With less than 200,000 units sold in a year, where will CANTV go under the halo of the national team?

In the past two years, more than a dozen new brands have entered the Internet TV industry. To this day, we are still not sure whether any of them has truly subverted traditional brands. However, many companies have entered the Internet TV industry in order to expand their businesses that have already reached the ceiling in the industry chain.

In order to make their TV products stand out from the crowd, in addition to price wars, major manufacturers are working hard to create enough hype. Recently, the Internet TV brand CANTV released an 85-inch smart TV priced at 39,999 yuan on its anniversary day. Some people couldn't help but sigh: "CANTV really wants to be popular by releasing such a large-sized TV."

Putting aside whether such a large-size TV will eventually be mass-produced, how has the Internet TV brand CANTV performed in the past year?

It's a bit difficult to survive if sales are less than 200,000 units

"One million units is a watershed for TV manufacturers. If annual sales do not reach this number, it will be difficult for them to survive." Lu Renbo, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Commerce Association, once issued the above warning to Internet TV manufacturers.

Compared with other grassroots Internet TV brands, CANTV has a distinguished family background. It is the only Internet TV player with a "national team" status, based on the three major central media "China Radio International" and backed by the Internet TV license holder - CIBN Internet TV platform. This strong background should have helped it quickly increase its popularity and enter the first echelon of Internet TV brands with its rich product lines and inherent content advantages.

However, sales prove everything. CANTV CEO Fu Qiang once revealed that from September 15, 2015 to now, CANTV has sold more than 190,000 TVs, mainly in the 40-inch to 50-inch range. Less than 200,000 units sold in a year is indeed a bit disappointing. You know, Baofeng TV, which was released almost at the same time as CANTV, also had mediocre sales, but two months ago, the total sales of Baofeng TV had exceeded 200,000.

It is not difficult to see from the Baidu search popularity in the above figure that compared with Xiaomi and LeTV, CANTV's search index is not ideal, and it is still difficult to compete with many first-tier brands. Previously, Fu Qiang said that "CANTV's overall business goal is to develop 10 million Internet users in three years, and this year's goal is 1.5 million." Although it is not difficult to develop so many users in the official view, the actual sales data shows that it is indeed difficult to achieve this goal.

Selling point is mediocre and small problems continue

At the product launch conference just held, its senior executives were still talking about the old topic of true and false 4K, which was a hot topic in the color TV circle a few years ago. CANTV used true 4K as an advantage, which really did not fit the tone of the Internet TV brand. In addition, CANTV's overall performance in hardware was not impressive. It did not have the strong display technology of traditional manufacturers, nor the hardware configuration of Xiaomi and LeTV. It could only make a fuss about its capital background.

On the other hand, user word of mouth is also the best way to test product quality.

The first problem is the poor workmanship. According to feedback from users who purchased online, most CANTVs have a large number of burrs on the seams, which seriously affects the appearance. The screws are also screwed crookedly, and even the entire speaker component is installed into the body crookedly. The quality control is worrying.

Secondly, the overall design of the TV is also problematic. The remote control uses the traditional remote control style with numeric keys. You should know that even traditional TV manufacturers have abandoned this design and adopted a more convenient and easy-to-learn form without numeric keys. Bluetooth, somatosensory, voice and other functions are included as standard. CANTV seems a bit too conservative in this regard. In addition, there is no 3.5mm headphone jack design, which makes it very difficult for users to connect external speakers.

CANTV is equipped with a blue-shadow interactive system. Many users complained that the system was slow to respond, videos were stuck, and even crashed and could not be operated. Many users also complained that the brightness could not be adjusted, and the color was cast when the hardware decoder played the video, and other malicious bugs.

What consumers cannot tolerate is that CANTV's LCD panels generally have serious light leakage. "Buying a screen without bad pixels is like winning the lottery," a user commented. The screen flickers at low brightness and dazzles at high brightness. No matter which one, it makes users feel tired after watching for a long time. Smear is serious, and the picture will be blurred in high-speed sports scenes. The color tolerance is very low, the bright scenes will be overexposed, and the details will be lost in the dark. What's worse, there is often some dust and debris between the LCD panel and the glass cover.

Judging from the current consumer evaluation of Internet TV, problems such as light leakage, bad pixels, and poor workmanship are common. However, for a fledgling brand of TV, the emergence of these minor problems directly affects consumers' perception of Internet TV and is not conducive to the healthy development of the entire market.

What is worse than a problem is not being able to solve it

Compared with the strong offline channels of traditional brands, the issues of experience and after-sales service have always been the focus of criticism for Internet brands. This has also led LeTV, Xiaomi, Whaley, and PPTV to start improving their offline channels this year in order to compete with traditional manufacturers. Whether it is self-owned after-sales service or through a franchise model, the entire model from pre-sales to after-sales service is gradually spreading among these brands. After all, it is not a mobile phone that can be repaired anywhere, and the proprietary attributes and technical elements of a TV cannot be solved by any repair shop.

However, CANTV's after-sales service is currently in a state of chaos. Many users who purchased CANTV from third-party platforms said that Suning was not responsible for after-sales service and that they were told that after-sales service was provided by the TV manufacturer. Afterwards, after-sales service asked users to join CANTV's after-sales communication service group, but some users were not approved after applying, and the matter was left unresolved.

CANTV has not passed the test yet. It has no price advantage, poor sales, poor quality control, failed design, numerous system bugs, slow updates, poor panel quality, and ineffective after-sales service. Although it has a powerful parent like CIBN, CANTV still cannot be ranked among the top Internet TV brands.

The rapid development of Internet TV products has brought consumers more value-for-money and easy-to-use products, but it has also brought many new problems. Less tricks and more sincerity are the bottom line for new Internet TV brands to gain a foothold in the market. If they want to add points to their brands, they need two hard brushes.

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.