the two parties.
Sina Technology combed through the financial reports of JIMI and found that JIMI's revenue and profit maintained rapid growth in 2020 and 2021, but entered a state of slight growth in 2022. In 2022, JIMI will achieve an operating income of 4.222 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.57%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 501 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.72%.
In the first quarter of this year, Jimi fell into negative revenue and profit growth. JIMI's revenue in the first quarter of 2023 was 884 million yuan, down 12.75% from the same period of the previous year; Net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 52 million yuan, down 57% from the same period last year.
In terms of R&D investment, JIMI has maintained double-digit year-on-year growth in recent years, with R&D investment of 377 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 43.49%, and the R&D expense ratio of 8.93%.
In terms of sales expenses, sales expenses increased rapidly in 2020 and 2021, with double-digit ranges, and sales expenses in 2022 were 598 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.95%; The selling expense ratio was 14.16%, a slight decrease year-on-year.
Overall, Jimi's net profit gradually entered a slight growth from high-speed growth to a slight growth track, and even a downward trajectory; R&D investment maintained rapid growth, and sales expenses entered a downward trend, but the current sales expense ratio is higher than the R&D expense ratio.
Is the war of words self-hi? Half of netizens think that the product is chicken ribs
For the war of words between the two sides, many netizens said that consumers need not tall technology, but a good movie-watching experience, and the two still have to use products to speak. The hope is that they compete in the consumer market rather than in rhetoric, so that consumers can be inclusive.
It is worth noting that the war of words between the two sides also coincides with the eve of 618. Recently, the two companies successively announced the 618 opening red war report, both pressed themselves on several projectors first.
According to the war report released by Jimi, it said that it was the first GMV in the 618 opening red JD.com/Tmall/Douyin projection category; According to the war report released by Nut, it said that it was the first in the category of Jingdong laser projectors, the first in the Tmall laser projector brand list, and the Douyin store ranked first in the category of office consumables (projectors and printers) in May.
According to the latest "China Smart Projection Retail Market Monthly Tracking" report, in the first quarter of 2023, the sales volume of China's smart projection market (excluding laser TVs) was 1.428 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%; Sales were CNY 2.53 billion, down 4.3% y/y. Sales of smart projections have increased, but sales have declined, indicating that the average unit price is declining.
The above-mentioned industry experts told Sina Technology that the war of words between the two sides reflects the current situation of fierce competition in the projection industry. In order to compete for market share, manufacturers will attack competitors in various ways, including denigrating competitors' technologies and products, and creating negative public opinion. This also reflects the growing demand of consumers for projection products, and manufacturers need to improve their competitiveness through various means.
"However, this way of competing is not a long-term solution, and manufacturers need to pay more attention to the quality of the product and the user experience in order to achieve lasting success in the market."
That's the case. In a Weibo survey previously launched by Sina Technology, more than 48% of netizens said that they had not bought a home projector and had no demand; Nearly 40% think that buying a home projector is a chicken rib.
It can be seen that indicators such as user penetration rate and user satisfaction of home projectors still need to be improved. Projector manufacturers also need to further cultivate user awareness and jointly expand the market cake, far from the stage of competing for the cake in the stock market.