Twenty years ago, Wen Bin, the founder of Wenheyou, was still setting up a street stall and selling late-night snacks, living a life of buying goods in the early morning and going out at night.

Later, he opened the first Wenheyou old Changsha Fried Company, which is still a very traditional business.

The first ten years of Wen He You's establishment were unknown. At that time, Wenbin might not have thought that a Tiantian and Youhui would be sought after by capital, and might even be listed.

The change of Wen Heyou's status happened suddenly.

In 2018, Wenheyou Group's new brand, Super Wenheyou, was launched in Hisense Plaza in Changsha City. Wenbin spent a huge sum of money to realize a bold idea: renting Hisense Building to occupy this area A 7-story commercial complex of 20,000 square meters has been rebuilt into a "community" of the old era. Moved the old Changsha city block, small shops, etc. into the building one by one, named "Super Wenheyou".

The first Super Wenheyou opened less than 3 years ago, and Wenheyou has opened a corner in the already highly mature offline business, and it is even called the "new commercial species".

Since 2020, Wen Heyou has been standing under the spotlight.

After the popularity in Changsha, Super Wenheyou opened two more stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. News such as "Official number to 5w+ table" and "long line of more than 500 meters" appeared on the hot search. In the next five years, it also claims that it will enter first-tier cities and go overseas.

Now it has frequently reported capital actions. On the evening of June 17, 2021, Wen Heyou publicly released a job posting that included the position of "Director of the Financial Securities Office", which triggered speculation about listing. Wen Heyou did not formally respond to this.

At the same time, according to recent media reports, Wen Heyou has obtained Series B and Series C financing. Among them, the B round investors are Sequoia China Fund, IDG, and Warburg Pincus, with an amount of 500 million yuan. A source close to Wenheyou once disclosed to 36kr that the valuation of this round of Wenheyou exceeded RMB 10 billion.

Regarding the C round of financing news, Wen Heyou denied on the official WeChat account, "To be honest, Wen Heyou did raise some funds, but the B round has not been completed yet, where is the C round."

Since its establishment, Wenheyou has made a handful of financing, but its appeal to capital is not small. In the offline business field where traffic is scarce, Super Wenheyou has gathered a group of young consumers, representing the new consumption trend. It is not surprising that it is crowded, and this new brand has also brought unprecedented attention to Wenheyou.

However, it is worth discussing that Super Wenheyou is positioned as a cultural real estate, and has repeatedly mentioned his catering "Disney" dream. What is its business model? Is it worthy of being sought after by capital?

ONE

Behind the cultural real estate dream,

Wen Heyou is still in the food city business

In offline scenes, emerging trends such as escape rooms and script killing in the entertainment field continue to emerge. Looking at the food category, people are tired of the same restaurant. The existence of super writers and friends really satisfies people's freshness.

Nostalgic marketing is a major feature of Super Wenheyou. Wenheyou has a team that collects discarded old objects from the demolition of urban streets. Super Wenheyou not only stores these old objects. For example, in Changsha, it also includes 100 houses and 20 houses in the center of the city in the 1980s. A small shop in the market moved into this 7-story space.

From various small shops such as vegetable markets, community activity centers, video halls, hardware stores, to "alley pig's feet" and other naming methods with a sense of age, to the introduction of many local time-honored gourmet restaurants, super Wenheyou settings, Increase the nostalgic atmosphere.

In recent years, there are many restaurants that focus on nostalgia, but the difference between Super Wen He You is that the use of a large amount of space, similar to the vertical setting of the concept of "three-dimensional city", enhances consumers' sense of immersion.

The outside world has labelled the two major labels of nostalgia and catering for Super Wenheyou, but this is only a trivial matter from Wenbin's plan for Wenheyou.

Wen Heyou mentioned its cultural community attributes more than once. They restored the old community that was slowly disappearing, and formed a new community with both the life scene of the old era and the local characteristic culture.

In addition, in addition to catering, Super Wenheyou also has cultural bookstores, art galleries, art shops, etc., as well as art and cultural scenes.

It seems that Wen Heyou's positioning is more than just dining, but also emphasizes the cultural value of play and viewing, and is more inclined to the cultural real estate model. As the investor of Wenheyou and the founder of Canadia Capital, Song Xiangqian, said, in the chaotic super Wenheyou, he discovered the humanistic feelings that connect emotion and mind.

Cultural real estate refers to a type of real estate with distinctive cultural characteristics and cultural themes, with culture, lifestyle and living ideals as its core competitiveness, such as Taiwan Eslite Bookstore and Beijing 798 Art District.

Gathering in restaurants and food towns, cultural real estate can naturally better satisfy the imagination of capital, but there is a common question. At present, Super Wenheyou is far away from cultural real estate, and it is the business of food town: renting a popular business district Building, and then face the restaurant shops to attract investment and attract customers.

At present, most of the merchants in Super Wenhe Friends are restaurants. Super Wenheyou defines itself as a "cultural community", the latter emphasizes that people have daily emotions and a sense of belonging to a place, but in fact, most consumers come to Super Wenheyou still to eat, take pictures, and check in. .

On the road of building a cultural community, Super Wenheyou is currently only a "scenic spot." One detail is that the old objects Wen Heyou collected in the village in the city are not like similar cultural exhibitions. While displaying the objects, they will also introduce the owner and the story behind them. Although these old objects are very real, they ended up as decorations in Super Wenheyou Store.

Another issue worthy of attention is that Super Wenheyou currently does not convey the local culture deeply enough.

Chen Zhezhi, Ph.D. from Xiangtan University School of Business, conducted an empirical survey on store visits in December 2019. Through 258 valid questionnaires, he judged that most of Changsha Super Wenheyou's customers are foreign tourists.

The purpose of these foreign tourists is more to experience the old Changsha culture of Super Wenheyou, which also means that the attraction of Super Wenheyou to local consumers is not high.

In addition, the village-in-city style of the Changsha store has been recognized by many consumers, and some insiders believe that this is good news for the increasingly disappearing old culture.

After Guangzhou Super Wenheyou opened, it once again followed the positioning of the village in the city. Although Wen Heyou emphasized that this is the local culture of Guangzhou, it makes people wonder why there is no difference between the "Village in the City" of Changsha and the "Village in the City" of Guangzhou. It can be seen that the creation of cultural atmosphere by Super Wenheyou is easy to be superficial.

Super Wenheyou can't escape the commercial atmosphere. The local culture it emphasizes is still on its way to being realized. However, as a food city where Internet celebrities check in and crowded with people, Super Wenheyou has already won an initial victory.

TWO

Expansion meets difficulties

Why is it difficult to replicate Changsha's explosive models?

With the creation of hot money, refinancing, and large-scale expansion, Super Wenheyou has also come to the step of copying hot money. Its goal is ambitious, to open stores in first-tier cities across the country, and to go to overseas cities such as Los Angeles.

The first stop for expansion is Guangzhou. Similar to Changsha, Guangzhou also has a deep sense of the city. Wen Heyou once mentioned that one-fifth of the back-end user portraits are Cantonese, and the number of users is second only to Hunan.

Guangzhou Super Wenheyou chose to cooperate with the high-end Taikoo Hui. When consumers come out of first-tier international brand stores such as Hermes and LV in TaiKoo Hui, they only need to cross the two-way four-lane Huawen Street and walk up to a distance of 200 meters to see the super Wenheyou's oversized house number.

Huang Ying, general manager of Taikoo Hui, mentioned in an interview that Super Wenheyou is the largest tenant in Taikoo Hui Commercial Plaza and Huifang. The cycle of coordinating the original merchants and communicating the design plan is 12-18 months. And this does not include the design and final landing time of Guangzhou Super Wenheyou.

The construction cost of Super Wenheyou is extremely high, and Wenheyou once mentioned that because they hope to attract more local businesses to settle in, the commission is not high, and it usually makes a profit. For Wen Heyou, expansion is undoubtedly an adventure and a gamble.

On July 12, 2020, Super Wenheyou walked out of Changsha for the first time and settled in Guangzhou. The number of people ranked as high as 2500 on the opening day. When it opened in Shenzhen, it also replicated a similar scene: a long queue of more than 500 meters was lined up at the entrance, with more than 50,000 people queuing to get numbers.

But this grand occasion did not last long. As early as November 2020, an article titled "Fei Tonghui withdraws from Wenhe You, How to Keep the Narrative of Feelings Fresh?" "The report interviewed several Guangzhou super Wenheyou merchants, including Tong Hui, Pork Chops Yige Hot and Sour Rice Noodles, and Liyin Rice Noodles. They mentioned a series of dilemmas such as "decrease in passenger flow, withdrawal of celebrities, and dwindling audiences." Since then, many media have reported similar issues.

After Super Wenheyou became popular in Changsha, many potential hidden dangers have emerged.

Its core competitiveness lies in the nostalgic design, and the previous article mentioned that Wenheyou in each city cannot make much difference.

Another key issue is the dining experience. Super writers and friends in every city need to gather local time-honored brands to achieve localization. Wenheyou CEO Feng Bin once mentioned, "Wenheyou in Changsha can eat the most authentic street food in Changsha, but Wenheyou in Guangdong can only eat the most authentic street food in Guangzhou."

Consumers have many doubts about food and beverages. As of June 21, I searched for related shops in Guangzhou Super Wenheyou on Dianping. Most of the well-known old shops in Guangzhou, such as Chen Tianji, Apo Niu Za, and Yongli Hotel, have scores around 3.5 points, which is low.

Checking the scoring area, Xiaohongshu, Weibo and other social media, we can find that some consumers who claim to be locals in Guangzhou wrote that “photographs are OK, but food is not necessary”, “Many snacks are not time-honored”, “Many time-honored brands have the original taste. It's different" and other evaluations.

Super Wenheyou also needs to further establish a reputation for catering, otherwise it will face the loss of consumers.

However, these do not affect Wen Heyou's continued expansion.

Wenbin once announced that there will be more than 10 super Wenheyou in 5 years. In addition to the first-tier cities, Wenheyou has decided to settle in Nanjing and intends to sign contracts with Hangzhou and Nanchang. Many cities such as Xi'an, Zhengzhou, and Chongqing have also been exposed to contact with Super Wenheyou.

With the opening of stores one after another, Super Wenheyou is destined to undergo a process of adjusting and optimizing while expanding. It also needs to optimize its merchants, incorporate more distinctive local cultural characteristics, and start businesses other than catering.

THREE

Can Wen Heyou be made into a "dining Disney"?

Wen Bin mentioned the dream of catering "Disney" more than once. He hoped that catering can be combined with cultural and creative activities. In an interview, he also said frankly, "If you only focus on catering, there will be business limitations."

For super writers and friends, in order to gain the recognition of capital, it is undoubtedly necessary to continue to move towards this ultimate goal, but the question that needs to be discussed is, can this model be established?

The first is whether Internet celebrity dining can be integrated with cultural space.

The commercial real estate that Super Wenheyou wants to build is a cultural space that integrates bars, bookstores, art galleries, small theaters, etc. However, its current brand image is biased towards Internet celebrity check-in locations, which is different from the cultural space. Less gap.

Secondly, Disney has the core competitiveness of self-produced IP universe, Wenheyou also has multiple own brands, which is relatively similar. At present, Wenheyou Group includes many street fast food restaurants such as the old Changsha stinky tofu and the old Changsha sausage, which were founded in the early days. Later, they added the Lobster Restaurant, MAMACHA, Xiangchun Restaurant and other brands.

However, the current competitiveness of Wenheyou's own brands is still very limited, and if you look at the whole country, in order to follow the localization positioning, many brands can only be localized. For example, the old Changsha stinky tofu is very popular in Changsha, but can't settle in the super writers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

FOUR

Shenzhen Wenheyou, the source of its official WeChat public account

The lack of self-owned brands also makes Super Wenheyou's reputation and brand image control face considerable challenges.

At present, Super Wenheyou and the brand have not been able to form a closer cooperative relationship. Most brands operate independently, which also leads to the management of menus and tastes of brand shops depending on the brand itself, rather than Super Wenheyou. This model is uncertain.

Disney can create a space for interaction and experience. Even if there are crowded festivals, consumers will not have too many negative comments on the experience of the facilities, but the super writers and friends are limited by the different quality of the merchants, and there is no A unified reputation is formed, and consumer reviews are polarized.

Different from Disney's amusement park business, the current domestic commercial complexes of cultural real estate are facing difficulties in realizing.

Most commercial complexes can realize consumption and check-in scenarios, but a cultural space with aesthetics, fun and vitality is difficult to construct.

If cultural real estate and Disney's positioning are aside, the realization of the current super Wenheyou also faces many challenges.

Super Wenheyou's monetization methods have two directions. One is similar to large shopping malls, which does not charge rent and property fees, but is divided into store revenue; the other is to charge a certain amount of rent and property fees.

Super Wen He You is the second landlord, who rents the land in the mall and then rents it to the merchants. The rent-collecting model does not necessarily generate considerable profits.

In addition, most of the shops currently settled in are non-chain and small-scale old brands. They are unwilling to invest more costs and are less willing to move from the street to the central business district. In order to expand in the early stage, Super Wenheyou can only “not count” Cost” to introduce.

Wen Heyou once mentioned measures such as reducing shop revenue and not charging decoration fees. This also means that it is difficult for Wen Heyou to make much profit from the time-honored brand.

In the case of greater monetization challenges, the initial cost of Super Wenheyou is relatively high. Super Wen He You, located in the TaiKoo Hui business district in Guangzhou, has a total area of about 5,000 square meters, and its flagship store in Shenzhen has an area of 30,000 square meters. In order to achieve the effect of nostalgic scenes, a lot of decoration costs have to be spent.

Under various challenges, Wen Heyou needs to maintain a high level of passenger flow.

The current model of Super Wenheyou is to maintain passenger flow and repurchase at a low price, thereby achieving a high turnover rate.

Song Xiangqian, the founding partner of Canadia Capital, wrote in an article that when Wenbin was making super Wenheyou product proposals, many craft beer brands wanted to enter, and the conditions were very generous, but Wenbin said at the time In one sentence, "You have to give me less than 10 yuan, otherwise the super literary and friends will definitely not be able to get in."

He also mentioned that Wen Heyou's crayfish has remained at around RMB 100 per capita so far, which is lower than other chain crayfish restaurants. The price of watching a scene and eating a snack will not exceed