Cold winter! "No salary for three months", blockchain media is in arrears and layoffs

Naked swimmers are only revealed after the tide goes out.

The blockchain media boom, which was once booming with the blockchain craze, is rapidly receding. As the industry cools down and returns to rationality, most blockchain media, as an important part of the blockchain industry, are also being squeezed out of the bubble.

If layoffs are a strategic contraction, then wage arrears are enough to illustrate the survival pressure faced by blockchain media. And this cruel scene is really happening.

One leaf tells us that autumn is coming and the chill is coming.

Wages owed

Amei is the business director of a blockchain media company in Shenzhen. Her life recently can be described as "overwhelming".

What keeps her busy is not the company's normal daily operations, but the situation that a working professional is most reluctant to face: the company owes wages.

Acointoken (ID: acointoken) has exclusively learned that since August this year, the blockchain media named XX Finance has stopped paying employees' salaries and has been in arrears for more than three months.

It is reported that the media was founded in mid-2017. From this point of view, it can be said that it has relatively deep experience in the field of blockchain media and has a certain reputation in the industry.

"At that time, on the one hand, I wanted to enter the blockchain field and learn more knowledge, and on the other hand, I was attracted by the company's influence in the industry." said another colleague of Amei.

Ah Mei said: "When the salary was stopped at the beginning, we all thought it was only temporary and were willing to work with the company to get through the difficult times. The company leaders said that they had negotiated financing and would pay everyone as soon as they got the money. But several months have passed and there is still no progress. It has affected the lives of many colleagues, and every time they said 'it will be done soon' or 'it will be paid next week'."

According to her, she has communicated with the company's leaders countless times, asking about the progress almost every week, but unfortunately, the answer is always the same, that is, "wait." After weeks of repeated tug-of-war, the company's leaders no longer respond. This has caused panic in the company.

Several insiders confirmed to CoinCoin that the company had nearly 30 employees earlier, but only a few have resigned. "Some of those who stayed are relatives of the boss. The company's business has basically come to a standstill, with only one editor updating the website and newsletters."

Moreover, employees within the company also said that in addition to the failure to pay daily wages, social security payments were also stopped without the employees’ knowledge.

According to the internal chat records obtained by Coin Jun, one employee said: "I hope there is a better way to deal with it, rather than just evading and shirking it."

The relevant person in charge of the company responded: The company has been looking for solutions. From August to now, all the cash that can be raised has been used to subsidize the company, and at the same time, it is also constantly looking for financing.

According to the chat records, the person in charge also said: "I understand that it is not easy for everyone. I am not only raising funds here, but also taking on business. Now I am negotiating a service order of more than 200,000 in Shanghai. Although there are industry problems now, I found that there are many things I can do, not just media business."

"If it doesn't work, we'll take legal action," said Amei.

Layoffs

From what I have learned so far, wage arrears is still an extreme case.

But there is no doubt that blockchain media has entered a cold winter as the entire industry is in a downturn, and as a response, contraction and layoffs have become a common choice.

"Large media are laying off large employees, and small media are laying off small employees. This is the current situation." The founder of a blockchain media in Beijing told Coin.

According to him, a well-known blockchain media in Beijing had 70 to 80 employees at its peak, but now has shrunk to more than 40. Another company also had more than 40 employees before, but now has only more than 20 people. The overall layoff ratio is about 30%-50%.

"The media are having a hard time now. Before, project parties would come to them, but now they have no business even though they have to run business every day. The market is really changing by leaps and bounds." The business manager of a blockchain media in Beijing told Coin.

“If you had come earlier, it would have been more lively. At that time, there were many blockchain conferences in Beijing, both large and small meetings; there were also many offline exchanges among practitioners. But now the situation is that everyone is not very enthusiastic about gatherings. It’s too bearish.” said a blockchain media person in Beijing.

He also revealed: "I also have media friends in Shanghai who have received several million in financing, about 10 people. Now they can't hold on any longer and are having a hard time."

"Oh my! We are in a state of panic now. A product manager has already resigned, and another person who does ratings has left on his own. The company is now laying off employees and cutting back on expenses in preparation for the winter." An employee of a ratings agency in Shenzhen lamented on WeChat: "To be honest, it is still unknown whether we can survive."

The above portraits are a true portrayal of the current blockchain media. But just a few months ago, it was still a prosperous scene. Once upon a time, with the popularity of blockchain, hundreds of media rushed to it, and thousands of ships competed with each other.

In summary, the development of the entire blockchain media has gone through the stages of "early-stage-frenzy-cooling-trough".

Before last year, there were very few media outlets in the entire blockchain industry. As a scarce resource, the few early blockchain media outlets enjoyed the dividends of the blockchain industry's explosion.

During the Spring Festival, the "3 o'clock sleepless blockchain group" became a phenomenal hot topic. Participants were enthusiastic and those who had not yet joined the game were afraid of missing out, which gave rise to a large number of blockchain media.

Industry insiders estimate that there are hundreds of media outlets, large and small, related to cryptocurrency and blockchain, and the competition has turned into a bloodbath before it even begins.

As the industry gradually returns to rationality, the media trend of rushing into the blockchain with a "rush in first and talk later" mentality has declined somewhat in the middle of this year.

As the industry's enthusiasm continues to decline, the entire blockchain media industry is undoubtedly in a trough on the brink of life and death.

What I have learned is that, except for a very small number of new media that are still joining, the vast majority of existing blockchain media, like the entire industry, are undergoing the hot test of the bear market.

The difference is that the top media and some media with investment do not have any survival pressure for the time being, but are only shrinking strategically. However, some mid- and lower-level media are already facing the pressure of survival, and the final result is that they have to close down.

“The root cause is the overall environment. The economy is already in recession and Alibaba is even laying off employees!” said the founder of a blockchain media in Beijing.

In his opinion, "there are a lot of good and bad blockchain media, and the competition is fierce. In addition, the policy is tightening, the blockchain industry is not popular, there is no source of income, the company still has to operate, and it is normal to lay off employees."

Way out

Although there have been various signs showing a sharp contraction of blockchain media, based on the huge base formed earlier, there are still many vertical media in the blockchain field in the industry.

Generally speaking, they can be divided into three categories. The first category is those who have other businesses that have transformed into blockchain. This type of media has certain resources and strengths, backed by traditional businesses, and currently has no survival pressure and is in the stage of burning money.

There is also a part that obtained certain financing after entering the blockchain, but is not doing well at the moment.

"Although we have obtained a round of financing, our income is very little under the current market conditions. This is not a solution. We are trying to find a way to get the next round of financing, but it is difficult," said the founder of a blockchain media in Beijing.

Another part is the "one-person finance" that is widely ridiculed in the industry. This type of self-media is more flexible. From the founder to the staff, there is only one person. They rely on sending news flashes for a living and basically do not have the ability to create original content continuously.

"Among these media, to some extent, although their names are 'XX Finance', some of them are basically not media. At most, they are a public relations company or event organizer," said an industry insider.

Moreover, in his opinion, judging from the content alone, there is almost no professional blockchain media that has emerged.

Coin King learned that with the cold bear market, in addition to layoffs of varying degrees, the unclear domestic blockchain policy has caused many media to turn their strategic layout to overseas.

"We are now focusing on overseas markets, mainly in Europe and the United States. We have recently been holding conferences in New York, the United States, and the performance is going well. To be honest, it is not easy to do business in China. The policies are unclear, and many capital institutions have almost stopped investing in domestic projects. Overseas, the policies are relatively clear and relaxed, and project parties are also motivated." said a relevant person in charge of a blockchain media in Beijing.

The founder of another Beijing blockchain media revealed that many domestic blockchain media currently regard conferences as one of their main sources of income. After a conference, they can receive roadshow fees from some project parties. Apart from the costs, there is still some profit. "Basically half of the profit."

South Korea, the United States and Southeast Asia have become the main destinations for conferences.

In addition to the endogenous demand for change, from an external perspective, traditional media have also begun to turn their attention to the blockchain field.

Just a few days ago, on October 23, at the 2018 People's Daily Blockchain Technology Autumn Forum, the People's Daily Blockchain Channel was announced.

In addition, I noticed that traditional financial media including the National Business Daily, China Securities Journal, and Securities Daily have already normalized their reporting on the blockchain field; traditional media such as Caijing, Interface, and Cailianshe also pay close attention to blockchain.

"Media regulations will be an important part of the entire industry's regulations. The entry of these traditional media is the beginning of real regulation for the blockchain industry. Only with the entry of professional media can the entire industry be improved." said a senior media person.

In a blockchain vertical media WeChat group, the founder of a blockchain media XX Finance said: “Let’s wait and see.”

Source: One Coin