Another travel shooting project attracted tens of millions of dollars He served 200,000 users in 200 cities for 1,300 photographers

Three years ago, Chen He had already set his sights on this emerging track.

Wen 丨 pencil road reporter Liu Xiaoqian

The phone speaker function turned on and was placed in the middle of the table, and there were more than a dozen people around the table. "Well, it's good." A female voice came and answered Chen He's question lightly. It was Chen He's interview with the first user, although it did not have a warm response as expected, but at least it showed that the user was still relatively satisfied. Since then, in the more than 1,000 days since then, Chen He will act as a customer service staff to visit users from time to time to review and adjust the business of yimei and one auction. In 2016, Chen He, who has been engaged in the tourism industry for a long time, was optimistic about the market of travel follow-up service and decided to establish a beautiful and one-auction. It's an Internet platform focused on travel and photography services, recruiting excellent photographers to settle in, while allowing users to quickly find quality photographers like Didi. In order to establish core barriers, Chen He placed standardized services at the core of his strategy from the beginning. At present, Yimei Yipai has covered more than 200 cities at home and abroad, with more than 1,300 active photographers who have been engaged in the industry for three years, serving 200,000 users in total, and the average unit price is 550 yuan. In July this year, Yimei Yipai completed a round of tens of millions of financing, funded by Meikong.com, which has nearly 300,000 active photographers. Chen He said the project is looking for a new round of financing.

Note: Chen He promises that the data in the article is correct and is responsible for the authenticity of the content. Pencil Road is an objective and true record, and the speed recording tone has been backed up.

This emerging track was targeted three years ago

"Give me a preview of the sample you took in Lijiang." I don't want to see Sanya, I just want to know how you shot in Lijiang. Although the previous project in Sanya has run through the model, when he just flew to Lijiang to plan to capture the city, the first customer he met left Chen He helpless.

In the matter of taking high-value photos when traveling, the enthusiasm of users is very high. However, they have an instinctive defensiveness about this nascent form of travel and shooting.

10 years ago, Chen He was already aware of the needs of this part of the user. At the time, he was in charge of destination fragmentation services at Ctrip, testing the waters of photography products. In order to ensure the quality of service, Ctrip mainly cooperates with photographer agencies. A set of services nearly 2,000 yuan, or many customers choose.

Even if Chen He later joined Tuniu, he found that this user demand still exists. "The user structure of the two companies is not the same, to some extent they form a pyramid, but they are willing to pay for travel and shooting."

However, Chen He noted that until 2016, although there were scattered photography studios that began to participate, the travel photography market was almost blank.

During the survey, he found that users had a poor service experience when traveling, and it could even be said that they were "scared". The price difference between different photographers may be 10 times, and in the face of stranger photographers without platform guarantees, the decision-making cost of users is higher when placing deposits. Once there is an after-sales problem, tourists do not know who to claim.

On the other hand, independent photographers have an equally difficult time. They often wear several hats, not only to take photos, but also to take time to create accounts in various content communities such as Weibo and Douban, to shape personal brands and attract users.

In the same year, Chen He decided to seize this opportunity to create a beautiful one. This is an Internet brand focusing on travel photography services, "mediating" for photographers and users, mainly solving the problem of information asymmetry between travel tourists and photographers.

Set up standardized services

Sanya, one of the hottest tourist cities in China, is also the first stop of a beautiful auction.

At first, users only dared to try the lowest price service, 2 hours 329 yuan.

In order to make customers put aside their doubts, Chen He let promises and services first. First, all photographers have at least 3 years of experience in the industry; second, the charging standard is clearly marked, there will be no lure consumption; third, within 48 hours, the film can be delivered to the user; fourth, the establishment of a cloud album system, lifelong cloud storage, support users to share the circle of friends for free.

In recent years, the trend of industry standardization has become more and more obvious, the growth of domestic and foreign tourists has added fuel to the travel and shooting industry, and the new generation of young consumer groups has become more and more demanding for the current record of appearance moments.

"At least it's a $20 billion market." Chen He said that as the market gradually matures, users' decisions are more bold. A large number of users now choose 3-hour, 4-hour and 8-hour services, and some users who love photography will even choose photographer services for 4 consecutive days.

The sudden increase in the number of users has also attracted more and more photographers to join the one beauty shoot. In order to recruit excellent photographers, Chen He standardized his services.

"Rewards and punishments are the key to the automatic operation of the system, clarifying the photographer's service content and service objectives, so that the photographer can be liberated from the complicated operation process, concentrate on doing a good job of photography, and get rewards accordingly." Chen He introduced that in order to ensure professionalism, photographers need to take an online written test, and after passing, they can conduct a remote video interview to judge whether they can pass.

He added that Yimei Yipai stipulates many details of the photographer's service, such as the photographer's dress code, which shows tourists photos every 30 minutes.

Previously, in order to attract a large number of photographers in the initial stage, Chen He chose to cooperate with local photography agencies in tourist cities. Photographers belong to the agency, and the owner of the institution has a set of management methods for it, which means that one beauty and one shot cannot control the photographer, let alone require the photographer to serve tourists in accordance with the rules and regulations of one beauty and one shot. However, with the growth of the project, at present, the supply side of one beauty and one shot is more composed of independent photographers.

At this stage, the platform has more than 1300 active photographers who have been in the industry for three years. Chen He said that 99% of the photographers of Yimei Yiyi are non-full-time photographers, but contract photographers. "Essentially, we are a platform, and labeling it as inclusive accelerates our growth."

Expanded to more than 100 cities in 3 months

"Exhausted the resources of everyone on the team, it is still impossible to continue to grow." In the first half of 2019, the number of tourist cities involved in the project was fixed at 103, and it was impossible to move forward. Prior to this, the project will expand to 6 to 7 new cities every month.

Looking back on this experience now, Chen He still believes that it is a threshold that cannot be crossed in his heart. "I know that users have needs, but we can't find local quality photographers, and we can't do anything about it."

During this period, Chen He also considered foreign photographers, but later found that the feasibility was low. Due to differences in cultural backgrounds, it is difficult for foreigners to understand the photographic style that Chinese people want.

Until August this year, Yimei Yipai met with Meikong and completed a pre-a round of tens of millions of financing.

Chen He wanted to take the land inch by inch in the travel and shooting market, and in his opinion, Meikong was the sword caster who provided weapons. Uskong.com is a platform that gathers domestic fashion talents, bringing together almost all first-line fashion photographers and makeup stylists in China. Among them, there are 300,000 active photographers, distributed all over the world.

From August to now, in 3 months, with the help of the photographer resources of the Us Air Network, the number of destinations of one beauty and one shot has increased by 200% year-on-year, and has now covered more than 200 cities at home and abroad. At the same time, Yimei Yipai also entered the fashion circle with the help of the US air network to further publicize and obtain customers, and the monthly revenue growth rate was above 150%.

In addition, Yimei Yipai will also draw traffic from platforms such as Mafengwo, Ctrip, and Fliggy, and the repurchase from old customers on official Mini Programs also accounts for a large proportion.

Next, Chen He intends to continue to expand the destination and also launch a video recording service at the same time.