Men and women from southern Fujian are bold and brave, believing that daredevil wins it all. Among them, Huang Guohua, the founder and CEO of EPWK from Zhangzhou, Fujian, is a practitioner of this saying. Huang Guohua has worked as a rural cadre, media reporter; in 2007, after more than 10 years in the media industry, he resigned as chief reporter of the Straits Metropolis Newspaper to start a business. From a secure job to an insecure one, Huang Guohua believes that life is to constantly change and transcend itself.
Witkey is a blend word of wit and key, it refers to those who convert their wisdom, knowledge, skills and experience into practical benefits through the Internet. In 2005, the concept of witkey was first proposed in China, attracting widespread media attention, and a number of witkey websites appeared in China in just a few years.
According to statistics from Avery Consulting, the number of witkey websites in China reached more than 400 in 2010. However, there are only a few of those have done a good job, including EPWK, which was rated as “the representative of China’s new generation of witkeys” by renowned research organisation Avery Consulting when it was launched in 2010.
The Origin
In 2007, full of passion, Huang Guohua, resigned from the newspaper, has created “Bus TV”, “Mobile Phone Animation” company, but the development is not smooth. On the contrary, it was a logo design bounty experience on a witkey website during the start-up process that made him see the business opportunity.
Through the website to publish tasks, and then you can get ideas from all over the country, as a user, Huang Guohua deeply felt the convenience brought by the wiki site, the Internet and mobile Internet completely undermined the way people get information in the past, and effectively solve the asymmetry of the user’s information, but as a new thing, the wiki site in the user experience and service there are a lot of problems, there is a lot of room for improvement.
Turning “pain points” into “profit points”, Huang believes this is where the future opportunities lie. In 2010, Huang decided to team up with his cousin, Huang Zhinan, to start the development of EPWK, which was officially launched in July 2010, and set up the Xiamen Wizards website in March 2011. In March 2011, Xiamen Yipin Weike Network Technology Co.
Establishment
EPWK’s start was not early, but it soon stood out in the industry with its deep excavation of product value. To gain a deeper understanding of the industry and users’ needs, Huang led a team that conducted in-depth market research and subsequently produced two influential industry monographs, “Crowdsourcing and Witkeys” and “Creators and Witkeys”.
At that time, the common profit model of the witkey industry is to take commission system, that is, 20% of the transaction amount for buyers and sellers to commission, this initiative was quite controversial. After the establishment of EPWK, the company took the lead in proposing the abolition of the commission draw and innovatively launched the VIP shop service, so as to achieve the basic service free of charge and the value-added service charge.
In 2011, EPWK introduced the concept of “storefront” to the industry, explored new modes of value-added services and sustainable growth of wiki sites, and divided shops into individual shops and enterprise shops, with EPWK providing one-stop services. Once the “VIP Shop” value-added service was launched, it was learned and copied by all major platforms. It can be said that EPWK is like the “catfish effect” of the economy, which has completely activated the industry.
Rooting
“When I heard that EPWK had a referral service and an exclusive VIP secretary, I was particularly impressed. Because small design companies like us are not very good at public relations. EPWK is like a professional sales department for us”.
Founder & CEO of SOZOPRO, Wang Ting
Wang Ting, from Shandong, chose to join EPWK to open a VPI storefront when she started SOZOPRO in 2018. After starting her business for more than 5 years and working with EPWK for more than 5 years, she chooses to upgrade her storefront version every time she renews her membership. “In the future, we will take EPWK as the centre and continue to make efforts online, on the one hand to build our own brand with the help of the platform, and on the other hand to expand the market, serve more customers and do a good job of brand service.”
Data shows that since its launch in 2010, EPWK has more than 23 million users, and the platform has facilitated a cumulative total of more than 20 billion yuan in transactions, covering a wide range of creative fields such as design, development, marketing, branding, video and so on. Differentiated products and services, so that EPWK quickly found a belonging to its own innovative development road, and won a place in the industry.
At the same time, EPWK’s business value has also been recognised by the capital market: in April 2013, EPWK was invested by Chongqing Huaben National Electronic Information Industry Guidance Fund in the angel round; in September 2014, it was invested by Huawen Media’s fund in the A round; in December 2015, EPWK completed the A+ round of financing; and in September 2018, EPWK was invested in the B round.
Thorough Development
The rapid development of EPWK cannot be separated from the market trend and demand. According to statistics from the State Administration of Supervision and Enterprises, there are 170 million traders in China, with 114 million of them being registered individual businesses.
For the overwhelming majority of the market body of small and medium businesses, usually facing funding, lack of human resources and other issues, through the non-core business, outsourcing has become the choice of most companies. Creative design, development, branding, marketing as a business development and growth, an indispensable part of a very large market.
Data shows that in the year 2022, the number of new market entities nationwide was 29.08 million, with an average of 24,000 new business registration every day. Among the many entrepreneurs, there are many talents with professional skills in design, development, marketing, etc. They need to expand their business quickly in order to achieve development, and are willing to explore business opportunities and acquire customers and business resources through online platforms of the wiki crowdsourcing type.
From the introduction of tasks, user services, order matching, follow-up tracking, evaluation of services, protection of works, risk prevention and control, dispute resolution, EPWK has a complete set of products and services system. In 2019, EPWK is even with the CCPIT Business Sector Development Committee to jointly initiate the development of the first industry group standard in the field of domestic knowledge and skills sharing, “Creative Commons Knowledge and Skills Platform Service Specification”.
“For start-ups, EPWK is a very good platform to expand online business channels”. For many entrepreneurs and friends, EPWK not only gives them the opportunity to realise their dreams, but also increases their confidence in their struggle.
Using big data, artificial intelligence, algorithms and other digital technologies, we constantly promote the iterative innovation of products and services, build an innovative trading model and service system, and inject new kinetic energy into the innovative development of China’s millions of small and medium-sized micro-enterprises. EPWK will continue to plough deep into the field of wizards crowdsourcing, so that the creative needs of enterprises can be easily and quickly resolved, so that the creative wisdom of knowledge and skills of talents can be well realised.
PS: Xiamen EPWK（Chinese “Yipin Weike”）Network Technology Company Limited (“EPWK”) was established in March 2011, is Xiamen City, “Double Hundred Plan” enterprises, Xiamen City, key listed enterprises, is a creative trading digital intelligence network service platform “EPWK.com”), a national high-tech enterprise, a national culture and science and technology fusion demonstration base, an e-commerce demonstration enterprise of the Ministry of Commerce, a unit of the National Science and Technology Support Programme, a typical case of the National Development and Reform Commission’s “Report on the Development of China’s Sharing Economy” (2019), and a member of the first National Technical Committee on Sharing Economy Standardisation.
On 17 May 2023 Beijing time, EPWK HOLDINGS LTD, the ultimate holding company of EPWK, updated its prospectus with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the ticker symbol EPWK for its proposed initial public offering on the NASDAQ Global Main Board in the United States.
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