Recently, it has been reported that the community group buying platform Shihui Group has been completely shut down. In this regard, the first financial and economic contact tried to try the relevant person in charge of the ten hui group for verification, and the other party has not replied as of press time.
At present, the Ten Club Mini Program is in a state of no maintenance, and the main page of the Ten Club Group App is also blank. The departure of the Ten Hui Group is another example of the community group buying industry has entered a cold winter.
(The picture is a screenshot of the Ten Hui Tuan App)
Multiple rounds of layoffs
There are already signs of the fall of the Ten Leagues. In November 2021, the Shihui Group said that since November, under the premise of ensuring the basic salary and basic living needs of employees, some of the salaries of the company's middle and back-office employees, including performance wages, have been deferred and paid at a rate of 70%. For the deferred portion, the Company will accrue interest at an annualized rate of 3.0% and reissue it in the first quarter of 2022, matching the same amount of equity incentives.
But many employees are not waiting for the first quarter of 2022. Zhang Xin (pseudonym), a former employee of the laid-off ShihuiTuan, told the first financial reporter that on December 20, 2021, she received the "Notice of Unilateral Termination of Labor Relations" from the Shihuituan, which showed that "due to major changes in the market environment and objective conditions facing the company, the company decided to dismiss the post after evaluation." ”
Zhang Xin said that after being laid off, the company not only did not give corresponding compensation, but even defaulted on the salary of the fourth quarter. After the layoffs defended their rights, the company paid 70 percent of its fourth-quarter salary at the end of February and said it would settle the remaining by May. Zhang Xin said that between December last year and February this year, the company laid off at least 400 people, "the company's large group had 800 people in December, and in February, as far as I know, there are only 400 people left." After this round of layoffs, Zhang Xin's department was reduced from the previous 20 people to 2 people.
For the company's situation, Zhang Xin said, "When the main body of the company was changed at the end of October, basically everyone felt that the company was about to die. According to Zhang Xin's recollection, at the end of October, the main body of the company's contract with employees was changed from Beijing QunxianHui Technology Co., Ltd. to Beijing Shihui Technology Co., Ltd. "In the past, employees basically used group fresh for daily reimbursement, and large projects such as business transactions around the world used Shihui technology." "For the subject of the change, the company's statement at that time was that it was ready to go public, but because it had already carried out three rounds of layoffs before, almost no employees believed this statement.
As an employee who has been employed in the Ten Clubs for more than 2 years, in Zhang Xin's view, the company began to decline after obtaining D round financing. On March 31, 2021, Shihui Group raised $750 million in Series D financing. Zhang Xin said: "I feel that after getting financing, I have swelled up, and the salaries of the new batch of employees in April are very high." ”
Another Li Jia (pseudonym), who was laid off in August last year, told CBN that the reason given for the layoffs of HR was that the economy was not good. In the recording provided by Li Jia, HR said, "It's not that you don't give (compensation), the company's office space is rented, the bank has no loan, the computer and office equipment are also known to be rented, and now the company has no money." I can only guarantee that the information of these partners I signed will be given to the finance as soon as possible, so that they can set aside funds for everyone to get next month, and now I can only fight for this for everyone. ”
Vendors that are still waiting for settlement
Not only employees, but also suppliers are in a state of anxiety.
A supplier from Chongqing told the first financial reporter that after the rise of community group buying, he supplied food to a number of community group buying platforms, of which Shihui Tuan was one of the platforms with large sales, with a monthly turnover of 100,000 yuan during the peak period. Since September last year, he has no longer supplied the Ten Clubs. Judging from the background screenshots he provided, there are still more than 30,000 yuan of payment and 10,000 yuan of deposit outstanding.
In the view of the above suppliers, in July 2021, the problem has already been revealed, "in June and July, there have been successive cases of suppliers' payment and non-payment of the deposit in the city." At the end of August, we went to the headquarters specifically, and the headquarters told us that there would be no problems and that the supplier would settle the bill. At the end of August, the staff of Chongqing Docking and Settlement left their jobs, and they have not said anything until now. As of press time, the above-mentioned suppliers said that the payment has not yet been settled, and the person in charge has not been contacted. There are also suppliers who reflect that the procurement of the Ten Hui Group said that the company has no money to suggest that he defend his rights through a lawsuit.
For suppliers waiting for settlement, the platform's practice is discounted settlement. In a WeChat group called "Ten Hui Tuan Supplier Deposit Payment Rights Protection", there are more than 100 suppliers. Some suppliers said that in January this year, the 10th Group provided a "supplier one-time settlement plan", which showed a one-time settlement of 30% off the amount owed by the supplier, and the termination time of the withdrawal was February 10. After February 10, for merchants who have not yet settled, a 20% discount plan will be implemented.
(The picture shows a screenshot of the scheme)
Many suppliers said that in order to reduce losses, they had signed the plan and received a 30% discount on the payment. However, many suppliers said that they did not know how to contact the Group and missed the opportunity to get a 30% discount.
For suppliers, this is not the first time that they have experienced the collapse of community group buying. In July last year, Fresh Orange Technology, the main operating company of the community group buying unicorn "Tongcheng Life", issued an announcement that it intends to file a bankruptcy application and abandon the original community group buying business, and start the new brand name "Honey Orange Life" from now on. Some suppliers said, "Tongcheng can have 60% of the settlement at that time, and only 30% of the ten hui groups." ”
There have been big ups and downs in two years
Even though it only received $750 million in financing last March, the Group still owes a lot of money and wages. The burning money of community group buying can be seen.
This can also be felt from the financial reports of other platforms. On December 30 last year, Didi released its financial results for the second and third quarters of 2021. According to the third quarter financial report, Didi's net investment loss in the third quarter was RMB20.8 billion, mainly due to the adverse changes in the orange heart business in the third quarter of 2021, compared with a profit of RMB830 million in the same period last year. Previously, at the time of submitting the prospectus, Didi said that it would split the orange heart preferred.
In 2021, the new business to which Meituan Preferr belongs is increasing in loss every quarter. In the first quarter of 2021, the loss of new business reached 8.04 billion yuan, an increase of 489.9% year-on-year. The loss in the second quarter reached 9.24 billion yuan, an increase of 532.9% year-on-year. The loss in the third quarter reached 10.91 billion yuan, an increase of 437.5% year-on-year. The fourth quarter loss reached 10.2 billion yuan, an increase of 70% year-on-year.
Some insiders told First Finance, "In 2021, this track will burn at least 100 billion." "And burning money to burn out the scale of the industry, so that many platforms in 2021 to withdraw." In addition to the same city life and the ten clubs, last year's food club also announced the transfer of tracks. Recently, Jingxi Pinpin also reported the news of layoffs and reduction of business.
In just two years, the community group buying industry has experienced great ups and downs. In 2020, a number of Internet companies have entered the community group buying industry on a large scale, and they have threatened to "put no upper limit on investment", which is in strong contrast with the current situation of withdrawal and dismissal.
Zeng Ying, senior analyst of analysys analysis and circulation industry, told the first financial reporter that there are certain problems in the business model of community group buying, first, low prices have become the main advantage of community group purchases, and the user loyalty attracted by low prices is also low, and the repurchase rate is difficult to guarantee. Second, in the environment of low-price competition, the faster the expansion of community group buying, the greater the loss. Third, some of these companies do not have rich experience in the commodity supply chain before, so in the case that the supply chain and operation do not have advantages, the enterprises that cannot keep up with the capital chain will withdraw from the community group purchase market in advance.
At the same time, in 2021, a number of community group buying was interviewed by the State Administration for Market Regulation on the negative impact of low-price competition, and after that, the governments of many regions, including Shaanxi and Chongqing, have also formulated relevant guidance policies and held seminars on the standardization standards of community group buying, aiming to standardize the competition order of the online group buying market. The barbaric growth period of community group buying has passed, and the future has begun to enter healthy competition, and standardization and standardization are the main trends in future development.
The above analysts believe that in 2022, the community group buying industry will enter a precipitating period, the industry will return to the essence of quality, and the first echelon of enterprises will continue to expand their business, including strengthening supply chain management, optimizing user operations, improving performance capabilities, and diversifying their business layout. Among them, supply chain capabilities, performance capabilities to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and the value mining of existing users are the key. At the same time, some platforms choose the strategy of "intensive cultivation of some areas" may appear in the future community group buying regional giants, the platform will create characteristic supply for different regions, deepen the local supply chain, continue to consolidate the advantages in the region, and different regions will have different platforms to occupy the advantages.
In the eyes of industry insiders, 2022 is still a year for many giants to make up lessons, "giants want to make up for infrastructure construction lessons." Giants may also shrink and focus on certain areas. ”