The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2023
Duozhuayu closed three of four stores — China's best-loved used-book chain
China's best-loved used-book marketplace closed its Beijing stores, leaving one profitable shop — “the contract expired, the rent wasn't agreed”
Duozhuayu (多抓鱼) · 2023
What happened
Duozhuayu (多抓鱼) launched in 2017 as a C2B2C marketplace for used books — buy, clean, resell at a fixed margin, modeled on BookOff — and grew into one of China's most loved brands, with Tencent leading a Series B in 2018.
It expanded into offline stores and clothing resale. The Beijing Dawanglu store closed in November 2021 when its contract expired; the flagship Sanlitun store followed on June 30, 2023.
The closures came after a pricing controversy: one user's coat and dress were bought back for ¥10 and ¥3, then listed at ¥75 — resale margins that clashed with the brand's warm image.
Founder Mao Zhu (猫助) was blunt: “就是合约到期，租金没谈拢” — simply that the contract expired and the rent wasn't agreed. She admitted the offline expansion had underestimated the competition. Only the Shanghai Anfu Road store remains, and it is profitable.
Why it happened
- The stores lived or died on lease renewal: both Beijing closures were contract expiries with no rent agreement, not demand failures.
- The offline economics were harsher than the online ones: rent and staffing costs the marketplace model never had.
- The buyback model invited a pricing backlash: ¥3 for a dress resold at ¥75 made the marketplace's margin the story, not the books.
- The founder's own verdict was 轻敌 — underestimating the competition and the cost of physical retail, leaving one profitable store from the offline experiment.
The lesson
A beloved brand is not a rent discount: Duozhuayu's stores closed because landlords did not renew, and the founder admitted the offline bet underestimated the cost of retail.
Sources
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