Recently, this newspaper has planned the "Automobile E-commerce Metamorphosis Series Report", hoping to sort out the development changes and transformation adjustments since the emergence of domestic auto e-commerce in 2000, in order to explore the characteristics of the industry. At the beginning of this series of reports, this paper, in view of the development history of new car e-commerce and the recent strategic adjustments of major companies, proposes that the new car e-commerce has passed the initial stage of version 1.0 and is stumbling forward on the road to upgrade version 2.0. In this issue, this newspaper will focus on second-hand car e-commerce. Although compared with new car e-commerce, second-hand car e-commerce has not been established for a long time, but in the past three years, the development of the industry has been in full swing. Capital is rushing in and money is madly. Startups with B2C, C2B, and C2B2C models have mushroomed. Generally, I hope to explore a profitable model as soon as possible. However, the current penetration rate of second-hand car e-commerce transactions is not high, so they coincidentally expand the development direction to the entire automobile sales service industry chain.

 

On June 15, Uxin Group, the representative of the B2C model, announced the launch of a new brand upgrade plan and officially launched the "national direct purchase" business; on the same day, Guazi used car direct sales network, which focuses on the C2C operation model, announced that it has won over 400 million in round B U.S. dollar (approximately 2.7 billion yuan) financing; C2B model Che Zhibao also announced on the same day that it had completed a 500 million yuan C+ round of financing. Prior to this, on April 6, used car trading service provider "Souche" announced the completion of a $180 million Series D financing.

 

The continuous good news has brought second-hand car e-commerce companies that have been silent for a period of time again. In this round of intensive financing, the most obvious feature is the "de-used carization", intelligence and financialization of used car e-commerce. Why do second-hand car e-commerce companies "go away from second-hand car"? After supplementing "grain grass" and "ammunition", where will the powerful second-hand car e-commerce companies lead the war?

 

■E-commerce climax again

 

On June 14, a picture was reposted frequently in the WeChat circle of friends in the used car industry. The protagonist of the picture is Uxin, who is about to announce the brand upgrade plan the next day. In the picture, billboards with "Uxin≥Used Cars" appeared on landmark buildings such as Beijing World Trade Center, Capital International Airport, Shanghai Lujiazui Aurora International Building, Guangzhou "Xiaomanyao" TV Tower, etc. Believe in "what are you going to do?"

 

The next day, at the Beijing Minsheng Modern Art Museum, Uxin released a new brand LOGO and brand building plan, and launched the "national direct purchase" business. Dai Kun, Chairman and CEO of Uxin Group, introduced that in the future, consumers can buy cars without geographical restrictions and enjoy zero-burden, one-stop cross-regional car purchase services. By 2020, Uxin expects to build 2,000 offline stores and a 100-city-to-200-city logistics route, so as to ensure that vehicle delivery can be completed within five working days, making it easier to own a good car.

 

On the same day, Guazi used car direct sales network held a press conference in Beijing, announcing the completion of a Series B financing of more than 400 million US dollars. Guazi second-hand car direct sales CEO Yang Haoyong said that after receiving this round of financing, he will upgrade its products and services, and will continue to invest in brand building, team and talent training. "This round of financing will mainly deploy new business, service upgrades, brand building, team and talent training. Guazi will always be committed to driving business innovation and upgrading through insight into consumer behavior through business data." He said, "We need to deeply transform traditional industries. It requires two legs to run fast, relying on online technical ability and offline team ability."

 

■Building core barriers

 

Uxin Group’s CMO Wang Xin confidently said in an interview with a reporter from China Automobile News that from the current point of view, Uxin has led industry upgrades in the development process of the second-hand car industry, covering technology, after-sales, service and other fields. Bring innovation and breakthrough changes. "Uxin has just completed the brand upgrade. It is not only the brand upgrade of the company, but also the upgrade and optimization of the used car e-commerce brand, so that more consumers will accept and develop the consumption habit of buying second-hand cars. For the past, excellent Uxin’s in-depth cultivation of the used car market and its commitment to consumers have never forgotten its original intention; for the future, Uxin has a new mission to become an automobile e-commerce company that allows second-hand cars to be easily traded nationwide, making Uxin a good car The symbol of using and enjoying second-hand cars becomes a way of life.” She said, “We hope to bring second-hand car e-commerce into a new competitive environment and establish a trust system in the second-hand car industry. Uxin is using practical actions to drive second-hand The overall products and services of car e-commerce companies continue to improve, from promoting transaction matching to integrating multiple services, leading used car e-commerce companies into the new retail era."

 

Yang Haoyong's motivation to be "big melon seeds" mainly comes from the entrepreneurs' sense of anxiety. In his view, running a company never knows what new opponents will appear in the industry and whether they will be surpassed. Guazi revolves around C2C transactions as a platform, big data, and finance, including new car services. In the final analysis, it is to build the core barrier of enterprise building block innovation.

 

Yang Haoyong believes that Guazi second-hand cars have completed the first stage of accumulation of scale effects, and now they are ready to enter the new stage of Guazi 2.0. The strategic goal of this stage is to provide users with more abundant car-related products and high-quality products. Service experience.

 

■Upgrading

 

According to data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association on June 1, in the first four months of 2017, the country’s cumulative transactions of second-hand cars were 3.809 million, a year-on-year increase of 21.11%, and the cumulative transaction volume was 251.049 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.37%.

 

In April of this year, the national second-hand car transaction market had a transaction volume of 1.0187 million vehicles. The mainstream B2C e-commerce platform uploaded a total of 169,000 vehicles. Only 3.42% of the vehicles completed transactions that month. That is to say, the B2C second-hand car transaction volume was 5780. It accounts for 0.57% of the total transaction volume of used cars. Among the used cars sold in April, the offline channel sales cycle was 20.8 days, and the online B2C sales cycle was 58.1 days.

 

In this regard, Luo Lei, deputy secretary general of the Automobile Dealers Association, said that in the overall second-hand car market, second-hand car e-commerce transactions accounted for only about 2%. At present, the biggest problem of used car e-commerce is that it has not yet explored a model suitable for the Chinese market. It is difficult to improve the efficiency of transaction conversion by burning money alone. The way out for the future is how to integrate online transactions into physical transactions.

 

Regarding the recent trends of e-commerce getting involved in second-hand cars, sinking channels, deploying offline outlets, developing auto finance products, providing one-stop consumption, using artificial intelligence and big data, Luo Lei believes that these upgrades are e-commerce better services The inevitable choice made by consumers.