Beijing Startup Tries to Crowdsource Financing Round on Taobao
Crowdsourcing has become an increasingly popular way to raise money for new ideas in the West, but the concept hasn’t really taken hold in China yet. But that doesn’t mean there’s no desire to crowdsource things. Getting investment can be tough, and one Beijing-based startup called Meiwei Media thought of a novel approach: why not just sell shares of your stock on Taobao? The platform is well-trusted and robust, and while it was designed for selling actual objects, why couldn’t stocks be sold on Taobao, too?
クラウドソーシングは、西欧ではますます一般的となっている資金調達の手段だが、まだそのコンセプトは中国で本当に定着したとはいえない。しかし、それはクラウドソーシングを活用したいという願望がないことを意味するわけではない。状況によっては、出資を受けることが難しいこともあり得る。そこで、北京を拠点とするMeiwei Mediaという名のスタートアップは斬新なアプローチを考えた。Taobao（淘宝）で自社の株を売ればいいんじゃないか？Taobaoは人々から信用されており、しっかりしたプラットフォームだ。手に取ることのできる商品を販売するのを目的として設計されてはいるが、どうして株式もTaobaoで売ってはいけないのだろうか？
クラウドソーシングは西側では新しいアイデアのための資金集めの手段として人気が上昇しているが、中国ではまだこのコンセプトはしっかり根付いていない。しかし、それは何かをクラウドソーシングしたいという願望が存在しないというわけではない。投資を受けるのは大変なこともある。そこでMeiwei Mediaという北京のスタートアップは新しい試みを考えた: 単にTaobaoで自社の株式を売ればいいではないか? このプラットフォームは信頼性があり堅牢で、本来は実際のモノを売るためにデサインされているが、Taobaoで株も売ることはできないのか?
The answer to that question, it turns out, is that doing that is illegal, at least according to the legal experts consulted by China Business News. Public companies must meet with regulatory approval before publicly selling stocks, and private companies cannot have more than 50 stockholders. Meiwei had already racked up 1,191 stockholders when its Taobao operation was apparently shut down, probably because it was offering its stock at rock-bottom prices: 1.2 RMB ($0.19) per share. That may not sound like much, but the company actually raised more than 800,000 RMB ($126,000) this way, though it now seems likely they won’t actually be able to keep it.
It’s not yet clear whether regulators will step in to deal with Meiwei, but searches for the company’s stock on Taobao no longer turn up any responses. Representatives from Meiwei told China Business News that there was definitely “risk” but declined to comment on the legality of the company’s fundraising activity. The company did, however, say, that its other investors would fund a stock repurchase in the event that its Taobao fundraising was declared illegal (which seems quite likely).
A spokesperson from Taobao parent company Alibaba told Tech in Asia that the Meiwei stock had been removed by Taobao:
These types of products are not allowed to be sold on our platform according to our listing rules, and as such have been removed.
