Although office computers and mobile phones have become important production tools, business owners are responsible for the operation of the company, and the cost is paramount. Of course, they will pay more attention to cost performance-your computer is probably rented.
The IT equipment leasing industry started early and developed for more than 20 years, but it has always maintained a lower exposure frequency than other industries, and even some people in the industry complained that the industry was "unpopular".
This has a lot to do with the consumption concept of Chinese people. In some people's inherent impression, "leasing" is second-hand, the quality is unstable, and it needs to be repaired many times. It seems that companies with "not bad money" will not rent computers.
IT was not until recent years that IT equipment leasing was linked with the concepts of enjoyment, environmental protection and economy that the behavior of renting office computers was finally rehabilitated.
Recently, Bear U Rent, an IT office equipment operator, announced the completion of several hundred million yuan of D 1 round financing, which once again attracted the attention of this vertical track.
How to play in IT equipment leasing industry? How to balance heavy investment and slow return? What happened to this industry after the epidemic? Is this a "win-win" business? "Entrepreneurial Frontline" chatted with many people in the industry, trying to "unlock" the business of this unpopular industry.
1, where's used computers?
Generally speaking, the main business of IT equipment leasing is computer leasing service, and the supply of goods in used computers is the core of this business supply chain.
At present, some goods on the market come from second-hand products used by C-end individual customers.
If consumers want to sell used computers, they can evaluate the products through the recycling platforms of 3C products, such as Love Recycling and Exchange Recycling. , and complete the transaction directly online, and the products will be mailed directly to the operation center of the platform.
Another well-known distribution center for digital products is Zhongguancun in Beijing and Huaqiang North in Shenzhen. Behind the counter of every dilapidated building, there are businessmen who sell both new machines and second-hand recycling. However, most of these offline outlets have moved to the Internet, and opened stores in JD.COM, Taobao and Xianyu, and started their old businesses.
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But individual customers are just the tip of the iceberg in used computers.
"Most of the equipment rented by Little Bear U is new machines, and the supply mainly comes from manufacturers," Hu Zuoxiong, founder and CEO of Little Bear U, told Entrepreneurship Frontier. "In addition, our platform has established strategic cooperation with Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and other manufacturers, which has advantages in new machine procurement and second-hand mobile phone recycling." This also means that the IT leasing business needs to invest a lot of money to buy equipment in the early stage, which belongs to the business of "emphasizing assets and management".
Many interviewed IT equipment lessors also told Venture Frontline that JD.COM, as one of the largest 3C product trading platforms in China, is one of the main channels for them to purchase goods.
The rest of the supply comes from offline channels. "Part of the supply of second-hand equipment comes from overseas and enters the mainland market through Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong." Sun Weihe, the founder of Jianhe Leasing, told the pioneering frontier that he has been working in the IT equipment leasing industry for more than 20 years.
Most of these traditional channels are the purchase channels of small and medium-sized IT equipment lessors. This group is small in scale and is a "guerrilla" in the market.
Since the IT equipment leasing industry is "unpopular" and a business mainly based on asset operation, why are there still many players "flocking" to it?
As we all know, the essence of any business is to solve the demand, and the key to IT equipment leasing is to solve the difficulties of enterprises.
In addition to saving a lot of cash flow expenses in the early stage, it can also improve the flexibility of IT asset management, and the changes of team members can be adjusted in time without hoarding assets. Later equipment management and maintenance are also the responsibility of leasing service providers-IT equipment leasing has become one of the inevitable trends of enterprise asset management.
Take IT rental platform easy to rent as an example. The platform provides different brands, models and configurations of office notebooks. The monthly rent for a ThinkPad L490 is 80- 100 yuan. If a small startup rents 20 office computers, the monthly equipment expenditure is only 2000 yuan, even lower than the price of buying a new one.
"Lenovo computers are rented for at least half a year, and Apple computers are rented for one year." Entrepreneur Bai Lang (pseudonym) rents more than a dozen devices on a certain platform without paying a deposit. But if the contract does not end before the lease term, he needs to pay compensation, that is, the monthly rent for the rest of the time.
Another mode of purchasing by rent is also very popular. A renter on Idle Fish revealed to Venture Frontline that every computer has a buyout price, and the average office cost is basically 2,000-3,000 yuan. "The company can start from the second month of the lease and deduct the final buyout fee. The longer the lease period, the lower the final buyout price. " This operation is similar to installment payment, and the end user can get the right to dispose of the computer without returning the equipment to the lessor.
2. How to rent a house?
So how do second-hand equipment renters play?
Sun Weihe calculated an account for Pioneer. Generally, after the new machine opens the packaging system and runs normally, the computer value loses 30%, which belongs to "unpacking depreciation". After one year of use, the "residual value" of the computer is basically around 50%.
"Suppose you spend 3,000 yuan on a piece of equipment," Hu Zuoxiong said. "The annual depreciation of 1 ,000 yuan is relatively large for an it office equipment operator like Little Bear U Rent."
And if the rent of a machine is less than 100 yuan per month, can the lessor recover the cost?
The rental price also depends on the depreciation rate of second-hand equipment. "In the first year of leasing, I will charge the enterprise 60% of the equipment value, so that I can basically make ends meet." I will charge 30% for the second year and the third year respectively. "After three years, I will charge 1.2 times the equipment procurement cost to pay for labor and operation costs." Sun Weihe also revealed that after recovering the computer, the residual value of the equipment will remain 30%.
Hu Zuoxiong said that the cost recovery cycle of IT office equipment leasing industry is positively related to the purchase price and operation ability of IT office equipment. "After establishing cooperation with e-commerce platforms and equipment manufacturers, the purchase volume of one computer may reach 65,438+10,000 units, which will be much cheaper in terms of purchase price."
However, with the general decline in the cost of IT equipment, the cost of the equipment lessor has also shifted to other links. In Sun Weihe's view, the platform also needs to bear personnel costs and promotion costs, and the pressure is not small. "In the past, a computer sold for 5,000 yuan, and the labor salary was only 2,000 yuan. Now it's just the opposite-the price of computers has dropped, but the cost of personnel has become higher and higher. "
For corporate customers, price doesn't seem to be the key factor they consider.
"In fact, the IT office equipment leasing industry is still in the education market stage," Hu Zuoxiong believes. "What customers care about is not which equipment is cheaper to rent, but which one is more cost-effective and more operable than renting a new machine." Enterprises pay more attention to service and brand.
However, equipment leasing seems simple. From the perspective of the whole industrial chain of IT equipment operation, there are also links such as recycling, sales, technical services and asset management.
In Hu Zuoxiong's view, IT office equipment operation is obviously an industry that emphasizes assets and operations. "Even if you burn the money to the customer and rent out the equipment, if the equipment maintenance response is not timely and the IT asset management is not good, the customer may not rent your equipment next month."
The person in charge of recycling also said that the key competition in this industry is the ability of supply and supply chain.
"The profit of each link alone may not be high, but after the coordination of all links in the industrial chain, the overall profit is not bad, which is why Bear U Rent can continue to make profits." Hu Shaoxiong added that at present, Bear U Rent is the only enterprise in the market that has opened the closed loop of the whole industrial chain of "lease+recycling+technical service +SaaS system".
3. lying down to earn? Think too much.
Smart leasing revealed that IT equipment leasing is still not a "lying and earning" business.
"The customer's core appeal is to light assets, and the customer's operation is light, so the equipment leasing party must focus on assets and operation, which is the value of this industry."
The financial pressure in this industry is really too heavy-the renter needs to pay for the equipment before leasing, but if he wants to maintain the operation of the enterprise, he must always pay, and only to a certain extent can he reach a balance.
"Just like we rent IT equipment, we borrow money almost every year." "It costs millions to take on a big project, and only 65,438+10,200,000 rent can be recovered every month. How can we survive without financial support or insufficient industry accumulation? "
On the other hand, leasing high-value equipment also has certain risks.
In the early years, there were many scams in the industry. Now the leasing company will retrieve the credit records of corporate legal persons and use the risk control model for verification to avoid "buying lessons with money" again.
In addition to credit reporting, it depends more on experience. "Some shell enterprise personnel are not fully equipped, and they are' exposed' by asking a few questions in detail, but what they are most afraid of is that those who are preparing for the team to commit crimes sell their equipment and then disappear without a trace; If the company goes bankrupt, the renter will not receive the rent. "
However, the more critical issue is how to solve the worries of enterprises when renting IT equipment.
"I'm mainly concerned about price and information security," Bai Lang said. On the one hand, I'm worried that the platform will provide value-added services at will after renting the equipment. On the other hand, the computer he rented will automatically change its password every 2-3 months. "The platform will also remind me to charge the computer on time. I am worried that these renters will control the computer background, so there is no way to guarantee information security. "
Blank's worry is just a microcosm. Inevitably, people's worries about the information security of rental equipment also hinder the development of IT equipment rental market in China to some extent.
In fact, although the scale of IT equipment rental market in China is increasing year by year, the market penetration rate is still far lower than that in western countries.
It has been analyzed that the 30-year gap between China's commercial market and European and American markets is 8- 10 years. It is estimated that by 2027, the penetration rate of PC leasing business in China will increase to 35.2%, while the current penetration rate in the United States is 58.7%.
"This is really related to the thinking habits of China people." "Any enterprise that wants to rent an office computer must have' returnees' in its senior management team."
However, under the background of global economic adjustment, the IT equipment leasing industry has also ushered in a favorable moment.
"This year's epidemic has had a positive impact on the industry," Hu Zuoxiong said. "The overall environment is not good, and enterprises pay more attention to cash flow. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency and neglecting asset management have been promoted. " If you want to replace a new computer, 100 people need 500,000 cash, while renting a house may only cost 20,000 yuan.
"If the company has money, it will choose to rent a computer. That is the real' golden age' of IT equipment leasing industry.
Back to the industry itself, practitioners may need to continue to improve in terms of supply and service, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, so as to truly usher in the vigorous development of the IT equipment leasing industry.