36 Krypton Sailing learned that Hugo Cross Border has completed a new round of financing recently. This round of financing was exclusively invested by CITIC Capital, and index capital acted as the exclusive financial adviser. It is reported that the newly raised funds will be mainly used in three aspects: first, technology development. Hugo cross-border is building a large and medium-sized platform for brand shipping to help Chinese brands enter new traffic channels; Second, set up localized operation and after-sales teams in overseas markets such as South Korea, Japan, Europe and Latin America; Third, it will be used for the layout of the national industrial belt. Hugo Cross border will set up offices in several industrial belt cities nationwide this year to be close to the industrial belt and go to sea as a brand.
Hugo Cross border (formerly Hugo. com) was officially launched in July 2014, which is an "industrial Internet platform" focusing on brand going overseas. According to Mr. Weng Yaoxiong, the founder and CEO of Hugo Cross Border, Hugo Cross Border is the only company in the industry that has the ability to operate the whole chain of brand overseas. At present, it has millions of members and has formed strategic cooperation with more than 100 overseas local e-commerce platforms, including social e-commerce platforms such as Facebook.
Speaking of his entrepreneurial experience, Mr. Weng Yaoxiong recalled that he had founded a foreign trade company before the establishment of Hugo Cross Border. However, there was a huge information gap in the domestic and foreign markets at that time. The primary information and resources were almost in the hands of foreign brands. In addition, the early logistics and other supporting services were not perfect, which directly hindered Chinese brands and sellers from "going to sea". And cross-border e-commerce has given Mr. Weng Yaoxiong the opportunity to make brands overseas and reach consumers directly. As a result, his goal is to create a platform that can help Chinese enterprises directly make their brands go to sea.
After five years of experience as a financial journalist, Mr. Weng Yaoxiong decided to start with the content he is best at. In July 2014, Hugo Cross border, a new cross-border e-commerce media, was officially launched. At the beginning of its establishment, the platform mainly translated overseas operation knowledge and market information, invited some high-quality sellers to share experience, set up online training courses, and organized offline activities throughout the country to help sellers understand and contact cross-border e-commerce and overseas markets. When sellers begin to go abroad, simple information sharing can no longer meet their needs. In 2017, Hugo cross-border grew into a cross-border e-commerce intelligent service platform, serving sellers in all aspects by introducing domestic and foreign service providers to the platform.
Since 2017, as the global mainstream platforms began to "standardize", the "era of mass distribution" of taking goods from wholesalers also passed. Sellers began to focus on a certain field, deeply bind with factories, and even began to contact research and development. Through the creation of "boutiques", more and more Chinese brands are known by consumers. In 2020, the era of Chinese brands going to sea has come, and Hugo cross-border has also entered the "third growth stage" - an industrial Internet platform focusing on brand going to sea.
In terms of business layout, since its launch in 2014, the Hugo cross-border platform has formed three main business lines. First, "cross-border platform e-commerce services" that connect Chinese outbound brands and global e-commerce platforms and provide help for platform sellers in all aspects of store opening, drainage, procurement, logistics, payment, etc; The second is the "independent station e-commerce service" that provides users with help from various links such as station building, drainage, product selection, logistics, and payment. In addition, Hugo also launched its brand business in 2020. This service is dedicated to helping Chinese brands with strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities to build their own brands among global consumers through overseas multi-channel marketing.
Talking about the profit model, Mr. Weng Yaoxiong introduced: "In terms of cross-border services, our main profit comes from the income of millions of user members, including agent stores, training courses, overseas social traffic commissions, as well as the entry fees, clue fees and commissions from overseas e-commerce platforms, service providers, suppliers and other businesses on the Hugo platform. The standard for charging seller members also ranges from several hundred yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. For example, if you have not been in Asia before, Amazon merchant members We have done it on the platform such as Masson. If you need us to help you grow up, we will charge corresponding fees according to different services. In addition, in terms of brand going to sea, we work with the platform team to help Chinese brands sell and build their own brands on these small language platforms through in-depth cooperation with global small language platforms, from product selection planning, product research and development, commodity production, testing and certification, logistics and warehousing, local marketing, customer service and after-sales. In addition, Hugo will buy up the products of the brand, and then sell the products to earn the price difference. "
As for future business and market planning, Mr. Weng Yaoxiong said that from the upstream of the entire offshore industry, Hugo cross-border will continue to capture more cross-border players through high-quality content, activities and services. In terms of the downstream of the industrial chain (i.e. the traffic platform), Hugo will focus on developing small language markets and independent brand stations. In the global landscape of cross-border e-commerce, there are still a large number of small language markets that have not been "developed". Hugo will become "the first person to eat crabs" and open up the small language market in batches. In addition, in terms of independent stations, Hugo will also further deepen its cooperation with Google, Facebook, TikTok and other well-known foreign social platforms, so as to help Chinese brands expand the market through multiple channels.
Now, the time for Chinese brands to go to sea has come, and Hugo cross-border wants to replicate Chinese brands in batches in the world.
Wen | Deng Yunxi
Editor | Zhao Xiaochun
Figure | Hugo Cross border Map Supply