Tencent Technology News reported on July 2 that Feng Xiaohai, CEO of the domestic group buying website Manzuo.com, recently pointed out in an exclusive interview with Tencent Technology that the success of the Groupon model is inseparable from the market environment in which it operates. When domestic group buying websites use the Groupon model After its introduction, the market environment and consumer groups it faces are very different from those in the United States. Therefore, Groupon should learn from it, but not copy it, and add new elements that are more suitable for China.
Before founding Manzuo.com, Feng Xiaohai's entrepreneurial experience in the Internet industry was not blank. He was one of the founders of the famous domestic automobile website - Aika Automobile Network. Aika Automobile Network started out as a group purchase of automobile services, but later The site sold for tens of millions of dollars.
"After I left Aika in early 2008, I have been paying attention to the consumer field. I pay attention to foreign reports every day, reading them in both Chinese and English. Whenever there are new entrepreneurial projects abroad, I will evaluate them." Feng Xiaohai said with "My eyes lit up." " to describe his first feeling when he saw Groupon: "We have done group buying before, but at that time, group buying could not enter the payment link in the transaction, but now the groupon model completely connects the payment link to the group buying model. "
Groupon, the originator of group buying websites in the United States, created a myth in the Internet industry. It only took 7 months for this website to achieve profitability, and its market valuation has reached US$1.35 billion. In China, Groupon has also attracted many Internet people to hunt for group buying websites.
When Feng Xiaohai founded Manzuo.com, there were less than 10 group buying websites in China. Today, the number has exceeded 400 and is still increasing every day.
Much criticized, there are more than 400 group buying websites, but very few of them can make their own unique features. They basically copy the American Groupon model. In Feng Xiaohai's view, group buying websites will be integrated within the next six months, and only a handful of group buying websites that adapt to the local market can survive.
Under the pressure of huge competition, some group buying websites are improving the Groupon model. For example, 58.com promotes multiple group buying projects in one city per day, and group buying websites launch an advance compensation mechanism. Feng Xiaohai and his Manzuo.com are also improving their own model. They pioneered a new model of placing other group buying items in the sidebar of the group buying website. They were the first to introduce a 400 service hotline and open a community forum in the group buying website. They also plan to develop a group buying website based on user consumption. The platform of high-level relationships increases the stickiness of the website.
In Feng Xiaohai's view, group buying websites have the potential to change China's business form, because traditional media communication platforms focus more on large companies and focus on brand advertising. However, tens of millions of domestic small and medium-sized businesses cannot afford high brand advertising fees. , and group buying websites provide these small and medium-sized merchants with a marketing model that can accurately measure the input-output ratio. "Even if it only costs 30,000 to 50,000 yuan, group buying websites can provide a CASE for small and medium-sized merchants. Markets that companies ignore”.
The following is a transcript of Tencent Technology’s exclusive interview with Manzuo.com CEO Feng Xiaohai:
Tencent Technology: You previously worked on the Aika car website. How did you think of switching from a car website to a group buying website?
Feng Xiaohai: There is still some origin. When I started Aika Auto Network, I started from group buying. I am very clear about the ins and outs of group buying of cars and car services. In 2002 and 2003, we were basically the first to call out the concept of car group buying, and many people, including Beiqing Daily, reported on this matter.
After leaving Aika in early 2008, I have been paying attention to the consumer field. I think most people like us who are thinking about how to start a business every day are paying attention to some foreign media reports every day, both in Chinese and English. Looking at it, there are many foreign entrepreneurial projects coming out, and we will also evaluate them. When groupon came out, my eyes lit up. We have done group buying in the past. At that time, we struggled with the fact that group buying could not enter the payment link during the transaction, but now the groupon model completely connects the payment link to the group buying model.
And the biggest feeling is that Aika has been doing business for such a long time and has turned from the original car club and car community forum to an automotive media and a marketing platform. I saw that groupon is actually helping local businesses with marketing and promotion. It just uses The behavior and model of promotion are used to promote merchants’ products. When I saw it, I thought it was a really good idea, so I quickly found a few friends to do it together.
Tencent Technology: There are about 400 domestic group buying websites. The products and services they provide are almost the same, and the homogeneity is very serious. Does a group buying website need to have some features of its own? How can it create features?
Feng Xiaohai: Of course. At several levels, the businesses themselves also have differences in environment or class. For example, if you eat or talk in this place today, the per capita consumption is 100 yuan, but if you go to other bars and restaurants, the consumption may be 50 yuan. This is the difference. Merchants themselves have differences in their positioning. When we choose merchants, there will also be such screening.
The positioning of Full House, first of all, is that it targets slightly older people, while Meituan targets more recently graduated college students, and 58.com targets more lower-end users. It used to deal with classified information, and more Most of them are intermediaries and people who publish information.
From the beginning, Manchu was positioned for the mid- to high-end crowd, and there may be a small group of people who are in the lower middle range. Because we have positioned this group of people, the products we choose are also such products. It's also a pizza. It's possible that the pizza shop I found is one of the top ten or twenty businesses.
Another positioning of Manzhao is that it prefers novelty, or popular and fashionable. Personally, I think fashion is a big factor in the consumer industry, and I often take part in some literary and artistic things, including some performances, dramas, and some strange new things, such as rafting and diving. We have always wanted to make daily fine selections in the city, and things like eating and catering are actually our daily needs.
I was talking to a friend the other day, saying that if group buying is just a discount, it will be meaningless. It is more about discovering what is happening in a city, what are the popular elements, or introducing things that we usually don’t pay much attention to. This is one of Manzuo’s current criteria for choosing merchants.
Another point is that for the entire group buying website, some trends have begun to appear. For example, Lashou may be available in 100 cities at once. Speaking from Mantuan, I originally made love cards. I pay more attention to the activity of some user communities, or the spiritual communication between users on a virtual level. Mantuan is also developing a platform based on the relationship between users at the consumption level, or SNS. That's what we're currently doing.
At present, only Manzhu has a community, and other websites do not have this feature. Why don't you dare to join the community? You may think that users can't communicate with each other well. Once you join the community, there will be a double-edged sword. The community is open. Once users come in and feel that your service is not good, they will report it in the community. If they cannot do this well, they will not dare to open the forum.
When we released it from the beginning, some users must have complained in the community because they were dissatisfied, but only by complaining can we know what problems users have had, and if there are problems, we will find ways to solve them. This is a spur to the merchants we choose. If there is any problem with the goods or services we choose, whether we have to pay the tuition next time is something that needs to be considered.
In terms of model, if there is no capital coming in, it is expected to open in 10 cities in a year. If capital comes in, the speed may be accelerated. With the development of group buying websites, everyone has developed in different directions. Some have started to do aggregation and e-commerce, and some have become a media, which is just marketing. What I sell is advertising, not even making money from each order. It’s how many users or views the entire website brings you, rather than how much money it sells to get the reflected value of the website. There are also some, such as we will combine group buying and community.
I was chatting with a friend today and mentioned another model, which is called Walmart in the e-commerce service industry. On the same website, for example, if you have needs here, through filtering, you can find the services provided by the full store, which has exactly what you want. It’s just how Wal-Mart purchases things at will.
With the development of the model, we were the first to create an advertisement on the sidebar. Others may also learn from it. Now some people are doing an advance payment. In the future, there will be completely free returns and exchanges, and there will be no expiration date. Said. As the group buying network continues to deepen, differentiation will be reflected in all aspects.
Tencent Technology: Does this mean that Groupon in the United States will definitely be improved after coming to China?
Feng Xiaohai: Definitely.
Tencent Technology: Group buying websites are not very sticky to individuals. How can we increase the stickiness of group buying websites?
Feng Xiaohai: In fact, you don’t need to toil on the website for how long every day. If you come once a day, you have achieved success. It does not require you to stay on the website for a long time. If we achieve this, whether we can use community interaction and user-to-user interaction to allow him to stay on the website to play, or have fun on it, is a question we need to consider. As long as you think about it every day and come to a full house, I have achieved my goal. From the user survey, we found that users began to slowly develop a habit, and even called it addiction.
Tencent Technology: You said that group buying will change the shape of China’s future business. What are the main changes?
Feng Xiaohai: First of all, there are two points. The first point is to move local service providers online, and the second point is precision marketing. A few years ago, we only paid for ads by clicking on them, but now we only pay for them when we buy them. This is a big change, and this is the most attractive thing for local service providers.
Local service providers do not need too much brand effect. What local service providers need is that I put an advertisement with you and you help me sell 1,000 units. What they want is the effect. If you sell 1,000 units and make a profit of 20% to 30% of the 1,000 units, there is no problem. I think the advertising industry has truly achieved precision marketing.
What is marketing? What a merchant can do with 20,000 yuan is to put ads on the website. For small and medium-sized merchants, they first do not have the ability to go to large companies, but they still need professional people to do marketing.
We are also discussing ourselves. We are actually helping merchants fragment their advertising. The merchant gave me 20,000 yuan for this advertising fee. I used 1,000 yuan of it for online interactive marketing and 1,000 yuan for ground promotion. , and spend another 1,000 yuan to advertise the building, you will find that I help it do smaller business advertisements. The big advertising platforms deal with big brands, such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. If you don't work for small merchants like this, those who make 20,000 to 30,000 yuan will look down on them. But small and medium-sized merchants really need to do marketing. Whoever does it is us. When we do this case every day, the volume is also very huge. A large advertising company does a case for two months, and it costs 500,000 or 1 million. Ten thousand is fine, but if we make three to fifty thousand, three to fifty thousand a day, it’s still okay in a month.
Tencent Technology: People who do the Internet and people who do business are two different people. How to bridge the communication barriers between Internet people and traditional commercial enterprises?
Feng Xiaohai: I have always believed that the Internet is a tool. Everything we do must go back to the starting point of the business model. You make people work, pay, and generate value. This value generation is based on the traditional business model. The Marxist economics that I studied in middle and high school at that time talked about the relationship between production costs and profit margins. After you have invested time, what is the value of the commodity itself? It is because you have worked that the value is generated.
We regard the Internet as a tool. A truly traditional business still has to embody commercial value. When I do this, I need to let other industries add value to this product or other products in order to achieve my true commercial value. . If it does not produce value after a long time of work, it is just a concept and will not reflect the value of the things around you. This commercial value is meaningless.
When I was working on Aika, I kept emphasizing that if you do something, you have to make a profit. If you don’t make a profit, the commercial value is meaningless. I was talking to an investor two days ago and he said, Xiaohai, you are very interesting. The industries you are engaged in are all ones where you can make money from the beginning. I said, yes, if you just speculate on a concept and don’t make money, then why do you do it? Many people are like this when doing the Internet. They always think that to do the Internet, you need to talk about the concept. After explaining the concept, you first gather people together and then think about it. I don't agree with making money through human research. I think that when you start, this value tells me that half the people and half the cost can generate profits and support your business. I think this is the essence of business.
Some people don’t agree with it. We burned 20 million at the beginning of the Internet and burned out all the people first. OK, I burned everyone else to death. If I make more money on the basis of 20 million, no one else will survive. I don't agree with that. Including companies like Nuomi.com, which reportedly spent several million on marketing for the first order, and its volume is larger than that of Lashou. Lashou spent hundreds of thousands on this one to promote an iPad event. After it burns this round, what will it do in the next round? Are the users it attracts the final users of the website? After these 150,000 people participate in the event, next time these 150,000 people will come back because of you. Will the products and prices come to this website again? This is a question that needs to be raised.
Tencent Technology: What is the core competitiveness of Manzuo.com?
Feng Xiaohai: The first point is our team. Whether it is understanding of the Internet, advertising, or traditional business, our team has covered these links. I think our team is very excellent.
The second point is our attitude towards doing things. Every time we do an activity, we will summarize the activity and accumulate models, experience and knowledge. Basically, what are the advantages or core competitiveness of an enterprise? I once read a report asking Ctrip what its core competitiveness is. It talked about it for about twenty minutes without saying a word. The full house is like this, I can describe it in one sentence, we are all about the details.
Tencent Technology: Manzuo.com has 12 cities to choose from. What it really does are Beijing, Shanghai and Qinghai. The other 9 places just send promotional information. Why?
Feng Xiaohai: The business hasn’t reached that point yet.
Tencent Technology: Is this due to funding or team issues?
Feng Xiaohai: It’s not a matter of funds, but a matter of team. In fact, I am not worried about doing it for large portals, because managing 4 cities and 5 cities at the same time is a completely different concept from managing 1 city.
Tencent Technology: Do you feel any pressure when you see such competitors, including portals and some big websites entering?
Feng Xiaohai: Of course there is pressure. Only when there is pressure can there be motivation.
Tencent Technology: Do you have any plans to raise funds?
Feng Xiaohai: We are talking about it now.
Tencent Technology: There are some relatively new promotion methods on the Internet. Have you thought of trying them? For example, Twitter.
Feng Xiaohai: Weibo and Kaixin.com have all tried it.
Tencent Technology: How is the effect?
Feng Xiaohai: It’s not as good as everyone exaggerates, but it’s okay.
Tencent Technology: How do you view the current crazy expansion of group buying websites? Many group buying websites are rapidly covering more cities?
Feng Xiaohai: A market always needs someone to educate. When more people come in, the cost of education will be reduced. Both merchants and users need education. The problem we are facing now is that the services of group buying websites are uneven, causing users to become suspicious of this model. This requires websites like Mantuan to stand up and appeal, or make this matter clear in the media.
Group buying means that our prices are group bought, but the services are not group bought, that is, the prices are discounted, but the services are not discounted. This needs to be understood by merchants and users.
I think group buying websites should put user experience first. Sometimes, for the sake of user experience, they can take the initiative to reduce some orders and let a merchant that can only accept 1,000 people receive 10,000 people. There will definitely be problems with the service. If This kind of thing will lead to consumers' distrust of group buying websites.
Tencent Technology: How many group buying websites can China afford?
Feng Xiaohai: Three or four companies in a city is not a problem. The base of users or merchants in China is relatively large.
Tencent Technology: How long does it take to reshuffle group buying websites? How long does it take to form a fixed pattern?
Feng Xiaohai: Now I see that almost all the large websites that should come in have come in. QQ and Sina are the last few left. Maybe QQ will adopt platform behaviors, such as navigation or alliances. All the big websites that can come in have come in. Quickly If so, it will be in half a year.
Tencent Technology: Can you envision what Manzuo.com will look like in two years?
Feng Xiaohai: In 2012, first of all, it became a guide for high-quality consumption in a city. Secondly, when everyone thought that I wanted to purchase services, it would be full.
Tencent Technology: In other words, in the future, among the three to five group buying websites in a city, will there be a full room?
Feng Xiaohai: It must be done. If you want to develop a habit, you should open your browser and go to the full website to see what is on sale before going to other websites.