Internet TV is the mainstream and traditional strategies have no future

In the past, the development of the entire color TV industry was flat. Traditional competition ranged from channels to upstream resources and then to vertically integrated supply chains. Mainstream companies have adapted to this competitive relationship and mastered this business model based on hardware production, operation, and sales. The entry of Internet companies such as LeTV has brought a three-dimensional and multi-dimensional competition method, that is, expanding profit margins through back-end charging, content operation, and user operation.

A gorgeous performance that has nothing to do with users

On August 18, Suning.com's fifth anniversary promotion is about to arrive. Chang Jiang, general manager of Suning Cloud Commerce Group's black-and-white electronics business unit, revealed that Suning will join forces with Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Hisense, Skyworth, TCL, Changhong, Konka, Haier and other mainstream domestic and foreign TV manufacturers to invest huge resources to create Suning's "Strongest TV Month" in August in Suning's national stores and Suning.com.

It can be said that this will be another gorgeous performance of merchants giving discounts on the basis of high prices. It is not difficult to find that among the 2 million special products purchased by Suning, most of them are traditional LED TVs. After the technology of the color TV industry has moved towards 3D, 4K, and intelligence, the premium of traditional LED TVs has been greatly reduced. The 32-inch LED TV marked with the original price of 1,499 yuan in Suning's promotional activities is about 1,000 yuan on JD.com, and the 40-inch super TV produced by LeTV is only priced at 999 yuan.

As one of the main distributors of traditional home appliance brands, Suning has also embarked on a transformation path in the past two years. However, the financial report released by Suning on July 30 seemed to declare the failure of this transformation. Data showed that Suning Online, which had always hoped to import traffic online, saw a 22% year-on-year decline in revenue, and a net loss of 749 million yuan in the first half of the year.

In fact, Suning has indeed made continuous plans for its transformation, starting from the acquisition of PPTV, Redbaby and other companies last year, obtaining the virtual operator's license in January this year, launching free mobile phone films to import traffic in May, and announcing cooperation with football's dream team Barcelona in June. These series of actions show Suning's urgency to keep up with the pace of the Internet era.

However, in the follow-up of all links, Suning seems to have ignored the positioning of consumers or users in the new market environment. In addition to the serious aging of the brand, Suning's physical stores do not have any experience facilities that can attract young people. The so-called "strongest color TV month" and discount promotions based on high premiums and high marketing cannot arouse the interest of young people at all.

The future of television belongs to the users

In fact, after the color TV industry experienced technological innovations such as LCD, LED, and 3D, with the advent of the Internet era and the integration and application of Internet thinking, the era of Internet TV has begun. During the transformation, the survival of Internet marketing models and traditional brand models has also become the focus of market attention.

In contrast, LeTV TV Super TV, which skips the physical store sales link, seems to be more adapted to the development of the color TV industry in this era, whether in terms of Internet marketing model or in terms of technology level and hardware price that constantly refresh industry standards.

LeTV currently has a 70-inch super TV Max70 priced at 8,999 yuan, and a 50-inch S50 Air priced at 999 yuan. On the technical level, in addition to its main smart TVs, it is also advancing into 3D displays, 4K screens, and smart chips. It has also established China's first smart TV application market Letv Store, providing users with a large number of third-party applications.

It is reported that the operating system LetvUI of LeTV TV Super TV will update its functions and system every week. It is completely user-oriented and solves bugs and promotes upgrades based on the feedback from users and music fans on the Internet. This model that focuses on user experience, discovers user needs, solves user problems, and creates value for users can perhaps be called an Internet model.

Peng Yu, deputy general manager of market research firm Zhongyikang, said, "As smart TVs have become the mainstream trend of the future color TV industry, hardware manufacturers can only make money by interacting more with users, and this is also a new profit growth point." Facts have proved that compared with traditional hardware manufacturers with limited market capacity, content service providers have a broader profit space. Take LeTV's "platform + content + terminal + application" ecosystem as an example. After lowering the hardware sales value of the entire color TV industry with a sales price close to cost, LeTV has done more to enrich content and cultivate user stickiness through content.

According to the monitoring data of China Market Research, the penetration rate of smart TVs has reached 58.7% from January to April 2014. The penetration rate of smart TVs will continue to grow in the second half of 2014, and it is expected to reach 79.5% in 2014. The market predicts that as the concept of intelligence continues to deepen, content and services will become the core competitiveness of the future TV industry and the core link of the color TV industry chain.

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.