Douyin expects local life services GMV to double to RMB 150 billion in 2023: report

ByteDance-owned short-video platform Douyin, China’s equal to TikTok, has set RMB 150 billion ($22.2 billion) as its annual goal for local life service gross sales in 2023, twice its precise gross merchandise quantity (GMV) of RMB 77 billion in 2022, Chinese media outlet 36Kr reported on Jan. 15. Douyin’s local life services unit head advised 36Kr that the determine of 77 billion for final 12 months was inaccurate, however declined to give particular information. 

Why it issues: Climbing gross sales for local life services – encompassing meals supply, journey bookings, and different retail gross sales – level to the enterprise changing into more and more vital for Douyin’s income progress in 2023 because the platform continues to tackle established supply and life services large Meituan. ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo beforehand acknowledged that the corporate noticed slower income progress than anticipated in 2022, whereas progress in every day energetic customers for its merchandise was additionally decrease than the targets set early in the 12 months.

Details: Douyin is assured of hitting the full-year 2023 gross sales aim of RMB 150 billion for its local life services unit, as inside estimates present the unit’s GMV ceiling to be between RMB 260 billion to RMB 280 billion, a supply advised 36Kr.

• The meals and restaurant phase includes half of Douyin’s life services gross sales goal, with in-store enterprise and lodge and tourism anticipated to convey in RMB 45 billion and RMB 30 billion, respectively.
• The enterprise growth group at Douyin’s local life services unit has shrunk from 3,000 to round 1,000 personnel because the video platform pushes extra work to assist retailers enhance their operational capabilities onto third-party service suppliers, the report cited an unnamed supply as saying. Douyin subsequently denied that this downsizing had taken place.
• The local life services division underwent a brand new spherical of organizational restructuring after ByteDance put former merchandise and commercialization technique chief Zhu Shiyu in cost of the unit final October. Notably, the enterprise growth group was resegmented by trade, as a substitute of geographic area.
• Douyin’s widespread reputation is basically thanks to its addictive algorithms. An individual shut to the platform advised media outlet Huxiu that every new Douyin consumer enriches the labeling course of, and that this methodology can also be now being utilized to local life services. The unit divides customers into three classes: individuals who bought a sure product, individuals who looked for, adopted or favored a sure product, and potential clients primarily based on their age, work, and way of life.

Context: Douyin’s entry into local life services, which started in 2021, is seen as a giant menace to trade large Meituan, which introduced in RMB 129 billion in income from core local commerce, together with meals supply, in-store purchases, and accommodations and journey in the primary three quarters of 2022.

• Douyin nonetheless performs weakly in phrases of the order completion charge of its group purchase choices, which at solely 60% in 2022 is unchanged from 2021. Meituan’s charge, by comparability, is almost 90%.
• Douyin customers are seemingly nonetheless hesitant concerning the platform’s content-driven group shopping for function, in which customers buy coupons prior to consumption by way of in-feed movies, the 36Kr report famous. Users can apply for a refund in the event that they determine not to use the coupons, however take-up has nonetheless been sluggish in contrast to Meituan, the place customers often purchase coupons after finishing in-store consumption.
• Some brokers in Meituan’s low-tier markets have requested retailers to decide a facet as competitors hots up, encouraging them to cooperate with both Douyin or Meituan, in accordance to 36Kr.
• In December, China’s three main categorical courier platforms – JD backed-Dada, SF Express’ SFTC, and Shansong – introduced that they’d start offering same-city logistics services for Douyin’s local life services arm in a serious growth of ByteDance’s push in the sector.