This week’s focus on the company: Gree, Meituan, Apple, Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot Citroen
“Selected Headlines” is a weekly column to help you sort out the company and business news that deserves attention that week. The “Featured Headlines” consists of a number of short news items, all from the subscription column “Daily Business Collection.”
The following is a noteworthy company and business news this week (October 28-November 1):
The three major operators are selling 5G tariff packages, but their good days have to wait
On October 31, Chen Xiongxiong, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, announced the official launch of 5G commercial. The three operators of Mobile, China Unicom and Telecom also announced the details of the 5G package. In terms of personal packages, the difference between the three operators is small, the price ranges from 128 yuan to 599 yuan, and the traffic ranges from 30G to 300G. The effective date of the package is November 1. The area currently covered by the 5G network is very limited. According to the progress disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by the end of this year, the number of domestic 5G base stations will reach 130,000.
The 5G network began to charge consumers, which is a good thing for operators. Continued speed reduction and 4G traffic dividends have already caused operators’ profits to shrink sharply. However, as far as the current 5G is far from universal, it is unrealistic for operators to expect to recover investment costs through C-end consumers. In an interview with Caixin.com, telecom analyst Fu Liang said that the real monetization of profit points should break through from the B side, especially from the industrial production field. This means that the good days of the three major operators are far from coming.
Extended reading: China 5G launches commercial: regrets and persistence behind passion
Apple’s fourth-quarter revenue exceeded expectations, service business was outstanding, and mobile phones were not surprised
After the US stock market on Wednesday, Apple released its fourth-quarter earnings report for fiscal year 2019. Revenue increased 2% year-on-year to US$64.04 billion. Exceeding market expectations, net profit was US$13.69 billion, down 3% year-on-year. The quarter was a double-digit decline. Apple’s core iPhone business revenue has not yet “rejuvenated”, sales fell 9% year-on-year to $33.4 billion. The iPhone still faces challenges in the Chinese market. First, Huawei is growing strongly. Second, the iPhone 11 is released later. Apple’s service business maintained an upward trend this quarter, with revenue exceeding expectations of $1,251 million, an increase of 18% year-on-year.
In summary, with the popularity of the iPhone 11, Apple may be able to reverse the sales of mobile phones in the next quarter, and the service business and accessories business also has a lot of room for growth. Apple expects its first fiscal quarter of 2020. The revenue was 85.5 billion to 89.5 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that although Apple will launch three flagship 5G phones next year, itThe fall of the 5G will be the biggest destabilizing factor in the next period, especially in the Chinese market.
Extended reading: Apple Q4 earnings exceeded expectations, Cook said the iPhone 11 series sales are gratifying
Gree Electric entered the era of Gaochun Capital, what can the outside world expect?
Gree Electric has changed its major shareholder. On the evening of October 28, Gree Electric announced that the controlling shareholder Gree Group has decided to transfer 15% of the company’s shares to Zhuhai Mingjun. The controlling shareholder of Zhuhai Mingjun is Gaochun Capital. Prior to the share transfer, Gree Electric’s largest shareholder, Gree Group, a subsidiary of Zhuhai SASAC, held a shareholding ratio of 18.22%. As a state-owned holding company, Gree’s management has less equity incentives and has no decision-making power over the actual operation of the company. It is difficult to be motivated. CICC believes that if the Gree mixed reform is successfully completed, the company will become a public company without actual controllers, and it is expected to restore high dividends and increase its attractiveness to long-term funds.
Home appliance industry expert Liu Buchen commented that in the next two years, the existing management of Gree Electric Appliances will remain stable. After all, investors need Gree to smoothly transition from the SASAC era to the capital-driven era. In addition to stabilizing management, Gaochun Capital, as a new major shareholder, has brought a lot of imagination to Gree’s future business development. Everbright Securities believes that Gaochun is expected to help Gree advance the new retail revolution and open up a second growth point in addition to the air-conditioning business.
Extended reading: Dong Mingzhu and her “Three Gree”
The US group plus small program, the front of the life service platform and the social platform
A few days ago, the US group app was launched, but it has not yet been fully opened. Some analysts said that the US group’s small program is actually to counter the threat of WeChat applet, and to centralize it with centralization. However, at present, when the traffic is globally open, the user’s most frequently used small program is either in the same ecosystem as the platform or closely related to the platform. This means that even if the US small program platform is open to the whole industry and multiple fields in the future, the most frequently used ones may still be related to business applets or life services, and it is a deep application in the field. Therefore, whether it is a branchFubao, Baidu, or today’s US group, lacking the social communication attributes, they are difficult to “out of the circle” like WeChat small programs.
The US group tried to find a whole set of programs to “lock” the business with the users in their own ecosystem. It is one of the steps to make a small program platform. The US group upgraded into a small program open platform, forming an ecological closed loop on the B side: every link of the business operation can be completed by the US group, instead of missing a link, the merchants are dispersed to hungry, Alipay, WeChat and other different platforms. At the same time, the small program can bring the traffic of external enterprises and merchants into the platform and become the growth point of the group.
Extended reading: Focus on the analysis of the beauty of the group’s super app dream?
Fiat Chrysler “marriage” Peugeot Citroen, the car city winter warmth group warming
On October 31, the Fiat Chrysler Group and the Peugeot Citroen Group issued a joint statement announcing that the two parties will merge into a new multinational auto group, each holding 50% of the shares. According to the sales volume announced by the world’s major automobile groups in 2018, the new company after the merger will become the world’s fourth largest automobile group, second only to Volkswagen, Toyota and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.
This “merger” is not a simple brand overlay. For Fiat Chrysler, “marriage” can make up for its electrification shortcomings. PSA Peugeot Citro龙n has the capability to develop pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. By 2020, it will launch 15 models, each of which will be available in pure electric and hybrid versions. For Peugeot Citroen, which has already withdrawn from the US market, it can return to the US market with Fiat Chrysler’s marketing network. As the third largest automaker in North America, Fiat Chrysler has a well-established sales network in North America. With this power, Peugeot Citroen will return to the US market a lot.
Extended reading: FCA and PSA “flash marriage”, can weak alliances resolve their respective crises?
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