On April 7th, local time in the United States (April 8th, Beijing time), after 3 months, the domestic local life service e-commerce Wowo (formerly Wowotuan) was finally listed on the Nasdaq. The stock issuance price of US$10, and 4 million shares of ADS are issued, with a total financing amount of US$40 million. The opening price was at $11.06, up 10% from the issue price, with a market value of about $450 million. The closing price was $10.29, up 2.85% from the issue price.
Although it only took three months from submitting the prospectus to listing, the public opinion storm that Wowo encountered during this period is not weaker than any listed company. Fortunately, it was successfully listed in the end, and it won the label of "the first O2O stock" in China, and was fortunate to become the "first Chinese stock listed in the US" this year.
The capital market does not believe in tears, but only looks at the profit prospects. The successful listing of Wowo shows that the international capital market is optimistic about the domestic O2O industry and has confidence in Wowo’s local life service e-commerce platform model. The business model of Wowo platform that allows traditional life service merchants to directly "connect" with consumers has well interpreted the "Internet +" in the local life service field and brought confidence to the online transformation of traditional merchants.
Online transformation and transformation of life service industry
Although the overall Internetization of the local life service industry is low, there are always some forward-looking merchants who have long realized that the Internet will bring revolutionary changes to the industry, so they took the lead in trying to transform to the online. The early attempts of life service merchants to transform online began with the construction of official websites in the PC Internet era and the online marketing derived from it.
However, since the PC Internet era realizes the connection between people and information, profitability relies on traffic monetization, and at that time there was no good way to form a closed marketing loop online and offline, so the official website of merchants without much traffic gradually became "small ribs". It was not until the emergence of group buying and solving the closed-loop sales of life services online and offline, that more and more life service merchants "go online".
But soon, merchants and group buying companies, such as Wowo, realized that group buying can only be used as a short-term promotional method and cannot become a sustainable online marketing model. When the halo of group buying disappears, what should merchants rely on to attract new users and maintain old users? At this time, Wowo launched the mall model. On the Wowo Mall platform, help merchants establish brand "specialty stores" and directly sell products and services to online users, that is, the "Tmall" of the life service industry. The Wowo Life Service E-commerce Platform has begun to take shape.
The outbreak of the mobile Internet has also brought about great development in the life service industry. Life services that are not "compatible" enough with the PC Internet have been booming since then when they encounter the mobile Internet. For example, in the catering industry, in addition to mobile phone group buying, takeout, ordering, reservations, etc. have been born, and the popular local life service O2O form.
Wowo has also enriched the connotation of its local life service e-commerce platform with the "east wind" of the mobile Internet, launched a mobile store for merchants, and a Wowo e-commerce operating system that allows merchants to manage PC, mobile online stores and third-party platform stores in one-stop, so that merchants can be online marketing across all online entrances, and also greatly simplifies merchants' operation processes.
Wowo Life Service E-commerce Platform has covered various life service segments such as catering, film, beauty industry, automobile services, photography, etc. It is understood that large chain merchants such as Xinladao, South Beauty, and Zodenice have opened their own online stores on the Wowo platform, providing services to users online and offline at the same time.
Online transformation of traditional industries is a transformation of production methods
The integration of traditional industries and the Internet has never stopped, and with the rise of mobile Internet, it is becoming increasingly fierce. For example, in 2014, Wanda E-commerce, led by Wanda Group and established with Baidu and Tencent, opened the curtain for the transformation of the offline commercial real estate industry to the online, and became a landmark event for the traditional industry to fully embrace the Internet. The Premier proposed to formulate an "Internet +" plan at this year's Two Sessions, which is a "reassurance" for traditional industries to embrace the Internet, especially the mobile Internet.
Industry insiders believe that "Internet+" does not simply combine the Internet with traditional industries, nor can it be added just by adding.That is, it is not a "physical reaction", but a "chemical reaction", a process by which the Internet transforms the production mode, economic model, and industrial structure of traditional industries. Since the merchant's online stores on the
Wowo platform are operated independently by the merchant, merchants can flexibly grasp the remaining services and promotions. In the view of Xu Maodong, chairman and CEO of Wowo, the Wowo Life Service e-commerce platform "allows local small and medium-sized merchants to sell remaining cabins by dynamically adjusting air ticket discounts like large airlines, and provides flexible and real-time promotions." This can greatly improve the operational efficiency of offline stores and improve merchants' revenue.
Wowo Life Service E-commerce Platform allows life service merchants to independently manage their own prices and customers, and can directly sell products and services to consumers. Wowo provides services for merchants and consumers to "connect" them, such as the construction of online stores, marketing and promotion, and big data analysis based on Wowo Life Service E-commerce Platform.
There are as many as 10 million small and medium-sized merchants in the domestic local life service field, and they also have the need to transform to the online. However, due to restrictions such as resources, regions, and industry characteristics, it is not realistic and unnecessary for them to implement "Internet +" independently. With a platform like Wowo, it is a very good choice to do your own business.
has the national strategy of "Internet +", has the recognition of the capital market, and the help of mature Internet companies like Wowo. In the mobile Internet era, the prospects for online transformation of traditional industries are promising.
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