Some people say that the nose of capital is smarter than that of a dog, and wherever new winds appear in the market, capital will follow. Many industries in China have seen this phenomenon, for example, when the US group was founded, there was a "hundred regiment war", and the emergence of shared bicycles allowed almost all companies to use all common colors. The same is true on the track of community group buying, as long as the domestic Internet companies that can be named, they are directly or indirectly involved in it.
However, even if capital rushes in, only a few will survive in the end, or even the entire army will be destroyed. How the community group buying is developing now, perhaps from a financial report of Didi, it can be seen that the original third quarter of Didi's main business loss was only 29 million yuan, but because the fair value of Orange Heart Preferred was reduced, the investment business lost 20.8 billion yuan, and the quarterly loss was as high as 30.6 billion yuan.
In fact, not only Didi, community group buying has developed to the present, and there are not many companies that can benefit from following the trend, and even some have already declared bankruptcy because of poor management, and most companies have chosen to close some sites to shrink the front. It is not unusual to cut salaries to survive.
Hunan chain convenience stores took the lead and reproduced the Hundred Regiments War
Many consumers are exposed to community group buying, which is due to the inconvenience of travel during the epidemic, but in fact, the development of community group buying is much earlier. As early as 2016, there was a company called "You, Me and You" in Changsha, Hunan Province, which guided the uncles and aunts with shopping needs in the community to place orders by pushing promotional information on the Mini Program to various QQ groups or WeChat groups. At the same time, the manager of the community convenience store is appointed as the head of the group, maintaining the supply and demand relationship between each other, and forming the earliest community group purchase model.
Such a model made Furong Xingsheng, a chain convenience store brand that also originated in Hunan, focus on it, and then established Xingsheng Preferred. Compared with other community group buying enterprises that need to find a convenience store manager as the head of the cooperation model, Xingsheng Preferred has its own chain of convenience stores, and the road to expansion is exceptionally smooth. By June 2018, when other companies had not yet reacted, the monthly sales of Xingsheng Preferred had exceeded 20 million yuan.
Since then, more and more community group buying platforms have appeared in the market, Didi has orange heart preferred, Meituan has Meituan preferred, Pinduoduo has done more to buy vegetables, and Jingdong's Jingxi Pinpin has also withdrawn. In addition, the Food Sharing Club, The Ten Clubs, and Tongcheng Life have also appeared in major app stores and mini programs, and there is a scene of another "Hundred Regiments War".
Tencent Ali scrambled to invest first, and people's daily published an article criticizing it
With the emergence of the epidemic, in addition to solving some of the difficulties in the procurement of daily necessities, community group buying has also attracted the attention of the two giants of Tencent and Ali. Almost most of the apps we use every day can be divided into Ali and Tencent, and the community group buying category is naturally no exception.
In addition to the original relationship between JD.com and Meituan, Tencent has also invested in Tongcheng Life, Food Sharing Club, Prosperity Preferred, etc., of which Xingsheng Preferred alone, Tencent has injected more than 100 million US dollars. Ali is also not willing to show weakness, its own Hema Preferred, still invested in the Ten HuiTuan, and took this opportunity to acquire small community group buying platforms such as Xinxian Life to expand its own network.
However, there are many community group buying platforms, but they have not made much differentiation, and the core competitiveness is only one point, that is, to fight for prices, and almost all companies want to survive each other by burning money. Because of this, when the blind development of community group buying was also frequently named by the People's Daily, the official also issued an announcement prohibiting enterprises from dumping below the cost price to disrupt the market.
The industry reshuffle began, bankruptcy, offline, salary cuts to survive
The development of the group buying website to the end, that is, the reputation of meituan and Ele.me has stood firm until now; the travel business Didi has formed a thriving situation through two mergers and acquisitions; and Haro, which may be invested by Ali, is now living the best life. However, few people remember the companies that fell in the competition shuffle, and the community group buying is now facing a reshuffle moment.
Orange Heart Preferred, which has plunged Didi into a huge loss, has been removed from the Didi Chuxing page in December 2021, and earlier, its business scope has been reduced from 31 provinces to 9 provinces, and now it may be even less. The fresh orange technology company behind Tongcheng Life directly declared bankruptcy and was exposed to the news that it was owed 200 million yuan to suppliers. Ali's heavily funded Ten Hui Regiment is also shrinking the front line, with employees reduced from tens of thousands to less than 1,000 people, and even needs to cut salaries and reduce expenditures to ensure survival.
Although many companies have withdrawn, the competition for community group buying continues. However, at this time, companies should perhaps understand that the opponents they face are not each other, but the traditional supply market. If you only rely on low prices to attract users, and greatly reduce the service and quality, Presumably more consumers would rather take a few more steps to the market to protect their fresh life. What do you think? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area!