Recently, a "big event" happened in hifi circle. Japan's 76 year old hifi factory anqiao was insolvent and submitted a bankruptcy application to the court. Speaking of anqiao, in fact, it is not a strange brand for hifi enthusiasts and mass audio-visual lovers.
I don't like Japanese audio brands, but an anqiao CD player in my family has been in use since I was born. Except that the speaker cover is dirty, this anqiao CD player and its paired speaker have never been repaired and are in excellent condition.
Anqiao CD player at home has been eating ash for a long time. Source: pinplay lzh photo
Although the family was not hifi enthusiasts, they still chose anqiao stereo, which was enough to see its influence at that time.
Founded in 1946, it is a well-known audio brand with power amplifier, speaker, turntable and home theater brands, and even its vision is the same
"Anqiao firmly believes that the whole world should have felt the charm of high-quality music, movies and games more easily, and anqiao cannot stop moving forward until all the souls in the world are touched." This kind of "slogan" with "energy"
Why did you file for bankruptcy "suddenly"
Is it that you don't follow the trend and stay complacent? Or is it affected by the external environment?
For this traditional sound brand, the effect of 1 + 1 is often greater than 2.
From "first" to "fade out of view"
If you can't adapt to the changes of the times, you will be eliminated by the times
This sentence is not suitable for anqiao. It is accurate to use "if you can't keep up with the changes of the times at any time, you will be eliminated by the times"
Since the brand of anqiao was separated from Panasonic, it is not difficult to see that the audio products they launched in the 1940s-1990s closely followed the trend at that time. It is not too much to describe it as "apple" leading the development of "home audio" at that time.
No matter in 1966, when integrated sound was popular, anqiao quickly led the split trend with its compact and freely movable ST - 55 desktop split stereo speaker; Also in 1970, anqiao took the lead in adopting 90% of the new technology in the preamplifier system, which was the best in the large system at that time. In the 1970s and 1990s, the development made anqiao like a rocket and created many first achievements, such as the world's first high-speed dubbing double card recorder released in 1981, the world's first CD player with optical fiber data transmission function in 1985, the world's first thx certified home theater power amplifier in 1993, the first 7.1-channel thx surround ex home theater power amplifier in the millennium, and so on.
Anqiao has many product categories, but it is not specialized. Source: from Baidu Encyclopedia
By the end of the 1990s, the development of anqiao was smooth. With excellent workmanship, various new technologies and excellent sound performance, as well as products in various price segments, anqiao soon became a well-known brand in Japan and became the largest audio manufacturer in Japan.
In 2000, that is, after the millennium, anqiao obviously stopped its product iteration. In fact, at this time, anqiao's focus has shifted from the traditional sound field, such as stereo speakers and power amplifiers, to the home theater.
However, he only insists on his own way and doesn't notice that he is "facing the great enemy". In the final analysis, he can't get rid of anqiao's "arrogance"
Apple iTunes and supporting iPod products were born, which directly changed everyone's listening habits. At this time, it has actually affected the traditional hifi field. However, anqiao did not pay attention to the brand that may change its own destiny in the future like Sony, which is similar to that Nokia did not pay attention to it at that time.
Compared with the "convenience" of Apple iPod and other products that only need to download songs from the computer and store them in a small portable machine anytime and anywhere, the way of using speakers to listen to CDs like anqiao, which needs to buy CDs in offline physical stores and then put them into the CD player, is obviously "backward".
IPod classic source: Wang Boyuan
Sony "torpedo" MP3 player source: from the network
Apple and Sony did not carry out the internal transformation of the company according to the "portable" wind vane at that time, betting on the more niche field of home theater, and the "pace" of subsequent product launch was obviously "passive", not to mention the rash launch of 3D home theater power amplifier, an expensive and narrow adaptive audio-visual system when 3D technology was not mature in 2010, which paved the way for itself to "turn from prosperity to decline".
Later, anqiao realized that it was too late to "reverse" the situation when everyone's way of listening to songs changed. By 2019, anqiao will basically fade out of people's vision.
Who helped anqiao decline
Self "death" or its main cause.
The first reason is the confusion of product pricing and positioning
Anqiao is "not the life of hifi, but the disease of hifi". Since its establishment, this brand is not a pure hifi brand in a strict sense. From the perspective of their home speaker power amplifier combination package, in fact, it can only be regarded as a "popular" speaker brand and a brand of integrated solutions at best, but they are comparable to the "pure hifi" brand in terms of pricing, St-55 desktop split stereo speakers sold for 500 yen at that time, far exceeding Japan's per capita income of 300 yen at that time.
At that time, there were few brands that people could choose, and they could only buy anqiao products at a high price. At the beginning of the establishment of the brand, they said that "buying anqiao's luxury electronic products will always make you proud to invite friends to your home to share the highlights."
Anqiao is really a "tearful sale" now. Source: Alibaba
After that, both speakers and power amplifiers continued to have high pricing. In the eyes of outsiders, this seems to be a "high-end" brand, but with many competitors around in the late 1990s, such as foreign hifi manufacturers such as Sony, Yamaha, domestic Shanling and Kaiyin, anqiao's products suddenly become "civilians", and you can buy a speaker and power amplifier set for thousands of yuan.
This is clearly contrary to "luxury Electronics".
After that, it was impossible for anqiao to compete with Sony and apple through cmx1 "player" mobile phones.
First of all, this is a mobile phone, but in order to improve the sound quality, independent decoding and independent circuit design are added, which makes the fuselage too thick. In addition, the battery life has become a problem. In addition, it needs to copy songs from the computer and does not support WiFi transmission. This "anti-human" operation directly affects the experience. Of course, there are problems such as Android system optimization and bottom noise.
Photo source: pinplay Lu photo
Want to let more people use the "Volkswagen" mobile phone products, but maintain the volume and weight of the player. This "Twist Bar" design and the selling price of up to 6K yuan also eventually lead to an extremely niche product.
For mass consumers, they can choose more brands and have more advantages in price; For hifi players, because their positioning is still a long way from "pure hifi", the number of audio products released has decreased sharply and the reputation in the audio circle has fluctuated.
Both put anqiao in an embarrassing situation that can neither attract new consumers nor be liked by hifi players.
The second is blind acquisition and blind sale
As I said earlier, apple and Sony have changed the way we listen to music. When all hifi brands are actively transforming to embrace streaming media, release portable headphones and players, and strive to save their lives in this "cleaning".
Anqiao made an amazing move.
The acquisition of the audio equipment division of pioneer company in Japan hopes to save the declining business through higher product R & D capability and profits close to "violence"
This is a "pattern" problem. When the home theater and hifi audio belong to the "declining West Mountain" industry, they also blindly make acquisitions without looking at the changes in the general environment. In the end, in addition to the additional debt of once again, it does not help the steering at all.
Anqiao is insolvent source: Network
At this time, anqiao actually "panicked" and thought of selling assets, which is also the way for large companies to stabilize cash flow so as to make the company operate normally. However, when selling the home video business to sound united, the acquisition plan was cancelled. I thought:
The plan of "the company is willing to accept OEM production after selling its home video and audio business and strive to achieve a certain degree of growth" has also been watered down.
After that, in fact, anqiao announced a plan to issue new shares to raise 4.6 billion yen in July 2020 through Evo fund, an investment fund in the British Cayman Islands.
Subsequently, anqiao raised 6.2 billion yen by issuing special shares to avoid touching the delisting standard. However, because Evo fund took the lead in refusing to exercise the subscription right, anqiao finally raised only 1.2 billion yen and had to delist.
Next, anqiao can only "cut its arms and survive": sell the home video business to sharp and American audio equipment company Voxx, and sell the headphones and headphones business to the investment fund.
Finally, the way of entertainment has changed
Apple launches iPhone On the surface, such a large screen device has changed the way people use mobile phones. In fact, it has changed people's "entertainment" way. With the progress of science and technology and the maturity of hardware technology, users' entertainment mode and entertainment environment have changed.
In short, moving from the indoor fixed scene to "any location", without being stuck in the fixed environment and fixed equipment, you can get the same experience as the home speaker through the "space audio" technology. In addition, with more convenient access to audio, video and multimedia, the advantages of anqiao brand products that only exist in fixed places disappear.
As one of my former friends said, "there are too many ways of entertainment now. For the public, they are pursuing more convenient and low-cost ways."
As for TWS, is this portable audio product a blow to the traditional audio industry?
These are completely two consumer groups. TWS is more like a blue ocean created independently, while the traditional audio industry itself is a red ocean, and the two fields can't stand it at all.
For traditional sound systems, the emergence and popularity of various "wireless" high fidelity speakers and TV sound bar may be one of the last "thrust" to "overwhelm" such products.
The next "increment" of traditional audio may be the wireless audio system source: KEF official website
In the final analysis, to sum up: adults, the times have changed.