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BEIJING, July 28 (TMTPOST)— The U.S.-listed shares of Missfresh settled more than 42% lower Thursday following series negative reports about the leading online grocery delivery start-up, backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
Source: Visual China
Missfresh announced to lay off most of employees at Thursday’s noon because it had not received new funding yet and made its operation in trouble, Sina News learned from an internal audio file that day. Staff accounts at the enterprise collaboration platform Feishu, or Lark Suite, were all shut down as Missfresh was on the verge of bankruptcy, the Chinese media outlet also cited insiders’ revealing at social media.
Under the broader target of profitability, Missfresh conducted adjustment on the Distributed Mini Warehouse (DMW), not affecting other businesses including One-Day Delivery, the startup later that day told China National Radio (CNR) and other Chinese media as a response to the recent report. It added that some of workers left due to business overhaul, and it is seeking all the available plans to protect employees’ interests as much as possible.
Founded in November, 2014, Missfresh has positioned itself as a pioneer at online grocery delivery with its on-demand mini warehouse model as a major feature. It promised to offer more than 4,000 products from vegetables to cooked food and delivery services as fast as 30 minutes in 16 Chinese cities, according to its website. However, the e-commerce retailer had a series of business overhaul in the past month, shutting down its instant delivery service relied on mini warehouse model, in Shenzhen, Nanjing, and other seven cities in just three days from June 30.
Missfresh earlier this month explained it remained One-Day Delivery in these nine cities. But CNR and other media found that the company has shut down the service that delivers orders in as little as 30 minutes even in Beijing and other three cities, suggesting a full closure. The Paper reported that users in many cities including Beijing and Shanghai failed to order foods through Missfresh App, and online customer service was unavailable on Thursday.
