Recently, a turbulent industry news has occurred in the LED display industry: according to the 2023 Unilumin Technology financial report, the revenue of its smart display sector will reach 6.686 billion yuan. This revenue figure surpassed the revenue of its main competitor Leyard's smart display business of 6.500 billion yuan in 2023.
Unilumin Technology has won the "world's first" position in the field of LED smart display, and the reason behind the change of throne is analyzed: although it is unexpected, it is also reasonable. The layout of the two in terms of brand, channel and industry prospect has faintly revealed the future development capabilities and prospects caused by the core development genes of the two.
Below, the author will see the sun from the brand layout, channel layout, and product layout.
Brand layout: a strong co-branded fleet VS an innovative enterprise empowered by applications
In China, the most famous LED display brands are Leyard, Unilumin, Absen, Lehman, Alto, and Lianjian. However, several years have since the development. Alto and Lianjian two major brand enterprises are in decline. Lehman focuses on COB LED technology and leads the way; Absen has become the No. 1 brand in the overseas market.
But judging from the final results, Leyard and Zhou Ming are the two ultimate kings. However, from the perspective of these two, its strategy for brand development is completely in two opposite directions.
From Leyard's point of view, we define it as a "strong co-brand fleet", that is, with its own Leyard LED as its main business, through brand mergers and acquisitions, etc., to achieve its own brand development. In this way, for an enterprise with great resources in the military, government and enterprises, this is a good way to "seek progress while maintaining stability" in response to Leyard's market tonality.
As a "brand fleet", its core advantage is that it can ensure the influence of other brands under many brands, such as the core advantages of Shuhu Image in multimedia display, the core advantage of Lifeng in cultural tourism projects, and the core advantage of virtual moving point in the metaverse, and at the same time, Leyard can obtain the energy blessing of these brands.
Through the empowerment of powerful products and solutions through "two-way running, mutual achievement", Leyard has excellent ability to deal with public relations crises. However, such a "brand fleet" has certain disadvantages in terms of external brand output.
The mind of the brand in the hearts of customers is particularly important through the recognition of a unified name and a unified image from the outside world. And in Leyard's "brand fleet", it is not too tough to demand the focus of the Leyard brand. For example, in the cultural tourism industry, many people know that Shuhu Image and Lifeng Group do not know that they all belong to Leyard. In the metaverse space, many people may know about virtual monets, but they don't know about Leyard.
For Unilumin, we can simply say that Unilumin adopts a number of more "one Unilumin" strategy, strong product innovation, application empowerment strength, accumulated under the unified brand image and leakage of "Unilumin", and gathers all the strength in one point, so that the public understands that this is an LED brand enterprise with application innovation empowerment as the core.
Channel Layout: Continuous "Hard Demand" of Military, Government and Enterprises VS "Soft Demand" of Innovative Business Display
From the perspective of the above brands, Leyard is a "strong co-brand fleet", which is stronger than "seeking progress in stability" and weaker than brand cohesion; Unilumin is stronger than the core cohesion of "one brand". In terms of channel layout, we can see Leyard's "way of success" over the years and the core reasons why Unilumin has been able to continue to bring surprises.
From the perspective of the LED display industry, Qiangqiang Jucai, Unilumin, Leyard and Absen are the four most distinctive brands in the channel. Lehman is a brand with the most technical genes. Absen is stronger than the overseas market, strong Jucai is stronger than cost performance, Unilumin is stronger than commercial display channels, and Leyard is stronger than military, government and enterprise channels. Each occupies a part of the market.
From 2019 to 2021, there was a lot of hemorrhage in the military, government and enterprises, and the country shifted from the strategy of "big strides" to the strategic orientation of "stable development". The digital reform of the military, government and enterprises has begun to slow down, which is also hurtful for Leyard, whose main business is Leyard. However, this is only temporary, with the military, government and enterprises as the core channel. I am not worried about the development of the "iron rice bowl".
In contrast, Unilumin uses the field of commercial display to lay down the market. Relying on strong self-innovation strength and keen perception of business scenarios, it realizes iteration from product to program. From commercial display, to the metaverse, digital human, Unilumin Technology is a leader in application innovation.
In the context of a new era, the extreme involution of the low-end market does not have much impact on the two. The competition for the mid-to-high-end market is the core of both.
It is also at this time that whether it is military, government, enterprise or business scenarios, what is the pursuit of "absolute efficiency", what is "absolute efficiency"? That is, through a certain amount of funds, to achieve absolute innovation and product power in a certain project, the limited funds will be used in more valuable areas.
From this point of view, Unilumin Technology's strength at the application level, at least on the surface, is stronger than Leyard. For example, in the field of XR virtual works, which has become popular in recent years, Unilumin Technology and its subsidiary ROE Visual have provided more than 100 digital virtual studios all over the world, producing phenomenal literary and artistic products such as "Instant Universe", "Flowers", and Netflix version of "Three-Body Problem", as well as popular film and television products. Impress the market.
Forward-looking layout: The traditional LED industry is steadily advancing VS the forward-looking metaverse field is opening and closing
From the perspective of the forward-looking industry, from many large-scale display platforms to the outside world, Leyard gives the image of an LED display enterprise with "LED display as the core and many small side businesses". The image of Unilumin Technology is closer to the solution enterprise of "using LED display as a tool to blossom everywhere in major application fields".
Whether it is ISLE or in the past infocomm China 2024, Leyard gives people the feeling that it is the forefront of technology, such as in the field of small pitch LED, MIP technology stands in the industry preface, and in the field of AI, Leyard's motion capture technology is cool and eye-catching.
Unilumin Technology has launched the "Light Display + AI Software Defined Large Screen 3.0", showing the world's first "Light Display Content Security Broadcast Control Whole Process Solution", multi-modal AI interactive digital human, Metaverse ecological fish tank screen, the first 5-meter LED movie screen certified by DCI in the domestic industry, AM driver/MIP/COB and other innovative technology products.
It can also be seen that one is a steady LED display brand; One is a cutting-edge enterprise with leapfrog development thinking.
Although we know that it is not too late for Leyard Technology to enter the market in the fields of digital human, XR, AR, etc., Leyard has always maintained a "cautious exploration" for the display and application exploration of similar forward-looking technologies, and has not made too much noise to the public.
From the perspective of security, this is a security route based on military, government and enterprise projects, you can make small mistakes, but there will be no mistakes on the big route, but this approach will also make such an enterprise lag behind other brands in the era of Internet of Things technology that is updated and iterated rapidly.
On the other hand, the innovative scenes brought by Unilumin Technology every time it is displayed are enough to attract many project parties and users. In today's stage of lack of innovative products, take the lead.
Of course, it is also a star brand in the LED display industry, and it is committed to fulfilling its responsibilities in major national projects and creating a "national weapon"; The other is committed to bringing new experiences to the common scenarios of major innovations. Both have their advantages. Comparable.
The slight gap between the two is only a temporary development in a special stage, and the balanced development of the two shows that the mainland LED wisdom display is constantly cultivated in major fields.
This is a good thing, both for the development of the country and for the public experience.