Smart TV sets off a new round of price war

In June, LeTV, which claimed to be a "subversive" in the color TV industry, released Super TV. In July, LeTV ranked first in sales of domestic 60-inch LCD TV market, selling 15,000 units.

Compared with the overall market scale of tens of millions of units, the number of 15,000 units is not high, but it hurts the nerves of traditional home appliance manufacturers. In early September, traditional color power plants collectively launched smart TVs, and Konka, TCL, and Skyworth have joined forces in succession. New brands, new products, and new collaborations have you singing. The “Blue Ocean” of smart TVs has already been “red”, and a new round of price wars has already begun. The new profit model for smart TVs that are expected is still “painting cakes”.

Price war vortex on September 2, Konka released online sub-brand KKTV, 55-inch smart TV 6666 yuan, 39-inch 3333 yuan, will be listed in the KKTV Mall and Jingdong simultaneously; September 3, TCL and Baidu's own iQiyi released smart TV new, "TCL iQIYI TV +" 48-inch 4567 yuan, 29-inch 2999 yuan, Jingdong starting; September 10, Skyworth released online sub-brand cool open, and revealed cooperation with Ali's "mystery" - three cool Open smart TV new built-in Ali OS system, with a poly deal, Alipay and other functions, open up the television payment link, 42 ​​inches Youth Edition 1999 yuan.

On September 13th, Hisense will release an upgraded version of VIDAA Smart TV. It remains to be seen if prices will once again break the bottom line.

Leshi, Ali, PPTV, Xiaomi and other Internet companies have set foot in the TV field, bringing a new "play" to the color TV industry.

Li Yaqin, research director of Quzhi Consulting, believes that TVs with 55 inches or more (excluding 55 inches) account for no more than 3% of domestic TV sales. LeTV only took a month's domestic sales volume in a relatively narrow market segment and a relatively competitive size, which is not enough to prove its status in the industry.

Compared with LeTV, TCL's TV sales hit 18 million units this year. Skyworth's sales of color TVs hit 14 million units this year. Hisense's “bulk” is similar, and Konka and Changhong’s color TV sales are also about 10 million units a year. Even if LeTV sells 20,000 units a month and sells more than 200,000 units a year, it cannot be compared with the 10 million units.

Why is the power plant so nervous? Skyworth Group President Yang Dongwen frankly stated that Internet companies also make hardware, which has a great impact on traditional manufacturing: First, prices, Internet companies' hardware prices are very low; Second, business models, color power plant Rely on hardware to make money, now Internet companies rely more on content, advertising, etc. to earn money; Third, traditional manufacturing companies are not yet familiar with the Internet, to learn Internet operating experience, such as user management, experience and so on. "How industrial companies implant the spirit of the Internet, we need to change our efforts."

In order to “familiarize others with long-term techniques to control foreigners”, Caicai Power Plant has strengthened cooperation with Internet companies, such as cooperation between TCL and iQiyi, Skyworth and Ali, Konka KKTV and Jingdong. However, these cooperations are not as imaginative as they are. At most, they are just "marriage trials" or "test water."

Of course, the color power plant built a “firewall” between the test water product and the original business—brand, model, and channel. Konka and Skyworth respectively launched online sub-brands KKTV and Coolo. There are only a few sizes and models at present; TCL iQIYI TV is now only 48 inches and is only available online. The first batch of production is only 20,000 units.

The new model is far from mature millet, music and Skyworth, TCL, Konka to do smart TV, the same low-cost, the logic behind it is not the same. Color power plants rely on scale, while Internet companies rely on network marketing and user value mining.

Iqiyi CEO Gong Yu said, "We don't share the money of TCL hardware. Our advertising revenue can be divided into TCL." However, when the terminal sales volume is so large that it can begin to receive advertising fees, there is no fixed number. Once this model is done, other color power plants will also compete with iQiyi, and the initiative will fall to the side of Internet companies.

The same goes for Alibaba and Skyworth. Cool TV sets up Skyworth and Ali OS. Yu Weixing, general manager of Ovid Consulting, said that in the short term, Skyworth could use the e-commerce advantage of Ali's Tmall to make online sales. In the long term, once Ali’s services—the shopping habits of shopping on television and the distribution of utilities and water bills—have formed, other color power plants will also scramble to cooperate with Ali. At that time, the color power plant may be in a subsidiary position.

An interesting detail is that Skyworth’s last paragraph of a press release on September 10 used such a title “Cross-border without crossing the border”, emphasizing that “cooperatives must each have their own bottom line and they must do what they are good at. In order to take the initiative, cross-border has become a cross-border."

KONKA and CNTV jointly obtained video revenue sharing for future TV, TCL cooperated with iQiyi to obtain advertising revenue, and Skyworth partnered Ali to obtain e-commerce revenue sharing. These new profit models are still “mirror in the mirror” and uncertain. . Therefore, the color power plant put down its cooperation with the "depth" of the Internet's new army (which is deeper than before, but it is still shallow). There is a bottom line - the hardware does not lose money, which means that the model of "making money on hardware" has not changed.

This is where the "soft ribs" of the color power plant lies.

Yu Liangxing believes that in this round of smart TV's "card slot battle," the color power plant is passive. After the rise of the e-commerce channel, the color power plant through cooperation to improve the layout of the online product system, channel system. And Baidu, Ali and other Internet companies are active, taking advantage of the color power plant to open up the entrance to the home Internet.

"The era of making money from hardware will soon be over!" Yu Liangxing suggested that the color power plant must grab a new profit model as soon as possible. "If millet and LeTV do the TV scale, the days of the color power plant will not be better, the hardware will not make money, and other profit models will not keep up, then it will shuffle again."