The financial businesses of the four major portals have been hit one after another, and the key to traffic is being | book of ra 10 deluxe free play, ielix

In the past, when talking about portals, the four major portals that people blurt out are Tencent, NetEase, Sina, and Sohu. Nowadays, with the rise of Internet companies and the changes in the needs and tastes of netizens, the market influence of this famous school, once known as the "four major portals", is fading away.

Recently, just after the New Year, NetEase, one of the four major portals, laid off large-scale layoffs in order to adjust its organizational structure again, and Sohu disclosed its first financial statement for the 20th anniversary. Due to poor performance, losses expanded again, causing a commotion. The four major portals once again aroused people's "gossip" heart, and many people even shouted: "The end of the era of the four major portals has arrived."

Now, when we look again at the layout of the four major portals, we will find that their businesses already have their own characteristics. Tencent has become an all-round development superstar, NetEase has fallen in love with "games" and "e-commerce", Sina uses Weibo as an empowering portal to enhance and strengthen its media influence, and Sohu's mainstay is being handed over to Sogou through advertising revenue.

Although the main businesses of the four major portals are becoming more and more differentiated, they once fell out of favor due to their traditional operating models and their market value continued to decline. In order to save the sluggish financial reports, the collective took advantage of its huge traffic advantages and made efforts in the financial field to find monetization points. The story is still vivid in my mind. Analyzing from their financial layout is not only a continuation of the financial chapter of the four major portals, but also an understanding of the current development status of the four major portals.

The forbearing Tencent Finance

Tencent can be called a "successful brave" when it comes to the financial layout of the four major portals. It is not only the first among the four major portals to "eat crabs" in the financial field, it has also developed finance into a towering tree that can provide shade for itself.

In 2005, Tencent launched Tenpay and officially launched its payment business. Although the business was semi-quiescent in the early days, since 2014, Tencent has relied on large financial subsidies and the huge traffic and market influence accumulated in the gaming and social fields to revitalize the company's payment business and remain at the forefront of the payment market for a long time.

According to data, between 2012 and 2016, WeChat payment transaction volume increased from less than 100 billion yuan to 8.5 trillion yuan, achieving an 85-fold increase in four years. According to data provided by Tencent Financial Technology, as of Q3 2018, in the mobile payment market (transaction volume), WeChat Pay's market share increased from 7.3% in Q2 2014 to 46%.

During the rapid rise of its payment business, Tencent has also continued to strengthen the infrastructure of its corporate financial business. In terms of risk control, Tencent also makes full use of its abundant financial advantages to invest heavily in the research and development of financial technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. In terms of compliance, Tencent has successively acquired licenses for third-party payment, insurance, banking, funds, credit reporting, and small loans. On this basis, Tencent uses payment as an entry point to gradually penetrate into financial sectors such as securities, mobile phone recharge, life insurance, credit card repayment, wealth management, and micro-gold, and continues to expand its corporate financial territory.

The market has also proven that Tencent’s 14 years of intensive efforts in the financial market have not let its funds, technology, time, etc. go to waste. Tencent has not only become a core shareholder of WeBank, but also a leading company in mobile payment. likeToday, Tencent Finance has become the focus of the market due to its ultra-high market valuation. Tianfeng Securities once estimated that Tencent Financial’s valuation is US$120 to US$140 billion.

But despite being happy, Tencent’s shortcomings of over-reliance on the payment business have also been exposed without leaving any room. Tencent’s early entry not only relied on the entrance of payment, but also relied on the power of payment to develop its financial business. According to the dismantling of the financial report, in the third quarter of 2018, Tencent’s payment-related financial business revenue was close to 14 billion, accounting for about 17% of Tencent’s total revenue.

What’s worse is that with the recent tightening of regulations on the mobile payment market and the implementation of policies such as handing over reserve funds and cutting off direct connections, the era of winning in the mobile payment market has been completely overturned. Since Tencent's financial business relies heavily on its payment business, its future earnings will inevitably be compromised.

Among them, in November 2018, WeChat Pay had a fierce "war of words" with China Minsheng Bank over an increase in fees. Regardless of whether the reason for this quarrel is that the cost of WeChat Pay has risen as claimed online, taking the opportunity to make money, or Minsheng Bank taking the opportunity to raise prices, it can be seen that the profit margin of WeChat Pay is being compressed, and its development path is becoming bumpy. Now it seems that the payment business, which is the mainstay of Tencent's finance, has lost its foundation, and it must be inevitable that it will suffer injuries.

Anxious NetEase Finance

If the tightening of regulations on the mobile payment industry and the impact on its main business are the pain for Tencent Finance, then the pain for NetEase Finance is a long-term pain that hurts the muscles and bones and is difficult to heal. As for why we say this, we can analyze it from the entry, development, and current situation of NetEase Finance.

In 2009, NetEase began to get involved in the payment business and officially tested the financial field. Soon afterwards, driven by the wave of "Internet finance", in November 2013 alone, NetEase launched multiple businesses such as financial management, monetary funds, insurance, crowdfunding website Sanshi, robo-advisory, and cash treasure.

NetEase Finance began to create its own "legend" by relying on its huge traffic effect and the group's assistance and coordination in terms of capital and technology. Data show that in 2015, NetEase's auto insurance sales totaled 696 million yuan, surpassing Taobao Insurance to become the No. 1 Internet auto insurance platform; as of November 2015, NetEase Financial Management's transaction volume had approached 25 billion; its payment product NetEase Bao had reached more than 2 million transactions per day, with an annual transaction volume of more than 40 billion. The development speed of NetEase Finance at that time can be described as rapid.

But unfortunately, the brilliance created by NetEase Finance, which is forward-looking, did not stay long. Since 2017, many of NetEase's financial businesses have entered the stock era with the industry along with the implementation and implementation of mutual financial regulatory policies. Many popular products have ceased services due to their inability to meet regulatory compliance, and NetEase Finance has also ushered in a "troubled period."

According to data, in September 2018, NetEase's Huirendai, a company held by NetEase, was overdue; on September 30, 2018, NetEase announced that the crowdfunding website "Sanshi" would cease services; on December 1, 2018, NetEase announced that its financial products would be offline; on March 15, 2019, NetEase Insurance would completely suspend services...

In this way, even though NetEase has created many brilliant achievements with its huge traffic effect, with the regulatory trend of the financial market,Strictly, NetEase's mainstream businesses such as insurance and financial management have been completely suspended one after another. The suspension of multiple main businesses also means that the financial business that NetEase has focused on developing in the past five years has been brought back to its original shape. According to NetEase's 2018 fourth quarter financial report, online games and e-commerce revenue alone accounted for 89.2% of NetEase's total revenue. Excluding advertising, which accounted for 3.8%, and innovative business, which accounted for 7.0%, NetEase Finance's revenue share can be said to be very small. It is not an exaggeration to describe the current situation of NetEase Finance as a financial dream.

The old Sina Finance

In the Internet era with the rapid rise of new business formats such as mobile payment and P2P, portals that are being squeezed by the market will naturally not miss any opportunity. Following giant companies such as Tencent and NetEase, Sina has also begun a journey of exploration in the financial industry.

In July 2013, Sina Pay, which obtained the license, used Weibo Wallet as an entry point and successively launched financial products such as financial management, insurance, crowdfunding, cash loans, stocks, and funds. In order to better manage and build its own financial kingdom, Sina launched an Internet financial platform called "Micro Wealth" in 2014, which covers gold investment, bills, physical repurchase and other projects.

With Sina Weibo’s natural advantage of 400 million daily active users, Wei Wealth, which has been online for only half a year, has delivered a satisfactory report card. Data shows that since its launch half a year ago, the total asset transaction volume of the Micro Wealth platform has been 1.115 billion yuan. In September of the same year, Micro Wealth reached a new high, achieving a maximum monthly transaction volume of 390 million, and setting a new industry record by selling out a single product in 12.8 seconds. It has to be said that the good results created by Micro Wealth in a short period of time have not only added a lot of luster to Sina's financial layout, but also greatly improved its status in the hearts of Sina Finance.

At the same time, Sina takes advantage of its huge user traffic to inject large amounts of capital into technology companies such as Pintec, combining the advantages of channels and technology to reshape and expand the territory of Sina Finance.

However, it should be noted that there are two major hidden dangers in Sina's financial layout strategy. On the one hand, Sina Finance, which has a rich variety of financial products but lacks a license, has to take the risk of amplifying uncontrollable risks and cooperate with relevant licensed companies to achieve the purpose of selling financial products in order to carry out these businesses. This is a major reason why Sina was involved in the thunderstorms of P2P platforms such as Tang Xiaoseng and Wharton Financial Services last year.

On the other hand, Sina Finance relies too much on the help of Weibo, and it may be difficult to "wean off" in the future. It is reported that the entrances to Sina’s online financial management, insurance, crowdfunding, stocks and other services are mainly Weibo wallets. Sina Finance, which relies heavily on Weibo, is actually squeezing Sina's revenue. According to Sina's third-quarter financial report, one of the main reasons for the year-on-year decline in non-advertising revenue is the lackluster performance of Sina's financial technology business.

Sohu Finance with broken arm

As for its entry into the financial industry, Sohu seems to be adopting the strategy of "if the enemy doesn't move, I won't move; if the enemy moves, I will move again". The three major competitors, including Tencent, NetEase, and Sina, have been involved in the financial market for a long time. In 2014, Sohu followed the craze of Internet finance and entered the financial market camp.

In April 2014, Sohu established its online lending company Souyidai, and in September of the same year, Sohu Finance was officially launched. Even though Sohu entered the financial industry relatively late, it relied on the traffic effect of the portal, funds, refined user positioning and support to serve the common people.With the technological advantages of big data and cloud computing built by the company, it took just over two years for NetEase Dai to begin to emerge as a leader in the market. Data show that as of December 2016, the cumulative transaction volume of Soidai exceeded 20 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 100%. It was selected into the top ten fastest-growing P2P platforms together with Lufax and Yirendai.

After more than two years of practice and deep cultivation in the financial market, Sohu's Soyidai has gradually been accepted by the market through building its own risk control system and introducing financial technology. In order to build on its success, it began to expand its presence in the financial market in 2017. In January 2017, Sohu upgraded Sohu Yidai to "Fox Finance", expanded the scope of its financial business to include consumer finance, Internet financial management, financial leasing, etc., and began to build its own financial ecosystem.

Sohu’s move to vigorously strengthen Sohu Yidai is actually a concrete manifestation of the success of Sohu Financial’s arm. According to the data, Sohu’s Soyidai and Ant Financial were among the “Top 100 Most Competitive Financial Technology Companies in China in 2018”. The good results obtained by Soyidai have given Sohu Financial great confidence. Even though it does not have many financial licenses, it still chooses to take risks and build another arm.

In May 2017, Sogou, a subsidiary of Sohu, officially launched its cash loan business using the "Yidian Borrowing" APP as an entry point. Sogou, which has natural advantages such as 500 million user traffic and technology, was preparing to flex its muscles in the financial world, but was hit by reality.

In December 2017, relevant departments issued the "Notice on Regulating and Rectifying the "Cash Loan" Business", which clearly stipulates that no organization or individual is allowed to operate the loan business without obtaining the qualifications to operate the loan business in accordance with the law. Sogou Finance, which was born at the wrong time, was unable to meet compliance requirements due to the lack of a license and was unable to continue operating. It had to choose to suspend the development of financial business and chose silence at the end of 2017.

Unwilling to give up, Sogou Finance once again launched a new cash loan business "Yidian Installment" APP in the second quarter of last year after obtaining the license. With the efforts of Sogou, Yidianfenshu has made a good start. As of September 30 this year, the outstanding balance of Sogou’s Internet financial platform was approximately 235 million yuan.

Unfortunately, Sogou was too eager for success. The annualized interest rate was as high as 76%, and complaints and other bad information flooded in. Under pressure from compliance and service, Sogou once again closed its installment business in December last year. It is reported that this is Sogou's only financial business. Sogou, as the main revenue driver of Sohu, cannot help Sohu Financial. Sohu Financial’s future expansion must not be easy, and the failure of Sogou Financial’s business also means that Sohu Financial has become an embarrassing disciple with a broken arm.

Behind the successive scams of giants: the beginning of the fading of the traffic effect

The reason why the four major portals actively deploy financial services is not only to build a diversified ecosystem for enterprises, but also to realize traffic monetization and alleviate the aging of enterprises amid the anxiety of traffic capping. Although they have achieved good results in the process of practicing financial business, each of them has left deep or shallow scars.

At its root, it can be seen that most of the financial businesses of the four major portals are dominated by the sale of other products, and more of them play the role of "third parties", relying on the excellent brand effects of giant companies.Other financial institutions conduct diversion and play an "endorsement" role. As for the control of risk factors such as product compliance and risk control, it is difficult for the four major portals to control it. Therefore, as the industry undergoes compliance rectification, the financial businesses of the four major portals will inevitably be affected.

On the other hand, when the four major portals began to grow, they were more in a relatively free financial market environment. However, with the growth of wild growth platforms in the industry, the financial industry not only brought convenience to the market, but also caused certain social harm. Licensing, leverage and other rectification conditions have emerged one after another. Popular businesses such as cash loans and consumer loans have begun to be handcuffed by supervision, and many platform businesses have also begun to suffer.

Of course, it would be unreasonable to attribute the successive losses to the financial businesses of major giants to changes in the financial market environment. After all, the rise of the financial businesses of the four major portals is partly due to the flow effect. Today, the financial services of the four major portals are being hindered one after another, which is related to the tightening of supervision, but it is also inseparable from the fact that the key to traffic is being oxidized.

First of all, it is an indisputable fact that Internet companies have entered the era of traffic capping or traffic loss. On the basis that traffic is difficult to increase and traffic has been repeatedly developed and utilized by companies for diversified construction, even if companies have huge amounts of traffic and can maintain a relatively stable state, it is difficult to induce traffic reactions and lead to explosive growth in product sales.

Secondly, the tightening of supervision is essentially a secondary screening of traffic users. The particularity of the financial industry means that the handling of this business needs to consider the borrower's credit report, assets, liabilities, fund usage, repayment source, repayment cycle and other factors. Especially in recent years, the supervision of the financial industry has become stricter, and the threshold that users need to cross to handle financial services is getting higher and higher. Correspondingly, companies that need to develop in compliance with regulations will have fewer and fewer users. It can be said that the flow effect of gradual dissipation is interfering with the development pace of enterprises' financial business.

In general, the reason why the financial businesses of the "four major portals" are successively "successful" is the necessary output price for the compliance development of the financial industry in the era of strict supervision. It is also a partial epitome of the decline of the traffic effect of Internet companies in the era of peak traffic. This also indicates that the importance of traffic is moving from the first step to the second step, and the competition of technology, compliance, risk control and other operational management is becoming more and more important.

(Source: Lianxiang Finance)