When repayment isn’t the goal, financing cost becomes irrelevant
Every source of financing comes with a cost, but when you plan from the start not to repay it, that cost stops mattering.
Crab vouchers have a three-year validity, yet you can never actually redeem them for product. You forget the card exists; some良心 issuers honor a partial payout, while the rest simply vanish. It works much like the securitized mooncake券 model: the merchant issues a 50-unit card, the channel spends 100 on promotion, the purchaser pays 80 to buy it, the employee or gift recipient sells it back to scalps for 30, and the manufacturer buys the voucher back from the scalpers for 40. Everyone gets what they want (except the person who paid for the card—because the merchant can run the entire loop themselves).
The architects of this design are sharp: futures + securitization + P2P. Any merchant or platform follows the same playbook. They will never let you get your money back. If they do issue a refund, it’s only because they’ve spotted an even larger profit waiting in your pocket. The reason you don’t see mooncake vouchers anymore is that productivity and competitive pressure have risen enough that demand is met by supply; people still trust ready goods. Securitizing consumer products only works when the item serves as a social gift, clears through formal accounting, and can’t be delivered immediately—only then does futures-style commodification take hold.
Flip it around: any business can turn a 90-day payment term into “cash settlement at a deeper discount.” That margin gap is likely a sizable profit center. The rumors about companies living on receivables may just mean they’re making money on the terms themselves, which also explains why wholesale prices are so much cheaper. And when cash settlement is an option, is the credit term really worth the discount? Especially for companies sitting on big data.
Profit margin × turnover rate is, in effect, return on investment.
Turnover rate is really just a measure of how efficiently capital is put to work.