domeet webmaster

Taojiji’s headquarters is located in Shanghai Wuniu Holding Building. Compared with when it was just declared bankruptcy, the current Wuniu Holding Building is a bit deserted.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “ Tencent Deep Web ” (ID: qqshenwang), author Sun Hongchao.

1 Taojiji had raised USD 42 million last year, but according to information held by a merchant, Taojiji currently has over 1.8 billion yuan in arrears. This means that Taojiji has burned 2 billion yuan more than 400 days after it went online.

2 Bankruptcy experts say that all creditors of Taojiji, including suppliers, distributors, employees and even Taojiji, can file bankruptcy applications with the court. But if Taojiji really has no assets, the final settlement rate will be very low.

3 All employees of Taojiji are on vacation. Some employees claim that Zhang Zhengping has been out of contact for more than a month, and his supervisor cannot be contacted for a week or two.

4 After the failure of the B round of financing in June this year, Taojiji and a number of Internet head companies including Alibaba rumored an investment scandal. The ultimate target is a domestic comprehensive retail platform started from a home appliance category. .

5 Taoji Ji misappropriated merchants’ payment is not just after the B round of financing. Some merchants have been slow to withdraw funds shortly after they went online. Some merchants claim that the payment in January this year has not been refunded.

“Buy it quickly, don’t buy it again, you can’t buy it when this company goes out of business.” At an e-commerce industry gathering in April this year, some media people recommended a Shanghai e-commerce platform to their peers-Taoji set.

Open the Tao Jiji page, you can see a bunch of crazy numbers, ten pounds of pears 19.9 yuan, ten rolls of paper towels 5.9 yuan, two pounds of walnut kernels 6.6 yuan … all free shipping. In contrast, Pinduoduo, which also has the same price advantage, seems to have become a “luxury” platform.

The view of “failure” has not been fully endorsed by the media on the spot. The view of a Shanghai media person is quite the opposite.Taojiji has raised USD 42 million, and the number of users in the first half of the year has exceeded 100 million. “I heard that there is another financing coming soon.”

But the burnt out Taojiji did not wait for the legendary life-saving financing in the end.

In June of this year, some Taojiji merchants found that the payment of Taojiji started to be delayed and could not even be withdrawn at all. In September, rights protection incidents began in front of Taojiji Shanghai headquarters. The police came forward to maintain order, while Taojiji claimed to be “some unidentified persons” instigating business sentiment through online channels and instigating merchants to gather trouble.

On October 15th, in the face of swarming merchants, Taoji Ji announced that it would conduct business restructuring with large domestic institutions, and its business model would be adjusted from the merchants’ presence model to the partner’s self-employed model. For Taojiji shareholders partners, and Taojiji “same honor and disgrace, advance together and retreat”.

Zhang Zhengping, founder and CEO of Taojiji, urged merchants not to sue the company and avoid direct liquidation of the company.

This statement made merchants feel angry. The merchant Shi You from Shandong told “Shenwang.” “At that time, I felt that Taoji Ji was really shameless. This was to kidnap us with our own money. “But these merchants were at a loss. Shi You said that he saw a relevant document produced by Taojiji at that time.” If it is cleared directly, the cash on Taojiji’s account will be less than 1% of the arrears. ”

The two harms are balanced, and most merchants choose a debt restructuring agreement. According to the agreement, within one month after signing the contract, Taojiji paid 20% of the debt amount to the merchant, and the remaining 80% was postponed until the valuation of the target company after Party A (Taojiji) reorganized with a large group company reached 20 Billions of dollars may be repaid upon listing.

On October 31, Taojiji officially announced the content of the reorganization and merger process: “On October 23, the supplier creditors completed the signing of a 51% debt restructuring agreement; on October 28, a written TS was received from the owner and signed. Letter of intent for investment. The current M & A and restructuring of Taoji Ji is progressing smoothly; the company’s operation is stable; the platform operation is stable. , Thank you again for your help and Tao Jiji to work together to overcome difficulties.

But the merchants with this relatively minor injury did not wait. On December 8, there was news in Taojiji’s merchant group that Taojiji was about to declare bankruptcy and liquidation. In the early morning of December 9, Taojiji issued an announcement entitled “Efforts have not been made.” Zhang Zhengping said that there were two potential investors in the merger and reorganization, and one of them had signed an investment agreement and took over the company’s Financial and legal work, including the collection of all official seals and bank keys, but the extension of the payment time has been postponed for many times, exceeding the deadline that Taojiji can bear. In the announcement, Zhang Zhengping officially announced, Arrived on schedule, I had to announce that Taojiji’s current reorganization failed!The company will seek bankruptcy liquidation or bankruptcy reorganization. “

A bankruptcy industry legal expert introduced “Shenwang.com” from public channels. It can be found that Taojiji has not actually entered any bankruptcy proceedings. “But all creditors of Taojiji include suppliers, distributors, employees Even Taojiji itself can file a bankruptcy application with the court. “The expert also said to Deep Web,” If Taojiji really has no assets, the final settlement rate will be very low. “

Taojiji was born in 2018 and died in winter 2019. Cause of death: The funding chain was broken. Epitaph: I walked violently, just as I came violently; I waved my sleeves and hurt countless businesses and my employees.

Missing Zhang Zhengping ’s crazy Tao Jiji

Taojiji’s headquarters is located in Shanghai Wuniu Holding Building. Compared with when it was just declared bankruptcy, the current Wuniu Holding Building is a bit deserted.



On-site security told Deep Web that most of the merchants who have been protesting since September have left. “All of them have been reported, and there have been more transfers to police stations. There are almost no people here. The employees are also few I stopped going to work a few days ago. “

Shi You is one of the few businesses still on the scene. “Going to the police station is useless, and Zhang Zhengping can’t be contacted over there. It’s better to wait on the scene.”

An employee Changshan told Deep Web that all employees are now on vacation. “Some employees were asked to go home on vacation in the previous period, and all employees began to take a vacation a few days ago. “Employees don’t know what exactly is Taojiji.

“Zhang Zhengping has been out of contact for more than a month, and my own boss couldn’t be contacted for a week or two.” He turned on his mobile phone and showed the company’s WeChat group to “Shenwang.” One less. “

Xiao Zhan, a merchant who has participated in M ​​& A and restructuring contracts, told Deep Web that some funds have been coming in after October, but far from the 20% that was agreed when the agreement was signed.

“I owe about 500,000 yuan, but received less than 1,000 yuan.” Xiao Zhan came from Shandong overnight after rumors of bankruptcy appeared. In the hotel on the edge of Taoji, Xiao Zhan saw the final announcement, “Buzzing my head, it feels like the sky is going to fall.” Compared with some other merchants in the group, Shi You and Xiao Zhan owe money. Not much.

“Some people in the group claimed that their arrears exceeded ten million and many millions. IIf we are more than 100,000, hundreds of thousands of gnashing our teeth, maybe we can survive them. Those millions may not only be themselves, but the entire company will be destroyed. “

Attracting these businesses is the rapid growth of Taojiji.

Taojiji was launched on August 5, 2018. It is a social e-commerce platform under Shanghai Huanju Industry Co., Ltd., with the goal of becoming the largest online marketplace in China, serving consumers with a monthly income of less than 2,000 yuan and 800 million yuan. By. Similar to social e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, Taojiji focuses on playing group games. At the same time, it also designed a “cash subsidy + distribution rebate” system similar to Qu Toutiao. Users can get cash for newcomers at the beginning of downloading, and then newcomers. Red envelopes, cash back when you place an order; invite friends to get the corresponding subsidies, friends to spend on Taoji Ji, users can also profit from it.

In addition, Taojiji also uses traditional ground push methods and various implanted ads. In August last year, Taojiji said that it would send 5,000 carts to enter the town market and teach users how to use it. In some short video software and game software, you can also see the implanted ads of Taojiji. The main theme is ” Cheap. ”

Two months after launch, the number of Taoji users has exceeded 10 million; half a year, 100 million; 1 year, 130 million …

Supporting this digital curve is continuous capital investment. Shi You told “Deep Web” that when signing the reorganization agreement, Taojiji had presented a data, “The platform has a net debt of 1.8 billion.” This This means that in addition to the previous financing amount, Taojiji has burned 2 billion yuan in cash in more than a year.

A more intuitive image can illustrate the speed of burning money: From the day of establishment to the signing of the reorganization agreement, Taojiji survived 436 days, burning an average of 4.6 million yuan in cash per day, and exchanged it for 100 yuan, a total of about 52.9 Kilograms; if you really ignite money, you need to ignite more than 53 photos per second.

The last straw that overwhelmed the camel

In the bankruptcy announcement issued by Zhang Zhengping, the change of the investor ’s decision became a decisive factor in his mouth; in the October public apology letter, he also attributed the mistake to spending too much time on financing and wanted to pass financing. To solve the current growth problem, and strategically chose to continue to lose money to acquire users. Before the announcement of bankruptcy, Taojiji issued a statement saying that it had successfully signed equity investment agreements with large domestic groups and is currently waiting for a payment.

The source told “Deep Web” that the large group is a well-known domestic retail company, starting from home appliances, with online and offline layouts. Since June of this year, Alibaba, Meituan and even today’s headlines have become the target of Taojiji’s scandal.

Taojiji has tasted the sweetness on the capital side. In October 2018, Taojiji received US $ 42 million in Series A financing, with Yanfeng Cowin and Tiger Fund as investors, with a valuation of US $ 242 million. This financing was thrown into the fire by Tao Jiji, and the burning flame was red.Zhang Zhengping’s face. In June of this year, Taojiji announced another round of financing planning. The list of investors includes many well-known companies including DST, Tiger Fund, KZ, etc., which raised USD 200 million and was valued at USD 800 million after the investment. Funds did not arrive in the end.

In fact, the failure of financing is only the last straw that overwhelms the camel. Before putting the straw, Taojiji camel was overwhelmed.

The weak capital chain also made Taojiji think about scaling down. Changshan told Deep Web that within a period of time, Taojiji successively rolled off several important new business “one yuan market” and “limited time spike”. “” Get the price for free “and so on.



There is no food and grassroots, and the rescue of soldiers has been delayed. Zhang Zhengping set his sights on the merchant’s payment. Taojiji began to lengthen the period of merchants’ accounts payable, put the money that should have been sold to merchants into marketing, reduce subsidies and increase new activities in exchange for the growth curve in the eyes of investors. When the funds arrive, they will be used to make up for the misappropriated merchant payment.

Deng Feng, another resigning employee of Taojiji, told Deep Web that Taojiji’s misappropriation of merchants’ money was not just after the failure of the B round of financing, but had been misappropriated just after the start of operations. It feels like Taojiji is like a Ponzi scheme. The follow-up merchant’s payment or financing will be used to repay the previous merchant’s payment. It will be thunderous when stopped, so he left his job around February this year. “

According to Fang Teng, an early merchant of Taojiji (now transferred to Pinduoduo), Taojiji was the earliest model of purchasing on its own. The cycle from purchase to final payment itself is longer than other e-commerce platforms (the shortest one). The payment is also over 30 days). After the transition to the settlement model, the settlement cycle has not shortened. “I am the first batch of merchants in Taojiji. I left the store in January this year and switched to Pinduoduo. The payment has not been refunded, and the money is not a few thousand dollars. I haven’t returned the money after asking for it several times. “

The last batch of leeks came from Double Eleven this year. At the end of October, Taojiji launched the Double Eleventh promotion. Some businesses that had been delisted and restarted operations resumed, which finally caused Taojiji’s heart to beat suddenly. However, the money was eventually overwhelmed. Xiao Zhan told Deep Web that after receiving some repayments, he thought the Double Eleventh Promotion was an opportunity. “Finally, it was 50,000 or 60,000.” / p>

Who is in hell, who is in heaven

In the early morning of December 9, Taojiji’s headquarters was already full of merchants collecting debts. The Wechat group and QQ group organized by the merchants were full of questions about Taojiji’s bankruptcy.”Protection of rights” is the keyword that appears most often.

In the poll “How much balance do you have in Taoji Ji yet to withdraw?” initiated by Tencent News, nearly 2,000 people participated, and the proportion of arrears over one million was over 13% (such as throwing away 17% of them) Of passers-by, this percentage exceeds 15%). In the discussion under the vote, a large number of businesses described their experiences, including fresh graduates, new e-commerce practitioners, and these businesses lost all their savings (even at home) even including credit cards and various borrowing channels.



A Taojiji merchant stated, “Taojiji illegally misappropriated our merchant’s payment, and more than 2 million instantaneously died. Now it is bankruptcy and went to the Shanghai headquarters to defend its rights several times without success. Be brought to justice! Can anyone help us to do justice! “

Also involved are partners such as advertising agencies. Taojiji Advertising Agency issued an interactive daily announcement saying that there is a risk of uncollectible accounts receivable of RMB 73.402 million. According to the announcement, as of the date of this announcement, the daily receivable balance of Hangzhou Yunmeng Digital Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Interactive, on Shanghai Huanjue Industrial Co., Ltd. (the main product of which is Taojiji) totaled 73.420 million yuan. If the account age is within 6 months, there is a significant risk that the above-mentioned accounts receivable cannot be recovered daily.

A courier company told “Shenwang” that Taojiji owed nearly tens of millions of courier fees to the company. “At present, legal procedures have been taken, so the name is not convenient for external disclosure.”

On Baidu Post Bar and Weibo, there are still a large number of consumers reporting that shopping on Taojiji, receiving counterfeit and shoddy goods, and applying for a return, the merchant has agreed, but the refund has not been received.



This is an all-in gambling, but Taojiji borrowed money on the table, betting on the funds of the supplier and the future of the employees, but eventually lost the money of others and pushed it to hell.

The staff of Taojiji who was responsible for protecting the rights of the business turned and became the object of rights protection.