Performance has declined year after year, and the stock price has plummeted. 360 is still looking for a "new way out." On April 22, 2022, 360 disclosed its 2021 financial report.

's performance has declined year after year, and its stock price has plummeted. 360 is still looking for a "new way out."

On April 22, 2022, 360 disclosed its 2021 financial report. According to financial report data, 360's total revenue in 2021 was 10.89 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 6.28%; its net profit was 902.2 million, a year-on-year decrease of 69.02%. There is no doubt that 360's 2021 The financial report is not impressive.

As a former network security leader, 360 has been troubled by performance growth. In recent years, 360 has been struggling to find new growth points. However, whether it was the mobile phone business at the beginning, or the subsequent investment in Nezha Automobile to enter the new energy industry, or even the government and enterprise security business that is now vigorously developed, 360 has not gained much. Judging from the financial report data, in addition to the decline in performance, the current majority of 360's profits basically come from "advertising", and the traditional information security business is "withering".

From the stock price point of view, as of the close of trading on April 27, 360’s stock price once again hit a stage low since the backdoor listing, reaching as low as 7.52 yuan. Although the stock price has rebounded due to the surge in the market, , but the stock price of 360 only closed at 7.93 yuan per share, with a market value of only 56.66 billion. Compared with the highest point of 474.3 billion in 2018, the market value has evaporated by more than 400 billion; obviously, investors have already paid attention to this former company. Cybersecurity leaders are losing hope and patience.

Regardless of performance or stock price, the appeal of "information security" that 360 has been talking about for many years is declining; and how to find "new stories" is becoming a problem that 360 urgently needs to solve. . The performance of

has declined sharply, and the majority of revenue comes from advertising

. From the financial report, as a former network security leader, today 360 is more like an advertising company.

is divided according to industry. Judging from the latest financial report data, 360's main business structure in 2021 is divided into four major categories, namely Internet advertising and services, intelligent hardware, security and other and Internet value-added services.

Among these four major categories of business, the Internet advertising and service business can be said to hold up half the sky. The revenue in 2021 reached 6.306 billion, accounting for 57.93% of the revenue; the main profit was 4.425 billion, accounting for the proportion of the profit. Reached 65.56%.

If you look at the information security business alone, according to product classification, the main revenue of the 360 ​​Security Business Division in 2021 is only 907.7 million, and the revenue ratio is only 8.34%.

It is not difficult to see from the data that the revenue share of 360’s core information security business is continuing to decline. More than half of its revenue and profits are supported by advertising. The former information security leader has slowly transformed into An advertising agency.

Under the influence of the continuous "deviation" of the main business, 360's operating conditions have also gone from bad to worse, and its performance has continued to decline.

According to financial report data, for the whole year of 2021, 360 achieved total revenue of 10.89 billion, a sharp decline of 6.28% year-on-year. This is the third consecutive year that 360’s revenue has declined. The previous year of 2019 and 2020 revenue growth rates were -2.19% and -9.55% respectively; net profit was achieved at 902.2 million, a sharp decline of 69.02% year-on-year. Net profit also declined for the second consecutive year, and the net profit growth rate in 2021 was -51.3% .

In fact, the situation of 360 is very common among established Internet companies. For example, listed Internet companies 2345 that started out as navigation websites have experienced a sharp decline in performance a long time ago. In addition, Most of 2345's revenue and net profit come from Internet information services, which is very similar to the current situation of 360.

However, compared to these declining Internet companies, 360 can still use the "family wealth" accumulated in the past to advertise, and it has not yet reached the point of losing performance; but judging from the current trend, 360 I may not be able to rest on my laurels for long. The reason why

has transformed many times and

360 has reached this point is due to the factors of the times and its own unsuccessful transformation for many years.

looks back on the development history of 360, which dates back to 1998, 24 years ago.At that time, Zhou Hongyi launched the online real-name website "3721". With the rapid popularity of 3721, Zhou Hongyi also became famous.

In November 2003, 3721 was acquired by Yahoo and renamed "Yahoo Assistant", while Zhou Hongyi became the president of Yahoo China, which can be said to be unparalleled in the limelight for a while; however, with the 2005 Alibaba After acquired Yahoo China, Zhou Hongyi left Yahoo and established a new company-Qihoo with Qi Xiangdong .

At the beginning, Qihoo's positioning was not anti-virus software, but a search technology provider; however, because the search market at that time was already occupied by , Baidu, and Yahoo, it was too difficult for Qihoo to enter the search market. Qihoo transformed into anti-virus software under the leadership of Zhou Hongyi. Unexpectedly, it was this decision that led Qihoo to success.

In 2006, Qihoo launched 360 Security Guard , using anti-rogue software as an entry point to enter the Internet market. With its free-to-use strategy, the industry-breaking 360 Security Guard quickly defeated many anti-virus software and became the security software with the largest number of users in China. With the rapid development of the PC side in those years, Qihoo's size expanded rapidly. , Zhou Hongyi also achieved great success.

However, with the advent of the mobile Internet era, 360 Security Guards, which had previously achieved great success on the PC side, began to "acclimate", and the reason is very simple - in the field of mobile phones, because there are already high-security The demand for mobile phone systems and anti-virus software is not high, so 360 is slowly declining. This is exactly the factor of the times mentioned above.

When he realized that mobile phones may not need anti-virus software, Zhou Hongyi did not make any efforts.

In recent years, 360 has also made many attempts. For example, in 2015, it cooperated with Coolpad mobile phone to jointly establish the mobile phone brand "Qiku" and planned to develop its own mobile phones. However, because it was too late to enter the game, This business was suspended two years ago.

In 2016, against the background of the rise of Douyu and Huya , 360 entered the live broadcast industry again and invested in the establishment of Huajiao Live . Although in the end, Huajiao Live Broadcast will be closed in 2021 with the Liujianfang operator Huafang Group Company. It went public, but didn't achieve much.

In 2021, with the rise of new energy vehicles, 360 invested another 2.9 billion yuan to invest in Nezha Automobile; however, although Nezha Automobile rose rapidly and its sales increased significantly in the first quarter of 2022, 360, which invested in it, Not many results have been achieved, and 360’s vision of expanding its information security business into the smart car industry has not yet been realized.

Under these transformation attempts again and again, the former leader in network security gradually moved towards the altar.

As of the close of trading on April 27, 360’s total market value was only 56.66 billion, which has evaporated by more than 400 billion from the highest point of 474.3 billion when it returned to A-shares in 2018.

Transforming government and enterprise security, 360 still has a long way to go

After going around in circles, 360 has returned to the security field it is most familiar with.

But this time, 360 is no longer targeting C-side business, but turning to B-side business - government and enterprise security.

According to media reports, starting in 2020, 360 is increasing its investment in the field of government and enterprise security. At the first all-staff meeting of the 360 ​​Government and Enterprise Security Group last year, Zhou Hongyi even proposed "We want to be China's " Security Guard for the Digital Economy".

In public, Zhou Hongyi also said: The protagonists of the first half of the Internet were Internet companies, which digitized the lifestyle of Chinese people for their food, clothing, housing and transportation. The protagonists of the second half of the Internet were governments at all levels and traditional enterprises. New The first generation of smart cities, industrial Internet, Internet of Vehicles, etc. will become the main scenarios.

It is not difficult to see that Zhou Hongyi has great hopes for government and enterprise security. From the current point of view, 360’s government and enterprise security business has become a rare bright spot in its 2021 financial report.

According to financial report data, 360’s security and other businesses achieved operating income of 1.381 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70.91%, with strong growth momentum; the first quarter report of 2022 disclosed in the same period showed that 3601 had completed 547 million yuan in the first quarter. As for urban safety order confirmation, safety-related revenue has reached close to 40% of last year’s total.

However, judging from the overall performance, although the government and enterprise security business has improved, its proportion in total revenue is still small. The government and enterprise security business is still difficult to bear the burden of the 360 ​​transformation; and in 2021 On the last two trading days after the annual financial report was disclosed, 360's stock price fell 6.1% and 2.75% respectively. Obviously, investors are not optimistic about this financial report.

From this point of view, for 360, the "story" of government and enterprise security is far from enough to lead it out of the quagmire; if it wants to reverse the current situation, 360 may still have a long way to go.