Yisu.com's sad curtain

◎ Text "Fighter" magazine all media reporter Li Yunshi

Recently, Shanghai Yingshi Information Technology Co., Ltd. announced that due to the company's adjustment of its operating strategy, it decided to stop the operation of the platform. At 24:00 on August 12, Yiqu.com was officially closed. China's first e -commerce platform withdrew from the historical stage.

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It only took 4 years to start the peak

August 18, 1999 is a day worth remembering in the e -commerce community in China. On this day, China ’s first e -commerce platform — Yiqu.com was officially established. The founders of the platform Shao Yibo and Tan Haiyin, after completing their studies in the United States, rejected high -paying hires from major consulting companies and investment banks, and chose to return to China to start a business. In 1999, eBay was developing rapidly in the United States. Shao Yibo believes that making auction sites in China is also a business opportunity, and the Internet must be a trend in the future. Under the cognition, Shao Yibo and Tan Haiyin imitated eBay to create Yicu.com.

Shortly after the establishment of Yisu.com, he received the attention of capital. The First Boston Bank and Wantong Group provided them with $ 400,000 seed funds. In the same year, Yico.com received $ 6.5 million in joint investment by G.H.WITNEY, Asianetch, Orchidasian. It is worth noting that these three institutions are very good. The former is one of the oldest venture capitals in the world, and the latter two focus on investing in the Internet industry in Asia and China. This is enough to show that the prospects of Yicu.com at that time were bright.

With the assistance of capital, Yicu.com ushered in a period of high -speed development. As of 2000, there were more than 3 million registered users in Yicu.com, as high as 50,000 online items, and the data of Yisu.com were the first of the domestic e -commerce websites. father".

In October 2000, Yiqu.com completed a new round of financing, with a transaction amount of US $ 26.95 million. The investors were Qifeng Capital and Lanxin Asia. In 2003, Yicu.com reached its highest peak to become the C2C giant, accounting for 80%of the Chinese e -commerce market, and none of the industry can match it. At this time, it was only 4 years since the establishment of Yicu.com.

"2003 is the turning point of Yicu.com. Taobao was established, and then the economy of our platform has developed rapidly, and Yisu.com failed to keep its own market." On July 31st, Zhuang Shuai, a special researcher at the Internet Electronic Commerce Research Center and the founder of Bailian Consultation, In an interview with the "Legal person" reporter, after the selling to TOM.com, Yicu.com did not adjust its strategy and competitive strategy in a timely manner. By 2006, the market share of Yiqu.com had fallen to 29%.

Open the door for Chinese e -commerce

"Yicu.com is the leader of my country's e -commerce platform. When people are just familiar with the Internet, they first seize the online shopping market. However, in the 23 years since the establishment of Yisu.com, the global Internet industry has developed rapidly, and many technologies and models have been rapidly being rapidly. Iteraton, Yi Qun.com also faces many challenges in development. "On July 31, Pan Yue, the founder of an Internet sales company, said in an interview with reporters that from the establishment of Ethical Network to the announcement The development of the Internet has also affected the development of Chinese e -commerce platform companies.

"The first incident was the US e -commerce website eBay Injecting EBAY." Pan Yue told reporters that eBay has invested two capitals in March 2002. The capital injection is 30 million US dollars, forming a strategy with Yicu.com Partner. The second time was in June 2003, EBAY wholly acquired Yiqu.com, becoming the largest shareholder, and the total amount of the transaction was as high as $ 150 million. In the case of EBAY capital injection, Yicu.com also received investment from IDG Capital, Jiafeng Capital, Qifeng Capital, Lanxin Asia and other institutions.

At that time, Pan Yue was studying in the senior year. Six students in their dormitory were ready to find a job together. When confused, eBay huge funds to acquire a "unknown" online sales platform to allow Pan Yue to graduate international trade. Professional students discovered a new direction. Pan Yue told reporters: "The first idea is to learn international trade that can engage in the e -commerce industry. The second idea is that we have to be an online sales company ourselves." Pan Yue told reporters that there are many Internet sales companies. In the context of Yisu.com's acquisition, the success of Yico.com directly or indirectly promoted the development of my country's Internet platform.

"The second incident is the successful docking of EBay and the EBAY platform." In June 2004, Yicu.com announced that it would conduct a website integration and notification. As of the second quarter of 2004, the users of Yicu.com reached 6.9 million. 1.4 million new users. The total number of new products in the second quarter reached 4.2 million, an increase of 35%over the previous quarter. On September 17, 2004, Yico.com was successfully integrated with the US EBAY platform. Since then, users of eBay can conduct online transnational transactions with more than 100 million users from the Americas, Europe, and Asian countries. "At the beginning, many people did not pay attention to this node. Now it seems that the docking of Estro.com and EBAY has completely opened up the domestic e -commerce market and the international e -commerce market, which greatly improves the efficiency of international trade. The advantages."

The third incident was in May 2006, and the "Brand Flagship Zone" was opened on the Yico.com platform. This is the first domestic flagship zone operating or directly authorized by the brand in China. According to public reports at that time, 70 well -known brands at home and abroad were stationed in the area. Brand agents or dealers were responsible for supply, delivery, and after -sales service. Merchants who settled in the brand flagship area promised The product is implemented "three packages". "Consumers who have been exposed to e -commerce platforms in the early stage often question the quality of the product. This measure of Yicu.com has greatly changed the image of e -commerce in the minds of consumers. At the same time For reference. "A variety of reasons have caused Yicu.com to end

On August 1st, on the end of Yicu.com, the reporter interviewed Mo Yanqing, director of the Internet Retail Department and senior analyst of the Internet Electronic Commerce Research Center. , Its peak period and turning point are in 2003. As the first e -commerce company to try the C2C model, it attracted a large number of users and merchants at the beginning. Get up. It was also established in 2003. After that, the rise of many comprehensive e -commerce such as JD.com and Pinduoduo and the development of live e -commerce companies have affected a huge impact on the market. "Mo Yanqing told reporters that taking Taobao as an example It is very familiar with the characteristics of my country's consumer market. In this case, Yicu.com is stubborn. It still uses a profit method that was originally used by charging merchant login fees and transaction commissions to the merchant, which caused the market that originally belonged to it to be quickly occupied.

"Yi Qun failed to stand in the era of high -speed development of online shopping. There are many reasons, but I think the main reasons come from two aspects: first, the payment technology at that time cannot meet the rapid and convenient customer needs of e -commerce; It is in line with my country's market conditions. "Han Kai (a pseudonym), the chief operating officer of a company, said in an interview with reporters on August 3 that around 2000, the global e -commerce platform is using traditional payment methods and most of them are related to banks, and this is such, and this is such, and this kind of is related to banks. The payment method does not fully show the advantages of online shopping.

In 2005, Yico.com cooperated with the US online payment service provider Paypal China. Public information records that more than 20 bank cards from 15 banks in China at that time could be paid online on the Beibao Platform. However, the popularity of the Chinese public at that time could not meet this traditional and complicated operation requirements.

In this regard, Han Kai said: "After more than 20 years of development, we summarize the core advantage of e -commerce is high efficiency. E -commerce websites allow millions of buyers to visit seller online products every day. At the same time, sellers can efficiently efficiently efficiently Millions of products are launched in a short time, and each product can be searched by customers all over the world. Since the e -commerce website operates 24 hours, this allows buyers to choose to buy any goods at any time. Buyers may come from Any other parts of Beijing, London or the world. Buyers can also be small companies, ordinary people and large enterprises. "

Liu Gang, who is engaged in e -commerce, has a good say in paying: "In 2004, I sold dozens of scarves online. The buyer is a gentleman about 40 years old in Beijing. With Alipay, there was no way I drove these scarves from Daxing to the foundation gate of Chaoyang District. At that time, many of them were talking about online and offline delivery, and checkout in person. "

During the period of the popularity of smartphones, the e -commerce platforms and other e -commerce platforms will focus on the mobile phone end, and Yisu.com still seal itself on the PC platform. Domestic e -commerce has developed rapidly. Over the years, e -commerce such as "Double Eleven", "618" and "Double Twelve" has promoted the wind and water, but Yicu.com has not involved such activities, which seems to be "outsiders". In addition, new concepts such as live broadcasts and community group purchase are frequently emerged, and Yicu.com has not moved. It has not been able to keep up with consumer demand. In the face of strong challenges, it has long lost its competitiveness.

In addition, there are also problems with Yicu.com's own operating strategy. When Taobao was established in 2003, it attracted a large number of users to register with the means of "Taobao opening a store without paying any fees". And Yicu.com did not change his charging model in the first time. It was not until 2008 that after 5 years later, Yicu.com announced that it was free to open a store in Yicu.com. At this time Taobao's share is more than 80%.

Han Kai believes that the transformation of this strategy is too slow. "The e -commerce platform itself is not a commodity seller, but provides professional services for customers to allow buyers and sellers to reach transactions. In the process, free means greatly reduced the transaction costs and attempts of online sellers, especially for the trial costs, especially for New e -commerce users. Easy.com did not pay attention to the cultivation of new customers, and wasted for 5 years. This is inevitable that Yicu.com will end. "

Editing ｜ Cui Xiaolin

Edit ｜ Huiningning

School pair ｜ Zhang Bo Zhang Xuehui

This article is published in the "Legal person" magazine in August 2022 Total 222 Capital Column

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