Welcome to follow the WeChat subscription account of "Sina Technology": techsina
Author | Su Qi Editor | Jin Yu Fan
Source: Kaipineapple Finance
"Mom, Baoyou, it's not fun." The famous line in Tiaoyin, Station B, and Hupucrazy comes from the appraiser "Zixuan Teacher", who worked in Tiantian Treasure Appraisal before and was once called Deyun Society in the antique industry.
But just two days ago, "Teacher Zixuan" issued a statement on Tiaoyin, saying that he had already left Tiantian Treasure Appreciation, and the company still owed him his salary. In fact, it was not only "Teacher Zixuan" who was in arrears with his salary. Several employees of Tiantian Treasure Appraisal disclosed to Pineapple Finance that on December 28 last year, Tiantian Treasure Appraisal had dismissed 90% of the company's employees and owed more than three months' salary and redundancy compensation to many people, amounting to tens of millions.
A number of employees said that in May this year, the Tiantianjiabao App, applet and the company's internal software all stopped running, and the remaining 10% of employees were not only in arrears with their salaries and social security, but also could not contact the management team.
Tiantian Jianbao is involved in the "running away" scandal, which also involves hundreds of merchants who have settled in for quilts. According to Kaipineapple Finance, they have been owed tens of millions of yuan in total.
Tiantian Jianbao, founded in 2019, once belonged to the first echelon of the cultural game e-commerce. Almost at the same time when the thunder broke out, the micro auction hall, which belonged to the first echelon, submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Both platforms will be broadcast live outside the station in 2021. With the help of the dithering fast hand platform, the number of fans of the official dithering account of Wepatang is only a quarter of that of the daily treasure spotting.
Weipaitang had an impact on the IPO, but every day Jianbao had "run away", and it was sad to see "retreat" as soon as it entered. Many merchants pointed out that compared with the auction mode of the micro auction hall, it is more suitable for professional buyers, and they are more optimistic about the "free identification, dithering and drainage" mode of Tiantian Treasure Appraisal. "If the platform is well operated, it may not go this far".
Kaipineapple Finance has repeatedly called Wang Yi, the founder of the company, and Wang Haibin, the CMO, to verify the information disclosed. As of press release, no one has answered.
Employees: salary arrears, layoffs, no compensation
The first to find something wrong was the employees of Tiantian Treasure Appraisal. Many employees said that from August 2021, Tiantian Treasure Appraisal began to default more than 300 employees' salaries.
Han Zhou, the former middle-level employee of Tiantian Jianbao, told Pineapple Finance that Tiantian Jianbao had suspended the payment of salaries for employees above the level of director since last August, and the payment of salaries for employees below the level of director had been suspended since last October. In addition, in December last year, Wang had borrowed money from several senior executives of the company, which has not been repaid up to now.
According to a company document obtained by Pineapple Finance, as of the middle of December last year, the company owed a total of 87.27 million yuan. However, after the layoff at the end of December, the unpaid severance compensation is expected to be 10 million yuan.
Photograph provided by respondents According to Mi Li, a staff member of Tiantian Treasure Authentication, since last November, the company has been defaulting on wages under various pretexts, "repeatedly consuming the trust of employees". "The salary in October should be paid on November 10. The company said it would be paid at the end of November, and then at the end of the month, the company said it would be paid on December 10."
According to the video materials provided by several departing employees, Wang Yi once made an internal speech in December last year, saying that the company was facing operating difficulties due to unsuccessful financing. "The original plan was to start financing in May, and the funds could be received in July at the earliest and September at the latest, but the capital itself had corresponding problems and did not sign up."
"The boss said at that time that the company needed our operation, and he hoped that everyone could stick to it. The boss said it sincerely, and most of us also worked in the company for two to three years, so we chose to trust the boss again." Mili said.
But what they waited for was that their wages were still in arrears. According to another audio file, Mango Liu Xiaocui, a senior executive of Tiantian Treasure Appraisal, said on December 7, 2021 that his salary was only delayed. Subsequently, the company asked the employees to sign an installment agreement, and the salary arrears will be paid in ten installments from March to December 2022, with 10% of each installment.
Picture provided by interviewees of Tiantian Jianbao's organizational structure Until December 28 last year, employees waited for an email. Mi Li revealed the information in this email, "90% of the employees involved were forcibly laid off without N+1 compensation". She also said that "the salary in arrears has not been paid yet, let alone the annual leave and other benefits and subsidies".
Employee said in the work handover email that "forced to go through resignation procedures" Respondents provided pictures According to several employees, the employees who were laid off in December applied for arbitration in batches, and received the award in March and May this year. The award said that the company should pay wages within five days. After the company failed to implement the award, the employees applied for compulsory payment of wages, but the enforcement judge replied that "the company's corporate account number could not be found, and there was no property to enforce".
The remaining employees are facing more difficult circumstances after the year.
One of the employees, Feiyu, told Pineapple Finance that in order to appease everyone, the company normally paid salaries in January and February after the New Year, and Wang Yi said that the company would change from B2C trading platform to live platforms such as Kuaidiao to directly bring goods. "Just when everyone thought that the company might still have hope, the salary in March began to be in arrears again."
According to Feiyu's memory, the company moved three times after, and the contract with employees was changed twice. "The first entity change is also signed by the employee, and the second entity change is directly changed without notice.".
Feiyu said that in May, because the company owed Alibaba Cloud service fees, the company could not log in at the background, so the employees found something wrong and stopped working. "At that moment, we realized that we had been completely cheated. The founding team has lost contact at present. Not only did many employees not pay their salaries from October to December last year and from March to May this year, but also did not pay their social security from April to May. Moreover, due to the re signing of contracts with different corporate entities after, they could not even defend their rights through collective arbitration."
At the end of May, Feiyu and other on-the-job colleagues joined the arbitration group established by the laid-off employees last December.
Merchant:
App、 The applet is disabled, and tens of millions of payments for goods are deducted
At the same time when employees asked for salaries, a number of businesses also said that they had been in arrears since October last year.
Liu Hua, a merchant who settled in Tiantian Treasure Appraisal last March, told Pineapple Finance that under normal circumstances, when the customer confirmed the receipt of the goods, the money could be transferred to the merchant's account within 7-10 days. However, from October, it gradually changed to 30 days or even two months for settlement. At that time, he sent a private letter to the business manager, who said, "The company is financing, and the merchants sell according to their own situation". Seeing that most businesses are still operating, Liu Hua doesn't take it seriously.
Song Huan, a Jiangsu merchant who opened 19 stores on the Tiantian Treasure Identification Platform, began to worry that the payment for goods for two consecutive months had not been settled during the Double 11 and Double 12 last year. "In a year, these two months are the peak period for selling goods. Everyone wants to earn more money. Unexpectedly, all the money is finally in the hands of the platform."
In January of this year, when Soro wanted to return the store, he found that he could not withdraw the cash, and the overdue payment for goods and the store deposit were more than 40000 yuan. Solo once asked the customer service to communicate with him. Someone replied early, but later contacted him. The other party said that he couldn't help it. He owed more than half a year's salary.
Withdrawal function on App has been disabled In addition to the payment for goods on the platform, the merchants also owe deposits. Song Huan said that he had settled down as early as 2019 when the Tiantianjiabao App was just launched. In recent years, the margin and service fees of the platform have been changing.
As he recalled, at the beginning of opening a store, he needed to pay a deposit of 10000 yuan directly. Later, in order to attract more merchants to settle in, he asked the merchants to pay a deposit of 1000 yuan first, and the remaining 9000 yuan was deducted from the payment for goods in two installments. As for the service fee of the platform, it has changed from 700 yuan/year in 2019 to 900 yuan/year.
Up to now, there are 19 stores operated by Song Huan, each of which has unsettled payment for goods, and the estimated loss is about 70000 yuan. In May this year, with no hope of cash withdrawal, Song Huan and a dozen local businesses went to the local area to report the case. "But because no written contract was signed when entering the platform at that time, and no one kept the online contract, it was difficult to protect rights. This was the first time that we met this situation, and we had no experience."
According to Liu Hua, he once set up a rights protection group and asked members to fill in their overdue payments and amounts. More than 300 businesses participated in the group. "There are still many such groups. Businesses all over the country have arrears. Some people are owed ten or twenty thousand yuan, and some are owed one or two million yuan.".
On May 21 this year, merchants found that Tiantianjiabao App and WeChat applet stopped operating , all order data and transaction information in the background can no longer be queried, and relevant staff can not be contacted.
Since the company has never responded positively, in June this year, merchants began to report the daily treasure inspection through video real name on the social platform. There are also users who have made a lot of payments but have not received the goods. According to the merchant, the buyer's goods need to be delivered by the merchant to the identification base (warehouse) of Tiantian Treasure Identification Center, and can only be delivered to the buyer after transit. Now the warehouse is closed, so the buyer can't get the goods.
The two merchants also disclosed a news to Pineapple Finance that not long ago, a merchant stationed on the platform was diagnosed with brain tumor and needed to pay high surgery costs. The merchant once asked Wang Yi for arrears but failed, and finally delayed treatment due to late payment. He died recently. However, this information has not been confirmed by Wang on the one hand.
Employees and businesses have already found the clue
After defaulting on a large amount of funds for businesses and employees, the current Tiantian Treasure Appraisal has been completely empty.
According to some video materials, their offices in Beijing and Shanghai have been vacated and vacated. Some employees said that because they worked at home, their goods were left in their original offices and were not retrieved.
According to Han Zhou, Tiantian Jianbao originally had four delivery warehouses, located in Ruili, Beijing, Donghai and Sihui. Because the Ruili epidemic continued for more than half a year in 2021, the Ruili warehouse rate was closed first in June 2020. After the company downsized at the end of last year, the Donghai and Beijing warehouses were closed. In May this year, the four warehouses were closed.
Recently, the original two official accounts of Tiantian Treasure Appraisal, "Tiantian Treasure Appraisal App" and "Tiantian Treasure Appraisal Jewelry Selection", have been renamed as "Ruize Treasure Appraisal Jewelry Selection" and "Haidong Treasure Appraisal Jewelry Selection", and the blue V certification has been cancelled. Ruize and Haidong are important anchors of "Tiantian Treasure Appraisal".
Image source/dithering before and after the account change of Tiantian Jianbao The name and avatar have changed, but the main market body of the store with goods has not changed. Beijing Yiding Technology Co., Ltd. is the main store of "Ruize Jewelry Selection", and Henan Tianmou Network Technology Co., Ltd. is the main store of "Haidong Jewelry Selection". According to Tianyan, Tiantian Jianbao belongs to Henan Tianmou Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is 100% controlled by Beijing Yiding Technology Co., Ltd. According to Tianyan, the actual controller is Wang Yi. The account continued to broadcast the sales, which was unacceptable to the employees and businesses in the rights protection.
Map source/Tianyan search Kaipineapple Finance observed that "Ruize Treasure Identification Jewelry Strict Selection" currently carries goods live every day. According to Xindou's data, this account has carried 35 goods in the past 30 days, with an estimated live broadcast sales of 2.5869 million. However, no matter the number of online people per game or the live sales, the data decline is very serious, with a month on month decline of more than 55%.
Source/New According to Tianyan's data, Henan Tianmou Network Technology Co., Ltd. involved 69 pieces of judicial risk information, and Beijing Yiding Technology Co., Ltd. involved 94 pieces of judicial risk information.
Many employees and businesses told Pineapple Finance that before the management team "lost contact", they had already felt something strange.
An employee revealed that the GMV of the company has declined seriously in the past more than a year, and there are doubts about the whereabouts of some money.
According to Han Zhou, the operation and growth of the company originally belonged to the same department. Since October 2020, the growth department has been separated, resulting in a decline in growth and revenue data. "E-commerce relies on user growth to drive revenue and the overall market. After structural adjustment, the monthly net GMV of the company's four warehouses has dropped from nearly 100 million at the peak to about 60 million last year. In the previous month, the company's net GMV was only millions."
Photograph provided by respondents "If the data decline is found after the department adjustment, the normal logic should be to correct, but not." In his view, these are the manifestations of the company's management confusion.
In addition, the company changed the legal person on December 5, last year, before the layoff , changed from Wang Haibin, the former senior executive of the company, to Guo Shibo.
Mi Li said that she called the new legal person, who claimed that she had just retired from the army and was driving a taxi to make a living in the local area, and did not know her legal identity.
Map source/Tianyan search In addition, many employees and businesses found out that Wang Yi had also created several projects such as Taopawnshop, Today Beauty, Realchain, etc. before he founded "Everyday Treasure Appreciation" in 2018. According to media reports, these projects had experienced roadtrips and thunderstorms.
Before "running away", every day treasure spotting has also been highlighted
Almost at the same time as the thunder of treasure spotting came out every day, the micro auction hall, which is also a cultural game e-commerce track, officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 25 to be listed on the main board.
According to the prospectus of Weipaitang, Wenju E-commerce seems to be a good track with high gross profit, strong profitability and accurate audience. In the prospectus, Weipaitang mentioned that the market share of Weipaitang in 2021 will be 24.4%, which will be the largest cultural game e-commerce platform in China, while the second largest vertical cultural game e-commerce platform is Tiantianjiabao, with a market share of 4.9%.
In the peak period, the reputation of treasure identification rose every day. A group of appraisers such as Zixuan and Master Yue helped people to identify treasure in Tiaoyin and Station B. They played the famous role of "Baoyou, this is not popular", accumulated a group of young users, and brought a lot of "ring breaking traffic" for the subsequent development of e-commerce and live streaming.
Around June 2020, Yang Jun, the co-founder of "Tiantian Jianbao", disclosed that the new registered users of the platform have reached 20 million in a year. According to the prospectus, the number of new registered users of Wepaitang's platform from 2019 to 2020 was 20132000.
It is these characteristics that bring about multiple rounds of financing for Tiantian Treasure Appraisal. Since 2018, Tiantian Jianbao has obtained five rounds of financing including byte beating, with a cumulative financing amount of 40 million dollars. The latest round of financing is in April 2020.
Before the thunderstorm, many businesses and employees expressed their confidence in the mode of daily treasure identification. Use appraisers to help users identify treasure online for free to attract users, and guide users to the App for transaction. "There are more professional buyers in the micro auction hall, and even many merchants purchase from it. They are all peers, with low prices and low profits. There are many users who come from Diaoyin on the daily treasure appraisal. The transaction rate is relatively high, and with Wang Gang's endorsement, I once thought this platform had great potential." Soro said.
In the later stage, Tiantian Treasure Appraisal turned from "serious treasure appraisal" to entertainment style. It was questioned that it attached too much importance to traffic and could attract a large number of small white users in the short term. However, in the long run, the conversion rate declined seriously. Many employees and businesses said that since the second half of 2021, the growth of the App Station has encountered major problems.
In fact, before the "thunder storm", Tiantian Jianbao had long faced the competition from such vertical e-commerce businesses as Weibateng, Toy Success, Duzhuang and Yiyi, as well as the competition from such e-commerce giants as Alibaba and Jingdong, as well as the competition from live broadcast platforms such as Douyin and Fasthand.
In the view of merchants, if Tiantian Jianbao cannot solve the problem of financing and growth, it will eventually "exit", but it chose to exit in the most disgraceful way. "This will be a blow to the industry. If we don't explain to merchants, employees and users every day, it will drag down the integrity of the whole cultural game e-commerce track," Liu Hua said.
*The title comes from Visual China. At the request of the interviewee, all the articles are pseudonyms.
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
