Say Hello to Yuelin, Chinese Used Goods Recycling Solution Provider
Summary
Afterwards, in 2018, the second-hand books marketplace advanced its business through two subsequent rounds – pre-Series A in May, Series A in August – securing tens of millions of yuan in each, led respectively by 36Kr (KRKR: Nasdaq) and privative investor Lee Pui Man, senior general manager of Henderson Land Development (恒基兆业地产, 0012:HK). The prices of the used books that users sell to Yuelin is uniformly determined by the platform, based on its self-developed ‘Mofang System’ (魔方系统, literally ‘Rubik’s Cube System’), incorporating big data and cloud computing mechanisms. Therefore, Xianyu (闲鱼) – the second-hand goods platform of Alibaba Group – did not position books as a major category in its business, even though it has an absolutely dominant power in the market, recording an average MAUs of 58.1 million in Q1 2019 according to QuestMobile. This asset heavy business model also relies on the platforms having strong ability in operations – especially in perfecting multiple systems such as warehouses, cargo inspection and packaging – which requires continuous investments in the beginning. In the sense that through selling to the book dealers in bulk, it operates under a relatively asset light approach, which efficiently eliminates the problem of excessive loads in warehouses that the ‘to consumer’ players frequently meet, and considerably increases the turnover rate.