Beauty says Xu Yijong: Nirvana of a vertical electric quotient

Suan Tao

Xu Yijong very early know, Beauty said rely on Taobao platform for its diversion must be dangerous. So he mentioned Taobao when the "younger brother" claiming that the younger brother is only in the electricity to bring the flow of clues. However, with the beautiful said from the grass into trees, for Taobao to bring the flow and orders more and more, feel threatened Taobao finally sit still live. Starting from the end of 2012, Taobao has issued several items for the external shopping site management policy, intended to tighten the opening of the entrance, the beauty of Taobao outside the chain often open.

Taobao the biggest strength of a net is in last September, beautiful said mobile phone end jump to Taobao link was artificially blocked, Xu Yijong tissue repair speed far less than the other cut the intensity. Almost overnight, beauty says mobile end-day active users have dropped from 1.9 million peak to half. The company's silence had once cast doubt on whether it was still alive.

In fact, Beauty says it is quietly seeking transformation. Last November 4, in an interview with the entrepreneurial state of the office, Xu Yijong announced to the team, beautiful said to be transformed into a female fast fashion vertical electric dealer. He ordered 14 days to develop a trading system. Each of the 10 core members of this Chamber, each applying for a task, was enclosed in a room and buried in research and development after Junlingzhuang.

18th, the system was made. After two days of training, beautiful said the formal foreign investment. The website opens up a self-help application window, as long as it is compliant with the merchant, put it in. But the core of fashion popularity, still need a family to die. After that, beauty has become a fashion gathering place for a handful of businesses that are sensitive to popularity and can play around. Know the fashion, sell fashionable clothes, these beautiful said sellers the most important common characteristics. From the crisis to rapid transformation, Xu Yijong has been a low-key training skills, until this acceptance of the exclusive interview of the Entrepreneurial state.

In addition to Beauty said, almost in the same period of transformation to do the popular women's trading platform and Hangzhou Mushroom Street. It seems that overnight, the vertical electric dealer silently returns. They have one thing in common, all because of the pressure from Taobao, forced to change from the shopping guide website. For them, the service of the crowd has not changed, but a step forward and began to do their own trading platform.

"But it was a very difficult step, and I thought it was really tough." "Xu Yijong said. In front of this speed slow, eyes calm man, leading beauty said to complete a limit jump, the head of a lot of white hair. "But 6 months later, after we finished this battle, it seemed like we had crossed a hurdle and now it looks like it's going well, I can see the front Yimapingchuan." ”

It is said that the beauty of the platform has been gathered on the super million of fashionable high-quality business. In the future, Xu Yijong will also be involved in making its own clothing brands, while investing in some good development companies. This year, Beauty said has been the acquisition of God Shake and Day goods network, Chen Suren and the Big Bear two of the company's core management team to join. Not long ago, the big bear with beautiful said senior vice president of the identity of public appearances, talk about how to "fashion Women + Technology Male" model redefine fashion.

In his vision, beautiful said is an open platform, its own products, settled businesses, cooperative fashion industry to complement each other, does not conflict. By building such women's fast-fashion vertical electric quotient, he says, the market space for beauty is raised from hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars.

Be forced to break up

2010, Sequoia Capital Contact Beautiful said, the most concern is how they face Taobao. "Once beautiful said big, Taobao must be mixed." Taobao contributed to the transaction volume is the fact, but the beautiful said the user interception. ”

Beauty says building vertical communities in the form of waterfalls is proving to be effective in stimulating user purchasing power. 2011, Taobao average purchase conversion rate of less than 1%, but at that time with beautiful said the social shopping guide platform conversion rate of 7%-8%. As a result, some Taobao sellers began to say try to put ads in beauty.

Long-term observation of the Li Chengdong analysis of the electric quotient, beautiful said to sell the flow of advertising mode, Taobao itself is also rely on advertising to survive, so Taobao's interests were preempted. Users from the beauty of such as the upstream site to jump over, need to do in Taobao only trading links. In theory, the deal can be done either in Tencent or in the east of Beijing. Taobao's ability to control users has also weakened.

As beauty was said to be growing stronger, Ali began to worry that it would step in. Rebate NET founder Ge Yongchang said, compared to other shopping guide site, beautiful said closer to the user, relatively easier to make a trading closed loop. This makes Ali more insecure.

November 2012, Beauty said declined Ali's investment intention, instead accept Tencent. But the financing news was Xu Yijong. Beautiful speak of the language is ominous, be outside speculation for Ali attitude concerns. Because in the background of BAT's big takeover, the choice of beauty is the default.

Tencent in the outside world to say the news of the beautiful said, Taobao announced no longer support the return of the search way of the site, some of the cooperative merchants to promote the Commission can only be returned to the consumer in integral form, but return cash can still be returned to the shopping guide website. This series of actions, caused a beautiful said such as shopping guide website worry.

In the second half of last year, Taobao put words, Beauty said that with their policies are inconsistent with the place, will reduce the cooperation between the two sides. Xu Yijong said: "Many people are indeed the entrance to beauty, and then jump to Taobao to buy things." Especially on the wireless side, this trend is more pronounced. Because the screen is small, users need a more accurate entrance, not a 8 million-store entrance. The beauty on the phone has become very strong. ”

September Day, beautiful said mobile phone end suddenly can't smoothly connect to Taobao page, click the picture will show white. Site front end of the first time to hang out because of technical failure to users of the apology letter, backstage nerves high tension Xu Yijong in thinking countermeasures. He tried to bypass the shield, so that the beauty of the link can be successfully landed on Taobao's WAP page. There is a wild fall, this side desperately repair. But Xu Yijong still found, the more in the beautiful home by the front position of the hot selection, the more unable to achieve jump. Xu Yijong realized that this was a large area ban.

There are shopping guide site practitioners have helpless to read: "Ali like the dispersed Taobao guests; they do not want the woods, grass." But we entrepreneurs want to be a forest, who want to be grass? So Ali to our kind of company attitude is, you big, I hate you. No way, I'll vote for you. I'll kill you if I don't throw it in. ”

Other practitioners think: "Taobao development in the wireless side is not very smooth, at that time micro-letter and scenery no two, our app up so bad, they face mobile phone when a bit unprepared." At this time Taobao may want to hit a first, put everyone down a pressure, to buy their own times. Because they did not kill us on the PC side, mainly for the mobile end. ”

In less than two months, beauty says the number of active users on the mobile phone has plunged by half from the peak of 1.9 million. Xu Yijong can do is to constantly organize technical personnel to play patches to maximize the user experience. But this is not the final solution to the problem.

In fact, Xu Yijong and his investors want to keep the relationship with Taobao as long as possible. Beauty is dependent on the growth of the Giants. As a start-up company, you can use the resources and shelves Taobao to develop their own users, beautiful said it is difficult to resolutely refuse. "At the time of the environment, Taobao has the flow of demand, first use his resources to expand their own." In the right time, he does not want you to grow up, you also have a certain skeleton and muscle, you can invest their own. "said Cao Yi, the former vice president of Sequoia Capital, who is involved in investment beauty.

November 4, Xu Yijong made the decision to transform the female fast fashion vertical electric trader. "It's not easy to take this step," he said. We didn't make up our mind to do it in the first half of last year. But in the second half of the year, the internal feel that this thing is to be done, coupled with the external pressure is so big, I decided to do. Xu Yijong paused for a few seconds, and added: "Anyway, the worst is a death." ”

November 18, beautiful said to develop a preliminary trading system. After two days of internal training, 20th, they began to find businesses, one weeks pulled 750 original in the beautiful said platform advertising business; One months later, the number increased to 1500.

Xu Yijong said, at that time the only way is to die, the annual "Double 11" promotion has been missed, if you do not hurry, and the end of the shopping festival is completely wiped away. At the beginning of December, users can say a single in beautiful. The whole spring festival, Beauty said the technical team are working overtime, Xu Yijong to pay 10 times times the usual wages. Fell to 1 million of the daily activity in 3721.html ">2014 year after the Spring festival, fully recovered and surpassed the original level."