Melatonin may still have to do it.
Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “ New Technology ” (ID: kejixinzhi), author Shang Lu.
On December 6, Shi Yuzhu, who has not been seen for a long time, attended the 30th anniversary celebration of Giant Group in Shanghai.
This is a good thing, but because of Shi Yuzhu’s sentence, “I eat melatonin every day, and it’s wrong to say it deceives me”, which has caused countless controversies.
The focus of the controversy is that there is a huge difference between consumers and Shi Yuzhu’s views on melatonin. Consumers believe that he used fancy marketing to package melatonin as a gift-giving essential, and many people have been “paid out of pocket”; Shi Yuzhu believes that melatonin is worth your pocket.
Shi Yuzhu may not care about the topic of melatonin and human health. The first thing consumers think about when they give gifts is whether he is the first one. After all, melatonin is just an optional gift for consumers, but for Shi Yuzhu it is the key to deciding whether to escape the “primary loss” abyss.
As a result, we all saw that after the start of the melatonin, not only did Shi Yuzhu pay off the debts, but also the giant found a new cash flow.
It’s just that Melatonin hasn’t given Shi Yuzhu’s Giant Group peace of mind ever since. After experiencing privatization back to A shares, diversification blocked, and failure to acquire Playtika, the Giant Group seems to need a second “Meltin” to take it out of the haze.
Shi Yuzhu, the “Leader”, and the Tail Tower of Giants
The story of Shi Yuzhu and the Giant Group can be divided into two halves.
Shi Yuzhu, who graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Zhejiang University in 1984, was assigned to the rural sampling survey team of Anhui Provincial Statistics Bureau. Within a few days, Shi Yuzhu was assigned to Xi’an Institute of Statistics for further studies.
The lecturer is known as the father of sampling survey. He talked about the latest foreign sampling survey methods, but this is not the focus of Shi Yuzhu. He found that none of these methods can leave the computer, and the computer is a good thing.
After returning to the unit, Shi Yuzhu used an IBM PC to do two things: a program that allowed two or three people to do one year’s work, which can be completed in one or two days; and a program that can analyze farmers by annual income. Software with consumer characteristics.
With the continuous improvement of the software, this software was later set as the standard for rural sample surveys across the country by the National Bureau of Statistics. Shi Yuzhu also received a prize of 20 yuan and a progress award, which is equivalent to Shi Yuzhu half Monthly salary.
Mr. Ma Yun once said that his happiest day was when the teacher got his salary. Shi Yuzhu, who won the award for programming, should be very happy, but it changed his life.Not this half-month bonus.
Shi Yuzhu, a graduate student at Shenzhen University in 1988, listened to a lecture by Wan Runnan, then general manager of Stone.
“His lecture touched me a lot. He talked about how Stone was founded. His topic was” Clay rice bowl is more secure than iron rice bowl “, which means that Stone rice bowl can be turned into a golden rice bowl. From then Only then did I have the ideal to start a business. “
Shi Yuzhu quit the iron rice bowl one year later to compile the program. When working at the Bureau of Statistics, he found that each unit had to spend 20,000 yuan to buy a four-way typewriter and a computer. In most cases, the computer is always left unused.
“I just want to write a software to replace four-way typing and type directly on the computer.”
After half a year, Shi Yuzhu made M-6401 at home, which can not only make 64-dot matrix characters more beautiful than the 24-dot type of four-way typewriter, but also the editing screen is much larger than that of four-way typewriter.
After Shi Yuzhu gave the original unit a set of M-6401, the original four-way typewriter became useless. Soon after, the software got the new name “Giant Hanka”.
In 1993, Giant Co., Ltd. achieved revenue of 360 million yuan based on Chinese handwriting computers and software alone, becoming China’s second largest private high-tech enterprise.
Then, as a support for advanced enterprises, the Zhuhai Municipal Government granted the Giant a piece of land. At first, the Giant planned to build only 18 floors, but then Liang Guang, the secretary of the Zhuhai Municipal Party Committee and mayor, talked to Shi Yuzhu and hoped. He won glory for Zhuhai and built the Giant Tower as the tallest building in China.
In order to support the giant to build the tallest building in China, the Zhuhai Municipal Government has granted more than 30,000 square meters of land on the basis of 10,000 square meters of land originally granted to the giant. The unit price is 125 yuan per square meter, which is equivalent to giving away.
Several national-level leaders have visited the Giant Building that has not yet been built. Shi Yuzhu shook his head every time he shook hands with them. The 18-storey Giant Building was actually added to the 72-story building. It will be the tallest building in China.
It is understood that the 72-story giant building needs 1.2 billion, and Shi Yuzhu only has 100 million cash in his hands, and money has become a stumbling block for China’s tallest building.
At that time, the real estate market was very popular for selling off-the-plan flowers. Shi Yuzhu also learned everything, but caught up with the macro-control. He tried his best and only sold more than 100 million yuan. For the 72-story giant building, it was nothing.
Shi Yuzhu launched 12 kinds of health products in 1995. Among them, “Brain Gold” predecessor “Brain Gold” became a hit, and Shi Yuzhu also ranked 8th in the “Forbes” Rich List of Mainland China.
Shi Yuzhu, who “runs by car” all the way, did not realize that what he was doing was a roller coaster. After reaching the peak, he began to slide.
For the rotten tail of the Giant Mansion, Shi Yuzhu once recalled Liu Ren, “the first reporter of Zhongguancun”, “I can use the profit of Brain Gold to build the Giant Mansion to 20 floors first and renovate the 20 floors first. Cover it again. “
“Unexpectedly, the health care product business was quickly overwhelmed by excessive capital” pumping blood “, coupled with poor management, and brain gold could not be sold.
The giant mansion that was not completed on time in early 1997 was surrounded by debt collectors, and the media also reported that the giant’s capital chain was broken. Soon after, the giant mansion, which was only built on the ground three floors, was completely shut down.
Big-tailed Giant Building
In 1998, the Secretary of the Zhuhai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Liang Guangda, who had supported Shi Yuzhu in building China’s tallest building, had asked the bank to loan a giant mansion.
Finally, not only did the Giant Tower end up badly, Shi Yuzhu also carried 250 million debts and became China’s “negative loss.”
Shi Yuzhu later recalled that if Liang Guangwei retired two weeks later, the Giant Building would not be the result of the later.
But just like this is no regret medicine in the world, when you say if there is no room for change anymore.
The second spring in exchange for melatonin
Shi Yuzhu borrowed 5 million yuan to make melatonin in 1997, which not only helped him pay off his debts, but also gave him the opportunity to renew the leading edge of the giant building.
But the miracle effect of melatonin is limited. The melatonin that once swept across China is now facing a dilemma in performance decline.
Actually, there has been no public sales data for three consecutive years. What confirms its operation is the data released on the official website in 2016: “The cumulative sales of melatonin have reached 460 million bottles, and the advertising has covered 1.3 billion people. A total of 75 billion people were reached. ”
It is worth noting that today’s health care products market has undergone great changes compared with 20 years ago. Treasure products for the middle-aged and elderly market are not only melatonin, but also competitive products such as American ginseng and Ejiao.
This may indicate from the side that the era of melatonin has passed.
In fact, melatonin is not static, but it ’s not the product but the “joint clothing” that has recently appeared. How effective this marketing method remains to be seen.
However, poor sales may not be the fatal problem of melatonin, but the actual effect of melatonin may be exaggerated.
The main component of this melatonin, which claims to be anti-oxidant, regulate sleep and even prevent cancer, is melatonin. In addition to melatonin, the main component of melatonin is oligosaccharides.
In fact, Shi Yuzhu feels aggrieved because others say he is a liar, because melatonin does help sleep, and oligosaccharides can also promote absorption.
But he did not tell consumers that humans have so far been unaware of melatonin’s side effects.
In fact, no one in the entire medical community can determine the side effects of melatonin. Because of this, the German government has not yet approved melatonin; countries such as the United Kingdom and France have listed melatonin as a prescription drug. Free to sell in pharmacies; melatonin drug instructions in the United States will tell you to ask your doctor before taking it.
It is more magical to China. It is not only seen everywhere on supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, but also becomes a necessity for gifts. This shows that Shi Yuzhu did not lie to anyone, they just played a poor message with consumers.
It is ironic that China’s health care product market is gradually expanding. At this time, the operating status of melatonin is not as good as it was then.
According to relevant data, the market size of the domestic health food industry will exceed 400 billion in 2020. I wonder how much will be given to melatonin?
Shi Yuzhu up, giant down
In addition to the melatonin in the second half of Shi Yuzhu and the Giant Group, there was also the Giant Network, which was privatized from the United States and returned to the A-share market. However, the Giant Network is no longer the current sight.
According to the 2019 Q3 financial report of Giant Network, its third quarter revenue was 640 million yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year decrease of 27.29%, and its net profit was 210 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 24.59%.
The main source of revenue for Giant Network is “Internet cultural services”, that is, games, and the impression of more people is “Journey”.
Although in recent years, Giant Network has also continuously launched new works, including the mobile game “Ball”Ball Fight” also achieved good results, but most of the new works, including “Giant”, “Xianxia World”, “Battle of Inuyasha Nero” are tepid.
Overall, the dilemma that Giant Network faces in games can be described as “green and yellow”.
From the perspective of the industry, the situation of Giant Network is also not optimistic. According to data from iResearch in Q1 2019, Tencent has a 51.53% share in the Chinese online game market, and NetEase ranks second with 17.45%, and Giant’s market share is only 0.96%.
Although Giant Network has also tried blockchain, artificial intelligence, etc., the revenue of these businesses in the first half of this year accounted for less than 1% of the total revenue, which is almost negligible.
In addition, the giant also indirectly controlled a car P2P platform called “Tou which network” through investment, which once brought considerable profits to the giant. In the first half of 2018, it also contributed 31.91% of the revenue of the giant network. Close.
But with the P2P thunderstorm, the risk of this business is also increasing, and the giant has to send out this hot potato.
In 2018, the giant sold it to Shanghai Lanxiang Business Services Co., Ltd. for 479 million yuan. This business was also stripped of its financial report, and the decline in giant Q3 revenue was also related to this.
On the one hand, the decline in revenue and market share, on the other hand, Shi Yuzhu, who tried to use the capital operation that he is good at to help Giant Networks, also lost his abacus.
In 2016, Giant Network announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Giant Giant Hong Kong, will join Hony Capital, Shanghai M & A Fund and other consortia to acquire Israeli gaming company Playtika for 30.5 billion yuan.
However, this three-year and three-month period, Shi Yuzhu’s all-out “snake swallow elephant” acquisition finally broke his heart.
In November this year, Giant Network issued an announcement saying that the company will terminate the planning of asset reorganization because the acquisition of the target Alpha or its subsidiary Playtika is seeking an overseas listing.
The reason may be related to the large gap between the two volumes. Playtika’s revenue in the past two years was 7.71 billion yuan and 9.972 billion yuan, respectively, and its net profit was 1.89 billion yuan and 2.434 billion yuan. Giant Network and It’s more than ten times worse. From Playtika’s point of view, it may be better to go public independently than to be acquired.
It is worth noting that although the operation status of Melatonin and Giant Network is not very good, Shi Yuzhu’s personal wealth has not been affected.
This is related to his activity in the capital market. He successively invested in Minsheng Bank, and United Ma Yun in Huashu Media … Among them, Shi Yuzhu made a huge profit of nearly 6 billion at Minsheng Bank alone. This series of operations also allowed him It is called “share god” by the outside world.
Shi Yuzhu, whose wealth is constantly growing, should never have the opportunity to be the “primary loser”, but if he is allowed to do it again, Shi Yuzhu, who has become a “share god”, will definitely not build the giant building into the tallest building in China, He might still do it platinum.