【China Startup】Makes dinning with strangers profitable
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=v0185a83cyz&width=500&height=375&auto=0
“I want to live such a life that I don't regret things when I am old,” said Feng Zheng, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, who quit a promising job at IDG Capital Partners in 2014 to set up his own company.
From studying statistics at Yale to working as a data analyst and then as an investment analyst, Feng transitioned to entrepreneurship setting up Woyoufan in 2015.
On January 1, 2015, Woyoufan launched its first product, the Woyoufan APP, which finally made it to IOS and Andriod devices in October 2015.
Woyoufan banquet
So what does Woyoufan do? Well, the APP aims to bring together food lovers from around the country, allowing people to share their banquet ideas and invite each other over. What this means is that if you like what someone's offering on the APP, you can end up being invited to their homes for a meal.
While the APP took around 10 months to develop and publish, the idea behind Woyoufan has a much longer history. In 2011, while working in the US, Feng set up a weibo account called “Niu Yue Chi Huo” (New York Foodie) in order to share what he thought were good eateries in New York City.
“Maybe it was at that time that I started to feel that I really should do something related to food. As an engineer, I could see where I’d be professionally in 30 years…it was stable, but I had a passion to do something different when I started my microblog. I didn’t want to have any regrets when I grew old.”
Feng Zheng, CEO of Woyoufan
The account soon became a hit, garnering some 200,000 followers. However, it hadn't yet led to a realistic business idea for Feng.
That began to take shape in 2014, as Feng grew interested in the sharing economy. After studying Airbnb (a platform that allows people to list, find and rent lodging), Feng decided to adapt the concept for food, leading to the birth of Woyoufan in 2015.
Feng says that Woyoufan received angel investment in 2015, and is currently in the pre-A financing process. He says that after the Spring Festival, there will be another round of financing. The company currently employs 30 people, both in Beijing and Shanghai, most of whom are from top venture capitalist firms and international food companies.
However, the road to getting there was not easy at all.
“At first, it was very hard to find any private chef on the Internet. What helped us was word of mouth publicity. But, the sharing economy is growing rapidly, and we are growing with the industry. We have to make the rules; we have to educate people about what the concept is and why they should go to a stranger’s home for dinner. It’s very difficult. But things have become better with time.”
Feng Zheng, CEO of Woyoufan
Feng says that in 2015, some 1000 to 2000 meals had been arranged both in Beijing and Shanghai via Woyoufan, with people from all walks of life - such as retirees, professional chefs, and white collar employees - inviting strangers over. The hosts usually invite anywhere between 4 and 8 guests for the meal, with their prices ranging from 100 to 1000 yuan per person. The prices are decided by the hosts themselves.
As long as they love to cook, we welcome them. We like diversity in terms of the hosts. Now we have around 300 hosts. But it’s a very difficult process to become one of our hosts.
Feng Zheng, CEO of Woyoufan
Potential hosts have to undergo a lengthy screening process, during which they are informed of the challenges that they are likely to face. Thereafter, staff from Woyoufan would conduct a site visit and take pictures in order to check the hosts' homes to make sure the space is clean, safe and easy to get to.
While the APP has seen some success initially, what the company appears to be banking on is the growth of the C2C sharing economy in China.
Despite the potential, given the fundamental premise of the business, i.e., inviting strangers to your home for a meal, it engenders some serious challenges. For starters, one of the key issues is food safety, such as what remedy the guests have in case the food doesn't meet safety standards and leads to illnesses? Moreover, there are also broader concerns like whether these hosts can be treated as business owners and how taxation should apply in their cases.
“Our hosts are required to provide health certificates, and all of them are checked before we allow them to operate online,” Feng says in response to these concerns.
“We also have a review system; if the hosts are not good, then they cannot do business on our platform. Thirdly, we also work with insurance companies to aid both the guests and hosts. Most of our hosts have an open kitchen; it is the most effective way to make sure that the food is clean as the guests can see the food directly. It is very important to make sure that the food is safe. And we are trying our best to lower the risks. So far, we haven't faced any such adverse scenarios,” he added.
Feng now plans to expand into more cities and is even looking to break into the international market.