30,000 technicians, not only door-to-door but also listed?

China News Weekly

2024-04-26 18:34Published on the official account of China News Weekly in Beijing

It has more than 30,000 technicians, "24-hour on-call", and more than 10 million registered users......

A door-to-door massage platform that does not take the usual path is ready to go public in Hong Kong. Recently, Tang Fan, founder of the door-to-door massage brand Dongjiao Daojia, said in an interview with the media that the IPO (initial public offering) of Dongjiao Daojia is advancing.

However, compared with the popularity brought by the listing, Dongjiao Daojia's "side-kicking" behavior in marketing has actually made it famous. On social platforms, it has become a tacit "secret" that the door-to-door massage industry such as Dongjiao Daojia may breed special services. During the 315 period this year, Dongjiao Daojia was even directly named as "pornographic" by Fujian Satellite TV's "Scene" column.

What kind of business is door-to-door massage, and can 30,000 technicians really support a listed company?

Make a fortune with a muffled voice

According to the official website, Dongjiao Daojia Service was established in 2018 and is a door-to-door massage O2O service platform. Dongjiao Daojia is developed from Chongqing, and its platform services have covered 47 cities across the country, of which three-quarters are in the southern region.

It is understood that its founder, Tang Fan, is an Internet practitioner and is proficient in online brand promotion. At first, Dongjiao Daojia's attempt to combine online + offline business model was not smooth, and even "the daily order volume in 2019 was less than 30 orders, and the book loss was more than 3 million", so the offline store was closed and only the online model was developed.

After the epidemic, the online model won the opportunity, coupled with the marketing bombardment that took the unusual path, the eastern suburbs of Daojia was able to expand rapidly.

Li Weihua, an associate professor at the Business School of China University of Political Science and Law, told China News Weekly that the O2O model of Dongjiao Daojia is somewhat similar to the Didi platform, which gathers massage technicians on the one hand and users with massage needs on the other, and uses information services to match transactions. Such an asset-light model does not require physical stores in the traditional massage industry, and can expand rapidly to achieve a certain scale effect.

In fact, the relationship between Dongjiao Daojia and the technician is also similar to Didi - the technician is not an employee of Dongjiao Daojia. According to the information on the Tianyancha platform, the number of employees in the 2022 annual report of Jumi Network, the parent company of Dongjiao Daojia, is only 19.

Open the Dongjiao Daojia App, which clearly marks the technician's "subordinate unit", and many technicians' introduction pages are accompanied by a label of "small and micro merchants", or the name of an individual business named after themselves. In other words, there is no direct labor relationship between Dongjiao Daojia and the technicians, and the technicians need to apply for a self-employed business license and sign a "cooperation agreement" with the company.

Relying on the asset-light model, Dongjiao Daojia has also been able to expand rapidly. In the latest introduction of its App, the slogan "The cumulative number of registered users has exceeded 10 million, and the number of contracted merchant technicians has exceeded 30,000" is impressive.

Although the model is light, the earning power of the eastern suburbs should not be underestimated. Combined with relevant reports and market public information, the GMV of Dongjiao Daojia's project transaction amount in 2023 exceeded 2 billion yuan.

The price of home massage in the eastern suburbs is not cheap. According to its App, a 60-minute Chinese massage is 218 yuan/time, and a 120-minute Thai SPA is 398 yuan/time.

Photo/Dongjiao Daojia App

Dongjiao Daojia also set up different commission ratios for technicians: less than 6,500 yuan, 50% of the technician, more than 6,500 yuan, 55% of the technician, more than 9,500 yuan, 60% of the technician, and more than 14,500 yuan, 80% of the technician. That is to say, as a platform party, the percentage of the eastern suburbs to the home is between 20% and 50%.

Even if the minimum commission ratio is calculated at 20%, the commission income of Dongjiao Daojia in 2023 can reach 400 million yuan.

In the company's introduction released on Dongjiao Daojia's official WeChat in December 2023, it said: "We have completed the service network layout from 1 to 22 cities in 3 years, and the current market share is about 70%, making us a quasi-unicorn in the industry." ”

You must know that in the investment world, companies that can be called unicorns mostly refer to leading companies in a certain segment with a valuation of more than $1 billion.

"Pornography" turmoil

The rapid expansion of Dongjiao Daojia is inseparable from its service model.

Door-to-door service is a major feature that distinguishes Dongjiao Daojia from traditional massage parlors. In the promotional video released on the Dongjiao Daojia social platform, the technician will come to the door for massage at the agreed time, using disposable bed sheets, pillow towels, massage towels, etc. throughout the process.

Picture/Screenshot of social platforms

At the same time, Dongjiao Daojia claims to be on call 24 hours a day. It is understood that the technician on the platform adopts the independent order receiving mode, and the App will display the distance between the technician and the user, and the user needs to pay a certain "transportation fee" before the technician comes to the door.

What's more, the eastern suburbs mainly focus on young and beautiful female technicians, and there are very few male technicians.

The project details also mentions, "If the customer requests a refund due to irrelevant factors such as seeing that the physiotherapist is not beautiful enough, half of the project fee paid by the customer will be refunded, and the transportation expenses will not be refunded." ”

Photo/Dongjiao Daojia App

However, with appearance as a selling point, it is also easy to be eaten by the consumer experience.

On the black cat complaint platform, the appearance of the technician is the focus of complaints in the eastern suburbs. Some users complained that the technician "used retouching software and beauty camera to conceal the technician's own appearance and figure".

Photo/Black Cat complaint

And this kind of complaint is inseparable from the marketing strategy of door-to-door massage platforms such as Dongjiao Daojia to amplify the appearance of technicians. In the context of the external conditions of the technician, its "explicit" related advertisements also caused public discomfort.

From 2022 onwards, Dongjiao Daojia has started the marketing bombing mode, laying advertisements on elevator screens, high-speed rail backrests, taxi advertising spaces and other media, and even "accurately" hitting advertisements into the men's toilet.

In these advertisements, the on-camera technicians are beautiful and sexy, and the words "24 hours, on call, door-to-door" are even more evocative.

Picture/Screenshot of social platforms

According to Baidu index data, from March 1 to March 31, 2024, 80.72% of users aged 20 to 39 searched for Daojia in the eastern suburbs, and 91.8% were male.

However, once the edge marketing is erased, it is easy to become pornographic.

On the day of 315 in 2024, Fujian Satellite TV's "Scene" column named a number of door-to-door massage apps, including Dongjiao Daojia, saying that some platform technicians hinted and encouraged customers to "add clocks" and upgrade "special services" during the massage process.

According to reports, in the process of providing a 60-minute Chinese massage service of 218 yuan, the door-to-door technician in the eastern suburbs proposed to add money to do "distinctive prostate maintenance".

Picture/Screenshot of the video of "Scene".

After the incident was exposed, Dongjiao Daojia quickly responded that the platform has always complied with relevant laws and regulations, and once it is found that the illegal behavior of the cooperative merchant technicians will be cracked down on to the end.

Recently, topics related to "A man was seduced by a female technician" appeared on the hot search, and the technician involved was from the eastern suburbs, which was exactly the same as the "routine" exposed by 315 before. According to the Xiaoxiang Morning News, Mr. Zhao said that on April 6, he made an appointment for a Chinese-style massage on the Daojia platform in the eastern suburbs, and at the end of the day, the female technician suddenly lay on him, touched his private parts on a large scale, and asked for "adding a bell".

Afterwards, the customer service of the Dongjiao Daojia platform responded that the platform absolutely does not allow any illegal projects. "After the customer's feedback, we verified that if there is a corresponding situation, we will definitely severely punish the relevant technicians and hand them over to the public security for processing. ”

Can it really be listed?

The successive pornography-related incidents all point to the internal control of Daojia as a platform in the eastern suburbs.

In the opinion of a number of interviewed experts, Dongjiao Daojia, as a platform party that charges a certain fee for the transaction between the two parties, cannot avoid its regulatory responsibility.

Li Weihua explained that the related "pornography-related" incidents reflect the drawbacks of the door-to-door massage service model, "There is often no professional massage table at the user's home, and the technician has to go to bed to operate at the massage level, and the performance link is prone to certain risks for both the user and the technician." ”

Liu Xinyuan, a lawyer at Shanghai Qinbing (Beijing) Law Firm, told China News Weekly that according to articles 66 and 67 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, those suspected of prostitution or prostitution may be subject to administrative penalties and fines.

The crux of the problem is that Dongjiao Daojia charges a fee as a platform, and massage is a private project, so how to ensure the monitoring of the service link?

The founder, Tang Fan, has publicly stated that in terms of compliance, Dongjiao Daojia drafted and implemented the "White Paper on the Governance of Platform Merchant Violations", adopted a special control system for pornography, developed an AI big data model, and improved the accuracy of early warning for illegal merchants by 400%.

As for how to control the risk, China News Weekly sent an interview letter to Dongjiao Daojia, but did not receive a reply as of press time.

Compliance has indeed become a major problem in front of the listing of Daojia in the eastern suburbs.

Huang Lichong, President of Huisheng International Capital, explained to China News Weekly that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has strict requirements for the compliance of listed companies. If there is a legal or ethical dispute over a company's business model or behavior, such as the alleged provision or concealment of illegal services (e.g. pornographic services), this will seriously affect the outcome of the review of its listing application.

It is also mentioned in the HKEX Listing Decision published by the Exchange that the Exchange may consider the company unsuitable for listing if it has significant compliance issues or moral hazard.

"If Dongjiao Daojia cannot fully prove that its business is completely legal and compliant, and has taken effective measures to prevent the occurrence of violations, the probability of success in its subsequent listing on the Hong Kong stock market may be relatively low. Companies need to thoroughly address these compliance issues before applying for listing, and demonstrate the legitimacy and ethics of their business to the Exchange and potential investors. Huang Lichong said.

When compliance risks are exposed, will the company still move forward with the listing plan?

On April 25, China News Weekly contacted the legal representative of Chongqing Dongjiao Daojia Information Technology Co., Ltd., who said that "we (Dongjiao Daojia) only operate in compliance with the IPO business standards and cooperate with multiple regulators to establish industry standards, which has been misunderstood by many media."

At the same time, the business model of door-to-door massage also faces a lot of competition, and various types of "home-based" massage are also emerging.

Li Weihua believes that the competition in related industries is relatively homogeneous, and the cultural quality level of technicians is relatively low. Compared with the same industry, although Dongjiao Daojia is known as a unicorn, it is difficult to say that it has an absolute advantage. More importantly, whether it is the business model, the boundary of rights and responsibilities, the business model of door-to-door massage is facing many challenges.

Resources

The female technicians who come to the massage are about to IPO, Salt Finance, 2024-04-17

25,000 technicians prop up an IPO, Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, 2024-04-22

"If you don't hold it, you're breaking the law!" Jiangsu man said he was seduced by a female technician to "add a bell", and the eastern suburbs responded at home, Xiaoxiang Morning News, 2024-04-24

Author: Yu Shengmei

Editor: Yu Yuan

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