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zhang xiaohui, reporter of economic observer zhubajie co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zhubajie.com"), the former unicorn company and the largest internet company in chongqing, has been caught in a public opinion storm over wage arrears.

recently, a netizen who claimed to be an employee of zhubajie.com revealed on the internet platform that the time of his salary payment had been modified many times since the beginning of the year.

an employee of zhubajie.com told economic observer that his salary, which should have been paid in august, was not received until september 2.

in response to the rumors, zhubajie.com co-founder and director liu chuanyu responded: there is no situation where wages have not been paid for several months. he said that the company will use more vigorous reforms to solve the contradictions and problems in development.

today, this once-glorious chongqing internet "big brother" is facing not only "contradictions and problems" in promoting internal reforms. in august, zhubajie.com, which had been losing money for years, failed in its third ipo (initial public offering) on ​​the hong kong stock exchange and was sued by investors. the case is still under trial.

rumors of delayed salary payments

according to online reports, in 2024, the human resources department of zhubajie.com issued several notices to change the salary payment time: january wages will be paid on february 23; april wages will be paid on may 20; may wages will be paid in two installments, the first on june 18 and the second on june 28; starting from july, the previous month's wages will be paid on the 28th of each month.

on september 5, economic observer verified the online rumor with an employee who had been working at zhubajie.com for eight years. the employee said that his salary was delayed - the salary that should have been paid in august was not received until september 2.

"salary is the bottom line for employees. er shixiong (an internal nickname of the company, referring to zhu mingyue, chairman of zhubajie.com) knows that employees all have car loans and mortgages, and it is understandable that they have complaints," the employee told economic observer.

zhubajie.com was founded in 2006. its main business is a customized enterprise service e-commerce platform. at its peak, the company had more than 4,000 employees, and currently has more than 1,000 employees.

on the afternoon of september 5, economic observer asked zhu mingyue, the actual controller, chairman (founder) of zhubajie.com, whether the company had encountered financial problems, but received no response from zhu mingyue.

liu chuanyu, co-founder and director of zhubajie.com, responded to economic observer: affected by multiple factors such as the market environment, the survival status of enterprises on the zhubajie.com platform has been continuously impacted, which has also affected the operation of zhubajie.com itself. in order to cope with the challenges, the company has taken strong measures in terms of products and operations since this year. there is no situation where wages have not been paid for several months. many employees have also received their wages for the most recent month.

liu chuanyu said that at the operational level, zhubajie.com has vigorously promoted internal reforms, implemented business units to operate independently and bear their own profits and losses, and further controlled management costs. during the reform process, a small number of employees did not understand, and even a few people spread rumors online. the company will actively communicate with employees, focus on operations, and use more vigorous reforms to resolve contradictions and problems in development.

after three failed ipos, investors took him to court

zhubajie.com has gone through multiple rounds of financing since its establishment. the prospectus of zhubajie.com disclosed by the hong kong stock exchange on december 17, 2023 shows that the major shareholders of zhubajie.com include chongqing zhubajie industrial co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zhubajie industrial"), chongqing born technology (group) co., ltd., chongqing liangjiang new area industrial development group co., ltd., cybernaut, and more than 30 other natural persons and institutions.

the prospectus shows that in the shareholder structure of zhubajie.com, zhu mingyue holds 28.09% of the shares through zhubajie.com industry and doilungdeqen county gaolaozhuang investment management partnership (limited partnership); liu chuanyu holds 1.12%; and zhu tao holds 1.35%. the above shareholders are the founders and are acting in concert with zhu mingyue, holding a total of about 30.55% of the shares.

it is worth mentioning that cyber ​​​​logistics, a major investment institution among zhubajie.com’s shareholders, is a well-known private equity investment institution in china.the prospectus shows that cybernaut used eight shareholding companies to invest in zhubajie.com, namely cybernaut tianze (holding 3.29%), cybernaut henghui (holding 3.08%), cybernaut green technology (holding 2.19%), cybernaut zhongying (holding 2.15%), cybernaut tianhe (holding 0.18%), cybernaut tianchuang (holding 0.15%), cybernaut tianyu (holding 0.08%), and cybernaut hengda (holding 0.08%).

zhubajie.com received the approval of the china securities regulatory commission for the overseas listing of foreign-invested shares on march 30, 2023 (commonly known as the "big road"), which is valid for 12 months. on december 17, 2023, zhubajie.com submitted its prospectus to the hong kong stock exchange for the third time, intending to ipo in hong kong. this is another application after its two submissions on october 14, 2022 and april 14, 2023 failed.

however, the hong kong stock exchange website shows that zhubajie.com’s third listing application has also expired, which means that its third attempt at an ipo has failed.

a person from cybernaut told economic observer: "we have invested in this company (zhubajie.com) for almost ten years. at the end of 2023, the company's hong kong ipo failed again."

in addition, the person said that zhu mingyong and zhubajie.com signed a gambling agreement with some investors for the ipo. if the ipo failed, zhu mingyong and zhubajie.com would fulfill their promise to repurchase the equity investment funds. after the third ipo failed, zhu mingyong and zhubajie.com were sued by one of the investment institutions.

among the aforementioned investment institutions, cyber ​​​​le zhongying's full name is "hangzhou cyber ​​​​le zhongying equity investment partnership (limited partnership)". cyber ​​​​le zhongying has several shareholders, and the largest shareholder is zhejiang zhongying capital investment partnership (limited partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "zhejiang zhongying"). zhejiang zhongying holds 28.16% of cyber ​​​​le zhongying's equity.

on august 22, 2024, the announcement of the people's court of haidian district, beijing, showed that zhejiang zhongying sued zhu mingyue and zhubajie.com, demanding that zhu mingyue and zhubajie.com pay 45.7619 million yuan in compensation to cyber ​​​​legend zhongying and bear the attorney fees and property preservation costs. the case is still under trial and no verdict has been reached.

the prospectus shows that zhubajie.com's performance has been in continuous losses, and its operating income has been on a downward trend since 2021.in the past 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first half of 2023, zhubajie.com's operating income was rmb 757 million, rmb 768 million, rmb 541 million and rmb 252 million, respectively, and the corresponding net losses were rmb 268 million, rmb 366 million, rmb 230 million and rmb 78 million, respectively, and the corresponding adjusted net losses were rmb 4 million, rmb 20 million, rmb 132 million and rmb 71 million, respectively.

liu chuanyu, director of zhubajie.com, said, "we believe that with the continuous improvement of the overall environment and the steady progress of the company's various reform measures, zhubajie.com's business structure will become healthier and the company's operations will continue to improve."