The market is not yet mature? 30% of UAVs were eliminated in 2017

“The highest tax rate in the world is China, and the comprehensive taxation of manufacturing industry is 35% higher than the United States.” In November 2016, Cao Dewang, Chairman of Fuyao Glass, expressed his remarks and aroused strong repercussions from the society and became the focus of the government, experts, scholars and enterprises. . From the "death rate crushed to death" to the "death tax rate is only a single case," the social debate on China's high taxation has increased in the past few days. Li Weiguang, chief professor of finance at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that the survey on the tax burden of private enterprises led by the company in 2016 showed that the total tax rate of Chinese companies in 2015 was 67.8%, ranking fourth among 21 APEC economies, far higher than those of developed countries. Developing countries. Then, all parties in the society unanimously believe that under the current background of the high tax burden of Chinese companies, has the drone industry, a vein of new high-tech manufacturing, also been affected? In this regard, the reporter went into the drone company to conduct in-depth visits and understanding. Figure: Skye Smart Skye drone. Skye Intelligence officially declared bankruptcy in December last year. As for bankruptcy reasons, the main reason is that the product backlog cannot be sold, and it is difficult to repay the supply chain funds. (Source: Lei Feng network) Taxes account for about half of the profits of small-scale high-tech companies. At the beginning of the new year, the atmosphere of the Spring Festival has not yet faded away. The Henan Yuxiang Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Chu Xiang”) is located at the foot of the Shaolin Temple. The increase in efficiency is brewing a large-scale layoffs, the scale of layoffs will account for 1/3 of existing employees. From die design, flight testing to R&D, production and manufacturing, Soaring UAV currently has more than 100 employees. Cheng Hang, general manager of the company, said in an interview that as a high-tech small-scale R&D and manufacturing company, both in the face of a large economic environment and the development of its own industry, 2016 was an extremely embarrassing year, and one side was an economic winter. On the one hand, high taxes and weights have been imposed, and companies have been unable to bear it. Then, as a general taxpayer company, how much tax should it pay? Cheng Hang took a drone with a taxable price of RMB 2 million (distance actually far from the actual price) as an example. He said that if a UAV’s pure materials and labor costs are 1 million yuan, production of aircraft spare parts The downstream companies do not have VAT invoices. In addition to the pure material price of 1 million yuan, they must pay a further 17% VAT, which is approximately 290,600 yuan; in addition, there is a 25% corporate income tax based on profit. That is, 250,000 yuan, the sum of two items is 540,600 yuan, and only VAT and income tax have accounted for more than 50% of the total aircraft profit of 1 million yuan. Roughly calculated, as a general taxpayer enterprise, in addition to employees' five insurance and one gold, the daily taxes and fees that must be paid include: VAT, corporate income tax, urban construction tax, education surcharge, local education surcharge, land use Taxes, real estate taxes, stamp taxes, personal income taxes, protection funds for disabled persons, and 11 kinds of taxes and fees for labor union funds. What is even more surprising is that as an emerging high-tech R&D and manufacturing industry, Soaring drones have entered Henan Dengfeng since 2014 and have not enjoyed any preferential tax policies of the local government. According to the existing taxation system, due to the research and development of pilot soaring UAV drones, the procurement of experimental materials cannot reach the scale required by the suppliers, and most of them do not provide VAT invoices. For manufacturing enterprises such as Soaring, the downstream companies cannot provide added value. Tax receipts, how many products the company sells, it is necessary to pay a value-added tax according to the 17% tax rate. The inconsistency of taxation standards has caused many costs of soaring drones to be deductible. The impact of taxes on the development of the company is still relatively large. Cheng Hang said that the taxation itself is to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, and it is not much for stable industries and enterprises. For small-scale start-up companies, they rely on little money to develop research and innovation. Some companies Even rely on tax evasion and tax evasion to develop. From December 14 to 16, 2016, the Central Economic Work Conference stated that the government will increase its efforts in reducing taxes, reducing fees, and reducing factor costs. Relevant sources said that in 2017 private enterprises are expected to obtain more policy dividends, but how to implement them is yet to be verified. The actual sales volume fell by 80% compared with expectations. The high tax burden is only one of the few big mountains that have fallen on Soaring. The influence of the external environment of the existing industry has made the entire drone industry difficult. From JD’s research and development of “unmanned vehicles with several tons of load and 300 kilometers in life” to fully electric and automated manned vehicles, the media and investment institutions’ speculation and the exuberance of various experts’ remarks have given the public a civilian use in the past two years. Unusual illusion of drones. "The drone can do anything. Imagine it is OK." Zhang Xiang, the founder of Haoxiang drone, said in an interview with reporters that the technical level of the entire drone industry is far from the actual application and it will take time. Divided according to different areas of use, drones can be divided into two categories, military and civilian, and the performance requirements for drones are all biased. Military drones are the highest level of technology for reconnaissance, decoy, electronic countermeasures, communications relays, drones, and unmanned fighter aircraft, and are highly demanding for sensitivity, flight altitude, and intelligence. Civil drones are classified into industrial and consumer grades. In terms of industry classification, industrial grade includes film and television aerial photography, agricultural plant protection, patrol inspection (electricity, oil pipelines), public safety (police enforcement, disaster prevention and disaster relief, border inspection, etc.), map mapping, environmental monitoring, logistics express And so on, in the raids of melee; for personal entertainment, self-timer for the consumer level, Dajiang drone a dominance. At present, there are more than 330 large and small drone companies across the country, and about 30 real industrial drone R&D and manufacturing companies. Flying drones is one of them. Rethinking in July 2003, when the predecessor of the Xiangxiang drone piloted by Zhengzhou Pilotage UAV Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Navy”) was established, Dajiang had not yet been born and there were less than 30 civilian drone R&D companies nationwide. As the company's founder, Zhang Hao is a post-80s fanatic flight enthusiast. He started playing model aircraft in 1999 and joined the Changsha University of Defense Science and Technology Drone Teaching and Research Group in 2001. He participated in the research and manufacturing of China's first composite material industry unmanned aerial vehicle "Dabai", and was mainly responsible for the development of fuselage composite materials. In 2002, the "Dabai" unmanned aerial vehicle became one of the star products in the national surveying and mapping field. Zhang Hao said that the idea was very simple at the time and he only wanted to make the plane bigger. He took the camera to the air to take photos. Because of the bottleneck of the lithium battery technology at the time, it was only fuel power. The May 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan opened the way for drones to be used in major natural disasters in China. In the emergency situation where the road was seriously damaged and the rescue force could not enter the disaster area, the civil aviation team set up spontaneously took more “big white” and went to the disaster relief line to shoot and bring back the image materials in the disaster area to identify the disaster-hit areas and personnel for the rescue command center. Gathering places made significant contributions to make the rescue proceed smoothly. Since then, the China Disaster Reduction Committee has listed drones as an aid to respond to natural disasters. The Chinese Bureau of Surveying and Mapping has begun to focus on the application of drones in the field of surveying and mapping, and has installed the “Great White” as a procurement tool for administrative surveying and mapping units. . “Flying is fortunate.” Cheng Hang said that thanks to the application of “Dabai” in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, Pilot was well-known in the industry, accumulated original customers, and survived to the present, albeit modestly. It is also relatively moist. In 2010, it has already gone abroad to conduct business with military and private companies in Africa, Southeast Asia, South Korea and other countries. The year 2016 was a relatively unpleasant year for Soaring drones. On the basis of “Large White”, according to the domestic surveying and mapping market, Zhang Hao led the team to develop a large white upgrade version with a fuel tank volume of 6.5 liters during the 3.5-hour long voyage, “Dasheng AX-2”. From 360,000 yuan to 790,000 yuan. Although military detection agencies and domestic general aviation companies also have procurement, overall sales have fallen by 80% compared with expectations. The reason why the analysis is appalling, Zhang Hao said that surveying and mapping does not have to be purchased by the state and government agencies. Affected by the current economic environment and real estate turmoil, the government has put in a lot of delays in this area, whether it is purchasing machines or services. The industry faces the embarrassment of the government’s arrears, and the original surveying and mapping enterprise units no longer purchase equipment. Difficulties in policies and personnel costs The lack of policy support and the shortage of professionals have also made the entire industry face an embarrassment. In many market segments of drones, the government is one of the major customers. The law clearly stipulates that when a government unit purchases products and services, it must be legally and legally qualified. For drones, the basis for the so-called qualified certification in the world is generally to obtain the airworthiness certificate of the aircraft. The key issue is that China still has no airworthiness certification system for drones, drones can fly, but airworthiness certificates cannot be done; drone companies face refusal when government procurement or cooperation with the government. The policy threshold outside the door is that because of the signing of cooperation with unlicensed products, the relevant government personnel may be held accountable for violations. In fact, as early as June 2009, the National Civil Aviation Administration issued the Provisional Regulations on the Issues Concerning the Management of Civil UAVs. In October 2010, the State Council included the development of drones into the State Council’s “Accelerating Cultivation and Development”. Strategic Decision-making Industry Decisions and the National Twelfth Five-Year Plan; in March and July 2012, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Council were included in the “12th Five-Year Plan” development plan for high-end equipment manufacturing. And "The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Strategic Emerging Industries Development". "The new industry is developing too fast. The relevant authorities have not yet had time to learn from the experiences of the western developed countries and the industry has already formed." Zhang said that many policies cannot be implemented as a major issue. The scarcity of professional new talents has also led to the development of the drone industry while driving up corporate costs. As a new type of industry, many drone companies have not found a true direction of development, or have been able to ignite high value-added products in the market, but also face increasing costs, especially labor. Cheng Hang, the general manager of Soaring Drone, said that similar high-end manufacturing cannot achieve mechanized production. Instead, he has high requirements and reliance on artificial skills, ranging from brushing, shaping and baking of body composite materials to measuring weights. The assembly of machinery, etc., is mainly manual, and staff salaries account for 80% of the total cost. Take the company’s recently manufactured free-standing single-seat manned fixed wing—navigator fuselage as an example. The production of a pilot’s carbon fiber light composite fuselage will involve about 10 employees and carry out a one-month production cycle. The average monthly salary is 7,000 yuan. The price of the entire fuselage kit is about 150,000 yuan. "Equivalent to the original 10 yuan a pair of socks, the cost of 7 yuan, 1 yuan staff salary, net earn 2 yuan. Now a pair of costs is 8 yuan, 2 yuan staff salary, no added value, want to produce high-quality socks, existing employees Unable to reach the level of technology, but also to cultivate." Zhang Hao, for example. What is more serious is the lack of professional skills of the younger generation and the instability of the flow of people. Zhang Hao revealed that the professional and technical personnel in the new field are missing. In the county-level cities such as Dengfeng, the wage standard for employees without technical skills is around 3,000 yuan, basically creating no value, and training them for 4 to 6 months. At the same time, it still faces the problems of success rate and turnover rate. Increases in inflation, rising levels of consumption, and increases in basic pay have not increased the value of creativity while raising these costs. Zhang Hao said that this is the pain that must be experienced in social transformation, industrial transformation and upgrading. Not only are the production technicians scarce, but the lack of flight controllers and post-image processing personnel has directly affected the sales of drones. Most government and business units, such as aerial surveying aerial photography, electric power and oil pipeline inspections, had to give up because they bought unmanned machines, and post-processing was too cumbersome. The dredging rate of drones is 30%. The current state of flying drones is only the tip of the iceberg for the entire industry. The appearance of prosperity and prosperity hides no real emptiness. The sequels of the entire history of R&D investment in the drone industry have become increasingly apparent. At the end of 2016, there were news of two major drone makers layoffs. There are 134 layoffs at zero-degree intelligence control, which accounts for about 25% of the total number of employees; Yihang has about 70 layoffs, accounting for about 20% of the total number of employees. The zero-ranking intelligence and the two leaders of Yihang Airlines frankly stated that in the past 2016, blind expansion of enterprises had caused serious burns and suffered from major business diseases. In January 2016, Yihang Airlines announced at the CES exhibition in the United States that it has launched the all-electric automatic piloted manned aircraft, the “Yihang Hang 184”, which is called “the flying car”. It is rumored that in the face of the reality that capital is chilling for high-tech investment, "Yihang Hang 184" has repeatedly demonstrated that the bombings could not be funded and therefore only layoffs. In the previous round of December 2014 and August 2015, Yihang Airlines received a round of US$10 million in round A financing and a $42 million round B round of financing led by Gimpo Group. Relevant data show that as of September 2016, there are 30 drone companies that have won seed rounds, angel rounds, round A, round B or round C financing from domestic and foreign capitals. Some people have boldly predicted that drone companies will be eliminated by 30%-40% in 2017. The so-called closure is not a product failure, but the current market is not yet mature and the product has not closed down in the market. This is not sensational. Zhang Hao said that at present, the total volume of the consumer-grade drones market is limited. After nearly two years of barbarian madness, it is indisputable that supply is greater than necessary. Consumer-grade drones are easy to fly, and they want to fly well. Difficulties, companies with weak technological development and financial strength are doomed to be eliminated. Industrial-grade drones, due to the large amount of early research and development investment owed, the investment in R&D in various professional application areas is not enough, the market has not yet formed, there is no product sales performance, and enterprises survive naturally difficult. It is not the market but the investor that affects the elimination of drone companies. Zhang Hao said that with the love of the Western developed countries, and the focus of pure, pure investment philosophy is different, most Chinese venture capital and capital come from the mentality of making quick money. For unmanned aerial vehicles developed based on the concept of attracting investment, if the direction of development is not clear, there is no breakthrough in the technical bottleneck, and the bankruptcy crisis will be faced at any time. Before dawn, the darkness is still dark. Before the real drone market has yet to open, it is up to the capital to determine whether historical debts for UAV research projects can be filled. The transition to sales services In fact, there are unlimited market demands for industrial-grade drones, from electricity and oil pipeline patrol inspection, agricultural plant protection and forest fire prevention, and aerial survey and aerial photography. Changes in customer demand have made drone product sales difficult. In 2017, it was the year of the transformation of Soaring drones. The transformation of R&D, manufacture, sale of aircrafts and sales of flight services, and post-processing of data was initiated. The inspection of electricity, petroleum pipeline inspections, forestry inspections, and agricultural plant protection were the main tasks. Service business. According to the rapid reaction of market demand, this is what the company should do. If it is not changed in time, it will become necessary to be eliminated. When interviewed by an enterprise observer, the reporter of the Provincial Civil Aviation Office of Henan Province, Kang Shengli, said that the key needs to go deep into the industry to do market research and what customers really need. What appears to be "not without a positive job" is actually a forced transition. The drone is just a flight platform controlled by the computer and completes some complicated flying missions. Most public perceptions of drones misunderstand that it would take all the work to buy a drone, but in reality it is not. For example, a power unit patrols several hundred kilometers of electricity. Under normal circumstances, customers not only buy a few drones, but also recruit a few flight controllers. After flying to obtain image data, they need to find a research institute to develop such software, and then find someone to do later image data comparisons. analysis. "The average person can't do these very professional jobs." Zhang Hao said that customers do not want these tedious aspects, just want to buy services and results. Recently, soaring drones are still talking with the government of Dengfeng on a forestry drone application platform free of charge for local investigation of forestry resources such as illegal land occupation, illegal deforestation, illegal construction, etc., and conducting weekly or monthly inspections. Image, video material, and image analysis and comparison. In addition to the annual price of 6,000 to 8,000 yuan per kilometer per year, Soaring is negotiating over 1,000 kilometers of oil pipeline inspections with a central government company. If the cooperation is successful, it will bring in 6 million to 8 million yuan in revenue for the company. . In spite of this, there is no imaginative optimism. Cheng Hang revealed that this business is only a cost price and the profit is not high. He gave a report to the company's observation and reporting reporter. A 1,000-kilometer pipeline inspection requires at least five drones and 10 flight control teams. Because it is necessary to fly every day, the annual salary of each person is between 100,000 and 150,000 yuan, and each person adds 50,000 meals, drinks, and travel expenses each year. The total labor cost is about 2 million yuan. Together with the cost of 2 million yuan for five drones with a cost of 400,000 yuan, the cost of labor and machinery alone is already 4 million yuan. "In addition to the cost of developing the image comparison system, and other expenses, there is almost nothing left." Cheng Hang said that if the management fails to keep up with may also lose money, but must take this step, this is an exploration of the market In the later period, you can do the ejection relay and try to reduce the number of people. "The post-processing of data collected by drones is a continuous development." Cheng Hang said that companies need to go deep into an industry before they can really open up a market.