Group Buying Winter Strikes &Nbsp Ahead Of Time; Behind The Dug War, The Bubble Is Facing Collapse.

Less than 3 years of history and the first half of this year, the group buying industry with unusually hot weather suddenly arrived in winter.

At present, China's large group buying network is laying off workers.

Groupon Inc, the world's largest group buying website Groupon and Tencent, the domestic Internet giant, has just made a big layoff.

Earlier, some of the heads of office of Gao Peng were asked to lay off up to 5% of their staff. Groupon spokesman said that this is the only way for companies to develop in most countries and regions.

But Gao Peng's layoffs seem to come too fast.

At the beginning of the year, it came to China to recruit quickly.

In just one or two months, the staff of Gao Peng reached 400, and 1000 people were recruited at the end of the year.

However, many people have started to leave in the middle of this year, because many companies are losing money and many people can't see the future.

Ouyang Yun, COO, though he tried hard to support it later,

Groupon headquarters does not understand the facts of Gao Peng.

Gao Peng, a representative of the collective rights protection staff of the high staff, and Zhao occupation, a researcher at the intellectual property center of China University of Political Science and Law, revealed that the 13 local branches of Gao Peng had been withdrawn as a whole. At least 18 sub stations were involved in layoffs, and the number of people who had been cut has exceeded 400.

Fortunately, the parent company Tencent can bring lots of support to it, and Gao Peng may be able to help himself.

But it also depends on whether the Chinese team led by Ouyang Yun can rapidly change the situation at the business level.

Gao Peng is just one of the most difficult group buying nets.

In fact, almost all Chinese group buying nets have been laid off.

For example, at the beginning of Kaixin, some local group buying staff were cut down.

Opponents such as Wo Wo Group are even more laid off.

The atmosphere in winter is getting stronger and stronger.

The US group network, which ranks second in the market, is playing a positive role in this industry.

CEO Wang Xing said that group buying has entered the winter. Vice president Wang Huiwen told the newspaper that the US group is the only large group buying website that does not do outdoor advertising. It mainly relies on word of mouth communication. More than 70% of new users come from the recommendation of old users, which can save costs.

CEO Wu Bo (micro-blog) thinks that it is not enough to talk about winter, but that it is just that financing faces some resistance.

"We do not like to show off our wealth. We have not been affected. At the end of the year, we will expand our business to 1000 cities."

He said.

However, as the largest group buying network in China, the handover network is still expanding and spending heavily.

For example, it hired star Ge You as spokesperson and launched advertisements.

Wu Bo is obviously somewhat vigilant.

He said the advertising plan in the second half of this year will be reformulated.

Before the handshake net C round financing has amounted to 111 million US dollars, the valuation reaches 1 billion 100 million US dollars.

Everyone's company's group buying network is not easy.

Although everyone is listed, glutinous rice net is the cost center of everyone company for two consecutive quarters.

In the early morning of August 12th, when everyone released the second quarter earnings report, the total revenue of glutinous rice network in the second quarter amounted to $1 million 100 thousand, while operating expenses amounted to $5 million 600 thousand during the same period, with a net loss of 4 million 500 thousand US dollars, with an average loss of nearly 10 million yuan per month.

Shen Boyang, general manager of glutinous rice net, confessed that the competition was white hot and the gross profit margin was low, but he stressed that the company's real water flow was the top three in the industry.

He said that the total number of employees is only 499, compared with thousands of opponents, the operating cost is very low.

So far, parent company CEO Chen Yizhou (micro-blog) has not shown any dissatisfaction directly, claiming that it will support it for 5 years.

Qihoo 360, which relied on security business, launched the group buying business before.

But up to now, we have not seen how much vitality the 360 group buying business shows. Taobao group management even expects sales at the end of the year to exceed 10 billion yuan, but little attention has been paid to it.

Maybe they are waiting for the winter.

But there are also claims that they are not worried.

Wo Wo Group, which has gained attention from various competitive means, has recently announced that it will start.

"Six months later will usher in the winter of group buying website capital, the industry's survival of the fittest will be more severe, and the company that has the ability to get financing again will not exceed 5."

Wang Xing said.

The growth of group buying appears to be slowing down without doubt. "After the primary competition that relies on capital, the group buying market wants to achieve explosive growth like last year," said Chen Shou Shou, an international analyst at Analysys International.

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Gao Peng's layoffs: retreat to large and medium cities

"Human beings have been unable to stop Gao Peng from laying off workers."

QQ signature of some employee at Gao Peng ShangHai Railway Station is slightly sad.

In August 22nd, Gao Peng held a compensation negotiation with the dismissed employees in Shanghai.

The negotiations began with the three bow of Gao Xiang, a representative from Beijing.

He said that the company's initial development plan was poorly considered.

The reality is very cruel.

At the beginning of the year, Gao Peng, a high-profile arrangement in China, was evacuated from the 13 sub stations a month ago, and the 18 sub station employees were affected. The fanatical dream of simple copying overseas experience was shattered.

At the moment, it begins to shrink to the market of large and medium-sized cities, so as to overcome the crisis.

Emergency contraction after fanaticism

Gao Peng's layoffs

Last Thursday, more than 100 employees in Shanghai suddenly received notice to sign a Severance Agreement.

Their computers have been rapidly formatted; staff at lower Tangshan Railway Station in Tianjin suddenly discovered a notice of forced withdrawal after lunch last week.

Shanghai's chief executive explained that the company's current expenditure is unbalanced, and it will adjust operations and merge some departments to Beijing.

Xiao Yu, editor of the Beijing headquarters of Gao Peng, is not easy.

At the moment, she says, companies are panic.

Because Beijing is also laying off workers in stages, the sales department and the human resources department are the hardest hit areas.

Fortunately, the work of the editor has been very busy recently, and the Department has not been affected yet, but there is a shadow in everyone's mind.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of Gao Peng has been cut to 400, and is still increasing.

Zhao Zhanling, a lawyer appointed by Gao Peng, was told by the first financial daily that 13 sub stations such as Qinhuangdao and Yantai have been abolished. At least 18 sub stations in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Wuhan are involved in layoffs.

The reporter was informed that there were differences in the area of layoff compensation negotiations.

The compensation paid to employees in Tianjin is half a month's salary.

After fighting fiercely, 110 employees in Shanghai district will win the compensation for 2 months' wages on Monday.

More than 10 employees of TaiYuan Railway Station agreed to negotiate with Mr. Gao Peng on Tuesday.

More than 50 employees in Beijing are connected with Zhao occupation.

Hong Bo, a IT commentator, said that the action of Gao Peng revealed that it was immature and Zhang Yangqie's mentality was not correct.

The success of Europe's expansion may be its pride.

But the disorderly competition of Chinese group buying industry has exceeded its imagination.

For example, the gross margin of Groupon to the US business is 50%, but the average profit margin of the Chinese group buying industry is only 5%.

Innovation factory CEO Li Kaifu revealed that Gao Peng's early crazie recruitment in China was actually his consistent tactics of digging up corners. It used to double pay in Europe to rob people from its rivals and win a lot of dismissal.

Last week he told a staff member of Gao Peng that he would change jobs quickly.

Gao Peng burned a lot of money.

Marbridge consulting data shows that it puts 15 million yuan in advertising fees every month in Google and Baidu.

Group 800 executives quoted data that the sales volume of Gao Peng network in July was only 37 million 600 thousand yuan.

Gao Peng COO Ouyang Yun said on Tuesday that the layoff is to optimize the allocation of resources, to deploy more resources in large and medium-sized cities, and to find a balance between profit and sales growth.

But analysts say this is only a reason for expansion errors.

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Localization proposition

Behind the world's largest group buying website, Groupon and Tencent giants, they still failed to break the curse of multinational companies in the Chinese market.

The first shot that Gao Peng played in China was rather bleak.

In March 16th of this year, the first single flagship product of Gao Peng officially opened in Beijing, which sold only more than 2000 orders.

Prior to that, the sales volume of glutinous rice online exceeded 7000 orders.

Then, in March 19th, a group buying product of Gao Peng sold a record low of 4 people.

Statistics show that in the second quarter of the year, Gao Peng ranked eighth in China's similar websites, with a monthly independent user access rate of 15 million, which is less than 30% of the handle network.

It is no longer easy to get high-quality group buying resources on the spot of local group buying websites, and the more fatal problem is the confusion of internal management and the problem of not being acclimatized.

A staff member at the negotiating site said Gao Xiang, a representative of the company from Beijing, revealed that he had a perception of the foreigners in the company. They did not understand the situation in China, and they were responsible for the development of the company.

An employee at Tangshan Railway Station also said that many of the company's management initiatives are obviously not suitable for the local market.

For example, Groupon's main marketing base in the United States is advertising mail, and in most cities like Tangshan, most consumers do not usually use the same habit of staring at the mailbox as Americans do.

"The handshake and the US mission carried out a lot of push activities in the locality. The result was very good, but there was no such plan by Gao Peng."

The employee said.

These problems may need to be solved by strong local management.

The role of Tencent as a local joint venture has attracted much attention.

Close to Gao Peng said that at the same time in Shanghai, a Tencent executive from the Tencent said that Tencent would be more involved in the management of Gao Peng's operation.

In June this year, Ouyang Yun once revealed that at the beginning of the founding of Gao Peng, Groupon sent 4 foreign executives to help Gao Peng management develop China's business. With the gradual maturity of China's business, the 4 executives will withdraw from Gao Peng in good time, but have not disclosed the timetable.

Yesterday, a person familiar with the matter said that at least two foreign executives had been evacuated.

On Tuesday, Ouyang Yun interpreted Shanghai's layoffs as staffing issues to support some of them.