While playing hard to burn money, while still not making money, the reward event fully exposed the anxiety of Fengchao.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “bullet finance” (ID: wwwhygc ), author Yin Taibai.
01Anxiety behind the discussion
The Fengchao Express Cabinet was once again pushed into the whirlpool of public opinion by misleading users to “pay the money to open the cabinet”.
According to the user complaint, when the time of the package is placed in the Fengchao Express Cabinet, a large “Appreciation” mark will appear on the pickup page, which is very eye-catching and reminds the user that “Scan code appreciates 1 yuan storage fee” .
The “Skip Appreciation” button is designed to be gray and placed at the very bottom of the screen. In fact, appreciation is not an unskippable step, it is extremely easy to be ignored by users. Even if it is not ignored, the gray button color is also easy for users to think that they can’t click.
Therefore, many users think that the parcel storage time is over time, so they have to choose to scan the code to open the cabinet.
After the event has been fermented, more and more users realize that they have been “spoofed” by Fengchao. Fengchao’s “smart” approach is also considered to be “too ugly” and “poor”.
On October 11th, Sina Finance launched a vote on “Consumer Complaint #丰巢快递柜引收费# What do you think?” As of now, 21,000 people have participated, and more than 62% of them believe that Fengchao The move is definitely to induce consumption, and another 22% hold the opposite opinion.
In the face of the user’s criticism, Fengchao officially responded that the move is to encourage users to take out the pickup code as soon as possible to promote the efficient use of express cabinet resources. In addition, if the user does not see the “Skip Appreciation” option and there is a misunderstanding, you can directly contact Fengchao official, provide the information such as the waybill number, and return the fee after verification.
The official response of Fengchao is regarded as a treatment method for crisis public relations. Otherwise, the button of “skip appreciation” will not be designed as a gray that is mistaken for unclickable.
In fact, this is not the first time that Fengchao has been pushed to the hot search because of “paying the money to open the cabinet.” Since Fengchao launched the appreciation page, the contradiction caused by misunderstanding has not stopped.
Appreciation behavior has been repeatedly criticized by users, why Fengchao stillIs it going to go black in one way?
A set of data may explain why.
Public data shows that as of December 31, 2016, Fengchao’s total assets were 1.3 billion yuan, total liabilities were 630 million yuan, total revenue was 225.5 million yuan, and net profit loss was 250 million yuan.
After one year, that is, as of December 31, 2017, Fengchao’s total assets increased to 4.586 billion yuan, total liabilities also increased to 1.757 billion yuan, and total revenue increased significantly to 308 million yuan. The profit loss has also been further expanded to 385 million yuan.
As of May 31, 2018, the total assets of Fengchao became 6.311 billion yuan, and the total liabilities were 1.732 billion yuan, especially the total liabilities. It was not more than half in 2018, and its total liabilities almost exceeded that of 2017. . In the same period, Fengchao’s operating data was also eye-popping – the total revenue for the first five months was 288 million yuan, and the net profit loss reached 249 million yuan.
This set of data can draw at least two conclusions: First, Fengchao is constantly adding code layout lines, especially after 2016, it can be described as “crazy”; second, Fengchao has never found a line. The effective profit model, that is to say, Fengchao has been in the stage of burning money.
While playing hard to burn money, while still not making money, “mosquito legs are also meat”, the reward event fully exposed the anxiety of Fengchao.
02The contradiction between enclosure and profitability
How good is Fengchao’s family, and dare to burn money like this?
It is no exaggeration to say that Fengchao was born with a golden key. In June 2015, the five express delivery companies of SF, Zhongtong, Shentong, Yunda and ProLogis announced a joint investment of 500 million yuan to establish Fengchao Technology.
The original intention of Fengchao was to use the intelligent express cabinet as the entry point to solve the pain point of the last 100 meters of express delivery.
The five major express delivery companies do have a good care for Fengchao. On the day of the full anniversary of Fengchao, the five major express delivery companies gave Fengchao a birthday celebration: a capital increase of 500 million yuan to help Fengchao lay out more smart express cabinet outlets in the city.
Less than half a year after the capital increase, that is, in January 2017, Fengchao won a B round of financing of 2.5 billion yuan. By January 2018, Fengchao once again won 2.07 billion yuan of Series B financing.
Under four years of establishment, the accumulated financing has exceeded 5.5 billion yuan, which makes Fengchao burn money without any weakness.
The reason why Fengchao is burning money seems to be sufficient.
According to the data of the China Industrial Research Institute, the national express delivery business reached 40.06 billion pieces in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 28%. By 2018, this number has become 50.71 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 26.6%. Estimated, expected by 2020, full