LeTV Super TV, a brand that once brought great disruption to the traditional color TV market, was completely shut down in early 2017 due to the rupture of the group's capital chain. Two years later, on the occasion of the 2019 AWE exhibition, it was "reinvented" and transformed into LeTV Super TV "LeTV", officially announcing its return to the stage.

Today, LeTV is still entangled in financial turmoil and faces pressure to delist. And its super TV business was finally liberated from this endless whirlpool through equity transfer, business divestiture, brand name change and other means. The super TV business, as the halo of the first Internet TV, is the ace business of LeTV. It is also the only core business that has been proven to be "successful" in the LeTV ecosystem. Therefore, the renamed LeRong Super TV "LeTV" has set sail again, which is regarded as a new hope by the operator behind it, LeRongzhixin. For them, restoring the "profit cow" ability of Super TV as soon as possible has become the first step to come back to life.

However, behind this new hope, there are risks everywhere...

LeTV suppliers who have been "scared"

LeTV is a company with a very special development history. It started from a second-rate video website, and with the help of capital and founder IP, it has expanded to have three major systems, spanning seven industries, involving hundreds of companies and Large group of affiliated entities. One of the most critical cornerstones is the success of the super TV business.

On September 19, 2012, LeTV announced its entry into the Internet TV industry, and sales of its TV products have continued to grow since then. In 2015, LeTV finally completed the layout of the seven sub-ecologies and the deployment of its globalization strategy. The following year, LeTV TV ushered in its most glorious moment: the cumulative sales volume exceeded 10 million units in three years. At this point, LeEco has fully "taken off" in the face of the spring breeze of capital, and Danny Bowman, the chief revenue officer of LeEco North America, even publicly stated: "The best technology companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Tesla, and Amazon can't do what LeEco will do. Everything launched!"

If LeEco's story comes to an abrupt end, it will undoubtedly be a very inspirational "counter-attack" story.

Coincidentally, due to the aggressive expansion strategy and the constantly tight capital chain, Jia Yueting's good dream was awakened, and LeTV's journey basically stopped. Beginning in 2017, sales of LeTV TVs began to decline as funding and other issues became prominent. In March, the fourth-generation Lerong Super TV was launched, but then LeTV's debt crisis broke out. Due to the shortage of funds and changes in the team, LeTV without rich broadcast content and good after-sales service was no longer good.

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Image source: LeTV official Weibo

The development, maturity, and strandedness of LeTV's super TV business is full of Jia Yueting's radical way of thinking inside and out. Some people summarize this as "running blindfolded and burning money to expand".

As early as May 2, 2013, Jia Yueting released an internal email "To the Dying Youth of Samsung TVs", claiming that LeTV Super TV will bid farewell to the dying youth of "Samsung TVs". "Maybe, 'Samsung TVs', a perfect TV, but still just a TV, and we assert that TV is dead. Super TV, not just a TV, but a full range of Internet users Demand, we, reborn TV."

In addition, Jia Yueting mentioned in a recent interview, "I have always believed that funding is not a problem, as long as the strategy is sufficiently forward-looking and leading, the product is subversive enough, and there is enough user value, as long as your organizational ability is strong enough, as long as you can manage things If you do it, the money will naturally follow." He always believed that the money would follow the strategy.

But in fact, the advanced nature and achievability of the strategy are two different things. Especially for the small and medium-sized suppliers of these large enterprises, they are at the bottom of the entire ecological chain and fluctuate with the overall fluctuation of LeEco. Perhaps every time LeTV fluctuates itself is not painful, but it is related to the life and death of upstream suppliers.

According to previous media reports, LeEco owes a large amount to five or six suppliers, including Truly, Compal, Luxshare Precision, and AAC. Among them, Truly and Compal owe about US$700 million. Lixun Precision makes mobile phone connectors, and the amount owed should not be large. Compal and AAC both privately expressed their unwillingness to cooperate with LeTV.

A senior executive of a domestic optical company stated that the arrears of LeTV mobile phones this time mainly occurred in module manufacturers and assemblers. Among the camera module manufacturers, LeTV owes Truly Optoelectronics about 1 billion yuan, and Sunny Optical 200 million to 300 million yuan.

An agent of a LeEco supplier in China once revealed that LeEco is currently overdue to them by 10 million US dollars. But because they are small agents, once the deadline is over, it will be difficult for them to end the year. A supplier who also supplies LeTV and Xiaomi said with a wry smile: "They have no funds to supply now."

The industry revealed that under the fermentation of LeEco’s capital chain break, Huawei has begun to send letters to hundreds of its suppliers to ask whether the suppliers supply LeEco at the same time, and whether they are in arrears by LeEco. Huawei is worried that LeEco's arrears will lead to the closure of suppliers, which will affect Chiyu. "If the arrears happen again, LeEco will lose the trust of the entire supply chain." The above-mentioned supply chain source said.

LeTV crisis unabated after coming back to life

It is undeniable that as early as the "Jia Yueting era", the super TV business has always been regarded as a high-quality asset of LeTV by industry insiders. The advent of the first generation of super TVs once promoted the popularization of the concept of smart TVs, and its "screen + content" strategy, as well as rich event broadcast and film and television resources, also gathered a large number of loyal users.

But now, "LeRongzhixin after Sunac took over is no longer the LeTV Zhixin of LeTV!" LeRongzhixin has repeatedly emphasized to the outside world.

According to official information, Lerongzhixin carries the most valuable Internet TV business of LeTV, and divested the listed company in December 2018. It is currently a "Sunac" Internet TV company. Tianjin Jiarui, an affiliate of Sunac, holds approximately 46.05% of Lerongzhixin. At the scene, Lerong executives also confirmed that Sunac is the largest shareholder of Lerong, and the LeTV brand belongs to Lerong Zhixin, which has no financial relationship with LeTV.

Note the key words - "no financial relationship", not "no relationship". This has directly become a key point for the industry to measure the future direction of the LeTV brand. Industry insiders pointed out that, according to the query of the trademark network, the trademark rights of "LeTV" and "LeTV Super TV" belong to LeTV, not Lerongzhixin; and LeTV is the second largest shareholder of Lerongzhixin. The chaotic relationship will definitely directly affect the strategy and direction of the Super TV business. It is difficult for Lerong Super TV to return to the first camp.

In addition, whether the LeTV brand can rely on fans and the word-of-mouth accumulated in the past is also a key, and the negative evaluation of Super TV by former members will also affect sales. On the core competitiveness of Lerong Letv Super TV, Liu Shuqing, vice president of Sunac Culture Group, chairman and CEO of Lerongzhixin, mentioned one point in particular: "The original top technical team has been retained by Lerong, and the core personnel have not been lost. ." At the same time, she also highlighted the fans accumulated by Lerong Letv Super TV before, and invited old users to be the experience officers of new products on the spot.

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Image source: LeTV official Weibo

The price lower than the cost price has made LeTV firmly occupy the leading position in the market share of the smart TV industry. Take the Xiaomi TV that has always been the main cost-effective comparison. The price of Xiaomi TV 3 with the same configuration is 4,999 yuan, while the price of LeTV Super 3 X55 is 3,699 yuan. The price of the two is 1,300 yuan from the bare metal price alone. gap. If you only consider the price of the product, I believe that for working-class consumers, you will definitely choose the cost-effective, that is, LeTV.

With the return of the new LeTV brand, will it still pursue the ultimate low price, and will it be in a price war with Xiaomi? In this regard, Guo Qiao, President of Lerongzhixin TV Division, did not evade: "We will not fight price wars again, and the selling price will no longer be lower than the cost, but we will not pursue profit on the selling price, and operate backward. The core business model has not changed.”

However, it cannot be ignored that after the rapid development of Internet TV in the past two years, the market environment has undergone tremendous changes - in addition to the low overall profit, the competition is very fierce. At present, the smart TV market structure has basically formed three color TV giants, namely Skyworth, Hisense and TCL. In addition to the stable structure of Xiaomi, there are still news of mobile phone companies including Huawei, vivo and OPPO entering the color TV market, leaving it to other companies. less and less opportunities. This is by no means good news for Lerongzhixin.

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