With the opening of the IPO acceptance process, many companies with special business models have been able to knock on the door of the A-share market.
Recently, Chengdu Yunyin World Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as &#34;Yunyin World&#34;) received acceptance for its application to the Beijing Stock Exchange.
The uniqueness of Yunyin World's business model lies in its reliance on the &#34;Yunyin World&#34; brand to develop franchise stores, thereby selling various maternal and infant products such as food and clothing.
As of the end of 2024, the number of Yunyin World's franchise stores has reached over 2,200.
Currently, there are no such companies on the Beijing Stock Exchange. If Yunyin World successfully goes public, it is expected to become the &#34;first franchise stock&#34; on the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Yunyin World's revenue has now surpassed 1 billion, with projected revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company of 1.003 billion and 120 million respectively in 2024.
However, Yunyin World still faces challenges in terms of sector positioning for this listing.
Xinfeng noted that Yunyin World primarily uses the number of software copyrights to demonstrate its innovative achievements, but more than half of these software copyright registrations occurred in the past year.
Among them, Yunyin World registered 25 software copyrights within a short period of 14 days from November 26 to December 9, 2024, accounting for 36% of the total number of software copyrights.
In fact, if these 25 software copyrights are excluded, Yunyin World's 44 software copyrights do not meet the Beijing Stock Exchange's requirement of &#34;50 software copyrights&#34; for innovation investment.
Whether Yunyin World can successfully pass the review is currently under scrutiny. 
<h2>Downward Competition Battle</h2>
Yunyin World mainly sells various maternal and infant products such as food and clothing, with revenue reaching 887 million in 2024, accounting for nearly 90%.
However, Yunyin World does not directly face consumers but plays more of a B2B &#34;intermediary&#34; role.
Yunyin World connects with numerous brand suppliers upstream and interfaces with over 2,200 franchisees downstream. This position allows it to procure maternal and infant products at lower prices due to scale advantages, which are then sold to downstream stores to earn a profit margin.
Under this cooperation model, Yunyin World's gross margin is far lower than that of Kidswant (301078.SZ) and Aiyingshi (603214.SH), both of which have numerous directly-operated stores. The gross margin for maternal and infant products for the latter two was over 20% in 2024, while Yunyin World's was only 12% during the same period.
For Yunyin World, the key to sustaining this business model lies in striving to open more stores to gain bargaining power with upstream suppliers through scaled procurement.
To this end, Yunyin World adopts a low-threshold store opening model to expand its franchise stores.
In terms of franchise costs, Yunyin World charges franchisees an annual fee of 5,000 yuan per store, determining the annual fee amount based on the store's operating conditions and regional support policies.
On this basis, Yunyin World can also designate franchisees in specific regions to open multiple franchise stores, achieving further expansion.
Relying on numerous stores, Yunyin World has deep cooperation with well-known maternal and infant brands such as Feihe, Yili Jinlingguan, and He Sheng Yuan, possessing advantages in direct supply and scale bargaining on the supply side
The number of franchise stores in the maternity and infant world has increased from over 1,300 at the beginning of 2022 to over 2,200 by the end of 2024, with revenue breaking through the 1 billion yuan mark from 600 million yuan during the same period.
This number of stores far exceeds that of its peers. By the end of 2024, the number of stores for Kidswant and Aiyingshi was 1,046 and nearly 500, respectively.
However, this is related to the market expansion strategies of Kidswant and Aiyingshi.
Kidswant and Aiyingshi primarily operate direct stores, mainly covering first, second, and third-tier cities, focusing on shopping mall stores with areas of 2,000 square meters and over 500 square meters, resulting in higher opening costs.
In contrast, the maternity and infant world has only 2 direct stores, while the remaining 2,200 stores are all franchise stores, mainly located in county-level cities and other lower-tier markets, primarily consisting of street-side stores with an area of about 160 square meters.
Although the maternity and infant world is in a lower-tier market, its store efficiency is not inferior to that of its peers.
By the end of 2024, the store efficiency of the maternity and infant world was 10,400 yuan/square meter/year, while Kidswant and Aiyingshi were 5,500 yuan/square meter/year and 10,700 yuan/square meter/year, respectively.
Behind this data is a mismatch between supply and demand in the mother and baby specialty store market in China's lower-tier markets.
According to Sullivan data, the market size of mother and baby specialty stores in third-tier cities and below in China is 131.1 billion yuan, accounting for over 60%, but during the same period, the market size of chain stores was only 37.14 billion yuan, with a chain rate of about 30%, far lower than the 75-80% chain rate in first and second-tier cities.
The maternity and infant world, which has increased over a thousand stores in just three years, has recognized the potential consumer capacity in lower-tier markets.
With this IPO, the maternity and infant world plans to use the raised funds to build a sales service network, expecting to add over 2,000 franchise stores in various regions such as Northwest, East China, South China, Central China, and Southwest China, with an anticipated average annual profit increase of 35 million yuan after completion.
This business model is rare on the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Currently, there are no listed companies on the Beijing Stock Exchange that primarily use the franchise chain model, which means that if the maternity and infant world can successfully go public, it may become the &#34;first stock of chain franchises on the Beijing Stock Exchange.&#34;
However, the chain franchise model focusing on lower-tier markets is facing more competition.
Currently, Kidswant has begun a large-scale plan to expand into lower-tier markets, setting a goal of opening 500 franchise stores by 2025.
This may bring more competitive pressure to the maternity and infant world.
<h2>Rushed Copyright Registration?</h2>
The Beijing Stock Exchange has relevant quantitative indicators for the innovation investment of companies applying for listing, which constitutes a necessary condition based on the positioning of the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Among them, the relevant quantitative indicators of innovation investment include R&amp;D expenses, the number of software copyrights, etc., with more companies choosing R&amp;D expenses as the basis for demonstration.
For example, recent applicants for the Beijing Stock Exchange, such as Zhongjiankangqiao, Hongshida, and Chenguang Electric, have all used R&amp;D expenses and other metrics to demonstrate that their innovation investments align with the positioning of the Beijing Stock Exchange.
According to the internal review dynamics of the Beijing Stock Exchange, the innovative quantitative indicators should generally meet the requirements of &#34;the proportion of R&amp;D investment to operating income over 3% for three consecutive years,&#34; &#34;a large amount of R&amp;D investment, with an average R&amp;D investment amount of over 10 million yuan in the last three years,&#34; and &#34;rapid growth in R&amp;D investment, with a compound annual growth rate of R&amp;D investment reaching over 10% in the last three years and an R&amp;D investment amount of over 15 million yuan in the last year.&#34;
Based on this, the research and development expenses of Yunyin World do not meet the standards.
From 2022 to 2024, Yunyin World's research and development expenses were 3.22 million yuan, 4.19 million yuan, and 4.39 million yuan respectively, accounting for less than 1% of the revenue during the same period, far below the requirements for research and development investment set by the Beijing Stock Exchange.
Perhaps for this reason, Yunyin World chose a completely different approach to demonstrate its projects: using the number of software copyrights to argue for its innovation input and results.
&#34;As of the date of signing this prospectus, the company owns 3 invention patents and 69 software copyrights. The wholly-owned subsidiary Chuangtuosheng is a national high-tech enterprise, a specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprise in Sichuan Province, and an innovative small and medium-sized enterprise. The company's digital intelligence level is at the forefront of the industry,&#34; stated Yunyin World.
The 69 software copyrights indeed meet the standards.
According to the requirements of the Beijing Stock Exchange, the issuer must form intellectual property results through independent or collaborative research and development and apply them to the company's main business. Specifically, it usually requires at least 3 Class I intellectual properties or more than 50 software copyrights.
Xinfeng noted that more than half of the software copyrights disclosed by Yunyin World were registered in the past year.
From June 2024 to May 2025, Yunyin World registered 37 software copyrights in one go.
More notably, Yunyin World registered 25 software copyrights within just 14 days from November 26 to December 9, 2024.
Moreover, the income generated from the core technologies formed by Yunyin World's software copyrights and other intellectual properties is not high.
From 2022 to 2024, the income generated from core technologies for Yunyin World was 80 million yuan, 80 million yuan, and 110 million yuan respectively, accounting for about 10% each.
From the principle that substance outweighs form, whether such &#34;efficient registration&#34; of software copyrights meets the positioning requirements of the Beijing Stock Exchange remains to be answered.
In fact, during the listing guidance process at the Beijing Stock Exchange, both Yunyin World and the guiding institution Guosen Securities had doubts about whether they met the positioning requirements for listing on the Beijing Stock Exchange.
In October 2024, Yunyin World raised the question of whether its main business aligns with the sector positioning during the third phase of guidance; until the fifth phase of guidance, three months prior to the listing application, Guosen Securities also pointed out the need to further demonstrate whether it aligns with the sector positioning of the Beijing Stock Exchange based on the company's main business and to reasonably arrange the listing application work.
This may raise questions about Yunyin World's sector positioning.
(Intern Zhao Qian also contributed to this article)

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Preparing for the Beijing Stock Exchange listing by urgently consolidating innovation indicators? The maternity and infant world has over 30% of copyrights "emergency registered" within half a month