---
title: "2023: A New Wave of Community Group Buying Rises"
description: "Huang Tengfei: 2022 was the year of group store emergence, and 2023 will be the year of their explosion. Cayman 4000 predicts that the group buying industry will see over 1,000 chain group stores. With group stores as the main line, local groups will recover and group wholesalers will operate covertly, leading to a new wave of entrepreneurship in community group buying, and the grand spectacle of the 'thousand-group war' in internet history will be reenacted."
author: "黄腾飞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2023-02-10"
language: "en"
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# 2023: A New Wave of Community Group Buying Rises

> Huang Tengfei: 2022 was the year of group store emergence, and 2023 will be the year of their explosion. Cayman 4000 predicts that the group buying industry will see over 1,000 chain group stores. With group stores as the main line, local groups will recover and group wholesalers will operate covertly, leading to a new wave of entrepreneurship in community group buying, and the grand spectacle of the 'thousand-group war' in internet history will be reenacted.

Huang Tengfei: 2022 was the year of group store emergence, and 2023 will be the year of their explosion. Cayman 4000 predicts that the group buying industry will see over 1,000 chain group stores. With group stores as the main line, local groups will recover and group wholesalers will operate covertly, leading to a new wave of entrepreneurship in community group buying, and the grand spectacle of the 'thousand-group war' in internet history will be reenacted.

**Two 'Thousand-Group Wars' in a Decade**

**The First 'Thousand-Group War': The Melee of Group Buying Websites**

In January 2010, China's first group buying website, Manzuo.com, went online. In the same year, group buying websites such as Lashou.com, Meituan.com, and Nuomi.com were established. Nuomi.com even created the myth of '150,000 people participating in a single group buy, selling 300,000 movie tickets.' As various players gradually gathered, by August 2011, there were over 5,000 group buying websites in China, and capital enthusiasm was ignited. With capital entering the field and taking sides, the first thousand-group war broke out in full force. By the end of that year, nearly 2,000 group buying websites had exited the brutal competition, with scenes of 'blitzkrieg, land grabbing, and subsidy wars' unfolding one after another. By the end of 2012, nearly 80% of group buying websites had failed and shut down. On the other hand, Meituan, Tencent-affiliated Dianping, Baidu-affiliated Nuomi, and Alibaba-affiliated Koubei entered the first tier, and the finals of the group buying website war began. In 2015, competition among giants reached a fever pitch, but due to continuous burning of cash and no profitability in sight, capital began to push for mergers among giants. On October 8 of that year, Meituan and Dianping announced their merger, giving birth to the leading group buying website 'Meituan-Dianping,' bringing the first thousand-group war to an end.

**The Second Thousand-Group War: The Community Group Buying Battle**

In 2016, Pinduoduo popularized the concept of 'e-commerce group buying.' Furong Xingsheng launched its group buying business, and local groups such as Niwomin, Zhihuazhiguo, and others emerged one after another. In the second half of 2018, various players began to flood into the community group buying track, and capital started to enter. Within a few months, more than ten group buying platforms, including Niwomin, Shixianghui, and Shihuituan, received financing. Coupled with other players growing wildly, thousands of group buying platforms of various sizes appeared across the country, marking the start of the second 'thousand-group war.' Subsequently, with the entry of capital groups like Meituan and Duoduo, community group buying formed a first tier consisting of the 'old three groups' (Xingsheng Youxuan, Shihuituan, Tongcheng Shenghuo) and the 'new three groups' (Meituan Youxuan, Duoduo Maicai, Chengxin Youxuan), and the flames of war continued to burn. In 2020, capital groups launched a full-scale subsidy war, and the second thousand-group war entered its most intense phase. In July of that year, Shixianghui became the first capital group to exit. Tongcheng Shenghuo, which had been exploring the integration of community group buying and local life services since 2019, ultimately could not withstand the fierce attacks of the giants and finally shut down in July 2021. At the same time, Chengxin Youxuan, dragged down by its parent company Didi's troubles, began to fall behind and shrink comprehensively. Shihuituan, which had grown by merging local groups, eventually lost its combat effectiveness due to internal strife. In August 2021, Shihuituan announced a strategic integration with Alibaba's MMC, and subsequently, Alibaba's Taocaicai emerged, gradually marginalizing Shihuituan. By the end of that year, Shihuituan was reported to have withdrawn from many cities on a large scale. After the second thousand-group war, a pattern of four strong players emerged: Meituan Youxuan, Duoduo Maicai, Taocaicai, and Xingsheng Youxuan. In 2022, Xingsheng Youxuan gradually lost in the 'four-to-three' elimination round among giants and retreated to defend its home base in Hunan.

**Group Buying Melee, Group Stores Take the Lead**

As the saying goes, 'When a whale falls, everything thrives.' The industry reshuffle brought by the second thousand-group war drove the outflow of talent from capital groups, cultivated millions of group leaders and hundreds of millions of users, and meanwhile, infrastructure such as supply chain and warehousing became increasingly complete. These core factors formed the foundation for the rise of local groups.

In 2022, 'local group restart and group store advance' became the main theme. In the new wave of local group expansion, the group store model became a new hot area. In the second half of 2022, the group store track gathered players of different backgrounds.

**[1] Native group stores:** Xiaoxu Daojia pioneered the systematic approach to group stores.

**[2] Local groups doing group stores:** For example, Hangzhou Diao Daojia incubated the group store 'Xuxian,' Jiubai Street incubated the group store 'Jiubaihui,' and Niwomin incubated the group store 'Niwodaojia.'

**[3] Chain stores doing group stores:** For example, 'Luoyang Yikelai' strengthened the offline advantages of convenience stores and upgraded the group store approach.

**[4] Brand owners doing group stores:** For example, 'Zhongyuan Daji Zhenxuan,' incubated by a Henan agricultural brand, plans to establish 200 community life stations in Zhengzhou this year.

**[5] Independent group leaders doing group stores:** For example, 'Kuaile Ma' in Wuhan, run by a major group leader whose main business is real estate brokerage, opens group buying platform products and its own products, with monthly sales reaching 200,000 yuan.

As group store players differentiated and converged, three main schools gradually formed:

**[1] Northern School Group Stores:** Represented by 'Xiaoxu Daojia,' which builds group stores based on the logic of 'physical store + private domain traffic pool.' It began national expansion in the second half of 2022 and is a franchise-type group store.

**[2] Southern School Group Stores:** Represented by 'Guofengjia,' positioned as 'fruit store + private domain group buying,' striving to create a 'group store version of Baiguoyuan.' The platform places great emphasis on refined operations and is a direct-operated group store.

**[3] Central Plains Group Stores:** Represented by 'Meilintao,' positioned as 'group buying + supermarket/group buying + station,' committed to creating a 'group store version of Xingsheng Youxuan.' It is an empowerment-type group store.

The reason the group store model has become a popular niche track in community group buying lies in its creation of an innovative 'group buying' business model, whose value is mainly reflected in several aspects:

- First, it has formed a systematic approach of 'violent customer acquisition, seven-day customer locking, and promotion and fission.'
- Second, it has explored a private domain traffic model of 2,000-3,000 people per 'single store community.'
- Third, it has solved the problem of online-offline collaborative operation, improving business efficiency.
- Fourth, it has deepened the relationship between platforms and group leaders, empowering store group leaders to operate private domain traffic and improve group efficiency.
- Fifth, it has upgraded the 'mini-program pre-sale' of group buying to a 'group reporting' approach, revitalizing private domain communities and enhancing the ability to promote hit products.

Teacher Chen Haichao predicts that in 2023, there will be 3-5 chain group stores with a thousand stores and 30-50 chain group stores with a hundred stores. From this perspective, they will also become the main players in the third thousand-group war.

**The Third 'Thousand-Group War' Rises Again**

Against the backdrop of a stabilizing community e-commerce market and increasingly prudent capital group strategies, community group buying outside the giants remains 'lively as ever.' Group stores are exploding, local groups are recovering, group wholesalers are operating covertly, and cross-border players are entering... All these players will clash in 2023, pushing the community group buying front from online to offline, from group leaders to stores. A new thousand-group war is imminent.

On the local group front, Zhihuazhiguo has defined 2023 as the year of national expansion, planning to focus on entering cities such as Wuhan, Nanchang, and Chengdu. Founder Cai Shilong plans to be stationed in Wuhan soon to personally 'oversee the battle.' Youjingyoutian continues to deepen its presence in the Central Plains, focusing on local life services and continuously developing a second growth curve. Cangji Linli balances 'deepening the supply chain vertically and expanding regional markets horizontally,' while also developing direct-operated groups and strengthening user service capabilities.

On the group wholesale front, mainly in provincial capitals such as Zhengzhou, Changsha, Nanjing, and Hefei, about 200 group wholesale platforms have emerged across the country. On one hand, they supply hit products to physical stores operating private domains; on the other hand, they also provide 'ammunition' to wild groups.

In addition, cross-border players have begun to pay attention to and enter community group buying. Taking Zhengzhou as an example, the local internet company UU Paotui incubated the group buying platform 'UU Zhenxuan,' positioned as a one-stop community service platform, integrating errand running, housekeeping, designated driving, and selection services. Zhengzhou local internet celebrity Dafei recently founded the local group Dafei Youxuan, focusing on empowering group leaders through local traffic. Although Dafei Youxuan enters the local group track from the traffic side, its core team has experience in operating capital group grid warehouses, so its strength should not be underestimated. Dafei Youxuan, with 'traffic in the left hand and group leaders in the right,' will also bring new variables to Zhengzhou's local group buying track.

**Conclusion:** The first 'thousand-group war' focused on the local life services field, creating the new consumption form of 'group buying,' with participants being internet entrepreneurial elites. The second 'thousand-group war' focused on the local retail field, creating the new group buying scenario of 'next-day pickup,' with participants including not only internet entrepreneurial elites but also grassroots entrepreneurs from fields such as fresh food e-commerce. **The upcoming third 'thousand-group war' still focuses on the local retail field, creating the integrated business format of 'group stores,' with even broader participation. Group stores will also become a more effective lever for community group buying to transform physical retail.**

The scope and intensity of the third 'thousand-group war' may not match the previous two, but its impact on the pan-retail track will be more profound. 'Accelerated online-offline integration, retail servitization, community micro-formats (group leaders),' and so on—new roles and new variables will all drive a new retail revolution.

**Recommended Reading**


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