Ren Zhengfei said to focus on profit rather than revenue, which Kuaishou and JD.com have already done

Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1284

The dot-com bubble burst in 2000, taking trillions of dollars with it. Huawei Chairman Ren Zhengfei warned his colleagues under the title “Huawei’s Winter”:

… The slump in Internet stocks will definitely have an impact on construction expectations in the next two or three years. At that time, the manufacturing industry will enter a contraction of inertia. The immediate prosperity is the inertial result of the surge in Internet stocks in the past few years… Without foresight, without prevention, it will freeze to death. At that time, whoever had a cotton coat survived.

At that time, Ren Zhengfei asked employees if they thought the company would go bankrupt. If there is no such sense of worry, it will be a disaster for Huawei, because he is convinced that the day when revenue and profits will decline or go bankrupt “will definitely come.”

On August 23, Ren Zhengfei, who had not spoken for a long time, posted a message on the internal forum, warning employees with words similar to 22 years ago, “Take survival as the main program, shrink and close all marginal businesses, and pass the cold air to everyone”, demanding. Employees “find a way to get through these three years of hardship, ‍‍The basic point of survival should be adjusted to focus on cash flow and real profit, and can no longer only focus on sales revenue… It would be better for sales revenue to decline, but profit and cash flow to grow. , ‍‍The bonus for operating profit growth is a bit more…”

Huawei’s revenue fell by 6% in the first half of 2022, and its profit margin fell to 5%. More industries are drawn into more complex macro trends. Internet companies understand the fluctuations of the economic cycle as well as Ren Zhengfei and Huawei, and started to act earlier. In the second quarter of this year, Tencent’s operating costs had zero growth, and marketing expenses were cut by 20% compared with the same period last year.

On August 23, two Chinese Internet companies held by Tencent also released their second quarterly reports on similar fee trends.

Kuaishou reduces cash burn, and domestic business makes first quarterly profit

Now, Kuaishou, a major shareholder of Tencent, has released a second quarterly report on the trend of similar expenses:

  • Revenue increased by 13.59% to 21.695 billion yuan;
  • Operating costs increased by 10.8% to 11.925 billion yuan;
  • Gross profit margin was 45%, 1.2 percentage points higher than the same period in 2021;
  • The saved bandwidth charges are partially offset by the rising share cost;
  • Selling expenses decreased by 22.25% year-on-year to 8.762 billion yuan, a quarter-on-quarter decrease for five consecutive quarters;
  • The sales expense ratio dropped to 40.39%, 18.77 percentage points lower than the same period in 2021;
  • Research and development expenses decreased by 16.08% year-on-year to 3.282 billion yuan;
  • Administrative expenses increased by 10.65%, but management stated that “personnel expenses have been reduced and the ratio of manpower to income has been optimized”.

In the second quarter, Kuaishou e-commerce sales (GMV) achieved a growth rate of more than 30%, the growth rate of advertising revenue fell to 10.42% (including some e-commerce advertisements), and the growth rate of “other” revenue including e-commerce dropped to single digits—— The sub-item and aggregated revenue growth rate is at the lowest level since listing. After reducing investment, the monthly average user decreased by 11.2 million month-on-month.

However, due to the control of burning money, the overall operating loss of Kuaishou narrowed to 3.059 billion yuan in the second quarter. They also disclosed profit and loss separately by region for the first time — the domestic business made a quarterly profit of 93.63 million yuan for the first time — half a year earlier than the Kuaishou plan.

JD.com cuts marketing and administrative expenses by 1.3 billion yuan in a single season

Tencent gave its shareholders 100 billion yuan worth of JD.com shares in the first quarter, making it the fourth-ranked “small” shareholder, but this does not affect the cooperative relationship and operational tacit understanding between the two companies:

  • In the second quarter of this year, JD.com’s revenue increased by 5.44% to 267.6 billion yuan;
  • The growth rate of JD.com’s self-operated merchandise retail sales was 2.88% (Ali + 8%), and the growth rate of physical goods on the national social zero network during the same period was 7.5%.
  • Costs only increased by 4.34% to 231.7 billion yuan.
  • Selling expenses rarely decreased by 10.7% year-on-year to 9.477 billion yuan;
  • Administrative expenses decreased by 9.25% year-on-year to 2.324 billion yuan;
  • The total sales and management expenses of JD.com decreased by 1.372 billion yuan compared with the same period last year;

Revenue growth, cost input slowed down, and expenses contracted, driving JD.com’s quarterly operating profit to 3.756 billion yuan, a 10-fold increase year-on-year.

Xu Lei, CEO of JD.com Group, said in the earnings conference call that the second quarter was the most challenging quarter since JD.com went public. Non-rigid categories such as clothing, alcohol, and mobile phones performed relatively weakly, while the livelihood categories maintained good growth.

  • Xu Lei said that there will be unexpected factors, great challenges and impacts in the short term, but he is confident in China’s macro long-term trend. Next, we are more concerned about quality growth, expanding market share while paying attention to the health of profit margins and cash flow, and focusing on cost, efficiency and experience.
  • Jingdong CFO Xu Ran added that there will indeed be many uncertainties in the future, and will strengthen strategic adjustments, improve operational efficiency, and ensure that the group has healthy cash flow, and on this basis, guarantees corporate operational efficiency. (Gong Fangyi, intern Xue Yujie, and intern Zeng Xing)

Xiaopeng expects third-quarter deliveries to drop by up to 15%

After Ideal lowered its third-quarter delivery forecast in the middle of this month, Xiaopeng Motors also gave a 10% to 15% month-on-month reduction in its third-quarter delivery guidance in its earnings press release on August 23.

  • Xpeng delivered 34,422 vehicles in the second quarter. They expect to deliver 29,000 to 31,000 vehicles in the third quarter.

The delivery volume of the high-margin model P7 fell for two consecutive quarters. Combined with the impact of upstream battery price increases and chip shortages, Xiaopeng Motors’ gross profit margin decreased by 1.9 percentage points year-on-year in the second quarter to 9.1%.

  • Xpeng Motors’ second-quarter auto sales revenue was 6.938 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93.6%;
  • The net loss was 2.7 billion yuan, about 1.194 billion yuan in the same period last year, more than double the year-on-year.

He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, once said at an event organized by shareholder GGV Jiyuan Capital that China’s new energy vehicle market is developing rapidly, and the industry penetration rate continues to increase, but the market share of new car companies such as Xiaopeng, Weilai and Ideal It has not increased significantly, which means that other car companies have taken the incremental market. In the first half of this year, BYD replaced Tesla as the global sales champion of new energy vehicles. (Gong Fangyi)

Shell’s revenue in the second quarter fell by 40% year-on-year

In the second quarter of this year, the national housing sales area and amount decreased by more than 30% year-on-year, and the performance of the leading real estate broker Shell will not be much better.

  • The total transaction volume of shells in the second quarter was 639.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 47.6%;
  • The transaction volume of existing houses was 393.5 billion yuan, a decrease of 39.6%;
  • The transaction volume of new houses was 222.7 billion yuan, a decrease of 55.3%;
  • Operating income was 13.77 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 43%;
  • Income from existing housing transaction services was RMB 5.535 billion, a decrease of 42%;
  • New house transaction service revenue was 6.666 billion yuan, a decrease of 51.99%;
  • The realisation rate of existing housing transactions is 1.4%;
  • The realisation rate of new house transactions was 2.9%;
  • The home improvement and home furnishing business achieved a revenue of RMB 1 billion. Shell said that if all the results of Shengdu Home Improvement, which it acquired last year, were consolidated, revenue for the quarter would increase by 10%.

Similar to its peers in the platform economy, Shell continued to shrink its spending in the second quarter. Their operating costs were -41.25% year-on-year (previous value -31.59%), and marketing, administrative and R&D expenses only increased by 0.22% year-on-year, of which:

  • Marketing expenses decreased by 11% to RMB 2 billion;
  • Administrative expenses fell 11% to $3.8 billion.
  • The number of stores and the number of brokers decreased by 19% and 24% year-on-year.

In the second quarter, Shell’s operating loss was 1.5 billion yuan. At the end of the quarter, book cash and short-term investments totaled 42.9 billion yuan. (Gong Fangyi, intern Zeng Xing)

OTHER NEWS

JD Daojia drives revenue, and Dada Group’s revenue in the second quarter increased by 55% year-on-year.

In terms of business, the net revenue of Dada Express in the second quarter was 810 million yuan, an increase of more than 30% year-on-year; the net revenue of JD Daojia was 1.47 billion yuan, an increase of more than 60% year-on-year, and the total transaction volume increased by nearly 70%. Profit margins turned positive. In the second quarter, Dada Group’s operating loss was 610 million yuan, narrowing compared with the same period last year. Dada Group announced the resignation of CEO Kuai Jiaqi, and He Huijian, the former vice president of Dada Group, was appointed as the president of Dada Group.

Offline office gradually resumed, and Zoom’s revenue growth slowed in the second quarter.

Zoom’s revenue in the second quarter increased by 8% year-on-year to $1.1 billion, lower than the 12% year-on-year increase in the previous quarter, and its net profit decreased by more than 80%. Zoom lowered its earnings and revenue expectations for this fiscal year. Sales to consumers and small businesses are expected to decline 7% to 8% this year, according to Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg.

The General Administration of Customs reminded not to buy and consume related batches of beverages from Oatly’s parent company.

Lyons Magnus, a U.S. food manufacturer, announced that it voluntarily recalled some beverage products due to possible contamination of botulinum toxin and Cronobacter sakazakii, involving 22 brands and 88 products, including 4 of its brand Oatly sold in the U.S. market. product. Earlier, the Swedish oat milk brand Oatly issued a product recall announcement in the Chinese market, and will preventively recall 12 batches of original mellow oat milk 330ml products.

Gree Electric recently stopped supplying Hebei distributors.

Previously, Xu Zifa, chairman of Hebei Gree General Distributor (Hebei Xinxing Gree Electric Appliances Sales Co., Ltd.), announced that he would “no longer be Gree” and switched to Philips. According to people familiar with the matter, Gree Electric has started preparations for a new sales company in Hebei. According to Tianyancha information, Hebei Gree, an emerging affiliated company of Hebei, is a shareholder of Jinghai Internet, and Jinghai Internet is the third largest shareholder of Gree Electric.

Nucleic acid screening for all staff was carried out in the central urban area of ​​Chongqing on the 24th.

  • On August 22, there were 308 new confirmed cases in the mainland, 205 in Hainan, 27 in Tibet, and 1,440 new asymptomatic infections in the mainland, including 520 in Hainan, 518 in Tibet, and 173 in Xinjiang.
  • Hainan added local “205+520”, of which Sanya added “166+379”.
  • Chongqing has added a local “23+8”. Since August, 15 outbreaks have been linked to 5 sources and 8 chains.
  • From 0:00 on the 24th, all citizens’ health codes in the central urban area of ​​Chongqing will be converted to “orange codes”. After completing a nucleic acid sampling, the window will be automatically closed, and the pop-up window will not affect the activity on the first day.
  • Tibet has newly added local “27+518”, and Lhasa’s existing high school risk area “261+69”.
  • As of August 21, the number of tourists stranded in Qamdo has decreased from more than 9,000 at the beginning of the outbreak to less than 900.
  • Many of the recently reported infected persons had a history of staying in expressway service areas, suggesting that there is a risk of epidemic transmission in expressway service areas.

Former Apple employee Zhang Xiaolang admitted to stealing confidential information before joining Xiaopeng.

Former Apple engineer Zhang Xiaolang pleaded guilty on Aug. 22 in federal court in San Jose, California, to charges that he stole trade secrets related to Apple’s automotive division before leaving for Xpeng Motors. Court documents show that a judge has ordered his plea deal to be sealed for sentencing on Nov. 14. Zhang Xiaolang faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In the second quarter, Tongcheng Travel’s revenue and net profit both declined, and the sinking market became a growth point.

The revenue of Tongcheng Travel in the second quarter was 1.319 billion yuan, down 38.3% year-on-year. Net profit was 112 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 73.2%. The two main businesses of accommodation and transportation ticketing business were affected to varying degrees by the impact of the epidemic, which was the main reason for the decline in performance in the second quarter. In addition, the sinking market has become a growth point. As of June 30, non-first-tier cities accounted for 87.1% of registered users, and about 61.7% of new paying users on WeChat in the second quarter came from third-tier and below cities.

In 2030, Great Wall Motors will officially stop selling fuel vehicles under the Haval brand.

On August 22, Haval Brand General Manager Li Xiaorui revealed at the new energy strategy conference that Haval will transition to new energy. fuel car. According to the latest production and sales data of Great Wall Motors, the Haval brand sold 61,279 units in July, a year-on-year increase of 7.14%, of which the Haval H6 model is a popular item.

Anjing Food’s net profit in the first half of the year increased by more than 30% year-on-year.

Anjing Foods’ revenue in the first half of the year was about 5.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.47%; net profit was about 450 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.35%.

Among them, dish products and rice and noodle products were the main drivers of revenue growth. In contrast, the revenue of meat products decreased slightly compared with the same period last year. Regarding the growth in performance, Yasui Foods said that the prefabricated vegetable sector is developing rapidly, and the second growth curve has begun to take shape.

Master Kong’s net profit in the first half of the year fell by 38.42% year-on-year.

Affected by the nearly 40% drop in the net profit of the two core businesses of instant noodles and beverages, Master Kong’s net profit in the first half of the year fell by 38.42% year-on-year to 1.253 billion yuan. As Laotan sauerkraut noodles were involved in the sauerkraut scandal, sales fell sharply. At the same time, due to the rise in the prices of raw materials such as palm oil, flour and white sugar, the gross profit margin declined. In the first half of the year, Master Kong’s instant noodle business profit decreased by 39.23%.

Text | Gong Fangyi, intern Zeng Xing, and intern Xue Yujie

Editor | Gong Fangyi

The title picture comes from the movie “Eight Mountains”

This article is reprinted from: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1284
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