The era of e-commerce dividends may truly be coming to an end, as the user base of Alibaba, JD.com, and Pinduoduo has reached its ceiling, with user growth significantly slowing down. The vast user base in the lower-tier markets has successfully propelled Pinduoduo's successful counterattack, intercepting Alibaba and JD.com halfway. Pinduoduo now boasts 820 million users, while JD.com has 552 million, and Alibaba has 939 million.
At present, Alibaba's e-commerce user scale remains the largest in the market. However, Pinduoduo's development speed is too fast, and it is estimated that it will soon surpass Alibaba's user scale. JD.com's user scale growth is noticeably slower, but the user scale does not tell the whole story; the final transaction volume and GMV are also important influencing factors.
This year's Double 11 e-commerce festival was particularly quiet, with a noticeable lack of popularity compared to previous years. Alibaba's Double 11 transactions reached over 500 billion, but the growth rate was only around 8%, while in previous years, the growth rate was in the double digits. JD.com's transaction growth rate during this year's Double 11 is also declining, and Pinduoduo, as usual, did not disclose specific data, after all, it is still far behind Alibaba and JD.com.
The latest financial reports released by the e-commerce giants are even more unbearable to look at. According to Alibaba's latest quarterly (July-September this year) financial report, the revenue did not meet expectations, and the net profit plummeted by nearly 40%. The overall performance growth has clearly slowed down. Subsequently, Alibaba's stock price fell by 10%. JD.com lost 2.8 billion in the third quarter of this year, which is also not ideal.
Therefore, after the growth of the user scale in the e-commerce industry is limited, the high-speed growth of the giants' performance is no longer sustainable, let alone other e-commerce platforms. The performance of VIP.com is also slowing down, and smaller e-commerce platforms like Jumei International are even more difficult to support. Now, another e-commerce giant is about to cool down? Its market value has fallen by 90%, and 120 million shares have been frozen.
Sub-sectors of the e-commerce market can also give birth to giants. Secoo, known as "China's first luxury e-commerce stock," is a classic example. This e-commerce platform went public in the United States in 2017, just in time to catch the strong momentum of domestic e-commerce development. At its peak, it was favored by many domestic venture capital institutions. Unfortunately, the current situation of Secoo is lamentable!
The financial report was originally scheduled to be released in May this year, but Secoo has not released it yet and has been warned by NASDAQ. On November 9, Secoo finally released its 2020 financial report, with a total revenue of 6 billion, a decrease of 12%, and a net profit loss of 71 million yuan, a drop of 146%. The performance is not good, with both revenue and profits declining significantly.
Not only that, but Secoo has also fallen into negative public opinion due to arrears of suppliers' payments. What is even more unexpected is that some consumers have complained that after purchasing goods on Secoo, they have not been shipped for a long time. When they finally applied for a refund, it was not accepted and has been delayed. On a certain complaint platform, there are already more than 2,000 complaints about Secoo.
It has to be said that the road of luxury e-commerce is not easy to go. After Secoo went public, e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com also invested heavily in the luxury goods market. As a vertical e-commerce platform like Secoo, its market share has naturally been impacted. Moreover, there are more luxury e-commerce platforms entering the market with huge financing, and the development situation of Secoo can be imagined.
As of November 22, Secoo's market value is only 55.82 million US dollars, and compared with the historical peak, the market value has fallen by 90%. According to industrial and commercial information, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Beijing Secoo Trading Company, Shanghai Secoo E-commerce Company, has had 120 million yuan of equity frozen, and the prospects are not optimistic.Looking at Secoo's financing experience, we can see the involvement of JD.com. JD.com once invested $175 million in Secoo, which is equivalent to about 1 billion yuan. In the financing round of over 3 billion yuan, Liu Qiangdong alone invested 1 billion yuan, indicating that JD.com highly valued this luxury e-commerce platform, as it was the first of its kind in China.
However, things have not gone as planned. Secoo is now facing issues such as delaying payments to suppliers,拖欠 employee wages, not shipping goods after payment, and ignoring refund requests. After facing rights protection from suppliers and complaints from consumers, Secoo's dream of being a luxury e-commerce platform has shattered, and its market value has plummeted by 90%. The capital market has already made its choice. Will Secoo have a tomorrow?