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)
One problem with the second hand car market is there is no regulation and available checks on second hand cars, whether there has been major accidents to the car etc. Unlike the overseas there is DVLA in the UK which regulates and keeps track of all cars on the road legal and full history of cars if it has been modified stolen lost or incidents. Hence when I buy used car say in the UK I can check to make sure it is what it is (HPI check clear). Chinese government needs to do something similar to help the second hand car market…