Recently, a piece of news about "Tencent's withdrawal from smart TV manufacturer Micro Whale Technology" has brought Micro Whale TV back into the public eye. The reporter noticed that , an Internet TV company that was once as famous as LeTV and Baofeng, Micro Whale Technology Co., Ltd. recently underwent industrial and commercial changes, and Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. withdrew from the ranks of shareholders. Before exited, Tencent invested 190 million yuan and became the fourth largest shareholder.
It is understood that the number of employees of Micro Whale Technology once exceeded 700. However, according to its 2022 corporate annual report, there are only 3 employees of Micro Whale Technology. Two years ago, there were only 4 employees of Micro Whale Technology in 2020. According to information disclosed by , the currently disclosed employees of Micro Whale include executive director Lu Jinrong and supervisor Yu Lingjie. It is not yet known who the third employee of Micro Whale is.
According to public information, Micro Whale Technology was founded in 2015, controlled by Chinese Culture, and co-founded by Li Ruigang and Li Huaiyu. In the early days of its establishment, it started from the perspective of content, focusing on Internet TV and content-subsidized hardware models. It caught up with the upsurge of smart Internet-based TVs and became successful for a while. was only established for one year, and in 2016 it attracted a 2 billion yuan investment in , including Chinese Culture Co., Ltd. (39% shareholding, the largest shareholder), Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. (holding 31.5% of the shares, the second largest shareholder), Suzhou Industrial Park Zimao Information Consulting Co., Ltd. (holding 20% of the shares, the third largest shareholder), Linzhi Tencent Technology Co., Ltd. (holding 9.5% of the shares, the fourth largest shareholder).
Micro Whale Technology was once very popular. In the era when Internet TV became popular, once ranked second in the Internet TV market, second only to LeTV . Micro Whale Technology has already played with the concept of "Metaverse" that is just getting popular now. In 2017, it launched the first generation VR all-in-one machine Micro Whale x1. The projector market has also become popular in recent years, and MicroWhale Technology also launched related products as early as 2018.
In terms of content, Li Ruigang, one of the founders of Micro Whale Technology, is a big boss in the media and cultural circle. He has served as chairman and CEO of CMC Capital, Chinese Culture Group Company, non-executive director of Station B, and Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Holdings Co., Ltd. Chairman of the board of directors and non-executive director, vice chairman of the board of directors and non-executive director of tvb. Against the background of a series of dazzling film and television groups, Micro Whale Technology has also cooperated with Warner Times, TVB, IMAX, Sports and Sports Dynamics, etc., and won animations including "Kung Fu Panda", "How to Train Your Dragon", a large number of TVB Hong Kong dramas, "China "Good Voice", "Chinese Good Songs", ball games, boxing live broadcasts and other copyrights, and even invested in the production of a movie version of "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City".
But what is unexpected is that Micro Whale Technology has a good hand but plays badly. It is worth noting that the advantage of Internet TV lies in its low price. Micro Whale initially developed the market through the model of low-priced hardware sales + content subsidies. However, the TV market declined rapidly in 2017, and Micro Whale Technology was affected by market fluctuations. In order to save itself, Micro Whale Technology began to cancel price subsidies and no longer participate in price wars.
The following year in 2018, Micro Whale Technology announced a reorganization, re-entered the field of intelligent hardware, and launched intelligent projection products. So far, Micro Whale has formed a whole-home entertainment front including a multi-product line smart terminal matrix (TV, micro-projector, VR helmet, smart audio, smart home), smart TV software system, and self-produced programs produced by Micro Whale.
But the situation has not improved. Starting in 2018, suppliers successively broke the news that Micro Whale Technology has defaulted on its payments for a long time. Although MicroWhale quickly denied this statement at the time, saying that it was still within the repayment period and there was no such thing as arrears. However, this rumor, coupled with the suspension of research and development and production of TV products, also affected consumer confidence in them.
In recent years, Micro Whale Technology has gradually faded out of the market, and its official flagship stores on JD.com, Tmall and other platforms have disappeared. The reporter noticed that the current update content of the official website of Micro Whale Technology is only in 2018, while the updates of the official Weibo of Micro Whale and Micro Whale Projection are in 2020.Although the official WeChat public account still has content updates, currently the updated content of the Micro Whale TV public account no longer contains relevant hardware products, and is replaced by super film and television VIP content.
However, it is worth mentioning that although Li Ruigang, one of the founders of Micro Whale Technology, withdrew from the position of director and legal representative as early as 2021, the current legal representative and chairman of Micro Whale Technology is Lu Jinrong. According to Tianyancha app information , which is affiliated to the Chinese Culture Group. Currently disclosed MicroWhale employees include executive director Lu Jinrong and supervisor Yu Lingjie. Both of the above-mentioned people belong to the Chinese Culture Group.
reporters noticed that Linzhi Tencent Technology Co., Ltd. previously transferred its shares to Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. in November 2023. A month later, Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Co., Ltd. continued to "beat the drum and pass the flowers" and transferred the shares to WeChat. Shanghai Microscope Technology Co., Ltd., the second largest shareholder of Jingyuan (in January 2023, Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. withdrew and transferred its shares to the new shareholder Shanghai Microscope Technology Co., Ltd.), so Shanghai Microscope Vision Technology Co., Ltd. became the largest shareholder of MicroWhale (holding 41% of the shares).
Since Tencent's withdrawal, there are currently "only" three shareholders left in Micro Whale (Shanghai Micro-View Technology Co., Ltd., Chinese Culture Co., Ltd., and Suzhou Industrial Park Zimao Information Consulting Co., Ltd.) . However, the reporter noticed that the remaining The shareholders are all Chinese Culture Group. For example, Lu Jinrong, the executive director of Micro Whale, is also the executive director of Shanghai Micro Vision Technology Co., Ltd. and Suzhou Industrial Park Zimao Information Consulting Co., Ltd. This may mean that Li Ruigang is still the actual controller of Micro Whale Technology.
It is worth mentioning that Micro Whale also made external investments in 2023 - in May 2023, Micro Whale subscribed for 22.65 million yuan and invested in Shanghai Shiyun Network Technology Co., Ltd., and is now the fourth largest shareholder of the latter. Bestcom and Lenovo are also shareholders of Shanghai Shiyun Network Technology Co., Ltd. Shiyun Network was previously most well-known for TV Cat Video (Moretv), a live TV software. However, as the State Administration of Radio and Television jointly implemented multi-department plans to regulate TV "matryoshka" charges last year, the official Weibo has stopped updating.
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