(Original title: Ele.me founder Zhang Xuhao then ventured 150 million yuan and moved to the golf course)
21st Century Business Herald reporter Xu Mengyi reports from Guangzhou
After 3 years of silence, Ele.me founder Zhang Xuhao has a new entrepreneurial action. This time he chose a high-end niche track: golf driving range and teaching training. The new project is called PLAYGOLF, and Zhang Xuhao burned 150 million yuan in his grand start.
Today, Zhang Xuhao has a net worth of nearly 10 billion yuan. The situation of his second entrepreneurship is very different from the first. When he first started his business, he had not finished his master’s career. In April 2018, Alibaba acquired Ele.me for US$9.5 billion. Founder Zhang Xuhao ceased to serve as CEO. A few months later, Zhang Xuhao stepped down as shareholders and executives of Ele.me’s related companies. After selling the company, Zhang Xuhao gradually became invisible. After his wealth became free, Zhang Xuhao’s name was rarely mentioned in the market.
Golf for the masses
Recently, Zhang Xuhao started a new business. A few days ago, Zhang Xuhao posted a circle of friends to promote the training course of a golf driving range called PLAYGOLF. Public information shows that the company behind PLAYGOLF is called “Shanghai Geke Sports Technology Development Co., Ltd.”, which is a golf complex operator. The legal representative of the company is Li Dongping, which was established in September 2020. In the corporate change record, before May 31, 2021, the legal representative of the company was Zhang Xuhao. After the equity penetration, Zhang Xuhao’s final income share was 99.4118%, and he was the actual controller of the company, which meant that PLAYGOLF was actually Zhang Xuhao’s personal entrepreneurial project.
If hungry is to display Zhang Xuhao’s ambitions, PLAYGOLF may be mostly due to love. Regarding Zhang Xuhao, there is always a label that has been mentioned countless times, that is, “national second-level athlete”. According to reports, Zhang Xuhao has loved fierce sports, such as boxing, basketball and racing, since he was a child. He loves all kinds of basketball and has also completed the training courses for racing drivers and obtained the qualification certificate. The establishment of Ele.me is also an “entrepreneurial movement” that excites him.
Like Ele.me, Zhang Xuhao chose to start his second business in Shanghai. The difference is that his wealth is no longer what it used to be, making his shot this time quite generous. According to data, PLAYGOLF was selected at the former Shanghai Huangxing Park Golf Driving Range, which was once the largest in Asia, setting a Guinness record of 300 simultaneous swings, but it was closed in 2019. According to the official introduction of PLAYGOLF, the renovation cost 150 million yuan and it took more than 300 days. After the renovation, there are 240 automatic serve positions and a 1,400 square meter green practice area. Hit position and largest green”.
A billion-dollar track ready to go
Putting aside the love factor, Zhang Xuhao’s choice of golf is also related to the development status of this sport in China. In the past, domestic golf was a niche sport, but now this sport is extremely popular. From being high and widowed to having loyal fans, Chinese golf has gone through a long process. However, due to compliance issues, many golf venues are also being eliminated. It is reported that most golf courses have problems such as waste of land resources, illegal occupation of nature reserves, and occupation of green land. After 2014, the country launched a national golf course renovation. Within three years, 187 courses were closed. In 2020, the number of domestic golf courses will drop to about 449.
In addition, golf courses are expensive, and the most common cost is about 200 to 300 million yuan. In 2020, the China High-Tech Association launched the “Volkswagen Golf” program, with the goal of providing 10,000 indoor arenas within 10 years. Statistics show that the growth rate of China’s golf population has reached 30%, and the potential golf consumers have reached 50 million. This means that the supply of outdoor golf courses will gradually be smaller than demand, and prices may face an upward trend.
At the same time, with the popularity of outdoor golf courses, indoor golf courses are also quietly emerging. High membership fees have been cancelled, the threshold of golf has been lowered, and more and more consumers have poured into golf courses. According to statistics, the number of domestic indoor golf clubs is close to 1,000, and the golf sports market has grown from 8.64 billion yuan in 2016 to 10.26 billion yuan in 2020. In addition, the consumption data of peripheral industries, whether it is clubs, balls, jerseys, and golf carts, is increasing year by year.
If golf is going to the masses, there is still a long trial process in the future. Maybe Internet players like Zhang Xuhao can take a different path by relying on a low-price strategy.
(Author: Xu Mengyi Editor: Lin Kun)
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