36Kr Exclusive | "Gongbilin", a new project by a co-founder of Ele.me, has completed over 100 million yuan in Series A financing. "Active Seniors" is winning the favor of capital.
What kind of good products and services can provide an ideal retirement life for middle - aged and elderly people? Travel agencies and senior universities have limited capabilities, and various OTAs and social platforms are not designed for the middle - aged and elderly.
Founded in early 2021, "Gongbilin" hopes to meet the needs of this group of people with targeted and standardized services. The founder, Kang Jia, is a co - founder of Ele.me and once worked at Alibaba Group. "Gongbilin" is his new project after leaving Alibaba Group. He wants to "find the feeling of entrepreneurship again."
After more than a decade of his first entrepreneurship, Kang Jia took a break, which gave him more opportunities to get along with his newly retired parents. During this period, he found that there were many pain points in the lives of many retirees. For this group of people, China has long failed to form a healthy and mature consumption environment, and the problem mainly lies in the supply. Most of the products and services targeting the middle - aged and elderly in the market are of uneven quality.
"Gongbilin" wants to find differentiation among many "filial piety" projects (where children consume for their parents) targeting the middle - aged and elderly, satisfy the middle - aged and elderly's consumption autonomy, seize their core consumption scenarios, become the entry point, and then gradually expand. Initially, based on the travel and social needs of this group, "Gongbilin" provides O2O services that integrate online and offline, hoping to solve the problems such as the insufficient service capabilities of offline travel agencies, the complex booking process of online OTA platforms, and the difficulty in distinguishing information.
Now, in addition to group travel, "Gongbilin" also meets the more frequent shopping needs of the middle - aged and elderly through its self - operated e - commerce based on offline community service points and live - streaming channels.
The silver - haired economy has been generally regarded as a highly potential large - scale track in recent years. In countries like Japan, many listed elderly - care companies have emerged, but China has not yet produced a star company. Kang Jia believes that "timing" is very important. 2023, after the end of the pandemic, became the real first year of the development of the silver - haired economy. In this year, the proportion of the registered population aged 60 and above in China exceeded 20%, and it will increase by 25 - 30 million people every year thereafter. In Kang Jia's words, "The business model targeting this group of people needs to have density, otherwise the investment cost will be too high."
The active retirees aged 50 - 70 are the main service targets of "Gongbilin". They have experienced the reform and opening - up, enjoyed the dividends, have a certain consumption ability, and have also caught up with the wave of the mobile Internet. In terms of scale and habits, they match well with "Gongbilin".
Based on the investors' optimism about the elderly - care track, "Gongbilin" has received two rounds of financing so far. The first was an angel - round financing in 2021, with an amount of about tens of millions of yuan, invested by Gaorong Capital, Yuanjing Capital, etc. The second, a Series A financing, occurred recently, led by Hong Kong Concept Capital, with an amount exceeding 100 million yuan, mainly in US dollars.
There is no shortcut to gaining the trust of the elderly. You need to go deep and heavy enough.
The strategy of "Gongbilin" is to first find relatively high - frequency and essential categories in the consumption scenarios of the silver - haired group and establish a trust relationship and stickiness.
Group travel is a relatively high - frequency and essential category for this group. During the pandemic, Kang Jia and his team conducted tests in many communities in Shanghai and found that the middle - aged and elderly had a high enthusiasm for group entertainment, especially group travel. So they used this as an entry point to provide services. During the pandemic, "Gongbilin" accumulated millions of users through online apps and mini - programs.
36Kr previously reported that from the user's perspective, a complete transaction process of using Gongbilin is as follows: learn about the product through various channels - establish contact with the little butler online - make detailed inquiries - make an online reservation - consume offline - share feedback. Users can easily book products with a definite date, clear schedule, and explicit price, such as the "One - day gathering for 12 people in Qingpu District" at 1,288 yuan per set and the "Five - day and four - night cruise tour" at 3,099 yuan per person.
In the large scenario of group travel, "Gongbilin" has carried out a step - by - step segmentation. Initially, it focused on the gathering scenario, which was divided into short - distance "one - day gatherings" (in - city gathering meals) and gathering hotels in Shanghai and surrounding cities. Then it transitioned to the travel scenario, which was further divided into surrounding tours and long - distance tours. From low - price and high - frequency to high - price and low - frequency, it established the entire group travel system and gradually built a good reputation among the uncles and aunts in Shanghai.
Compared with previous O2O products, the difference of "Gongbilin" is that it is more deeply involved in products and services. Whether it is the gathering or travel scenario, "Gongbilin" participates in the design, standardizes some non - standard things, and gives users a relatively stable expectation. The cooperation partners for gatherings range from five - star hotels, resort hotels to individual farmhouses. When encountering large - scale dining events, the team will personally transform the venue into a one - day gathering place. Thus, "Gongbilin" has formed a set of standards for transforming restaurants. "Gongbilin" also formulates plans together with travel suppliers, outputs its own set of service standards, conducts age - friendly transformations on travel products, optimizes the routes and groups, and user complaints will first reach the team.
Compared with other groups, the middle - aged and elderly have a higher trust threshold, but they can be more deeply operated. Kang Jia believes that once they trust you, they will entrust their lives to you and make you the "butler" in their lives. During the process of companionship, trust is established and consumption is converted.
To enhance the trust of the middle - aged and elderly, "Gongbilin" has built a complete human - machine cooperation service system based on WeChat and set up dozens of little butlers to respond to the more fragmented inquiries of elderly users at any time. Compared with young people who can actively search to solve most problems, elderly users often need more complete and comprehensive services and even emotional value, which tests the patience of customer service.
At the same time, in offline communities, "Gongbilin" has established a volunteer team of hundreds of people. It not only cooperates with the government, neighborhood committees, and public welfare organizations but also transforms early elderly users into volunteers. They are both customers and service providers. They are willing to share, good at providing suggestions, and can well mobilize the enthusiasm of elderly users to participate in activities. They understand the elderly better than employees.
Currently, the "Gongbilin" team has more than 200 people, and more than 100 of them are dedicated to operations. Their daily work is to conduct more in - depth operations targeting elderly users. Based on this in - depth operation, more than 60% of the transaction volume is created by members. The average annual consumption of members exceeds 10,000 yuan, and the repurchase rate exceeds 50%. The user stickiness obtained through services is evident.
The possibility of becoming a trillion - level entry point: covering all core life scenarios of the elderly
"Gongbilin" hopes to become the most trustworthy "butler" for the elderly. This still requires continuously increasing the service frequency, delving into all core life scenarios of the middle - aged and elderly, and expanding into more categories. Kang Jia believes that the approach of connecting multiple scenarios and categories is a business model with a high ceiling, and the market capacity can reach trillions of yuan because there are too many things that can be extended in the business serving this group of people.
E - commerce is a good entry point. "Gongbilin" reused the logic of "high - frequency drives low - frequency" that Ele.me used when doing takeaways. Since the second half of last year, "Gongbilin" has built a complete e - commerce chain, from finding a model, building a supply chain, selecting products to officially starting live - streaming sales. Now, the shopping frequency of "Gongbilin" e - commerce has reached once a week, which is close to the frequency of takeaways before and much higher than that of travel and gatherings. The main consumption items are fresh meat and local specialties from various places.
Projects targeting middle - aged and elderly users need to reach deeper into their living circles, and both group travel and e - commerce actually rely on communities. Based on the previous experience of doing takeaways, Kang Jia and his team have a set of standardized methods to expand into communities. Now, "Gongbilin" opens small stores in communities, which need to solve problems such as store location selection, service marketing, and product supply chain. Taking store location selection as an example, the primary consideration is whether users can find the store quickly, rather than the commercial conditions of the address. Therefore, footfall is not the core consideration factor.
Communities can also well connect multiple scenarios such as group travel and e - commerce. After opening small stores, middle - aged and elderly users can not only shop but also directly sign up for group travel projects in the stores. In the future, offline small stores can provide equipment such as AR glasses for elderly users to experience the effect of group travel in advance, with a much better experience than watching videos online.
In terms of geographical expansion, "Gongbilin" has deployed in cities around Shanghai, covering the Yangtze River Delta region. In other provinces and cities, "Gongbilin" will also find the consumption commonalities of elderly users in different cities and regions based on its established standardized solutions and provide more suitable products and services accordingly.
In terms of product expansion, "Gongbilin" will continue to expand outward. In the future, it also considers categories with a higher trust threshold such as health care and medical services and may even create its own brand.
Currently, most of the consumer goods supplied for the middle - aged and elderly are not of high quality. The "Gongbilin" team will look for products with the highest quality - to - price ratio in the market based on the middle - aged and elderly's requirements for quality and price, so that they "can choose blindly". Now, the rationality of the middle - aged and elderly consumer market is also increasing, especially among the new retirees represented by those born in the 1960s and 1970s, who have higher consumption power and cognitive ability.
Kang Jia believes that the real characteristic of "Gongbilin" lies in its understanding and service of the silver - haired economic chain: "I don't think there is a shortcut. You need to do all the details solidly." He judges that "Gongbilin" is still in the early stage of development. In the past two years, the team has just sorted out the business path in a market with scattered and chaotic supply and demand, and it is still at the starting point of this path.