Author: Gong Jinhui
Despite mentioning investment from Tencent, JD.com, Suning Sports, TCL and other companies two years ago, LeTV is still stuck in the quagmire. Business conditions show no signs of improving. Since May 13, 2019, LeTV has been suspended from listing due to negative audited net assets at the end of 2018. Although it has been working hard to save itself, it is still difficult to reverse the predicament.
As of the end of 2019, 18 investors of LeTV Sports have filed for arbitration in the case of LeTV’s illegal guarantee to LeTV Sports. Among them, 15 arbitrations with results were issued in which LeTV lost. , causing LeTV to expect huge economic losses, resulting in losses of up to 11.282 billion yuan in 2019. Against the background of the suspension of listing, LeTV still suffered huge losses in 2019, which is regarded as a critical year, and there is a risk of being terminated from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which is lamentable.
As we all know, LeTV was a former star company founded by Jia Yueting in 2004. It purchased copyrights aggressively during the era of rampant piracy, and after the advent of the copyright era, it transferred and sold copyrights. Earning the first and largest pot of gold, he became one of the few profitable players in the video industry at that time, and successfully landed on the GEM in August 2010.
After its listing, LeTV, which had ample ammunition, was not satisfied with staying on the video website. Instead, it had greater ambitions and began to make every effort to build the ecological dream in Jia Yueting’s heart. It has successively laid out Seven major ecologies including television, sports, automobiles, mobile phones, and finance, and outlines a beautiful blueprint for ecological transformation. Burning money and extensive development have become key words, and ecological synergy is not satisfactory. This is undoubtedly a huge test for LeTV’s financial strength.
Although LeTV received a huge financing of nearly 20 billion yuan after its listing and raised nearly 72.5 billion yuan in funds from various parties, it is difficult to continue to maintain the normal operation of the LeTV ecosystem. .com has gradually transformed from a small but beautiful profit-making company into a bloated, fat, and riddled mess.
In my opinion, the so-called seven major ecologies are nothing but a false prosperity. Once the funding is cut off, it will easily collapse like a building that loses its load-bearing walls. In November 2016, LeTV's ecological capital chain crisis broke out. The trigger of this crisis was Jia Yueting's high hopes for LeTV mobile phones, which he sold at a loss on each one. He became the target of public criticism for defaulting on huge payments to suppliers, which also invisibly poked holes in the market. The bubble of false prosperity of LeTV Ecosystem has been broken, and the miserable current situation of LeTV Ecosystem has been completely brought to the fore, and ecologicalization has become the laughingstock of the industry.
Looking back, November 2016 became an important turning point for LeTV from prosperity to decline. The decline of LeTV mobile phones also affected other ecosystems and quickly spread to the entire LeTV ecology. In July 2017, the debt-ridden LeTV encountered a concentrated run on banks and faced unprecedented challenges. However, as the founder, Jia Yueting gave up at this time and chose to go to the United States to build cars. "A blank check.
Not long after, Sun Hongbin, the head of Sunac, succeeded Jia Yueting as the chairman of LeTV. When he took over, he was very high-spirited and planned to do something big, "I always said before I have no regrets in my life, but after investing in LeTV, if I don’t do a good job in this company, I will really have regrets in my life.” However, just six months later, Sun Hongbin bowed to the cruel reality and resigned from LeTV. Chairman, and admitted that his investment in LeTV was a complete failure, and said with helplessness, "Sometimes people have to dare to make the sun and the moon change the sky, and sometimes they have to be willing to admit defeat."
Since then, LeTV has plummeted, its business has not improved at all, and it is living on the last breath with no hope at all. It has to be said that how brilliant LeTV was once, how lonely it is now. As the "big brother" of the GEM in the past, LeTV has long fallen from the altar.
Public opinion generally believes that Jia Yueting will succeed and fail due to LeTV.
His forward-looking vision and amazing courage enabled LeTV to seize the opportunity in the video copyright war. After achieving profitability, it was listed on the GEM, and it reserve sufficient ammunition for the next expansion. However, when Jia Yueting's forward vision and amazing courage are used in inappropriate places and he persists paranoidly, it will be a huge disaster.
Unfortunately, he believed deeply in LeTV Ecosystem, and even had a bit of obsessive self-confidence. He risked everything to develop LeTV Ecosystem, even at the risk of his personal wealth and reputation. . However, due to the natural flaws in LeTV’s ecological business model, and the inability of team management and risk control to keep up with rapid expansion, failure was inevitable in the end. No matter how much money he spent, he could not ignite his ecological dream.
Facts have proved that LeTV is nothing without the film and television field. Except for Super TV, which has made a name for itself by relying on the negative profit strategy of hardware, its performance in other fields is basically lackluster. In the end It ended up being a disgraceful end. A large number of executives and employees were lost, leaving a huge financial hole and disheartened partners.
It is worth noting that when the LeTV ecological crisis spread, in addition to criticizing LeTV mobile phones, some people also pointed the finger at LeTV Auto, believing that it was bringing down the entire LeTV Ecology is the culprit. You must know that automobiles are technology-intensive and capital-intensive industries, and these two aspects are LeTV's shortcomings and are not closely related to LeTV's main business.
“I believe that in the future, when cars and the Internet are integrated, there will be companies that surpass Apple, and LeTV is most likely to become That company," he said confidently. By the way, at that time, LeTV’s ecology was already hanging on by a thread, and it was ironic that Jia Yueting was still dreaming of LeTV Auto surpassing Apple. Nine months later, LeTV Auto and FF merged, and LeTV Auto employees were integrated into FF China. Jia Yueting's focus also shifted to FF, and he became FF's global CEO.
To this day, FF’s first mass-produced model, the FF91, has been repeatedly delayed. The slogan “only one step away from mass production” has been shouted for a long time but has not been implemented, and there is no hope of its short-term release. This confirms the outside world’s doubts about its PPT car-making. It is unknown how long it can survive when financing is not yet in place. Still vowing to compete with Apple is simply a huge insult to Apple, which is conscientiously using its products to create social value.
In fact, this is not the only time Jia Yueting has continued to brag after LeTV’s ecological crisis surfaced. In January 2017, he mentioned Shanxi fellow Sun Hongbin’s 15 billion yuan financing, as if he saw the hope that LeTV’s ecosystem could turn around, so he couldn’t help but start bragging mode, “In the long run, we are very confident that LeTV will become the first company listed in China. "One of the private companies with a market value of 100 billion U.S. dollars." "When will (the stock price) cross 100? On the one hand, with our own efforts, our business will definitely enter an explosive period. In terms of listed companies, can the stock price quickly reach 100?" Yuan, what I hope is that everyone works together."
Not to mention that Jia Yueting fled in despair half a year after making these bold words, and went to the United States to build cars under the banner of revolutionizing the century-old automobile industry, even if he stayed. Cleaning up the mess of LeTV may not be able to regain its glory and return to the development level when it was deeply involved in the film and television industry. It is unthinkable to achieve a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars and a stock price of over 100. It is simply a fantasy.
As expected, Jia Yueting was severely slapped in the face by the cruel reality. On the trading day before the listing was suspended on May 13, 2019, LeTV's stock price fell to 1.69 yuan, leaving only 6.742 billion yuan in market value, which was far from the ambitious goal he had set. What is even sadder is that LeTV is facing internal and external troubles. Even if the situation does not worsen, it is good, but there is basically no hope of turning around, and it is basically in the cold.
I vaguely remember that Jia Yueting shouted "Let us suffocate for our dreams together". I think this is more like he inspired or coerced LeTV employees, Shareholders and partners come together to help him realize his illusory ecological dream. His insistence on going his own way and blindfolded running only moved Jia Yueting personally, and also pushed LeTV to a point of no return. This collective dream pursuit movement will eventually wake up.
When the moment came when the dream was suffocated, out of the protection of his own interests, Jia Yueting did not care about the ugly appearance, not only decisively abandoned those who were chasing the dream, but also "walked away alone" ”, he also left LeTV, which he founded, behind, and even became the biggest culprit of its decline despite the infamy.
There are various signs that the dream that Jia Yueting has tried so hard to package is essentially a greedy person's game. He ignores his own abilities and blindly pursues unrealistic goals at all costs. The goal ultimately led LeTV Ecosystem to become a short-lived legend, and it is also a typical negative teaching material for entrepreneurship.
Perhaps, LeTV’s ecological failure was doomed from the moment it decided to make Super TV in 2012. This wrong persistence does not deserve sympathy. And Jia Yueting not only tarnished the word "dream", but was also destroyed by the dream itself. Negative labels such as being a scumbag, bragging, returning to China next week, and building PPT cars are destined to be difficult to tear off easily.