Major Brand TPU Car Cover Hits 3,980 Yuan! Car Cover Film Industry Reshuffle, Stores Without Internet Genes Exit First?

Recently, one of the hottest and most talked-about topics in the car film community has been a certain well-known top-tier imported brand film, which launched a 3980 yuan TPU invisible car paint protection film last month.

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves. Before everyone could react, several other leading mainstream brand films also quickly launched TPU series car covers in the 3980 yuan price range.

The car film industry is in an uproar. Some are calculating that stores selling at 3980 yuan can't make money and can't survive; some say that this series of products from the so-called imported brand is actually produced domestically; some claim that domestic brands at the same price point are actually better than the imported ones; and some are taking advantage of the chaos to say that their 2980 yuan film is actually the same as the 3980 yuan film.

What is most interesting is that there are suspected dealers of the above-mentioned brands complaining: Imported brand car film selling for 3980 is equivalent to LV or Hermès selling low-priced bags...

In my opinion, the recent "various brands launching TPU car wraps for 3980 yuan" event signifies the official start of a price war in the car film industry, marking the beginning of a profound reshuffle in the entire industry.

01. The Moment of Fierce Competition in the Automotive Film Industry: Analyzing Three Major Drivers of the Industry Crisis

The intense competition in the automotive film industry has persisted for several years. Facing slim profits and rising operating costs, adjustments have been made at the factory, channel, and store levels. However, it is only this year that the industry has truly entered a “fierce battle” phase.

There are three specific reasons as follows:

First, it is not a few unknown small brands but several of the industry's most well-known top-tier brands that have compressed the price of TPU invisible car covers to 3,980 yuan. Leading brands dare not use counterfeit or inferior products to pretend to be good, so they can guarantee quality. Obviously, the impact brought by the "bowing down" of big brands is more "fatal."

Second, since it is a high-quality genuine product, it means that after deducting operating costs, there is still a profit at this price, effectively making the cost of the invisible car cover open and transparent. If nothing unexpected happens, this will inevitably lead to more brands following suit, bringing all TPU car cover brands into the 3980 yuan price range.

Thirdly, although window film and TPU paint protection film differ in formulation, production process, and product function, they share similarities in raw material substrates and operating costs, and their pricing logic is the same. Furthermore, as they belong to the same category, they have the same manufacturers and sales channels, and there is a shared group of professionals providing services for both. Consequently, it can be indirectly inferred that the window film category also has some "optimization" potential.

With the overall prices of automotive films, including car paint protection films and window films, significantly dropping, and even having room for further reduction, what is being "consumed" is the profit margin of film application stores. Stores whose profitability is only enough to barely sustain operations are more likely to go out of business.

It is not hard to see that retail stores bear the brunt in price wars, and once the stability of terminal operations is shaken, an industry crisis for automotive film will inevitably follow.

02. Behind the "downward expansion" of top-tier imported brands lies not only the ability to burn cash, but also the need for a reinvention with an internet-driven mindset.

Why are leading imported brands initiating a price war when the industry is facing such difficulties?

I believe that companies usually initiate price wars with two objectives: first, to quickly capture market share; second, to undermine competitors.

However, for a company to successfully achieve these two goals, relying solely on price wars is far from sufficient. Intense price competition is merely a surface phenomenon; behind it, a company must possess three powerful core business elements to succeed—strong product/system design capabilities, a highly effective execution team, and substantial capital strength.

If a company does not possess these three powerful elements, the temporary prosperity brought about by a price war is like building a tower in the sand, destined to collapse. Such cases of business war failures are numerous in the past development of various industries, and I will not enumerate them one by one.

When it comes to which industry has engaged in the most intense and successful price wars, it is undoubtedly the internet platform companies such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo. However, those that are more closely related to the automotive film industry and more worthy of learning from are the leading new O2O industries, which have successfully integrated internet thinking with various traditional industries through transformation.

First, companies like Didi, Meituan, and SF Express have significantly lowered the prices in traditional industries such as transportation, food delivery, group buying, and express delivery, and in the early stages, they frequently offered massive subsidies amounting to tens of billions.

Second, brands like Luckin Coffee and BaWangChaJi have drastically lowered the prices of coffee and tea drinks from dozens of yuan to just over ten yuan, and in the initial stages, they aggressively distributed special discount coupons worth only a few yuan.

Thirdly, platforms like Tuhu, JD.com, and Tmall have drastically lowered the prices of tires and engine oil to levels even lower than the wholesale prices traditional repair shops get, and in the early stages, they aggressively launched maintenance packages as low as 99 yuan.

Fourth, companies like NIO, Xpeng, and Li Auto have made luxury features—previously only found in traditional million-yuan luxury cars—standard on domestic new energy vehicles. While their driving performance surpasses that of fuel-powered luxury cars, their prices are less than half those of comparable fuel models. In addition, they offer cost-free benefits such as free maintenance and free charging or battery swapping, regardless of the expense.

From the classic cases above, it can be seen that although, on the surface, these emerging leading enterprises differ completely in terms of their respective industries, technologies, consumer groups, and consumption frequency, they all share the following four characteristics:

They all integrate advanced "Internet user thinking" and are mobile Internet O2O user enterprises transformed from traditional industries.

They initially used aggressive price wars to quickly capture market share.

They each possess strong core business elements: an operational system, an execution team, and abundant capital.

They all share a common profit model for internet user enterprises: first, the larger the user base, the lower the cost; second, the larger the user base, the wider the range of categories.

This time, the leading imported brands initiating a price war must surely be well prepared.

Whether they will, like the aforementioned emerging leading companies, integrate advanced "Internet user thinking" in the future, strive towards having strong core business elements, and eventually transform into Internet O2O user companies, remains to be seen.

From "selling products" to "winning users": The power of "Internet user thinking" in the aftermarket

Internet user-oriented thinking refers to a mindset in which enterprises focus on user needs during product design, operation, and service processes. By leveraging data-driven approaches, rapid iteration, and experience optimization, they achieve efficient interaction and value co-creation with users.

It is noteworthy that the Internet user mindset is "user-centered," which differs from the traditional "product-centered" approach. Essentially, it reconstructs business logic through the "user perspective," with the core focus on continuously creating perceivable value for users.

It is not difficult to see that the most core element in the mindset of internet users is: the user. Without this core element, everything else equals zero.

Understanding this, one can also understand why all internet companies engage in one particular strategy during their early development stages: price wars! This involves aggressively offering discounts to users, rapidly gaining market share/users, and exhausting competitors.

The difference between traditional thinking in the car film industry and internet user thinking can be summed up in one sentence: changing from "How can we sell the film to car owners?" to "How can we help users save money, time, and effort?"

To help everyone gain a clearer understanding of the extraordinary power that comes when a company successfully transforms with an "Internet user mindset" and masters the three core business elements, we will take Tuhu Car Maintenance—a fast repair and maintenance O2O internet company in the automotive aftermarket, which is most similar to the automotive film industry—as a detailed example.

Despite being surrounded by traditional competitors, why was Tuhu able to sweep through the market and remain invincible?

First, a price war! And it possesses the key element required to launch a price war—strong financial backing.

At its initial stage, Tuhu Car Care launched a series of aggressive price wars, rapidly accumulating a large online user base in a short period of time. This substantial online user base provided traffic to the newly established seed stores, helping them to build a commercial closed loop.

Second, a "crushing" service experience! It also features two key elements: a powerful operation system and a strong execution team.

Tuhu’s O2O offline store model offers a novel service experience to the three main offline users: car owners, stores, and technicians.

For car owners, not only are online order prices affordable and appointments can be made, but offline services are also standardized and transparent, maximizing trust. For stores, the initial seed franchise stores can recoup their investment in as fast as three months, with the average being generally between six months to a year, and it is common for franchisees to open multiple stores. For technicians, the monthly income of mid-level technicians is generally higher than that of senior technicians in traditional stores.

Under the impact of the above powerful combination of business elements, traditional individual stores have been severely threatened within just a few years. In response, a senior veteran in the tire wholesale and retail industry made a very classic remark: "What took us thirty years to achieve, Tuhu accomplished in just three."

The largest and most challenging quick repair and maintenance market in the aftermarket being able to carve out a viable path means that the trend of integrating with mobile internet can certainly be replicated in other sectors with relatively lower transformation difficulty, such as car washing and beauty, film application, and modification industries. This has increasingly become a consensus in the industry.

In conclusion:

The current era of mobile internet has already surged in like an unstoppable tide. "Didi" ride-hailing, "Meituan" food delivery, "Luckin" coffee, "Weixiaoli" new energy vehicles, and "MaoHuGou" quick repair and maintenance— all traditional industries will inevitably be reshaped by the mobile internet, and the automotive film industry will certainly be no exception.

We all know that the strength of domestic manufacturing today is far beyond what it used to be. The core technologies and production capabilities of a number of emerging domestic automotive film brands are approaching those of top imported brands. In some new categories, such as paint protection films and color change films, they have even surpassed top imported brands in market performance. This might be the real reason why top imported brands are engaging in price wars with TPU paint protection films.

So, in the end, who will come out on top in China's automotive film market and the entire large-scale car wash, beauty, and decoration industry?

I personally believe that within every crisis lies an opportunity. As a batch of traditional manufacturers' brands, distributors, and stores fall amid the crisis, there will inevitably be a group of emerging manufacturers' brands, operators, and stores with internet thinking rising through the baptism of the crisis.

In summary, whoever can first integrate advanced mobile internet user thinking and first possess the three core elements of mobile internet O2O enterprise operation will be the king of the vast Chinese automotive film market to come!

Alas! This is truly: The mighty Yangtze River rolls eastward, its waves sweeping away all the heroes.