After entering 2024, Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, has accelerated the creation of short videos.
It stands to reason that Zhou Hongyi has a net worth of tens of billions and is quite well-known, why do you have to work so hard to make short videos?
Maybe Zhou Hongyi himself likes the feeling of being noticed by netizens, or maybe Zhou Hongyi wants to create more exposure for 360, reduce marketing costs, and make the company more profitable. However, I personally think that Zhou Hongyi wants to attract investors through short videos, and then invest in excellent companies and empower traffic.
Nezha Automobile is one of the unicorns invested by 360. It is reported that 360 Company invested in Nezha Automobile in 2021, and invested in two rounds, namely D round and D+ round. At the time of the D round of financing, Nezha's valuation had exceeded 22 billion. If the market value of Nezha is less than 22 billion yuan after it is listed, then 360's investment will be lost.
Let's look at Nezha's side, as early as 2021, the year of 360's investment, the company is ready to go public. At first, it was prepared to be listed on the STAR Market, but later it may have to be listed in Hong Kong because some data did not meet the standards. At present, it is still in preparation, and the listing has not been completed.
Although Nezha has not yet been listed, Nezha has missed the craziest period of new energy vehicles, and even if the company is listed, the market value may not exceed 22 billion yuan.
Because among the new car-making forces, in addition to the ideal, the market value of NIO and Xiaopeng has plummeted, with the market value of the two companies being 69.75 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 64.5 billion yuan) and 55.36 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 51.2 billion yuan) respectively!
In terms of sales, NIO delivered 11,866 units in March, up 14.3% year-on-year, while Xpeng delivered 9,026 new vehicles in March, up 29% year-on-year. On the other hand, Nezha delivered only 8,317 new cars in March, a year-on-year decrease of 17.5%.
Some people may say that Nezha's car sales are not bad, and according to the proportion, Nezha's valuation should be around 45 billion yuan. How can 360 lose money?
The reason lies in the sales data of Nezha Automobile, some netizens found that Nezha's sales data in the first week of March was 562 units, the second week was 511 units, the third week was 229 units, and the sum of the sales in the first three weeks was 1293 units. However, the sales volume in March reached 8,317 units, which means that Nezha's sales in the fourth week were 7,024 units, which is too abrupt from Nezha's sales data in the first three weeks.
And Nezha didn't have too out-of-the-circle marketing in March, so it's a bit strange that sales have skyrocketed.
In 2023, Nezha's life will not be easy, at the beginning of the year, there was news of the delay in the payment of the year-end bonus, and in March, there was news of the shutdown of the Nanning factory. Under the superposition of various reasons, if Nezha is successfully listed, it is a question whether the market value can exceed 10 billion yuan.
Some time ago, Zhou Hongyi visited the Nezha factory for a live broadcast. Zhou Hongyi is also blunt, Nezha's products and marketing are self-congratulatory, suggesting that CEO Daniel Zhang learn more marketing from Lei Jun.
Zhou Hongyi's straightforwardness somewhat made Daniel Zhang a little unable to get off the stage, after all, this is a live broadcast, so many netizens are watching. It is precisely because of Zhou Hongyi's outspokenness that he has brought a lot of free attention to Nezha. This may be Zhou Hongyi's deliberate drama, the purpose is to increase the exposure of Nezha Automobile.
Just after Zhou Hongyi criticized Nezha's products and marketing, Daniel Zhang quickly issued an article to accept Lao Zhou's criticism, and the marketing learned from Lei Jun, not ashamed. This not only brought Nezha a second exposure, but also allowed Daniel Zhang to smoothly walk into the audience's sight.
This is an era of competition for sight, the CEO must not only do a good job in the product, but also build himself into an Internet celebrity, only the CEO becomes an Internet celebrity, in order to make the company's marketing better and more cost-effective. Zhou Hongyi once praised Yu Chengdong, because of his big-mouthed personality, he conformed to the tone of the Internet celebrity economy and became an irreplaceable Internet celebrity, and he saved Huawei at least 1 billion in advertising costs. In particular, "far ahead" has become synonymous with Yu Chengdong.
Maybe Daniel Zhang still wants to be a good product manager, but this is far from enough in Zhou Hongyi's view. Even if it is "chasing ducks on the shelves", Daniel Zhang must be displayed in front of netizens. If it fails, there is nothing to lose for Nezha. What if it succeeds? It may make Nezha's sales skyrocket, the valuation skyrockets to five or six billion, and 360 can also make a little money.
Just before Daniel Zhang, Li Bin of NIO may also be aware of this problem, and from time to time he will open a live broadcast to answer the questions of netizens. To be honest, Li Bin gave netizens the impression of being arrogant before. But in the live broadcast room, netizens' questions are very sharp, such as: When will Weilai go out of business? Are you the next Gaohe? Li Bin's answer is very high EQ, making netizens say, if you had been like this earlier, wouldn't Weilai's sales have risen?
As more and more bigwigs of tens of billions of companies bet on the short video track, you will find that there are still opportunities for short videos. Because a netizen CEO may make the company spend hundreds of millions of dollars less on advertising, you don't want to make short videos?
This is the best era, but also the worst era, with capital thinking and new business model integration, the whole world is your stage!
In the world of new business, there is no eliminated industry, only the subverted out of the enterprise, and now all business competition will focus on "model innovation and capital operation".
A company or a boss, if there is a shortage of innovation ability and capital thinking, is destined to lose in advance.
Remember: without innovation, how can there be imagination, without imagination, how can there be competitiveness, if you want to break through, you must subvert the original business model, reconstruct a new business model!