Where angels fear to tread: bankrupt Bopai the latest O2O venture in China to fall victim to hasty overexpansion
Online car-washing services provider was valued at US$600 million a year ago
Bopai, a Chinese online-to-offline company that deals in auto services, declared bankruptcy yesterday despite landing B Series funding of 101 million yuan (US$15,6 million) last year, joining a wave of once-promising e-commerce start-ups that have shut down recently on the mainland.
Local media reported in December that the company, formally known as Bopai (Beijing) Automotive Technology Service Co., was closing down its main office in the capital due to cutthroat competition.
As of February, over 800 O2O companies that landed A Series financing in 2014 had burned through their investments in China and been shuttered, according to the government-run Guangzhou Daily.
Those that provide car-washing services were hit particularly hard, with E Car Wash, Easy Car Wash and Kungfu Car Wash all closing last October, following in the footsteps of Cloud Car Wash in Shanghai and Car8.
Bopai announced the decision to fold yesterday on its official WeChat account, a mobile messaging platform run by China’s social titan Tencent, according to tech news website iheima.com.
Some analysts believe it fell victim to its unbridled business development plans.