In the post-epidemic era after 2021, people's demand for traffic has prompted service providers to upgrade their networks. 5G users are growing, and the proportion of traffic is expected to further increase. Capital expenditures for cloud data centers are expected to continue to rise, with 400G optical modules starting in volume. In the first half of 2021, overseas optical communications mergers and acquisitions are frequently occurring. Giants are aiming at the future track and core technology, and overseas communications upstream enter an oligarchic pattern. Chip supply is tight, which may affect the construction progress of optical fiber networks and 5G networks. These have brought a lot of certainty and uncertainty to the optical communications market.
As of the end of August 2021, listed companies in optical communications have announced their performance reports for the first half of 2021. According to ICC statistical analysis, listed optical communication companies are developing in an overall positive direction. In the first half of 2021, the overall revenue of the communications industry for more than 100 domestic and foreign listed companies as calculated by ICC was US$1,363.138 billion, and the revenue in the first half of 2020 was US$1,102.751 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%; the gross profit margin for the first half of 2021 was 52.97. %, the net profit margin is 18.01%. Changes in gross profit margins are flat, and net profit margins have a trend of growth.
In terms of sub-sectors, cloud services and ICP (Internet content provider) expenditures continued to grow rapidly in the first half of 2021. The growth of traffic has driven the development of the IDC industry, the revenue of Internet content providers has increased, and the investment and construction of data centers has been accelerated. According to the statistics of ICC, the total revenue of Internet content providers in the first half of 2021 was US$80.408 billion, an increase of 37.57% from the US$583.283 billion in the first half of 2020. The gross profit margin of Internet content providers in the first half of the year was 50.36%, down 0.61 percentage points from the same period last year; the net profit margin was 21.82%, an increase of 5.56 percentage points from the same period last year.
In the context of COVID-19 and high-tech competition between China and the United States, global chip shortages and traditional supply chain disruptions, the semiconductor industry has begun to readjust. In the first half of 2021, the chip industry has undergone frequent consolidation and acquisitions. In the first half of 2021, the total revenue of chip vendors was 20.761 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17.91%, gross profit margin was 55.54%; net profit margin was 22.43%, a year-on-year increase of 11.85%. In the first half of 2021, chip prices have risen and chip shortages have led to rapid growth in the net profit and revenue of chip companies.
