Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1411
Who is the most economical among the top ten Chinese Internet companies?
In the past two or three quarters, executives of Chinese Internet companies tried to guide a kind of market expectation: good companies not only dare to expand, but also know when to save money. Gone are the days of growth regardless of cost.
So it seems at first glance. According to our statistics, the marketing expenses of the 10 Chinese Internet companies with the highest market capitalization (the list is attached at the end) in the first three quarters of this year were 18.734 billion yuan less than the same period last year.
The most saving is Kuaishou (-6.565 billion yuan), followed by Alibaba (-5.9 billion yuan) and Tencent (-5.864 billion yuan). Their management said in the third quarter results meeting:
- Kuaishou: Expenditure on user retention is stricter and more effective; strive to further improve the operational efficiency of overseas business, and gradually reduce the negative impact on the group’s overall financial performance; optimize bandwidth usage efficiency, reduce bandwidth expenses and server storage costs;
- Tencent: Further strengthen the control of marketing costs and withdraw from inefficient projects;
- Alibaba: Efforts to optimize the expenditure of new acquisitions and user retention in various business departments.
However, each company has different attitudes towards controlling R&D and management costs. And by comparing the data of 2019 and 2020, people should realize that “cost reduction” and “expenditure reduction” are relative concepts. As the company grows, it is neither realistic nor meaningful to rewind the scale of spending to a few years ago.
The R&D expenses of the 10 companies in the first three quarters increased by 14.2 billion yuan compared with the same period last year. Tencent (+7.616 billion yuan), Meituan (+3.403 billion yuan) and Ali (+2.83 billion yuan) increased the most.
The overall management expenses were 2.17 billion yuan less than the same period last year. The largest increase was Tencent (+13.915 billion yuan), and the largest contraction was Ali (-17.337 billion yuan).
In our incomplete statistics this time, the “three fees” of Kuaishou and Keike were reduced, and the cost was 6.761 billion yuan and 1.846 billion yuan less respectively. Although Alibaba’s research and development expenses have increased year-on-year, after including sales and research and development expenses, the first three quarters of this year are still 20.416 billion yuan less than the same period last year. (Gong Fangyi)
Attached is a list of companies and their changes in marketing, R&D and management expenses in the first three quarters of this year:
- Tencent, +15.667 billion yuan
- Alibaba, -20.416 billion yuan
- Meituan, +4.081 billion
- Pinduoduo, +5.387 billion yuan
- JD.com, +290 million yuan
- NetEase, +2.082 billion
- Baidu, -3.53 billion yuan
- Kuaishou, -6.761 billion yuan
- Ctrip, -1.599 billion
- Shells, -1.846 billion
- Total, -6.643 billion yuan
Grab the antigen, from virtual to reality
Following Guangzhou’s announcement the day before to strictly follow the ninth edition of the prevention and control plan and the “Twenty Articles” to control the epidemic, on December 1, it further clarified the classification and implementation of nucleic acid testing, and encouraged families to bring their own antigen kits. As far as we know, at present, many shopping malls in Guangzhou, such as Tianhe City, Dongfang Baotai Plaza, and Zhengjia Plaza, no longer need to check the 48-hour nucleic acid negative certificate, and can enter with the green code of the health code.
- The “Twenty Articles” clearly stipulate that areas where no epidemics have occurred shall not expand the scope of nucleic acid testing; generally, nucleic acid testing for all employees is not carried out according to administrative regions.
The adjustment of measures has stimulated residents’ demand for new crown antigen reagents. “Wan Lian Cai” found that on a certain food delivery platform, some pharmacies that still have antigens in stock have become popular stores marked on the platform. However, on the third-party food delivery platforms in Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and other cities, there are very few stores that can buy nucleic acid antigen reagents through flash sales instead of mail.
Although there are not many available in stock, the price of nucleic acid testing reagents that can be purchased in a flash on food delivery platforms in many cities is about 8 yuan/piece. And if you choose to buy in bulk on Taobao and other shopping platforms by mail, the price can be lowered to below 5 yuan per piece.
In addition to antigens, some companies in cities such as Guangdong, Chongqing, and Hubei are also trying to enable independent nucleic acid sampling, and then transfer the samples to hospitals and other institutions for testing. In Fengtai District of Beijing, residents self-collected nucleic acid on a pilot basis.
In addition to real consumption scenarios, stocks related to antigen detection in the secondary market are also being “snatched up”. The Wind New Crown Antigen Detection Concept Index (8841559) has gone from a low of 1607.14 more than a month ago to 2123.37 at today’s close, an increase of more than 30%.
Legend: Wind New Crown Antigen Detection Concept Index (8841559) rose 7.5% in a single day on November 29. On the same day, there were market rumors that some cities would adjust the epidemic control measures.
At the policy level, Sun Chunlan, Vice Premier of the State Council, held a symposium for two consecutive days to listen to the opinions and suggestions of representatives on the front line of epidemic prevention. At today’s meeting, she noted:
- “Adhere to making progress while maintaining stability, take small steps without stopping, and actively optimize and improve the prevention and control policies.” The strength is weakening, creating conditions for further optimization and improvement of prevention and control measures.”
Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other places continue to optimize and adjust epidemic prevention measures:
- Beijing: Raffles City, Shunyi Longhua Outlets and many other shopping malls have announced that they will resume business on December 1. Customers entering the shopping malls must hold a negative nucleic acid certificate within 48 hours.
- Guangzhou: Conghua District opened cinemas, Internet cafes, KTV and other places in an orderly manner; Liwan District resumed offline teaching and dine-in.
- Shenzhen: “Space-Time Accompanying” is not used as the criterion for judging close connection.
- Chengdu: Residents only need to show their health codes when entering and leaving residential areas and courtyards, and no longer need to show negative nucleic acid certificates.
- Zhengzhou: The airport area will switch to normalized epidemic prevention and control starting today.
- Luliang: The cooling rate is relatively large, and daily online class students, infants and young children do not need to do nucleic acid.
At the same time, the requirements for nucleic acid in some places have not been relaxed. Hohhot requires that starting from 6:00 on December 2, pop-up windows will be issued to those who fail to comply with the requirements, and public places such as units, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. will refuse to enter the pop-up personnel, but patients must not be refused medical treatment on the grounds of pop-up windows. Jinan, Urumqi and other places announced the implementation of classified code management. (Qiu Hao)
Xiaopeng Motors’ November deliveries shrank 62% year-on-year
The day after the stock price soared 43%, Xiaopeng Motors announced that it delivered 5,811 new cars (including 1,546 G9s) in November, a month-on-month increase and a year-on-year decrease of 62%.
Ideal and Weilai, which announced delivery data on the same day, both increased year-on-year and month-on-month, and set a single-month delivery record. A day’s rise or fall of the stock price doesn’t change anything for the company.
According to the financial report released by Xiaopeng Motors on November 30, the revenue growth rate in the third quarter slowed down to 19%, and the gross profit margin of the vehicle returned to double digits (11.64%). The net loss in the quarter was 2.3 billion yuan, which was about 325 million yuan narrower than that in the second quarter.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, told analysts that he is confident that G9’s monthly sales will soon rank among the top three, and about 10,000 new cars will be delivered in December. With the release of three new cars in the first quarter of next year and the advantages of autonomous driving technology, I believe The sales volume and average selling price of Xiaopeng Motors have “significantly increased”, and the revenue growth rate next year will be higher than the industry average.
Unlike Weilai, who is willing to spend more than 10 billion yuan in capital expenditures a year for growth, Xiaopeng Motors will not only control capital expenditures within 4.5 billion yuan this year, but will further reduce it to about 3 billion yuan next year. He Xiaopeng said that he will focus more on the strategy, product planning and R&D of Xiaopeng Motors, promote organizational changes and upgrades, and greatly reduce the time spent on ecological enterprises.
Several investors in the secondary market told us that the sharp rise in the stock price of Xiaopeng Motors has not only the expectation of a reversal in performance and organizational management, but also the possibility of a “short squeeze.” The stock price rebounded, and everyone wanted to “close the account” as soon as possible to keep profits or reduce losses. At this time, they had to buy stocks, and the sooner the better, further accelerating the rise of stock prices. (Gong Fangyi)
FTX’s bankruptcy triggers a domino effect in the currency circle
In his first public appearance on Nov. 30, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried insisted he never attempted fraud and blamed management failures for FTX’s collapse.
If this is the case, it is also a costly management experiment that almost pulls the entire market into a vortex.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, further exacerbating volatility in the cryptocurrency market. Encrypted lending platform BlockFi filed for bankruptcy on November 28 due to related transactions such as mutual guarantees or holding each other’s assets. Genesis, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency lending platforms, is also facing a liquidity crisis, raising funds to avoid bankruptcy. Encryption exchange Kraken will lay off 30% of its staff, about 1,100 people.
The knock-on effect continues. Before the accident, FTX was considered to be one of the most compliant and trustworthy exchanges, and received several rounds of large capital injections from the most famous venture capital such as Sequoia Capital, Temasek and Softbank.
- Temasek announced a write-down of its $275 million investment in FTX, launching an internal independent review aimed at “studying and improving its processes and drawing lessons for the future”. An independent team responsible for the review reports directly to the Board. This is an upgrade to Temasek’s regular review process.
- BlackRock invested about $24 million in FTX. CEO Larry Fink said that most cryptocurrency companies will probably follow FTX out of business.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen is skeptical of cryptocurrencies, arguing that the industry needs adequate regulation.
According to industry statistics agency 0xscope, in the week before FTX declared bankruptcy, about $1.17 billion flowed from FTX to Binance. Later, perhaps realizing the potentially irreconcilable tension between “decentralized” assets and “centralized” exchanges, investors pulled a cumulative $19.6 billion from cryptocurrency funds throughout November. (intern Zeng Xing)
OTHER NEWS
The stock price of Haichang Ocean Park is “halved”, and the reason is unknown.
At the close on December 1, Haichang Ocean Park closed at HK$1.49, down 53.8%. Some media reported that “the company’s controlling shareholder sold 45% of its shares.” Haichang Ocean Park responded that it was false news, and said it was investigating the reasons for the stock price fluctuations.
Issues such as the pathogenicity and sequelae of the new crown are discussed again.
“Global Times” quoted the verification conclusion of the domestic scientific research team, saying that the pathogenicity of Omicron has been greatly reduced. “China Youth Daily” issued an article stating that there is no evidence that there will be sequelae after being infected with the new crown.
H&M will lay off 1,500 people worldwide.
Due to the impact of high inflation on consumer demand and rising raw material and transportation costs, H&M will lay off 1,500 people worldwide, equivalent to nearly 1% of its 155,000 employees worldwide, saving about $190 million a year. In the third quarter, H&M’s net profit decreased by 88% to US$51 million.
HSBC will close a quarter of its UK branches next year.
HSBC will close 114 branches in the UK from April next year, accounting for about a quarter of the total number of British banks, leaving 327. The reason is that more and more people choose to conduct business online, and some branches that are about to close only handle business with less than 250 customers per week. At the same time, it also improves performance by cutting costs.
Heineken will continue to raise prices next year.
Heineken plans to raise prices depending on market conditions starting next year to offset rising raw material and energy costs, especially in Europe. The company expects sales to grow moderately next year, with total revenue likely to exceed its target of 2 billion euros.
CPI in the Eurozone fell by 0.6 percentage points MoM in November.
CPI in the Eurozone rose by 10% year-on-year in November, down 0.6 percentage points from October. The increase in energy and food prices is still the main driving force for the overall inflation level, but due to the decline in the growth rate of energy prices, the overall inflation rate has moderated.
Stocks rallied after the Fed signaled a slowdown in rate hikes.
On November 30, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that when it is close to the limit level enough to reduce inflation, it will slow down rate hikes, and the pace of rate hikes will be slowed down as early as December. Affected by this speech, U.S. stocks rose sharply. S&P, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq rose by 3%, 2%, and 4% respectively, and the Chinese concept stock index KWEB rose by more than 8%.
Netflix will allow tens of thousands of subscribers to preview movies starting next year.
According to media reports, Netflix will allow tens of thousands of subscribers around the world to preview video content in advance to provide feedback starting next year. The content preview strategy began a year ago and currently has more than 2,000 subscribers, the people said. They provide feedback to Netflix and help content creators further improve the work to attract more users to watch.
DoorDash, the US food delivery platform, will lay off about 1,250 employees.
DoorDash is laying off about 1,250 jobs in a bid to cut costs in response to the global economic downturn. CEO Xu Xun said that if operating expenses are not cut, its growth will exceed revenue. DoorDash posted a net loss of $296 million in the third quarter as costs soared 46 percent to more than $2 billion.
Musk: “Cook says Apple has no intention of delisting Twitter”.
On November 30, Musk said in a set of tweets that he had met with Apple CEO Cook, saying that “the misunderstanding has been resolved.” A video shot. But Musk did not say whether the two discussed Apple’s advertising on Twitter.
The major shareholder lifted the ban, and the share price of Indonesian technology company GoTo fell to a new low.
On December 1, the 8-month lock-up period of major shareholders such as Alibaba and SoftBank expired, and GoTo’s stock price fell by more than 6%, falling to a new low. Since its listing in April this year, GoTo’s stock price has fallen by 58%, and its current market value is about 10.7 billion US dollars. The loss in the third quarter was about 235 million US dollars. In November, it announced plans to lay off 1,300 people to cut expenses and ease investors’ concerns about increasing losses.
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