The secret handle net falls out buys three armour

In front of the handle net, Wu already carried on 4 times pioneering work, the focus real estate net, the business-to-business electronic commerce website Lala Hand two merges into Sohu, the shadow Li Chi, Tvix finally borrows the shell to list. These startups are all in the form of capital mergers and acquisitions, seemingly successful, but also hidden a "missed" flavor.

On the one hand, rapid expansion allows the handle to quickly gain market share, laying the scale effect; On the one hand, the existence of the IPO theory makes it difficult to carry out fine management and pay attention to efficiency.

"Wu has been put into another vertical garment-type consumer project, which should be called" Business innovation ". "In the understanding of the person inside the handle net, Wu has invested in his sixth venture.

Last week, the handle network issued a statement denying Wu quit, said it will be the founder of the company, the Chairman of the network, continue to be responsible for the company's strategic development and business innovation. In front of the handle nets, Wu has completed 4 pioneering, focus real estate network, business-to-business E-commerce Web site pull handle two to 16 million U.S. dollars into Sohu, 3 years later by Shadow Li, Tvix comeback, the concept of video sharing into China and eventually borrow shell listing.

This unique experience has made "listing" the theme of handle and Wu entrepreneurship from the outset. "For ordinary enterprises, listing is only a means of financing, but the handle has become a business goal." Industry insiders believe that this led to the end of the handle alienated from the top group.

On the existence of IPO theory

October 29, 2011, the pull net to the U.S. SE C official application for the IPO, and plans to be listed on the Nasdaq. June 2012, pull net to apply to withdraw IPO plan. During this 8-month period, few companies have successfully landed in the U.S. market.

Still, insiders say they never gave up on the idea of listing. "The capital market is cold, Wu also did not give up the idea of listing, at the end of 2011 and this April are also tried, although the final failure to return." ”

The core of the weekly executive meeting is "How many days from the IPO" and then the development plan, according to a person who left the net. "The most typical is that the profit is the core of IP o data, control the cost of the way is to stop the promotion, layoffs, but the business does not care about the company's entire data, the merchant to see is the online you sell the quantity, a few months lost a lot of customers." A salesman on the handle net said to reporters.

In the view of the above, all systems and strategies have been around the goal of rapid listing, which eventually led to its frantic expansion and extensive management. "Before the IPO handle has begun to the monthly turnover in 600,000 of the site to evacuate, but on the one hand Wu is constantly listed to encourage staff to work hard, very contradictory." Handle is the fastest-growing enterprise in group buying, the money is burning so fast, this is the problem of business strategy. ”

Starting from its inception, the handle net total completed 3 rounds of financing, respectively, 5 million U.S. dollars, 50 million U.S. dollars and 111 million U.S. dollars, a total of 166 million U.S. dollars. And IPO documents show that 2011 years ago, 9-month handle net loss of 572 million yuan, gross profit of less than 90 million, as of September, handle cash and cash equivalents of only 641 million yuan. "Financing, high-speed expansion, refinancing" has been accompanied by the growth of the handle network. One venture investor told reporters that the big momentum, the first scale, and then listed as soon as possible, is the handle network and its investors strategy.

Before the handle net, Wu already carried on 4 times pioneering work, the focus real estate net, the business-to-business electronic commerce website Lala Hand two merges into Sohu, the shadow Li (E nreach), T V IX finally borrows the Shell to list. These startups are all in the form of capital mergers and acquisitions, seemingly successful, but also hidden a "missed" flavor. In the memory of video enterprises, Wu once evaluated the way, shadow Li shareholders complex, financing speed is not fast enough, such as the ancient Yong clang out of the financing, I feel already late, will no longer do.

This makes Wu's demand for capital more intense, say the peers. One of the silhouette is that the Wu US group Wang late more than half a month to enter group purchase, but he got the fastest VC, and only four months to quickly enter more than 200 cities, set up a 1500-person sales force. In an interview, Wu revealed: "At the critical moment, step back, this has always been a point of view of my business, so that I am in the process of melting money faster than others." ”

Differences between investors and management

On the one hand, rapid expansion allows the handle to quickly gain market share, laying the scale effect; On the one hand, the existence of the IPO theory makes it difficult to carry out fine management and pay attention to efficiency.

"The service industry in the end is the pursuit of" low-cost efficiency ", localized ground services need people, but not a lot of money on the strength of the big. "A group buying industry management told reporters, handle early radical and extensive expansion of the strategy to bury the hidden dangers."

In the three-quarter 2011-year period, the handle spent more than 5 on sales and the market, 200 million yuan, while gross profit for three quarters was 88 million. Handle operations cash flow in 2011 years ago 9 months as high as negative 245 million yuan.

"is market share too dependent on marketing revenue to gain?" Does the expansion of market share increase profitability? These two problems cannot be solved by violating low cost efficiency, convincing investors that companies have healthy growth and financing to support the company's profitability. ”

These people believe that investors and handle network management has long been divided into strategic, investors are in fact the best understanding of business conditions. "They are looking at the market in the future, and long overdue for the enterprise." To know the capital side is to the icing on the cake, not timely. ”

The above sales staff believe that for the persistent IPO, let the handle net into a kind of not go out of the cycle, reduce the investment, profit short-term increase, but stop advertising and other market promotion, channel loss of pressure and increase, the user exposure rate is less, market share and the number of customers will shrink. "The idea of the merchant is very simple, the same condition, which website sells well to explain this site is now good, sell bad on this site is not good!"

Expansion and contraction do not completely solve the problem, the handle in turn can only improve unit output. This June, Wu in a speech, "group buying is a chore." "We are actually every day in the heat of the cold days running, or every day a list of a list to run, get up so low profit margin finally put the money to hao123, 360." ”

Commodity group hard to touch the cat, Jing Dong?

In Wu view, "Commodity Group" category of physical group purchase may be a way out. As early as the announcement of the IPO months ago, the handle net formed a ministry of Goods, handle network insiders revealed that the project has been led by Wu.

Group buying expert Hu Chen that: "Theoretically users of the commodity group price sensitivity is low, margin will be higher, but logistics and warehousing will face a big test." ”

But in the outside world, this is tantamount to Taobao and Beijing-East declaration of war, to add to their own a number of more mature than buy more ferocious web site to do competitors.

"If you do a commodity distribution, it involves the high cost of logistics and so on, what is the 100 million dollar financing?" If you don't do it, the supplier is responsible, and when everyone is competing on the speed of delivery and the customer experience, what do you get out of it? The group buys the personage to disclose, the kind buys can be a kind of supplement, but definitely cannot be a strategy.

Regiment 800 of the data show that the main group of 10 strong list of the three seats in April, the replacement of the handle net fell out of the top three, the three ranked is the United States Regiment, litters Group and the public comment Group, this ranking has now been maintained to the 3rd month.

"Many Internet companies IPO financing is only 100 million U.S. dollars, handle the first rounds of financing overvalued, valuation estimated close to 1 billion, listing has become the only possible financing channels." "A venture industry personage says, the handle net exchange will be one kind of industry signal, now see after financing stops most group buying website already did not deliberate pursue pure turnover on the lead, and began to write gross profit as the traditional income."