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on the first day of the national day holiday, wanda plaza in taihe county, fuyang city, anhui province opened on october 1.

it was the national day holiday and lu yueqi, a young north drifter who returned to his hometown, was dragged to wanda plaza by friends and classmates twice on the same day to go shopping and watch movies. wanda, which was disliked by lu yueqi in first-tier cities, has become the only choice for young people in the county for shopping.

lu yueqi rarely visits wanda in beijing. he and his friends often visit hopson hui and wangfujing apm. "these two shopping mall brands are relatively young, and they have a lot of food and drink. wanda cinema is okay, but the investment promotion is too poor, the brand is too inferior, and they are the same." in lu yueqi's view, the reason why wanda is neglected in first-tier cities is , mainly because there are too many places to go shopping. “take beijing as an example. sanlitun and the box are the gathering places for trendy men and trendy women. if you want to buy big-name and high-end products, go to skp and guomao. for daily shopping, you can also go to hanguang and joy city. ”

once upon a time, wanda plaza could independently form a large-scale business district once it was completed. there was a popular saying that "wanda plaza is the center of the city".nowadays, wanda plaza, which has been neglected by young people in first- and second-tier cities, is regaining its former glory in the county. even many young people in small towns have their first cup of starbucks with the presence of wanda plaza.

image source: ai generated

wang yue lives in a county town under yichang, hubei province. in his impression, wanda is usually found in at least prefecture-level cities, so he was surprised to open in a county town. whenever friends from out of town come to see him, he will take them to wanda plaza for a walk, drinking milk tea, eating hot pot, and playing video games. "this 'reception room' gives me a lot of face."

but wanda is not the only one eyeing the county market. wuyue, wanxianghui and golden eagle have also joined the competition for young people in the county.

as early as 2019, wanda plaza entered anshan city, liaoning province, known as the "steel capital". at that time, wanda plaza had the country's first steel industry-themed food street - anshan iron and steel 1949 and the largest undersea column children's themed street in northeast china. it has become a place for local residents to go shopping. in the same year, wanxianghui also came to anshan and opened in the absolute city center, next to the train station.

with more choices, young people start to become picky. li shuang is a sophomore at a local university. in her opinion, although wanda plaza also has a regular customer flow, wanxianghui has become the first choice for young people because of its fashionable shopping mall and young brand. "in addition, there are also established and local shopping malls such as parkson, silong and jingzi street, which still have a large number of fans."

today, wanda plaza is still sinking at an accelerating rate, and such "three kingdoms killing" scenes will only become more and more common.for wang jianlin, who has been waiting for the "life-saving money", the difficulty has been over for the time being, but how to continue to attract young people in the county and let wanda plaza gain a foothold in the county is still a big challenge.

“the famous attraction in the small county town is wanda.”on social platforms, many young people from small towns are proud of wanda's arrival in the county. "i didn't expect that our small 18th-tier county also has wanda" has become the opening line of many check-in posts.

when wanda plaza opened in wang yue's county last year, he posted similar posts on social platforms. "many people said that the popularity lasted only three days, but in the first week there were long queues every day, and there were not enough parking spaces. starbucks and heytea opened at the same time as wanda plaza, and there was an endless stream of customers in the store." at the same time, the current fire is spreading. the new top-notch tea drink bawang chaji also opened its first store with the opening of wanda plaza last year.

thanks to the popularity of mobile internet, the rise of major e-commerce platforms has quickly flattened the generational gap in consumption across cities. the consumption habits of young people in small towns are highly consistent with those in first- and second-tier cities, and they are changing from trend followers to leaders.

with the establishment of wanda plaza, new consumer brands such as new tea drinks that are popular on social platforms have become easily accessible to many young people in small towns. along with the commercial complex, these brands have built the "prosperous city dream" of young people in small towns and enhanced their sense of pride.

"there are two commercial complexes in our county, but neither of them has become top-notch like wanda plaza since it opened." in december last year, wanda plaza opened in shehong county, suining city, sichuan province. because of concerns about too many people, it took only a week after opening. later, wang yuxin, a local mother born in the 1990s, took her children to go shopping.

"but even though it has been open for a week, the mall is still overcrowded." wang yuxin had to wait for more than half an hour to buy a cup of luckin coffee, and there were also long queues in front of stores such as shuyishao xiancao and bawang chaji.

image source: ai generated

different from the business logic of targeted customer groups in big cities, businesses in county towns must cover mainstream consumer groups, and children's businesses have become indispensable.

outside shehong wanda plaza, there are many children's amusement facilities, including carousels, trampolines, rings, etc. “for many mothers with babies, wanda has become a holy place for baby walking.” wang yuxin told alphabet list (id: wujicaijing) that there were two commercial complexes before shehong, one was huixing department store and the other was yongyi plaza, but the passenger flow is average. “it feels like everyone was attracted to wanda plaza as soon as it opened.”

however, as wanda enters the county and brings equal consumption rights to young people in small towns, it also has an impact on the original commercial formats in some areas.

wang chuang, a boy born in the 1990s, lives in fuxin city, liaoning province. in his impression, before wanda plaza moved in in 2018, the commercial complex in fuxin was composed of xinglong family, new mart and rt-mart. "two years after wanda opened, the xinglong family was gone, and rt-mart was completely reduced to a large supermarket, and the brands in it were basically unreadable. new mart had already lost its customer flow to the first two companies, which means it was unable to maintain its sales. it’s not closed.”

"now in fuxin, it can be said that wanda is the only one. other local shopping malls and department stores basically rely on the surrounding people. for example, qiansheng relies on old men and old ladies." wang chuang added.

as early as 2017, wang jianlin launched wanda commercial’s asset-light transformation strategy to accelerate the pace of wanda plaza’s nationwide expansion. the target is directly aimed at the scale of 1,000 stores, and strives to cover more than 80% of prefecture-level cities and more than 30% of county-level cities.

by the end of 2022, this strategy has achieved initial results. wanda plaza has successfully launched 473 wanda plazas in 224 cities in 31 provincial-level administrative regions across the country. its layout focus is significantly biased towards third- and fourth-tier cities, leading the sinking trend of commercial real estate.

recently, as "county brahmins" has become a hot word on the internet, the consumption power of small towns has once again attracted attention. the so-called "brahmins" in the county refer to those who live a good life in the county. they control the best ways to make money in the county and become the best people in the county. they drive luxury cars, live in luxury houses, and spend money without paying attention. prices, food purchased by sam, clothing costing thousands of dollars.

but for commercial complexes, moving towards the sinking market is both an opportunity and a challenge.while defeating traditional commercial complexes, wanda plaza is also welcoming a new batch of competitors.

in wujin district, changzhou city, jiangsu province, wanda plaza and wuyue plaza are less than 500 meters apart. this also makes the intensity of competition in the sinking market of commercial complexes concrete.

now in the sinking market, wanda plaza not only has to compete with commercial complexes such as wuyue plaza and wanxianghui, but also high-end shopping malls such as skp are eyeing the cake of the sinking market.these commercial complexes that have entered the county not only cater to the preferences of young people from design to branding, but also expand their influence among young people through continuous planning of themed activities.

from li shuang's perspective, wanda plaza is more suitable for family shopping, while wanxianghui has firmly captured young people. "the positioning of wanda plaza is a bit awkward. you can call it high-end, and the brands in it are also available in other shopping malls; you can call it close to the people. most of the products of the same brands and styles are not as strong as discounts and promotions in other shopping malls."

but because wanda plaza is the closest to li shuang’s university, she often goes shopping with her classmates. from time to time, she encounters whole families shopping or mothers walking their babies. “there is a children’s amusement center inside, as well as many beauty and manicure brands. children and parents’ needs were met.”

faced with changes in the needs of county consumers, wang jianlin is also seeking changes. wanda's urban complex model has gone through four generations: the first-generation products are mainly single stores; the second-generation products are composite stores and street shops; the third-generation products are to create an urban complex with commercial centers, five-star hotels, office buildings, apartments, residences, as well as non-retail businesses such as restaurants, international cinemas, arcades, fitness centers, etc., look like a smaller version of the city, and have also created new centers and new businesses in the city. lock up.

today's fourth-generation wanda plaza is larger in scale and draws on the successful experience of the third-generation wanda plaza to provide richer scenes and experiences.

however, wanda plaza is now facing increasingly fierce competition in the sinking market. in order to compete for county residents, various commercial enterprises are doing their best, from architectural design, scene creation to event promotion, and the competition is becoming fierce.

despite fierce competition, against the background of frequent “exit” or “delisting” in first- and second-tier cities, the county market has become one of the few development options for wanda plaza.in april this year, wang jianlin even sold his "base camp" in beijing.

until recently, wang jianlin finally received the "life-saving money" he had been waiting for. in 2021, in order to promote wanda's listing, wang jianlin reached cooperation agreements with 22 institutions including the zheng yutong family, country garden, citic capital, ant, tencent, and pag investment, investing approximately 38 billion yuan in zhuhai wanda commercial management (the main company of wanda's listing) .

but it’s not that easy to get money from institutions. the 38 billion yuan investment agreement comes with a gambling clause, which stipulates that wanda must complete the listing by 2023 at the latest, otherwise it will repurchase shares from investors and pay additional compensation.

from 2021 to 2023, wanda has attempted ipo four times, but none of them succeeded. in the end, the gambling agreement was activated, and wanda was under pressure of tens of billions of repurchase funds.

wang jianlin had no choice but to start a sale mode. according to statistics, in 2023, wang jianlin sold 10 wanda plazas including shanghai jinshan and huzhou wanda. at the same time, the shareholder of dalian wanda hotel became "beijing yinglang", and wanda film also changed its ownership to "shanghai confucianism". although wang jianlin kept the spark of wanda commercial management's continued listing, the price was that control of the wanda empire was lost.

fortunately, the key investor tai meng finally stepped forward. recently, dalian xindameng commercial management company has undergone changes in its industrial and commercial information. the registered capital has increased from 16.21 billion yuan to 40.52 billion yuan, and the total investment has been changed to 51.3 billion yuan.

the price for wang jianlin's "life-saving money" was the loss of absolute control over wanda business.

two months ago, news that wang jianlin and wang sicong, their father and son, had returned to the top ten richest people in china with a total net worth of 140.8 billion yuan, swept across major social media platforms, and people's attention returned to the 60 billion yuan in debt.

at present, this 60 billion fund has been received, plus the funds recovered from the sale of part of wanda plaza. it can be said that wang jianlin has overcome a major difficulty at the current stage.but this does not mean that wang jianlin can sit back and relax.

on september 1, the 2024 corporate bond interim report released by dalian wanda commercial management showed that as of the end of june 2024, wanda commercial management’s consolidated interest-bearing liabilities were 137.561 billion yuan, of which 30.269 billion yuan were interest-bearing liabilities due within one year. wanda commercial management currently has only 10.485 billion yuan in cash, and its debt pressure remains.

fortunately, wang jianlin still holds some cards in wanda commercial management. however, competition among commercial complexes in first- and second-tier cities has spread to county towns. how wanda plaza can continue to win the favor of young people in the county towns and establish a firm foothold in the county towns has become a new challenge for wang jianlin in the future.