Under the support of HSG, formerly Sequoia China, Baqiu Shangmei, China's second-largest e-commerce operation service provider, is raising funds to strengthen its live e-commerce business.
<h4>Key Points:</h4>
<ul>
<li>Baqiu Shangmei has submitted a listing application in Hong Kong, leveraging its first-mover advantage in the live e-commerce service sector to establish a foothold in the world's largest online retail market.</li>
<li>The company's core traditional e-commerce operation service business is expected to grow only 10% from 2023 to 2025, while its live e-commerce-related business is projected to increase by 64%.</li>
</ul>
Tan Ying
In a park in the tree-lined Changning District of western Shanghai, the Rongmeme live broadcast center showcases the hottest live streaming technology in China's e-commerce market. The center consists of two buildings, featuring 150 live streaming rooms and 300 resident hosts, promoting international high-end fashion and footwear brands to consumers daily. These brands are all clients of Rongmeme's parent company, Shanghai Baqiu Shangmei Technology Service Group Co., Ltd..
Now, Baqiu Shangmei is bringing its e-commerce operation service story to the capital market. The company applied for listing in Hong Kong last week, aiming to raise funds to expand its rapidly growing live e-commerce business. The listing is underwritten by CITIC Securities, with CITIC CLSA acting as the coordinator, and is supported by HSG, formerly Sequoia China, as a major shareholder, indicating that the scale of this IPO may be relatively large, with fundraising potentially exceeding $100 million.
Baqiu Shangmei is not an ordinary e-commerce operation service provider; it focuses on the mid-to-high-end and luxury market. Last year, 70% of its clients were among the top 20 global high-end fashion brands, thus being described as a &#34;ferry operator&#34; that connects brands like LVMH and Estée Lauder with online consumers.
In terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV) for e-commerce operation service providers, Baqiu Shangmei currently ranks second in China. The company's GMV reached 39.7 billion yuan ($5.82 billion) last year, with a market share of 2.7%. According to third-party data cited in the application documents, its scale is only surpassed by BAOZUN-W (9991.HK; BZUN.US), which has a market share of 5.3%.
However, Baqiu Shangmei faces intense competition, with rivals including Weimob Group (2013.HK), Qingmu Technology (301110.SZ), and Bicheng Digital, among others, all vying for a share of this vast market, resulting in increased price pressure. As brands, which are the main clients of these service providers, seek partners with lower service fees and commission rates, they are also beginning to establish their own e-commerce teams. On the other hand, China's overall e-commerce market is rapidly maturing, leading to a slowdown in overall growth and causing many e-commerce service providers to incur losses.
Reliance on Traditional E-commerce Operation Business
Traditional e-commerce operation services remain Baqiu Shangmei's core business, accounting for about two-thirds of total revenue last year. In contrast, the newer live e-commerce business accounted for 21.9% of total revenue. However, the latter is expected to grow at an annual rate of 30% by 2025, far exceeding the traditional e-commerce operation service business's growth rate of only 12.6%
In the past three years, Baiqiu Shangmei's revenue has maintained steady growth. Although it is not particularly impressive, it still increased from 1.32 billion yuan (194 million USD) in 2023 to 1.59 billion yuan last year, with a growth rate of about 20%. However, the growth of its core business has significantly slowed during the same period. Baiqiu Shangmei provides operational services for brand merchants on traditional e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, which only grew by over 10% from 2023 to 2025; in contrast, the live-streaming e-commerce business saw a substantial increase of 64% during the same period.
The slowdown in Baiqiu Shangmei's core business has also dragged down its gross margin and profitability. The company's gross margin fell from 37.2% in 2023 to 33.4% last year; during the same period, profits decreased by 18% from 250 million yuan to 204 million yuan.
The good news is that Baiqiu Shangmei has achieved a leading position in the rapidly growing live-streaming e-commerce service market. By 2025, the company's market share in China's &#34;interest e-commerce&#34; market reached 4.6%. Interest e-commerce refers to the model where consumers purchase goods through social media channels such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.
Today, selling products through social media, especially through well-known hosts and celebrities conducting live-streaming sales, has become one of the most popular retail models in China and is gradually eroding the traditional e-commerce consumption of online malls like Pinduoduo, JD.com, and Tmall. According to independent research data cited in Baiqiu Shangmei's application documents, the annual growth rate of China's live-streaming e-commerce service market from 2021 to 2025 is 37.5%, while the annual growth rate of traditional e-commerce services during the same period is only 15%.
According to Baiqiu Shangmei's listing application documents, the proportion of revenue from the live-streaming e-commerce business has also continued to increase, rising from 16.1% in 2023 to 21.9% last year.
Live-Streaming Park
A live-streaming base located in the Shanghai Lingkong Park is one of the 20 live-streaming parks in Shanghai and is an important foothold for Baiqiu Shangmei's entry into the live-streaming market in 2021. Zhao Meiling, head of government affairs at Baiqiu Shangmei, recently stated in an interview with Chinese media: &#34;Four years ago, we were just a small live-streaming room next to a supermarket on the first floor. Now, we have grown into an industry leader with 300 hosts and 150 professional live-streaming rooms.&#34;
Compared to Baozun, which entered the live-streaming business later, and Weimob Group, which focuses on social media through close cooperation with Tencent WeChat but lacks capabilities in other online channels, Baiqiu Shangmei has a clear advantage in the live-streaming e-commerce field. Baozun only began developing its live-streaming business in 2023, including launching a creative content business center and acquiring Douyin partner Luoke Xun. However, the related investments have yet to show significant results, with service revenue, including live-streaming business, only growing by 2.4% to 6 billion yuan last year.
Another competitive advantage of Baiqiu Shangmei is that the company has adopted a multi-channel service model since its establishment; unlike Baozun, which is deeply bound to Alibaba and its large platform Tmall, and Weimob Group, which is highly reliant on the WeChat ecosystem and is smaller in scale
In contrast, Baiqiu Shangmei has been providing services across multiple e-commerce platforms for the past 15 years, initially assisting brands in selling products through traditional e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, as well as brand official websites and WeChat mini-programs. The company stated in its application documents that to align with the latest trends in the Chinese e-commerce market, it has strategically evolved to social media channels.
Baiqiu Shangmei launched its self-developed multi-channel digital retail operation system, Futail, in 2023. This system can connect data from all major platforms and integrate management processes from supply chain to marketing. Baiqiu Shangmei also has its own design center, internal creative center, and a live streaming team composed of 208 full-time hosts to cater to the design needs of high-end clients.
Although the Hong Kong IPO boom has benefited many technology companies, e-commerce and related service companies have yet to truly capitalize on this trend. The reason may be that, compared to more attractive emerging fields such as AI and robotics, the e-commerce market is relatively mature. Baozun is a typical example; the company is still in a loss-making state, and its stock price is over 91% lower than the price at its secondary listing in Hong Kong in September 2020. Similarly, Weimob Group has yet to turn a profit, with its stock price approximately 50% lower than its IPO price in January 2019.
With its profitability and leading position in the live e-commerce market, Baiqiu Shangmei appears to have an advantage over the aforementioned two companies. However, even if the market gives it a price-to-sales ratio (P/S) of 5 times, higher than Weimob's 2.9 times and Baozun's low 0.11 times, its valuation is still just slightly above $1 billion, barely making it into the tech unicorn category

09991

The luxury e-commerce platform "Ferry Man" Baiqiu Shangmei has submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong securities market, planning to raise over $100 million to expand its live e-commerce business. The company has experienced slow growth in traditional e-commerce operations, but the live e-commerce related business is expected to grow by 64%. Baiqiu Shangmei focuses on the mid-to-high-end luxury market, with a GMV of 39.7 billion yuan last year and a market share of 2.7%. The company faces fierce competition from several rivals, including BAOZUN-W

Luxury e-commerce "Ferry Man" Baiqiu Shangmei goes public in Hong Kong IPO