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Location： Home > Company News > IBI: “One Core, Two Wings” Innovation Leading the B2B 2.0 Era

IBI: “One Core, Two Wings” Innovation Leading the B2B 2.0 Era

Date: Aug 02,2019 Source：Beijing United Information Technology Co., Ltd

On June 13, 2019, Beijing United Information Technology Co., Ltd. successfully passed its review and on July 30, 2019 was listed on China’s A-share main board (stock short name: IBI, stock code: 603613) at an issue price of RMB 15.13. Founded in 2002, IBI has long focused on B2B e-commerce and has now entered the B2B 2.0 (online merchandise transactions) stage. It has formed an innovative model featuring “one core, two wings”—with the IBI Resource Network as the “core” (commercial information service platform), and with Toodudu (TDD), Wdoodoo (WDD), Boododo (BDD) and other online merchandise trading platforms plus IBI SaaS services and other “Internet+” application platforms as the “two wings.” The successful main-board listing raised RMB 530 million, providing added momentum to multiple “one core, two wings” initiatives.

Explosive, year-after-year growth

Amid the rapid global expansion of internet industries, China’s B2B e-commerce market has grown swiftly. The market size reached RMB 6.25 trillion in 2012 and surpassed RMB 20 trillion in 2017, a CAGR of 26.82%. According to the China E-Commerce Association, the market is expected to hit RMB 31.5 trillion by 2020. Industrial e-commerce, in particular, has been encouraged by national policy: MIIT’s Three-Year Action Plan for Industrial E-commerce (Sept 2017) set goals for 2020 of RMB 9 trillion in e-procurement and RMB 11 trillion in e-sales among above-scale industrial firms, with e-commerce adoption reaching 60% among key industries’ leading enterprises.

Deeply engaged in industrial e-commerce for nearly two decades, IBI has evolved from B2B 1.0 (information services) to B2B 2.0 (online transactions). Riding both market growth and policy tailwinds, performance has nearly doubled annually in recent years.

  • Revenue: RMB 0.909 bn (2016), 1.999 bn (2017), 3.674 bn (2018), up 348.50%, 119.89%, 83.70% YoY, respectively.

  • Net profit: RMB 24.22 mn (2016), 62.17 mn (2017), 108 mn (2018), up 101.77%, 156.65%, 73.66% YoY.

  • Q1 2019: Revenue RMB 1.047 bn (+89.82% YoY); Net profit RMB 22 mn (+103.52% YoY).

  • The IPO prospectus further guided H1 2019 revenue of RMB 2.2–2.3 bn and net profit of RMB 61–64 mn, indicating continued strong growth.

Behind this growth is IBI’s “one core, two wings” model. The earliest platform, IBI Resource Network, is a cluster of industry portals and a well-known information service platform in the industrial space. Early monetization came from membership fees (marketing memberships, industry council memberships, and YGbid memberships). After nearly 20 years of focused cultivation across 100+ industrial sub-sectors, the network has amassed 2+ million registered corporate members, a 10+ million-entry yellow-pages database, and 50+ million tender/bidding records. On this foundation, IBI incubated the TDD/WDD/BDD vertical e-commerce platforms, and—leveraging years of technical accumulation—built out an “Internet+” application services segment. Together these form IBI’s three major businesses under the “one core, two wings” strategy. Going forward, IBI will: enhance the Resource Network’s capabilities, rapidly expand TDD/WDD/BDD transaction scale and influence, and strengthen “Internet+” tech services—driving sustained high-speed growth.

“Duoduo” vertical platforms now contribute 90%+ of revenue

As China’s B2B market has expanded, industrial vertical e-commerce has risen rapidly. IBI’s advantaged verticals include coatings & chemicals, glass, hygiene products, industrial robots, new-energy vehicles, environmental engineering, and new materials, with coatings/chemicals, glass, and hygiene products growing especially fast. For example, China’s coatings output grew 7.43% in 2017 to 20.41 million tons; ethylene glycol output climbed from 3.876 million tons (2012) to 10.55 million tons (2018), an 18.16% CAGR. Flat glass output rose from 630 million tons (2010) to 870 million tons (2018), with a stable sell-through rate above 90%; living tissue paper output reached 9.7 million tons in 2018 (+1.04% YoY).

Against this backdrop, IBI in 2014 upgraded its traditional business and, leveraging its strengths and teams in coatings/chemicals, glass, and hygiene, launched three Duoduo vertical B2B trading platforms:

  • Toodudu (TDD) – coatings & chemicals chain (launched July 2015)

  • Wdoodoo (WDD) – hygiene products chain (launched August 2016; corporate rename in June 2016)

  • Boododo (BDD) – glass chain (launched July 2016)

Since launch, online transaction revenue has surged: RMB 781 mn (2016), 1.848 bn (2017), 3.512 bn (2018), accounting for 85.87%, 92.45%, and 95.59% of total revenue—now the main revenue source—primarily from TDD/WDD/BDD.

Notably, per the prospectus, 372 key trading customers (e.g., Zunyi Titanium, Xiantao Zhongxing Electronics, Xiamen Zhonghe Commerce, Zhangjiagang Bonded Zone Kevin Trading, Nanjing Titanium White, Wuhan Shengshi Lianmeng Paper, Xuzhou Hengchang Glass) signed 2019 procurement framework agreements with planned purchases totaling RMB 4.662 bn, exceeding IBI’s full-year 2018 revenue—supporting further scale-up in online transactions.

High member stickiness; >90% business contribution

The Duoduo platforms’ sustained growth stems from IBI’s deep industry groundwork and rich upstream/downstream member base in coatings/chemicals, glass, and hygiene. Buyers and sellers on TDD largely convert from IBI Resource Network’s coatings sub-sites (Coatings, Inks, Adhesives, Waterborne Coatings Alliance, etc.); BDD’s participants convert from Glass sub-sites and alliances; WDD’s from Hygiene, Pulp & Paper sub-sites and alliances. Many large companies in these sectors are long-time members of IBI’s information services.

Over the past three years, converted members accounted for 82.55% / 68.34% / 66.34% of self-operated e-commerce customers on TDD/BDD/WDD, contributing 99.73% / 92.25% / 90.17% of self-operated e-commerce revenue. Converted suppliers represented 89.32% / 84.01% / 81.35%, accounting for 92.07% / 84.61% / 95.29% of procurement value—evidence of strong stickiness and contribution.

By end-2018, IBI’s sites recorded ~400 million total pageviews, 2+ million registered users, 131,800 active users, and 9,182 paying users. Across relevant sub-sites, there were 72,563 registered members, among whom 1,518 became online trading customers for TDD/WDD/BDD. Supplier counts and purchase amounts sourced from these sub-sites are rising annually, indicating ample runway for online transaction growth.

Beyond these three verticals, IBI has also amassed resources in other industrial sectors:

  • Industrial robotics (FindRobot, Power Transmission & Control, Smart Touch, etc.): 37,800 registered members

  • New-energy vehicles (NEV, Tires, Auto Maintenance, Low-Carbon Transport, Parking Equipment, Optoelectronics, Motors, etc.): 29,600 registered members

  • Environmental (Environmental Industry, Solar Energy, Urban Energy Saving, China Water Treatment Tech Promotion, Wastewater Treatment & Reuse, Wind Energy, etc.): 41,200 registered members

This breadth of sticky upstream/downstream customers across many verticals creates significant expansion capacity for IBI to launch new online trading verticals and sustain high-quality, high-growth performance.