LeEco receives 16.8 billion yuan in strategic investment to revive its business and is expected to surpass BAT and lead the Internet industry

"There will always be a time to ride the wind and waves, and set sail to cross the vast ocean" is the perfect phrase to describe LeEco and Jia Yueting. LeEco and Jia Yueting have always been idols in the hearts of entrepreneurs. There is no doubt that both LeEco and Jia Yueting are successful. LeEco's development was not smooth in 2016. The capital chain problem that once broke out also pushed the rapidly expanding LeEco to the forefront.

Liang Jun, president of LeTV Zhixin, said in his speech at the Home Audiovisual Forum: The value of hardware, terminals, and entrances is immeasurable. The core point is that terminal entrances cannot be sold at a low price. The color TV industry will eventually break away from the vicious circle of low-price competition. The TV industry's income comes from hardware, including accessories and TV sets. The main emphasis is on operating income, including content, income from content-related members, including sales of members, including renewals, etc., as well as advertising income, TV shopping, including games, etc. Therefore, LeTV's TV business has a content operation team, a member sales team, and TV shopping, etc. I think ordinary traditional companies cannot do this.

So from this perspective, Sunac China's investment in LeTV has a lot to do with LeTV's achievements in the television and film industries.

On the evening of January 13, Sunac China announced that it had made a strategic investment in LeEco, acquiring 8.61% of LeEco.com with RMB 6.041 billion, 33.5% of LeEco Zhixin with RMB 7.95 billion, and 15% of LeEco Pictures with RMB 1.05 billion. Sunac spent a total of RMB 15.041 billion. After the transaction is completed, Sunac China will become the second largest shareholder of LeEco.com, a listed segment of the LeEco system, and an important shareholder of LeEco Super TV and Pictures.

In fact, many people know that LeEco has seven major industry sectors, including Internet cloud and applications, content, mobile phones, TVs, automobiles, sports, and Internet finance. The Internet ecosystem of LeEco covers a wide range of areas, which is far beyond the reach of many startup companies. The reason why LeEco has been frequently reported to have funding problems recently is that it is still in the two sectors of mobile phones and automobiles.

From the announcements of LeEco and Sunac China, we can see that Sunac and other strategic investors are investing in LeEco's TV and film industries for a reason. LeEco's core business, LeTV Video, has China's largest Internet content copyright library and the most advanced content production capabilities, the world's largest cloud video platform, and China's largest smart TV company. It has built a unique Internet video ecosystem of "platform + content + hardware + software + application" in the world.

Complementary advantages of terminals + rapid development of Internet applications

LeTV Pictures has participated in 11 films (including investment, production, and distribution), and the total box office of each film has exceeded 100 million yuan, ranking first in the industry. The films have earned a total box office of 3.95 billion yuan, ranking second in the industry, an increase of 73.7% compared to the total box office of 2.274 billion yuan in 2015, making it the fastest growing company in the industry, and its smart TV business has successfully become a first-tier brand. LeTV Zhixin is also one of the earliest and most high-quality assets in the LeTV system. Since the launch of the Super TV, as of the end of 2016, the number of LeTV large-screen users has exceeded 10 million, truly achieving coverage of tens of millions of household users and forming a strong user stickiness.

First of all, there is an experienced management team with high cohesion and execution ability. The team is mature and stable. Judging from the relevant data, the companies or projects invested by Sunac have achieved very good results. This time, the investment in LeTV is mainly aimed at LeTV's TV or film departments. On the one hand, this choice is because LeTV's current major sectors, that is, TV and movies have achieved good results, and its advanced ecological concept will definitely have long-term development; in fact, Sunac is very famous in the real estate industry. The development of future technology will lead consumers into the era of smart homes. The key to smart homes is to have a home. Sunac's investment in LeTV can develop intelligence on the basis of "home", and combined with the development of smart homes, it may have a multiplier effect on its own real estate business;

Focus on the future: LeEco will leave BAT behind

I believe many people still remember the saying "everything is ready, only the money is missing". The investment of Sunac China has undoubtedly solved the problem of being troubled by funds for some time. LeEco, which has already developed ecological economic theory, ecological strategy, business model, product strength, brand strength, R&D strength, sales strength, and finally formed ecological strength and subversive power, will undoubtedly take advantage of the opportunity of the 16.8 billion capital injection to achieve rapid development in the Chinese and American markets.

It has to be said that LeEco and Jia Yueting are both visionaries. Many people say that Jia Yueting is now like Jack Ma in the past. In the start-up stage, many people thought that they were creating a "Ponzi scheme". Judging from Jack Ma's success, Jia Yueting's plan is not a Ponzi scheme, but more like people's misunderstanding of his advanced ideas. Looking back at the current Internet manufacturers, they are still stuck in a certain product, while LeEco has already begun to look to the future. Some people believe that LeEco will surpass BAT in the global market in the future, because LeEco's ecosystem is more advanced than other ecosystem theories.

Although Sunac's investment in LeEco has taken up most of its shares, LeEco is still controlled by Jia Yueting in the final analysis, and the sovereignty has not left LeEco, so the future development of LeEco may have two sides. First of all, it is well known that LeEco has come to where it is today because of its rapid expansion, which has led to a serious shortage of funds in the mobile phone and automobile departments. If LeEco can make good use of this capital, give priority to the development of video and TV businesses, and slowly develop other businesses after the company is on the right track, then the future of LeEco will be limitless; on the contrary, if LeEco still fails to fundamentally let go of the "big pie" of smart cars and still integrates too much funds into it, without paying attention to the business that originally has advantages, then the future of LeEco may have to continue to raise funds or be acquired.

LeEco seems to have solved its financial problems, but in fact, the risks it faces are still relatively large. After all, the market is a "big cake" and everyone wants to take a bite. New Internet companies are everywhere, and there are many that are doing well. If you are not careful, they may become the "history" of economic development; 2017 is another difficult year for the technology industry. After all, it has to face the possibility of RMB exchange rate appreciation and the possibility of price increases for mobile phones or TV components. This is not only a crisis for LeEco but also a crisis for the entire industry. No matter how good the idea is, it will always fall back to reality. If you just "draw big pie", then the company will eventually come to an end.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.