Inke, it's not easy to tell a good metaverse story
The metaverse circuit has welcomed another new player.
On June 15, Yingke announced that it had changed its name to “Yinguniverse” and officially entered the current hottest metaverse. Corresponsively, the English name of Inkeverse was changed to Inkeverse.
Source: Yingke's official Weibo
Chairman Bong Woo-sheng of Inke explained the reason for the name change: the group needed a more suitable brand name to represent the group's external image, rather than using a specific product name instead of the group name, so the brand upgrade changed its name from Inker to Yinguniverse.
This reminds the outside world of Meta and Metaverse after Facebook changed its name in October of last year. Also a player on the social circuit, Eiker is now also entering the metaverse through a name change and is once again catching up with the trend.
In fact, from live streaming of shows, to social networking, to today's metaverse, Inke is one of the few companies that have continued to experiment with new tracks since going public.
Three years after Yingke went public, short videos rose to prominence, and live broadcasts were secretly attacked across borders. Behind this, there was quite a bit of frustration on the part of Ying Ke. The live streaming business is under serious pressure, and the future of social products is uncertain. The metaverse seems like a sexy enough story.
“Live streaming is already at a very mature stage, and it is difficult to generate rapid growth; our growth comes from social networking, blind dates, and overseas markets. The metaverse, on the other hand, is more than 10 times larger than the current internet market.” That's what Inke Chairman Bong Woo-sang said.
What needs to be understood, however, is that as the development of the Internet enters the deep-water zone, enterprises want to continue to develop over a long period of time; there are fewer and fewer stories of becoming rich overnight.
More importantly, the metaverse is still a source of uncertainty. Technology and funding have yet to be implemented, and no one can determine whether this is a good story.If Yingke “starts first, then gets better”, will the capital market pay for the “Yinguniverse” story?
1. The live broadcast of the show has declined, and the audience must transform
What Eiker misses the most is probably the “Battle for a Thousand Broadcasts” era.
Back then, Yingke was definitely a fan of live shows. Among them, there is no shortage of financial support from well-known investor Zhu Xiaohu and giant Tencent. Einko, which has no shortage of money, invited celebrities to broadcast live and burn money in exchange for traffic. It successfully came out in the “Battle for a Thousand Broadcasters” and became the “No. 1 live streaming platform” in just two years.
Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long. The sequelae of the savage growth of players from all walks of life is excessive competition, and the difficulty and cost of customer acquisition on major platforms has increased accordingly.
Taking Inke as an example, its anchor cost in the first half of 2021 reached 2.362 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 50% over the previous year, accounting for 60% of current expenditure; the “promotion and advertising expenses” category increased to 0.99 billion yuan in the first half of the year, which is more than three times higher than 0.245 billion yuan in the same period last year.
More importantly, the trend of live streaming in 2020 suddenly blew up, and live live shows that didn't suit the market's taste showed a decline.The challenges faced by broadcasters who started out as live streaming shows are even greater.
Under the impact of content platforms with their own traffic such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the appeal of Yingke Live to users declined at a rate visible to the naked eye. According to Yiguan Qianfan data, in January 2022, the number of monthly active users of Yingke Live Express Edition was 0.7818 million, down 7.9% from the previous month. Compared to Douyin and Kuaishou, which have hundreds of millions of monthly activities, it's clearly not on the same level.
In addition to this, the continuous strengthening of regulations has also brought uncertainty to the live broadcast of the show.
The most intuitive example is the last time the live broadcast of the show came to the public eye, or the live show chaos that came to light at the 315th gala this year. In fact, the new round of exposure only brought popularity to the live broadcast of the show for a short time. The deeper meaning is that the regulation of the live show industry has been upgraded once again.
The story of the live broadcast of the show is not easy to tell; the audience must transform.Perhaps inspired by Momo's “Live Stream+Social”, Ying Ke began telling social stories.
In the past two years, Yingke has incubated more than 20 apps with a pan-entertainment layout. Among them, the social networking app collection, dating app matchmaking, and live e-commerce BuyLive and even overseas products have entered the commercialization stage.
Socializing with Inke has had certain results.
As reflected in financial reports, the social networking business supported half of Yingke's revenue.In 2021, revenue from social products reached 5.744 billion yuan, accounting for 62.6% of total revenue. A number of social products targeting vertical people have entered a mature commercialization stage; the revenue of live streaming products and blind date products reached 2.563 billion yuan and 0.614 billion yuan respectively, accounting for 27.9% and 6.7% of total revenue, respectively.
Unlike other players, Yingke runs a “matchmaker” business in the field of social networking with strangers, that is, marriage and social networking. The obvious problem is that due to lack of familiarity between users, dating and social networking can easily fall into a sensitive grey area. On the Black Cat Complaints Platform, there were 3,331 complaints about Yingke. The words “Yingke is a pig killer,” “Inker is suspected of gambling,” and “Inker is charging fees randomly” are popping up all over the place.
Looking outside, Momo and Tantan have relied on hundreds of millions of months to stay at the top of social positions with strangers. Soul is also using strong momentum to seize young people. It's unrealistic that Yingke wants to rely on social networking once and for all.
In recent years, stock prices have also “dropped by a thousand miles” due to poor performance and the peak of listing.According to Futubull Niuniu, as of press release, Inke's stock price was HK$1.49/share. Compared with the highest value of HK$5.48 per share at the time of listing in 2018, this is a decrease of 72%.
Yingke really needs to tell a new story to capital. At this point, Inker once again transformed into a metaverse in an attempt to seize new market opportunities.
2. Can I have an advantage if I enter the game first?
Regardless of the end result, enter the game first and get the favor of capital. This is a common routine for companies to follow the trend.
There is no doubt that the metaverse is an outlet for stars to take advantage of the Moon. Data company Sensor Tower (2022) reports that since the “metaverse” concept broke out, an average “metaverse” app has been added every day.
After Inke announced its entry into the metaverse, it once hit the hot list, and its stock price closed up 6.77% in a single day.But as Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, who has followed the trend the fastest, said. “We will have to wait at least another ten years for the metaverse to truly contribute to the company's performance.”
In other words, the metaverse is still an early concept, and it will take time for Inker to see clear benefits.
Looking at the performance of other players who have transitioned into the metaverse can also confirm this statement.
An open letter from Li Meng, founder of Tianxia Show on November 18 of last year, immediately sparked a wave of Honguniverse virtual real estate craze. At the time, even one virtual property was sold for more than 0.5 million yuan, and the app had already garnered more than 100,000 reservation users before the public beta.
The “celebrity economy's first stock” Tianxia Xiu can be considered the first domestic company to catch up with the metaverse trend.In October of last year, Rainbow Universe went live and was once known as the “Chinese version of Meta.” According to its official introduction, Honguniverse is the first virtual social networking platform based on blockchain and 3D technology in China. When it was launched, the platform launched an online limited-edition virtual housing and backorder campaign for closed beta qualifications. The number of reservations on the first day exceeded 10,000 in two hours.
Back then, with the metaverse's capital concept, Tianxia Show began to rise and fall continuously, with an increase of over 70% at one point. However, when users' enthusiasm waned, the Rainbow Universe bubble burst and received regulatory attention.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange believes that although Tianxiaxiu publishes relevant content about “Rainbow Universe” through non-statutory disclosure channels, the company did not actually participate in AR, VR, MR and related hardware technology research and development, no related hardware technology reserves or patents, and there have been no major changes in the company's main business. “Rainbow Universe” is highly risky and uncertain as an experimental product.
But in any case, the doors to the virtual world are already open, and the giants are running into the field.
In April of this year, Code Qiankun, which ByteDance invested 0.1 billion yuan, recently officially launched the metaverse game “Restart the World” on major app stores. Furthermore, ByteDance may be developing a metaverse social networking product “Pixsoul” internally to create an immersive virtual social platform.
Earlier, Tencent participated in Series G financing of Roblox, known as the “first share in the metaverse,” and obtained exclusive places from Chinese agents. Internally, according to Geek Park, Yao Xiaoguang, head of Tianmei Studio under Tencent, will personally lead a team to develop a game that targets the virtual world “Oasis” in the movie “Number One Player.”
Miha Tour, a new domestic gaming force, is also eager to try it out. According to vertical gaming media competition reports, Miha Tour has set up the Miha Tour Research Center (Reverse Entropy Studio), and the person in charge is Dr. Xing Jun. By the end of 2020, the scale was around 10 people.
As can be seen, companies that have already entered the market have basically moved into the metaverse from games, entertainment, and social networking.
Back to Inke itself, the layout of the metaverse business was announced in May of this year.
To this end, Inker has successively launched a number of metaverse-related products. Specifically, the metaverse romance app “Couple Planet”, “Panorama K-Song,” which recreates the immersive offline KTV experience, and “The Place,” a 3D image virtual social networking app for Gen Z in Europe and the US.
Obviously, when Einke joined the metaverse this time, they are still using social networking, which they are good at, as an entry point.
On the one hand, Yingke has two years of social experience and has accumulated user needs and habits. On the other hand, Inker's existing users may be able to migrate to a new metaverse social scene.
What cannot be overlooked, however, is that without real hardware technology, the layout of the metaverse is extremely fragile, as mentioned above. For Yingke, from starting with live streaming to networking and transforming into the metaverse, there is no doubt that there is a gap in technology. If they want to compete with the giants, they will have to go a long way.
Today, the metaverse is in a period of wild growth. Players entering the market are fighting bayonets, and it is not easy for Inke to stand out. If you want to get on the metaverse express train and tell a new story to the capital market, will it be a “wake up early and catch the evening episode”?
3. Can you tell metaverse social stories well?
As many types of relationships there are, there will be as many social apps.
Socializing is no less important than clothing, food, lodging, and travel. The appearance of each individual in a different scene will inspire new social needs. This is probably also the reason why so many entrepreneurs have gone back and forth and want to create another “WeChat.”
It's not difficult for companies to find a segmented track or an empty track to enter.The hardest part is breaking through existing tracks and forming new, long-term social relationships.
As mentioned above, Inke's exploration of social networking began one year after listing. According to incomplete commercial statistics, up to now, Yingke has not only “accumulated” interesting dating apps, but also “matches” covering the needs of blind dates in the sinking market, as well as “searching for the wild” for outdoor operators.
Inke's accumulation platform, image source: Inke's WeChat account
It's just that in the original social circuit, as mentioned above, on the one hand, Momo controls the social market for strangers, and on the other hand, there are players such as Soul, Baidu, and Shudong in the vertical social field. It is already very difficult for Yingke to stand out.Entering metaverse social networking where technology and design are imperfect at this time is even more difficult.
As real-world socialization extends to metaverse social networking, the story becomes more interesting, but also more homogenous. Compared to existing metaverse social products on the market, they are all simply upgraded with simple scenes and character images on the basis of the original social products.
In February of this year, the first week after the Spring Festival, the launch of the metaverse social networking app “Gel” broke the calm in the metaverse social networking market and climbed to the top of the App Store.
This software, which uses face-pinching as its core gameplay, attracted the love of Gen Z users, but only for a short time.The reason for this is that after being revealed as a “privacy leak,” the most important thing is that it didn't let users really feel the metaverse atmosphere; instead, it returned to a “face-pinching” software, which looked like a QQ show.
More active is the metaverse social app “Xirang” launched by Baidu. Not only does Baidu support the user download experience, but Baidu also hosted the 2021 Create Conference and intensive press conference on the Greek Yang platform. The core gameplay of “Xirang” is that users can “meet” anyone in the system and communicate via voice. But in the end, Heeyang did not escape complaints about product stuttering and poor experience.
Meanwhile, “Party Island” launched by ByteDance in January of this year began closed beta, mainly creating discussion scenarios for users with common interests and enhancing users' sense of social participation. Too bad it didn't cause any splashes of water.
Metaverse society is hot, but it's not completely popular.Currently, most metaverse social platforms still have relatively single interactive content, which has limited appeal to users, and it is difficult to meet users' long-term social needs.
Simply put, apart from being wrapped in a metaverse shell, metaverse social networking is not fundamentally different in terms of technology or experience compared to normal social networking. More importantly, homogenized gameplay and a single design will always make users tired. In the end, metaverse social results are unsatisfactory, which makes sense.
Silicon Valley product master Paul Buchheit once said, “Once you use the best products, you can no longer imagine what life would be like without them.”On the social circuit, WeChat is one such product. In the future, in the metaverse social sector, who will have this kind of product?
Far water won't quench your thirst. Today's metaverse stories are just sexy to watch. There is still a long way to go before they really win the love of young people.However, if you want your stock price to look good, it makes sense for Yingke to tell this new story. Will the capital market pay for it? You'll see the answers soon.
(The header image of this article is from the official website of Yingke Live.)
Original | One Moment Commercial, Author | Hui Zhi, Editor | Zhou Ye.
Risk Disclaimer: The above content only represents the author's view. It does not represent any position or investment advice of Futu. Futu makes no representation or warranty.Read more
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