What is Zouxiu.com? Zouxiu.com Review

Founding Background

In March 2008, Ji Wenhong, together with Huang Jin, who has a strong investment background, and Maureen, a fashion buyer with many years of experience in purchasing global luxury brands, founded Zouxiu.com.

Financing

In March 2011, Zouxiu.com received a US$20 million investment from KPCB (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), the largest venture capital firm in the United States. After receiving the first external financing of US$20 million from KPCB, Ji Wenhong announced that Zouxiu.com may go public within 2 to 3 years, and said that Zouxiu.com expected to complete a total of three rounds of financing.

In August 2011, Zouxiu.com received another US$100 million investment from Warburg Pincus, a well-known American private equity fund, setting a record for the largest Series B financing in the history of Chinese e-commerce. After receiving the financing, the first thing Zouxiu.com did was to build its own logistics center.

In May 2015, nearly four years after the second investment, Zouxiu.com announced the completion of a US$30 million Series C financing round, led by Jardine Matheson Investments, with KPCB and other original institutional investors and the founding team following suit.

Development History

At the beginning of its establishment, Zouxiu.com targeted the user group at 25 to 45 years old who pursue fashion and have purchasing power, and mainly promoted clothing, accessories, shoes, bags, cosmetics, household items and luxury goods, etc. The brand portfolio is 15% luxury goods, 25% well-known overseas brands and works of foreign independent designers, and 60% well-known domestic brands.

From 2008 to 2010, in the "China Fashion Products E-commerce Development Research Report" released by iResearch Consulting for three consecutive years, Zouxiu.com was ranked "No. 1 Chinese Fashion E-commerce Website".

By the end of 2010, the B2C business of Zouxiu.com had opened a warehouse of more than 100,000 square meters in Shenzhen alone, where all international brands purchased by fashion buyers were gathered.

In 2011, it was selected as one of the "100 Most Valuable New Internet Companies in the World", becoming one of only three Chinese websites on the list.

In 2012, Zouxiu.com obtained the official authorization from Italy's top luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo, which was the first case of a Chinese e-commerce company obtaining official authorization from a luxury brand.

In 2012, the problem of counterfeit goods on Zouxiu.com began to be widely disclosed by the media.

In 2012, Zouxiu.com first cooperated with eBay to launch the "eBay Show" channel. In the same year, Ruhuopaozhi established cooperation with Gmarket, the largest e-commerce company in South Korea, KarmaLoo, a fashion e-commerce company in the United States, and obtained authorization from more than 50 brands on the three platforms.

In 2013, Zouxiu.com adjusted its strategic focus to its partners and launched three sections: "Overseas Direct Delivery, Luxury Goods, and Brand Street". From media reports at the time, it can be seen that Zouxiu.com regarded "Overseas Direct Delivery" as the most core section in the future, and concentrated a large number of overseas e-commerce platforms and brands.

In 2014, 30% of Zouxiu.com's supply came from overseas e-commerce platforms, 30% came from direct authorization from brand owners, and 40% came through dealer channels.

On April 5, 2016, the Zhongshan Branch of the Gongbei Customs Anti-smuggling Bureau discovered during an investigation into a Zhongshan trading company smuggling a large amount of brand-name clothing that a well-known Shenzhen Internet technology company also used the same method to smuggle luxury goods into the country, and evaded a huge amount of tax. This company claimed to be "China's largest online retailer of international fashion brands." Everything pointed to Zouxiu.com.

On March 20, 2020, Zouxiu.com posted a suspension announcement at the center of its website homepage, emphasizing that the epidemic was spreading around the world, thus bringing negative impact to its business operations.

Founder arrested

On May 17, 2016, Ji Wenhong's company was found to have smuggled luxury goods into the country and evaded a huge amount of taxes. Because Ji Wenhong was a representative of the Sixth National People's Congress of a district in Shenzhen at the time, criminal coercive measures could not be taken against him, so Ji Wenhong fled the country.

On May 23 of the same year, the district people's congress standing committee suspended his post as a people's congress representative. On July 13, Ji Wenhong was approved for arrest by the procuratorate. In October, Interpol issued a "red warrant" and launched a global manhunt for Ji Wenhong.

On August 4, 2017, Ji Wenhong was arrested by the Interpol Indonesian police in Bali, Indonesia.

References

• 1. Luxury e-commerce pioneer Zouxiu.com: Suspending business, will it survive 2020? : Baijiahao [cited on 2020-05-13T16:00:00.000Z]