After a heroic act of self-sacrifice, Chuchu Street embarks on its next billion-level journey

In the last century, the giant Kodak once monopolized the global photographic equipment market, bringing the company hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. However, due to excessive comfort and lack of competitors, the entire camera market had not seen any innovative products or technological improvements for decades, so that the sudden advent of digital cameras brought the giant down overnight.

This is very similar to the environment in which domestic e-commerce platforms are currently operating. Faced with the market monopoly of Alibaba and JD.com, other relatively disadvantaged e-commerce brands all hope to find an innovative path in order to compete with giants in the market segments.

"Although we have only achieved one thousandth of Taobao's performance, e-commerce in the next five years will be led by users born after 1990." When it comes to the e-commerce market, Chuchu Street founder Lu Jinjie has a different way of playing.

Giving up fat is for the long-term benefit

Just like the case of Kodak's fall, in the Internet era, if a company does not revolutionize itself, it can only wait to be revolutionized by its competitors. In this regard, Chuchu Street endured the pain of self-destruction and completed its business reform early on the road to progress, actively embracing the mobile Internet.

Last year, ChuChu Street made two decisions that seemed "unusual" to the outside world. First, it closed its PC website and directed all users to mobile terminals. ChuChu Street was the first domestic e-commerce company to abandon the PC platform. Afterwards, Lv Jinjie decided to cut off its shopping guide relationship with Taobao. As a social shopping guide platform, most of ChuChu Street's shopping guide business was related to Taobao. In 2014, ChuChu Street's shopping guide business transaction volume reached 2 billion yuan.

Facts have proved that Lu Jinjie's decision was right. Chuchu Street, having thrown away its burden, began to move forward with a light load. Up to now, Chuchu Street has 150 million users on its entire platform, with over 100 million mobile installations. In 2015, the platform's transaction volume exceeded 5 billion. In the mobile APP rankings released by Analysys, Chuchu Street ranked top five in terms of the number of active users among all e-commerce applications.

Data shows that in 2015, the online shopping transaction volume of China's mobile terminals reached 2.1 trillion yuan, surpassing the PC terminal for the first time in the total online shopping transaction volume, accounting for 55%. Mobile terminals have become the main battlefield of e-commerce. However, at the beginning of 2015, more people were skeptical about mobile e-commerce. "Past experience tells us that we must focus on doing things. We focus on the mobile terminal and throw away the PC terminal. In the short term, we are throwing away a piece of fat meat, but in fact, we are seizing the future." Lv Jinjie said.

Unique goal, dedicated to serving the post-90s

On the road of shopping guide transformation to e-commerce, there are Meilishuo and Mogujie in the past, and Star Wardrobe and Youfaner in the future. The biggest difference between Chuchujie and these platforms lies in its user base. According to Lv Jinjie, among Chuchujie's users, those born after 1990 account for more than 75%, while Taobao and JD.com account for about 20%. Chuchujie has now become the preferred shopping platform for young people.

Lv Jinjie explained, "In the next five years, the main users of e-commerce platforms will be those born in the 1990s and 1995s. Seizing them means seizing the future. In the next five years, the average age of those born in the 1990s will range from 22 to 27 or 28 years old. Those born in the 1995s will gradually enter the workplace and will become the main consumer group. Chuchujie will continue to make efforts in this market segment."

At present, the post-90s generation is the first group to try to use mobile phones for shopping. The post-90s generation has personalized requirements for goods and pursues fashion and cutting-edge trends, which is consistent with the fast and convenient characteristics of mobile mode. Taobao and JD.com, large platforms, cannot fully support the overall e-commerce volume in China. E-commerce companies focusing on this group can provide more segmented search and display services and account systems with lower barriers for new users.

As a mobile e-commerce company, especially for the post-90s generation, Chuchujie has become the only one in the e-commerce market through intensive cultivation. Lv Jinjie believes that "our biggest competitor may be ourselves."

Brand building has made another breakthrough

"9.9 yuan with free shipping" was the slogan of Chuchu Street when it started, but now it has become a label that is difficult to tear off. How to make the brand more meaningful, more in line with the temperament of post-90s generation, more fashionable and of higher quality has become the primary goal of Chuchu Street's future brand upgrade.

"Today, ChuChu Street is at a stage where the market size is getting bigger and bigger, the competition is getting more and more intense, and the needs of users are becoming more diverse and demanding. From the perspective of ChuChu Street itself, it needs to carry more value beyond the original shopping process, provide users with more shopping guidance, and enhance user vitality and stickiness. We need to make the image of ChuChu Street more distinct. This is a fashionable, trend-setting mobile shopping platform that resonates with young users." Lu Jinjie explained that following this original intention, ChuChu Street began the road to image upgrading.

Last year, ChuChu Street signed popular idol Jing Boran as its brand spokesperson and released a new slogan - buy beautiful things. This year, it released a new brand mascot - Chu Xiaolu. At the same time, ChuChu Street has effectively strengthened its brand quality through TV variety show marketing and film and television drama marketing.

Just today, Chuchu Street and LeTV reached a further cooperation, with the cooperation amount exceeding 100 million yuan. It will promote the cross-border integration of shopping + entertainment with the content resources and celebrity resources of LeTV's three major fields: LeTV.com, LeTV Pictures, and LeTV Music. It is reported that Chuchu Street will also invest in LeTV's movies in the future, and will also sell LeTV smart hardware products that young people like on e-commerce platforms.

Some people believe that 2015 is the first year of entertainment marketing in China. In this era of pan-entertainment, consumers' decision-making has become extremely complex. The process of consumers obtaining information is no longer a linear transmission process, but a staggered network structure, in which entertaining content is more attractive to consumers. For Chuchujie, LeTV's ability to cultivate and operate super IP is a powerful driving force for Chuchujie's brand building. For LeTV, Chuchujie's huge user base will help it seize more market share in the mobile entertainment market.

Perhaps over 100 million downloads, over 100 million users, and over 100 million in cooperation amounts are just the beginning for ChuChu Street. The e-commerce industry is changing rapidly, and no one wants to be a follower behind a giant forever. Anyone who can grasp the pulse of the market has the potential to become an innovator who can defeat Kodak.

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.