For the new tea industry, June 6 is an unusual day. Last night, Nayuki's tea passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing hearing, only one step away from the listing.

Since the prospectus was submitted on February 11th (New Year’s Eve) this year, Nayuki’s path to go public has attracted much attention. Concerns about successful listing.

Now, all these worries have proved to be unnecessary, and Nayuki's listing is just around the corner, and the "first share of new tea" is settled. This is a grand event in the new tea industry and also a major event in the entire catering industry. It is gratifying.

However, at the moment when it was about to go public, Nayuki made a slightly awkward choice.

ONE

Nayuki no longer benchmarks Starbucks

Last night, after the news came out through the hearing, a number of media published the same article (not sure if it was posted by Nayuki), in which there was a sentence that said: The extremely high growth rate also makes Nayuki. Tea is more like an Internet company.

Throughout the article, this sentence is not eye-catching, but it reveals a clear message, namely: Nayuki positions himself as an Internet company.

This is so intriguing.

In the new tea industry, it is a well-known fact that Nayuki has always targeted Starbucks, and even many of the store locations are next to Starbucks.

Regarding why it was benchmarked against Starbucks, one of the origins of Naixue’s widespread popularity of tea is: its founder, Peng Xin, observed a "Starbucks phenomenon" in the Shangri-La Hotel. A person holding an ordinary drink in his hand would stand and drink at the entrance of the hotel. Throw it away or throw it directly into the trash can; if it is a Starbucks, it will not stay and walk directly into the hotel. Seeing this scene, she felt that she also wanted to make a tea brand like Starbucks, so that people could walk into a five-star hotel without burden.

The authenticity of the story is no longer testable, but the benchmarking of Starbucks did allow Naxue to successfully establish a differentiated brand awareness of the third space for high-end tea drinks. Unexpectedly, Nayuki would no longer be benchmarking Starbucks when it was about to go public.

This is not unfounded. In the same article, Naxue borrowed from a "local brokerage person in Hong Kong" to say: "Even if you are benchmarking Starbucks, you can only benchmark Starbucks' data during the first few years of its development in China."

In Nayuki's frame of reference, Starbucks has become a yellow flower of tomorrow.

TWO

Nayuki has a new position

In fact, it doesn't matter whether Nayuki is the target of Starbucks or not. It is normal for an enterprise to choose different reference objects at different stages of development.

Surprisingly, Nayuki, a catering company, positioned itself as an Internet company when it went public.

Why choose this positioning? The above article says that it is because Nayuki has "extremely high growth", but in the author's opinion, the real reason is probably the following points:

First, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Securities Regulatory Commission are not familiar with the new tea industry. Nayuki's positioning of himself as an Internet company will help them accept himself and increase the success rate of listing.

Second, whether Internet companies are listed before or after listing, losses are the norm. A typical example is JD.com, "losing losses for 10 years after listing for 10 years."

Although Nayuki has "strongly fought back" the "rumors" of "bleeding listing" after updating the financial data, no one can guarantee annual profits after listing. Now that Nayuki positions herself as an Internet company, she can strive for a more relaxed environment for her profitability after listing.

Third, if Nayuki still positions herself as a catering company, it will definitely be compared with the catering companies that have already gone public. However, limited by the size of the category market space, no matter how hard it works, it will be inferior to Haidilao in the foreseeable future.

There is a saying, "It's better to be different than better." Now that Nayuki can't even be "better", why not just be "different" directly?

It seems that Nayuki's new positioning as an "Internet company" has played a positive role. At least the listing of the bell is just around the corner.

But at the same time, it also left some embarrassment.

THREE

The embarrassment of Nayuki's new positioning

The biggest embarrassment is that Nayuki originally wanted to make a demonstration of listing for the majority of new tea drinkers, but she did not expect to choose to become an Internet company.

As the leading brand of the new tea industry, Naixue has always had an "industry consciousness", trying to make the entire industry more standardized and healthier. For example, in response to the lack of standards in the new tea industry, it has taken the lead in formulating a number of standards, although these standards may be reduced to self-confidence.

This time, as the "first share of the new tea drink", it is under pressure to "define the entire industry", that is, to let the capital market and regulators know about the new tea drink industry. Its performance will largely affect the latter's understanding of the entire industry, and affect the latter's evaluation of other tea companies that want to go public in the future.

So, will all tea companies listed on the market be Internet companies?

This is really a big embarrassment.

I don't know what the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will think. It was originally said that a new tea business would come, but what happened? That's it?

I don't know what other tea companies would think. I expected Nayuki to give a way to everyone, but what happened? They changed their course.

I don't know what Nayuki would think. The role it wants to be and the role it chooses to be are two different roles. ——Of course, Nayuki probably doesn't have time to think about it now.

And having said that, even though Nayuki chose this positioning herself, who would really treat it as an Internet company?

Summarize

Of course, in any case, Nayuki's successful listing is ultimately an exciting thing.

It has kicked off the listing of new tea companies. In the next two years, three more listed companies will appear in the new tea industry.

Its listing has caused more investment institutions to pay attention to the new tea industry. Many of these institutions did not understand, understand, or recognize the tea industry before.

After it goes public, it will become a benchmark for latecomers. Tea companies that are going to go public in the future will no longer be faced with the "no clear benchmarking brand" situation like Nayuki today, but will have a clear reference. This will help latecomers to obtain more intuitive and precise feedback from the capital market.

Furthermore, with the feedback from the capital market, the entire new tea industry is expected to become more standardized and healthier.

This is the practical significance of Nayuki's listing.