Light's earnings soared, but it laid off 20% of its employees to prepare for future strategic transformation?

The third quarterly report released by Enlight Media shows that the company's operating income in the first three quarters was 1.187 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.79%, achieving a net profit of 580 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 216.55%. It can be said that its development situation is showing a significant upward trend. The proposal of large-scale layoffs at this time was completely unexpected.

In early September, news broke that Enlight Media would lay off 20% of its employees.

According to media reports, the layoff plan was announced by Li Xiaoping, vice president of Enlight Media, at an employee meeting. Enlight currently has more than 500 employees. A 20% layoff requires the layoff of more than 100 employees, including school admissions and interns.

Not long ago, Wang Changtian, president of Enlight Media, confirmed this news in an interview. He said: "Enlight must get rid of the shortcomings of overstaffing and overstaffing." It can be said that it has set off a big storm of layoffs, and it has also caused heated discussions. Is this layoffs squeezing out the corporate bubble or the future of employees?

Since its establishment in 1998, Enlight Media has become the largest private media and entertainment group in China after 17 years of development. Its main business involves TV program production and distribution, film investment, production, and publicity, TV drama investment and distribution, artist brokerage, new media Internet, games and many other fields. It can be said that we have always moved forward steadily and achieved great results.

In the three quarterly reports released by Enlight Media, the company's operating income in the first three quarters was 1.187 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.79%, and the net profit was 580 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 216.55%. It can be said that its development situation is showing a significant upward trend. The proposal of large-scale layoffs at this time was completely unexpected.

However, we can still find some reasons in Wang Changtian's previous interviews.

Survival of the fittest and prevent the film industry's winter in advance

. Wang Changtian said: "Light must get rid of the shortcomings of overstaffing and overstaffing." Indeed, if enterprises want to develop efficiently and rapidly, they must form a sound competition mechanism, and it is reasonable to eliminate employees who have done nothing or little.

From the perspective of the general environment, my film market is currently in a "turning point" period of cooling down. The large number of layoffs in Light is also closely related to the film market's beginning to fall into a downturn.

This year, Huayi and Wanda, the two giants, have made almost no other achievements during the summer except as producers of "Warcraft". In comparison, Light is arguably the biggest winner this year. Its "Mermaid" box office revenue was 3.39 billion yuan. During the summer break, the box office of "Big Fish Begonia" independently released by Light also exceeded 500 million yuan.

However, from the perspective of being prepared for danger in times of peace, although Inlight is currently in a good profitable position in the film industry, whether it is dealing with external mergers and acquisitions or future strategic transformation, Inlight needs to pay more attention to cash flow and costs like other film companies.

Insiders of the company also revealed: "Light will develop in the direction of producers in the future. The entire company is cultivating producers. If any employee cannot meet this system or is not suitable for this industry, he will also be laid off."

During the "turning point" period when China's films are returning to rationality, competition in China's film industry will continue to strengthen. This requires industry talents to concentrate on improving content production capabilities, enhance creative capabilities and imagination capabilities, and achieve deep processing of each project through type expansion. As a company, it will naturally be more strict in selecting talents.

Maybe everything is just as Wang Changtian said,"All layoffs are not good news in China. But for light, it is actually not negative. Talents need to survive the fittest in stages."

The decision-making mistake of First Kan.com laid the foundation for layoffs

. It is understood that among this layoffs, First Kan.com has the largest layoffs. Nearly 70% of employees were laid off. It is reported that the scale of more than 100 people before is now only more than 30 people left.

Wang Changtian also admitted that the company's management needs to bear part of the responsibility for the layoffs. The layoffs are to pay for some wrong decisions and judgments in the past, and are now adjustments after problems are discovered.

Xiankan.com was founded at the end of 2014 and was created by a joint venture between Light and 360. Wang Changtian once said that he would build Savan.com into "China's version of Netflix" and aspires to become the largest movie and video website in China, free of advertising on the site, and make profits through the membership payment model.

Under the "three-pronged" industry pattern at that time, it was not easy for the first website to occupy a place. Moreover, at that time, mainstream video websites such as iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Video were not widely involved in payment services. The membership payment model of Xiankan.com was not accepted by people at that time.

However, Light's "love affair" with 360 did not last long. Due to differences in concepts, Light and 360 announced their separation in November 2015, and 360 transferred its equity in First View to Light. After the withdrawal of the 360, Light also used a new team to independently develop new products, but everything came to an end.

An employee working at Xianguan.com told reporters: "Light itself does not have any Internet genes. Especially after 360 withdrew its investment, people engaged in operations still cannot adapt to the market rules of the Internet."

I have to say that the move to the Internet market did not allow the company to successfully transform, and the mistake in deciding to watch the Internet first seemed to have laid the foundation for the company to lay off employees.

The strategy shifts to the VR layout and injects fresh blood

. The VR strategy of light transformation has become a fixed trend. Wang Changtian said that "First View Network" will turn to VR platforms. Since the entire system of the First View website has been completed, if you move to VR content, the transformation cost is very low, and you only need to make a small amount of technical adjustments to assume the role of a VR platform.

At the same time as layoffs, Light has also recruited new people mainly targeting the distribution areas where Light has traditional strengths, as well as emerging businesses.

In the past two years, VR technology has attracted widespread attention. Once VR technology matures, it will bring human audio-visual experience to a new level. Leaders from all walks of life have also made strategic arrangements for this future technology. Microsoft, Facebook, and Samsung want to use it to change the world, and Tencent, Baidu, and LeTV have even entered the game with a high-profile profile. For this reason, no matter what field, VR will surely shine in the future.

In the film and television industry, VR will not simply be used as a supplement to online video in the future, but will have disruptive potential for the film and television industry in terms of both content and distribution. For this reason, for the film and television industry, it is wise to carry out VR strategic layout in advance.

I believe that Light must have made thorough considerations and certain technical preparations during this strategic transformation. As for the success of Light's transformation, it can only be left to time to witness.

Editor: yvette