The stimulus policies introduced at the end of September ignited the capital markets, with global funds rushing in to grab opportunities. The violent surge in the Hong Kong stock market during the National Day period was eye-catching. However, the short-term surge also led to a large amount of profit-taking, intensifying market volatility. This trend indicates a shift from a general rise to an adjustment and differentiation phase in the market.

Therefore, paying attention to the fundamentals of companies to find more certain investment opportunities becomes particularly important.

At this time, a report from Be Friends Holding caught the author's attention. In the report, Be Friends Holding is expected to achieve a 30%-40% revenue growth by 2024 and has been given a 'BUY' rating by the company.

The freshly released report on the pre-sale first day of the Tmall Singles' Day Shopping Festival indirectly confirms the institution's forecast for Be Friends Holding. According to public information, on October 14, Be Friends Taobao live broadcast room's total GMV exceeded 0.23 billion yuan, attracting over 28.94 million viewers watching online, with the number of items sold exceeding 0.56 million.

This year's Singles' Day coincides with the second anniversary of 'Be Friends' joining Taobao. On October 24, the cumulative number of views on the 2nd anniversary of 'Be Friends' joining Taobao exceeded 8 million, with over 3.4 million concurrent views during the anniversary period and online peak viewers exceeding 0.01 million, resulting in total sales of 30 million yuan. Additionally, the number of fans in the live broadcast room exceeded 14 million.

Furthermore, Be Friends Holding's business scope continues to expand, in line with the thriving trend of commercial aviation. On the occasion of the second anniversary of 'Be Friends' joining Taobao, Be Friends Holding set its sights on the space field, partnering with 'Deep Blue Aviation' to launch pre-sale tickets for the first manned orbital travel spacecraft in 2027, which sold out within 4 minutes. The total views for this special live broadcast exceeded 3.4 million.

Against the backdrop of overall weakened consumer spending and intensified competition, Be Friends Holding still possesses the ability to achieve double-digit growth and continues to expand into new fields to seek growth opportunities. This provides long-term investors with a more certain potential research target.

1. Do not put all your eggs in one basket.

Sixty years ago, Nobel laureate James Tobin once said: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." This saying's value has also been confirmed in the current live e-commerce market.

In recent years, the live e-commerce industry has developed rapidly, but the frequent car accidents involving top anchors have posed challenges not only to the personal reputation of the anchors but also to the stability and sustainability of the entire industry.

On one hand, personal issues or accidents involving top anchors may significantly impact the operation of live streaming rooms, consequently affecting company revenue, leading to a cliff-like decline. On the other hand, excessive concentration of individual IPs may result in platforms and institutions relying too heavily on a single anchor. When risks occur to the anchor, it can have a negative impact on the overall operation of the platform or institution.

This also makes the market once again realize one thing: in the long run, live streaming rooms built on individual IPs have a high level of uncertainty. Based on past experiences in the capital markets, it is indeed difficult for a single KOL to stably support the operation of a listed company over a longer period of time.

To address this, Be Friends Hldg has taken the lead in implementing the "de-emphasizing top IPs" strategy, achieving institutionalized operations. In recent years, Be Friends Hldg has vigorously cultivated new anchors and established a "1+N" live account matrix, branching out various sub-category live streaming rooms from the company's main account. At the same time, by using "Be Friends" as the prefix for sub-category live streaming rooms, the company injects brand momentum into them.

Through platform diversification, anchor diversification, and category diversification, the company has successfully created a standardized, replicable, and scalable matrix vertical live streaming room operation model, achieving rapid business growth. No longer relying on a single anchor or platform, but starting from consumer demand, accurately matching, acquiring organic traffic, significantly enhancing retention and conversion rates, and breaking away from the logic of pure traffic.

II. Return to the Original Intention of Live E-commerce

Adapting to the trend of digital economic development, live e-commerce meets consumers' needs for shopping convenience, interactivity, and experience, achieving rapid growth.

According to the report from China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2023, the scale of e-commerce live streaming users has reached 0.597 billion people, accounting for over half of the overall netizens. The penetration rate of live streaming e-commerce has also increased from 4.9% in 2019 to 37.8% in 2023.

Live streaming e-commerce has entered a stage of high-quality development. Since 2016, multiple departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Commerce have successively introduced a series of policies aimed at regulating the order of online live streaming, building the online live streaming industry, and protecting consumer rights.

Against this background, live streaming e-commerce companies need to return to the original intention of e-commerce, that is, how to efficiently reach consumers with high-quality product services.

The "three-in-one" development path proposed by Be Friends Hldg, using live streaming as a tool, with experience as the focus, and efficiency as the support, is a specific elaboration of this original intention.

Be Friends Hldg's self-developed "Friends Cloud" platform can provide cross-platform, 24/7, end-to-end support for various live broadcast rooms, including but not limited to aspects such as merchant recruitment, intelligent selection of products, compliance review, goods management, and financial settlement. This greatly enhances the efficiency and standardization of live streaming retail business, showcasing Be Friends Hldg's core concept of driving new retail with technology.

Take investment decisions as an example. Be Friends Hldg has improved investment efficiency through AI big data analysis and a deep understanding of platform rules. Efficient flow conversion can redirect more company resources to other areas.

For instance, building its own supply chain not only ensures a stable supply of goods but also enhances the alignment of anchor style positioning with channel brand IPs, achieving a comprehensive coverage of the entire upstream and downstream of the live streaming e-commerce, thereby strengthening core competitiveness.

Be Friends Hldg is committed to creating a platform that accurately connects manufacturers and consumers, allowing consumers to shop with peace of mind and enabling merchants to profit.

In the first three quarters of 2024, Be Friends Hldg's cumulative GMV reached approximately RMB 8.86 billion, an increase of about 18.44% year-on-year.

III. Continuously Strengthening Overseas E-commerce Business

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, in the first half of this year, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 1.25 trillion yuan, setting a new historical high for the same period, with a 13% year-on-year increase.

More importantly, Be Friends Hldg is actively exploring the overseas market, aiming to achieve long-term and steady business growth globally.

As one of the current company's core strategies, the Chairman of Be Friends Hldg personally oversees this matter, and has achieved initial results. On August 26, Be Friends Hldg announced that its overseas e-commerce business subsidiary was officially established in Hengqin, marking a new phase for this business. The company plans to leverage Hengqin's policy advantages and geographical location to explore innovative trade models and financial tools to support the group's global strategy.

In addition, Be Friends Hldg actively participates in international live-streaming e-commerce expos and global digital trade fairs, showcasing the international vision and collaborative spirit of Chinese live-streaming e-commerce institutions, while providing new opportunities for the internationalization of Chinese brands and introduction of high-quality overseas products.

IV. Conclusion

The potential of the live-streaming e-commerce market remains huge, but the requirements for participants are also increasing. Live-streaming e-commerce is no longer just a simple traffic game, but a comprehensive competition involving brand, products, services, and technological innovation.

In this process, be friends hldg has established competitive barriers in multiple dimensions with keen market insights and steadfast execution, firmly standing at the forefront of the industry.