Can the online booking platform really work?

There are reports that January 27, the online booking platform "Hungry Mody" in Beijing to hold a press conference, CEO Zhang Xuhao announced, Hungry Mody has completed the e-round financing, CITIC Industrial Fund, Tencent, Beijing East, the public comments, Sequoia Capital joint investment of 350 million U.S. dollars. Obviously, this message for the online booking platform is a great boon, however, to get investment is not equal to success, in fact, this kind of booking app to really go to full profit is still a long way to go, if the day of financing is depleted but can not find the next, hungry may be really hungry.

The app has a narrow range of applications.

Why do you say that? In the author's opinion, this kind of online booking app's range of application is actually relatively narrow, it is difficult to support a complete business model, the most direct is, hungry can not guarantee its service restaurant to provide users with high-quality food. Recently, media reports, what is hungry, the United States and other network booking platform on the high praise such as the tide of food shop is no license without a photo, sewage cross-flow, oily Montreal, "Fly Restaurant", this news an uproar. Can the online ordering app just go with the flies?

As we all know, the catering industry is divided into high and low grades, different levels of consumer standards, the user experience is also different. For high-end food and beverage outlets, consumers come to spend, in fact, in order to feel the different dining environment and dining mood, which means that they will almost not use the online ordering of the app, because these high-end food and beverage stores have a brand, well-known, will not rely on ordering the app to do brand promotion. Moreover, they are even very inconsistent with the app, disdain to cooperate with it, the truth is very simple, afraid of being a fly out of the lower grade.

In this context, it is not hard to understand that the ordering app chooses to work with a fly restaurant, and that they have no brand, no influence, and naturally resort to the ordering app. Moreover, from the user's point of view, ordering the app is the basic face of students, white-collar people, they choose to move to order the reason for the meal is very simple, is to save time, the map of the convenience of children, rather than the existence of an inherent dependence on the ordering of the app. But even so, some of the inherent flaws of the ordering app are still difficult to solve, for example, the network order is generally only applicable to some simple dishes, for a slightly more complex dishes appear to be a drop in the bucket, even if the hands of the user, the quality of the dishes can not be guaranteed.

How to make a reservation app profitable?

The narrow range of applications is bound to constrain the market expansion of the app, and in terms of profitability, they have to face another problem------even if the market is bigger, who should be charged?

Because the middle and high-end catering basic and ordering of the app insulation, so rely on them to achieve large-scale profit is the most. Can a fly restaurant profit? If you charge 1 yuan for each order, will the 1 dollars be paid by the restaurant or the consumer? Two groups do not want to pay, on the one hand, the fly restaurant profits thin and small, on the other hand, consumers choose a fly restaurant is also optimistic about affordable, and do not want to spend more money. If the direct charge doesn't go through, the only business model may be, in the case of a product with enough influence, the ordering app can profit by advertising, because now the catering industry is fiercely competitive, for the new restaurant, do not hit ads rarely patronize, so they should be optimistic about ordering the app's advertising resources.

But whatever the business model, in fact, it has been said that the ordering app is just a dispensable intermediary for users and restaurants, and it can make the sale a little more efficient, but there is no core killer, and it's impossible to keep users and restaurants on the go. Because, in a way, now group buying has formed a "reverse force" effect------everyone is engaged in group buying, you do not do a group buying business, plus the consumer has formed a strong reliance on group buying, if based on the derivative ordering service, it seems that nothing can not, But it's not easy to have a professional little app day.

The strategic significance of the ordering app is greater than its own

But even if you don't make money, the strategic value of the restaurant app shouldn't be overlooked. Like a taxi software war, it is the essence behind the mobile phone payment war, even if not successful, the impact on the phone payment pattern is not small. This is also the order of the app, in this time of hungry financing, Jingdong and Tencent will invest, it is also a fancy this point.

In this case, it must be reminded that bat actually already has the ability to do mobile booking, such as Baidu shortly before the introduction of the direct number, but also may be used by some catering enterprises to promote and marketing, plus the introduction of payment tools, future users to use the direct number of the order will become possible. Moreover, the direct number of Baidu can face the high-end catering services, the future is broader.

In addition, Ali's United States regiment also in the move to order meal, have the industry analysis, the United States and the success of the group will determine whether the U.S. team can successfully listed. And based on Ali's position in the field of electric business, it is easier to make a mobile order than the other two giants.

Therefore, it is not important to raise money after the financing, it is important that the bat three giants are also active in the layout of mobile booking field, the future of this field of competition will inevitably be more intense. (text/conment see QQ:543415188)