The Blind Expansion Of Group Buying Website Is The Result Of &Nbsp.

It's a hot summer day, but for

The "cold winter" signal

Blind expansion of evil results

Recently, group buying websites no longer claimed the number of new urban branches and staff expansion. On the contrary, the news of the group buying websites' layoffs continued.

In August 19th, after the group buying Groupon, Tencent's joint venture company Gao Peng network, its internal staff told the media that Gao Peng started mass layoffs in Shanghai, and there were more than 500 employees in Shanghai. The layoffs will cut about 30% people.

A senior friend told the media that in addition to Shanghai, in fact, 20 cities in Shanghai were basically laid off.

Gao Peng network headquarters in Beijing also began phasing out redundancies.

In fact, two months ago, Gao Peng was still recruiting.

In March of this year, when Groupon Inc just entered China, it carried out a wave of crazily recruitment and even paid high salaries to peers.

In addition to Gao Peng network, Wo Wo Group, which has always been a high-profile overseas, has fallen into a "layoff" incident in early July. It involves departments such as sales department, technology department, personnel department and quality control department.

As of August 4th, Wo Wo Group has two batches of 20 employees who have resigned and applied for arbitration with the help of the agent to the Haidian District Labor Arbitration Commission of Beijing.

The data provided by group 800 showed that the Chinese group buying website began to rise in March last year, and has reached more than 5000 so far. In the early stage, in order to get the investment, they set up a sub station in crazy places and consumed a lot of money. At present, the number of employees in the top ten group buying websites is less than that in the US group network. There are more than 2000 people in the group network, and more than 6000 people in the group.

The massive layoffs of group buying websites are a consequence of the rapid expansion of the industry. Zhao Zhanling, an expert member of the China Electronic Commerce Association policy and Law Committee, pointedly pointed out that the current predicament of group buying is due to the blind expansion of early stage development.

Group buying "

"The bubble of group buying is almost as big as that of the ozone layer. This winter will come soon, and it will be very cold this winter."

Wang Huiwen, vice president of the US group network, was the first executive to sell the "cold winter" theory on behalf of the group buying website. He pointed out that in the first half of 2011, the group buying market cost increased 10 times, the number of employees increased by 10 times, the operation cost increased by 10 times, and the investment amount increased 10 times.

However, due to fierce competition, price wars have been favorable, but consumers have hurt businesses. The gross profit of group buying industry has dropped from 20% to 10%.

CEO Wu Bo revealed that at present, the second camp of group buying has already seen a shortage of funds in many websites, and some enterprises that get A round financing are also hard to integrate into the B round of financing. The capital chain of group buying websites is very tight, and the funds of a large number of group buying websites outside the ten websites may be hard to survive this cold winter.

Shen Boyang, general manager of the glutinous rice network, which is packaged and listed with Renren, said that while the group buying capital chain is tight, venture capital sees fierce competition in this industry. It will become very cautious to continue to invest in funds. After that, venture capital chased group buying websites to invest, and now is the group buying website seeking additional help from venture capital.

Shen Boyang also pointed out that the most fatal thing is that the gross profit of the group buying website is too low, so it is difficult to get rid of the deficit situation.

According to Renmin's latest financial report, the net loss of glutinous rice net in the two quarter was US $4 million 200 thousand. "We need to know that only more than 600 people in the glutinous rice net, the loss of those big companies is even more terrible."

As a result, some group buying websites began to take measures such as large-scale layoffs to save costs and prepare for the winter.

The way to deal with it

Reduce costs and optimize services

In the face of this winter, how are group buying websites going to spend?

Reporters found that in recent days in addition to layoffs, this year, group buying sites have been in the Focus Media, such as building advertisements, car advertisements and even television advertising has been abandoned.

Wo Wo Group chairman Xu Maodong admits that compared with the end of July, the group buying industry's advertising is in a big way.

"Under the condition of losing money, controlling costs is a matter of reckoning at the present group buying websites," Shen Boyang said. In order to cope with the group buying winter, the glutinous rice net will reduce its own offline market, such as group buying of tourism products, and glutinous rice is the choice to cooperate with elong.

Wang Huiwen believes that the current group buying website must control the development speed while strengthening product quality control and service.

Wu Bo, a handshake net, believes that the group buying website should innovate in the winter, seek differentiated development, form its own style, persist in innovation and competition, and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.

24 vouchers CEO Du Yinan emphasized that in addition to finding enough funds from outside, group buying should also enhance the "hematopoietic function".

At the same time, the more cold winter is the test of corporate culture and values, good corporate culture and values can retain talents and tide over difficulties.

Pattern prediction

In the end there will be only 35.

The more than 5000 group buying websites are experiencing the first severe winter in this industry. What will happen this winter and who will live to the end?

Wang Huiwen, vice president of the US group network, believes that the cold winter of group buying will last for a year or so. Like search and other Internet fields, group buying will eventually leave 3.

Shen Boyang, general manager of glutinous rice net, uses the online video industry analogy group buying industry. He thinks that group buying has entered the shuffle stage. At the end of the year, a big group buying website will crash and collapse. If the venture capital continues to invest, it will probably be known in 2-3 years.

Xu Maodong, chairman of Wo Wo Group group, also believes that the last 3-5 remaining group purchases will survive. Finally, the market competition will enter a rational stage.

Liu Guanwu, an analyst with Analysys International, predicted that some small group buying websites would be destroyed, while some large group buying websites would turn to B2C e-commerce websites.