Jiekuwang.com, an integrated marketing service aiming at serving Chinese local merchants, recently raised RMB 200 million from Huaxia Mogen Funds Management Co.
Jiekuwang claims to be an O2O platform on which users can place online orders and then consume them offline with local merchants. It’s website went online since September of 2011.
According to Pang Qiufeng, CEO of the company, “An stats showed that online consumption hit RMB 6 billion in 2012, accounting for just 5% of Chinese people’s total consumption in that year. ” That’s why he believed that “the future of Chinese ecommerce lies in how to make the most out of the other 95%”, namely, how to combine offline business and online technology.
In his opinion, the new era of ecommerce 3.0 which is characterized by the driven power of mobile plethora and O2O heat has come to China. And Jiekuwang is well positioned around that trend.
Jiekuwang is expected to operate in more than 30 – 50 Chinese cities by the end of this year with between 100k and 200k local merchant partners. Together they’re targeting at fostering an annual consumption of over RMB 40 billion via the platform.
Personally, I don’t see anything peculiar shining in Jiekuwang’s business. Its website reveals that the China’s southern Guangzhou-based startup is more of an e-coupon distribution channel plus mobile loyalty program. You can get virtual membership card from the service, download voucher beforehand and get discount/credits upon offline consuming. This model calls for big efforts in offline marketing and business developing. Dianping already ruled in that regard over almost a decade of accumulation. Let alone a large army of new-founded mobile coupon startups like Dingding and Buding, all loaded with big money. Jiekuwang might be good at capturing trends and following notions, but we still need more proof in how it implements its thinking, say, get more people to use its service as a start.
Image credit: Jiekuwang.com