Online-to-offline (OTO)

To quote German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 'All that is real is rational. All that is rational is real'. The development of OTO for Internet companies began to appear in the early years of Web popularization and began to expand on the back of mobile Internet boom.

Jiekuwang was launched in 2011 to help traditional offline businesses carry out marketing and loyalty programs online. The company announced 100 million yuan in 2012 and 200 million yuan funding in 2013. However, the site has since gone offline due to cash problems, layoffs and fall in business volume.

Niche market: innovating to meet the needs of market

Sock Manager is a subscription-based sock retailer. Founded in 2010, the company always wanted to be creative to attract customers. For instance, female customers could ask their better half to pay for their purchases. Another creative method was an annual subscription that allowed subscribers unlimited supply of socks. The service was shut down in May 2013.

Transformation always comes with pain

Ximi started off in 2008 as an online snacks retailer. It was doing well before the company began building brick-and-mortar stores, warehouses and logistics. The company decided to close down the snacks business in late 2011 and transformed it into lunch delivery in 2012. However, the site was shut down again in 2013.

The past glory and present shame

Yibai Shopping was founded way back in 2007, offering spending installment plans for credit cards. It received $10 million from Gobi Partners in Series A funding shortly after its launch and its annual sales volume reached more than 100 million yuan in the following years.

However, series of scandals, including problems in payments to suppliers and defaults in products, forced Yibai Shopping to close down the site in June 2013.

Tracey Xiang, writer of Technode.com contributed to the story.