Buy42
| Name | Zhou Xian |
| Country | China |
| Website | http://www.buy42.com |
Profile
Buy42 is an online service platform, which combines the concept of a \'charity-shop\' and e-commerce business model. Buy42 collects people\'s second-hand goods and sells them on its website. The profits main use is to support charity projects.
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Interview with Zhou Xian of Buy42
Introducing Buy42
Buy42 is an online service platform, which combines the concept of a charity-shop and e-commerce business model. Buy42 collects people\\\\\\\'s second-hand goods and sells them on its website. The profits main use is to support charity projects.
Interview with Zhou Xian conducted by i-genius China correspondent, Betty Liu.
What inspired you to fund this website?
I liked to go shopping in charity shops or second-hand shops when I studied in the UK. I thought it would be a good idea to establish a website which combines this form of shopping with e-commerce when I arrived back in China. Buy42 has three benefits. 1) It is very convenient to involve donors and buyers through the Internet. 2) We can help people deal with their unused items. 3) The whole process is very eco-friendly.
Have you ever been concerned that many Chinese people are not used to buying second hand items? Do you think you have a good market here?
I can give you a story to answer your question. When I talked with my friends about online shopping five years ago in China. Most of them declined to accept this new way of shopping and thought it was totally nonsense. However, if those e-commerce startups just ‘rationally’ accepted the ‘Chinese market’ attitude at that time, you would not see the booming situation of e-commerce business here in China today. So my point is, sometimes it is not easy to foresee the future of a brand new business when it has just been created. However, we should never underestimate the power of innovation.
Have you ever met with any difficulties during establishing this social enterprise and how did you overcome those obstacles?
Of course, there are a lot of ‘unexpected’ difficulties always challenging us during the process. It is very normal that we have to face lot of ‘suspicions’ and ‘misunderstanding’. The traditional entrepreneurs as well as social entrepreneurs are in the same boat in terms of the early stage of running their business. However, I think everyone will meet with difficulties in their work no matter if you work for a company or you run your own business. It is very normal to meet difficulties or even make mistakes, but the key point is whether you can think ‘out of box’ to find a solution.
What is the challenge if you lead Buy42 to the next stage?
I think challenges will come from two aspects. First, most Chinese people still do not feel not comfortable to buy ‘second-hand’ goods from other people. Therefore, we have to be patience to let more people accept this new concept. Second, our work includes organising the donation and handling of second-hand goods, cleaning the goods, putting the picture of the goods online as well as using the money to support charity projects. It is a long and complex charity chain, so it will be a big challenge to keep improving the quality of our services.
How do you understand that social enterprise has to keep the balance between ‘social mission’ as well as economic sustainable development?
I think it is very important to create a competition environment to support the whole social enterprise community to grow positively. It is very essential to keep improving the professional implementation of social enterprise as well as the transparency of social business behaviour. We still have some leaders from the NPO sector who think ‘people are supposed to help and support my business without any reason because I am helping to deal with a certain kind of social issue’. This mentality of taking good will from people for granted is not right and also has no way to embrace the promising future.
What is your opinion towards the issue that there are so many people out there who are suspicious about the operation capacity of NPOs and charity organizations?
I think the voice of ‘suspicions’ has something to do with the current environment in China. There is no standard, which has been recognized by the public to analyse the professional implementation of NPOs or charity organizations. Meanwhile, it is not appropriate to just copy the same standards, which we adapt to analyse the traditional business model to judge the operation of NPOs or charity organizations. ‘Numbers’ or ‘Figures’ sometimes can not provide enough accurate ‘references’ to measure the performance of those organizations because the of the specialty of some ‘social products’ and ‘social services’. In this case, it is understandable that people have varied expectations for NPOs and charity organizations.