Recently, a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Society learned that the Black Shark mobile phone, which has not spoken for a long time, held a new product launch conference on the evening of December 5, but the new products released by Black Shark at the meeting were neither mobile phones nor mobile phone-related accessories, but a competitive energy drink.
It is worth mentioning that on the eve of the press conference, the Black Shark product team also released a "Letter to the Shark Fans Who Work Together", which said that Black Shark will enter a "dark moment" in the second half of 2022, and the current Black Shark is very difficult, but "ask for change, to live". A reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Agency previously reported that in 2022, Black Shark Technology laid off 80% of its employees, and many employees who were laid off in January this year broke the news that they had not received full compensation.
On December 6, a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Society tried to contact Black Shark about the current company's strategy and new competitive energy drink products, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
The game mobile phone "transformed" to sell energy drinks, netizens: Black Shark is ready to "benchmark" Red Bull
On December 5th, Black Shark Technology, which has been silent for a long time, held a new product launch conference, and the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society noticed that the conference played the slogan of "For competition, Black Shark redefines energy drinks", at which Black Shark Technology released a drink, and positioned the new drink as "the energy drink that the new generation of young people prefer".
In this regard, on social platforms, some netizens said, "not doing business", "unexpected is expected", "I used to benchmark the Red Devils, but now I can benchmark against Red Bull." "It's a long time to live, and drinks have to be developed." ”
According to public information, Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd., established in 2017, is an enterprise mainly engaged in the manufacturing of computers, communications and other electronic equipment, with a registered capital of 73,078,335 yuan. Its legal representative, Luo Yuzhou, used to be the vice president of Huawei's consumer business in China, and Xiaomi is the largest shareholder of Black Shark Mobile Phone, holding about 46.44% of the shares.
As a company focusing on gaming mobile phones, more than a year and a half have passed since the release of the Black Shark 5 series in March 2022. However, the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society also paid attention to the fact that at present, many peripheral products have been displayed as out of stock, and even the relevant pages cannot be opened.
It is worth mentioning that the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society combed and found that in terms of game mobile phones, at present, Black Shark includes Tmall, Jingdong and official websites, and only one model of Black Shark 5 Pro is left in the mobile phone series products on sale, and other products have been sold out and taken off the shelves. In the official mall of WeChat, there is an additional Black Shark 5 mobile phone.
And this Black Shark5 Pro was also re-launched last month,According to Black Shark TechnologyCEO Luo Yuzhou Weibo,The model is"Limited time return",Many netizens commented on this move to "clear inventory",Some netizens commented on it"When to update the system""Black Shark4S system will not be maintained"Problems such as "When to update the system""Black Shark4S system will not be maintained。 The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society tried to contact Black Shark to understand the specific situation of the company's products, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
On the eve of this press conference, there was also speculation that Black Shark would continue to release new hardware products, and on December 2, @黑鲨外设 Weibo account warmed up and wrote, "More real: the vibration is real and immersive". However, it is worth noting that not only did the Black Shark 6 series, which was previously expected by netizens, not appear at the press conference, but also did not mention the content of hardware products throughout the meeting. The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society found that Black Shark only "quietly" put on the shelves a new wireless gamepad - Black Magic Wireless Gamepad, with a retail price of 259 yuan and a starting price of 199 yuan.
The Black Shark Energy Drink Company was recently established
For the new product "Black Shark Competitive Energy" released this time, the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society combed and found that the current price of the energy drink is 6 yuan / bottle, 48 yuan / box (8 bottles), 300ml per bottle, the official said that this is an iced lemon tea flavor, containing taurine and caffeine. In addition to the regular version, the product also launched a co-branded model with the King of the Troubled Times. At present, on Jingdong Mall, there are "Black Shark Jingdong Self-operated Flagship Store" and "Black Shark Beverage Flagship Store" both have this product on sale, and the online store will open in December 2023.
In addition, the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society searched and found that at present, Black Shark has opened a Weibo account and WeChat public account named "Black Shark Competitive Energy", and the certification subject is "Shenzhen Tianneng Canadian Dollar Nutritional Science Co., Ltd." The name of the food operator of the "Black Shark Beverage Flagship Store" on the Jingdong platform is also "Shenzhen Tianneng Canadian Dollar Nutritional Science Co., Ltd."
Tianyancha shows that Shenzhen Tianneng Canadian Dollar Nutritional Science Co., Ltd. was established in June 2023 and is located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, with Fu Bin as the legal representative, with a registered capital of 1,833,241 yuan, and has registered a number of trademarks related to Black Shark Beverage. However, the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society searched and found that the URL of its website had "blacksharkenergy.com" but could not be opened.
On December 6, a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Society tried to contact Black Shark to understand the specific situation of the new product, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
"Changing careers" may be forced by the situation, and Black Shark has been caught in a salary arrears scandal before
On December 4th, the Black Shark product team released a "Letter to the Shark Fans Who Accompany Each Other" to warm up the press conference, the letter talked about the "dark moment" experienced by the Black Shark, the Black Yarn said, "The current Black Shark is destined to be very difficult", "Adversity will make people painful, but it can still sharpen the mind, stop in place, it is better to live to die; The handle and even other products are Black Shark's self-salvation step by step."
Black Shark also said that at present, resources are limited, "I can only try to cover the product on hand and hope that it will blossom and bear fruit." "Whether it's a mobile phone or a peripheral", Black Shark has not given up.
In recent years, it has coincided with the "cold winter" of the mobile phone industry, and game mobile phones are only one of the niche branches, and the sales have suffered a serious setback. According to data from Whale Staff, compared with 2021, the cumulative sales of game mobile phones from January to September 2022 will be about 3.2 million units, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 40%, and the cumulative sales will be about 7.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39%.
Perhaps realizing that the development of the mobile phone industry is deteriorating, Black Shark Technology tried to switch to the "metaverse", but its progress was not ideal. It is reported that at ChinaJoy in August 2021, Black Shark showed an AR glasses called RokidAir. Since November 2021, it has applied for the registration of a number of trademarks related to the metaverse, including "Meta Black Shark", "Black Shark Metaverse", "Black Shark META", "Black Shark AR", "Black Shark VR", etc.
Since the beginning of 2022, there has been news that Tencent intends to acquire Black Shark Technology to develop the VR/AR field. This was originally the best opportunity for Black Shark's transformation, but according to people familiar with the matter, the acquisition has not been approved by the relevant departments, and Tencent gave up the acquisition of Black Shark.
Then, Black Shark entered a "dark moment", in the second half of 2022, Black Shark was exposed to layoffs, and some industry insiders revealed that Black Shark is significantly shrinking the number of jobs, with a layoff rate of nearly 50%, of which most of the positions that have been greatly eliminated belong to the VR department and the mobile phone department. A former employee of Black Shark told a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Agency that the company used to have 1,000 people at its peak, but now there are only more than 100 people left, and only a few departments such as the Internet and functions are retained.
At the beginning of this year, it caused public discussion due to the issue of arrears of employees' wages, and under Luo Yuzhou's personal Weibo, many suspected former employees left messages asking for normal payment of layoff compensation. At that time, a former employee of Black Shark told a reporter from Nandu Bay Finance Agency that at the end of last year, Black Shark told the employees who left the company that they would divide the severance compensation into 3 months because of business difficulties, and then extended the 3-month period to 6 months.
According to Tianyancha, Black Shark Technology has recently added a number of court announcements, all of which are labor disputes. In addition, the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society also noticed that the current official Weibo update of Black Shark Technology only stayed in April this year, and the official public account has not been updated for nearly a year, and the latest content is about the information of the press conference.
Written by: Nandu Bay Finance Society reporter Kong Xueshao intern Zhu Kexuan