Why Invest 58

Why Invest 58?

In fact, 58 of the same city, net and Bai these three I have seen, and I have seen them in the same one weeks. They are all copying the American Craigslist, but their models are different.

Bai is completely Craigslist, and its CEO is very clear to tell people, Bai and Craigslist exactly the same, "You like Craigslist This model you should invest in me, you want to do those in the United States failure of the way, you go to invest in the market, investment 58." ”

NET again a bit in the middle, while want to do the people, Craigslist mode, while want to copy 58. The cost is higher than the people, but the service is still less than 58, I think you are in the middle is never good, while the loss of more money, one side of the customer's feelings for you is not so perfect.

58 of the model is one-stop comprehensive services, from the website design to information release, and then to the results have face-to-face sales, the entire service process to make customers feel very good. In fact, this is a failure in the United States, but in China I think there is no bubble. Because China's small businessmen do not know how to surf the Internet, and you tell it how good effect, but did not send someone to tell him that he is not recognized. You need to come in person to give him a paper report, chat with him, he will go into his account left to look at the right look, the heart more happy. Anyway, he paid to see something.

I have a deep understanding of this. When I was in Sina, also experienced the same situation. In Sina to sell ads, usually advertisers are not like us for a long time in the network environment, the effect of online advertising is not very clear, but he would like to see, I put your Sina above the ads where? You can't talk to him about CPM, CPI, he doesn't understand, he just said, "I give you money, where is my advertisement?" "Our salespeople were going to show them the ad pages," he said.

So, after seeing these three, I decided to choose the 58 way, but the cost is relatively high. I was betting that, although 58 of the cost is high, but sales can be done better. It is clear that in the past 4 years, this bet has been relatively successful.

But the cost is relatively high, I then bet that, although the cost is higher, but sales can also do a better job. It is clear that in the past four years, this bet should have been more successful. The whole concept, the big idea is the online yellow pages, online classified ads, which is called Craigslist mode. But from the executive level, it is completely different from Craigslist, you can say is a perfect fit for China's current way, but also in the United States failed in the way, in China again born, but more suitable for China.

Why is Craigslist successful in the United States, and 58 is not working?

Every successful company has some historical reasons. The most famous of the classified ads in the United States is Craigslist, of course, but before he has a lot of home, such as a company called the Big Yellow Pages, went to the city, and then fell. and the entire yellow page concept, in the United States did not do very successful.

Why did Craigslist not fall when the rest of the house fell? because Craigslist's approach is very simple, he lets customers use the DIY way to make up the information and then completely use the computer to cancel out the fake information or repetitive information that he feels is not appropriate. He did not go out with small and medium-sized sales advertising salesman, if you want to buy ads, a how much money, they find their own door-to-door to pay with PayPal.

In this case, his company is only in San Francisco, other places have no branch offices, the cost is very low. and other homes are too expensive, and a lot of salespeople have different ways of doing it to help customers do Web pages, and the recession and the bursting of the bubble, these companies are falling down. Craigslist earns very little money, but because it has no sales staff and no operators to help small businesses make Web pages, they don't spend much money. He grew more and more, and by the time the economy recovered, Craigslist became a big one, and the rest of the family couldn't. Because of such a history, people have created an illusion that Craigslist should be implemented in a successful manner.

Craigslist is called Craig, he is not particularly want to make money, nor to finance, there is no pressure, but once you take the money of VC, there is pressure every day, you have to hurry to earn money. So we see Craigslist now becoming a public service website. But in fact, he is very profitable, his family alone, anyone want to do online classifieds, all come to it here.

If we start again today in the United States, we might be able to use the Chinese way to get another 58 out, do a comprehensive service, or even add a call center. But things like this are on the eyeball scale, and now consumers have their eyeballs on Craigslist. In the United States because of such historical factors, online classifieds on the road to Craigslist, and will not come back.

So China is fundamentally separate from the US, and China will continue to do it in 58 of the way, and Craigslist, a business model, may not get up in the short term, because in the end this is the eye.