Recently,A news about"Tencent withdraws from smart TV manufacturer Micro Whale Technology",Let Micro Whale TV return to the public eye。 The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society noticed that the Internet TV, which was once as famous as LeTV and Baofeng, has recently undergone industrial and commercial changes, and Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. has withdrawn from the ranks of shareholders. Before the exit, Tencent invested 190 million yuan and was the fourth largest shareholder.
It is understood that the number of employees of Micro Whale Technology once exceeded 700, but according to its 2022 corporate annual report, there are only 3 employees left in Micro Whale Technology, while two years ago, in 2020, Micro Whale Technology only had 4 people. According to Tianyancha's information disclosure, the currently disclosed employees of Microwhale include Executive Director Lu Jinrong and Supervisor Yu Lingjie, and it is not known who the third employee of Microwhale is.
According to public information, Micro Whale Technology was founded in 2015 by Chinese Culture Holdings, Li Ruigang and Li Huaiyu. In the early days of its establishment, it cut in from the perspective of content, focusing on the model of Internet TV and content subsidy hardware, catching up with the upsurge of TV intelligent Internet, and doing it well for a while. In 2016, it attracted an investment of 2 billion yuan, including Chinese Culture Co., Ltd. (39% shareholding, the largest shareholder), Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. (31.5% shareholding, the second largest shareholder), Suzhou Industrial Park Purple Cat Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (20% shareholding, the third largest shareholder), and Linzhi Tencent Technology Co., Ltd. (9.5% shareholding, the fourth largest shareholder).
Micro Whale Technology once had unlimited scenery,In the era of Internet TV popularity,It used to rank second in the Internet TV market,Second only to LETV TV。 The concept of "Metaverse", which is only now popular, has long been played by Micro Whale Technology, and in 2017, the first generation of VR all-in-one Micro Whale X1 was launched. In recent years, the projector market has also become popular, and Microwhale Technology also launched related products as early as 2018.
In terms of content, Li Ruigang, one of the founders of Micro Whale Technology, is a big man in the media and cultural circle, and has served as the chairman and CEO of CMC Capital and Chinese Culture Group Corporation, a non-executive director of Station B, the chairman and non-executive director of Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Holdings Co., Ltd., and the vice chairman and non-executive director of TVB. In the context of a series of dazzling film and television groups, Micro Whale Technology has also cooperated with Warner Times, TVB, IMAX, Sports Olympic Power, etc., and won various copyrights including animations such as "Kung Fu Panda" and "How to Train Your Dragon", a large number of TVB Hong Kong dramas, "The Voice of China", "Good Songs of China", ball games, boxing live broadcasts, etc., and even invested in the production of the movie version of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City".
But what is unexpected is that Micro Whale Technology has a good hand of cards, but it is played poorly. It is worth noting that,The advantage of Internet TV is low price,Micro Whale also opened up the market through low-cost sales of hardware at the beginning+Content subsidy model。 However, in 2017, the TV market declined rapidly, and Microwhale Technology was affected by market fluctuations. In order to save itself, Microwhale Technology began to cancel price subsidies and no longer participate in price wars.
The following year, in 2018, Microwhale Technology announced its reorganization, re-entered the field of intelligent hardware, and launched intelligent projection products. So far, Micro Whale has formed a whole family entertainment front including a multi-product line of intelligent terminal matrix (TV, micro projection, VR helmet, smart audio, smart home), smart TV software system, and self-made programs produced by Micro Whale.
However, the situation has not improved, and since 2018, a series of suppliers have broken the news that Microwhale Technology has been in arrears for a long time. Although Micro Whale quickly denied this statement at that time, saying that it was still within the repayment time and there was no arrears. However, the rumor, coupled with the cessation of the development and production of TV products, has also affected consumer confidence in it.
In recent years, Micro Whale Technology has gradually faded out of the market, and the official flagship store on JD.com, Tmall and other platforms has disappeared. The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society noticed that the current update of the official website of Micro Whale Technology is only in 2018, while the update of Micro Whale and Micro Whale Projection Official Micro is stuck in 2020. Although the official WeChat public account still has content updates,But at present, the updated content of the micro whale TV official account can no longer see the relevant hardware products,Instead, they are all super film and television VIP content。
However, it is worth mentioning that although Li Ruigang, one of the founders of Micro Whale Technology, withdrew from the position of director and legal representative as early as 2021, the current legal representative and chairman of Micro Whale Technology is Lu Jinrong, according to Tianyancha APP information, he belongs to the Chinese Culture Group. At present, the public employees of Microwhale include executive director Lu Jinrong and supervisor Yu Lingjie. Both of them belong to the Chinese Culture Group.
The reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society noticed that in November 2023, Linzhi Tencent Technology Co., Ltd. transferred its shares to Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd., and a month later, Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. continued to "beat the drum and pass the flowers" , transferred the shares to Shanghai Micro Grain Technology Co., Ltd., the former second largest shareholder of Micro Whale (in January 2023, Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. withdrew and transferred its shares to the new shareholder Shanghai Micro Vision Technology Co., Ltd.), so Shanghai Micro Vision Technology Co., Ltd. became the largest shareholder of Micro Whale (holding 41% of the shares).
Since Tencent's withdrawal, there are currently only three shareholders left in Micro Whale (Shanghai Micro Particle Technology Co., Ltd., Chinese Culture Co., Ltd., and Suzhou Industrial Park Purple Cat Information Consulting Co., Ltd.), but the reporter of Nandu Bay Finance Society noticed that the remaining shareholders are all Chinese Culture Group, such as Lu Jinrong, executive director of Micro Whale, who is also the executive director of Shanghai Micro Particle Technology Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Industrial Park Purple Cat Information Consulting Co., Ltd. This may mean that Li Ruigang is still the actual controller of Microwhale Technology.
It is worth mentioning that in 2023, Microwhale also invested abroad - in May 2023, Microwhale subscribed and contributed 22.65 million yuan to invest in Shanghai Shiyun Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is now the fourth largest shareholder of the latter, and Besitong and Lenovo are also shareholders of Shanghai Shiyun Network Technology Co., Ltd. The most well-known video of the cloud network was TV cat video (cloud audio-visual MoreTV), which is a live TV software. However, with the deployment of the State Administration of Radio and Television last year to govern the TV "nesting doll" charges, the official Weibo has stopped updating.
Written by: Nandu Bay Finance Society reporter Kong Xueshao