Host: People still focus on the previous things about GrabShrimp. In the end, who decided to sell it to Douban? How did you communicate with Douban?
The following is a transcript of the interview:
We started from this point. At that time, we had very good technology, and we made what we needed ourselves. By around 2007-2008, we realized that this thing was not what the masses needed. In other words, its market was relatively small. Around 2007-2008, we became aware of this issue. This kind of thing is a strategic choice; when you realize that the battlefield hasn't been chosen well, it becomes more difficult to maneuver afterward.
After selling the RSS reader GrabShrimp, which he founded for three years, Xu Yirong chose to take a year off. There were many reasons for giving up GrabShrimp, one being funding, and another being market demand. This team, which was very advanced in data mining, faced a less mainstream market, as if trapped in a narrow alleyway, unable to maneuver freely.
In a café at Blue Bay, Xu Yirong heard a friend say they were very attentive to every move their best friend made, thus sparking the idea to create a browser plugin that would allow them to always know what websites their friends were browsing and what products they were looking at. This small software was named "Guang Guang".
What direction should be taken next? In 2009, Xu Yirong looked into many vertical industries, such as healthcare and education, because he believed that during the entrepreneurial phase under the internet, there would be deeper integration with vertical industries. Most importantly, it must be closely related to the lives of the general public.
This is also a vertical direction of e-commerce: social e-commerce. Fashion-conscious girls can share various fashion-related items here, which can come from private collections or links to fashionable shops on Taobao, B2C malls, etc., and Meilishuo can then share profits with merchants.
Introduction: In such an era where capital is feverishly hot and entrepreneurs can hardly conceal their excitement, who will ultimately become the next breakout star in the e-commerce industry? Sina Technology has launched a series of interviews on new forces in e-commerce, focusing on the development environment of diversified e-commerce, new entrepreneurial opportunities, new business models, and the inner journeys of these entrepreneurs. Please pay attention.
Xu Yirong: Hello, friends of Sina.
Host Cui Xi: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Sina Technology's New Forces in E-commerce Series Interviews. We are delighted to have our first guest today, Mr. Xu Yirong, an old friend of Sina Technology, to talk about his entrepreneurial experiences in e-commerce. First, please let Yirong greet the netizens.
However, Xu Yirong's mindset is quite good. Entrepreneurship is something he really wanted to do, and even if it didn't succeed in the end, it wouldn't matter. He even self-deprecatingly joked that the name of his first venture wasn't chosen well: called "GrabShrimp," so it ended up "grabbing blindly." (Cui Xi)
Next came a year of rest. In 2009, Xu Yirong lived very freely: traveling in summer and skiing in winter. In the ski resort built against the mountain, Xu Yirong would ascend to the highest point and then slide down towards the mountain terrain. In this repeated process, he understood a principle: going with the flow.
Xu Yirong: This matter is quite simple. The development of GrabShrimp wasn't very smooth in the end.
Of course, he admitted there was a bit of loneliness, but he gradually got used to it.
The former office of GrabShrimp was located near Wudaokou by Tsinghua University. It was no longer bustling as before, and there was no one coming in or out, only a few desks quietly standing in the room. During the day, Xu Yirong would go there alone, read the news, think about things, and take a nap on the sofa when tired.
Xu Yirong felt excited upon discovering such a market gap, but how to combine? How to enter? He began frequent discussions with female friends and conducted brainstorming sessions repeatedly.
Video: Xu Yirong's Entrepreneurial Journey with Meilishuo Source: Sina Technology
From an entrepreneurial perspective, I feel it's particularly important to choose the right battlefield first. Apple prohibits third-party promotions from freely distributing iPads and iPhones. Later, I realized that one must do something related to the daily lives of the masses. I found that the internet, including my first entrepreneurship, like RSS readers, was somewhat superficial, not truly capable of changing many people's lives. For example, if I want to wear beautiful clothes and you help me know where to buy them, I must do something related to life.
Host: Yirong is a well-known entrepreneur who has founded many companies. Some netizens may not be familiar with your entrepreneurial journey. Could you introduce the companies you have previously founded?
That was at the end of 2008, when Xu Yirong deeply realized that one must choose the right battlefield for entrepreneurship.
Host: Were venture capitalists investing in such products at that time?
Xu Yirong: Yes.
Host: What aspects did the difficulties manifest in? For example, funding?
Xu Yirong: During my first entrepreneurship, we had very excellent technical personnel. I used to work on data mining at IBM. Our group was the best data mining team on Earth. My boss was an academician of the American Academy of Engineering and the godfather of data mining. The term "data mining" was coined by him. At that time, we thought about what to do, and in the end, we created something for ourselves. The need for reading was very large. Every day, there were various kinds of information on the internet, especially IT news. I discovered that I could create something to make my reading process easier.
Host: The previous entrepreneurial direction was RSS subscription, which was widely used by tech enthusiasts, bloggers, and IT elites, and was once very popular. It was also quite popular abroad, and there are still RSS products abroad. In what situation did you realize it was unsustainable?
However, there would be many issues, such as how to protect privacy and how to be compatible with different browsers? Thus, Xu Yirong created a web-based version as an auxiliary tool. Unexpectedly, the web-based version gained more users, while the "Guang Guang" plugin became less significant. Eventually, this web-based version became the direction of Xu Yirong's second entrepreneurship: Meilishuo.
First guest: Xu Yirong, founder of social e-commerce Meilishuo (Weibo)
My first entrepreneurship was in RSS readers, which helped make reading very easy to access and personalized. You could choose what you wanted to read. That was more technical. At that time, we were more technically oriented and structural. This time, with Meilishuo, it's a website for girls. Meilishuo is a women's fashion shopping community where girls can collect and share items. For instance, it's her beautiful space where she can collect fashionable items she finds appealing. She can share these items on Meilishuo. All the products shared here are purchasable. It's like a very beautiful and stylish magazine, but in a network version, a more interactive magazine. You can purchase directly from here. I call it Meilishuo, hoping every girl has her own Meilishuo.
Currently, in the internet industry, I've observed that in terms of food, accommodation, and transportation, there are already very good services helping you find places to eat, book hotels, buy tickets, and even buy houses. But when it comes to picking clothes or making you look more beautiful, or even broader, in the entire fashion sector, I feel there isn't yet something very good, akin to men and women together. The website format is still somewhat similar to forms from about ten years ago, mostly portal-style or BBS-style. With our excellent technology, understanding the new ways of the internet, the socialized ways, we thought whether these new ways, including the miracle of mobile phones, could be re-applied to solve problems related to clothing and fashion. Thus, we started this endeavor at the end of 2009.
Wudaokou is a bustling commercial area with street vendors and beautiful women, gathering a batch of internet entrepreneurs and a large number of fashionable young men and women. Traveling to and from such a place every day, Xu Yirong suddenly realized that fashion was a pretty good industry. As a top data analysis engineer, he suddenly discovered that the need to help girls look more beautiful had not been addressed through technological means.
Xu Yirong: I personally enjoy entrepreneurship. Previously, I worked in technology. I originally studied liberal arts at Peking University and later obtained a master's degree in computer science from Stanford. Afterward, I spent many years doing data mining at IBM Research. I've had two entrepreneurial experiences. The first one was roughly from 2005 to 2008, then I took a year off in 2009. Now, I'm doing my second entrepreneurship called Meilishuo. It started at the end of November 2009 and has continued until now. That's my experience.
This profit model is not very complex. Douban had early collaborations with Dangdang, Joyo, and others for book recommendations and revenue sharing, though it wasn't a large-scale income. However, the opportunity for Meilishuo lies in the fact that the demand for clothing and skincare products far exceeds that for books, and the gross margin for such goods is widely recognized as the highest in the industry.
Xu Yirong frankly stated that this is a business that heats up slowly. He believes there will be a cultivation period of 1-2 years ahead. And in the current environment of internet bubbles, slowing down to focus on product development is most important.
The host of this column @Cui Xi welcomes private messages. Entrepreneurs are welcome to contact us, and we appreciate any valuable opinions and suggestions you may offer.