Shoes And Clothing Group Bought Two Mountains Or Evolved Into Digital Games.

As the originator of group buying industry and the largest group buying website in the world, Groupon has finally landed on Nasdaq, issuing a price of $20 per share, making its total market value reach US $12 billion 700 million.

However, compared with Groupon's "high noon" on the other side of the ocean, the group buying industry in China is "cold wind".

After the thousand regiment war, the cost of operation is too high, the financing difficulties are aggravated, and the number of customers is reduced. The bad news of the cancellation of branches and large layoffs of domestic group buying websites, especially the main shoe and clothing sales websites, is constantly coming out. Even if Groupon's subsidiaries in China are unable to escape "bad luck", this winter will be a doomed cold winter for many group buying websites.

They can't see the future clearly.

"Many of my colleagues have changed careers, and those who stick to it are becoming less and less."

Although only 26 years old, Chen Li (pseudonym) has been in the group buying industry for "nearly 2 years", is an old hand in the group buying industry, but now she has doubts about the future of group buying.

"What the industry environment is like now is not good, but I can clearly feel that the number of customers is getting smaller and smaller, and it's getting worse and worse."

The most stressful thing for Chen Li is the rapid drop in the number of customers.

On the computer screen of Chen Li, there was a small piece of paper that said, "time is like water in a sponge. There will always be crowding."

"That's my motto, but I can't use it now."

Chen Li told reporters that it was posted in July last year, when the group buying industry just started, and customers came to the door all the time. They could not finish the work all day long. She posted such a sentence to tell herself to improve efficiency and talk more about lists.

But things are slowly changing.

Now, the number of customers is getting smaller and smaller. Even if Chen Li takes the initiative every day, he gains little.

"I'm too busy to squeeze sponge anymore."

Chen Li told reporters that she used to talk dozens of bills a week, but now she has at most two or three.

In the performance table presented by Chen Li to reporters in September, she talked about 12 singlets, compared with 39 in the same period last year.

Group buying becomes "digital game"

This year's group buying market monitoring and Research Report released in September this year showed that the growth of domestic group buying market volume in September this year has nearly stopped, the actual market growth rate is only 0.3%, and it is expected that in the past October, the domestic group buying industry is likely to usher in a "turning point", with negative growth.

"When the discount is low, no one will buy it, no one will buy it if we buy it."

Another problem that troubles Chen Li is her sales performance. In her view, group buying seems to have become a "digital game" now. We are all looking at who can push the price down to the lowest level to attract consumers.

There are 65% off theories in the group buying industry. Only half off of the products are bought, and seventy percent off will be profitable.

She told reporters that in order to make the merchandise discount look lower, sometimes she had to raise the original price, but sometimes it was still difficult to attract customers. "I have to go online every half an hour to see my list and see how many people bought it."

Chen Li kept holding his cell phone in his hands, and always focused on his achievements.

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How much money does group buying website earn every month? The data released by Gao Peng network, a subsidiary of Groupon China, may give you a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg.

According to data released by Groupon, in the first 9 months of this year, the net loss of Gao Peng net was US $46 million 450 thousand, with a total sales volume of US $18 million 440 thousand and revenue of US $2 million 140 thousand.

The big guys are ready to spend the winter.

Just as squirrels store pineapples for the winter, big brothers in the group buying industry also store their own "winter money".

In addition to busy doing things in the US market, CEO Wu Bo of handover network is most concerned about the development of group buying industry, and is always preparing for the coming industry "cold winter" at all times.

"Everyone used to be a horse racing enclosure, trying to spread the stalls to the biggest, but eventually they could occupy the market, so the rest could only be a foil.

At that time, swarm buying websites had already predicted that the whole industry would have to adjust extensively.

Wu Bo said.

Wu Bo told reporters that the reshuffle of the group buying industry has begun and the decline in the number of customers has made it difficult for many smaller group buying websites to continue. The skepticism of capital for the group buying industry is also being pmitted upward, and financing will be more difficult.

In the current group buying industry is still in a general "loss" situation, the adequacy of funds will be a website can survive the key to the winter.

Even if all the $110 million of the financing is used as a "winter fund", Wu Bo is still not at ease.

He told reporters that the quickening pace of listing is to get more capital reserves.

"Zombie website" appears

"In the first half of this year, the group buying market cost increased by ten times, the number of employees increased by ten times, the operating cost increased by ten times, and the investment amount increased by ten 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%.

US group CEO Wang Xing also said that the "cold winter" in the group buying industry is near, and has also chosen to "save money for the winter".

Recently, the United States network has saved the cost of the original preparation and saved the newly acquired investment.

"We should consider every expenditure carefully now, because every sum of money may play the biggest role in the integration of industries."

Wang Xing said.

According to the latest group buying statistics report released by group buying navigation website group 800, starting from July this year, the domestic group buying websites that used to burn money have stopped many unnecessary expenses.

What is more noteworthy is that at least more than 5000 of the group buying websites included in the survey report did not update the products within 8% months.

That is to say, at least 400 small and medium-sized group buying websites in September had not been updated because of "major adjustment or website revision", or simply turned off to become "zombie websites".

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Group buying network's "diverting"

From the "cold winter" of some small and medium-sized group buying websites, many large group buying websites have already realized the crisis.

In addition to increasing their "saving" efforts, like the US group and the handshake, some group buying websites have also chosen to "migrate" from the general group buying business to e-commerce or pfer new business.

Public comment network CEO Zhang Tao is preparing for the "cold winter", but he is not preparing for real gold and silver, but with his website dropping his head.

In the first half of this year, the public comment network received $100 million in financing, giving it a "capital" to resist the cold winter.

But what is amazing is that Zhang Tao did not put all the money into the group buying industry, but chose the business "migration".

Zhang Tao bluntly said that the gross profit margin of group buying business is not high at present, and is still in the stage of "burning money". Shuffling is inevitable. In order to disperse risks, the public comment network has chosen a pformation.

"The future direction of development will be positioning services, group buying will not be substantially invested."

Other group buying websites are beginning to diverge in different directions, and the most concentrated one is the direction of B2C e-commerce.

"The market of physical products is more stable and rules are relatively pparent, so group buying websites are increasingly concentrated in this direction to avoid risks."

Chen Shou, an analyst with Analysys International, said that even now, in the upcoming industry reshuffle, the existing group buying website will collapse about 90%.

CEO Feng Xiaohai, however, is optimistic about the market of Chinese style group buying.

"Group buying is a stepping stone to local service providers. This mode will not go bankrupt. It will only deepen and evolve."

Overnight

The station is gone. People are out of work.

Group buying, one of the hottest network terms and consumption patterns in 2010, has been developing for less than a year and is facing the industry's "winter".

For thousands of group buying networks in China, the industry has experienced an unprecedented "brakes", which tests the patience and courage of every practitioner.

Sudden mass layoffs

"Yesterday they finally promised to return the insurance that they never had to pay back to me in cash, and I signed it on an agreement, and I have nothing to do with Wo Wo Group."

Liu Qing, 25, used to work at the ShaoGuan Railway Station for nearly five months at Wo Wo Group.

Late in September 30th, she and 24 other colleagues from the company collectively received an email from the company.

"That evening, in order to get the order, I worked overtime with my colleagues until seven or eight o'clock, and then we went to dinner together. Someone looked at the mailbox with a cell phone and suddenly found out a letter."

Liu Qing told reporters that the mailing time was 11:40 PM.

The letter simply wrote, "after the company's research decision, we will terminate the labor relations with you today, give the equivalent of one month's wages, and the economic compensation equivalent to half a month's salary", without mentioning any reason.

On the morning of the second day, Liu Qinglai arrived at the office and found that the company's mailbox had been unable to log in, and the background authority of the editor's information was cancelled.

"The company doesn't send people to explain why they want to dismiss us together or to do any handover, so we decided to work as usual, and the mailbox stopped. We can also use official micro-blog to communicate with customers with QQ."

The 25 displaced ShaoGuan Railway Station staff were almost "85" or "90". At that time, they did not fully realize that the name of Shaoguan had been removed from the list of Wo Wo Group.

A list of Wo Wo Group's withdrawal from the media showed that the same group of employees were involved in ten major districts, namely, Ji'nan, Qingdao, Chengdu, Nanjing, Harbin, Dalian, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Wuhan, Chongqing and so on, and 35 local sub stations were removed as a whole.

Shenzhen alone has removed seven sites and focal points.

Heze, Zaozhuang, Liaocheng, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, Linfen and other six sub stations were removed on the line less than a month ago, and Nanyang, Xuchang and other stations were not yet on the line, the notice was withdrawn.

Wo Wo Group official subsequently confirmed the withdrawal of the station news, and said the total number of layoffs of around 500 people - the number of layoffs and then usher in a network of war of words.

Everything is for sale only.

ShaoGuan Railway Station on line in May this year, until the end of July, the company also implemented a reward system of "100 yuan for every single purchase", and at the same time, the employee could get a deduction of 0.7% of the total performance.

However, since August, the policy of Single Commission has been abolished, and only the performance commission has been retained. Even some colleagues have only paid twelve yuan and five of their wages in September.

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But Wo Wo Group's withdrawal is also justified.

The group buying website is usually divided into 1 to 9, which is that the actual settlement income of the group buying website is about 10% of the total unit price.

This means that the actual monthly revenue of ShaoGuan Railway Station is only thirty thousand or forty thousand yuan.

ShaoGuan Railway Station has a total of more than 20 employees, two directors plus city managers monthly salary of 5000 yuan to 7000 yuan, the average monthly salary of other ordinary employees is about 2000 yuan, only one month's salary per employee is beyond the total income, obviously in the state of being unable to make ends meet.

In fact, after entering the July, all the national group buying websites have accelerated the abolition adjustment of the poor profit earning sites, which is a broken wrist correction for the whole group of shopping websites throughout the country.

Insiders said: "the national brand group buying enterprises do belong to the" great leap forward "expansion. From the results, some cities should not be open, but this is a result of competition, and it will happen again.

According to the survey data of group 800, as of the end of September, the number of handover networks was the largest, reaching 184, followed by Wo Wo Group and more than 150.

However, when the listing is about to "dream come true", the previous "great leap forward" expansion has become an urgent need to solve the problem.

A source close to Wo Wo Group confirmed to reporters that Wo Wo Group has been conducting a roadshow in the past few weeks.

Xu Maodong CEO of the company said publicly that Wo Wo Group would have completed IPO by the end of 2011.

Therefore, outsiders are not surprised that Wo Wo Group has "snatch" its performance and cut costs by drastic redundancies.

Foreign capital goes hand in hand.

But Wo Wo Group's layoffs are still being criticized.

Zhao Zhanling, a researcher at China University of Political Science and Law's intellectual property rights center and an employee rights agent, pointed out that according to the forty-first provision of the labor contract law, the number of layoffs of more than 20 people at a time is economic redundancies.

The employer can make economic layoffs due to reasons such as bankruptcy reorganization, serious difficulties in production and operation, and adjustment of the way of operation. However, it is necessary to fulfill the legal procedures: to explain the situation to the trade union or all the staff 30 days in advance, and to listen to the opinions of the trade union or the staff and workers, the staff reduction plan shall be reported to the labor administrative department before the layoffs can be carried out.

"Whether it is the great leap forward during expansion, or the indifference in contraction, it shows the immature operation management of start-up companies."

He said.

However, it is not important for Xu Maodong to become immature in operation and management. The important thing is to get the money on the market.

But in fact, Xu Maodong rushed to catch up slowly, or let the handshake net grab first.

A few days ago, the handover network submitted the IPO prospectus, which was planned for listing on Nasdaq, with a financing scale of US $100 million.

The operation data provided by the handshake net in the prospectus showed that the cumulative deficit of the company as of June 30, 2011 was 474 million 200 thousand yuan.

"Groupon online valuation has risen to more than 100 billion US dollars in one year, which has stimulated the imitations of China's imitators and aggravated the impetuosity of the whole industry."

Insiders pointed out that, however, when China's group buying website was desperately expanding and imitating Groupon, there was no bottom line marketing, and when a newly discovered blue ocean instantly changed into a close red sea, the foreign capital market began to shake hands, and the Chinese group buying fire would be drastic.