Everest information business model is accused of backward mobile application difficult to shake the market

What is the "phone pair touch" thing? But it is such a product, the success of the only one of the gem from Guizhou listed companies-Everest information (300288, closing price of 62.10 yuan).

Everest information released data show that in the first half of 2012, "to touch" revenue of 69.04 million yuan, accounting for 96.55% of total income. And the company's annual report and prospectus show that in 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, "on the touch" business revenue of 112.14 million yuan, 72.74 million yuan, 42.47 million yuan, 31.12 million yuan, accounting for the same year, the proportion of total battalion income of 99.96%, 99.16%, 97.8%, 99.45%, and there is a trend of rapid growth.

However, there is analysis that, because "pair touch" is a very primitive, voice services that can be achieved by dialing alone, most people who use "phone pair touch" should be fixed-line and non-smartphone users, and many smartphones today are cheap and offer many social functions far stronger than " Phone to touch "pure voice communication.

"Chat room" propped up high growth

Recently, the daily economic news reporter called the local "phone pair to touch" access number, a piece of music, a female voice prompts reporters through the dial to choose their own sex and age; Then, the reporter in the voice prompted into a local "multiplayer chat room"; Chat room, occasionally heard a few locals speak with a little chat, sometimes a few jokes, or talk about Trifles.

Yes, it is such a "chat room" products, supporting the Everest information most "livelihoods."

The reporter noted that the dial "pair touch" number is free. Only, such a "chat room" business, how to Everest information to bring such a rich "real money"?

In the prospectus, the company says its own recipe for making money: through the "Call free, value-added" voice value-added business new model, users dial "phone pair touch" does not need to pay any call fees or information fees, to achieve the user experience of the 0 cost, through the free service, attracted a large number of users, to create a " Sunshine Dating, green chat "big social entertainment platform. On this basis, through the provision of more attractive membership services, to attract users to become a "phone pair on the touch" of the monthly membership fees, monthly fee, so that the platform's user advantage into the revenue advantage.

The prospectus shows that the monthly membership fee for "right touch" is mainly 15 yuan/month. Everest information staff revealed that as a member, users will be able to enjoy such as the establishment of chat rooms, priority to speak and to squeeze non-members of the room, and so many "privileges", and 15 yuan/month of membership fees, the company and operators in the proportion of the roughly 5:5 to be divided.

According to the company's report this year, as of the first half of 2012, the "pair of touch" does not repeat the total number of subscribers to the telephone 9.05 million, the end of June 2012 member users were 2.19 million. In other words, about One-fourth of the people who call the "call to touch" chat have a monthly membership. It is the membership fee of these 2 million members is divided into, become Everest information "to touch" the revenue source of the business, also support Everest information high speed growth performance. Data show that the company achieved a net profit of 37.2588 million yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 70.04%, January-September net profit of 57.6395 million yuan, the year-on-year growth of 60.41%. In addition, the reporting data also showed that the "pair-touch" business margin of 88.65%.

The cooperation of the single missing mobile

Ultra high gross profit margin undoubtedly shows "to touch" have super suction gold ability, but, such a "cash cow" business, will also be the operator's unanimous approval?

The company's three quarterly reports show that as of September 30, 2012, the company has business relations with the Chinese telecom and China Unicom's provincial branch, from the end of 2011 to increase from 29 to 2012 the end of the three quarter of 43. The daily economic news reporter notes that among the operators of Everest information, the Chinese mobile, the largest mobile operator in China, is absent.

In fact, as early as the company listed before the release of the prospectus shows that the company has communicated with China Mobile, "phone to touch" product has been the initial recognition of the Chinese mobile, test network in March 2011 opened a trial run, formal cooperation in the business negotiations are actively underway. However, the company and China Mobile has not yet signed a formal written agreement on business, the future, "phone to touch" whether the successful entry into China Mobile market there is uncertainty.

In addition, the company also forecasts in the prospectus, such as with China Mobile, the number of mobile users at the end of 2010, 584 million households, 2010 end of the "phone to touch" member penetration rate of 0.49%, China Mobile "phone to touch" the number of users will reach 2.86 million households, The estimated annual income scale is 515 million yuan.

What is the progress of the co-operative negotiations that began more than a year ago? Recently, the daily economic news reporter called Everest information, the company's securities department, a member of the staff told reporters that there is still no significant progress in cooperation with the mobile. "China Mobile, because some of its internal structure in the adjustment, and it is a national net of the unified planning, may not like Unicom and telecommunications, in the provincial branch has a certain degree of independence, so the negotiations will be difficult." ”

In this respect, a person familiar with the telecommunications industry told reporters that China Mobile is a unified national management, bargaining capacity is strong, Everest in the negotiations may be at a disadvantage, plus Everest products themselves do not have too much attraction, it may be difficult for China Mobile to contribute a higher ARPU (per user average income) value.

The business model is pointed backward

The other end of the handset is a consumer group that is often overlooked. Hongyuan Securities in the depth of Everest Information Research report pointed out that Everest information users mainly focus on low-income groups, and this group of large numbers, can be mined a large space of demand. The "Pair touch" business of Everest information can not only satisfy the rigid demand of the low end people, but also contribute to social stability.

"Our users are really focused on low-income people, and in general big cities, many people can't understand this business." But the rural population in many parts of the country, including many migrant workers, students, they know more about our products. "But we don't feel very big about this kind of market demand," the company's staff told reporters. ”

Guotai analyst Hao Sails in the research report, said, "phone to touch" business is an IVR (interactive voice response) business, such IVR business flaw is very obvious: first, IVR business user experience is not cool, also do not fit the trend of mobile Internet, which directly led to the "phone right Touch" The target user group is small and marginalized, and the second is the product manifestation of IVR also restricts the subsequent means of change, each user's value is difficult to improve.

"' Phone to touch ' this business is still based on the telephone, from the business model, is relatively backward." "A private-equity researcher told reporters bluntly," for this reliance on operators of voice value-added services, in fact, not what high-tech. And the trend in the future is the mobile phone to replace the fixed phone, smart phones to replace the function of mobile phones, access to mobile Internet is the trend. The researcher said he was not too optimistic about the prospect of "phone-pair-touch".

A TMT industry analyst who had done research on Everest information told reporters that Everest information might be linked to its economic development in Guizhou. Guizhou Area network infrastructure is relatively weak, income level is also low, so in such a place to develop such an industry is not surprising. "But in the long run, that demand may be harder to sustain," he said. Because a lot of smartphones today are very cheap, they can provide a number of social functions, far stronger than ' phone to touch ' pure voice communication, then ' to touch ' products will be adopted by users, this is an unknown. ”

Currently on the market has been a lot of prices in 600 yuan below the smartphone, and can also install QQ, micro-letter, Renren, MO and other social software, to the "phone to touch" brought a lot of competition pressure. On this issue, Everest information staff explained to reporters: "China has 1.3 billion people, as long as a small proportion of demand, there will be a large market crowd." At present, our main income still depends on the ' pair touch ' business, but it is also only the value-added service of the basic communication operators. We also want to transform into a mobile internet company in the future, our love touch, phone+ software and so on, is the layout that makes on the mobile internet. ”

No subversive innovation difficult to shake the market pattern

The daily economic news reporter used a mobile phone to install the Everest information on the love and phone+ software mentioned by the staff. However, in the use of the reporter found that these software and daily use of more micro-letters, Skype software, compared to the difference in functionality is not.

Company staff to the reporter introduced, touch software is actually the "phone to touch" from the traditional voice communication to the mobile internet a transplant, love touch will be "to touch" voice community extended to app software, smartphone users can realize with the traditional voice "to touch" community docking. In the future, smart phones will replace the traditional non-intelligent machines in the industry trend, love touch can still help "to touch" business to increase the number of users.

For Phone+ Software, the staff pointed out that it was positioned as "Skype+facebook". The product is mainly two functions: one is free call; A free call is an instant voice communication using WiFi or a 3G network, while an acquaintance sharing allows users to share pictures, music, and materials with the phone book's acquaintances and friends. "But these features require both users to install the Phone+ software to achieve, this also needs to test our ability to promote, as long as the user group to expand, we use it very convenient." ”

As for the expansion of Everest information on the mobile Internet, the private equity researcher said to reporters, "on the mobile internet, there are a lot of chat, social software available for users to choose, and including mobile phone QQ, micro-trust, Renren and other mainstream software users have been very stable, it (Everest information) is a new attitude to kill into the Internet, If there is no subversive innovative function, it may not be able to shake the pattern of the original market. ”

He also published his own views on phone+ software, first, phone+ software is difficult to achieve a larger user base; second, the current positioning of the phone+ software is still a free chat tool, if there is no further innovation in service, the profit model will face a greater test.