Group buying website has not yet emerged from the winter

For group purchase websites that have experienced hardships for almost two years in 2011 and 2012, the news that came out at the end of last year was like the warm sun in the winter, which brought endless warmth to the industry, and it also aroused widespread concern in the society:

On December 10th, 2012, Manzhuang.com announced that it had achieved profit and loss for the first time in September and earned a profit of 1 yuan. It became the first company in the industry to turn a profit and loss; afterwards, Wowo has realized a profit of several million yuan. Mall Chairman and CEO Xu Maodong not only shaved a "bald man" in order to honor his commitment to his employees, but also showed off on Weibo; subsequently, the US Mission Network also claimed that he had exceeded sales in 2012. 55 billion yuan has already achieved full profitability.

If you simply look at the number, the three profitable ratios are really insignificant in the industry where the number of websites once passed. You know, when it was the hottest, the group buying industry had just over 5,000 websites in just one year. Nowadays, only three companies have achieved profitability, and it seems that there is nothing worthy of major books.

However, if this figure is placed in the downturn of the group buying industry for almost two consecutive years, this achievement is undoubtedly of great significance, indicating that the industry is beginning to emerge from the predicament. We know that in the worst situation in 2011, the number of group buying websites has been reduced by more than 2,000. Many small and medium-sized group purchasing websites have suffered from layoffs, bankruptcies, and even “run-in-the-run” phenomena that have caused consumer rights to suffer. damage.

Among these, the two extreme examples are handle nets. As a benchmarking company in the group buying industry, since 2012, handle network has burst out of the capital chain and the departure of founders. Although they have escaped the fate of closing down, they have increasingly deviated from the mainstream of the industry. The original 24 vouchers, because of the conflict between investors and founders, have not been opened since October 2012 when they declared a “long vacation”.

However, although it is good news for group-buying websites to start earning money, if you look at the development of the entire industry and the status of several companies that have achieved profitability, such profits do not seem to have lasting significance.

Looking at the full-fledged network first, the “1 yuan” profit seems to give people more of a feeling of doing it. If not, the price paid is extremely painful. The sales scale has suddenly dropped from “100 million yuan” to "Million level", at the same time trying to distribute more money to the business results in the loss of a large number of businesses. The relevant data shows that in August 2011, the monthly sales volume of Manzu.com was 104 million yuan. At present, the sales volume of 53 million yuan is less than one tenth of that of the US mission.

Looking back at the US Mission Network, its sales in December 2012 exceeded 800 million yuan, more than one-seventh of the annual turnover. However, from the specific data, this is mainly due to the movie box office and winter catering, and this feature has the same performance in the sales data of many group purchase sites. Once entering the low season of consumption during the Spring Festival, website traffic and sales will inevitably drop significantly.

What's more important is that these three group-buying websites are profitable, mainly due to the two main reasons for the increase in revenue and expenditure and the change in the group purchase method. The former is mainly through controlling costs, closing sub-stations, expanding channels, saving limited funds, and investing money in the investment; the latter is mainly for group-purchasing websites to shift their own products from "service-oriented" to "substantial "change. The service-oriented content of restaurant foods, tickets, etc. previously sold by group buying websites often broke out with poor service attitudes, and the quality of group purchase products could not be guaranteed, thus allowing consumers to be disappointed with group purchases. But now, there are a growing number of physical goods on the group buying website. Compared with coupons, consumers prefer this “read and feel” product. However, if the profitability of the main business is insufficient, a profit model is actually very fragile if a company puts the hope of profiting on the basis of increasing revenue, reducing expenditure, and even reducing sales.

Although people may be concerned about the current profitability of the group buying industry, from the perspective of industry development, the group buying website is still very promising. IResearch has pointed out in a report that if the first decade of e-commerce in China is 10 years for physical e-commerce providers such as Taobao, JD.com, and Amazon, the next decade will be a life service industry, and the prospects of group buying industry will remain small. watch for.

But the prospect is something that can't be seen after all. In particular, for the winner-take-all internet industry, survival is the first rule. And how to survive, we must test the wisdom of business decision makers. Especially in the current situation where the group purchase industry is facing severe homogeneity, low bargaining power, insufficient consumer viscosity, and lack of credibility, it is indeed urgent to find a breakthrough and how to achieve self-blood formation as quickly as possible. Not easy.

Therefore, for the group buying industry that has experienced two winters, the profits of the three websites can only be seen as a little starlight in the night. It takes a long way to reach the glorious moment.