VCs surge B2C: Who is the next outstanding

Compared with the high-profile marketing of the B2B model and the popular C2C users and transactions, B2C in China has always been in the silence, and it is not surprising. However, since the beginning of this year, B2C investment has become increasingly active, with more entrants and increasingly mature supporting systems, the psychological barriers of netizens are also gradually eliminated-all kinds of signs seem to indicate that the market has started a sprint before the jump.

"More and more enterprises will join B2C shares this year ." In April 14, Guo Hongchi, CEO of Qianxun, the B2C website of brand clothing, told reporters that the B2C industry has experienced a doubling in the market for several years, the growth in some vertical industries even exceeded the double expectation last year, achieving a three-fold growth.

"Last year, we made 0.1 billion of the sales of diamond products. Now, every time we open a demonstration store online, we can make a profit in one or two months, and we are still opening it ." Chen Bin, CEO of Jiujing Network, told reporters that he did not dare to go to the diamond industry meeting before, because the Internet has impacted the traditional diamond sales model, but is now elected as the executive director of the industry association, "We have already begun to accept online sales ".

"I believe that last year was the first year of e-commerce in China, and there are many signs that the accumulation in 2008 will erupt this year ." Huang Shaolin, founder of the digital wall and senior industry observer, said that the B2C market in China may have several outstanding figures.

Netizens soar to assist B2C

The B2C take-off track in Taiwan may bring some inspiration to the Chinese mainland.

As early as 1998, when the Internet was in its infancy, online bookstores emerged in Taiwan. However, due to the extreme fear of online payment security, along with the high cost of cash on delivery, to each household, you need to collect NT $120 (about 30 RMB). This model is just like that of Dangdang in mainland China.

The turning point occurred in 2003. More than 10 thousand convenience stores in Taiwan became breakthroughs in online bookstores and retail stores. Because most netizens have convenience stores nearby, convenience stores became the site delivery points, this reduced the delivery cost to NT $50. With the frequent and common transactions, netizens began to worry about electronic payment. "The current situation in mainland China is very similar to that in Taiwan ", said Huang Shaolin.

"Payment and logistics are now very developed, removing the biggest obstacle to B2C development, and more people are willing to accept online shopping ." Guo Hongchi, who has ten years of experience in e-commerce, said that the current environment is different from that of ten years ago.

In order to cultivate users' habits, FanKe and other websites often do promotions that exempt them from logistics fees. With the purchase of luxury goods such as Diamond and branded apparel from the Internet, B2C in mainland China has started to heat up in the whole industry.

Huang Shaolin also believes that as long as the proportion of female users increases, the B2C E-commerce tide will come, the proportion of female netizens in mainland China increased from 42.8% at the beginning of last year to 47.5% at the end of last year, with a surge of nearly 5 percentage points.

In addition, more and more B2C websites in China are starting to build their own brands, which is also a sensitive signal for B2C launch. "In the past, we had to compare prices on Taobao and find the cheapest one. This price war can only put enterprises in a dilemma ." Huang Shaolin said that the emergence of more and more brands, such as excellence, FanKe, Jingdong Mall, and jiudiamond, has brought the threshold for online shopping, because netizens will choose more brands with quality assurance than low-price products.

Opportunities for vertical B2C

At present, hundreds of vertical B2C online stores, large and small, have emerged in the Chinese mainland, involving books, audio and video, IT digital, clothing, Diamond, cosmetics, watches, and other industries, if you add various malls on Taobao, the number will increase significantly, with the annual sales of more than 10 million, jingdong Mall, which claims to be an online appliance retailer, had a turnover of even RMB 2008 in 1.4 billion.

"B2C has a leader in the market segment ." Huang Shaolin believes that the form and characteristics of B2C determine that their own excellence and Dangdang may appear in the vertical fields of each subdivision. Maybe they are just a very inconspicuous product.

Guo Hongchi said that before 2007, the domestic e-commerce competition focused on network and marketing, and now it is more about competing to integrate the capabilities of commodities and supply chains, qianxun is positioned as an online fashion department store. For this reason, the company has integrated thousands of well-known brands around the world, including GUCCI and ZARA. "apart from direct cooperation with brand owners, it also cooperates with channel vendors of different brands ".

As vertical B2C is eager to try, the "reverse" impact of the financial crisis on the industry is an important factor. Taking clothing as an example, the financial crisis has not directly impacted B2C apparel, but has led many traditional domestic manufacturing enterprises that primarily focus on foreign trade to turn to the domestic trade market. However, for these companies, it is an extremely difficult task to build channels. Even the construction of many famous brand clothes has not been completed for many years. At this time, B2C's online sales platform has become a life-saving tool for many export-oriented enterprises, and B2C websites have also been able to get the supply at a low price, increasing sales profits.

"Diamond is a standardized product. For 9 Diamond, online sales save most of the intermediate agents and the costs of opening a shop ." 9 Diamond CEO Chen Bin said that this is the biggest advantage of high-price luxury goods sales in the B2C vertical industry.

Yi Guan International pointed out in a report that the 3C market in China's B2C online retail market was rapidly mature from 2007 to 2008 and will continue to grow rapidly in the next few years; as new vertical manufacturers enter, the new market segments are expected to become another driving force for the overall growth of the B2C market in the future. Traditional enterprises, especially production enterprises and retail enterprises, will pay more attention to Internet channels in the next few years, and the Internet trend will be obvious.

Investment impulse

"Chunjiang plumbing duck Xianzhi", for B2C heating, the most sensitive risk investment in the industry is often ahead of the market.

Qianchun.com recently received a huge investment from SK Telecom in South Korea. Guo Hongchi did not disclose the specific investment amount, but said that SK invested more than yuan in funds. "It manages the Sales and Channels of thousands of brands, in addition, a large amount of money is required to ensure the 24-hour service and unconditional return within a certain period of time."

As a matter of fact, just as the failure of PPG in the market last year, FanKe, a clothing B2C website of the same model as PPG, is stepping up funding in the opposite direction. On June 23, Chen Nian, founder and CEO of FanKe network, confirmed to our reporter that the company had received the third round of venture capital, totaling $30 million. This round of investment is led by Qiming Venture Capital, including IDG, lianchu, and SoftBank. At the beginning of FanKe's creation, the funds were from two investment companies, lianchuan and IDG, as well as the founders of Chen Nian and Lei Jun. The VC participating in the second round of investment, in addition to the first round of IDG and Lianchuang, added Softbank SAIF, according to Chen Nian, the first two rounds of investment received more than $10 million.

Despite the fact that there is no demand for financing in the short term, Chen Bin, CEO of the 9-diamond network, hopes to raise funds twice to 2010 times that of the first phase of 0.13 billion yuan in 2.5.