Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference 2018: Guo Jiaqi reviews his entrepreneurial journey and drives e-commerce growth through data and advertising
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Looking at the list of speakers for the [2018 Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference] (https://www.contenthacker.today/2018/12/2016-2018-ghst-seminar-summary.html), I found that several of them are friends I have known well before, such as the host of this conference [Lin Siwu] (https://www.facebook.com /awoolin), founder of Tokyo Clothing and Wstyle Zhou Pinjun and Entrepreneur Brothers co-founder Guo Jiaqi. Even though I have never met Fan Bing, I have actually known him for a long time through his books…
But if you really want to talk about it, the person with whom I have the deepest connection is probably the entrepreneur brother Guo Jiaqi! I still remember that when he and his brother [Guo Shuqi] (https://www.facebook.com/jerry.kuobrothers) co-founded “Map Diary”, I happened to be the editor-in-chief of “[Digital Times] (https://www.bnext.com.tw/)” magazine. Because of my entrepreneurial career, I often had the opportunity to interview them. Or, I can be considered one of the witnesses who witnessed their growth from 500,000 to 5 billion!
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Through today’s lecture, I listened to him detail the 20 online services he had done in the past. Although many websites have retired or have long ceased to operate, I know that the efforts of him and his brother, sister-in-law, wife and others over the years have long since turned into nutrients that nourish the growth of entrepreneurial brothers.
Although many people have heard of “Map Diary”, in fact, the profitability of websites in this Web 2.0 era is limited. It was not until 2010 that the “Millions of Netizens Group Buying Network” was launched following the example of Groupon that it became an instant hit. Although it is the seventh group-buying website in Taiwan, the Kuo brothers managed to reach the largest scale within the first month of its launch. Therefore, they gained the favor of Groupon and were later acquired by them. After becoming “Groupon Taiwan”, the number of employees also skyrocketed, from more than 40 people to more than 200 people.
Map Diary is the least criticized website, but from a commercial perspective, it is the most failed product.
By Guo Shuqi
Perhaps because the entrepreneurial gene still flows in their blood, the two Guo brothers did not live a long life as professional managers. They soon gave up their original stable life and began to invest in entrepreneurship, and officially established Entrepreneur Brothers Co., Ltd. This time, they decided to find a team first and then think about starting a business.
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In today’s lecture, Guo Jiaqi also generously shared his entrepreneurial principles with everyone:
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Only do business online.
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Only do business that generates revenue on day one.
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Only do business that has been proven successful by others in other markets.
Although these three principles are simple and easy to understand, Guo Jiaqi also admitted that they have experienced many failures. The launch of online services such as “Photo123”, “Baiyi.com” and “Business Card Network” did not perform as expected. It was not until the launch of “Haoyu.com” that they relied on Chilean cooked frozen king crab to gain market popularity. They used low-price strategies to seize the market, which not only caused topics but also resulted in crazy sales.
However, as the saying goes, “King crab succeeds or fails,” because seafood needs to be kept fresh by ice. Later, some consumers wrote to protest against Haoyu.com’s king crabs [which were not accurately weighed after the ice was removed] (https://www.setn.com/News.aspx?NewsID=51663). The online public opinion was one-sided, putting the entrepreneurial brothers into the biggest crisis since their establishment.
This was a serious fall, but it also prompted the Guo brothers to re-examine the product quality control process and the cooperation standards with suppliers, and later established a quality control center. Whenever there are doubts about any product, they will be removed from the shelves first and adhere to the strictest control. Through this series of actions, the entrepreneurial brothers gradually regained the hearts of consumers.
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Since then, the entrepreneurial brothers’ development has been smooth, but since 2016, they have begun to think about the company’s [second curve] (https://www.storm.mg/lifestyle/97307). At that time, the entrepreneurial brothers were entering the stage of establishing a business, but Guo Jiaqi and his brother did not relax. Instead, they began to study e-commerce models in other countries as if they were in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
They first studied the C2C services that were popular at the time, such as spin auctions and Shopee from Southeast Asia, which were both subjects of research. However, Guo Jiaqi soon discovered that these companies relied on subsidy strategies to attract customers, and felt that this was a battle they could not afford.
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Therefore, the entrepreneurial brothers changed course and turned to the model of Wish, focusing on mobile e-commerce. But this time they did not choose to establish a new business unit within the company. Instead, they opened a new company called “[Pinecone Shopping] (https://www.pcone.com.tw/)” in mid-2016. Even the office is located ten minutes away from the entrepreneurial brothers.
The performance of “Pinecone Shopping” was not satisfactory at the beginning. Later, by increasing profits and placing more advertisements, it gradually improved until 2017, and finally turned a profit in December. The profit in the first half of 2018 has reached 10 million.
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For the entrepreneurial brothers, 2016 is a critical year. This year, not only was “Pinecone Shopping” established, they also began to introduce artificial intelligence technology to predict gender by judging names, thereby reducing the time consumers spend filling out forms. In 2017, it even invested in setting up a data team to recruit data scientists to engage in various artificial intelligence and marketing automation tasks, such as letting machines follow human logic to select products.
All these efforts and attempts are naturally closely related to the business model of the entrepreneurial brothers. Because they carefully select products and limit the products sold on the website to 7,000 items, they are more favored by consumers.
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A year after the data team was formed, the company began to see significant results. For example, they use the power of technology and algorithms to allow every netizen who enters the “Life Market” to see different pages. At the same time, in line with the advent of the mobile era, more than 70% of revenue currently comes from mobile phones, which is also in line with today’s mainstream consumer trends.
Guo Jiaqi positioned “Songguo Shopping” as a “new B2B2C e-commerce”. In November, its monthly transaction volume exceeded 100 million, and its performance was quite impressive. The average age of this fifty-person team is only twenty-eight, which is really formidable. Guo Jiaqi revealed that “Pinecone Shopping” is expected to be launched in 2019 and is expected to be officially launched in 2020. It seems that this is another rising star worth looking forward to.
Entrepreneur brothers are driven by advertising and don’t believe in word of mouth.
He admitted that he never seriously thought about starting a business before he was 27 years old, but since starting his business eleven years ago, he feels that the key to success is not to deliberately think about originality, but to first find a service that has been successful in other countries as a learning object. Deeply understand various business models, try to engage in businesses that can be driven by advertising, and use data quantification methods and standards to test sales profits and market opportunities.
Just like the title of the book “Success means cutting off and practicing again quickly”, if you want to be successful, you have to make choices and don’t be afraid of cutting off and practicing again. Guo Jiaqi also mentioned that if he has an idea, he should try it as soon as possible, because the company will renovate many program structures every two years, so he is not worried about the issue of technical debt (Technical debt).
Finally, he also shared with everyone the valuable experience he learned in the eleven years of starting a business:
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If you think too much, you won’t be able to do something. If you are 30% sure, do it first.
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Because the chance of failure is high, the cost of each attempt is very low; the time is short and the answer is obtained as soon as possible.
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If it doesn’t go well, give up as soon as possible and go to the next one.
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If it goes well, find a way to scale it as soon as possible, find more resources, and make it bigger as soon as possible.
Recently I received a new book from the Guo brothers, “[Success means cutting things off quickly and practicing again: 55 business wisdoms from the dark horse entrepreneur brothers of e-commerce who repeatedly create amazing revenue]” (https://www.books.com.tw/exep/assp.php/vista/products/0010806 808?utm_source=vista&utm_medium=ap-books&utm_content=recommend&utm_campaign=ap-201812)》, on the one hand, I humbly learned their business wisdom, and it seemed like I was revisiting those years. So today, when I heard Guo Jiaqi talk about it from the beginning, looking back at the rough road we have traveled in the past eleven years, I can really relate to it.
I also recalled my past interview career. I had the impression that many entrepreneurs talked about lean entrepreneurship, MVP, growth hacking or AARRR, but how many of them can actually practice it?
I’m glad that I had the opportunity to hear Guo Jiaqi’s sharing today. It made me feel cordial and familiar. Not only did I relive the entrepreneurial history of him, his brother, sister-in-law, and [wife] (https://www.facebook.com/kellyliao2009), but I also had a deep understanding of a successful local entrepreneur’s insights on growth hacking. Thanks to Guo Jiaqi for sharing without hiding anything. It’s been a great harvest!
After the lunch break, I saw him sitting alone in the front row, turning on the computer and carefully looking at the company’s Excel report. I know that every number in this densely packed number has extremely important and far-reaching meanings to him…
In the afternoon, I took advantage of my free time to chat with Jia Qi. I smiled and said that I could no longer see the taillights of his car! In fact, I was really happy to see my old friend today. Seeing that he could calmly review his past successes and failures with the guests, I was both impressed and touched.
Replay is a chess term that refers to the record of replaying the game after the game is over to check the pros and cons of the moves in the game and the key points of gains and losses (sometimes the authorities will talk about the motivations of the actual moves and the anticipated next few moves). At the same time, come up with hypotheses to find the best solution.
[“2018 Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference” Guo Jiaqi: An e-commerce growth strategy linked to data and strategy](https://www.slideshare.net/awooshare/2018-126484517 ""2018 Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference” Guo Jiaqi: An e-commerce growth strategy linked to data and strategy”) from awoo Bros. Internet, Inc.
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Further reading
- 2018 Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference: “Pinecone Shopping” has suddenly emerged, and the key to success lies in the introduction of artificial intelligence
- Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference 2017: Can inbound marketing bring Taiwan’s e-commerce industry back from the ashes?
- Taiwan Growth Hacker Annual Conference 2019: Liao Jiaxin talks about “Life Market” using artificial intelligence to drive growth thinking
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