What is the strategic upgrade outside of group buying for savage growth?

Absrtact: December 31 report in late December, first the United States Regiment broke the financing amount of 700 million U.S. dollars, the overall value of 5 billion U.S. dollars, but the rumors of the leading Chinese Sequoia capital to Tencent Technology, the Sequoia did not lead the United States Group of financing. Sequoia's rumor is quite profound

December 31 Report

In late December, first the United States Regiment broke the financing amount of 700 million U.S. dollars, the overall value of 5 billion U.S. dollars in the news, but the rumor of the "lead" Sequoia Capital to Tencent Technology, the Sequoia did not "lead" the U.S. Regiment this round of financing.

Sequoia's rumor is quite profound, do not recognize the "lead" but did not deny financing. Tencent technology from people familiar with the matter confirmed that the United States group did get financing.

Then, last weekend, the public comments also broke the financing of 800 million of dollars of news. Tencent technology from its investors confirmed that the public comments did get financing. For the amount of USD 800 million, the person said it was not convenient to confirm. Public comments on the public relations Tencent Technology said, "Thank you for your concern, the financing of the matter is inconvenient to comment." ”

Excluding the high amount of financing, this round of financing seems to imply that the once-expected time of the IPO, which is difficult to market in the short term, contrasted with the performance of Groupon, the US market, to launch an IPO in the United States, the public comment and the U.S. team need to find more convincing stories outside the group buying business, A comprehensive upgrade of the strategy is urgently needed.

The savage growth of group buying

Group buying business, 2014, a detailed development strategy is from the one or two-line city to three or four-line city expansion, from the geographical extension of the business space purchase.

The U.S. group's data show that the first 10 months of this year, the United States Regiment turnover of 30.7 billion yuan, an increase of 170% per cent. Public comments on group buying performance is less than, but a single month group purchase turnover of more than 2 billion. Three or four line city development, the public comments that 20 cities have become the local market share of the first, the public comment on the self-evaluation of the "attack".

Another approach is the extension of the business boundary.

In addition to group purchase, two companies have their own online new business, both the same category also have differences. The United States to focus on the film, hotel reservations and other business, selling business, and Baidu Takeout, hungry Mody and other companies launched a fierce subsidy contest. Public comments on the line of the big promotion business (including promotional and marriage business), online booking restaurants, movies and tourism business.

The shift in focus in the business has also brought internal unrest.

This September, the U.S. regiment dug up before Baidu lbs head of Shen as senior vice president, in order to hope from the "heavy line" model, began to strengthen online products and operational capabilities. COO Canga Wei is still in charge of offline sales business, Tencent Science and Technology, in Shen and Canga Wei line, after the line, one of the United States, sales Vice President Yang position slightly embarrassed, at present, "into the rest state." ”

Public comments Although there is no core executive turnover changes, in the absence of substantial progress in the IPO, the veteran staff turnover rumors are frequent. Even employees say they suffer "cliff-style pay cuts." ”

Strategic upgrades beyond group buying

For two companies, a good thing is the pattern of group buying business. At present, the U.S. Regiment's share of about 55%, the public comments on the share of about 25%, Baidu glutinous rice in about 10%, which also on a smaller share of the litters regiment, handle nets and other further squeeze.

In the case of group buying, companies in foreign companies that can compare valuations are Groupon. But Groupon's performance has been rather bad. As of the third quarter of this year, Groupon's net loss was $21.2 million trillion, which was bigger than last year's losses. Groupon is looking for a new model because it cannot withstand the pressure of performance losses.

Groupon's market capitalisation is now 5.5 billion dollars. Another US review company, Yelp, is worth about 5.4 billion dollars. But CEO Wang and the general public comment on CEO Zhang's ambitions more than that. There are rumours that this year Wang (Weibo) has been to the United States market a circle, found that the capital market to the United States and the U.S. mission valuation of about 3 billion U.S. dollars, but the United States Group C-round valuation level. Wang felt the loss.

In Wang View, now the United States Group as a "big platform for beer and skittles", in his eyes, the United States Regiment is not just a simple group buying site.

This is the reason why the United States is facing the "multiple faces": group buying, the public comments and glutinous rice is its competitors; there are Baidu and hungry outside, and the public reviews this year to invest in Hungry Mody; hotel reservations, the United States to go to the face of the business, the film industry, and the public comment on direct competition.

Zhang recently clear, the public comments will eventually be similar to Taobao's diversion mode. The main profit model of the future is not to rely on trading, but to accumulate a large number of businesses and users, through the promotion (ie advertising) to obtain revenue. Quarter Four, the public comments on the online O2O effect advertising business.

Public comment attempts to complete diversion through investment layout. For example, in the Merchant's information management transformation, the public reviews investment in Shanghai Chi Long, Shanghai Ishikawa, Shanglong and Dark Horse software four ERP companies. On the user side, and Tencent to invest in a commercial WiFi service with Andy. In this area, the group also had the idea of a commercial WiFi layout.

Behind these moves, it seems that two companies are seeking a transformation of the business model to upgrade: Business areas, from group purchase expansion to booking, takeout, booking, in the catering cycle of each node layout, in addition to catering, expand to travel, wedding, film and other fields and set up a separate division for vertical depth.