Since 2022, we have witnessed the death of a number of well-known Internet platforms, technology products, and physical stores. Some of them could not survive, some took the initiative to leave, some were eliminated, replaced, and some were honorably laid off... We are used to paying attention to them. New products and new phenomena, but if you understand how an old product changes from prosperity to decline, you may find a more three-dimensional microcosm of the times.
Taking 2022 as the time frame, we searched for keywords such as "delisting", "discontinued production" and "stopped service" on the search engine, took the first 30 pages of results, and verified them in credible news media. Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Dianping search for relevant keywords and verify the public's concern from the store closing notices and the parting atmosphere taken by customers on the spot. From this, filter out the following products and companies that "pass away" in 2022. Among them, there are not only big characters who can name an era, but also some "little people" who are only famous in small circles for a while. We want to keep some records for them.
Today, DT Finance publishes these 17 obituaries for you (the first half of 2022).
iPod
Published October 23, 2001
May 10, 2022, announced the discontinuation of production
Survival time: 21 years
In 2001, Jobs famously said at a launch event, "Put 1,000 songs in your pocket."
At the time, many people didn't understand why Apple wanted to make a "music player." "Jobs Biography," wrote that for Apple, which makes the most high-end computers, to produce MP3 players is like Ferrari's announcement of the production of baby strollers - and to install a program (iTunes) on the computer before using the stroller.
In hindsight, however, the act is credited with saving Apple. The iPod brought huge revenue, and more importantly, the "iPod+iTunes" model inspired the later "iPhone+Apple Music". Since then, listening habits have changed forever before the iPod, CDs accounted for more than 80 percent of US music revenue.
Before the iPod was declared dead, a total of 400 million iPods were sold worldwide. It's the world's most popular digital music player, with 35 billion songs sold.
When analyzing the elements of success, Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod, summed it up: "Design + Hardware + Software + App, followed by content. More importantly, continue to release new products at lower prices and add new features, which is what makes the iPod successful. reason."
Starting with music that no one hates, Apple does make a flattering impression. Studies have pointed out that the iPod is not only an "addictive drug", but also has a "halo effect" that will make PC users turn to other Apple products, such as the MacBook.
However, the iPod soon became a somewhat awkward addition to Apple's lineup. It also caused its end-of-life prelude to start early. After the release of the iPhone 4, the phone could fully replace the iPod in functionality - by 2014, the iPod Classic with its iconic "click wheel" was discontinued. Three years later, the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Nano were phased out, leaving only the seventh-generation iPod Touch — the closest iPod to a smartphone — until it was discontinued in 2022.
"The spirit of the iPod lives on today," Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said in a statement.
For many young people, the iPod really isn't dead. They are a generation raised by the iPod/iPhone/iPad listening to digital music. More than any other product, the iPod seems to be more of a symbol of its green years. In the market, it still sells well in a small range. At Xianyu, unopened iPods are often listed at several times the official price. The day after the iPod was announced to be discontinued, all official Chinese stockpiles quickly sold out.
In the second-hand market, a culture has developed around the buying and selling of iPods. A paper on the domestic second-hand iPod practice records various reasons why people are still willing to buy iPods: some people buy second-hand iPods because of their nostalgia for early technological life, hoping to gain a little warmth in the "ruthless digital age"; Some people exchange musical tastes with strangers through old playlists on their iPods. For them, this is an opportunity to gain emotional experience and social connection; while in the Chinese context, some people's nostalgia for iPods is nostalgia for the past. Compensation for lack of material life, "something that I couldn't afford when I was a child, I want to satisfy it now".
Internet Explorer
August 16, 1995, debuted
End of support on June 15, 2022
Survival time: 27 years
In 1995, there were several major events: the launch of the Java language, the launch of eBay and Amazon, the opening of Internet access nodes in Beijing and Shanghai in China, and a large number of returnees, geeks, and businessmen are about to rewrite the history of China's Internet.
And, InternetExplorer1.0 debut.
At the beginning of the 21st century, IE once controlled 95% of the browser market through various means. In the next few years, many people will be exposed to the Internet for the first time through the classic blue "E" logo.
After 27 years, the browser's original overlord came to an end.
In fact, IE's funeral song has been sung for many years. As early as IE6.0, it has not been updated for up to 4 years. At that time, many websites could only be opened with IE, but it was full of loopholes, poor web page rendering, and slow response, which inspired a lot of calls for "IE to die", and a batch of "IE6.0 death countdown" appeared. IE6.0 Funeral" website.
In China, because the use of pirated Windows XP systems is very common, the built-in IE6 has become a long-lasting Internet memory for a generation. Even in 2009, when IE was dying, one out of every ten computers in the world was still running IE6, which was released 8 years ago. Therefore, developers have to set aside a lot of time to adapt to IE.
IE's story is like a hero who fought a dragon and ended up being a dragon. Looking at it now, IE, which has been widely used but lacked careful maintenance for a long time, has hindered the development of the Internet to some extent.
According to former YouTube engineer Chris Zacharias, he hit it off with his colleagues in 2009 and decided to secretly launch a plan to "kill IE6.0". They pulled a banner warning on the YouTube page, saying that IE6.0 is about to end its service, and it is recommended that all users use Chrome, Firefox, IE8, and Opera instead. After the incident, the proportion of IE6 users quickly dropped from 18% to 10%, and they were not punished. Even the same suggestion appeared in other Google product lines to let users abandon IE6-because there is a consensus in the industry, this Browsers "have always been the bane of web development work."
And just like that, our protagonist has literally lived through a long, unseemly social death. For example, in a marketing campaign in 2012, Microsoft, who wanted to play a self-deprecating card, took out the corpse and called it "The Browser You Loved To Hate" (The Browser You Loved To Hate).
By 2019, even Microsoft's own employees have issued a message telling everyone to "don't use IE". In 2020, Microsoft's newly released browser Edge was finally replaced by Google's core Chromium.
Today, IE's market share is only 0.29%, and its successor, the Edge browser, has less than 4%. The ghost of IE will only exist in Edge's "IE Compatibility Mode". Its role is more like making up for its own past mistakes - it is used to load some websites that are in disrepair and non-IE, such as the registration system for various exams.
Fortunately, on the eve of the end of IE's life, the "bane" that hindered the development of the market because of IE's monopoly standards finally received attention. In March 2022, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla proposed to cooperate to develop a common browser standard. Developers can finally synchronize page effects without having to worry about compatibility differences between different browsers.
This may comfort the spirit of IE in the sky.
Kindle
Entered China on June 7, 2013
June 30, 2023, withdrew from China
Survival time: 10 years
When he saw the CD business quickly being replaced by the iPod, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos immediately decided that books must also be digitized, "just as Apple controls the music business."
For the first-generation Kindle in 2007, the media did call it "the iPod of reading." Subsequently, the Kindle, like the iPod, captured a large market and became synonymous with e-readers.
At the first-generation launch, Bezos introduced the Kindle, "not a device, but a service." According to research firm iSuppli, a $79 Kindle costs $84.25 to make. In other words, the Kindle model is to sell hardware at a loss and make money from services and content.
But this model does not seem to work in China.
In China, people can easily find free or low-cost electronic resources. In comparison, the Kindle Store has no price advantage. In addition, the state stipulates that exclusive e-books cannot be directly published, and Kindle also loses its original publishing advantages.
So, unlike what Bezos expected, for many Chinese, the Kindle has nothing to do with the Kindle store but is just a carrier for reading free e-books - comfortable to read and light to hold.
Of course, the Kindle is not unpopular in China in terms of devices. Data from market research firm Counterpoint shows that in 2021, Kindle will occupy 65% of China's e-reader market, far ahead of Xiaomi's Duokan e-books and Palm Reading Technology's iReader - the latter two occupy 10% of the market share tied for second place. However, other data shows that only 8.4% of Chinese adults tend to "read with e-readers", and more people tend to "read with a paper book" (45.6%) and "read on mobile phones" (30.5%).
In addition, perhaps because of the relatively single function of the Kindle, the product iteration is slow, and the user's replacement demand has not been high. Overall e-reader sales fell 12.5% to 2.1 million units in 2021 and are expected to decline further.
In 2020, Xianyu sold more than 400,000 idle Kindles in one year. According to estimates, for every two Kindles sold by Amazon, one will appear in Xianyu. In 2021, Xianyu selected the top ten useless products of the year, and Kindle, as "a relatively expensive instant noodle peripheral", ranks third on the list.
The era of arguing over e-books vs. paper books seems to have passed. Obtaining information through Weibo, paid knowledge, podcasts, audiobooks, reading apps, short videos, and various entertainment programs is more in line with current habits.
At present, a 2G version of Kindle Paperwhite2 (released in 2013, is the first Kindle to appear in China, priced at 899 yuan) is sold on the platform on Duoyuyu, and the highest price can only be 20 yuan.
Airbnb
In August 2015, Airbnb officially announced its entry into China; in November 2016, Airbnb China was established
On July 30, 2022, the service in China will be stopped
Survival time: 7 years
Almost from the very beginning, Airbnb’s ambition was not just to be a short-term housing rental platform, but to develop new ways of travel, and even bring people closer. And "Belong Anywhere" is the universal value that Airbnb tries to promote.
Jonathan Mildenhall, then 2014-2017 chief marketing officer, once explained that Airbnb’s own properties already contain an element of unease people’s misgivings about strangers, but Airbnb wants to be a platform for goodwill to A stranger opens the door, welcomes him, and gives him his bed.
However, Airbnb commissioned a survey by YouGov, a polling company in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia: two-thirds of respondents said that most of the people they knew were friendly, but half believed that society as a whole was not friendly.
In order to promote mutual trust between strangers and make people believe that the world is full of love, Airbnb has done some "silly" things, such as making a news program that broadcasts only positive news, reporting things like "One rescue dog became another rescue dog" Guide Dogs for the Blind". For the most part, it's an idealistic company.
In 2016, Airbnb was preparing to expand its presence in China. At that time, the prediction was that "in 2020, China will become the largest source country for Airbnb", and "by 2030, China will surpass France to become the largest destination country in the world".
But that blueprint is now dying. In the first quarter of 2022, Airbnb’s revenue reached $1.5 billion, a 70% increase year-on-year. But accommodation and experience bookings in mainland China typically make up only about 1% of Airbnb’s overall revenue, as the pandemic hits again.
Airbnb in China is often criticized for not understanding the Chinese market. For example, Alipay and WeChat payments could not be used earlier. Customers want to complain that there is no 24-hour customer service, so they can only write emails, and the platform has been slow to provide management tools for hosts.
After officially entering the Chinese mainland market in 2016, Airbnb has changed 6 consecutive Chinese business leaders within two years. Since the last president resigned on September 30, 2021, the position of "China President" has been vacant.
Yahoo China
Entered China in September 1999
On February 28, 2022, Yahoo Mail will stop serving in mainland China
Survival time: 23 years
After Alibaba acquired Yahoo China, Jack Ma once made a bold statement: "In three years, in China, the search will be Yahoo, and Yahoo will be searched."
However, due to internal contradictions at Yahoo and the management's "stupid move", this great cause has not been realized. And many post-00s may not remember that Yahoo was the founder of the Internet portal and the world's number one search portal. In the 2000s, Yahoo once occupied more than 20% of the Chinese search market.
This time, Yahoo's departure is largely symbolic, since as early as 2013, Yahoo had closed down its main services in China, including email, news, and community services, and closed its research and development in Beijing two years later. center.
QQ Hall
Launched in 2004
April 20, 2022, cease operations in mainland China
Survival time: 18 years
One month before the shutdown of the casual game QQ Hall, someone updated the countdown to the shutdown every day, and the collection of QQ Hall background music uploaded by someone on station B also recalled the countless childhood days of playing QQ Hall with the air conditioner on. Speaking of the last few minutes before the server was stopped on April 20, some players said that everyone reached a tacit understanding with each other and did not hurt each other. Some people formed a love formation, and some people said 886 to each other until the system prompted that the link was broken and could no longer log in, and we cherished it together. A shared memory belonging to the first generation of online natives.
QQ Tang, which was launched at the end of 2004, relies on QQ's user base of more than 300 million. Relying on the "social + game" model, it gained tens of millions of registered users soon after its launch. At the same time, the number of online users exceeded 220,000. From 2005 to 2012, 8 "Chinese Hero Contests" were held, which became the prelude to Tencent's future development into a game giant. In the later period, the lack of maintenance and the rampant plug-in QQ hall was gradually forgotten.
However, QQ Tang is very similar to the Bubble Hall developed by South Korea's Nexon Company, which was sued by the latter in 2006 and became the protagonist of China's first cross-border infringement case of online games. After winning the case, Tencent followed its own methodology of following hot spots, optimizing products, and then occupying the market with traffic advantages. In Ma Huateng's words, "Learn the best cases, and then surpass them."
In 2022, parting is undoubtedly an annual keyword. Due to space limitations, we cannot sort out all the products and companies that have left us, but just discussing death helps to understand life, whether it is a product of the era with great influence or a company. In the late-night bars that have accompanied us for several years, we feel that some of them have lost and need to be recorded, and I would like to say goodbye to them with this article:
NRC
Launched on the App Store in September 2010
On July 9, 2022, cease operations in China
Survival time: 12 years
NRC (Nike Running Club) is an app owned by Nike that tracks running records and provides running courses. Official data shows that NRC has more than 8 million registered users in mainland China.
However, this time Nike stopped NRC operations, not to give up the Chinese market. In the future, Nike will provide services in the field of running through the NTC (Nike Training Club) WeChat applet, which is considered to be a transformation of localization in China.
e-buying
Launched January 12, 2014
End of service on June 30, 2022
Survival time: 8 years
Rong e-gou is an e-commerce platform launched by ICBC, covering more than a dozen categories including digital home appliances, automobiles, financial products, clothing, shoes and hats, food, and beverages. It is the second bank-based e-commerce company to announce its closure in 2022, following the PC mall owned by Minsheng Bank. In addition, e-commerce companies such as Agricultural Bank and China Construction Bank have also announced the replacement of operating entities in 2022.
According to the Economic Information Daily, from 2016 to 2018, the annual transaction volume of e-commerce purchases exceeded 1 trillion yuan, and the transaction volume in 2018 was second only to Taobao and JD.com. At the end of 2019, the number of users of Rong-e shopping reached 146 million.
However, bank-based e-commerce companies have always faced bottlenecks. They have not been able to carry out the same promotions as Pinduoduo, JD.com, and Taobao. According to the "Consumption Rating List" released by the E-commerce Research Center of Netease in 2019, the performance of e-commerce shopping is at the bottom, and the rating is "not recommended". In addition, other bank-based e-commerce companies, such as Bank of China Smart Shopping and CCB Shanrong Business have also received a large number of complaints.
Jumbo Seafood Restaurant
On October 19, 1976, it was officially completed and opened for business
Overturned on the night of June 18, 2022
Survival time: 46 years
Many Hong Kongers waved goodbye to Jumbo Seafood, a landmark in Hong Kong, as it left Hong Kong. Kong Gaofeng, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, did not like it, blasting it for "providing bad food with high prices for ignorant tourists seeking embarrassing exotic foods" (the seafood restaurant is indeed expensive, A dish of seasonal vegetables costs 160 HKD or about 140 RMB). On the day the seafood boat was towed away, he wrote on Twitter: Let's go, don't come back.
The letter quoted the owner's information, the seafood boat is 28 meters high, 79 meters long and 25 meters wide, which is equivalent to a nearly nine-story building and can carry up to 1,746 passengers. It is known as "the largest seafood in the world. government".
On the night of June 18, the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, which had its license expired and needed to be sent to other places for maintenance, was overturned by wind and waves. Although it has not yet sunk, the tugboat company said that the difficulty in salvaging it was too high and it might be scuttled. It is said that the seafood restaurant has been parked in place after the accident and was affected by typhoon "Siamba" in early July, and the situation is unknown.
The hull of the seafood boat is in Chinese architectural style, coupled with the gorgeous and intricate tea sets, strokes, and furniture inside the ship, which is considered to be the epitome of Hong Kong in the colonial era. Many movies were filmed here, including Bruce Lee's 1973 work "Dragon and Tiger Fight", Stephen Chow's 1996 work "God of Cookery", and the 007 films "The Man with the Golden Gun", "Infernal Affairs 2", "Godzilla's Century Bi Killing Array", etc.
However, critics believe that the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant reflects the stereotypes created by the Orientals for themselves. For example, Hong Kong historian Zhao Shanxuan commented on the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant. Many of the dishes and designs on it are only "to cater to Western tourists' impression of oriental curiosity".
East is white
The first store opened in May 2004
End of operation at the end of 2022
Survival time: 18 years
Yum China once hoped that Dongfang Jibai, a Chinese fast food restaurant, would one day surpass KFC in China because they estimated that Chinese demand for Chinese food is far greater than that of Western food.
It is precise because of Yum's strong supply chain that Dongfang Jibai seems to be all-encompassing. It is said that there are about 200 kinds of products at most, and they sell everything, but there is not a single flagship product, which is a lack of memory for consumers. Another problem is that its later sites are almost all concentrated in airports, railway stations, exhibition halls, and tourist attractions, which can only attract tourists' one-time consumption.
Today, the business dream of being a "global brand of Chinese fast food" has been shattered. By the end of 2021, Dongfang Jibai will only have 5 stores left in the Chinese market.
Sober Company (No. 99 Yandang Road, Shanghai)
Opened in February 2017
Closed on June 26, 2022
Survival time: 5 years
Affected by the epidemic, Sober Company, known as the "Best Bar in Mainland China", was unable to renew its lease due to a sharp drop in revenue. It hastily announced on June 23, 2022, that it will close the store in three days. The new location is expected to be announced in the fall.
Sober Company has been shortlisted in the list of the world's 50 best bars for three consecutive years, and in 2022, it will be ranked 11th in Asia's 50 best bars, the highest ranking in mainland China.
Tour Shang Coffee
In 2010, entered China
April 2022, withdrew from China
Survival time: 12 years
In 2017, Tushang Coffee once reached 36 stores in China. By 2022, Tushang Coffee will only have 3 stores left. According to the analysis of the business media Winshang.com, most Korean coffees focus on store scene design. However, under the epidemic, most people will not go to the coffee shop to kill time. After losing the blessing of the scene, Tushang Coffee failed to find an advantage in the uniqueness and cost-effectiveness of the product, so it did not perform well.
Monki
In early 2015, entered China
April 1, 2022, withdrew from China
Survival time: 7 years
Monki is a girly fast fashion brand under the H&M Group. The price of ready-to-wear clothing is less than 300 yuan, and it can usually be bought at a discount of tens of yuan.
Monki's exit from China is the latest example of the low-price fast-fashion ebbing tide. Previously, Forever21, Topshop, Bershka, Pull & Bear and other brands have left China one after another, and the expansion speed of H&M and ZARA is not as fast as before.
Two major brands, ZARA and H&M, are increasing the proportion of high-end products. In the past two years, H&M's high-end line COS has continued to expand stores in first-tier and new first-tier cities.
Slade
In 2008, entered the Chinese market
On July 31, 2022, the termination of retail business in China
Survival time: 14 years
Under the tide of offline store closures since 2020, the old Danish menswear brand SELECTED also announced that it will withdraw from China. At present, it has more than 1,300 stores in China, and the official Tmall flagship store has 4.06 million fans.
The Lingzhi Group, a subsidiary of Slade, said that the closing of the store was due to the high incidence of the epidemic, the weakening of the offline market, and the difficulty to reduce rental costs.
Samsung LCD Panel
In 1992, the first LCD panel was mass-produced
In June 2022, LCD panel production will be completely terminated
Survival time: 30 years
Samsung Display used to be the world's largest LCD panel supplier. It used to be the leader in the LCD panel market with a market share of 25%, but it took the initiative to withdraw from the fierce competition with its Chinese counterparts, and it will shrink to about 2% in 2022.
Samsung Display originally planned to officially withdraw from the LCD business in 2020, but the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 boosted the home economy and increased demand for TVs, delaying this plan.
ZOZOTOWN China
Entered China in December 2019
June 17, 2022, withdrew from China
Survival time: 3 years
ZOZOTOWN is Japan's largest fashion e-commerce platform, with nearly 300 fashion buyer stores, specialty stores, and 3,000 fashion brands, with over one million users. In addition to e-commerce, ZOZOTOWN also operates WEAR, the largest fashion community in Japan, and ZOZOUSED, a second-hand clothing platform. Now it has ended its service in China for "multiple objective reasons".
In 2019, ZOZOTOWN announced its entry into the Chinese market, focusing on the Japanese direct mail experience. In WEAR, ordinary people and fashion people from all over the world constantly update their outfits of the day every day. Through this platform, you can see the most everyday look of a piece of clothing, and you can also see the same piece of clothing interpreted by different people.
During its operation in China, ZOZO not only hoped to sell clothes but also devoted itself to promoting Japanese fashion culture. It produced a series of local Japanese shop exploration programs at Station B. In addition, ZOZO also joined hands with voice actress Hanazawa Coriander to launch her first Chinese single. "magical mode", the cumulative playback volume on station B exceeded 1.2 million.
Baoshu.com
In February 2019, the current domain name is activated
On June 29, 2022, the domain closed
Survival time: 3 years
Baoshu.com, a novel website that is popular among online readers after Jinjiang Literature City, provides resources for fantasy, martial arts, time-travel, romance, urban and other types of online novels. Because there are many novels included, you can directly download unpublished novels. It is welcome to delete the full text of txt.
On June 29, Baoshu.com was found to be shut down, and the website displayed: "In response to the call of the state, this site is permanently closed."
As soon as the news of Baoshu.com's permanent closure was posted on Weibo, people's main emotions ranged from supporters of "protecting copyrights" to those of regret and grief, "Youth is gone, the base is gone."
According to the report of the China Copyright Association, in 2021, the scale of China's online literature piracy will be 6.2 billion yuan, up 2.8% year on year. It is conservatively estimated that it has occupied 17.3% of the market share of the online literature industry. As of December 2021, the overall number of monthly active users of pirate platforms was 43.71 million, accounting for 14.1% of the number of online reading users, and the number of monthly launches per capita was about 50.
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