New | China developer Powerlong plans shared O2O platform for malls
Chinese developer Powerlong testing new ideas linking property with internet to stay ahead of future competition
Powerlong Real Estate Holdings plans to build a shared online-to-offline (O2O) platform for shopping malls operated not only by itself but also by rivals to cut costs and risk, the president of the Shanghai-based developer said.
"O2O in commercial property projects is more challenging than I expected. But there is still a way to success," Hoi Wa-fong told the South China Morning Post.
His biggest rival Dalian Wanda Group plans to invest tens of billions of yuan in O2O, but two executives in charge of Wanda's O2O development have resigned in the past three years.
Hoi has a team of about 30 young people, mainly with internet engineering backgrounds. "I give them unlimited room to try their own ideas and only give them general guidelines," he said.
Exceeding Hoi's expectations, the team cut the investment on an O2O platform in a Beijing project from eight million yuan (HK$10 million) to zero by forming alliances with suppliers.
"The cost of building an O2O platform is huge, systems are complicated and any future benefit is hard to predict," Hoi said.
Starting early this year, Powerlong was able to convince suppliers who helped build key systems - including parking, cashier, location tracking, Wi-fi and marketing - to provide free services to a shared platform that will provide the necessary "big data" to all parties involved.