Since cloud computing was proposed in 2006, it has roughly experienced the formation stage, development stage and application stage. The past decade has been a decade of rapid development of cloud computing. The scale of the global cloud computing market has increased several times. China's cloud computing market has increased from the initial one billion to the current one hundred billion. Governments around the world have formulated and launched the "cloud first" strategy. China's cloud computing policy environment is becoming more and more perfect, and cloud computing technology is constantly developing and mature, Relevant applications are accelerating their penetration from the Internet industry to traditional industries.

Based on this background, large and small companies in the industry once "a hundred schools of thought contend". With several rounds of "cleaning", many small companies began to have unspeakable advantages and went out one after another.

Ucloud, known as "the first stock of cloud computing in China", is not comfortable now. Recently, Ucloud Technology Co., Ltd. (Code: 688158. Sh, hereinafter referred to as Ucloud) released the semi annual performance report of 2021, and suffered huge losses again. The report shows that in the first half of 2021, the company achieved an operating revenue of 1.506 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65.20%, a net loss of 312 million yuan and a year-on-year increase of 305.46%.

In fact, Ucloud also said that "it is expected that the accumulated net profit from the beginning of the year to the end of the next reporting period may be a loss". So I can't help wondering, what has Youke experienced from the "first share" to such a tired performance and outlook?

Scenery no longer: double troubles of profits and accounts receivable

Ucloud was established on March 16, 2012. Ji Xinhua, the current general manager, is mainly engaged in cloud computing services that are independently developed and provide basic IT products necessary for enterprises such as computing, storage and network. On January 20, 2020, ucloud Youke was officially listed on the science and Innovation Board of Shanghai Stock Exchange, becoming the first share of cloud computing in China and the first listed company with the same shares and different rights in China's A-share market.

For Ucloud, because it is the first company among small and medium-sized cloud manufacturers to land in the capital market, it was favored by capital at the beginning of listing, and its market value once exceeded 50 billion, setting off a wave of capital gambling feast. It is worth mentioning that before landing in the capital market, Ucloud made a profit of more than 70 million for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018. At that time, it was once regarded as a dark horse in the cloud service market.

Unfortunately, the net profit of Ucloud's first annual report after landing in the capital market began to decline sharply and gradually fell into a loss dilemma. According to its annual report disclosed in 2019, the annual net profit decreased by 72.56% year-on-year to 21.19 million yuan, and the deduction of non net profit decreased by 87% year-on-year to 9.98 million yuan. After entering 2020, it is a direct loss, and the amount of loss continues to expand.

It is reported that in 2020, the company achieved an operating revenue of 2.455 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.06%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was -343 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1717.5%; The net profit attributable to the parent company after deduction was -369 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3802.44%.

The light dissipated, and the depressed performance also led to the "collapse" of its price in the capital market. Compared with the enthusiasm at the beginning of listing, its market value is only 15.9 billion yuan, a decrease of more than 31 billion yuan from the historical high, a decrease of up to 70%.

Data source: semi annual report of Ucloud from 2019 to 2021

In addition, the daily financial report found that the ratio of accounts receivable of Ucloud to operating revenue continued to grow. According to the semi annual report data of the last three periods, the ratio of accounts receivable to operating revenue was 33.29%, 35.88% and 39.95% respectively, with continuous growth. The turnover rates of accounts receivable are 3.42%, 3.11% and 2.74% respectively, which shows that the turnover capacity of accounts receivable is tired.

Group reduction: strategic partners and executives are abandoned

After Ucloud's performance lost and its share price fell sharply, its shares began to be reduced on a large scale.

According to the announcement of Ucloud on July 13, the company was approved to issue 58.5 million RMB common shares (A shares) for the first time and was listed on the science and Innovation Board of Shanghai Stock Exchange on January 20, 2020. After the completion of the company's initial public offering, the total share capital of the company is about 422 million shares, including about 43.73 million shares with unlimited conditions and about 378 million shares with limited conditions.

The restricted shares listed and circulated this time are the strategic placement restricted shares of the company's initial public offering. The lock-in period is 18 months from the date of listing of the company's shares. The number of shareholders involved in the restricted shares is 2, and the corresponding number of shares is about 5.83 million, accounting for 1.3804% of the company's total share capital.

From the content disclosed in the announcement, the two strategic partners before the listing of the company conducted a top reduction after the release of restricted shares.

Moreover, the daily financial report also found that before that, some shareholders had reduced their holdings of the company's shares.

On May 12, 2021, the company disclosed the announcement on the share reduction plan of shareholders holding more than 5% of Ucloud Technology Co., Ltd. Junlian Boheng plans to reduce its total holdings of no more than 8.45 million shares of the company through block trading and inquiry transfer, that is, no more than 2% of the total share capital of the company. The reduction period is within 3 months after 3 trading days from the date of disclosure of this announcement. The reduction price shall be determined according to the market price.

In addition, in addition to the above strategic partners and shareholders, the first reduction was the company's executives. As of June 4, 2021, Ms. Zhou Keze, the senior executive, had reduced 320000 shares of the company through centralized bidding trading, accounting for 0.076% of the total share capital of the company. The reduction plan has been implemented.

Although the capital market often doesn't care much about the current financial data of an enterprise, it pays more attention to its future prospects. However, in terms of Ucloud's performance and shareholders' performance, the prospect is difficult to be optimistic.

The competition is fierce, and the story of Youke in the future is difficult to tell

According to the product division, the business of Ucloud is divided into three major businesses: public cloud, hybrid cloud and private cloud. Among them, the public cloud is a pillar business, with a revenue contribution of more than 70%.

In fact, the main reason for Youke's loss last year was that the revenue of public cloud business increased by 50%, but the cost increased by 100%. The main reason for the increase in cost is that the gross profit margin of the whole public cloud has decreased by 25%, which is also the largest decline among all products.

In terms of the overall market environment, according to the white paper on Cloud Computing (2021) issued by the Chinese Academy of communications and communications, the market scale of public cloud IAAs and PAAS in 2020 will be 89.5 billion yuan and 10.3 billion yuan respectively, and the Matthew effect will further expand in the cloud service market. Among them, Alibaba cloud, Huawei cloud, Tencent cloud and China Telecom rank among the top. Ucloud will achieve an operating revenue of 2.455 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for a relatively small proportion in the whole industry.

As major cloud computing manufacturers continue to increase their weight in the public cloud, the competition in market share among major cloud computing manufacturers in the industry will become more intense in the future, and Youke may even face the risk of declining market share.

It can be seen that the cloud service market under the control of giants will leave fewer and fewer opportunities for small and medium-sized cloud players. And the price war caused by the giants seizing the market is bound to lead to a further decline in the overall gross profit of the industry.

According to the daily financial report, the gross profit margins of Ucloud from 2016 to 2019 were 29.07%, 36.47%, 39.48% and 29.04% respectively. It will drop to 8.57% in 2020. By the first half of 2021, the company's gross profit margin will be only 3.75%, which has stabilized at the low level of the industry.

In short, at present, although Ucloud has become the first listed cloud computing company in China, its core products lack competitiveness and bargaining power, and founder Ji Xinhua should also size up the situation, increase its hematopoietic capacity and build a brand moat. Otherwise, with the gradual intensification of industry competition, it is difficult to ensure that it can occupy a place in the future.