Dialogue with Huang Guangyu again: What is the difference between Gome and the outbreak?

21st Century Business Herald reporter He Hongyuan reported from Beijing

At least from the perspective of headquarters, Gome is still brilliant.

Gome Pengrun Building is located on Xiaoyun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, and is a landmark building in Lufthansa Business District. Founder Huang Guangyu's office area is on the top floor, the view is excellent, the view is endless, it is easy to see Beijing landmarks such as China Zun, Guomao, CCTV headquarters, etc. The sun rises and the moon sets, it is difficult not to point out the feeling of the country.

This is in stark contrast to JD.com's headquarters outside the fifth ring road.

In December 2021, it was here that we had a second conversation with Huang Guangyu, just two months after the last.

At this time, Huang Guangyu should be busy, he personally led the team to participate in the IPO of Acen Logistics, which is only a member of the gome system's package of IPO projects.

Gome itself has also reached a critical moment of transformation.

"From the expectations, we did slow down for a few months, and when we rebuilt the link in the middle, we did encounter some so-called 'pits' to open all the tasks, including online and offline." The occurrence of these problems is also expected. Huang Guangyu said.

"Over the past year, a lot of changes have been made, the entire business chain has been subdivided, and at the same time, the concept of sharing and co-construction has been proposed, and a lot of optimization has been made in the business model." In the end, it has now made 6 platforms: True Happiness Online Platform, Gomejia Offline Platform, as well as Supply Chain Platform, Sharing Co-construction Platform, Big Data & Cloud Platform and Logistics Platform. Let the entire retail industry be able to provide a good trading platform for merchants from the B-end and optimize the supply chain. After optimization by the B-side, the C-side can be better. Enjoy a lower price in the case of the same quality. He said.

This is the 35th anniversary of the founding of Gome.

On the other hand, Gome is still in the wind and rain. As of the end of June 2021, Gome's four-and-a-half-year total loss was about 16.9 billion yuan. In terms of revenue, there is still a huge gap with Ali, JD.com, and Pinduoduo.

From the perspective of stock prices, on January 21, Gome Retail closed at HK$0.66. It fell 46.44% in 250 days.

Given the return date, this is a bit like the Huang Guangyu Confidence Index.

He did have something to say.

Huang Guangyu was interviewed. Image source: Gome

"21st Century": Acen Logistics plans to IPO, and it may have a joint venture with Gome Retail, how to view the relationship between the two? Is Gome Retail a controlling retail platform or a bias towards a holding company?

Huang Guangyu: We are making two preparations, one is that the listed company is developing around the listing issue, and the other is also preparing to let it (Axun Logistics) operate as an independent listed company. The core issue should be to see the situation at that time, and ultimately to maximize the interests of shareholders, which is a problem we have to consider.

21st Century: Which shareholder does "shareholder" refer to?

Huang Guangyu: It is a shareholder of the listed company, 0493 (Gome Retail). For us, this structure is the most adequate use of resources, and we must definitely consider the interests of the remaining shareholders. As for which form to use in the end, in the future, it is necessary to consider what is most important to do from this dimension. Now Accion Logistics may do some financing, if 0493 says not to be listed, we want to put it in 0493, so that the benefits are greater, we may give the current shareholders to it to acquire, do not list, is such a logic.

"21st Century": What are the criteria for the choice of "two roads"?

Huang Guangyu: I can't be sure yet. Listed companies can put forward, we as major shareholders can also propose, if there is financing, financing parties, investors can also propose. After proposing it, everyone will study and judge, and then find a professional company to judge from different angles. That's how it should be.

"21st Century": At present, the gap between Gome's sales and JD.com is still huge, how to view this situation?

Huang Guangyu: From the perspective of e-commerce business, from the perspective of retail business, it should still be commodities, prices and services.

We are now constantly enriching the products, after all the merchants stationed, not only to give him some sharing, but also through the strict selection of merchants, real selection of goods these two dimensions. These are from the perspective of product selection, further achieve consumption upgrading, enhance brand competitiveness, and form core competitive advantages.

Many platforms may be doing real selection, but it is not their mainstream business, but for our mainstream, we will consider the problem of retail from three aspects, stand in the perspective of consumers, and help consumers choose products. This is the most critical.

"21st Century": What are the advantages of Gome's selection?

Huang Guangyu: Specific things need specific professionals to do, which is not difficult. The most important thing is that Gome defines this mechanism, in which we define talents and define rules. For example, Sam's Shop, it is actually the selection logic, it can do a good job, it is because of the original company's positioning to have its selection team? It was because he had a position, he saw the market demand, and then he formed a team to do this thing.

"21st Century": Why has Gome's sales growth not yet seen a breaking point?

Huang Guangyu: We have not officially publicized it, not to say that it cannot grow rapidly because of commodities. Gome's new model has just begun to run in, although it has been launched, but there is no real over-publicity and promotion in the society, or in the run-in stage. From now on, we will gradually increase our efforts and do it slowly, perhaps until next year (2022) "May Day", which is the stage of the entire publicity effort, official promotion.

21st Century: Does that mean a significant increase in marketing spending?

Huang Guangyu: No, the process we created is to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and use good goods to drive traffic, rather than relying on subsidies and buying traffic to obtain sales. Relying on commodities is that we have good commodities, and it is such a logic that we can bring how many consumers to buy goods when we invest in some traffic.

"21st Century": How to view the relative downturn in sectors such as true happiness events?

Huang Guangyu: We are really in trial operation of this piece, and now the content is still in the selection stage, and it has not really started. This is our social platform, there are two pieces: one is the short video live broadcast platform that will independently develop into a social, event-led. Another piece is that the entertainment consumption scene that provides shopping is not simply based on e-commerce, it is a social content e-commerce sector.

"21st Century": How to view the relationship between True Happiness and short video platforms such as Douyin?

Huang Guangyu: We are a cooperative relationship, or we are not on the same competitive track.

Our way is to do the competition from the perspective of the event, the event section, do the short video, do what everyone likes or feels interesting to do the game, we are the event platform, anyone can simply hold the event platform, do such a supply and demand.

Douyin has developed its own system or self-contained system model, which relies on short videos and then extends to e-commerce and so on. Everyone is not the same business model, it is right to say that it is a peer, but to say that competition is different, there is no competition. Everyone has a lot of hobbies, and this is just one of those hobbies, and we are differentiated. Douyin now belongs to the all-encompassing platform of video social networking, not a unique social network through events like ours, and the difference between everyone is still quite large.

"21st Century": As a major shareholder, the 20-year lease contracts of Gome Shangdu, Xiangjiang Jiu and Pengrun Building totaled about 17.9 billion yuan in rent, and injected them into Gome Retail by issuing new shares and transferring the equity of subsidiaries at a premium (this action objectively significantly reduced the debt ratio by nearly 20 percentage points). What is the logic behind it?

Huang Guangyu: In the future, this piece will be a Gomejia, and the whole country will carry out a grid layout, and each city will have three or four kinds of stores. Put the property in the mall with low prices and simple methods, in order to let it have a grip, quickly make a model, copy to the whole country, grid layout. Now I have begun to do this, as a major shareholder, I have obtained stocks, and I have not taken a penny in cash, there is no pressure on the rent, and even more profits and cash flows will be generated in the future. In the future, the business of Gomejia will be extended downwards.

We will also see more department stores, including clothing, become offline experiences and online purchases. At the same time, Gomejia extends the module and can enjoy another scenario, the service business model of local life.

"21st Century": Will the outsourcing distribution model of ACE Logistics affect the customer experience of Gome's retail business?

Huang Guangyu: We integrate social resources from the perspective of cost and controllability. Standards can be established, willing to be one of our suppliers, we must comply with strict standards, strict requirements.

Since the ninth year, from 1994 to do the purchase and installation of life, we have always been this model, the cost of doing it is the lowest, and the quality of service is the best.

For more information, please download the 21 Finance APP