The first share of live broadcast e-commerce, a loss

Golden Horn Finance

2024-06-17 17:44Posted in Guangdong financial field creators

原创首发 | 金角财经（ID: F-Jinjiao)

Author | Kakuye

This year's 618 is particularly deserted, and the most obvious signal is that the head anchors can't bring the goods.

"Taobao First Brother" Li Jiaqi, the GMV on the first day of 618 pre-sale in the live broadcast room was almost "halved" compared with last year. Previously, he said at the US ONE 618 launch meeting that Li Jiaqi predicted that "this year's 618 will be difficult".

"Kuaishou First Brother" Simba returned from unblocking, and the total sales of the first live broadcast of 618 were 1.427 billion yuan, while the sales of the first half of the Double 11 last year were 2.6 billion yuan.

Douyin's top anchors are also not having a good time, and almost all of them have fallen by more than 80%. However, just when many head anchors are in decline, Yuanwang Technology, which has the "first share of live broadcast e-commerce", is on fire.

In the list of Douyin with goods in May, Jia Nailiang, a star anchor signed by Yuanwang Technology, topped the "Douyin First Brother", and the sales volume of 618 on the day of its premiere reached double that of 618 last year, leaving behind the previous two-time champion "Walking with Hui" in one fell swoop.

However, the good news in the live broadcast room is not enough to make Yuanwang Technology happy.

In the first full year after the name change, Yuanwang Technology handed in an answer sheet with a loss of 1.05 billion yuan, which attracted eight consecutive questions from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and the regulatory knife hung over its head.

Live streaming has finally changed.

"Douyin First Brother" substitution

The passionate head anchor in the past has lost his voice in this 618 collective.

The first is Li Jiaqi, who retreated in advance. Li Jiaqi, who admitted that he "found it difficult" before 618, brought more than 2.675 billion yuan on the first day of 618 pre-sale this year, which seemed to be still able to play, but compared with nearly 5 billion in the same period last year, the decline dropped by 46%.

Simba, the fast-handed anchor who was unblocked not long ago, is in a similar situation. The total sales of 618's first live broadcast reached 1.427 billion yuan, which seems to be unaffected, but some data show that when it premieres on Double 11 in 2023, Simba's half-time sales have reached 2.6 billion yuan. "I've been broadcasting it for six years, and I can't broadcast it anymore." Simba's confession in the live broadcast was full of exhaustion.

Douyin's top anchors are also not good. Feigua data shows that the turnover of "Guangdong couples" in the same period last year was 450 million yuan, and this year it was only 61.14 million - a year-on-year decrease of 86.4%. "Pan Yurun" was 29.529 million yuan in the same period last year and 6.748 million yuan this year, down 77%; "Qi'er" was 111 million yuan in the same period last year and 12.923 million this year, down 88.46%.

Then there is Dong Yuhui who is stealth 618. During the "618" promotion from June 3rd to 9th, Dong Yuhui only arranged 3 live broadcasts, and even revealed his resistance and boredom with his anchor career in the talk show.

Whether it is intentional or weak, the ability of the head anchor to bring goods is indeed declining at a speed that is visible to the naked eye. In a bleak situation, Jia Nailiang's ascension to the top of the "Douyin First Brother" is particularly eye-catching.

On May 21, Jia Nailiang's first 618 live broadcast achieved a GMV of more than 100 million yuan in only three hours, and the all-day sales reached twice that of 618 last year. In the end, in the list of Douyin experts with goods in May, Jia Nailiang ranked first with sales of 707 million yuan, ending the previous monthly "two consecutive championships" of "Walking with Hui".

There is a view that Jia Nailiang's ability to become the "first brother of Douyin" is related to the platform's "de-heading" strategy, and he intends to create a new top brand. By providing a large subsidy mechanism, including 500 million subsidies, large red envelope subsidies, Apple mobile phone benefits and 1 cent welfare products, etc., a lot of resources were poured into attracting users to squat in Jia Nailiang's live broadcast room all day long, and finally Jia Nailiang successfully reached the top.

However, there is never love without a reason in this world. The boost and blessing from the platform still stems from the crazy investment of the company behind Jia Nailiang in live broadcasting.

It's still a loss

Jia Nailiang's contracted company is called Yuanwang Technology, known as the "first share of live broadcast e-commerce", formerly known as "Saturday", which made women's shoes, and was renamed "Yuanwang Technology" at the end of 2022.

This company has a characteristic, that is, it likes to sign celebrities as anchors, but all the star anchors you see on the short video platform are basically from Yuanwang Technology, and it has signed contracts with more than 60 celebrities to cooperate in the live broadcast business.

In 618 this year, a total of 153 anchors from Yuanwang Technology participated in the promotion, bringing 30,000 products, and the overall live broadcast duration reached 6,054 hours. In addition to Jia Nailiang, many live broadcast rooms of Yuanwang Technology frequently exceeded 100 million times, and the number of more than 10 million games reached more than a dozen.

The shouting was loud, but the books of Yuanwang Technology were ugly.

In the first quarter of this year, Yuanwang Technology's revenue was 1.581 billion, a year-on-year increase of 43.44%, but the net profit attributable to the parent company was -9423.86 yuan, a year-on-year plunge of -147.77%.

According to the annual report released on the same day, in 2023, Yuanwang Technology will achieve operating income of 4.777 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.48%, but the net profit attributable to the parent company will be -1.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of -299.33%. In 2022, although the net profit is also a loss, it will narrow the loss by 62.13% year-on-year.

Why is it that the more revenue, the more losses?

It is worth noting that as a head live broadcast organization, Yuanwang Technology's business is largely dependent on the traffic delivery of the Douyin platform. In the annual report, Yuanwang Technology revealed for the first time that the largest supplier was Beijing Douyin Information Service Co., Ltd., which purchased 2.304 billion yuan last year, accounting for 53.87% of the total annual procurement.

Compared with the revenue of 4.777 billion yuan, more than half of the revenue of Yuanwang Technology is used to invest in the stream.

However, 2.3 billion was spent on streaming, and the profitability of the live broadcast business plummeted. In 2023, Yuanwang Technology's live broadcast commission income will decline by 24.19% year-on-year, but it will still account for more than 36%. However, the gross profit margin shrank sharply by 22.61% to -0.38%.

Compared with 2021, when the live broadcast industry was at its most lively, more than 60% of Yuanwang Technology's revenue came from social e-commerce services, with a gross profit margin of nearly 25%.

invested 2.3 billion, but lost 1 billion, it can only be said that the traffic is getting more and more expensive, and it is getting more and more difficult to make money.

In addition to the weakening of profitability, what is even worse is that Yuanwang Technology has also carried out a "big bath" of asset impairment.

In 2023, the impairment comprehensive reduction of Yuanwang Technology's net profit will exceed 470 million yuan, which will become the main reason for dragging down the performance.

But the strange thing is that Hangzhou Hongzhen Commercial Co., Ltd., which holds 40.5% of the equity of Yuanwang Technology, as the distributor of its own brand shoes and clothing products with the most accounts receivable, sold out the inventory, but the company did not receive the money.

After negotiation, Hangzhou Hongzhen needs to compensate Yuanwang Technology for 112 million yuan. As of the end of 2023, Yuanwang Technology still has 32.5 million yuan in compensation not yet received, and the funds eventually form a non-operating occupation of the listed company's funds by Hangzhou Hongzhen, a related party.

The various strangeness of Yuanwang Technology has also been targeted by regulators.

On May 26, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued an inquiry letter for the 2023 annual report of Yuanwang Technology, asking eight questions about the company's large loss of net profit, large outflow of cash flow from operating activities, and serious year-on-year decline in the gross profit margin of Internet advertising business.

In the face of regulatory inquiries, Yuanwang Technology twice announced that it would postpone its reply. First, he applied to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on May 31 to extend the date of reply to the inquiry letter on June 7. Later, it said that due to the large content of the "Annual Report Inquiry Letter", the company's reply has been completed, but the verification opinion of the annual audit accountant is in the internal approval process, and it will be postponed to June 17 to submit the "Annual Report Inquiry Letter" reply and fulfill the information disclosure obligation.

As of press time, Yuanwang Technology has not announced a disclosure reply.

It's hard to do live streaming

The story of Yuanwang Technology fully proves that no matter what level of anchor you are, if you want to sell the goods, you have to pass the level of streaming first, and the cost of streaming is becoming more and more like a bottomless pit.

There are many reasons behind this. First of all, the growth of live broadcast e-commerce has slowed down, and the stock game is becoming more and more obvious.

According to a report by LastPost, the year-on-year growth rate of Douyin e-commerce fell to below 40% in March this year. In April, the year-on-year growth rate of Douyin e-commerce was not much different from that in March. In contrast, Douyin's cumulative year-on-year growth rate in January and February exceeded 60%. In 2023, the monthly sales growth rate of Douyin e-commerce will basically remain between 50% and 70%.

As the market gradually enters the stage of stock competition, the development strategies of Taobao, Douyin and other platforms have changed, and more and more anchors with the same positioning have emerged.

While investment is getting more and more expensive, consumers are becoming less and less willing to spend money. According to the mobile live broadcast report released by Quest Mobile, Douyin live broadcast users are mainly young people, concentrated in 19-35 years old; The user's spending power is more than 1,000 yuan, accounting for only 24.5%.

While the flow is getting more and more expensive, the enthusiasm of consumers is also declining, compared with the previous impulse consumption, now the main focus is a "cost performance", cheap is the king. Even the top anchors are difficult to impress users through means other than low prices, and although low-priced products can be exchanged for sales, they can only end up with a situation where they only make money but do not make money.

And with the change of public opinion, the head anchors have also disappeared into the dust.

Brother Xiao Yang has denied the identity of "Douyin First Brother" many times, and selling goods is just a small fight, only 20 million, and he can't even enter the top 50 rankings of Douyin. Faced with the blessings of fans to "make a fortune in the New Year", his response was quite Versailles: "Don't make a fortune, what are you doing with such a fortune, I told you that making a small fortune is the fastest life." ”

Simba also took the initiative to avoid the problem of high income, and poured bitter water in the live broadcast room, saying that he would pay more than 1.1 billion yuan in wages to 4,860 employees every year, more than 200 million yuan in rent, utilities, and more than 2 billion yuan for the platform. "Xin Xuan is not as profitable as everyone understands, and even plays for nothing for a year."

Making a friend also dilutes Luo Yonghao's super presence by incubating the live broadcast room of the vertical matrix.

Not to mention Dong Yuhui, he has repeatedly retired, and bluntly said that he is "very disgusted" by others calling him an Internet celebrity.

Then, Jia Nailiang, who has become the "first brother of Douyin", will have some hidden worries about making a big move, and if the Yuanwang technology behind it can't pass the regulatory inquiry, it will be a bloody storm.

In the final analysis, the money from live streaming is not easy to earn.

Resources:

Cat Finance: "Live streaming doesn't make money! "Recharged" Douyin 2.3 billion, Yuanwang Technology lost another 1 billion"

TOP e-commerce: "618 turnover plummeted, and the super head anchor is not fragrant?" 》

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