Disassembling Meitu SaaS: Drive the aircraft to change the engine

SaaS boom, rolling.

When the consumer Internet dividends have retreated, the industrial Internet enters the deep water period, and no one can ignore the prospects and money of SaaS. Many companies have opened a "big migration".

Participating in this "big migration" enterprise, "One Certain Finance" observes two main categories: one is the company that was originally in a strong position on the software, such as Microsoft, Adobe, etc.; The other is cross -border and the other is cross -border Internet companies, such as Tencent, Ali, Meitu and so on.

For cross -border companies, their path to SaaS is the process of breaking the boundary with their ability.

American economist Kis defines the dynamic capabilities of such enterprises as "integration, shaping and reorganizing internal and external competitiveness to cope with the ability to change the environment." He believes that the boundary of the enterprise lies in the applicable boundary of the ability. In the process of constantly breaking the boundary, the accumulation of internal capabilities, resources and knowledge is the key to the company's excess returns and maintaining competitive advantages.

Through the long -term research of global companies, "One Caijing" found that this "corporate ability theory" mentioned by Qis has more typical practical cases in various industries. In the SaaS industry, which is particularly focused on technology and knowledge, it is particularly obvious.

Tenmill billions of temptation

The SaaS industry has become a recognized Nuggets Holy Land.

When it comes to adobe, many people know that it is a design software development company. But it is little known that Adobe is already the world's largest marketing SaaS company. As early as 2019, its SaaS subscription business revenue accounted for 90%.

However, when it comes to Adobe, I have to mention a domestic Internet company, namely Meitu. The Meitu Xiuxiu created with Adobe is also known as the "P picture" artifact.

What is conspired is that at the moment, Meitu is also entering the field of SaaS.

Public information shows that Meitu has frequently settled in the SaaS field. At present, Meitu Yunxiu, Meituyi Skin and other businesses have been deployed. According to the news obtained by "One Certain Finance", Meitu has not yet made some public disclosure. SaaS -related business is advancing.

Before entering SaaS, Meitu was widely known because of the comprehensive strength of the video field.

According to the 2021 financial report, Meitu's total revenue was 1.666 billion yuan, and the net profit returned to the mother was 85.1 million yuan, achieving the profitability of the net profit for two consecutive years.

From the perspective of specific businesses, in 2021, Meitu's online advertising business revenue increased by 12.5%year -on -year to 765.8 billion yuan, which has always been the main source of income of Meitu. Surprisingly, Meitu's 2021 VIP subscription business revenue increased by 146.9%year -on -year to 519.5 billion yuan, which seemed to become the second growth curve. It is matched with it, as of December 2021, Meitu's VIP members were about 4 million, an increase of more than doubled from the end of 2020.

The increase in the number of VIP members originated from two aspects. On the one hand, the consumer demand for women's "pleasure" has risen, and she is more willing to spend money on their own face. The "Women's Consumption Trends Report in 2022" shows that women's consumption amount exceeds home consumption, accounting for 54%, and the transaction amount increases by nearly 30%year -on -year. This was a good proof of Meitu. In 2021, its monthly activity was about 246 million, and female users accounted for 89%, which is the main force of consumption.

On the other hand, the increase in the number of VIP members is still due to the strategic focus of Meitu. Wu Xinhong, the founder and CEO of Meitu, can be seen in public. At present, many areas of Internet platforms have experienced large -scale competition issues. This means that the development ideas that are divided into multiple ways and the development of multiple tracks are no longer suitable for the needs of market competition. We must concentrate their strengths, be enough to be professional on the advantages, and establish their own moats.

Since 2020, Meitu has provided VIP subscription services on the main applications such as Meitu Xiuxiu and beauty cameras, and continued to iterate product functions. By meeting the user's image service needs, the number of members has achieved a high -speed growth.

For Meitu, it is obviously not enough to maintain the steady growth of the user scale and maintain the steady growth of business basic markets. The layout of the SaaS business is beyond the basic market that it has begun to broaden the corporate boundary.

In addition to Meitu, giants, including Ali, Tencent, and bytes, are also attacking the SaaS field, and naturally they have seen huge market space.

Data show that the global SaaS market size reached 171.9 billion US dollars in 2022. Relative to the world, the SaaS market in China has started later, but in high -speed development, it is expected to reach 130.4 billion yuan in 2023.

The temptation of hundreds of billions, the crowd of influx, the number of Chinese SaaS manufacturers in 2021 has increased to 4,500. But this does not mean that the influx of SaaS companies can easily take the Nuggets. In fact, the current profitable SaaS companies accounted for relatively low, and most of them did not hit the industry's pain points.

Through the long -term observation of "One Certain Finance", many SaaS companies have fallen into two major misunderstandings: pure technology self -hi and large and complete scene coverage.

SaaS products have relatively high technical requirements, which has also caused some SaaS companies to fall into the pursuit of technology, but it is out of the realistic scene needs. As a result, it is huge in investment in research and development, and the products made by no one ask.

Another misunderstanding is too obsessed with the scene, and I can't wait to cover most of the scene requirements with a universal SaaS product. It was found that on the one hand, many scenarios have been occupied first, and on the other hand, we must understand many industries, and it is completely energetic. In the field of SaaS, sometimes "big and complete" is not as good as "small and beautiful".

Reshape the border

In fact, there are still many high -quality targets to enter SaaS. In fact, there are still many high -quality targets.

Adobe's layout SaaS is actually around the strategy of "creative design". The externally market achieves accurate scene mining, the opening of major products internally, and eventually forming a rich product ecology.

The Meitu Company, which is often mentioned with Adobe, has the path to enter the SaaS field. It can also be interpreted with corporate ability theory -it has accumulated more than ten years of technology to reshape and broaden the development boundary, so as to obtain growth potential for growth Essence

Meitu's technical ability is undoubted. As early as 2010, Meitu established the Meitu Image Research Institute (MT LAB), and then a Meitu AI open platform was also established.

On the one hand, MT LAB provides technical support for the full -line products of Meitu, such as Meitu Xiuxiu, Beauty Camera, and on the other hand, it provides targeted SaaS for multiple vertical tracks in the image industry. According to Meitu people, MT Lab is called "technical center" inside, with more than 451 patents (including 256 invention patents) and holding 192 software products.

In addition, according to public information, Meitu's skin owned by Meitu has also launched technical cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to improve the skin imaging technology that was previously used in the business field to high professional genetic research and subdivision algorithm fields, and and and of. Some scientific research results are published in the International Society of International Dermatology and the International Society of Skin Biological Physics and Photos.

Of course, technology research will also be presented in the financial figures. In 2021, Meitu's R & D investment reached 545.5 million yuan, which can explain the problem.

From the perspective of "One Certain Finance", Meitu's entering SaaS today actually uses its accumulated technical capabilities to the SaaS field. Finding new kinetic energy while maintaining high growth is equivalent to "driving a plane to change engines."

So, will there be good prospects on the way Meitu's entry into SaaS? This score is short -term, mid -term, and long -term.

Short -term market capabilities, that is, whether it can cut into a broad market space from a certain scene demand, and then create differentiated explosive products.

SaaS is born to the scene. The technical iterative iterations must eventually fall into the richer and detailed personalized scenes, and this scene and market space are large enough. Many SaaS companies that have fallen into "technical self -resilience" think that they can dig demand by using technology alone. In fact, it is upside down.

At present, Meitu obviously avoids this type of error when entering SaaS business, following the correct business logic of "discovering demand -using technology to meet demand", showing a relatively keen market capacity.

According to Wu Xinhong, there are a large number of renovation demands and market gaps that have not been met in the field of commercial photography. Commercial photography has more than 10 billion yuan a year. For many practitioners, it is not only a complicated job of repetitive labor, but also relatively high technical thresholds, which brings great cost pressure to the commercial studio.

It is in this scenario that Meitu has released "Meitu Cloud Xiu" and has become a SaaS product specially created for the post -screening scene of the studio. The batch processing of items solves problems such as low efficiency and lack of standardization.

The market size is expected to reach 765.860 billion yuan in 2026. The birth of Meitu Yunxiu can undoubtedly bring the driving force for cost reduction and efficiency to the entire market.

"One Certain Finance" also found that Meitu's service scenarios are constantly expanding. Based on the cover of life scenes, the image products have begun to extend to the work scene, which is closely fitted with the employment trends at the moment.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the number of domestic flexible employment at the end of last year reached 200 million. Flexible employment has also changed the office model and demand of the image and design industry.

On the one hand, there are more and more freelance designers and photographers. They have a fixed customer base, but the capital strength is limited. It requires less cost tools to help office. On the other hand, some designs and photography companies outsourcing more business to reduce costs with coordinated office. These design studios require high -efficiency and low -cost products to improve efficiency.

In March of this year, Meitu released six video products in one breath -in addition to the "Meitu Cloud Xiu" mentioned earlier, there is also "Wink" main video portrait beauty; "Chic" focuses on the trend theme filter; "Meitu" The Xiu Xiu MAC version provides two core services of picture processing and poster design for commercial scenarios; "Meitu Design Room" provides design services for online marketing promotion and demand for goods; High -definition certificate photos.

Most of these six new products cover work scenarios in life scenarios. Between technical iterations and scenes, the interoperability channels are opened.

Short -term market capabilities can help companies quickly enter the market. Whether you can stand firm in the market and look at the process capacity of the mid -term, that is, realize business linkages, and improve operating efficiency in the field of view.

Although the SaaS field pays attention to the vertical field, it is difficult for a company to gain market competitiveness only in one scene. Enterprises need to combine various internal businesses to open up process capabilities to dig more scenarios and achieve stronger competitiveness. The linkage between Meitu and Meidi is a good case. Through internal business collaboration, it improves its process ability.

Meitu was controlled in January 2022. As a comprehensive mobile platform, the beauty is mainly for the service of the individual care and beauty product retail stores of the sinking city and SaaS products to help store cost reduction and efficiency. At present, it is beautiful to provide ERP SaaS solutions for more than 1,1500 cosmetics stores in more than 250 cities in China.

After being controlled by Meitu, the financial performance of Meidi has increased significantly. It is reported that the income (estimated) in 2021 (estimated) increased by about 330%compared with 2020; the supply chain revenue in 2021 (estimated) increased by about 416 from 2020 compared with 2020. %.

More importantly, thanks to the strong integration capabilities of Meimei, Meitu's process capabilities in the SaaS of Meiye will also be further improved.

The process capabilities in the middle period determine whether the company can stand steadily. The long -term strategic ability determines how far it can go.

From the perspective of "One Certain Finance", regardless of whether Meitu's efforts of C -side business or B -end business, they are actually around the core of "becoming beautiful".

Not long ago, Wu Xinhong said in an exclusive interview with the Securities Daily that Meitu will extend to offline and combine it with the United States in the future, extend the service object from To C to To B, and the service scenario extends from life to work.

The linkage of the C and B -end business will help the formation of product ecology and brand ecology, and the boundaries of Meitu will be accelerated and expanded.

Strategic capabilities are the highest level of enterprise, it guides all capabilities of the enterprise; process capabilities are the inherent capabilities of the enterprise, and it represents internal operations; market capabilities are external capabilities, and it is the ultimate manifestation of all capabilities of the enterprise. It can be said that the theory of corporate ability has been well practiced and tested on the SaaS industry and Meitu.

Value

Business is complicated, and the true value of enterprises is often not revealed.

In the past, Meitu was often criticized by the outside world as a tool -type product, and the foundation foundation was not stable enough. Compared with the peak period, Meitu's market value has declined, but now it is indeed undervalued.

With the support of corporate capabilities, Meitu has established a stable business model that relies on internal knowledge and technology to accumulate, but its value has not been fully tapped.

Value depends on the depth of the moat and the breadth of future development.

Meitu's moat is knowledge and technology. According to corporate ability theory, the key to being imitated by corporate capabilities is that the creation of knowledge is professional, accumulated with long -term, expressed implicit, distributed with decentralization, and uses integrity.

This theory uses Meitu Company, that is, its technology accumulated in the imaging industry in the past ten years and the awareness of the industrial chain, which makes it difficult to imitate by peers, and then build its own moat. Over time, Meitu's knowledge characteristics will release more value.

Many times, some companies jumped because of the tide. However, the tide faded, only to find that they were naked swimmers. What really stands in the tide is the master of technology.

Meitu entered a value highland.

Judging from US stocks, the SaaS software sector is one of the largest industries in recent years. Based on the BVP Cloud Index computing based on the VC mechanism Bessemer Venture Partners, the index has increased by 1009%since August 2013, far from winning the Nasdaq index.

Focusing on the domestic film industry SaaS track, there is still a lot of room to be tapped, and all players have just started. In terms of comprehensive strength, Meitu is one of the front players, and there will be a lot of in the future. Growth potential.

Stones from other hills, can learn.

When analyzing the path of Meitu's entry into SaaS, "One Caijing" summarizes several revelations of the industry.

First of all, enterprises must have a consciousness of accumulation, that is, to understand the "bamboo law".

Bamboo grows slowly in the early stage, but increased at a rate of hundreds of times in the later period. In fact, in the early stage, the roots extended the roots hundreds of square meters to increase nutrients to the rapid growth in the later period.

These "roots" are the ability of enterprises to accumulate for a long time. Although some are hidden, it can play a role at a critical time. Like Meitu's long -term accumulated C -terminal technology capabilities, it can now quickly cut in in the SaaS field.

Secondly, the enterprise opens the second growth curve. It is best to choose the business that is more suitable for the main business as Meitu. For example, Meitu has achieved more obvious synergistic effects from the landscaping of pictures, taking pictures and photography business to the field of VIP subscriptions and SaaS.

Diversity is indeed a way to resist risks, but there must be a clear main line. You cannot attack all sides. If there is no strong integration ability, the end result is the defeat of all sides.

Finally, the B -end business cannot be completely isolated with the C -side. Nowadays, the wave of industrial Internet is rolling, and many companies have tied into the B -end. In fact, through Meitu's strategy, it can be found that many times the C and B -ends help each other. For example, Meitu can expand the beauty user resources that can be reached to the VIP subscription business. By analyzing the case of Meitu, we can see the three values ​​reveals it brings to the market.

On the SaaS track, the large and complete scale effect does not often work, and the usual traffic thinking will be broken. What the company really needs to do is to find the pain points of the industry, insight into user needs, and accumulate influential technology. Based on the core, based on the core The advantages expand the boundaries to continue to develop and develop continuously.

From the perspective of Meitu, whether it is its ace product Meitu Xiuxiu, beauty camera, or six new products launched in one breath, they are accurate satisfaction with user needs after insight into the pain points of the industry.

Behind the meetings of user needs, it is the support of technology -the technical strength of MT LAB, and technological innovation of Mituyi Skin, Meitu Yunxiu and other businesses, Meitu further accumulates related technologies.

Based on the core "beauty" advantage, Meitu Holdings is beautiful, entered SaaS and extended the service to the work scene, cut into multiple "small and beautiful" fields, and continuously expanded the boundaries.

With these actions, Meitu has gone further and stable.

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