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produced by radar finance hongtu | edited by xiao sha | deep sea

as a leading domestic enterprise service e-commerce platform and a leading local internet company in chongqing, zhubajie.com does not seem to be having a good time.

recently, zhubajie.com issued a statement saying that the company's overall operations are normal, and individual business units and organizations are optimizing and adjusting their businesses. at the same time, the statement also explained the false reports about the high remuneration of zhu mingyue, the actual controller of the company.

earlier online news showed that zhubajie.com had frequently delayed salary payments this year, and the company's human resources department had issued multiple notices to modify the salary payment time, resulting in delayed payment of employees' salaries.

at that time, the company responded externally, "the recent market environment has had some impact on us and brought some challenges to the company's operations. we are reforming our internal organization and upgrading our products externally."

founded in 2006, zhubajie.com is a major customized enterprise service e-commerce platform in china and was once a new economy unicorn with a valuation of over 10 billion yuan.however, despite entering the industry early, it has not yet overcome the difficulty of profitability. the company's third prospectus submitted in december last year showed that its cumulative losses from 2020 to the first half of 2023 exceeded 900 million yuan.

according to the ipo application materials submitted by zhubajie.com at the end of last year, zhu mingyue's remuneration from 2020 to 2022 totaled 88.682 million yuan. the company was questioned as "a poor temple with a rich monk". in response, the company said that the high remuneration of founder zhu mingyue was untrue. the fee was only an accounting provision made in accordance with accounting standards, not the actual salary paid.

zhu mingyue, the founder of zhubajie.com, was a journalist. he hired someone to build a website for 500 yuan, and then zhubajie.com went online. tianyancha app shows that zhubajie.com has completed 8 rounds of financing since 2007. however, the company signed an ipo bet agreement with some investors. with the ipo stranded, zhubajie.com is currently being sued by one of the investment institutions.

zhubajie.com caught in wage arrears controversy

in recent days, zhubajie co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "zhubajie.com"), known as the largest internet company in chongqing, has been caught in a whirlpool of public opinion over wage arrears.

in early september, some netizens broke the news that zhubajie.com, "the largest local internet company in chongqing," had been in arrears of wages for several months. it could only apply for salary payment when the gross profit from individual collections could cover the wages, and each business unit began to calculate its own accounts independently.

employees asked for their wages online on short video platforms, and an insider of zhubajie.com responded that "this news is inaccurate. we just delayed the payment (of wages) in the last month."

the source said that the recent market environment has had some impact on the company and brought some challenges to the company's operations. zhubajie.com has carried out internal organizational reforms and external product upgrades. however, during the organizational reform process, some employees did not understand it very well, so they posted some comments online.

however, other online news shows that since the beginning of this year, zhubajie.com’s human resources department has issued several notices to modify the salary payment time.

specifically, the company notified that 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.

some netizens also posted that "wage payments have been delayed time and time again from the beginning of the year to now, from the 10th to the 15th, 18th, and then to the 28th, and now it is directly in arrears" and "suddenly we can't afford to pay wages."

in this regard, zhubajie.com co-founder and director liu chuanyu told the economic observer that due to 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.

although he flatly denied the wage arrears, liu chuanyu also confirmed that the company is vigorously promoting internal reforms and implementing independent operation and self-financing of business units to further control management costs.

he pointed out that during the reform process, a small number of employees did not understand, and some even 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.

in addition to responding to some media, on september 11, zhubajie.com issued a statement on its official weibo account to explain the recent reports that appeared online:

first, regarding the company's operating conditions, the statement said that the company's overall operations are normal, and individual business units and organizations are optimizing and adjusting their businesses. the company is generally optimistic about the future of the enterprise service platform track.

second, the high remuneration of the company's founder zhu mingyue is untrue. according to the company's equity incentive rules, if a shareholding employee leaves the company before the company completes its initial public offering, zhu mingyue has the right to purchase his or her equity in the company at the employee's initial cost price. the company accrued share-based payment expenses based on the valuation at the time, which was only an accounting provision made in accordance with accounting standards, not actual salary paid.

according to the ipo filing materials submitted by zhubajie.com at the end of last year, zhu mingyue's remuneration from 2020 to 2022 and the first half of 2023 was 54.184 million yuan, 946,000 yuan, 31.738 million yuan, and 1.814 million yuan, respectively, totaling 88.682 million yuan.the higher salaries in 2020 and 2022 are because they include share-based remuneration of rmb 53.143 million and rmb 30.757 million, respectively.

the company is still losing money after many years of establishment

according to the official website, zhubajie.com was founded in 2006 and is china's main customized enterprise service e-commerce platform, a leading enterprise in chongqing's local digital economy, and a unicorn enterprise in the service transaction field. the platform has more than 33 million registered users, more than 650 types of services, and covers 25 countries and regions around the world.

zhubajie.com, which was established nearly 20 years ago, has made the leap from the pc internet era to the mobile internet era and is known in the market as the "no. 1 internet company in chongqing."

however, in terms of performance, the company's financial situation is not optimistic. not only has it been making more losses than profits, but it was also in a state of insolvency at one point.

according to the prospectus of zhubajie.com in december last year, zhubajie.com's operating income in 2020-2022 and the first half of 2023 was 757 million yuan, 768 million yuan, 541 million yuan and 252 million yuan respectively.

among them, revenue in 2021 only increased by 1.4% year-on-year, and revenue in 2022 and the first half of 2023 decreased by 29.49% and 12.24% year-on-year respectively.

in terms of profitability, public data shows that zhubajie announced profitability in 2016, with revenue of about 1 billion yuan that year. however, this year, as revenue declined, the company fell into continuous losses.

specifically, from 2020 to the first half of 2023, the company's losses were rmb 269 million, rmb 367 million, rmb 230 million and rmb 78.25 million, respectively.zhubajie.com also pointed out the relevant risks in its prospectus, saying that it had recorded net losses in the past and might not be able to maintain profitability in the future.

high marketing and administrative expenses are the direct reason for the negative net profit of zhubajie.com. the prospectus shows that during the reporting period, the company's sales and marketing expenses accounted for 37.2%, 36.7%, 45.5% and 49.3% of the current revenue, respectively, and administrative expenses accounted for 31.1%, 20.2%, 33.6% and 24.5% of the current revenue, respectively.

in addition, zhubajie.com’s debt pressure cannot be ignored.the prospectus shows that as of the end of june 2023, zhubajie's total current liabilities were 770 million yuan, non-current liabilities were 179 million yuan, and the company had cash and cash equivalents of 191 million yuan.

at that time, zhubajie believed that the company would be able to meet its working capital needs for at least the next 12 months from the date of this document (the date of submission of the prospectus is december 7, 2023).

zhu mingyue was sued by investors

public information shows that before founding zhubajie.com, zhu mingyue, who graduated from chengdu normal university with a major in history, worked as a current affairs reporter and chief reporter for chongqing evening news.

around 2004, e-commerce platforms flourished in china, and physical transactions became convenient and fast through online channels. this made zhu mingyue begin to think about whether non-physical products such as innovation and creativity could also be traded through the internet?

after seeing the market demand, he set out to create zhubajie.com. it is worth mentioning that the company's co-founder liu chuanyu also worked as a reporter for qianjiang daily and an editor, reporter and news manager for chongqing business daily.

tianyancha shows that zhubajie has completed multiple rounds of financing since it received a 5 million yuan angel round of financing from yitian angel in 2007. in 2015, it received a total of 2.6 billion yuan in financing from cyber ​​​​logistics and other institutions, and its valuation at that time had reached 11 billion yuan.

from 2016 to 2018, the company completed four rounds of equity financing, but the amount was not disclosed.

zhubajie.com had sought to go public very early on.the prospectus disclosed that it had begun exploring the possibility of an overseas listing in 2011. in 2015, zhubajie abandoned its overseas listing plan and instead planned to list on the a-share market, but this goal has not yet been achieved.

zhubajie stated in its prospectus that since the listing timetable for a-shares is uncertain and relatively long, while the timetable for the hong kong stock exchange is more reasonable and predictable, it decided to list on the hong kong stock market.

subsequently, the company submitted its prospectus to the hong kong stock exchange three times in october 2022, april 2023 and december 2023.

generally speaking, multiple submissions of a prospectus are due to the inability to pass the review of the hong kong stock exchange listing committee within the validity period of the prospectus, or the company chooses not to proceed with the ipo even after passing the review.

in addition, the hong kong stock market prospectus is valid for 6 months, and it needs to be resubmitted after the expiration. from this point of view, as of now, zhubajie.com's application materials have expired, but the company has not resubmitted them.

however, the listing was delayed, and investors eager to cash out had to withdraw early. according to media reports, from 2018 to 2022, three shareholders of zhubajie.com, chongqing cultural fund, beijing harmony, and hangzhou mengsheng wenyi, withdrew one after another.

more importantly, zhubajie.com signed an ipo bet agreement with some investors. if the ipo fails, zhu mingyue (the actual controller of zhubajie.com) and zhubajie.com must fulfill their commitment to repurchase the equity investment funds.

in this regard, the prospectus also mentioned that according to the investment agreements regarding the pre-ipo investments made by cyber ​​​​lux, liangjiang industrial group, hanjiang fund and changjiang fund, the above-mentioned pre-ipo investors were each granted certain special rights related to the company, including the right to withdraw investment (requiring zhu mingyue, bajie industrial and/or the company to repurchase shares), the right to nominate or appoint directors, etc.

the right to withdraw investment (requiring zhu mingyue, bajie industrial and/or the company to repurchase shares) granted to the relevant pre-ipo investors under the relevant investment agreements has been terminated immediately before the first submission of the ipo to the stock exchange for the ipo pursuant to the supplemental agreement entered into between the relevant pre-ipo investors, the company and mr. zhu, but if the ipo is withdrawn, rejected or returned, the right to withdraw investment (requiring zhu mingyue, bajie industrial and/or the company to repurchase shares) so terminated will be automatically restored.

now, with the failure of the third ipo attempt, zhu mingyue and zhubajie.com have been sued by one of the investment institutions.

tianyancha shows that on august 22 this year, an announcement from the haidian district people's court of beijing showed that zhejiang zhongying capital investment partnership (limited partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "zhejiang zhongying") sued zhu mingyue and zhubajie.com, demanding that zhu mingyue and zhubajie.com pay compensation of 45.7619 million yuan to cyber ​​​​legend zhongying and bear the attorney fees and property preservation costs.

zhejiang zhongying is the major shareholder of zhubajie.com's shareholder cybernaut zhongying, holding 28% of the shares. the above case will go to trial on october 8.

in addition, the 45.9619 million yuan held by zhu mingyue in chongqing zhubajie industrial co., ltd. was also frozen by the haidian district people's court of beijing, and the freezing period will last until july 25, 2027.