Kela.cn CEO Expects Disruption in China’s Diamond Market

Guo Feng, CEO of Chinese diamond etailer Kela.cn told local media in an interview that he expects the emergence of giant Internet diamond resellers in the coming 3 to 5 years while some of them might have a chance to surpass traditional sales channels as diamond etailing is picking up quickly in China.

Speaking of Chinese diamond sales, currently online channel accounts for only 2% of the total sales, way less than the 30% in America and speaks to a much bigger room for growth.

Founded in 2007, Kela.cn is one of the post children of Chinese diamond vertical B2C among peers like ZBird and so on. The Beijing-based company received tens of millions investments from Tencent last year as the latter is eager to step up its ecommerce effort.

In addition to online storefront, Kela.cn also operated 36 experience stores in about 33 cities as a complement to its online business. Kela recorded more than RMB 600 million  (about US$ 96 million) sales last year, with 60% of revenue contributed by 80% of online customers.

He also revealed that the company experienced yearly growth of over 220% ever since its founding five years ago.