Chinanews client, Beijing, September 23 (Zhang Xu) "58.com, a magical website." The ad slogan that Yang Mi shouted made countless people remember 58.com.
Nearly 7 years after listing, on September 18, 58.com announced the completion of privatization and delisting from the New York Stock Exchange.
Since its establishment in 2005, 58.com has grown to be the king of classified information, but in the competition with Houlang, it has appeared to be big but not strong.
58 same city, can it be "magic" again?
The picture shows Yao Jinbo, CEO of 58 Group.
Photo by Chinanews reporter Li Qing
58 in the same city, first in China and second in the world
In 1999, Yao Jinbo graduated from Ocean University of China; at the beginning of 2000, he resigned from the technical department of the Shandong branch of Bank of China and started a business south. He felt that "mere technology does not match his ambitions"; at the end of 2000, he set up a business that he founded to provide domain name transaction services Was sold to www.chinawan.com and grabbed the first pot of gold.
In 2005, he resigned as the vice president of China Wanwang and once again chose to leave to start a business. 58.com was born.
At that time, Yao Jinbo believed that as long as there were enough users and supported by traffic income, 58.com could quickly become bigger and stronger.
58.com received a starting capital of US$5 million from Softbank SAIF.
In the early days of the business, 58.com was at a loss for a long time. It was not until 2008 that 58.com launched a paid membership service that ushered in the dawn of profitability.
In June of the same year, Softbank SAIF once again invested US$40 million in 58.com.
Subsequently, 58.com received US$75 million in financing from Warburg Pincus, DCM China and Softbank SAIF.
With the power of capital, 58 same city ran all the way.
By the end of 2010, the cumulative number of registered users in 58 same city exceeded 4 million, and all indicators were in a leading position in the field of classified information.
At that time, players in the same industry were either acquired by 58.com or had already withdrawn from the market. Ganji became Yao Jinbo's only opponent.
58 City Homepage.
In 2011, 58.com entered Google's global TOP100 website list with 91st place, becoming the largest classified information website in China, second only to Craigslist in the world, and second in the world.
At the same time, Yao Jinbo returned his main energy to the field of information platforms, and strengthened the derivation of two profit models-membership services for personal fees and online marketing for merchants.
By solving information asymmetry and serving both merchants and users, 58.com has truly become a comprehensive website for classified information.
Merged with Ganji.com, the "magic website" dominates
Even if many people have never used 58.com, they probably have heard the ad slogan that made 58.com successfully out of the circle-"a magical website".
In 2011, 58.com and Ganji.com, which have been fighting for a long time, launched a highly consistent advertisement, telling viewers that they can search or publish housing information, recruitment information, and second-hand goods buying and selling information on their website.
The only difference is that Yao Chen's "Ganji.com has everything" for Ganji.com, eventually lost to Yang Mi's "58.com, a magical website".
Screenshot of Yang Mi 58's same city advertisement.
In the "58 Magic Day" in 2018, Yao Jinbo revealed why he invited Yang Mi to shoot an advertisement.
"Ganji.com invited Yao Chen to shoot an ad called'Ganji.' We just said that this is no good, and we have to find someone to shout." Since "Gong" starring Yang Mi has just been broadcast, it ranks first. Yao Jinbo's daughter liked her too, and finally settled down.
"Ganji.com called it once, and it made that mouth P very big. I thought at the time: You call it once, my method is very simple, I call it twice (58 same city)." Yao Jinbo said.
The two sides invested heavily in those years and launched an advertising war.
"We burn 1.2 billion in advertising expenses each year, which has exceeded all our income, and it is estimated that Ganji.com is about the same," Yao Jinbo said when referring to the money-burning war at that time.
On October 31, 2013, 58.com listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the "first share of classified information". The stock price rose 42% on the first day.
In the 18 months since its listing, 58.com has made large-scale mergers and acquisitions and invested in various fields such as recruitment and real estate. Among them are well-known companies such as Anjuke and ChinaHR.com.
But the most eye-catching is the merger of 58.com and its old rival Ganji.
In 2014, Yao Jinbo used 15% of the voting rights in 58 same city in exchange for Tencent's US$736 million investment.
In April 2015, 58.com and Ganji.com shook hands with investors and completed the merger.
The market data of Sutu Research Institute at the time showed that 58.com had a market share of about 47.5%, while Ganji had a market share of 34.1%. After the merger with Ganji, its market share exceeded 80%.
58.com is the well-deserved king of this track.
58, big but not strong
2015 was a turning point for 58.com.
Prior to this, most of 58.com's energy was focused on the battle with Ganji. After the merger, it felt like "drawing the sword and looking at the heart".
In the words of Yao Jinbo: "After fighting with Ganji for so many years, I felt that I lost my opponent in the moment after acquiring it."
Also in 2015, Meituan, which is also in the field of life services, entered the area of hotel, food delivery, film, travel, travel, new retail and other fields one after another.
"Meituan has no borders" and has now become a life service giant with a market value of more than one trillion yuan.
The market value of Meituan exceeds one trillion yuan.
Data comes from a straight flush
Compared with other Internet companies, 58.com is always half a beat.
In terms of second-hand transactions, Ali launched Xianyu in 2014. After a year, 58.com launched "Zhuanzhuan" to compete with it.
But step by step slowly, Xianyu is already the leader in this field.
In July of this year, even the official flagship store was transferred to Xianyu.
58 has everything in the same city, but "big but not strong" leaves a good opportunity for competitors.
In the real estate sector, although 58.com acquired Anjuke, other competitors are coming fiercely.
For example, Lianjia upgraded to Shell, launched an offensive from a traditional offline real estate agency to an online platform, and changed from a direct operation model to a platform model.
Currently, Shell has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its market value is almost 8 times that of 58.com.
In the field of recruitment information, there are two established institutions, 51job.com and Zhilian Recruitment, and Lagou.com and Boss Direct Recruitment. The pressure of 58.com is not small.
58. The quality of service in the same city is sometimes unsatisfactory.
"If you hate someone, put his cell phone number on 58.com, so you can be sure that this number will be blown by scammers." This was once a popular joke on the Internet, but it also vividly reflects the 58.com. The phenomenon of scammers rampant.
Many factors are ultimately reflected in financial reports and stock prices.
The financial report shows that from 2015 to 2019, 58 intra-city revenues were 4.478 billion yuan, 7.592 billion yuan, 10.07 billion yuan, 13.14 billion yuan, and 15.58 billion yuan, respectively, with revenue growth rates of 185.11%, 69.54%, 32.62%, 30.48% and 18.56%, showing a continued decline in growth rate.
58 Citywide Financial Report for 2019.
In terms of gross profit, from 2015 to 2019, 58 intra-city gross profit was 4.156 billion yuan, 6.885 billion yuan, 9.143 billion yuan, 11.70 billion yuan, and 13.78 billion yuan, respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 169.34%, 65.66%, 32.80%, and 27.96%. , 17.76%, gross profit continued to decline.
Its gross profit margin has also fallen from 92.8% in 2015 to 86.4%.
In the past two years, 58.com's stock price has been in a state of volatility and has not grown too much.
The closing price of 58.com before the suspension of trading was US$55.88, which was also down nearly 40% from the high of US$89.9 in May 2018.
After privatization, where will we go?
The privatization began in April this year.
On April 2, 58.com announced that the company's board of directors had received a non-binding takeover offer from Ouling Investment.
After the privatization offer was revealed, Tianyancha showed that on April 3, 58.com CEO Yao Jinbo pledged part of the equity of 58.com’s operating entity, Beijing Wuba Information Technology Co., Ltd.
Yao Jinbo pledged equity.
Data comes from Sky Eye Check
On June 15, 58.com announced that it had signed a merger agreement with Quantum Bloom Group Ltd..
According to the terms of the merger agreement, the buyer’s investment consortium will purchase all of 58.com’s issued common stock at a cash price of US$28 per common share (equivalent to US$56 per American depositary share). The total transaction value is approximately US$8.7 billion.
On September 18, 58.com announced that it had accepted an investment consortium's privatization offer to buy back US stocks at a price of US$56 per American Depository Share (ADS) and a total amount of US$8.7 billion. The official did not explain the next step. .
It is worth noting that the privatization of 58.com is the largest privatization case of a Chinese company listed in the United States after Qihoo 360.
On July 15, 2016, Qihoo 360 Technology announced the completion of the privatization transaction. The final amount was 51.46 billion yuan, and the privatization valuation of 58.com reached 61.7 billion yuan.
After privatization, where does 58.com go?
Kuang Yuqing, the founder of Lens Research, said that perhaps 58 feels that its valuation is undervalued in the United States.
"58's platform is valuable, and its business gross profit margin is also very high. There is indeed an underestimation of its operating profit scale and valuation scale. Whether it is returning to Hong Kong stocks or A shares, this type of platform company should give 30-40 times or even Higher valuation." (End)