Rescue group: Survivors of starvation games are vital to foraging

Chinese group buying industry card finally to wash, the game finally play to the last pass.

Once the biggest group purchase website handle NET founder Wu was the investor overhead, resigned the CEO position, the investor began to control some departments. "The Wu character is soft, in the financing process, the discourse power is weakened gradually." A person close to the handle said.

At the beginning of August, F Group and senior Friends formally merged, the new company named "Snare The World", the original F Group CEO Rynning new company CEO. According to Tencent insiders, Tencent led the merger. Tencent has invested in Group F, and Groupon and Yunfeng Fund to participate in the establishment of high friends, F Group and high Friends is to a large extent Tencent integrated decentralized group buying resources, QQ Group will also be integrated into the merged new company.

"It's obviously the capital side's push, because it's 1+1<2 for group buying sites," he said. "Group 800 founder Hu Chen evaluation Way. Sure enough, there is news that the high friends only retain part of the sales of 4 cities, leaving less than 100 employees (peak once reached 3000 people), Gao Peng, a large number of technical, administrative, financial and other departments have also carried out large-scale layoffs.

Last year, the large-scale expansion of group buying sites, spending huge sums of publicity and hype has long been no longer, has invited GE as a brand spokesperson in the first-line city Subway, bus station, television media to carry out the advertising battle of the handle network, now also stopped advertising. "All of the delivery stopped, the net shopping to mention the most important place, these things together to do the end is that in the local life services on the handle has fallen out of the top three." "Hu Chen said.

Handle is China group buying industry's best reflection case, the financing of more than 160 million dollars, was once the country's largest group buying site. Rely on the frenzied expansion of capital, the use of propaganda to quickly obtain consumers, in an attempt to quickly do large-scale post-IPO. After the failure to start the IPO at the end of last year, the savage growth of the ills began to be exposed, and the investors began to resent and meddle in management, leading to the founder's exit.

According to the group 800 data, China's current number of group buying sites less than 3,000, the peak last year had 5,000, less than a year to eliminate 40% of the players. Yi View analyst Shou sent that after two years of competition, resources gradually mastered in the first few hands, the market concentration will be further improved, the future can survive only 1 to 2.

After the brutal elimination, the surviving website will gradually pick up the right to speak, Maori will gradually lift. And gradually mastered a large number of user databases, precipitation down can reflect the value. "An investor who has inspected the group buying industry said.

The key now is how to survive.

Hunger Games

For businesses to provide promotions, to provide customers with discounts, and group buying site itself has a good cash flow, the ideal group buying mode from the beginning of the initial acquisition of entrepreneurs and capital of enthusiastic pursuit.

2010 There are a lot of small group buying site, a technology, a backstage, a do art, film write copy, a run sales, each month can have 200,000 of the flow of revenue.

According to the data, from the beginning of 2010, the total amount of group purchase investment is about 500 million U.S. dollars, in addition to well-known investment institutions such as Sequoia, Jinsha, Ding Hui, and some Shanxi coal bosses also participate in group buying investment. "Almost 50 of the first group buying sites have got VCs. "A group buying site in the middle of the introduction.

Shou sent that the capital is the basic driving force for the rapid outbreak of group buying industry, if there is no capital, there is no rapid outbreak of group buying industry last year. "Capital is profit-seeking, hoping to be rewarded in the shortest possible time." ”

"A lot of people are thinking quickly to go public in the United States, so be quick to scale up and even make money to rob customers, including throwing so much money into the ads." This is to go public play, investors value indicators is not profitability, but upstream how many suppliers, how much sales. Said an investor who declined to be named.

Get the investment site to quickly build brand, happy enclosure, the business area from the north and other first-tier cities to expand gradually to the two or three-line city, build hundreds of local stations.

Groupon, the originator of the group buying industry, has a hefty 50% interest rate in the US, and in China so many people flocked to the Nuggets to buy the industry's gross profit margin less than 10%, the most fierce competition in 2011 from 7 to August, group purchase site's gross profit margin of only 1% to 3%, some sites in order to rob businesses or even put up money to get a single.

The 25-dollar golden-million roast duck package was sold 5,000 in 5 minutes after the online purchase. The most popular time, in the golden million roast Duck Conference room, 5 group buy the website of the sales side by seat on the sofa, if you want to work with the golden million, sit on the sofa on site to sign, not change. A Shanghai group buying site flew to Beijing to find gold million, would like to paste their own 5 yuan, so that the million in their own website to 20 yuan selling price, when gold million suspicion this headquarters in Shanghai, the site of Beijing users too little, not willing to cooperate.

"Why would you want to burn money like that?" Because the group buying website thought this money also is not my, this money is the VC money, I want is the scale. "Hu Chen said.

The investor who inspected the group buying industry eventually did not have a vote on the site, he explained, "the industry is unhealthy from the start, and there are irrational places for entrepreneurs and investors in the early melee." ”

Last year group purchase site sales to sweep the form of street one by one to break the merchants, handle part of the sale of the former housing intermediary. "There were 5,000 websites at most last year, even if there were only 10 sales per website and 50,000 people, the competition was very fierce, and I told my team that you had beaten 49,000 people to win an order." Litters, general manager of catering division, told the global entrepreneur.

Under such a fierce competition environment, some unconventional means have been spawned.

A roast lamb leg shop in Beijing a price of 100 yuan lamb leg, in the domestic famous group buying website lobbying, asked it to 50 yuan price for sale. Roast lamb Leg Shop The boss replied that there is no way to sell this price, the cost is not supported, the idea of the website is to give water to the leg of the lamb, add some cold dishes together as a package, the cost down.

Low price immediately pulled up the order, some orders too hot, and even the consumer two weeks can not be placed in the position of the situation. But after a big discount on the purchase experience, consumers gradually at a respectful distance. The typical evidence is that in the past, catering can account for 70% of the proportion of group buying, now only 40%.

The consumer experience is not satisfied, the merchant is also dissatisfied. Liangzi has done two-period group buying, and then gave up, because the group buying users are the ultimate demand for a group of people, and even buy users to the shop to take out the toilet paper.

The practitioner described it as a hunger game similar to the food scramble, which was accidentally shot down by competitors.

The more dangerous signal is that Groupon, a copycat of Chinese group buying sites, has fallen sharply after the IPO, with a market capitalisation of just 1/3 of the initial market. Jose Ferreira, founder of AOL Education Enterprise Knewton, even questioned Groupon as a Ponzi scheme. He thinks Groupon's businesses don't have the data to prove they'll be buying again, and Groupon hasn't disclosed that figure. So it is not clear whether the business can be long-term cooperation.

Buy can not with upstream merchants and downstream consumers to form a strong relationship between the defects began to appear, how to solve?

Groupon's new idea is to build a local business operating system. According to the idea of Groupon founder Mason, Groupon will be fully integrated into the trading links of local businesses.

Groupon, for example, has a product with hardware maker Infinite Peripherals, which allows users to use credit cards directly via the plastic swipe card attached to the ipad.