On August 23, Yuanlong Yatu, the “Bingdundun No. 1 Stock”, released its 2022 semi-annual report. The report shows that operating income in the first half of 2022 was 1.946 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108.85%;

Image source: Visual China

html On August 23, "Bingdundun's first stock" Yuanlong Yatu (002878, SZ) released its 2022 semi-annual report. The report shows that in the first half of 2022, operating income was 1.946 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108.85%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 174 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 206.41%; net profit attributable to the parent company after non-deductions was 1.71% billion, a significant year-on-year increase of 283.01%. The outstanding performance is mainly attributed to the Winter Olympics IP such as "Bingdundun" and " Xuerongrong ", which brought over 1 billion yuan in revenue.

However, Titanium Media APP found that if the Winter Olympics licensed souvenir business, whose revenue increased by 1716.92% year-on-year, was excluded, the company's revenue growth was only 1.26%. Therefore, as Bingdundun stopped selling at the end of September, Yuanlong Yatu's growth in the second half of the year Performance may inevitably lead to opening high and going low . However, it is obvious that the company is also looking for new growth points, such as vigorously promoting new media marketing and metaverse business, but the metaverse business currently seems more like a gimmick to push up the stock price to cooperate with shareholders' reduction of holdings.

After entering 2022, Yuanlong Yatu's stock price has been ups and downs. In January, it reached 30.15 yuan on the 14th thanks to the "Yuanverse" concept; in February, it once gained six daily limits due to the "Bingdundun" concept, and it was listed on February 14th. It reached a high of 32.85 yuan. Subsequently, as the hype in the capital market declined, the company's stock price continued to decline, falling to a low of 14.13 yuan on April 27. As of the close of trading on August 25, Yuanlong Yatu closed at 18.59 yuan, having fallen 43.24% from its high point.

Performance exceeded expectations, but sustainability was insufficient

Yuanlong Yatu was founded in 1998. In 2017, it was listed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as the “first stock in the domestic gift industry”. The company has been deeply involved in the gift industry for many years, and has signed contracts with many well-known IPs including NBA, Universal Pictures, the Louvre, etc. to carry out business such as the development of IP co-branded gifts.

company's income mainly comes from gifts, new media marketing services, promotional services and licensed souvenir business, but the income structure is not stable. In the first half of the year, with the blessing of the Winter Olympics’ “top-notch” IPs “Bingdundun” and “Xuerongrong”, its licensed souvenirs achieved revenue of 1.061 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1716.92%, accounting for 54.52% of the revenue. The overall performance was significantly driven and the growth exceeded market expectations. However, gifts and gifts have always been the company's largest source of revenue before. Taking the revenue distribution in 2021 as an example, Yuanlong Yatu gifts and gifts achieved revenue of 996 million yuan, accounting for 43.57% of the overall revenue, and licensed souvenirs achieved revenue of 207 million yuan in the current period. Yuan, accounting for only 9.06%, which shows that the income elasticity of this business is relatively large.

The surge in revenue from licensed souvenirs this year is inseparable from the sales of products surrounding the Winter Olympics. The company said that in the first half of the year, it designed and produced "Bingdundun" and "Xuerongrong" plush toys, blind boxes, modeling figures, buttons, crystal balls , badges, precious metals (opening ceremony countdown gold and silver bars, etc.) There are nearly 700 best-selling products in eight series of , color icedundun. It is understood that in the first quarter, the monthly transaction volume of most Bingdundun series products in Tmall Olympics official flagship store reached 100,000 to 200,000 transactions, and the highest number of key chain pendant transactions reached 300,000 transactions. .

In addition to the Winter Olympics, Yuanlong Yatu has also been a licensed manufacturer and retailer for the Beijing Olympics, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, and the 2019 Beijing World Horticultural Expo. However, licensed souvenirs are not its core business, and such large-scale events that attract national attention Competitions are not held every year, which means that high revenue growth will not be sustainable.

In addition, Guo Lei, director of the Franchise Management Office of the Market Development Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, previously stated that Beijing Winter Olympics licensed products will continue to be sold at least until the end of June this year, and the authorization or licensing period of the franchisee is this year. on September 30th. In other words, Yuanlong Yatu’s sales of Bingdundun will last until the third quarter at most.

It can be seen that although the company has achieved nearly 3 times profit growth with the help of "Bingdundun", after the discontinuation of "Bingdundun", Yuanlong Yatu's performance this year may start high and then fall. In fact, if the Winter Olympics licensed souvenir business is excluded, the company's other businesses' revenue in the first half of the year totaled 885 million yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of only 1.26%.

However, in order to reflect the revenue growth potential, the company stated in its semi-annual report that "the Chengdu Universiade and Hangzhou Asian Games will open in the second half of 2023. As a licensed retailer of these two major events, the company is currently actively preparing for the competition and striving to win the competition." winter olympics Based on the successful experience of licensed products, we will achieve optimal operating results, and strive to build licensed products and sports IP into a normal and sustainable important business direction in the company's future development IP strategy. "

Metaverse is a new story. Or a trick?

Yuanlong Yatu proposed the "Big IP + Technology" strategy in the semi-annual report, aiming at the Yuanverse. The company stated that it will first continue to consolidate its dual main businesses of gifts and new media, strengthen mutual synergy growth, and expand its IP resource library. Secondly, we will actively deploy innovative businesses, such as corporate e-commerce platforms, cultural wine and derivatives, Yuanverse virtual people and digital collections, etc.

As early as December 27 last year, Yuanlong Yatu established a wholly-owned subsidiary Yuanlong Universe Digital Technology Shanghai Co., Ltd. (Yuanlong Universe). Earlier this year, it established Shanghai Wow through Yuanlong Universe. Among them, Yuanlong Universe is positioned as a Yuanverse marketing agency with IP as the core. It has formed a professional team of dozens of people and signed contracts and cooperated with more than 40 head and waist avatars. This year, it also released the "Mythical Beasts and Five Constants" NFT digital collections as well as virtual humans and virtual cute pet combinations "Chang Xiaoyue" and "Zuozuo Rabbit".

Shanghai Wow is positioned in the development and operation of digital collections. It uses the asset value, user stickiness and creative gameplay of digital collections, and combines the company's advantages of "combination of virtual and real" to provide brand customers with digital collections and physical gifts, as well as brand marketing activities. As well as integrated marketing plans that combine brand products, there are currently successful cases for Shanghai Yuyuan, SAIC Maxus , Yuanqi Forest, Dell and other brands.

However, judging from the semi-annual report, the company currently does not generate any revenue related to the Metaverse business. Moreover, the Yuanverse market is still in the early stages of development, and there are uncertainties in policies, business models, and market scale.

Regarding Yuanlong Yatu’s expansion of the Metaverse business, some industry insiders said that on the one hand, the Metaverse is currently just a noun concept hyped by Zuckerberg, and even the concept cannot be clearly understood, and currently all support for the construction of the Metaverse The underlying industrial technologies are not yet mature. On the other hand, as a listed company, Yuanlong Yatu should be very aware of the current technical difficulties of the Metaverse and the problems faced by the Metaverse industry. However, when the Metaverse is still just a noun concept, Yuanlong Yatu announced that it has passed various This technology has reached various application cooperation with various brands in the Metaverse. In essence, Yuanlong Yatu’s Metaverse is just a digital marketing of the NFT concept based on the blockchain.

It is worth noting that before Bingdundun, Yuanlong Yatu had already soared in stock price with the concept of Metaverse. After Yuanlong Universe released the "Mythical Beasts and Five Constant Beings" NFT digital collection on January 4 this year, Yuanlong Yatu's stock price rose rapidly. From December 27, 2021 to January 17, 2022, the company's stock price increased by 54.16%. At the same time, the actual controllers, directors, supervisors and senior executives have disclosed announcements of reductions in holdings.

Data source: Wind

Titanium Media APP found that on January 15, Yuan Longyatu issued two pre-disclosure announcements on shareholding reduction: the actual controller Sun Zhen and the person acting in concert Li Suqin (Sun Zhen’s mother) planned to reduce their holdings. Holding no more than 4.4265 million shares (currently 59.0203 million yuan has been cashed out); director Xiang Jing, executives Chen Tao, Rao Xiuli, and Zhao Huaidong plan to reduce their holdings to no more than 1.077 million shares in total, all due to personal capital needs (currently cashing out a total of 8.916 million yuan) ). The company's controlling shareholder Yuanlong Yatu (Beijing) Investment Co., Ltd. also reduced its holdings of 7.6781 million shares from January 4 to June 2, cashing out a total of 133 million yuan.

Data source: Company announcement

As the company’s stock price took off with the help of “Bingdundun”, the company issued an announcement on February 9, announcing that the company’s directors Bian Yuchen and Yue Xin, senior managers Wang Sheng, and supervisors Li Ya and Liu Yan Due to personal financial needs, it is planned to reduce holdings by no more than 698,000 shares. So far, only Yue Xin has completed the shareholding reduction plan and cashed out 2.4298 million yuan.

Data source: Company announcement

(This article was first published on Titanium Media APP, author/Zhai Biyue)