China’s biggest Pinterest look-alike, Mogujie, is now rocking more than 35 million monthly active users and has just raised a $200 million round of funding. Goldman Sachs’ Magnolia Fund led the investment followed by Zhixin Capital, Qiming Ventures, IDG, and Banyan Fund. Mogujie stated it will use the money to enhance customer experience, develop its team, and create an open-source community to support its ecosystem. By the end of 2013, the company reported monthly sales exceeding $48 million, with more than 60% of that coming from its mobile app. Last year, Mogujie launched an open platform for online vendors to create stores on its site, both consumer-to-consumer and brand-based. The API allows merchants to sync their entire stock with their existing shop on Taobao.
Mogujie, a Chinese social shopping platform, announced today $200 million in its fourth funding. Investors include Hopu Fund, TBP Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, IDG Capital Partners, and Banyan Fund.The company is reportedly now valued at $1 billion. We don’t yet know whether the reported acquisition talks with Alibaba Group were called off or that’s just a false rumor. Started as a Pinterest-style shopping sharing site in 2011, Mogujie claims it has had 80 million users, with 35 million being monthly active on mobile. At the end of 2013, it launched its Youdian platform for retailers to sell goods directly to its users, thus becoming a marketplace. So far, 60 percent of the startup’s monthly sales come from mobile. The company said a part of the new funding will be used for building this marketplace. Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, was allegedly unhappy with the rise of social shopping services — including Mogujie and its direct competitor, Meilishuo – because they lured users away from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall marketplaces where they used to browse and search for goods.
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