From Internet celebrities to impact IPO, Su Shi is trapped in the "rice chain" siege

Source | Bohufn

Author | Chen Ping'an

Recently, Shenzhen Su Shi Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Su Shi") updated the prospectus and continued to promote the listing process of the GEM, and China Merchants Securities served as a sponsor.

(Picture source: Network)

The wind that the electric toothbrush began in 2015 may have won the first IPO in 2022.

In the past two years, there are many domestic brands that have risen on the rise of new consumption. Although Su Shi is well -known but not the most advanced. In the track of the electric toothbrush, USMile and Shuke are ranked in front of Su Shi as far as domestic brands.

Everyone talks about the sacrifice, and it may be the "rice chain" label that is lingering on it: On its prospectus, the word Xiaomi has appeared hundreds of times.

Some people envy its back to the big tree, from the establishment to the listing all the way; some people speculate that this is just another product of Xiaomi ripening.

With the increase of players, the main competitors Shuke and USMILE have also launched the listing process. In the future, the competition for small home appliances will only be more intense.

Will it be the transfer of Su Shi?

"Mi Chain" is a siege city

Su Shi did not bring Xiaomi birthmark at birth. In the early days of his establishment, his founder Meng Fandi also regarded Xiaomi as a natural imaginary enemy. The reason why choosing to join the Xiaomi ecological chain may be related to his previous entrepreneurial experience.

Before the founding of a vegetarian, Meng Fandi had done a smart scale company -Youpin Picooc. Despite the differentiated play, Picooc quickly opened the market and finished three rounds of financing within a year. However, under the cost -effectiveness of Yunmai Technology, Picooc gradually lost its initiative, and Meng Fani drew sadly.

"It turns out that choice is more important than hard work." Meng Fandi concluded in an interview.

In 2016, Meng Fandi joined the Xiaomi ecological chain with the newly established Su Shi. Under the blessing of Xiaomi, Su Shi has embarked on the road of high -speed development.

On the one hand, Su Shi not only fled the embarrassing situation of the Angel Wheel everywhere, but also developed rapidly at a round of financing at an annual round of financing. At the end of 2020, it was recorded in the CSRC to receive the listing counseling of securities firms. Throughout the financing process, the figure of Xiaomi has appeared many times.

On the other hand, by relying on Xiaomi's advantages in channels, Su Shi Technology quickly opened its sales. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, Su Shi's revenue was 534 million yuan, 1.025 billion yuan, and 1.371 billion yuan, respectively. The average annual growth rate of three years was 60.17%. Many peers.

However, like all "rice chains" companies, too much dependence on Xiaomi is becoming a problem that Su Shi urgently needs to solve.

First of all, according to its prospectus, from 2019 to 2021, compared with the total revenue of Su Shi, the sales revenue from Xiaomi Group accounted for more than half. Su Shi himself was also exposed in the prospectus. If Xiaomi's purchasing amount decreased significantly, it would be adversely affected.

(Picture source: Network)

Secondly, Xiaomi's cost -effective policy has lowered the profitability of Su Shi. It is also selling a toothbrush. In 2021, the gross profit margin of Su Shi's own brand can reach 51.19%, but the gross profit margin for Xiaomi is only 17.56%.

Third, Su Shi also faces the impact of competing from the "Mi Chain". The supply and sharing depends on Xiaomi, and its status in the Xiaomi ecological chain is not very stable.

In addition, due to the strong position of Xiaomi, Su Shi's selection and patent of the foundry were deeply affected by Xiaomi.

Perhaps because of this, since 2018, Su Shi has paid more attention to the construction of its own brand. According to its prospectus, the proportion of Susi's own brand sales in 3 years rose from 21.74%to 43.83%.

"Mi Chain" seemed to be a siege, and he wanted to come in outside, while Su Shi needed to find a way to straighten his waist and walk out of the city.

Marketing can quench thirst, but only half can be solved

The rapid growth of Su Shi's own brands is inseparable from its strategy of light assets and heavy marketing.

In 2015, the penetration rate of electric toothbrushes in my country was only 3%, and a large number of marketing was still needed to complete market education. From the perspective of gender structure, 58%of domestic electric toothbrushes were women; from the perspective of age structure, young and middle -aged people accounted for their accounted 80%of the total consumer groups; from a pricing point of view, the high -end market for electric toothbrushes is basically occupied by foreign brands such as Philips, and domestic brands are basically fighting in the low -end market.

Based on such market conditions, Su Shi adopted the production method of all -foundry to focus on the design and marketing of electric toothbrushes. In response to the mid -range market with a relatively large market vacancy, "Su Shi" brand products focus on fashion, high value, and personalized design, catering to the aesthetic preferences of young consumers, especially young women consumers; "Airfly" brand products are pursuing The exquisite manufacturing process and functional design caters to the pursuit of high -end hairdressing care products for high -income people.

For different marketing channels and user groups, Su Shi cooperates with Luo Yonghao and other head anchors and sells goods quickly; while actively puts grass planting and evaluation on platforms such as Xiaohongshu, WeChat, and B Station, he also actively actively comes with Lu The cooperation of art IP such as Floating Palace has launched cross -border joint models to quickly break the circle.

Relying on the fast -growing and multi -channel marketing marketing, Su Shi quickly occupied the user's mind, and once reached the list of electric tooth brush sales of 100 yuan. Its brand's revenue also rose from 145 million yuan in 2018 to 550 million yuan in 2021. But now, this business model is obviously not suitable.

After the overdraft of the electric toothbrush, the market has a trend of cooling after the surrendering of live e -commerce. According to data from Aowei Cloud, the retail sales of electric toothbrushes in January to August in 2021 were 4.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.2%, and the retail sales of electric toothbrushes in the first quarter of 2022 decreased by 24.8%year-on-year.

Correspondingly, marketing costs of various channels are increasing, and marketing costs have increased year by year. According to the prospectus, from 2018 to the first half of 2021, the sales expenses of Su Shi Technology were 43.5628 million yuan, 135 million yuan, 261 million yuan and 185 million yuan, respectively. And 20.43%, the upward trend is obvious.

Under this disappearance, if you continue to rely on marketing as a weapon for growth, I am afraid it is difficult to achieve the previous results. At the same time, it is difficult to establish a solid brand cognition by relying on marketing and joint names. The product yield problem brought about by the all -foundry model has also caused Su Shi to frequently fall into the brand crisis.

(Picture source: Network)

For Su Shi, how can I continue to tell their brand stories in the future? Maybe it's time to change my mind.

Not enough imagination

my country's electric toothbrush market has developed to the present, and the market penetration rate is about 10%, and countries including the United States and Japan are about 40%. It can be seen that there is still much room for development in the Chinese electric toothbrush market in the middle and long term Essence

But for Su Shi, the imagination is really limited.

From the perspective of brand share, according to the online monitoring data of Ovi Cloud (AVC), in the brand share rankings from January to November 2021, TOP1, TOP2, and TOP3 are Philips, USMile and Ole B. Su Shi ranks only in line. ninth. And the Matthew effect of the electric toothbrush head brand Matthew, the TOP3 brand concentration increased by 8.6%compared with last year.

From the perspective of the market segment, in the first quarter of 2020, in high-end markets of 500-1000 yuan and 1,000 yuan, Philips and Ole B sales accounted for 56.7%and 72.2%, respectively. 90.9%, basic monopoly high -end market.

In the mid -range market, USMILE is far ahead. According to data disclosed by its parent company, in January to September 2020, USMILE's market share came to 11.2%.

The low -end market is "crazy inner roll", and many products have bottomed to 9.9.

It is not difficult to see that Su Shi is facing the high -end unable to go, the middle end can't run USMile, and the embarrassing scenes of Xiaomi and Feike can't grab the low -end.

Although Su Shi is also actively expanding revenue channels, and vigorously developed a small home appliances including teeth, electric shaver, hair dryer and other categories and achieved good results. It is manifested in the financial report. From 2019 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate of the sales revenue of nursing products is 37.20%; the compound annual growth rate of sales revenue of hairdressing care products is 51.24%.

But on the one hand, in addition to the tooth washing device, all other categories of income account for less than 11%, which is difficult to become a new carrier for vegetarian growth; on the other hand, because of the lack of technology, other products of Su Shi will also face the electric toothbrush. The same problem is difficult to establish a real advantage.

However, the industry is welcoming new opportunities. With the rapid increase in the intelligent share of electric toothbrushes, intelligence has gradually become a new direction for the upgrading of electric toothbrushes technology. Compared with the new rhythm of low -frequency foreign brands such as Philips, Su Shi can more flexibly upgrade the product to the demand, thereby entering the high -end market.

According to Su Shi's prospectus, if the listing is successful, its funds will be used for product upgrades. We can't know if Su Shi can take the opportunity to complete the curve overtaking. However, increasing investment in R & D, seizing industry opportunities, and using technology to establish a stronger moat for the brand must be the optimal solution of the Su Shi break.

Reference source:

City boundary: electric toothbrush fight, back to Xiaomi is good?

Mustang Finance: 775 million fundraising, 20 % of R & D investment.

Titanium media: From USMile to Su Shi, electric toothbrushes are so popular that they can't sell

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