“It’s sold for 94,000 won on AliExpress.”
One of the recently controversial products. This travel bag is being sold for 150,000 to 160,000 won on the funding platform Wadiz . The problem is that the bag is being sold for around 94,000 won on the Chinese shopping mall AliExpress.
Public opinion toward the funding platform Wadiz is worsening. The backlash of ‘don’t lose your original intention’ is rather gentle. There are even complaints that the company is a ‘bundle store that sells Chinese products separately’.
There are a series of cases where the same products are being sold at half the price in Chinese online shopping malls. The problem is that Wadiz is a platform that showcases novel products and helps startups invest.
Due to this situation, Wadiz’s total capital plummeted from about 30 billion won to 900 million won in just one year, falling into capital erosion.
A 20-inch carry-on suitcase being sold for 168,000 won at Wadiz on the 5th. It is advertised as a convenient bag as the front opens 180 degrees and has a laptop storage space. 603 people purchased this bag through Wadiz. The investment that seller SBS Korea raised through Wadiz also exceeds 500 million won.
However, travel bags of the same manufacturer and design are also sold at various online shopping malls in Korea.
At the bottom of the product page, the manufacturer ‘Landor & Hawaii’ is listed separately. The price of this bag on Chinese shopping mall AliExpress is 60% cheaper at around 94,000 won.
The reason there are more complaints about Wadiz is because it is a platform with a different concept from regular shopping malls. It gained popularity thanks to its funding platform.
Consumers pay money and receive products, but at Wadiz, this is not a purchase. The amount paid is ‘funding’ (investment) and the product received is ‘reward’ (compensation). This is because Wadiz is an investment brokerage platform that helps sellers raise funds and recruit investors and new customers.
As a result, consumers are dissatisfied that refunds or안전놀이터 compensation are not easy. Wadiz was founded in 2012, but the refund policy was not established until 2021. Refunds will be issued within 7 days after receiving the product.
If you purchase (invest) an intangible service (reward), refunds become more complicated. This is because the service cannot be returned. There were also victims suspected of fraud that exploited this loophole.
An example is the e-book sold for about 180,000 won in October last year. Although it was claimed that lectures on video editing and translation could earn more than the salary of a large company, consumer complaints continued that the content was inadequate. Wadiz belatedly processed the refund, but the number of people who participated in investing in the service was about 3,500.
In this way, people believed they had purchased a proven and novel product through Wadiz, but in reality, as other cases continued, there were concerns that trust in Wadiz itself could be eroded.
In particular, Wadiz’s profitability has been worsening as it expanded its business from a platform business that brokers investments and earns commissions to a distribution business that sells directly to consumers since last year. Last year, Wadiz’s total capital was about 918.5 million won, a 97% decrease from the previous year (about 27.512 billion won).
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