Ganji To Invest US$100M in C2C Used Car Trading Platform

Ganji.com, one of the largest classified ads sites in China, has launched a used car trading platform named Ganji Haoche (“Ganji Good Car”) to deepen its foray into the O2O (online-to-offline) industry. The company plans to invest US$100 million into this project, mainly in marketing and exploration of business partners.

Yang Haoyong, Ganji’s CEO, explained that the service adopts a C2C rather than the B2C model commonly used by domestic second-hand car trading platforms. He added that this model will directly link car sellers and buyers, thus cutting unnecessary costs from middle-men and used car dealers.

The company claimed that car sellers on the platform will receive around 8-10% higher than current market prices, while buyers will pay 5-7% less. It also promised to refund buyers within 14 days if they are not satisfied with a car.

To guarantee car quality, the platform only lists second-hand cars with an age of less than six years and mileage of under 100,000 miles. A professional team will deliver standardized and on-demand car valuation services to sellers.

Around 370 used cars are listed on the platform as of present with a daily increase of 20 to 30 vehicles, according to the company.

Ganji Haoche will commercialize its service by charging 3% commission on each successful transaction and from value-added services like insurance and maintenance, among others.

China’s trading volume for used cars reached 2.82 million in the first half of 2014, up 12.77% year-on-year, with sales of this market soaring 22.88% year-on-year to RMB170.52 billion (US$27.72 billion) over the same period, according to data released by the company.

Editing by Mike Cormack (@bucketoftongues)