Dangdang has remained silent after the merger and acquisition. What will be its next move?

On the evening of April 11, Tianhai Investment, a subsidiary of HNA Group, announced that it plans to purchase 100% equity of Dangdang.com and 100% equity of Dangdang Kewen through issuing shares and paying cash, with an initial price of 7.5 billion yuan. Thus, HNA's acquisition of Dangdang.com has finally been finalized.

Dangdang was founded in 1999 and is one of the earliest e-commerce companies in China. It was once known as the "Amazon of China". In the past 18 years, Dangdang has developed from a book company to a comprehensive e-commerce platform, and has maintained an absolute leading position in the field of Chinese book culture.

From the perspective of all categories, data shows that Dangdang sells more than 10 million kinds of goods, including 5 million kinds of books, more than 5 million kinds of general merchandise and clothing, with a very rich SKU. These rich categories attract more users. It is reported that Dangdang's daily user traffic and number of consumers can reach millions, making it a genuine traffic portal.

In the book industry, Dangdang is a veritable online book publishing and retail giant, with over 5 million book categories, more than 3,000 third-party sellers, and more than 200 physical bookstores operating nationwide. Since its establishment, it has sold more than 3 billion books. It can be said that one out of every three books sold in China comes from Dangdang.

This is why the news about this transaction has been circulating in the industry for more than a month. Dangdang has been leading the market share in the book culture field for several years and has a solid position as the industry leader. Therefore, after the transaction was finally completed, many voices appeared in the industry. From the results, this transaction is indeed a positive and win-win situation.

What do you think of the cultural e-commerce unicorn joining forces with the aviation giant?

Recently, the National Information Center released the "Annual Report on the Development of China's Sharing Economy (2018)", which shows that while sharing innovation is booming in the field of life services, the pace of market elimination and corporate mergers and acquisitions is also accelerating. This has been confirmed by a series of mergers and acquisitions, such as Ele.me's acquisition of Baidu Waimai and Mobike's acquisition by Meituan.

In fact, many companies that were once prosperous, even Internet giants, can’t escape the fate of being acquired. Back then, Yahoo was a global Internet communications, business and media company. It was the world’s first website to provide Internet navigation services and one of the creators of the Internet miracle at the end of the 20th century. However, Yahoo, founded in 1995, was eventually acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.8 billion in 2016.

Looking back at the many victims of capital in China, the results of mergers and acquisitions were not a happy ending. Yesterday, an article published by CCTV.com commented on this matter: From the perspective of currency, Dangdang, which was founded less than 20 years ago, landed in HNA with a value of 7.5 billion, which is a rare success in the world. Indeed, judging heroes by market value does not stand up to scrutiny. Moreover, the integration of Dangdang and HNA hides a more far-reaching meaning.

On the one hand, for Dangdang, HNA is a powerful capital giant with a vast amount of physical industrial resources. It can not only help Dangdang fully release the potential accumulated over the years, but also provide soil for Dangdang's new retail transformation. First, HNA has 80 million passengers per year, and similar to Dangdang, its users have a higher comprehensive value, and the scenes from waiting for the flight, boarding the plane, to the hotel, etc., all provide space for reading; second, HNA's global layout is an opportunity for Dangdang to expand its "overseas purchase" business, and it may even emerge as a dark horse like NetEase Kaola; third, in early 2016, HNA acquired the American technology company Ingram Micro, which is the largest book distributor in the United States. This integration is also an opportunity for Dangdang's core business of book retail to enhance its global supply chain integration capabilities; fourth, HNA Group increased its stake in Deutsche Bank, holding 9.92% of the shares, becoming the largest shareholder of Deutsche Bank, and Deutsche Bank will also become a potential partner for Dangdang to enter the supply chain finance.

On the other hand, for HNA, Dangdang, as a cultural e-commerce unicorn, can support HNA's investment layout in the cultural industry and provide a huge online traffic entrance. First, HNA has announced that it will undergo a comprehensive strategic transformation and is expected to invest 50 billion yuan to build a new digital tourism platform Hi-App. The acquisition of Dangdang is a strategic move for HNA to integrate resources and reach online user traffic; second, Dangdang has deep operational experience in the e-commerce field, and its big data, cloud computing, AI and other technologies are mature and can well empower HNA's Tianhai business segment; third, Dangdang's industry reputation and influence should not be underestimated. The online Dangdang Cloud Reading is one of the top 10 players in the national reading APP rankings, and the offline Dangdang physical bookstores cover 8 major cities, with an average daily passenger flow of 3,000-5,000 people per store. This is a valuable asset for HNA.

From this point of view, HNA + Dangdang can not only release the effect of 1+1>2, but also bring multiple benefits to both the industry and users. Obviously, this is also a combination that both parties are quite satisfied with.

New retail of books will continue, and the original intention remains unchanged

There are many different opinions in the industry about the merger and acquisition. Dangdang's official Weibo responded to the matter with a tone as calm as ever. On the one hand, it talked about Dangdang's past and present: Dangdang has been deeply involved in cultural e-commerce for 18 years, and is deeply loved by readers across the country. It serves nearly one million customers across the country every day. It is a cultural e-commerce unicorn and has grown excellently in recent years. On the other hand, it continues to look forward and endorses the arrival of World Book Day on April 23: "World Book Day on April 23 is coming soon. Dangdang will have a large-scale book festival promotion. Book lovers across the country are welcome to come and play, read, and buy."

The biggest meaning of this passage is that Dangdang, as a cultural e-commerce unicorn, will continue to sell books, continue to carry on the gene of books, and serve the readers. Indeed, 18 years of hard work have earned Dangdang an absolute position in the market. Now Dangdang, with a market value of over 1 billion US dollars, has continued to make profits since 2014, with a profit of more than 300 million in 2017. This year's team assessment target is more than 400 million. Always looking forward is the key to Dangdang's recognition by the industry and users.

Dangdang was once known as the "Amazon of China". Last year, the retail book transaction volume of Dangdang reached 40 billion, accounting for almost half of the market. Dangdang has already had an absolute say in the online book market, and the reorganization of Dangdang and HNA shows Dangdang's desire for offline resources and the new retail market.

In an era where people's pace of life is getting faster and faster and society is becoming more impetuous, it has become very rare to retain the book gene and stick to the original intention of selling and reading books. In order to better open up the reading market, Dangdang connects cultural consumption and scenarios through big data. On the one hand, it uses online data resources to profile user groups, thereby creating offline stores with reading as the main line, supplementing the current lack of reading scenario experience mode; on the other hand, it fully attacks new retail, backed by the powerful resources of the HNA system, combined with its own cultural e-commerce C-end interface, fully releasing the potential energy accumulated over the years, and completing the incubation and transformation of a new retail giant.

Dangdang has grown into an e-commerce unicorn, but its original intention of selling books has remained unchanged. As readers, we only have blessings and expectations for Dangdang, hoping that Dangdang will become better and that its book gene will survive.

The era of universal reading has arrived, and Dangdang is once again fighting in the cultural industry

April 23 is World Book Day, but the development of the cultural industry in the Chinese market still needs to be improved. It is reported that Dangdang also put relevant advertisements in 10 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Tianjin on April 16 for this Book Festival. "Long stay in Hainan, the fragrance of books is in Dangdang", Dangdang, a giant book retail platform, still plays an indispensable and important role in this festival. Judging from the statement released by Dangdang, Dangdang will still build its own kingdom in the name of books in the future.

The Book Festival will be a great opportunity for Dangdang to continue and deepen its book business, and no longer be confined to online. Now Dangdang will rely on HNA's resources in aviation, airports, overseas real estate, shipping, tourism, finance, etc. to build various scenarios in the new retail landscape, and ultimately complement HNA's advantages to complete its own new retail advancement path.

In fact, as the leader in the field of online book publishing and retail, Dangdang has had countless financing opportunities, and the capital market has also provided it with a variety of options. However, Dangdang has never finalized its destination. This should not only be a struggle to retain Dangdang's autonomy and independence, but also a persistence in preserving a touch of book fragrance and book genes. HNA has reserved such an independent space for Dangdang and provided strong resource support, which has finally made the dust settle.

Today, Dangdang has created the 4.23 Book Festival, which shows that Dangdang has indeed found a path that suits it best. On the one hand, it can maintain its book culture, continue to nurture more readers, and become a leader in the era of universal reading; on the other hand, it will once again enter the cultural industry, leverage HNA's vast resources in multiple scenarios, enter new retail, and complete its expansion and transformation and upgrading.

In general, HNA has left enough space for Dangdang to preserve its culture of books, and at the same time has given Dangdang a better and more stable soil for its new retail business. For Dangdang, this is a very clear strategic direction, which indicates that the cultural e-commerce unicorn Dangdang will expand its territory in the new retail field with awe for readers, move forward all the way, and become the vanguard in the era of universal reading.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.