The myth of the 58 decline

According to Alexa traffic rankings, 6 months to the domestic two well-known classified information sites 58 with the city and the net traffic rankings are significantly down, 58 with the city from 6 months ago 140 to 200, net from 250 to 370 dropped 120 places. The outlook for classified information sites is worrying.

Not only that, the classification of information sites also face false information, network fraud, profit model is not mature, and so on, these problems exacerbated the issue of the IPO process to drag and drop. In this respect, the domestic two classified information sites 58 with the city and net almost at the same time choose the transformation to create a new profit point, but encountered the 2011 electric business of the winter. The electronic business does not give the classified information website to bring the profit point instead to become a burning money attempt.

What causes Rage's classified information Web site to ask multiple questions today? In the face of their own operations and capital markets want to market as soon as possible, the classification of information sites will go?

False fraud information flooding

In the first half of this year, 58 of the city and net have been reported to break the capital chain, senior management turnover, postponement of the IPO, the imminent collapse of a series of negative rumors. 58 with the city and net frequent spam information, false recruitment information, leakage of user privacy and information is not real problems, even Yiu Jingbo himself admits: "58 of the city's information quality is uneven, false content overflow."

Kang also said that false information is the first harmless of destroying classified information website brands. This is true, according to Niu net Netizen reflects, classified information website false information is indeed endless.

Netizen Zhang Yu (a pseudonym) reaction, the domestic well-known classified information website of the user's personal privacy information to make users by advertising, fraud and false information phone harassment. Zhang Yu perfected his personal information in net, but did not post any resumes in net. To the surprise of Mr Tommy, he was constantly receiving calls from insurance companies over the next few months, saying that he was not in the insurance industry, but he was always receiving such calls.

Encounter similar problems and this year's Fresh graduates Triping (alias), Triping is an interior design students want to find a professional related work, in the net register and improve the recruitment information. Once, Triping sent a resume and received an invitation from a self-proclaimed petrochemical group. When the company interviewed the phone, the company simply asked about its age, height, health status, and so on, and then asked him to go to Sichuan again for an interview. He felt very far and not at ease so did not go, who knows, a week later Triping received the same phone number of the same person. Same phone number this time claiming to be China Energy Construction Group Co., Ltd. again asked about health status and other information notice Triping to Sichuan second-round, and the company is Triping did not cast a resume. "Feel very scared," Triping said, "The second time to receive the same number of the same phone call but instead of a company to know that there is a problem, do not know is a MLM company." ”

Also by the false information plagued by the university students Xiaoxiao (alias), Xiaoxiao in the 58 of the same city search part-time, search is all fraud intermediary agencies. Contact interview both are to pay "part-time information costs" intermediary agencies, there is a request to pay the so-called photography fee can recommend work, the intermediary fee after the delay does not recommend work. Not only lost money to waste time waiting, and the place did not introduce work to him.

For false information, the classification of information sites do not have to bear too much legal responsibility, Beijing Sheng Law firm, the director of lawyer Yu Guofu that the law of such incidents will be based on the principle of fault liability, for the occurrence of infringement, the defendant has the fault of the responsibility, no fault is not responsible.

Industry insiders revealed that, in addition to false fraud information, classified information sites under the capital turnover problem or packaging to sell users private information.

Single business model

Profit model is the injury of classified information industry. In the current industry negative, the decline in revenue, capital chain tension and the issue of IPOs are almost all summed up in the classification of information Web site profit model of a single issue.

Classified information web site garbage, fraud information flooding can be attributed to the profit model, because one of its main sources of profit is the merchant registered Member certification account, and the authentication account published false information to make users more gullible.

Take 58 with the city as an example, too much reliance on member registration income so that the classification information site can not take into account the user experience, and thus promote the flow of decline. "The Classification information website appears the trustworthiness question to cause the user to lose the trust and the flow to decline," Liu Xingliang said, "actually will form a vicious circle." ”

In this respect, the early network promotion person Nanjing Easy to pass the CEO bin said, an information type website relies on the user to it's attitude, the word of mouth is very important. "It is important to think about how to improve the quality of such a platform, including merchant quality, user quality and content quality," Bin said, "rather than just messing up the site in order to do traffic, do and benefit-related." ”

For classified information sites, the rapid expansion of the realization of profitability is a hurdle, now to the "seven-year Itch" gateway. Classified information web site to pay the convenience of the CEO believes that, beginning last year, the classified information industry operating costs are too high, the market is too big to cover the cost of revenue is clearly exposed. "The classification information website's revenue is still in the initial stage, for most of the domestic companies, the current stage to achieve profitability is very difficult." ”

It is reported that 58 of the city's current profit sources are mainly two: Net-neighbor members and advertising revenue. The former is the fee paid by the user of the registered member. The latter refers to value-added advertising revenue, similar to the search engine bidding rankings. It is said that the current membership fees accounted for the total revenue of the classified information site 50%, but this does not meet the huge consumption of classified information sites.

The abnormal psychology driven by capital

In the context of rapid business expansion and large advertising, classified information sites need to be continuously financed to maintain operations. There is a view from the industry that the participation of management and multiple investment has increased the pressure on the listing of classified information sites as soon as possible.

Public reports show that, as of now, the market and 58 of the city have at least had a tricycle financing. The former has a total of 95 million U.S. dollars, the latter rounds of financing combined 120 million U.S. dollars.

After large sums of money, investors pushed 58 of the city and net to market as soon as possible to gain investment, which seems to be difficult for classified information sites where business models are not clear or even make ends meet. Now, how to make a profit on how to go public may be the biggest headache for Yiu Jingbo and Yang Hao-hu.

Take 58 City as an example, according to investment in China, 58 of the city's fourth round of financing amounted to 55 million U.S. dollars, 42 million U.S. dollars by the Warburg Group, 13 million U.S. dollars by Yiu Jingbo. According to sources inside the investment bank, 58 of the city's 2011-year cost of 130 million U.S. dollars, income is 40 million U.S. dollars.

58 City CEO Yiu Jingbo last year said it would be on the market, but was apparently hampered by a "revenue of $100 million" threshold. Conservative estimates, 58 of the city's 7,000 employees to pay only the amount of money required to 35 million yuan, plus the line under the overwhelming advertising costs.

On the one hand, the site needs a lot of money to maintain operations, on the other hand, investors also want to go public. This pressure makes classified information sites too preoccupied with product quality or user experience to pursue economic profitability.

According to Sina Financial reports, 58 of the same city group buying channel has not consumed after buying, claiming refunds were rejected events, reported that such incidents occurred more than once. In addition, it is reported that 58 Xu Yuanhong, vice president of the city's Business development Center, has left office in early August, speculating about the incident and 58 of the city's IPO process is blocked.

The classification information website excessively pursues the economic benefit but ignores the user experience only to cause the user to lose, but the traffic decline will increase the IPO resistance to form the vicious circle.

Bin said that 58 with the city and net is the largest classified information site, do a good job on other classified information sites have a positive impact, do not even the listing has no chance.

Transformation fails, the butterfly is not

Under the pressure of huge operating expenses and investors ' listing, the classified information website needs to open up a few sites to make a profit listing as soon as possible. 58 with the city and net almost at the same time chose to buy, and transformation to the classified information site is expected to profit or greater dilemma?

In the past year, Net launched a group purchase, wireless, friends, social, short rental, reward and other products. As we all know, 2011 is the electric business of the winter. Despite the recent round of financing of the market as much as $40 million trillion, the past year's fair spending has basically burned the 40 million dollars. Only buy this product, net invested a 100 million yuan of huge sums of money.

58 with the city's group buying strategy has also been confirmed failure, according to Yiu Jingbo revealed that 58 of the same city group buy channel monthly losses tens of millions. Group buying did not bring a turnaround and new interests to the city 58, but dragged down 58 with the city's development.

For net and 58 with the city, kill the logic of the league is very simple, on the one hand is able to change the flow of their website, on the other hand, because they have a strong ground team, involved in a number of coupon services, so there are certain to do the basis for the purchase.

But 58 with the city and the market error estimated the group buying industry competition. Although net and 58 have made huge sums of money after they killed the league, the high investment in group buying has not helped them hold out for too long. No matter net or 58 in the same city, have not been able to enter the top three of Chinese group buying sites, after the killing of 1.5, they also almost gave up buying business.

In contrast, the Hundred Letter Network CEO Wang Jianyue appears more calm, he said, buy is not good business, even if he is a good business business, I do not need to do, because and I do not have a touch of things now.

At present, the market of group buying has been handed to litters Regiment joint operations, and 58 of the city's group buying business may be to the platform transformation, not simply to buy as the goal.

Facing the growth bottleneck of advertising and value-added service revenue, two companies are groping for a business model that is more applicable to the long tail theory. The former chose to transform the electric business again, the latter bet ants short rent.

58 the same city in the transaction payment link to introduce Alipay and other third-party payment companies, 58 in charge of logistics part of the city. To cultivate user habits, Yiu Jingbo said it would not consider charging commissions for three years, and that third parties would pay deducted commission fees from 58 in the same city.

It also means that the more transactions that are formed within three years, the greater the capital pressure on the 58-city formation.

The way of breaking the Bureau

as Craigslist imitators, no matter net, 58 city or Bai, it seems not so smooth.

Craigslist only 32 employees in 2010 years have reached billion advertising revenue, management of 50 countries in the world 570 classified advertising stations. And 58 with the city has 7,000 employees, pay tens of millions of salaries and huge advertising costs, the annual profit of 40 million yuan, and the expenditure reached 110 million yuan. The complete imitation of Craigslist may not be suitable for domestic classified information sites.

As for the 58 of the city, Bin said, "58 of the city's platform is excellent, more consideration should be given to how to improve the quality of a platform, including merchant quality, netizen quality and content quality all need a great promotion, and not just to do traffic, do and benefit-related and then make this site messy and bad. The user's fate, the site's survival always depends on the user experience. Kang also believes that "classified information sites to build brands, do a good job of product quality, rather than advertising campaigns." ”

As for the quality of the platform, Yu Guofu that the classified information Web site faces the problem of single mode, simple function and lack of innovation, perhaps we should introduce the credit mechanism to improve the quality of the platform and reduce the false spam information. Bin also believes that the classification of information sites is mainly the need to establish information supervision.

Previously, classified information on the Internet just do the information on the matchmaking, did not form the final user decisions and transactions. Kang said, "Consider and underground combine, not simply take O2O road." "Classified information sites can explore the Internet's" Landing "mode. The classification information has the strong regional, the localization development may become one of the choice which the classified information website rises.

In addition to localization, classified information sites can also be layout mobile internet, to mobile phone users. The rapid development of mobile Internet, Mobile Information classification market prospects, and the "mobile internet gene" enterprises are looking at the high line of the capital market, in foreign countries, the classification of WAP station in overseas application rate is far higher than the search engine site. Liu Xingliang says classified information sites can be developed to mobile terminals.

In addition, some people in the industry believe that domestic internet users to deal with the demand for second-hand goods is increasing, with the popularity of classified information, with the city and even mobile phone positioning with the community to meet life Service electric business transactions become possible, which allows the life of services to deal with the power of the space further extension, and second-hand trade itself can feed the classified information site Increase user viscosity.