Business Quick Review | Tmall Genie launches “Girlfriend Phone” to save itself by copying others’ ideas?
2024-08-07
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Cover News reporter Meng Mei
According to the Tmall Genie Weibo post on August 5, Tmall Genie released the high-end AI hardware brand "Wow" and launched the first "Wow Girlfriend Phone".
The girlfriend phone is also called the "free screen". Simply put, it is a large, movable tablet computer with a stand. Unlike traditional tablets, the girlfriend phone has a rotatable stand and is usually larger than 27 inches in size, with a larger screen for clearer viewing. It can be used not only as a mobile TV for office and movie watching, but also as an "AI personal trainer" for fitness, a "song request station" for home KTV, a somatosensory game console, an art gallery, etc. It "has multiple roles".
According to the public parameters, the "Wow Girlfriend Phone" is equipped with a 4K eye-protection screen and is available in three versions: 8GB+128GB, 8GB+256GB, and Zhou Shen customized version (8GB+256GB), with a starting price of 4,999 yuan.
With such configuration and price, what kind of game is Tmall Genie planning?
Let’s first look at a set of data.
According to the latest market research report, in the first half of 2024, domestic smart speaker sales reached 8.055 million units, with sales of 2.17 billion yuan, down 29.8% and 33.8% year-on-year respectively.
In terms of monthly sales, the average monthly sales of smart speakers in the first half of this year was 1.3425 million units, lower than the average monthly sales of 1.913 million units in the same period of 2023. Affected by the Spring Festival, the sales in February this year fell the most, reaching 41%, and the sales in other months also fluctuated around 30%. Despite the 618 mid-year promotion in June, this still failed to curb the sluggishness of the smart speaker market, which fell by 29%.
In fact, looking at the data of the past three years, China's smart speaker market is sluggish, with sales falling by 20% to 30% in almost every quarter compared with the same period. China's smart speaker market has been in a recession for 13 consecutive quarters, and there is still a risk of an intensified downward trend this year.
In terms of brands, the smart speaker market is still dominated by three giants: Xiaomi, Baidu, and Tmall Genie. In the first half of this year, the sales shares of the three companies were 41%, 35%, and 19%, respectively, accounting for 95% of the total sales. The decline in the shares of Baidu and Tmall Genie was mainly due to the decline in sales of entry-level products and smart speakers with screens.
For this reason, as early as March 2023, Xiaodu launched the Tiantian Girlfriend Phone. This product is called a "walking" all-round super-large tablet, equipped with a 27-inch LG original In-cell touch high-definition paper-like screen, the screen supports multiple height/angle adjustments, etc. According to data released by the brand, the Tiantian Girlfriend Phone has exceeded 100 million yuan in sales in the two months since its launch. The average daily usage time of its first batch of users is as long as 245 minutes, and the average daily active proportion of users reaches 78%.
The latest data shows that one week after the 618 sale started, the overall sales of girlfriend phones from major brands such as Tiantian, KTC, and Dangbei on Tmall increased by 350% year-on-year, and they were all "hot sellers"! Among them, Tiantian and KTC's sales both exceeded 10 million, ranking fifth and sixth on Tmall's 3C digital ranking "tablet computer" hot-selling list. The sales of other major brands also exceeded 1 million, becoming Tmall's 618 dark horse categories.
The hot sales of girlfriend phones among young people have also given Tmall Genie, which has been on the sidelines, an opportunity. After the 618 shopping festival, according to a Tmall official, the top five brands of girlfriend phones currently on sale on Tmall are Tiantian, KTC, Dangbei, Tanlepai, and Yilekan. Currently, there are not many brands in the market, which is a blue ocean market.
In addition to the top 5 brands, many other businesses have also begun to enter the market at an accelerated pace, including many businesses that previously focused on monitors, and have begun to switch to selling girlfriend phones. According to industry insiders, there is currently a large room for growth in girlfriend phones, and the industry market is expected to reach 1 billion this year.
As the popularity of the category grows, the number of players in China's girlfriend phone market continues to increase. From the second quarter to the third quarter of 2023, in just three months, the number of brands on sale in China's mobile smart screen market increased by 8, and now there are 18.
The ever-changing market also places higher demands on manufacturers. So where should new and old players go?
With the changes in the communication and marketing environments, the current consumer environment tends to be more transparent. When consumers buy electronic products, they can learn about relevant knowledge through a variety of content such as technology popularization, product reviews, and short video recommendations. The previously obscure product performance and technical parameters can no longer be a cognitive barrier. In an era when the understanding of product performance and technical parameters is gradually deepening, new and old players in the field of girlfriend phones should understand that the focus at this stage is to see and strive to meet consumers' expectations for high-quality products, rather than waiting for users to be educated by the head brands and then harvest the market and do a "one-time deal."
In a nutshell, improving the product quality-price ratio is the key to winning the girlfriend phone market. In the field of smart speakers, it is an indisputable fact that Tmall Genie lost to Xiaoai and Xiaodu. Now, it is hard to say whether "Wow" can make a comeback, after all, the leading brands of "girlfriend phones" have firmly established themselves in the market. Following the trend may seem like a trick, but it is actually more difficult. The price of "Wow" is 4999 yuan and the conventional configuration are hard to attract attention.
The future of Tmall Genie is still unclear.
