How Brutal Is It to Run an E-commerce Business?

In 2022, due to strategic adjustments, Zihaiguo reduced its e-commerce staff from 153 to 7.

Setting aside the anxiety, this is a pure TVoC business: spending investors' money through various expense categories, essentially funneling it back into your own pocket under different pretenses. No need to worry about running out of money — if you make a splash, someone will take over; if not, just scale back and bolt.

If you have any brains, you'd wonder why, with under 400 million yuan in annual sales, they're burning through 300 million yuan in marketing budgets and deducting bonuses when they can't spend it all. It's a hot-potato game: see who's foolish enough to take over.

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