At the beginning of January, Yien.com once reported that Amazon 3C sellers were laying off workers! One month has passed since the employee pulled the banner to ask for salary, but Black Shark Technology has not fulfilled its previous promise, and a large number of employees have not received the compensation in arrears.

Black Shark Technology CEO Weibo Comments Area Becomes a Large-scale Salary Discussion Site

Under the Weibo posted by Luo Yuzhou, CEO of Black Shark Technology on February 5, there are still many employees who are pursuing the arrears of compensation .

It is understood that Black Shark Technology will start layoffs in August 2022, and there will be about five rounds of layoffs before and after . Among them, the mobile phone department and the VR department have become the hardest hit areas for layoffs , and almost all of them will be laid off by the end of December 2022. Only the Internet business and basic functional departments currently retain more than 100 employees , and the number of layoffs in five rounds of layoffs accounted for as high as 80%.

According to employees of Black Shark Technology, the assets of Black Shark Technology have been sold and transferred, and the original office in Shanghai has been leased out .

Black Shark Technology Company sent a text message to some employees to mention that the resignation compensation cannot be paid in full according to the agreed amount for the time being, and will try to find a way to solve the funding problem in the future, and strive to pay the remaining resignation compensation as soon as possible.

It is understood that there are at least five or six hundred employees of Black Shark Technology who are owed compensation this time, and the total amount of compensation is about 70 million to 80 million yuan .

The resigned employee said that before resignation, Black Shark agreed with him to pay the compensation in six installments from January 10 to June 10 . On January 10, most of the resigned employees only received a payment of 2,000 yuan, and a few employees said they did not receive any compensation.

Now, approaching the payment date agreed on February 10, it is still unknown whether Black Shark Technology can make the payment as promised.

Black Shark Technology has been reduced from the No. 1 brand of gaming mobile phones to the executor

Once upon a time, Black Shark Technology was the number one brand of gaming mobile phones , but now it has been reduced to a field where a large number of layoffs, the company's lease withdrawal, and inability to pay compensation.

What is even more embarrassing is that Black Shark Technology has become the executor.

On January 28, 2023, the Tianyancha App showed that Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. has become the person subject to enforcement, with an enforcement target of 60,992 yuan , and the enforcement court is the People's Court of Nanchang Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Some people in the industry said that Black Shark Technology can't even get more than 60,000 yuan? How to pay high employee wage arrears and compensation?

According to the information of Tianyancha App , Nanchang Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. was established in August 2017 with a registered capital of about 73.08 million yuan. It is composed of Tianjin Jinxing Venture Capital Co., Ltd., Nanchang Jinkai Capital Management Co., Ltd. Limited Partnership) and Nanchang Yinzhong Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership) jointly hold shares.

Black Shark Technology Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in software development, research and development, production and sales of mobile phones, computers, communications and other electronic equipment; production and sales of earphones; production and sales of mobile power supplies, mobile phone accessories, backpacks, data cables; clothing, daily necessities, small accessories sales etc.

Moreover, Black Shark, a brand of Black Shark Technology, has also laid out overseas markets early. On the Amazon US site, Black Shark sells gaming phones, keyboards, headsets, mice and mouse pads, etc., and the number of ratings of many products exceeds 5,000.

However, the overseas business of Black Shark Technology does not seem to be affected by the layoffs and salary turmoil. At present, there are many "Black Shark" products on the Amazon platform that are still on sale .

As a representative brand of gaming phones, Black Shark Technology used to be very beautiful.

In April 2018 , Black Shark Technology released the first high-end gaming phone in China . With its innovative external handle, physical buttons, liquid cooling and other functions and designs , it was widely welcomed by consumers, and its sales volume reached hundreds of thousands of units.

By 2019, Black Shark Technology has become the leader in the gaming mobile phone market, with a market share of 47%, ranking first.

At the peak of development , Black Shark Technology accounted for more than 70% of the market share of gaming phones .

Subsequently, many mobile phone manufacturers also saw the business opportunities in the game phone market and began to launch e-sports mobile phones. Lenovo launched the Rescuer , ZTE launched the Red Devils, vivo launched iQOO , and realme also launched e-sports phones .

The competition in the gaming mobile phone market has become increasingly fierce, and the market share of Black Shark Technology has also begun to decline.

By the first quarter of 2021, the market share of Black Shark gaming phones has dropped to 13%.

As a result, Black Shark Technology began to focus on the Metaverse market, planning to shift its business focus from gaming phones to VR devices.

Applied for the registration of multiple trademarks related to the metaverse, including "黑黑象", "黑象酒宇", "Black Shark META", "Multiple Universe" and "Black Shark Multiverse", as well as "黑色AR /VR" and other related names.

At the beginning of 2022, there were media reports that Tencent planned to acquire Black Shark Technology, and the quotation was around 2.6-2.7 billion yuan. After the completion of this acquisition, Black Shark as a whole will be merged into the Platform and Content Business Group (PCG) led by Ren Yuxin .

In May 2022, relevant media reported that Tencent had abandoned the acquisition plan of Black Shark Technology .

According to 36 Krypton citing informed sources, part of the reason for the stranded acquisition is that the Black Shark mobile phone is the number one shipment of gaming mobile phone sub-categories, and there are suspicions of monopoly, so it has not been approved by the relevant departments.

At the same time, other media reported that Black Shark's actual research and development capabilities did not meet Tencent 's expectations in the process of trying to switch to VR .

However, Luo Yuzhou , CEO of Black Shark Technology , said to the outside world: "Tencent's acquisition of Black Shark Technology is nothing." At the same time, Luo Yuzhou also said that Black Shark Technology still has financing and acquisition related plans.

However, it is understood that Black Shark Technology has invested a lot of money in research and development of VR game equipment . Under the influence of various practical factors, Black Shark Technology has serious cash flow problems, and the road to seek financing has also failed.

Some employees of Black Shark Technology believe that Black Shark’s full-scale development of VR business in 2022 is a mistake in decision-making. After the investor gave up investment, the capital chain was broken, which caused the current situation that cannot be rescued.

When the tide goes out, someone is always stranded. Due to the fierce competition in the mobile phone market, especially the subdivided game mobile phone market, it will soon face the dilemma of disappearing industry dividends.

According to data from the research organization Whale Staff , the overall size of the game mobile phone market will shrink significantly in 2022 . From January to September 2022, the cumulative sales of game phones will be about 3.2 million, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 40%; the cumulative sales will be about 7.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 39%.

After the highlights of the game phone faded , Black Shark Technology tried to transform the VR and AR track. However, after the failure of financing, several rounds of layoffs were experienced, and the VR team was almost wiped out. After all, Black Shark Technology is still unsustainable and has fallen to the bottom.