"I have been in China and say that the people I run away are too vicious, and the executives of Youxian are all in Beijing."
This is the reply from Xu Zheng, the founder of MissFresh, to the rumors of running away on July 29.
According to media reports, Xu Zheng has been in contact with investors in the past few days, but there is no conclusion yet.
As of July 30, the share price of MissFresh in the US stock market was US$0.12 per share. Based on the issue price listed on June 25, 2021, the market value evaporated by 99%.
1. 11 billion yuan raised in 8 years, and now it is "disbanded" overnight
After the news that Youxian announced the closure of the "Jisuda" business was exposed, a 15-and-a-half-minute conference recording was circulated on the Internet the next day.
About 700 employees were notified to finish their work and the company was "disbanded on the spot."
Regarding the news of "dissolution" and "laid off", the official Youxian Daily has not yet given a reply.
But for a moment, this made MissFresh a hot search and a topic of conversation for e-commerce people after dinner.
In fact, in March this year, MissFresh has begun to lay off large-scale employees, from the original 2,000+ to less than 900, and suppliers have also frequently visited to "visit".
The "Jisuda" business closed this time is deeply loved by consumers. It once made the number of daily Youxian users exceed 30 million, and it has received more than 11 billion in financing within 8 years.
The life of Youxian is like a roller coaster, and the fate of opening high and closing low cannot escape these three key points - forward warehouse & franchise & marketing.
2. Progress warehouse & franchise & marketing, pain points that cannot be avoided
The forward warehouse solved the biggest bug in fresh products - freshness, and also delivered in as little as 30 minutes, making MissFresh one of the first-class fresh food e-commerce.
In 2019, the number of forward warehouses for MissFresh reached 1,500.
And the increase in quantity means the superposition of costs.
It is reported that the forward warehouse of fresh food is different from ordinary warehouses. The freezer for storing fresh food requires 24 hours of insulation, and the electricity bill for a 300-square-meter site costs more than 200,000 yuan a year.
At that time, MissFresh, which was still the darling of capital at that time, burned up 800 million yuan in one year just to seize the market and occupy the minds of users.
It is reported that in order to get a stable user, Youxian Daily has to inspire at least 6 orders, which requires the platform to keep discounting and issuing coupons. The most powerful coupon is "99 yuan to 80 yuan off", so the cost of acquiring customers for each user is at least 200 yuan.
As a result, the number of users of Daily Youxian soared to 31 million, with more than 65.1 million valid orders in 2020.
If there is no replacement, MissFresh may be able to go further, but in the era of fresh food e-commerce, users will only choose the most cost-effective platform.
Once the platform has no subsidies, users will immediately turn against each other.
When customer acquisition costs and warehousing costs exceed expectations, MissFresh opened a franchise channel to the public.
Only a guaranteed fund of 50,000 to 100,000 yuan can be contracted for an idle forward warehouse.
The seemingly wonderful benefits are nothing more than the way that Daily Youxian passes the losses to innocent franchisees.
If the franchisee's order does not exceed 100, it will be almost impossible to make a profit, but once it exceeds the cost of each link, the cost will increase and the income will not be enough.
Therefore, in order to make a profit, many sites choose to press stocks, stock up, and even turn off air conditioners, resulting in customers buying rotten and moldy stale ingredients.
The frequent platform of storm has caused consumers to lose confidence, and it is natural to quit fans.
As of December 2021, the number of active users of MissFresh has shrunk from the original 30 million to 5.717 million, and the 1,500 forward warehouses have also dropped to more than 600.
During the period from 2018 to 2020, MissFresh's cumulative losses in four years reached about 10.5 billion yuan.
3. 1.6 billion owed suppliers, employees stopped paying social security
On the morning of July 29, the 5-story office building in Shunyi, Beijing was empty, and there was a supplier who asked for debts to be requested on the sofa in the hall.
At the scene, some suppliers have been owed the payment for goods for nearly 2 years, while a company with a large amount of owed is close to one million.
A supplier confided in the black cat complaint platform.
It is understood that MissFresh owed suppliers 1.625 billion yuan in the third quarter of last year, and the total amount of legal litigation cases on the platform exceeded 25 million yuan.
At the same time, the platform employees are also involved.
On July 28, it was reported that at a 20-minute online meeting of Youxian Daily, more than 700 employees were forced to resign, without wages or compensation, and even the social security provident fund was cut off for two months.
All of this comes down to the fact that the financing has not been received...
On July 14, MissFresh said it signed a strategic investment agreement with Shanxi Donghui Group and obtained its equity investment of 200 million yuan.
However, some employees said that the financing has not yet arrived and the final payment deadline has passed.
And this "small" 200 million yuan may be the last straw that crushes MissFresh.
After the incident fermented, suppliers and employees fell into panic, and the executives of Youxian collectively "lost their voices". Founder Xu Zheng only came forward to express his "no escape".
4. Retreat premeditatedly?
Since its listing, MissFresh has launched a wave of major layoffs and has successively changed employee contracts to affiliated companies, turning formal employees into outsourcing.
The frequency of layoffs on the platform increased dramatically in 2022. Currently, the number of employees of Youxian Feishu Group has increased from more than 3,000 to 891 people today, and the layoff rate of some departments has exceeded 70%.
And all of this combined with the current phenomenon seems to be full of "conspiracy theories".
On July 18, many senior executives of MissFresh, including Xu Zheng, withdrew one after another, and the legal representative was changed from Zeng Bin to Sun Yuying.
These actions are like Shihuituan, a fresh food group buying e-commerce company before it was announced bankruptcy at the end of March. The same behavior has made the rumors of "bankruptcy liquidation" of MissFresh more and more serious.
V. Conclusion
MissFresh, once a star project in the eyes of capital, seems to be delisting first after it was listed on Dingdong Maicai.
It passed in just eight years, burning all 10 billion yuan, but it did not complete the forward warehouse business.
The forward warehouse is like a double-edged sword, solving the problem of preservation in fresh food transactions and pleasing consumers' favor, but it only increases the problem of high costs.
Time will give the answer to whether this topic is a false proposition.
And the most important thing at the moment is who can become the "savior" of Youxian?
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