Jia Yueting and Le Shi "scarred in the eyes" Dreamer walked down the altar?

Article introduction: In just over 5 years, the valuation of LeTV has risen from billions to 100 billion, and the revenue of listed companies has also increased by a hundredfold. LeTV's business map has expanded from online video to Seven major ecosystems. This should have been a transcript of a full house, and LeTV has gained a clear and polarized evaluation. Because in this process, the company has been "scarred", the secret of Le Yue in the mouth of Jia Yueting - "ecological anti-" has so far made people unable to understand and catch up.

Cover of the 17th issue of China Economic Weekly in 2017

If God gave you two buttons: on the left, you can get $1 million by pressing it; on the right, you have half the chance to get $100 million, and half the probability is nothing. How would you choose? Perhaps most people will choose the left side, first put 1 million dollars into the bag. But for Jia Yueting, the choice will no doubt be the right side.

In just over five years, the valuation of LeTV has risen from billions to billions, and the revenue of listed companies has also increased by a hundredfold. LeTV's business landscape has expanded from online video to the Internet and the seven ecosystems of cloud, content, sports, big screen, mobile, automotive and internet finance, and it has also begun a globalization process.

This should have been a transcript of a full house, and LeTV has gained a clear and polarized evaluation. Because in this process, the company has been "scarred", the secret of Le Yue in the mouth of Jia Yueting - "ecological anti-" has so far made people unable to understand and catch up. The company's stock price and public opinion evaluations are ups and downs like a roller coaster ride. Seeing more people can't help but feel a little embarrassed: I don't understand it? Seeing the losers are also often anxious: Do you look away?

"Either great, or death." Jia Yueting said, "I am willing to give all my life to my dreams. I believe the world will make way for All-in." This is Jia Yueting's choice, perhaps LeTV's company. Fatality.

Jia Yueting and LeTV "scarred"

China Economic Weekly reporter Sun Bing | Beijing Report

Second-line video website "doing TV"

In September 2012, LeTV, which was also recognized by the public as a second-line video website, suddenly announced: We want to do TV. At that time, there was no concept of "Internet +". The traditional industry and the Internet were still very different and sneaked at each other. Any attempt to cross the border was considered to be "finding death," especially in TVs that have not survived new brands for many years. industry. However, traditional home appliance manufacturers and Internet companies have reached a rare agreement on LeTV's TV: this is a joke. The news was released, and the share price of LeTV (300104.SZ) once fell by 40%.

Perhaps because this group is not optimistic, LeTV has escaped the containment of traditional home appliance manufacturers in the supply chain and channels, and has escaped the pursuit of BAT. They are watching, neither entering the imitation nor investing points. soup. In May 2013, LeTV Super TV, which is known as “double performance, half price”, was launched. Jia Yueting described it as a disruptor of television. It is a "new species" that relies on hardware and is profitable by ecology. He even shouted the slogan "Traditional TV is dead."

In fact, Jia Yueting is not the first person to see the Internet opportunities in the living room. "TV big screen will become the next gold mine in the consumer electronics and Internet industries." "Traditional TV will be replaced by smart TV in the next few years." Many companies have already done it, and some companies have already begun to try, but the effect is not good. The sales of so-called smart TV and Internet TV are not satisfactory.

However, Jia Yueting "gambling" won this game.

LeTV Super TV quickly became the sales champion of domestic smart TV, and it took nearly three years to achieve nearly 10 million units. This number means that LeTV has entered the first-line camp of the domestic TV industry.

More importantly, TV can lose money, half price or even free, but membership payment, content payment, and big screen marketing are the real sources of revenue for LeTV. Therefore, LeTV Super TV dares to release the cost of selling TV, lose money to sell TV or even "free" to send TV ... a series of big moves, chaos to kill the master, these traditional TV manufacturers rely on hardware profit is difficult to parry.

As a result, LeTV has become the most typical case of "look up, can't understand, can't catch up". Many investors who missed the opportunity to "bet" were stunned. This may be the reason why LeTV’s story and ambition are getting bigger and bigger, and there are still many people chasing.

A LeTV startup team member with a job number of less than 20 told the China Economic Weekly reporter that he had left LeTV in 2011 because he had a good entrepreneurial opportunity.

"At that time, it was also called LeTV. It was a very small video website, but Jia’s boss did a lot of film and television copyright in his hands at a low price. At that time, piracy was rampant and no one paid for copyright. Later it turned out that this was too There is a vision, the wave of genuineization, LeTV earned a lot of money by relying on distribution rights, and went to the market." He said. But at first he didn't understand what music was like to do TV. "If you don't get the money you earned, you will be squandered. However, in the end, Lao Jia did not make a joke. I left the music and fell into a joke that my friends loved most. It is."

LeTV "Brake Maintenance"

In November 2016, on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of LeTV, Jia Yueting sent a full letter of letters inside LeTV. His first public rethinking has been “scarred” and the pace of music expansion is too fast. He said that in the past, he was crazy. The strategy of money development will stop.

Since then, in a wave of doubts over the waves, LeTV has released LeTV mobile phones, announced plans to build cars, and began to promote the "Lee Ecology" to more fields and more countries.

In April 2015, Jia Yueting, who had disappeared for more than a year due to thymic cancer, launched a high-profile product of LeTV: a super mobile phone. LeTV super mobile phone still adopts the logic of “hardware top matching but the lowest price, not relying on hardware profit, but relying on content and value-added services to obtain higher income”, the mobile phone price can even be 0 yuan.

Jia Yueting seems to have to win another game. LeTV super mobile phone has become the fastest growing brand in the whole industry in 2016, with annual sales exceeding 20 million units. LeTV supercars are also making rapid progress, the concept car is released, the future of Faraday is invested, the Moganshan supercar project is started, and the production car is on the market...

LeTV quickly expanded the seven ecosystems of the Internet and cloud, content, sports, big screen, mobile phone, car and internet finance, and even planned to add another artificial intelligence; the globalization plan also started, from Hong Kong to the United States, from India to Russia. LeTV began to be transformed into LeEco, and Jia Yueting became YT Jia.

Can a video website selling TV and making a mobile phone make a good car? In the face of doubts, Jia Yueting explained the LeTV ecology and how they will “reverse” (chemical reaction): “In the traditional industrial era, the seven sub-ecologies of LeTV Ecology mean 7 unrelated different industries, but in today's Internet Under the era, the specialized division of labor in the industrial era has gradually disappeared. The vertical integration of the industrial chain and the reconstruction of the value of the industry will become the theme of the future. This is also the essence of LeEco's ecology. The Jia's quotation quickly became a hot word in the Internet.

In order to announce these new business and new developments, LeEco will even hold more than 100 press conferences a year; almost every few days, there will be news of a certain job-hopping, and the number of employees will increase from 6,000 to 13,000 in one year; LeTV Sports and other sub-ecologies continue to set a financing record, the acquisition is easy, the acquisition of the United States' largest smart TV brand Vizio, the acquisition of Cool, the acquisition of Huaer film, the acquisition of TCL, the huge purchase of sports events and film and television exclusive copyright, title landmark Building, building land in China and the United States...

However, all of this seems to have come to an abrupt end at the end of 2016. "Looking at him from the Zhulou, seeing him banquet guests, seeing that his building collapsed." These words in "Peach Blossom Fan" are frequently used to describe LeTV and Jia Yueting at the end of 2016.

In November 2016, on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of LeTV, Jia Yueting sent a full letter of letters inside LeTV. His first public rethinking has been “scarred” and the pace of music expansion is too fast. He said that in the past, he was crazy. The strategy of money development will stop. "LeTV needs a brake to overhaul."

In fact, before this, there were various rumors about LeTV’s capital chain tension, and even rumors that LeTV’s supply chain had already incurred huge amounts of arrears. The user’s full-book Le Pro3 mobile phone was delayed, even the employee’s salary. They were all suspended; LeTV's share price plummeted all the way, and the market value of the four trading days evaporated more than 12.8 billion yuan, and the stock hit a 13-month low.

Although Jia Yueting said that these rumors are not true, he also admits that LeEco's capital chain is indeed facing tremendous pressure. "LeTV's demand for funds has far exceeded LeTV's financing ability." According to incomplete statistics, LeTV's foreign investment in the past six years has reached nearly 75 billion yuan. And LeTV's car-making plan requires more than tens of billions of investment. Although the sales volume of LeTV super mobile phones is very fast, the supply chain model of mobile phones has high requirements on cash flow, and the rapid growth of mobile phones has become an important reason for LeTV wrestling.

LeTV is not only the “share king” of the GEM, but also the first “demonstration stock” of the GEM. In 2010, LeTV's online market capitalization was only 4 billion yuan. In the peak period of June 2015, the market value soared to 150 billion yuan, but currently it is less than 60 billion yuan.

LeTV is a full-share company. In order not to dilute the shares, executives including Jia Yueting chose to conduct frequent equity pledges to solve the company's development funds, rather than accepting too much external financing. The collapse of the stock price made LeEco's funds even more stretched, and even news that LeTV had been closed.

The dream is full, but the purse is too boney. Jia Yueting began to fall into the "Ponzi scheme" questioning, and LeTV's financing also began to light up.

"White Samurai" Sun Hongbin let Jia Yueting no longer be willful?

Sun Hongbin was exposed. Initially, he met with Jia Yueting to buy a property in the hands of LeTV. The result turned into a second shareholder.

On the afternoon of January 15, 2017, Jia Yueting, a sportswear and jeans, and Sun Hongbin, chairman of the board of directors of Rongchuang, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, were held together. The two newly-acquainted Shanxi fellows together created a cross-border “big news”: Sunac won a total of 15 billion yuan, earned 8.61% of LeTV, 15% of LeTV, and 33.5% of LeTV. Equity. Upon completion of the transaction, Sunac will become the second largest shareholder of LeTV.

Real estate tycoon Sun Hongbin became Jia Yueting's "White Warrior", which is somewhat surprising. “Even if LeTV is in the most difficult time, there are still capitals that are willing to enter, but the conditions must be stricter.” A person from the investment circle who participated in LeEco financing told China Economic Weekly, “We thought Jia Will choose to accept investment from complementary sources, and ultimately choose real estate company investment, most likely to retain greater control over the company's strategy."

Sun Hongbin was exposed. Initially, he met with Jia Yueting to buy a property in the hands of LeTV. The result turned into a second shareholder. “Investing in LeTV is the first cross-industry investment since its establishment, and it is also the largest foreign investment, but the whole process was finalized in only 36 days, and it is necessary to solve the funding problem of LeTV through investment once. How much to give."

Sun Hongbin said that he has been working in LeTV for more than a month. He went to LeTV's money and he was short of money. Moreover, he also asked Liu Chuanzhi and many other industry insiders and LeTV investors, and also hired a professional audit company and law firm to conduct a full-scale "due diligence" and multi-angle understanding of LeTV, and finally found that LeTV's strategy and strategy are That's right, the team is also very good, just "poor money."

One is short of money and one is rich. Sunac ranks seventh in the real estate industry with 60 billion yuan in cash. According to the financial report released by Sunac China (1918.HK) in March this year, Sunac achieved contracted sales of RMB 150.6 billion in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 121%; total revenue was RMB 35.34 billion, up 53.6% year-on-year; gross profit 48.5 100 million yuan, an increase of 70%.

In the face of the question “Is it the investment impulse that was infected by Jia Yueting’s dream power?”, Sun Hongbin said that Jia Yueting’s entrepreneurial spirit is indeed very rare in this era, but investment is as good for Sunac. Door business. "We are buying and selling, if we are suitable, we will continue to vote. If it is not suitable, we will not vote. I am not a charity or a first aid team."

Although at the press conference, Sun Hongbin said that he would not have too much intervention in LeTV's business. "Our sales are bigger than this, and there is not much time for LeTV." He just reminded Jia Yueting that LeTV should not change its strategic direction, but To change the pace of strategy. Jia Yueting seems to be no more self-willed. Many people speculate that LeTV may soon become what Sun Hongbin wants. Sun Hongbin said that LeTV should adjust the business, the combination of the combination, the sale of the sale, and the adjustment of the personnel. These are not negative and positive. "You are right to separate the various sections of LeTV, but it is not right because you have no resources."

In this process of "cutting, closing, selling, and adjusting", Yizhi and Zhouhang became the first breakwater. On April 17 this year, Yi Xiang, the founder of Zhou Hang, issued a statement acknowledging that there was indeed a problem of funds and that it was a problem with LeTV. It was thought that this was due to the misappropriation of easy funds to 1.3 billion. Previously, there have been several incidents that have made it easier for drivers to protest to the company due to difficulties in cashing out.

In October 2015, LeTV acquired 70% of the easy-to-use car for US$700 million and became the controlling shareholder of the company. Zhou Hang said that at that time, under the squeezing of Didi and Uber subsidy wars, it was easy to "explore the food, almost collapse, and faintly smell the death." Just when it was easy to get a Leshi investment to prepare for a big job, Didi and Uber China merged.

In the rumors that were not confirmed by the parties, when Jia Yueting learned that Zhou Hang had released a “smear” (Lee said, although the main borrower of the loan is easy to get, the main collateral is LeTV Building, and the use of the loan is also agreed to be mainly used. In LeTV, LeTV was furious when it used the open letter of easy access to funds. The market has long been rumored that Sun Hongbin "recommended" Jia Yueting will always "dispose" as soon as possible, and Zhou Hang also has the idea to unite "outsiders" at a low price and regain easy control. In the rumor, this "outsider" is likely to be Lei Jun. Zhou Hang became a new investment partner of Shunwei two months ago. Shun is the founding partner and chairman of the board, Lei Jun, and Lei Jun's Xiaomi and LeTV are a long-term "mutually" family.

However, the withdrawal of the driver and the return of the user's recharge are not the most difficult problems, and it is not difficult to solve. In response to the report sent to reporters, Yi said that the new core executives are already in place, and easy financing has made breakthroughs. Drivers who are concerned about the cash withdrawals will be completely resolved in May. However, how LeTV wants to treat this hot potato is a big problem, and Leshan has more than one mountain.

Can 2017 break the "flying robbery"?

Now in the eyes of LeTV and Jia Yueting, it is no longer a dream, but a profit, and profit as quickly as possible. On April 20th, LeTV.com announced its 2016 financial report. In 2016, its operating income was 21.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 68.64%. However, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 555 million yuan, down 3.19% year-on-year. The first decline.

The financial report was released, and LeTV also added a “letter to shareholders” from Jia Yueting for the first time. Jia Yueting said in the letter that LeTV will start the “2017 profit war”. Jia Yueting called 2016 the “flying robbery” and stated that in 2017, LeTV’s big screen will take the lead in turning losses, and LeTV’s content will be re-energized.

According to the reporter, LeTV is divided into three major systems: listed companies (LeTV), non-listed companies (LeEco) and LeTV. Listed companies mainly include LeTV Video, LeTV TV and Leshi Cloud. The non-listed company system includes sports, mobile phones, film and finance, and LeTV is an independent system.

In Jia Yueting's planning, the listed company is the basis of LeTV, to ensure sufficient profits, and "in the future will put more and more quality assets into the listing system." The key to the profitability of listed companies is LeTV Zhixin (LeTV TV business). LeTV's financial report shows that in 2016, terminal business revenue accounted for 46.09% of LeTV's total revenue, reaching 10.1 billion yuan, an increase of 66.15%, which is the first major source of revenue for LeTV. LeTV.com's revenue grew by nearly 70% last year but its net profit fell. The biggest "hole" came from LeTV, and its net profit loss was more than 600 million yuan, which directly led to the decline in LeTV's net profit.

Last year, LeTV's annual sales volume was more than 5 million units, which was slightly lower than the original target of 6 million units. The “hardware free” model, although it enabled LeTV to acquire a large number of users in a short period of time, also led to poor profitability. Liang Jun, the new president of LeTV, said that in 2017, the loss on hardware will be gradually reduced, but the profit is mainly dependent on ecological operations. LeTV's annual report shows that in 2016, LeTV's membership and distribution business revenue was 6.783 billion yuan, which is the second largest source of revenue for LeTV. Among them, the income from paid services was “big head”, reaching 5.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 106.65%.

Although the data of the non-listed system has not been announced, Jia Yueting has revealed that LeTV's full-economy revenue should exceed 50 billion in 2016. In 2015, this figure was more than 18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 150%. Mobile phones have already got on the right track, but sports, film and other businesses are undergoing fierce adjustments. It is said that the high-priced copyright purchased by LeTV is also suspended by Sun Hongbin. The reason is that "the Chinese Super League is worth less than one billion yuan a year. ".

LeTV is LeTV's most questionable project, and Sun Hongbin has also locked his investment in LeTV business in addition to cars. Jia Yueting has said many times that building a car is his ultimate dream. He himself has spent more than 10 billion of his own funds on LeTV, and even self-deprecating is one of the poorest CEOs in the world. At present, a family of eight lives in a house of less than 200 square meters.

“LeTV is a pioneering company that chooses to be a new species with subversive power, not a follow-up company.” Jia Yueting said, however, he is also reflecting on it. He will summarize the development direction of LeTV as “three major changes”. "No change", that is, LeTV's core values ​​remain unchanged, the subversive spirit will not change, and the ecological strategy will not change; but the strategic realization rhythm will be adjusted, the business strategy will be further optimized, and organizational changes will be opened.

Entity companies look at LeTV: Subversives, dreamers go down the altar?

China Economic Weekly reporter Hou Han | Beijing Report

In the spring of 2017, it was a grim moment for LeTV to come from bad news.

The "bad news" of resignation, wage arrears, misappropriation of financing funds, land sales, and cessation of acquisitions have all been smashed out. In one sentence: LeTV has no fun.

Among the many "bad news", one news has been ignored by many people.

On April 11, LeTV Global Group Co., Ltd. and Vizio, the second largest TV manufacturer in North America, jointly issued a statement that the acquisition of Vizio's merger agreement will not continue due to the unfavorable regulatory factors. Previously, LeTV plans to acquire Vizio, which was considered the largest acquisition in the history of the global television industry.

In May 2013, LeTV Super TV broke into the traditional home appliance industry with the role of the largest black horse in the home appliance industry, becoming a subversive. Since then, LeTV has successively entered the fields of mobile phones and automobiles. In the past 4 years, have the industries that have been subverted by LeTV and LeTV’s statement to be subversive changed? How do entities in these industries view LeTV?

Appliance industry

Killed for 4 years, we are no longer afraid of LeTV

On April 12, 2017, LeTV's new CEO Liang Jun issued an open letter "On the Long-Term War of LeTV Super TV". Liang Jun attacked the chaos of the TV industry, saying that enterprises that rely on low-quality and low-price competition are about to die. But once upon a time, LeTV broke into the home appliance industry with the most subversive low price in history.

Alternative price killer "wool out of the pig"

Since the reform and opening up, the price wars in the TV field have become commonplace. The traditional TV industry giants have spent 20 years defeating foreign companies such as Sony and Hitachi. They are all veterans of "price wars."

However, in May 2013, LeTV officially launched the LeTV TV Super TV X60 and the popular product S40. The price of a 40-inch Internet TV is only a thousand dollars. This price is almost sold with a low-end mobile phone. The price is quite. Jia Yueting's introduction to Super TV's "subversion, lower than mass production cost pricing, and ecological subsidy hardware" also made traditional TV manufacturers stunned.

“We bought a super TV and went back and dismantled it. From the panel to the screw, we found that the materials they used were all extremely cheap,” said a TV manufacturer’s official to China Economic Weekly.

For TV manufacturers, LeTV's low-price strategy has caught them off guard. If the price-following strategy is adopted and sold below the cost price, any company that sells hardware will “make sure”.

The data of Aowei Cloud Network shows that after the birth of Internet TV such as LeTV Super TV, the overall price of color TV set in June 2014 hit the lowest price of the year and fell below 3,000 yuan. After three years, the retail sales of China's color TV market reached 50.89 million units in 2016, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. However, the retail sales of the whole industry was 156 billion yuan, down 1.8% year-on-year.

The low price strategy directly leads to the current situation of the industry: the increase does not increase. In 2014, Liu Weizhi, vice president of Skyworth Group and president of color TV business unit, once entered the TV field in Internet companies such as LeTV and Xiaomi, said that LeTV and Xiaomi have lowered the overall price of color TV by 10%.

Liu Yizhi said, "The low-cost strategy of Internet companies is understandable and a routine method, but there is a saying in Jianghu that it is always necessary to come out and mix." He believes that products that produce time, energy and technology produce The cost is 1,000 yuan, but the price is only 800 yuan. This low price model is a violation of economic laws.

"Low price is only one aspect, LeTV's marketing model and traditional enterprises are against it." Household appliance industry analyst Liu Buchen told the China Economic Weekly reporter.

He analyzed that LeTV proposed "buy members to send hardware" and firmly believes in the "hardware free" model. LeTV's so-called ecology is to put its own film and television content into its own brand TV terminal produced by the foundry, and other content providers At the same time, terminal manufacturers became competitors, and built a closed system of “self-entertainment” in an attempt to complete the counterattack by “living room economy”.

Liu Buchen believes that this profit model seems to work, and it is more in line with the Internet thinking that "wool is on the pig". Therefore, this negative sales model has once become the killer of LeTV's subversion of traditional color TV enterprises.

After the “more porridge”, is LeTV Eco still playing?

Obviously, this distinctive mode has made LeTV really taste the sweetness in the TV field. LeTV is LeTV's “cash cow” and the most successful segment of LeTV in the past few years. On April 19, 2017, LeTV's 2016 annual report showed that last year's terminal business revenue accounted for 46.09% of LeTV's total revenue, which is the largest source of revenue for LeTV.

However, the rapid expansion of the TV business has also become a stumbling block to LeTV's profit growth. LeTV's 2016 annual report shows that the new business is in the growth period, resulting in a decline in total profit. At the same time, the company's operating profit decreased year-on-year due to the high level of configuration, high performance, extreme experience, rapid price acquisition of users, and the increase in management fees and sales expenses brought about by the rapid development of the company.

In addition, the arrival of a large wave of Internet TV has also made LeTV unprepared.

In May 2013, LeTV launched two super TVs. In September of that year, Xiaomi TV was released. In May 2015, Lenovo announced the launch of a special TV brand “17TV”. Suning’s PPTV also launched the first smart TV; 2015 In December, Zhaochi shares, Oriental Pearl, United Haier, Gome, and Fengxing.com jointly launched popular Internet TV. In March 2017, “Mango TV+Gome+Chuangwei+Guangda Optimization” launched “Love Mango TV”. In the same month, TCL was officially released. Internet TV brand "Thunderbird".

“When there is more and more porridge, there is more room for choice. The profitability of LeTV will naturally be affected.” Liang Zhenpeng, a home appliance analyst, told the China Economic Weekly reporter that “all the consumer electronics companies in the world have not had a company so far. It is profitable through software content, even though Apple's annual software service revenue accounts for less than 10% of the company's revenue. Therefore, the R&D and manufacturing of software services instead of hardware is the inversion."

Liu Buchen believes that the savvy of Internet companies that are represented by music is that they clearly know that if they simply compete for hardware, they are still very junior. Once the focus of competition is brought to software and content through low-cost methods, the entire TV industry can enter the second half - the home of the Internet.

“The revenue generated by content payment and the revenue generated by the realization of traffic is the Internet company's masterpiece. Of course, this is a good thing for consumers. The color TV industry has upgraded from the previous pure hardware to 'hardware + software + content. + Service's level of competition. A company blindly expands, relying on concept storytelling, extending from LeTV to LeTV, which is ecological. But extending from LeTV to LeTV and LeTV Finance has become a 'pseudo-ecology'. Irrational diversification." Liu Buchen told reporters of China Economic Weekly.

Liang Zhenpeng believes that many traditional enterprises are now cooperating with video websites, and some even cooperate with several major video websites such as iQiyi and Youku Tudou to see more Internet TV content. LeTV itself is a second-line video website with low content richness, so some users will reflect that LeTV's video content is not as much as the publicity. Although its hardware free and content-paid membership model has opened the industry first, LeTV is in the second place. In the stage of competition, the competition situation in this field is also severe, not only facing old rivals such as Xiaomi, PPTV, and Storm, but also new competitors such as micro-whales.

Perhaps, as a veteran of the television industry has said, in the past 30 years, the TV industry has continued to have new players, and brands have gradually disappeared from sight. Because Internet TV is good at marketing and creating momentum, it gives people the feeling of “overwhelming advantage”, but “this is a protracted war, we are not afraid of it”.

Automobile industry

Jia Yueting overestimated himself and underestimated the auto industry

If LeTV is indeed a subversive in the TV industry, then in the automotive industry, it is a dreamer.

On April 24, according to media reports, the cooperation between British luxury sports car manufacturer Aston Martin and LeTV has been suspended. A person close to the board of Aston Martin said: "It is not technical reasons that the cooperation has stopped, but LeTV has not invested." LeTV has missed the biggest event of the Chinese auto industry this year - Shanghai Auto Show.

Mobile, TV and car are one thing?

Jia Yueting never wavered the dream of making a car.

"For us, mobile phones, TVs and cars are one thing, just a smart terminal, but the scene is different." Jia Yueting said more than once.

However, from TV to production, it is not only the price difference of tens of times, but also the difficulty. There are only a few hundred parts of the TV, but there are tens of thousands of cars, and the car is not only a means of transportation, but also closely related to safety. Therefore, even if the mode of the TV can be copied, it is not a simple panning.

After the Spring Festival of 2014, Jia Yueting began to comprehensively plan smart electric vehicles and car networking projects, and announced a high-profile announcement into the automotive industry, claiming that “Internet + cars” will become a disruptor of the traditional automotive industry, and in just over a year, A large number of auto industry “big bangs” were dug up, including Ding Lei and Zhang Hailiang, former vice presidents of SAIC.

Since then, in numerous press conferences, Jia Yueting began to describe LeTV's supercar in the PPT.

"Our goal is not to build a car, but also like LeTV to do TV and mobile phones. We hope to build a complete Internet intelligent transportation ecosystem." Jia Yueting said, "LeTV supercar is completely electric, completely intelligent. Internet-oriented, we hope that the car will become a brand-new Internet product that can seamlessly access the Internet. LeTV's car is not OEM (OEM), but completely self-developed from scratch."

LeTV also triggered the collective enthusiasm of companies with Internet backgrounds. Like LeTV, including Weilai Auto, Weimar, Harmony Futeng, and a group of emerging auto companies, almost all of them broke into the car with a new model. The industry, with the "new energy + smart Internet + sharing" model, to create a new way of travel, hope that Apple, Huawei to subvert Nokia, become the winner of the future automotive market.

It costs money to make a car, but not just burn money.

Jia Yueting said more than once, "For us, mobile phones, TVs and cars are one thing, just a smart terminal, but the scene is different."

However, reality is much more difficult than imagination.

In October 2016, Jia Yueting invested $1 billion, and the FF factory in Nevada, USA, was in arrears and was accused of facing a shutdown. LeEco continued to clarify this for a period of time, but it has not dispelled external doubts.

On December 28, 2016, LeTV started construction in the park of Moganshan. At the beginning of 2017, the project was reported by the media that “there was almost no progress, and only a guard room was built at the entrance of the park”.

In March 2017, LeTV Supercar co-founder, LeTV Super Vice President of the World, and China and Asia Pacific CEO Ding Lei announced their departure.

In April 2017, the media visited the LeTV North American car factory on the spot, saying that “only the wind whistling and the eagle’s hovering”.

At this time, Jia Yueting has burned more than 10 billion yuan for his "car dream."

"Automotive is not an industry that burns out money. This is a very high threshold industry. The industrial chain is extremely long and complex, and even the country is the competition unit. However, when the intelligent system and battery replace the engine and gearbox, it becomes the core of the future car. The elements of competition, the unprecedented imagination space has been opened, and countless people with dreams want to build a car to understand.” Zhang Zhaoyu, the chief partner of Yanjin Business Consulting, told the China Economic Weekly.

In the industry's view, LeTV's direction and mode of making cars are not wrong, otherwise there will be no wave of new car-building forces to follow. “I think Jia Yueting overestimated himself and underestimated the auto industry.” Zhang Zhaoxuan said that the Internet car is also a car, and the platform for building a car needs only one platform to build. It can’t be completed without billions of yuan. Long, such as Qoros Auto, invested more than 15 billion yuan in 7 years.

Li Bin, CEO of Wei Lai Automobile, also said that it is not difficult to make a car that can run. It can be made in one or two million dollars. But developing a car may be 10 times that of the money. The capital required for production preparation is at least twice that of the car. The market is at least four times the size of the car.

Obviously, Jia Yueting is not reconciled.

In the LeTV auto business segment, he has personally invested more than 10 billion yuan, which is an important reason for LeTV's overall lack of money. "We have postponed commercialization. This is the price we paid for the anti-convention. LeTV is even anti-common." Jia Yueting said.

However, the tension of the “making a car” capital chain and the turmoil of management have cast a few shadows on this new car company. LeTV’s entrepreneurial dream is still unconvincing.

A traditional auto executive who did not want to be named said in an interview with China Economic Weekly that LeTV's capital chain tension is mainly affected by two reasons: First, the investment in the auto industry has greatly exceeded LeTV's expectations; Second, LeTV adopted The financing method does not apply to the automotive industry.

"At present, at least 180 companies that have invested in the electric vehicle industry say that they have feelings. The state supports the electric vehicles very much. The traditional automakers are doing it, and there are many cars that cross the border. This is the same as Jia Yueting. Lei Jun did not have a limited competitor in the original Xiaomi mobile phone. It can be said that it is already a '100 competition'. It is a set of logic that can pull money. Now enterprises are robbing users of resources, and no one can take it. Cheap.” Zhang Zhaoyu told the reporter of China Economic Weekly.

Zhang Zhaoxuan believes that the automotive industry is an industry with extremely high technology thresholds and funding thresholds. LeTV's existing talent pool, experience accumulation, especially cash flow situation is far from supporting this industry.

After the title of Guoan, LeTV wanted to enter the Super League more deeply. Not only did it bid for 2.7 billion yuan to purchase the rights of the Chinese media, but also put forward the slogan of “no music, no super”.

（《中国经济周刊》记者张燕对本文亦有贡献。）

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