A few days ago, the old photo of Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun attending the meeting together became popular again. Dong Mingzhu in the picture "asked" Lei Jun: Just you? Can you also make air conditioners? Can you turn on air conditioners? Lei Jun silently responded to the Xiao Ai speaker: Xiao Ai, turn on the Mijia Internet air conditioner and turn off the Gree air conditioner!

It has to be said that Lei Jun and Xiaomi, who did not let go of any explosive points, launched the marketing copy of air conditioners to cater to the hearts of the people who love to watch the fun.

As expected, the next day, Xiaomi officially released the Mijia Internet air conditioner. This air conditioner labeled Mijia adopts Xiaomi’s commonly used pricing method: 1.5 horsepower, three-level energy efficiency standard, retail price of 1999 yuan, which is about 1,000 yuan cheaper than the big brands Gree and Midea congeneric products on the market, and the public test price is only 999 yuan.

It was still Lei Jun’s familiar formula and Xiaomi’s familiar taste.

01

A mysterious air conditioning company

"For this Mijia air conditioner, Xiaomi has started to form a team in the first half of last year, looking for OEM foundries, designing product prototypes, and also buying our air conditioner data reports," Dong Min, vice-president of Aowei Cloud Network, which provides information services, told AI Finance Agency.

Xiaomi’s air-conditioning business has always been in charge of Xiaomi’s ecological chain enterprise Zhimi Technology. The company responsible for the research and development and production of Xiaomi air-conditioners is a company called Zhuhai Sanyou.

From the industrial and commercial registration information, the legal representative of Zhuhai Sanyou is Liu De, the co-founder of Xiaomi and the head of Xiaomi’s ecological chain. The shareholder of Zhuhai Sanyou is Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd., with a 100% shareholding ratio. In short, Zhuhai Sanyou is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi.

A point person in Zhuhai Sanyou’s business is Xiao Youyuan. He was originally a senior executive of Gree, worked in Gree for 10 years, and was also a trusted person of Dong Mingzhu, who was in charge of Gree’s overseas business. In 2015, Xiao Youyuan was poached by Skyworth with his team and participated in the establishment of Skyworth Air Conditioning. Hundreds of Skyworth Air Conditioning people came from Gree that year.

Xiao Youyuan, who participated in the founding of Skyworth Air Conditioning

From the industrial and commercial registration information of Zhuhai Sanyou, Xiao Youyuan and the team worked in Skyworth for two years, and soon took the team to the wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi, "because Skyworth and Gree have very different corporate cultures."

"As a private enterprise, Skyworth is used to’small input and big output ‘, while the Xiao Youyuan team from Gree has a style of’big work and fast work’." A person familiar with the matter told AI Finance Agency. In addition, Skyworth air conditioners encountered the "Little New Year" of air conditioners at the beginning, and their performance was not good. Gree and his group were gradually emptied of Skyworth air conditioners.

Xiao Youyuan’s team, who joined Xiaomi’s subsidiary, brought "Gree Feng" to Xiaomi. Wu Wei, who has visited the Sanyou production line and is also a supplier of air-conditioning components, told AI Finance Agency that Sanyou is a mysterious company, but "the solution is almost the same as Gree". For example, the MCU (microcontroller) is made by Texas Instruments, a large American manufacturer, the module is made by Fuji or Mitsubishi, and the IPM (intelligent power module, responsible for frequency conversion) is made by Ruineng.

"Everyone in their company seemed to be holding their breath. After Gree came out to Skyworth, Gree issued a ban order, and all Gree suppliers were not allowed to supply Skyworth. The team gambled so much and was finally washed out by Skyworth," Wu Wei said.

The team was eventually recruited to Lei Jun.

However, Wu Wei revealed that Sanyou currently has only two production lines of its own, and its annual production capacity is "only a few hundred thousand units". Therefore, in May 2017, Zhuhai Sanyou and Zhongshan Changhong jointly funded the establishment of Zhongshan Hongyou Electric Appliance Co., Ltd., with Zhongshan Changhong holding 60% and Zhuhai Sanyou holding 40%. It should be noted that Changhong is the foundry of Zhimi air conditioners this time.

According to people familiar with the matter, Xiaomi’s foundry is not in Mianyang, Changhong’s headquarters, but in Nantou Town, Zhongshan, not far from TCL’s headquarters.

02

Lei Jun’s obsession

This is the third time Lei Jun has tried to make air conditioners.

The first dates back to three years ago. When Lei Jun first entered the air-conditioning industry, he chose to cooperate with Dong Mingzhu’s old rival, Midea. This immediately annoyed Dong Mingzhu and directly accused the cooperation between the two sides as "two scammers together, a group of thieves". At that time, Midea had just been ordered by the court to compensate Gree 2 million yuan for stealing Gree’s patents.

But this Youth series air conditioner, priced at 3,099 yuan, did not cause much splash. The selling point at that time was that it was used in conjunction with the Xiaomi Mi Band, which could be set to automatically turn on when you go home, and automatically enter sleep mode when you feel you fall asleep.

Youth series air conditioner

Perhaps deliberately to highlight Xiaomi’s "Internet thinking" in the limelight, there is no display panel on the surface of the air conditioner. This means that if users want to know the temperature of the air conditioner in the room, they need to open their mobile phone, check the app or pick up the Xiaomi bracelet. This incredible design appeared in the first generation of products. Fortunately, this is the only cooperation between Xiaomi and Midea in the field of air conditioning.

"It’s impossible for Midea to raise competitors," says one air-conditioning supplier. In fact, Xiaomi decided to invest in Midea at the end of 2014, paying nearly 1.30 billion yuan for a 1.29% stake. But the shareholding relationship has not alleviated the conflict between the two sides in real business.

Millet’s tentacles have already extended to rice cookers, electric fans, water purifiers, electric kettles, cooking machines and many other small household appliances. This is Midea’s territory, which will inevitably lead to fierce collisions, and it is impossible to expect that Midea will be willing to help Xiaomi produce air conditioners. However, from an investment perspective, Midea’s share price has doubled in the past three years, and Xiaomi’s investment in Midea has been very successful, earning a lot of money.

The second time Xiaomi launched an air conditioner was in 2017, which was developed by Zhimi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xiaomi. The minimalist design of this air conditioner has also won international design awards, and this design style has been carried over to the current Mijia air conditioner.

However, the price of the Zhimi air conditioner at that time was as high as 4,399 yuan. Although Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology, said that there was almost no profit, such a high price did not have the pricing style of Xiaomi at all. Now the air conditioner has been removed from the Xiaomi mall.

Interestingly, in order to explain that his 4,399 yuan air conditioner was a conscientious price, Su Jun reported at the time that the quality of the current air conditioner was worse than that of more than ten years ago. "The original material was very solid, but now it is loose, and there are recycled materials in it. You don’t even need to open it, and you can feel the huge decline in quality just by the shell itself."

He said that Zhimi can also make its products cheaper than some 999 yuan air conditioners on the market, by using some inferior materials or even recycled materials to cut costs. "But that’s not something we can guide the quality of life of ordinary people, it doesn’t make sense."

But coincidentally, this time, the price of Mijia’s Internet air conditioner was exactly 999 yuan. However, it was embarrassing that the first user to get the goods couldn’t wait to hang the Xiaomi air conditioner on a second-hand trading platform on the same day.

03

Mi Ge Gree’s life?

What makes Lei Jun envious is that Dong Mingzhu’s Gree air conditioner profits are astonishingly high.

Chen Hang, chief analyst at Southwest Securities, told AI Finance Agency that Gree’s gross profit margin for air-conditioning products is above 35%, which is unusual in the home appliance industry known for price wars. Midea’s gross profit margin is slightly worse. But it is much higher than Xiaomi’s 10% gross profit for mobile phones.

High profits mean there is room to be compressed. This is also the direction of Xiaomi’s revolution, improving efficiency and reducing circulation costs.

This time, the air conditioner of Mijia brand, whether it is the price strategy or the product itself, looks much more reliable than the previous two times. But Dong Mingzhu has never been easy to bully. When Lei Jun entered the mobile phone market, it coincided with the market being on the eve of the transformation to smartphones, and the timing was excellent. But the air conditioner industry is relatively stable, the technology has existed for hundreds of years, and the market structure and corporate rhythm are quite stable.

Mijia air conditioner

"Gree will not be killed." Chen Hang analyzed that unlike other household appliances, air conditioners need to be installed, and one of Gree’s moats is a team of highly efficient ground installers. "Xiaomi will not have much impact on the giants in the short term."

"The competition of air conditioners is nothing more than the competition of brands and after-sales services." Lu Jianguo, deputy chief engineer of the Home Appliances Research Institute, also believes that now Xiaomi air conditioners are all new machines and have not yet reached the after-sales link. Users can take their mobile phones to the store for repair, but the air conditioner needs to be repaired at home, which will test the after-sales team of Xiaomi air conditioners.

Dong Min, vice president of Aowei Cloud Network, also expressed his concerns. Air conditioners are financial products. They are produced in winter and sold in summer, and they need to pay a lot of money in advance to stock up. To a certain extent, stocking up is also a gamble on the weather, and sales immediately rise in hot weather.

Dong Min was deeply impressed that when the weather was hot a few years ago, whoever had installers sold their air conditioners well. And this requires a huge ground force, which is not what Xiaomi is good at.

The bigger challenge comes from the supply chain. Back then, Xiaomi suffered a loss in the mobile phone supply chain and had been in short supply. Lei Jun went to South Korea to meet the boss of Samsung Electronics, hoping that the other party could guarantee the supply of mobile phone screens.

The risk of the supply chain is increasing in the air-conditioning market. The routine of these traditional large manufacturers is to build a huge capacity scale advantage first, and then firmly control the supply chain, especially the core components such as compressors, and finally achieve a stable market structure and profit margins.

"Compressors are a seller’s market," said Zhang Jie, a supplier of air-conditioning components. Gree and Midea produce their own compressors.

Zhang Jie revealed that there is a shortage of inverter compressors this year, and many air conditioner manufacturers have reduced production as a result. "Key components have been out of stock from this year to next year, so compressor companies must protect big factories, not millet."

AI Finance Agency learned from people familiar with the Xiaomi ecological chain that in order to get the upstream supply chain of air conditioners, Xiaomi paid a lot of money to obtain air conditioner compressors and IPM module parts. "They need to take out 30-4 billion to the compressor company to book the production capacity, which is equivalent to the table fee."

Dong Min believes that the air-conditioning business is designed and defined by Xiaomi in the short term, and Changhong conducts OEM OEM, because Changhong has a large volume and has the voice over, but according to the laws of TV and mobile phones, Xiaomi will definitely purchase and customize some important components in the future.

Zhang Jie was also a little surprised that Xiaomi chose Changhong OEM. "Changhong’s production line is relatively old, and it can’t be compared to the big factories." Changhong bought Meiling and Huayi in 2005 and 2007 respectively. Meiling is mainly responsible for the production of air conditioners and refrigerators in Changhong, while Huayi specializes in the production of compressors.

But in Zhang Jie’s opinion, Changhong’s Meiling air conditioners are not mainstream in the industry. The first echelon is Gree and Midea, the second echelon is Oaks, and the third echelon is Chigo, Haier, and Hisense. Meiling is outside these echelons.

Compared with the melee in the color TV market, the competition landscape of the air conditioner market is very clear. Gree and Midea firmly control the first camp of the market, and the two together occupy more than 50% of the market share. The remaining Oaks, Haier, Hisense, etc. have only a small market share.

"Xiaomi must have harvested the second and third camps first," Dong Min said. "Consumers have brand loyalty to the top few, but they have no impression of a lot of brands behind."

Asked in an interview with Mr. Dong in July what she thought of Xiaomi’s entry into the air-conditioning market, Mr. Dong understated: "We make it ourselves, they produce it under brand names. We are hardly on the same track, and we are not an industry type."

In fact, Dong Mingzhu had already reached for the mobile phone, while Lei Jun reached for the air conditioner. This was the lifeblood of the two families. When entering the other’s area of expertise, whether it was Lei Jun or Dong Mingzhu, their performance was difficult to satisfy.

04

Broken halberd "empty ice wash"?

Lei Jun "rose to the challenge", not just the bet with Dong Mingzhu, but the performance pressure may be a more important consideration for him to build air conditioners.

The Xiaomi Ecological Chain is a grand vision that Xiaomi has painted for the capital markets. In 2017, the Xiaomi Ecological Chain achieved 20 billion sales performance. Xiaomi has also set an ambitious goal for the ecological chain: 40 billion in 2018 and 80 billion in 2019. This means that the Xiaomi Ecological Chain needs to nearly double every year.

Xiaomi has proved its success in power banks, bracelets, sweeping robots, and air purifiers. But these products priced at tens of yuan or a few hundred yuan are a drop in the bucket for doubling the revenue of the ecological chain. According to the exclusive information of AI Finance Agency, Xiaomi made an organizational adjustment to the ecological chain team on July 27, and established a precious metals business department, an exploration product department, and an investment department under the ecological chain.

So far, Xiaomi has invested in more than 100 eco-chain companies and produced more than 1,600 SKUs of hardware products. But it is undeniable that Xiaomi specializes in industries where the original market is relatively chaotic and inefficient, typically color TVs, rice cookers, plug-in boards, and sweeping robots.

Take Xiaomi TV as an example. In the TV market that Xiaomi has entered, the share of leading brands such as Hisense and Skyworth is around 15%, and the share of other major brands is around 10%. The gap is not large. The melee pattern is conducive to Xiaomi’s competition for the market.

Because TV involves video content, for companies like Xiaomi and LeTV with operating experience, it is very familiar. And Xiaomi has also invested in video platforms such as iQIYI very early, and LeTV is known for video copyright. However, with the collapse of LeTV, the similarity of the two companies has also caused most of the share of LeTV super TVs to flow to Xiaomi. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in April 2018, the total online and offline shipments of Xiaomi TVs exceeded all brands, ranking first in China.

"The categories that can contribute more than 2 billion can be exhausted, probably within 50. And among these 50, there may be only 10 fields that are relatively easy to enter." The person in charge of a Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise broke his fingers to the AI financial club. The bracelet can exceed 2 billion yuan, the sweeping robot can exceed 2 billion yuan, and the notebook can exceed 3 billion yuan.

If the Xiaomi ecological chain wants to double its growth, it has to enter the major home appliance market. In this market, Xiaomi has successfully won the TV market, and now there are only empty ice washers (air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines) left.

However, Xiaomi’s playing style is not universal, especially in the air ice washing market, where Xiaomi has encountered unprecedented resistance.

In early 2017, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Yunmi released the first Internet smart refrigerator with a crowdfunding price of 999 yuan. The following year, it launched an Internet smart refrigerator iLive priced at 1999 yuan, which supports Wi-Fi connection and can be remotely adjusted by mobile phone app. In addition to the refrigerator, Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Xiaoji intelligent mini drum washing machine (Xiaomi version) launched a crowdfunding on the Xiaomi platform, priced at 1499 yuan.

However, none of these products were as successful as expected, and young people’s first ice wash didn’t really make young people buy it. Xiaomi, which is good at marketing, even lost money in terms of market volume.

Xiaomi has also entered the drone market, built by Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise Feimi, after two and a half years of research and development, the cost of the mold alone cost more than 4 million yuan. Lei Jun personally demonstrated in front of 1 million netizens through Xiaomi live broadcast. However, surprisingly, in the live broadcast of Xiaomi employees, the drone actually lost control, and finally "blew up", and died before he could beat him.

In fact, even if it doesn’t "blow up", Xiaomi will have a hard time making a difference in the drone market. In the drone market, DJI is an absolute giant. Under the Iron Curtain of DJI, almost no players can survive in the consumer drone market.

Five years ago, Dong Mingzhu and Lei Jun made 1 billion bet, which was judged by the revenue of the two companies.

Now, Lei Jun and Dong Mingzhu’s gamble is only 5 months away. Xiaomi’s revenue in 2017 is 114.60 billion yuan, while Gree’s revenue is 148.20 billion, and it is expected to break through 170 billion this year. Lei Jun has almost no chance of winning. It has to be said that in the face of Gree, which still maintains strong growth, Lei Jun should carry out a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" of Dong Mingzhu earlier. To make amends, Lei Jun should not care about temporary gains and losses, and it is not impossible for Xiaomi to surpass Gree. Even if Xiaomi air conditioner is not done, it can still drive the industry to change like a catfish, which is what Xiaomi has always been best at doing.

(Wu Wei and Zhang Jie are pseudonyms in the article)

On June 8, Beijing time, the first nine satellites built by Geely Holding Group for future travel were launched earlier this month. Geely’s Zhejiang Space-Time Daodaoyu Technology Co., Ltd. is responsible for the development of these satellites, and its CEO Wang Yang said that compared with Elon Musk’s plans for SpaceX, the company’s ambitions are much more modest.

The nine satellites were launched into orbit on June 2 aboard a Long March 2C rocket, making SpaceX one of the first Chinese companies to begin assembling a constellation of satellites pioneered by SpaceX, which already has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit.

"We all have a background in car manufacturing, and we all want aerospace technology and satellites to give back to car manufacturing and travel," Mr. Wang said in an interview on Tuesday. "The difference is our goal of making satellites."

SpaceX is putting its Starlink satellites into orbit to build a constellation of internet services as a low-cost alternative to long-range land-based systems that are vulnerable to interference. SpaceX also launches rockets for global satellite operators, the US military and NASA.

In contrast, Spacetime Daoyu’s ambitions are more modest. Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu expects to have 72 satellites by the end of 2025 and 168 satellites by the end of the decade.

"While we want to provide the ultimate travel experience for our users, SpaceX is more focused on low-latency broadband and providing high-speed broadband access to 7 billion people around the world," Mr. Wang said.

Space-Time Daoyu is following in the footsteps of Chinese rival Galaxy Aerospace, which in March put six satellites into orbit. The satellites weigh an average of 190 kilograms and are China’s first projects to develop constellations in low-Earth orbit.

"Compared to Starlink, China’s constellation is small," Global Times said in a report on the launch, adding that China "will step up efforts to promote the application and transfer of space technology in the next five years".

Wang Yang said that Spacetime Daoyu plans to do its part to open up the network to other brands, and more information will be announced within three months.

"Geely’s future partners will not be limited to Geely’s ecosystem and car brands," he said. "We are also building partnerships with other industries."

　　The sudden entry of the "giant" broke the development rhythm of the entire community group buying track, and the rules of the game changed accordingly. The industry changed from "fighting for innovation", "fighting for execution" to "fighting for capital" and "fighting for subsidies". It is not surprising that Tongcheng Life has embarked on an inverted "V" shaped trajectory from rise to fall.

　　The "giants" are still rolling in the track of community group buying, but the start-up company that started first was "easily" crushed. On the morning of July 7, the community group buying platform Tongcheng Life (now renamed Honey Orange Life) officially declared bankruptcy. According to reporters, its founder, chairperson and CEO He Pengyu was still in talks with suppliers that night. During the meeting for more than 4 hours, he cried several times and promised to try his best to pay off the debt, but he was unable to recover.

　　On the community group buying track, Tongcheng Life is not the first company to declare bankruptcy, but because of its high reputation, its bankruptcy was called "the first case of community group buying bankruptcy" by the media, causing industry shock.

　　Why did Tongcheng Life "die suddenly"? What is the situation of community group buying now? The reporter interviewed some people familiar with the matter.

　　Shift from innovation to subsidies

　　The usual cause of company bankruptcies is poor management, but Tongcheng Life, which was established in January 2018 and belongs to Suzhou Fresh Orange Technology Co., Ltd., is obviously not one of them. The inverted "V" trajectory of Tongcheng Life from rise to rapid "fall" can be clearly seen in the internal letter sent by He Pengyu to employees and suppliers. According to He Pengyu’s open letter, in only about a year and a half, "Tongcheng Life has achieved the front-end performance of the contract and entered a healthy development stage."

　　At that time, Tongcheng Life was still a star on the community group buying track, which was recognized by many investment institutions. According to reports, Tongcheng Life received 4 rounds of financing in a row in 2019, ranging from tens of millions of yuan to 100 million US dollars. In June 2020, Tongcheng Life announced the completion of 200 million US dollars C round of financing. According to public reports, its valuation before bankruptcy was about 1 billion US dollars, which can be regarded as a small and beautiful start-up company.

　　In the past two years or so, the community group buying model developed from fresh food e-commerce has rapidly developed into a new format in the e-commerce industry, providing a new way for the development of farmers and rich farmers and the absorption of flexible employment in cities and towns, and attracting a large number of entrepreneurial teams. Ten Hui Tuan, Xingsheng Preferred and Tongcheng Life are the three fastest teams, once known as the "old three groups" by the outside world.

　　However, the booming community group buying market has also attracted "giants" to enter the market. Since September 2020, Ali, Meituan, Didi, Pinduoduo and others have resorted to price war "big killers", and "1 cent to buy vegetables" has become popular. Even the vendors in the vegetable market have felt the pressure.

　　The sudden entry of "giants" broke the development rhythm of the entire community group buying track, and the rules of the game changed accordingly. The industry changed from "fighting for innovation" and "fighting for execution" to "fighting for capital" and "fighting for subsidies".

　　According to the reporter’s understanding, in the face of the sudden arrival of the survival crisis, Tongcheng Life has also struggled, seeking capital mergers and acquisitions while striving for performance. It has discussed acquisition intentions with JD.com, Ali, ByteDance, Meituan, etc., and even has a team settled in for due diligence, but ultimately failed due to changes in the industry trend.

　　Li Ming (a pseudonym), a former executive of Tongcheng Life, told reporters that "at the end of June, Tongcheng Life also hoped to get better business data through increased marketing efforts, so as to obtain the olive branch of a’giant ‘merger, but unfortunately it was rejected again. Later, due to the expiration of the brand authorization, the executive decided to start a name change and strategic transformation to make a comeback. Unfortunately, at this time, the supplier began to concentrate on the run to collect payment, which eventually led to the collapse of the capital chain."

　　At present, community group buying is still in the stage of rapid expansion and growth. Meituan (Meituan Preferred), Pinduoduo, and Didi (Orange Heart Preferred) have occupied the top position, and Xingsheng Preferred and Ten Hui Tuan have also been incorporated by JD.com and Ali. After the departure of Tongcheng Life, community group buying has become a game for "giants".

　　After the shopping, the industry will lose a lot.

　　After the community group buying track fully entered the era of "giants", price-fighting and long-term rebates became the norm, and no one could achieve positive benefits in the short term. Service innovation and experience innovation on the user side stagnated, and the entire industry suffered serious internal friction.

　　It is understood that the profit margin of the community group buying industry has rapidly declined from profit to loss. Li Ming revealed that before the "giant" entered the market (before September 2020), the monthly sales of platforms like Tongcheng Life were between 800 million yuan and 1.20 billion yuan, and the gross profit was about 20%. After the "giant" entered, with the huge subsidies for consumers and the competition for the "head", the monthly revenue of the platform fell by up to 80%, and the gross profit directly became negative. The entire community group buying market also further slid into the quagmire of industry-wide losses.

　　In December 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce jointly organized an administrative guidance meeting to standardize the order of community group buying, which was attended by six Internet platform companies including Alibaba, Tencent, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo, and Didi. At the meeting, the community group buying "nine must not" was proposed. In March this year, the operating entities behind five community group buying platforms including Meituan Preferred (Shenzhen Meituan Preferred Technology Co., Ltd.) were fined 1.50 million yuan for suspected unfair price behavior.

　　But this still failed to curb the expansion of the "giants". On the one hand, they "hide their positions" and continue to engage in similar "1 cent" activities. On the other hand, they seize the end point market by greatly increasing the commission rewards and subsidies for the "heads". Li Ming said that at present, the rewards and subsidies given by several giants to community groups buying end point "heads" have reached a maximum level of 15% to 18%, basically subsidizing the platform’s own income. This is already irrational competition and is suspected of disguised price war.

　　On July 8, the reporter inquired about some community group buying platforms, not only the activity of "15 eggs clocked in 5 days", but also 1.25 yuan a catty of sand sweet potatoes and 0.99 yuan a red dragon fruit. On the community fresh platform, similar red dragon fruits cost about 4 yuan to 5 yuan each, and sand sweet potatoes cost 5 yuan a catty, which is much higher than the community group buying platform.

　　Behind the shopping prices and subsidies is the huge loss of the entire industry. According to public reports, Meituan’s adjusted net loss reached 3.892 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, and Meituan’s investment in the community group buying business was about 10 billion yuan, which is expected to reach 20 billion yuan this year. In the first quarter, Pinduoduo’s gross profit fell to 49.74%. Pinduoduo invested about 6 billion yuan in buying vegetables in Duoduo, and will increase investment in 2021.

　　Under the mess, suppliers are affected

　　From thriving performance to being forced to declare bankruptcy and exit, the closure of Tongcheng Life is not only regrettable, but also leaves a trail of chicken feathers.

　　In the early morning of July 8, He Pengyu issued an open letter through his personal Moments, proposing three solutions to the bankruptcy of Tongcheng Life: to maximize the protection of the rights and interests of all creditors within the scope of the law; to make every effort to preserve existing assets, hand them over to the court for proper storage and treatment, and actively cooperate with the government’s guidance to offset debts with company assets; if the assets are not enough to offset debts, He Pengyu promises to start a business again, "I will record every debt clearly, and use all my personal efforts to repay debts."

　　It is also understood that on July 8, Tongcheng Life issued a repayment plan for the supplier before initiating the bankruptcy liquidation process. Previously, it had paid employees’ salaries in June and also promised to pay social security for employees in the future.

　　Although the entrepreneurial team of Tongcheng Life tried their best to make up for it, there were still many vegetable farmers, small traders, and even large and medium-sized suppliers who did not receive the payment on time.

　　A livestock company has cooperated with Tongcheng Life to supply egg products since 2019, and it was owed nearly 800,000 yuan. After the crisis broke out in Tongcheng Life, Mr. Wang, the person in charge of the company, came to ask for the arrears. "There are hundreds of egg farmers behind me, so I have to come to collect debts."

　　According to the latest situation, on July 8, Tongcheng Life has started to repay some of the suppliers’ debts in advance, and the rest will be allocated by the court after the bankruptcy liquidation process starts. The work is still being carried out in an orderly manner.

　　As of the morning of July 9, there were more than 600 suppliers who had reached repayment agreements with Orange Technology, mainly from the financing loans raised by He Pengyu and his team.

　　On July 9, Mr. Wang booked a return ticket with a repayment agreement. But next time, if there is another community group buying platform flash crash, will the suppliers be so lucky?

　　The 2024 Haoyue L has launched three models, and the market guidance price is 127,900-147,900 yuan. The new car has upgraded the central control large screen and the car system, in which the central control screen has been upgraded from the current 12.3 inches to 14.6 inches, and the car system has also been upgraded from Galaxy OS to Galaxy OS 2.0 version.

　　The new Haoyue L adopts a brand-new design, and the domineering potential energy ice waterfall vertical grille is decorated with plating strips on the outside. The headlights on both sides are lens-shaped, with 244 LED beads inside, and the front face as a whole looks extremely tense. Haoyue L body adopts tough design lines, 19-inch wheels adopt five-width vortex design, and blackened wheel eyebrow components enhance the sense of strength of the vehicle. The length, width and height of the new car are 4860/1910/1770mm and the wheelbase is 2825mm respectively. The tail adopts penetrating taillights, and the red decorative strip is very obvious. There is a thick exhaust decoration on each bumper, and the layout is simple.

　　The 2024 Haoyue L central control large screen has been upgraded from the current 12.3-inch to 14.6-inch, and the car system has also been upgraded from Yinhe 0S to Yinhe 0S 2.0 version. At the same time, the cockpit chip has also been upgraded from E02 of 12nm to E04 of 7nm, and the running memory and storage memory have been significantly upgraded. The central control screen is larger, the car system is more stable, the function is more perfect, and the chip computing power is stronger. The overall operation fluency of the 2024 Haoyue L car machine has increased by 25%, and the startup speed of the APP has increased by 18%. In terms of interior color, the 2024 Haoyue L has added a brand-new Danxia red color scheme, replacing the current desert brown color scheme. At the same time, the new car has also optimized the details of the modeling scheme of the interior panel, further enhancing the luxury of the interior.

　　The 2024 Haoyue L has made a series of adjustments and optimizations to the standard Drive-E 2.0TD engine, and optimized the fuel label to No.92 on the premise that the maximum power of 160kW and the maximum torque of 325N·m remain unchanged, further reducing the cost of users’ cars. (Photo: provided by Geely Automobile)

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 5th (reporter, Ding Jing) What time does the next bus arrive? Is the subway station crowded now? When should I get off? Passengers can enjoy these smart services when traveling in Beijing. Beijing Municipal Transportation Commission signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Autonavi Map on the 4th. The two sides will share traffic big data and launch more abundant transportation services within Beijing.

The two parties will build an integrated service platform for green transportation in Beijing – MaaS (Mobility as a Service, Mobility as a Service). The idea of the platform is to enable travelers to transform from owning vehicles to owning transportation services, and improve the public travel experience through one-stop service of various transportation methods. The platform is based on the Autonavi map APP, which connects to big data from various transportation industries such as Beijing’s public transportation, subway, suburban railways, online car-hailing, and long-distance buses. At present, real-time public transportation has covered more than 95% of bus lines in Beijing, and the accuracy rate of real-time information matching exceeds 97%. Passengers can also check the current congestion situation of all subway stations in Beijing through this platform. The Beijing MaaS platform has pioneered the "bus/subway ride companion card", which can display services such as route planning, transfer guidance, and get off reminders in real time according to the user’s location.

guideThe car has lost more than 110 billion in 5 years.

Source |Hengda Automobile Announcement, Financial World, Securities Times, Daily Economic News

According to Hengda Automobile’s announcement, Newton Group’s strategic investment has been terminated, and the company’s previously proposed transactions and amendments to the terms of the debt-to-equity swap have not made any further progress.

Evergrande Motor said that it will not hold a shareholders’ meeting for approval and will not publish any circulars relating to, among other things, the Special Mandate, the Newtown Group share purchase agreement, the proposed transaction, the wash waiver, the proposed amendment, the debt-for-equity subscription agreement, the offset agreement and the debt-for-equity swap. The company will no longer issue further monthly announcements on the proposed transaction and the progress of the debt-for-equity swap.

As the Share Subscription is no longer in progress, the Subscriber is under no obligation under Rule 26 of the Takeovers Code to make an unconditional mandatory general offer in respect of all outstanding Shares which it and persons acting in concert with it have not yet owned or consented to acquire. The Company will not apply to the Executive for his consent to the Special Deal.

In August 2023, Hengda Auto and strategic investor Newton Group signed an agreement. The main content of Newton Group’s share purchase agreement is that Newton Group implements a strategic investment of about 500 million US dollars in Hengda Auto and provides 600 million yuan in transition funds; the debt-to-equity swap agreement means that Hengda Group, Xu Jiayin and other creditors offset the 20.895 billion Hong Kong dollar debt owed by Hengda Auto by subscribing for new shares of Hengda Auto. Assuming that the debt-to-equity swap of new energy vehicles is completed and followed by the completion of the subscription of new energy vehicle shares, China Evergrande’s shareholding ratio in Evergrande Automobile will be diluted to about 46.86%, Evergrande New Energy Automobile will no longer be a non-wholly-owned subsidiary of China Evergrande, and its financial performance will no longer be comprehensively accounted for in China Evergrande’s performance.

In October 2023, the transaction was suspended, and Evergrande announced that Newton Group had suspended the implementation of relevant obligations in the share purchase agreement. The change in the transaction was directly related to the exposure of "Xu Jiayin was subject to coercive measures" at that time, which interrupted the process of Hengda’s dollar debt restructuring, which in turn caused Hengda to fail to meet the pre-conditions of the transaction.

In January 2024, Evergrande announced that the Newtown Group’s share purchase agreement and the company’s debt-for-equity swap subscription agreement for Evergrande had expired on December 31, 2023. At that time, Evergrande responded that the parties to the Newtown Group’s share purchase agreement and debt-for-equity swap subscription agreement, as well as certain stakeholders, have been and will continue to negotiate amendments to certain key terms of the proposed transaction and debt-for-equity swap. The company will make monthly announcements until it announces its exact intention to proceed with the proposed transaction and debt-for-equity swap or decides not to proceed with the proposed transaction and debt-for-equity swap.

Evergrande’s "life-saving money"

Newton Group’s strategic investment in Hengda Automobile is regarded by public opinion as "life-saving money" for Hengda Automobile.

On August 14, 2023, Hengda Automobile announced that it received the first strategic investment of 500 million US dollars from the listed company Newton Group (NWTN.US), which is held by the sovereign fund of the United Arab Emirates, and another 600 million yuan of RMB transition funds will be received one after another 5 working days after the announcement.

The proposed transaction between the two parties is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023. Upon completion of the transaction, Newton Group’s shareholding ratio in Evergrande will account for 27.5% of the total number of issued ordinary shares after the expansion.

However, the deal is subject to 19 preconditions, including the entry into force of the China Evergrande workout and the absence of material adverse events.

The car has lost more than 110 billion in 5 years

According to Hengda Automobile previously disclosed that all the funds invested in this war will be used for Hengda Automobile’s Tianjin factory to ensure the normal production of Hengchi 5 and the successive mass production of Hengchi 6 and 7. In addition, Newton Group will also assist Hengda Automobile to develop overseas markets and achieve the annual export of 30,000-50,000 Hengchi vehicles to the Middle East.

In 2023, Hengda’s total revenue is 1.34 billion yuan, of which more than 1.10 billion yuan comes from property sales, accounting for more than 90% of the overall revenue.

Hengda Automobile lost 11.995 billion yuan last year (27.664 billion yuan in 2022). Statistics show that Hengda Automobile has been building cars for 5 years, with a cumulative loss of 110.841 billion yuan and a cumulative delivery of 1389 units.

As of the end of last year, Hengda’s total assets 34.851 billion yuan; total liabilities 72.543 billion yuan, of which, loans 26.484 billion yuan, trade and other payables 43.012 billion yuan, other liabilities 3.047 billion yuan.

As of the end of last year, Hengda Automobile was involved in the outstanding debts of about 9.447 billion yuan; on December 31, 2023, the group’s overdue commercial tickets accumulated about 3.401 billion yuan. In addition, the number of pending proceedings with a target amount of more than 30 million yuan totaled 68 pieces, and the total amount of the target amount totaled about 13.608 billion yuan.

On December 1, Lynk & Co officially announced that the 2021 Lynk & Co 01 was officially launched. The new car launched a total of 5 models, priced at 17.98-22 2,700 yuan. It is worth mentioning that the new car, as a mid-term model, has not only adjusted its appearance accordingly, but also launched a hybrid model to meet the diverse needs of consumers. In this regard, Lin Jie, vice president of Geely Automobile Group and general manager of Lynk & Co Auto Sales Company, said on the spot: The new Lynk & Co 01 is the most valuable SUV within 300,000 yuan.

In addition, Lynk & Co officially launched the "European Plan" on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the brand, and the new Lynk & Co 01 will also be launched in China and Europe simultaneously. Recently, the first offline experience store in Europe has opened in Amsterdam; at the same time, Lynk & Co is also actively promoting the layout of Asia Pacific and other international markets.

Focusing on the product, in terms of appearance, it can be found that the Lynk & Co 01 has continued the current shape as a whole, and the split headlight group design that is most well received by consumers has also been continued. It is worth mentioning that the new car has also changed the internal filling method of the front air intake grille to dot matrix filling, which further enhances the visual tension and three-dimensional sense, and integrates well with the lower half of the headlight group, doubling its youthful feeling. In addition, the new car has also optimized the bumper shape to a certain extent, making it look simple and beautiful.

From the side of the car, it can be found that the new car has added a side skirt with a metallic texture, and has been replaced with a 20-inch wheel hub. With a hidden A/B column design and a two-color body, the new car presents a sense of movement and vitality that is more in line with the aesthetics of today’s young consumers.

In terms of size, the length, width and height of the new Lynk & Co 01 are 4549/1860/1689mm respectively, and the wheelbase is 2734mm. Compared with the current model, the length is increased by 37mm, the width is increased by 3mm, and the height and wheelbase remain unchanged.

Entering the car, you can find that the internal changes of the new car are more obvious. The new Lynk & Co 01 adopts a new family design similar to the style of Lynk & Co 05. Whether it is a 12.7-inch multimedia touch screen, or a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument panel and a two-color three-frame multi-function steering wheel, it further enhances the youthful feeling of the car. In addition, the air-conditioning control area below the central control screen has also been significantly optimized to make the overall operation more convenient.

It is worth mentioning that the 12.7-inch large screen on the new car is not only larger in size, but also has a significant improvement in performance. The Snapdragon 820A chip is equipped to further meet consumer needs in terms of car computing power. And whether it is the overall response speed, or the richness of applications and configurations, it is more in line with the needs of today’s young consumers.

In terms of power, the new car will be equipped with Drive-E 2.0TD + 8AT powertrain, and provide two versions of high and low power for consumers to choose from. Among them, the high-power version has a maximum power of 254Ps and a peak torque of 350Nm, and the new car’s 100-kilometer acceleration only takes 6.7 seconds. The low-power version has a maximum power of 218Ps and a peak torque of 325Nm. According to the official, after matching the chassis and stability of the European driving style, its acceleration is faster, the braking is more stable, and the braking distance of 100 kilometers can be less than 35m.

At the same time, the new Lynk & Co 01PHEV model will be equipped with a plug-in hybrid system based on a 1.5T three-cylinder engine, matched with a 7DCT-H wet dual-clutch gearbox; pure electric cruising range of 81km, comprehensive fuel consumption of 1.4L/100km, and support 4 + 1 multiple drive modes. Equipped with BorgWarner’s 5th generation intelligent four-wheel drive system, the comprehensive cruising range is expected to exceed 800 kilometers.

Write to the end:

It has been three years since the launch of the Lynk & Co 01, and the sales volume of the Lynk & Co 01 has reached 45% of the entire brand, which is self-evident. And with the launch of the new Lynk & Co 01, whether it is in terms of appearance, technology, or performance, it is further in line with the current needs of young consumers. The launch of hybrid models is expected to further boost the overall sales of the Lynk & Co brand.

[Individual stock trend]

April 17 to April 21

Last week, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.78% for the week, and the Hang Seng Technology Index fell 4.66%.

Meituan -W Hong Kong stocks rose 6.33% last weekLast week’s total turnover 17.551 billion Hong Kong dollars, as of last week’s close, the Hong Kong stock price was 137.70 Hong Kong dollars, the market value of 859.447 billion Hong Kong dollars; Hong Kong stocks fell 4.04% this month, 21.18% this year, nearly 52 weeks down 2.62%.

[Company comparison]

[Related News]

JP Morgan’s shareholding ratio in Meituan increased from 4.91% to 5.02%

According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, on April 17, JP Morgan’s shareholding ratio in Meituan increased from 4.91% to 5.02%.

Meituan: Zibo barbecue brings fire to Shandong cultural tourism consumption, and the overall tourism order volume in the first quarter increased by 45% year-on-year.

According to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the heat of barbecue in Zibo is still "top stream", and Weifang kites have set off a new round of craze across the country. According to retail platform Meituan data, the overall tourism order volume in Shandong Province increased by 45% year-on-year in the first quarter, the overall catering order volume increased by 20%, and the nighttime consumption vitality index rose by 19.5% year-on-year. A number of data show that innovative consumption formats and models have enabled the consumer market in Shandong Province to pick up in the first quarter.

Zhang Kun increased his position in Meituan and TSMC in the first quarter! The only situation where a good company is not a good stock is that the valuation is too high

According to surging news, Meituan-W, China National Offshore Oil, JD.com Group-SW and TSMC won the "public offering brother" Zhang Kun’s position in the first quarter. Just after 0:00 on April 21, Zhang Kun’s four funds in charge released the first quarter of 2023. From the perspective of management scale, Zhang Kun’s management scale did not change much in the first quarter. From 89.434 billion yuan at the end of 2022, it shrank by about 492 million yuan to 88.942 billion yuan at the end of March, a decrease of only 0.55%. Zhang Kun lamented in the first quarter report that it is so important to identify good companies, because the only situation in which good companies are not good stocks is that the valuation is too high. In other cases, good companies will bring long-term and considerable returns to investors.

Meituan takeaway first live broadcast: Mixue Bingcheng sales broke 100 million, Luckin raw coconut latte sold 1 million cups

According to Blue Whale Finance, Meituan takeaway has newly upgraded the "God Coupon Festival". Through the linkage of head KOL live broadcast and "takeaway + to the store", it has created a limited-time and limited-time special "explosive market" for the first time. As of 23:59:59 on April 18, 2023, the number of takeaway orders increased by nearly 50% year-on-year, and the DAU increased by 75% year-on-year. The average weekly growth rate of the transaction volume of the 100 major catering brands participating in the event exceeded 30%. During the event, the overall transaction WoW growth rate of tea and coffee reached 21%. Among them, Mixue Bingcheng’s sales broke 100 million, and a total of 15 million cups were sold; Luckin sold 1 million cups of coconut latte alone. The growth of the dinner category was significant, with Haidilao’s sales growth reaching 180%.

This article is from the theme of Hong Kong-US Data Connect, click to read more Hong Kong-US company dynamics > > >

Article | Interesting understanding of business, Li Wenqi

In addition to selling cars, what else can car companies sell? The answer may subvert your perception.

Recently, Huiding Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huiding Insurance Brokerage") changed its corporate name to NIO Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. This move has attracted widespread attention because it is understood by industry insiders as the acceleration of NIO’s layout in the insurance sector.

Image credit: Qichacha

In recent years, not only NIO, but also the number of new energy vehicle companies that value the auto insurance market has gradually increased. Xiaopeng, Ideal, BYD and Tesla have all made plans.

Dong Hao, a veteran in the automotive industry, said that compared with traditional property insurance companies, new energy vehicle companies entering the new energy vehicle insurance market have more advantages in vehicle loss assessment and insurance premium estimation. Car companies can use this as a service breakthrough point and develop more high-profit after-car ecosystem services.

But just like the two sides of the coin, can the beautiful new energy auto insurance really help NIO develop the after-car ecosystem? And, how much support will the continuous cross-border NIO give to the auto insurance business after the launch of mobile phones, charging piles and other products? This may be the point that the current industry pays more attention to.

01. Crowded car insurance track, NIO is catching up

According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of September 2023, the national new energy vehicle ownership reached 18.21 million, accounting for 5.5% of the car ownership. From the first to the third quarter of 2023, 5.198 million new energy vehicles were registered nationwide, an increase of 40% year-on-year, accounting for 28.5% of the new car registration.

There is no doubt that the outbreak of the new energy vehicle market has made new energy vehicle insurance a huge blue ocean market. Soochow Securities estimates that by 2025, the scale of new energy vehicle insurance premiums will reach 186.50 billion yuan, accounting for 17.9% of the total proportion of vehicle insurance premiums; by 2030, this scale will reach 454.10 billion yuan, accounting for 32.1% of the proportion of vehicle insurance premiums.

For this huge and promising market, a number of new energy vehicle companies have entered the market.

In July 2018, XPeng Motors established Guangzhou XPeng Motors Insurance Agency, which was later renamed Guangzhou Smart Choice Consulting Services Co., Ltd.; in 2020, Tesla Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. was established in Shanghai; Li Auto also fully acquired Yinjian Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. in June last year, and later changed its name to Beijing Ideal Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. At the 2022 Annual General Meeting, BYD Chairperson Wang Chuanfu said that BYD would enter the new energy automobile insurance industry.

There are many benefits to the deployment of new energy vehicles in the field of auto insurance – after obtaining the relevant insurance license, new energy vehicle companies can configure insurance through car owners to form a complete closed loop of car manufacturing, sales, and after-sales services, which is expected to become a new profit growth point for car companies.

In this context, it is logical for NIO to accelerate the layout of insurance. As early as the beginning of 2022, NIO invested in the establishment of NIO Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of 50 million yuan; but unfortunately, until the company was cancelled, the company did not obtain relevant qualifications, let alone carry out related insurance business.

The reason is actually very simple. Insurance qualifications themselves are a scarce resource. In recent years, the insurance intermediary market has developed rapidly, but there are also pain points of uneven operation quality of intermediaries. Regulators have tightened the approval of insurance intermediary licenses.

But this did not discourage NIO’s determination to explore the insurance market, and instead looked for a "curve" entry route. In December 2022, Anhui NIO Data Technology Co., Ltd., controlled by NIO founder Li Bin, wholly invested in Huiding Insurance Brokerage, and then the original executives also withdrew one after another. It was not until September this year that Huiding Insurance Brokerage changed its name to NIO Insurance Brokerage, and NIO finally went official in its own insurance business.

Picture source: NIO Insurance Broker official website

For this acquisition, NIO did not disclose the specific transaction amount. But according to the market situation, it will not be too low. For example, when BYD transferred 100% equity of Yi’an Property Insurance this year, it spent 4 billion yuan to invest in insurance licenses with higher "gold content". In this regard, some market analysts said that the application for relevant license qualifications in the insurance industry is relatively long. NIO’s operation of Huiding Insurance Brokerage is behind "using money for time". It is naturally easier to buy chickens and lay eggs than to raise big chickens and then lay eggs.

"But the insurance industry is more complicated, and it’s not a one-day job." Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at the Yellow River Institute of Science and Technology and an automotive industry research institute, said to "Interesting Business": "NIO obtains qualifications through acquisitions, and then opens up sales, insurance, after-sales and other links. For the insurance business, it can deeply cultivate the precise customer group, which is a big advantage. But it should be noted that new energy vehicle insurance is not a profitable business at the moment."

02. Is there enough "ammunition"?

The license qualification is grafted through the "banknote ability", and the subsequent challenges that NIO has to face are the financial ability, technical ability and network layout. No matter what, stronger "banknote ability" is required. "Especially the financial ability level is a big test for new energy vehicle companies," said Mr. Fei, an industry insider.

Because behind the blue ocean of new energy vehicle insurance, there is a hidden high compensation pressure and the resulting general loss. Shenwan Hongyuan Group’s research report shows that the current new energy vehicle insurance compensation rate generally exceeds 85%, and the industry is facing greater underwriting loss pressure.

Zeng Yi, general manager of China Pacific Insurance Property and Casualty Insurance, has also publicly stated that the insurance rate of new energy vehicles is nearly double that of fuel vehicles, and the year-on-year increase in automobile travel in the first half of this year has posed a certain pressure on the underwriting cost of new energy vehicles. China Pacific Insurance’s 2022 interim results show that the new energy vehicle insurance premium grew rapidly in the first half of last year, accounting for 6.6%. However, the new energy vehicles underwritten by Pacific Insurance Property and Casualty Insurance are still losing money.

A set of data obtained by the reporter of the Economic Observer also shows that the insurance rate and compensation rate of new energy vehicles are at a high level. In the first half of 2023, the number of new energy vehicle insurance settled compensation cases increased by 1021.9% year-on-year, and the average compensation for resolved cases was 5801 yuan, an increase of 764 yuan compared with the same period in 2022. However, the average insurance premium for new energy vehicle insurance was only 4081 yuan, a decrease of 47 yuan compared with 2022.

All kinds of phenomena have confirmed that the new energy compensation amount is currently much higher than the insurance premium income. This also means that all players entering the new energy vehicle insurance field must prepare sufficient ammunition. So, is NIO ready?

At the end of August this year, NIO-SW (09866) announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended in the first half of 2023. Data show that NIO’s revenue in the second quarter of 2023 was 8.7717 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.8%; gross profit was 870 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 93.5%; net loss was 6.0558 billion yuan, an increase of 119.6%; adjusted net loss was 5.4457 billion yuan, an increase of 140.2%.

Image source: Screenshot of earnings report

From the perspective of the general environment, new car-making forces have shown varying degrees of losses; in the first half of this year, Li Auto’s total revenue was 47.44 billion yuan, and its net loss was 3.24 billion yuan. In comparison, NIO’s loss situation is much more serious.

According to the annual report of NIO-SW (09866), between 2018 and 2022, although NIO’s total revenue is growing, it has been in a state of loss. The losses in the five years were 23.328 billion yuan, 11.413 billion yuan, 5.3041 billion yuan, 4.02 billion yuan and 144.37 yuan. By the first half of this year, NIO’s net loss has exceeded 10 billion yuan, which is 10.926 billion yuan.

What can be seen is that in the context of the recovery of the new energy vehicle market in the first half of this year, NIO still maintained a situation where revenue and gross profit continued to decline and losses continued to expand. Whether it is a single quarter or the entire first half of the year, NIO’s net profit attributable to the parent set a record low for the same period in history.

In terms of delivery, NIO’s situation is also not optimistic. According to public data, NIO delivered 15,641 vehicles in September this year, an increase of 43.8% year-on-year and a decrease of 20% month-on-month. It was the most severe decline in the sales list of new energy vehicles in September.

Revenue decline, delivery decline, but NIO did not reduce investment. According to the financial report data, in the second quarter of this year, NIO’s development investment reached 3.34 billion yuan, close to Tesla’s 3.98 billion yuan, but significantly higher than the ideal 2.43 billion yuan and XPeng Motors 1.37 billion yuan. Statistics can be seen from the previous data, starting from the fourth quarter of 2022, NIO’s R & D expenses have exceeded 3 billion yuan for three consecutive quarters.

It is equivalent to saying that behind NIO’s bet on auto insurance, NIO’s own financial performance and delivery are not optimistic. In the future, whether it can provide support at the auto insurance level depends on the importance of the business in the NIO ecosystem.

"If NIO’s main business is doing very well and can give greater support to the auto insurance business, then overall, auto insurance must be the icing on the cake for NIO," Mr. Fei added: "On the contrary, if its own losses increase, coupled with the high underwriting pressure of auto insurance, the pressure on NIO will be relatively large in the short term."

03. Crossing the border all the way, what is NIO in a hurry?

To the outside world, NIO is less and less like a car company. This indifference is mainly due to NIO’s full range of crossovers – mobile phones, charging stations and now car insurance business.

In June this year, it was reported that the NIO mobile phone had passed the MIIT radio approval; as expected, on September 21, NIO Innovation and Technology Day, NIO released the first ship mobile phone, NIO Phone. According to Li Bin, "NIO makes mobile phones not because mobile phone companies cross the border into the automotive industry, nor do they rely on mobile phones to make money, but NIO users need a mobile phone that is undoubtedly linked to NIO."

But in the eyes of many users, this is not the case. On social platforms, many netizens complained that "it is easier to adapt NIO to more models. The probability of buying another mobile phone alone is not high, and buying a car and giving a mobile phone is almost the same." "It is obviously something that can be done by an app, but you have to develop a mobile phone!" The topic of who the NIO mobile phone is sold to has also triggered widespread discussion.

Image source: Weibo

In addition to the heavy injection of mobile phones, NIO also continues to invest in the field of supplementary energy. By the end of 2022, NIO had 1,315 replacement stations; in early 2023, Li Bin put down his big talk and wanted to build another 1,000 replacement stations. According to NIO’s official data, as of October 20, NIO has arranged a total of 1,969 replacement stations, 3,252 charging stations, and 936,544 third-party charging piles.

Industry analyst Yu Shengmei said that the current construction of power stations is fragmented and chaotic, and the industry is expected to enter the fast lane after the establishment of the national standard. Whoever has the first-mover advantage will be able to enjoy the dividends first.

But at present, it is difficult for the NIO power exchange model to rely on itself to make profits in the short term. According to the calculation of Oriental Securities, generally speaking, the power station reaches break-even, and the utilization rate is about 20% or more, that is, each station needs to serve 88 times a day to barely make a loss. According to NIO President Shen Fei, the break-even line of NIO power station is about 50-60 orders a day, and the current average daily order volume of NIO power station is 35-36 orders.

From a product perspective, this is indeed a good story, but so far, this good story has not brought much benefit in business practice.

As early as 2013, Tesla had experimented with replacing power stations in the United States, but was troubled by factors such as construction costs and profitability, and finally chose to give up. Similarly, behind the replacement of power by NIO owners is the reality that NIO "keeps changing power and loses money". Because the cost of adding replacement stations is extremely high, it is a typical asset-heavy business.

The data shows that the cost of the first generation of NIO substation is about 250-3 million, about 205 are established, and the cost of the second generation substation is 1.50 million yuan, and the number is 1100. According to this data, NIO has roughly invested more than 5 billion yuan in the substation.

Since June this year, NIO’s third-generation power station has maintained a construction speed of 120-150 seats per month. If the cost of the second-generation power station is estimated, NIO’s investment in the construction of power stations in 2023 is expected to be more than 1.50 billion yuan.

In addition to power station equipment, battery storage, battery depreciation, etc., it also requires personnel costs, site expenses, and commercial electricity bills. This is equivalent to saying that NIO has invested more than 10 billion yuan in power station replacement.

Moreover, this business, which was originally intended to be blessed by NIO’s "service", has also become a point of complaint for car owners. In April this year, NIO made adjustments to user rights and interests. Since June 1, the number of free power changes for the first owners of some models has been adjusted to 4 times per month. Previously, this right corresponded to 4-6 free power changes per month according to whether charging piles were installed.

According to NIO’s explanation, free power exchanges will gradually decline until they are fully charged on demand. From a business perspective, this is understandable, but at the same time, such adjustments also make NIO, which has always won by "service", more passive.

Auto insurance, mobile phones, and energy supplementation systems are all major projects worth tens of billions of dollars. At present, whether it is just starting auto insurance, mobile phones that have already launched products, or power stations that have invested tens of billions of dollars, they have not brought profits to NIO. Instead, they are likely to become a drag on NIO’s business.

Standing at the moment, the bigger question from the outside world is, what should NIO, which is gradually tearing off the "service" label, use to impress users?

As one of the three giants of the "new car manufacturing forces", NIO’s story is very good, but returning to the essence of business, performance is the basic set. Especially, as the industry competition intensifies, NIO, which has been expanding its own boundaries, and its own performance pressure, may become more and more difficult.

References:

1. Qubit, "Reassessing NIO, It’s Time"

2. International Finance News, "Cars can’t be sold," Loss King "NIO wants to make mobile phones across borders"

3. Finance and Economics Eleven, "While making large losses and investing heavily, what does NIO think?"

4. Shanghai Securities News, "Is NIO going to sell insurance?"