Metao
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Metao was a Beijing-based cross-border e-commerce startup founded in 2014 by Xie Wenbin, one of the companies born in China's cross-border e-commerce boom. It first grew as a C2C daigou platform - a marketplace for people buying products abroad and shipping them to Chinese consumers - but problems with the model, including low margins and long delivery times without its own warehouses, pushed it to pivot in mid-2014 into a B2C e-commerce platform focused on Korean products. Backed by Matrix Partners, Morningside Ventures and Greenwoods Investment, it raised $35 million across two rounds (plus an angel round) and closed its Series B in late 2014. It never made it to a Series C and shut down in mid-2016.
02 / Metao FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Metao failed because it tried to outspend giants in a cash-burning war it could not win. The C2C daigou model suffered from low margins and long delivery periods, so the mid-2014 pivot to B2C Korean products brought Metao into direct competition with JD.com and Tmall. It recorded a short-term growth spurt after pouring money into advertising and offering steep sales to attract customers - but a price war against the e-commerce giants could never work. It never raised a Series C, and founder Xie Wenbin himself concluded that even a billion-dollar round would not have let Metao keep up with the giants in the war to burn cash. The funding slowdown that hit Chinese startups in 2016 sealed its fate.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Xie Wenbin founded Metao in Beijing as a C2C daigou platform during China's cross-border e-commerce boom.
- Pivot and funded
Metao pivoted to a B2C platform focused on Korean products and closed its Series B in late 2014, having raised $35 million across two rounds from Matrix Partners, Morningside Ventures and Greenwoods Investment.
- Shutdown
Unable to raise a Series C amid China's 2016 funding slowdown, Metao closed its doors in mid-2016.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Ceased operations in mid-2016, shutting down its Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform after raising about $35 million.
- 02
No acquirer or asset sale was disclosed; the team disbanded and founder Xie Wenbin moved on.