In the case of a cooling down of the real estate market, there is still doubt as to whether the business can continue to expand through listing.
Editor’s note: This article news from Caijing , 文/Song Jinyu,Edit/< Span>舒志娟.
On October 9, the company submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is proposed to be listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol “DUO”. It is noteworthy that the plan to raise more than 150 million US dollars, compared with 80 million US dollars in the previous rumors, the fundraising will be used for research and development, marketing and investment acquisition. It is worth noting that many of the C-side user bases are not as good as the customers, shells and other companies. At the same time, they will face the competition of the old-fashioned intermediary management software rivals such as roommates and Yiyao.
In the industry view, from the new home e-commerce to second-hand housing direct sales to today’s SaaS solution providers, the main business model changes frequently, the real estate transaction market cooling is the main reason for the shrinking of funds raised by the housing. At the same time, compared with the traditional real estate e-commerce platform such as SouFun and Yiju, the room has a short set-up time, the brand influence is insufficient and there is no outstanding innovation. On the occasion of the “extinguishment” of many intermediary platforms such as Aiwujiwu and Pinganhaofang, the room has been transformed from O2O to ToB field. The core real estate database of SaaS solution is not its exclusive advantage. It is still difficult to reproduce the SaaS model. .
Frequent changes in business model to reduce fundraising
Under the rise of the concept of O2O, in 2015, the real estate e-commerce platform such as Fang Duo Duo, Ai Uji House, Ping An Good House, Q Fang Net and so on set off the real estate O2O war. Because there is no store, low commission, broker high salary has been The industry believes that it is an industry spoiler. With the retreat of the Internet intermediary boom, companies such as Aiwujiwu, Pinganhaofang and other hard-to-profit companies have declared bankruptcy, acquisitions or transformations. At the same time, many houses have not received financing since 2015.
According to Tianxue’s information, Fangduo was established in October 2011. One of the founders is Duan Yi, who is positioned as an Internet real estate transaction service platform. From 2012 to 2015, the company completed a total of four rounds of financing, financing finance totaled about 285 million US dollars (about 2 billion yuan), and then no financing record.
In factThe lack of financing records is not sufficient funds, and many rooms have been seeking capital support. In recent years, more and more houses have been listed on the market, but they have not ended. Recently, the house has submitted a prospectus for listing in the US, and the cruel reality is that its raised funds have shrunk dramatically.
According to Reuters’ IFR report, in May 2018, Fang Duoduo plans to conduct an IPO in Hong Kong, and plans to raise up to 800 million US dollars. In December of the same year, according to US-Hong Kong telecommunications quoted foreign media reports, Fang Duodu will apply for IPO in the US. It is expected to raise about 400 million US dollars. Until September 27 this year, according to domestic media reports, Fang Duoduo plans to go public in the US and plans to raise 300 million US dollars.
According to the prospectus, Fang Duoduo plans to raise no more than 150 million US dollars for research and development, marketing and investment acquisitions. This is the first time that the initial funding of 800 million US dollars has shrunk by 650 million US dollars, and the listing location has also shifted from Hong Kong. United States.
From a financial perspective, although the company achieved a profitable revenue of 1.6 billion yuan and a net profit of 100 million yuan in the first half of the year, its expenses also increased during the same period, up 34% from 2.034 billion yuan in the same period last year. In addition to the increase in sales and administrative expenses, R&D expenditure increased by 47% year-on-year to RMB 144.8 million.
It cannot be ignored that the substantial increase in R&D expenses is closely related to its new business SaaS, and it has become the new positioning of the first industry of China’s industrial Internet SaaS, and the “National First Mobile Internet Real Estate Transaction Service” There is a big gap in the platform. According to the prospectus, the majority of the revenue comes from trading commissions and innovation and other value-added services, providing Chinese real estate agents with SaaS solutions for managing customers, real estate listings, capital and transaction data.
The decline in the size of funds raised by the listing of many houses is related to the economic environment and the current cooling of the real estate transaction market. Some housing companies or intermediaries need to pay attention to various pressures and uncertainties behind the listing, especially the risk of stock price fluctuations. Yan Yuejin, a financial commentator, believes that if there is more recognition of the capital market in the future, on the basis of ensuring profit growth, it is necessary to carry out in-depth innovation of the business model instead of changing the track frequently.
When I was the vice president of China and the chairman of the China Real Estate Brokerage Association, Hu Jinghui said in an interview with the new media reporter of Caijing that the jump in the mainstream commercial business model is related to the difficult listing process. Since its inception, the business model of the multi-storey has been adjusted many times. From the initial new home e-commerce to the second-hand housing sales, the two business models have not run through, and have not caused disruptive changes in the industry. To become a SaaS service provider, you need to face the challenges of long development cycle and high capital consumption of SaaS. The cost pressure includes not only R&D, but also marketing expenses.
In the view of Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, the news that the house has been listed for many years has shown that the company’s intention to list financing is strong, however, the comparisonThe traditional real estate e-commerce platform such as SouFun and Yiju has a short set-up time, lack of brand influence and no innovation and highlights. In addition, the recent Sino-US economic and trade relations are unstable, and the Chinese stocks may be affected. It is also a disadvantage to the fact that many houses have landed in US stocks. Therefore, whether the room is ultimately able to be sought after by the market is difficult to determine.
The market is fiercely competitive. The SaaS model still faces challenges.
When the main battlefield of the Internet changed from the consumer Internet (To C) to the industrial Internet (To B), the SaaS management system and the real estate database were regarded as the killers of the competition in the To B end of the real estate agency.
Since 2018, the room has been trying to move from the O2O platform to the To B business model, providing brokers with local and cross-regional, cross-city listings and buyers, as well as the tools and services needed to complete the transaction. . At present, the company has established Saas management software such as “Most Selling Houses” (broker SaaS) and “Most Cloudy Sales” (broker company management SaaS). According to the data from the prospectus, as of June 30, 2019, the total closed-loop transaction volume of Fangdudu increased from 45.6 billion yuan to 91.3 billion yuan in the same period of 2018. Over the same period, the platform already has more than 1.07 million registered brokerage merchants.
However, the competition in the To B field is not as simple as the imagination of the room. On the one hand, it needs to compete with the traditional intermediary companies such as the homes and shells (chain homes) of larger users to compete for C-end users. On the other hand, it also faces and establishes The earlier time Saas Software Company grabbed the market share of B-side intermediary companies and brokers.
According to the “2019 Real Estate SaaS Software Ranking” published by the Market Economy Network in August this year, the top 10 management systems of the Real Estate Agents Software Association did not see many software names such as selling houses and cloudy sales. At the same time, according to the 2019 easy-to-use real estate agency management software rankings published by Sina Leju in May this year, 12 SaaS real estate agency management systems have not seen a lot of people.
Although the core of the SaaS solution is a real estate database, Fang Tianxia and Shell have already established their own listing database. According to public data, as of June 30, 2019, there were more than 131 million listings in the database of Fang Duo Duo, and the shell dictionary of housing has covered 194 million housing listings. In addition to more housing data than the number of rooms, the alliance between the intermediary will make the strong stronger, the shell has reached a housing sharing cooperation with 21 real estate, Fang Tianxia and the Central Plains “original extract” to achieve real estate dictionary docking.
When the reporter browsed the lot of apps, I found that in addition to the owner’s own uploaded listings, many of the listings were marked as shell listings, and I love the listing of brokerage agents such as my home. This means that the competitor’s listing information will be more and more comprehensive, and the database resources of the room do not form a moat to establish the occupation of the highlands.
Not only that, but the C-side of the room is moreThe number of household bases is also far from the intermediary platforms such as Anjuke and Shell, and there is a downward trend. According to the Yiguan Qianfan Index, the index of monthly living in August 2019 was 218,000, down 31.2% from 317,000 in March of the same year. At the same time, its ranking in the real estate service sector fell from the 7th in March to the 9th. The top 3 rankings of Anjuke, Shell Search and Chain Home Monthly were 19.28 million, 8.061 million and 5.424 million respectively. It is up to 60 times the index of the monthly living room.
In this regard, the company said that the company will attract and retain more brokerage merchants through free SaaS infrastructure, further explore real estate transaction resources and data, optimize income structure through continuous value-added services, and absorb more excellent training. Talents, etc.
An anonymous person in the industry told reporters that the C-end user of the real estate service platform has a high customer cost and a low repurchase rate. Without a large amount of capital investment, it is difficult to obtain results on a user basis. However, from the C-end to the B-end, the room will encounter its own bottlenecks, such as how the number of houses and the number of brokers break through. The competition of future intermediary platforms is differentiated competition. The real estate transaction platform is the process of completing the efficient matching of brokers, houses and customers. Who can make this process shorter and more efficient, and who can be in the market? Stand firm.
Jiu Xuan Capital Liu Yizhou believes that the biggest difference between the enterprise-level market and the personal consumer market is that the decision-making characteristics of enterprises are partial and have many influencing factors. Previously, the blood SaaS platform has been trapped in an embarrassing situation of fewer users and shortage of funds due to its singular function and single scene. Therefore, choosing the “information + service” strategy, the enterprise needs to dig deep into the customer’s needs, and tailoring to meet the needs of customers is the top priority.
In Hu Jinghui’s view, the competition of domestic SaaS software is very fierce. The big intermediary companies such as I love my family, the chain has its own management system, will not buy such software, and the roommate (Easy brand), The traditional saas software such as Qiaofang (58 city investment), easy invitation (shell purchase), and good housing have occupied most of the market share, and many of them have faced many enemies. In the future, many people want to break through the encirclement. They need to open up the SaaS model and the e-commerce model, maintain third-party positioning and strengthen closer cooperation with offline brokerage companies and brokers, or gain a certain market share through mergers and acquisitions of other SaaS software companies.
The cover image is from: pexels