Community e-commerce: the hottest community-type e-commerce at present

News that Groupon started a second round of funding, after the first round of $250 million trillion in the completion of the 30 million dollar financing, the so-called Groupon investors to the value of 1.35 billion dollars.

Groupon offers a daily trading service in several cities, organising a large number of fragmented consumers on the internet, offering discounts of up to 40%~90% with a sufficient number of user bases and a range of services such as spas and restaurants. If the specified number is not reached, the transaction will be canceled. The site has a total of 3 million users, the current business involves about 40 cities. Groupon has been buying 3 million times since November 2008.

Groupon-like group buying network, in fact, is a community-type E-commerce. In the United States, the current hottest community-type E-commerce has 3, representing 3 different directions:

The first is Groupon, which acts as a proxy for consumers seeking cheaper products, and as a sales channel for businesses to help them seek out potential consumers and then draw commissions from their trading volumes. When the user size is large enough, the merchant uses its consumer crowd to carry on the promotion,, the new product trial, the advertisement and so on activity, is this kind of website another income source.

The second is Foursquare, the website combines the mobile internet, with mobile phone, internet and geographical information together, to provide users with the city of friends, have characteristics of restaurants, hotels, movies and other entertainment venues, information and discount promotional information. The profit model is the advertisement of the merchant.

Third, luxury sales website guilt. The site sells a lot of discounted luxuries and independent designer brands, and it's unique in that it's "snob"-not anyone can buy anything on it, and you have to get an invitation to enter. Its users are most of Wall Street's gold collar, Fortune 500 executives, financiers ' wives, and so on, that is, if you don't get into these people's circles, I'm sorry, you won't be able to enjoy the discount on these luxuries. Guilt's profit model, like any other consumer Web site, is online retailing, earning a price difference.

These 3 sites, regardless of the profitability model, have in common the search for value space at both ends of the commodity transaction, offering services to buy cheap goods on the commodity side or selling cheap goods, and amassing users at low cost in the community.

The American model can easily evolve into a Chinese story, Groupon's financing to the domestic followers, now the domestic group purchase site no less than 50, such as the founder of the Wang, the United States, and the group, there are easy regiment, litters Regiment, full, group Lele and so on, everyone from the model to the interface are like expatiating.

And Foursquare also has a similar pattern in the country, location-based Mobile social application website "Topsy quartet" currently obtains a sum of millions of Yuan Angel round investment. Users "sign in" and leave messages at different locations, and can see the footprints and messages of friends near the site on the map. If you choose to expose your location information, you can see "Topsy" users in the vicinity of other public location information and make new friends. At present, the Quartet is still in the cell phone social accumulation users, its CEO Cheixiao said the future profit model is based on commercial advertising.

The trend, from Groupon to Foursquare, is that the current U.S. localization services Internet companies are starting to get hot--group buying and location-based information services, all of which have strong regional nature. In the past, E-commerce is to the characteristics of the Super region and the sale of goods to the physical channels not covered by the place, and the purchase and location of information services such as E-commerce sites, is the regional market for deep;

Another trend is that selling services also becomes a niche market for E-commerce. Group buying and location information services, strictly not the transaction type of e-commerce, but to achieve profitability of services;

Also, E-commerce is sinking in a lower direction than the channel, closer to consumers, the community is a good way. The largest 3C online retailer Jingdong Mall in the near future is also recruiting people to do community, community building, before that, Jingdong Mall's product evaluation database is the country's largest 3C product evaluation system, with the embryonic community.

In the popular imitation of the tide, China's community-type E-commerce can grow strong and healthy?

In fact, group buying is the most effective way for the start-up companies to accumulate registered users and expand resources. Through the daily different low-priced goods constantly attract new registered users, at the same time, the cumulative case can be better to negotiate with the next partner. This project focuses on the ability to accumulate user and merchant resources at a low cost.

However, many restrictions make the group purchase site in the selection of small space, these goods need to provide at least 50 percent discount at the same time, so that group buying sites and businesses have profit margins. Even if it is not a group purchase, is the online retail business, but because to provide users with a substantial discount, guilt above the goods sold more independent designer brand, rather than LV and other big-name. The regional nature means that the size of consumers has been cut into Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other different cities of the audience.

At present, many of the products for the catering, performance, fitness, sports, food and so on, these localized services of the community-type Internet companies, in fact, than E-commerce closer to the consumer place, to meet user needs. They are more flexible, but because of these constraints, such as geographical and selection, size will not be particularly large.

For community-type e-business, far more than gorupon, there is actually a Chinese company--the fence, which should be an upgraded version of Groupon.

Fence NET also sell is the service, founded in 2002, formerly worry-free group purchase network, has been in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and other 9 cities to provide services. As of 2009, the website has more than 2,600 brand suppliers, the fence registered users have reached more than 2.6 million, the daily browsing volume of more than 10 million times, the annual turnover of 1.5 billion.

Fence is not a pure Internet sales site, more often, it is a focus on the renovation of the network community. There are a large number of targeted consumers, enthusiastic exchange of decoration, wedding or driving test experience, and to participate in the fence network of various promotional activities, and other local community sites, the fence is the first domestic commercialization of the online community.

Fence Network is the first through the establishment of building materials online community, organizing users to buy home building materials to obtain the first batch of vendors, and then expand the user's purchase needs, extended to the wedding, learning cars, mother and child supplies and other products to buy.

Like Groupon's profit model, the fence also earns revenue by charging trading commissions. But what is more exciting than Groupon is that the fence is taking a more central role in the value chain of the merchant-group buyer, the consumer, by mastering the full flow of the transaction. 2009, the Fence and BOC jointly launched the "Sino-Silver Great Wall fence Joint credit card." It is both a credit card, but also a fence network VIP Membership card, you can enjoy the fence network of various preferential products and services. In addition, the fence's membership card-the fence is still in some merchant Pos machine landing, through the fence card to statistics the number of users of the fence net transactions.

Even so, this is still a small business, the 2009 fence net income close to 200 million yuan.

Imagine what it would be like when these community service sites and transactional E-commerce sites were grafted into one of the latter's functional modules.

Taobao's SNS community "Amoy Lakes", is from the channel to closer to the market, closer to consumer development examples. Just mentioned the Jingdong mall is the same. Online Community + channel business, such a combination for us to open up a larger space for imagination.