Student trio sets up in online food
February 27, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN online food-ordering system called www.ele.me mainly offers services for the region around Minhang Campus of Jiao Tong University and Zizhu Industrial Zone.
Through this system, people can order food by just clicking a mouse. In Chinese, ele.me means "Are you hungry?" and the site was founded by three students from Jiao Tong University -- Zhang Xuhao, Kang Jia and Ye Feng.
Zhang is the core. Two years ago he decided to stop studying at Jiao Tong University to start his own business and prepared well for the venture.
Q: What inspired you to start your own business?
A: It was in April 2008 when my partners and I were still in university. At that time, we all felt that finding a job would not be our best choice after graduation because of the global financial crisis. Then the idea occurred to us to start our own business. Although we also knew that it may not be a good choice under the financial storm, we believe, at least we could keep our future in our hands.
Q: Why did you choose to establish an online food-ordering system?
A: First, we thought we knew more about the e-business field than other businesses. Second, we found that there was no such online food-ordering system in our region, where it's really needed. It was a big market that no one had explored. Last but of course not least, it would not cost us too much to start up.
Q: But your resume says you haven't finished your study in Jiao Tong University. You dropped out?
A: No, suspended. Before I established the online system, I applied for a suspension so that I can continue my studies in the future. Drop out? That would be a shame.
Q: Where did your money come from at very beginning?
A: Anywhere. We borrowed, we saved, we even used our tuition fees since we suspended our studies.
Q: Have you met some tough situations since starting?
A: Sure, a lot actually. The toughest one must be in the summer of 2008, when we had just started up. A thief took my computer and cell phone from my dormitory. The loss of about 20,000 yuan was not a big deal, but all the data and information for our company and our customers were in that computer. That meant we had to totally restart our job.
Besides this case, at the very beginning, many restaurant owners could not accept our ideas since they didn't know much about the Internet. But we never gave up, and this has changed a lot.
Q: How about your situation now?
A: Pretty well. Now we have over 50 restaurants registered and over 5,000 online members. The daily trade volume on our platform hits more than 10,000 yuan.
Now we mostly sell our system to those restaurants. We don't have to deliver food by ourselves any more like we did at the beginning.
Q: Do you have any plans or goals for 2010?
A: This year, we're going to expand our market, registering 1,000 restaurants with an annual trade volume of 100 million yuan. We want to become the biggest online food-ordering platform in the future.
Through this system, people can order food by just clicking a mouse. In Chinese, ele.me means "Are you hungry?" and the site was founded by three students from Jiao Tong University -- Zhang Xuhao, Kang Jia and Ye Feng.
Zhang is the core. Two years ago he decided to stop studying at Jiao Tong University to start his own business and prepared well for the venture.
Q: What inspired you to start your own business?
A: It was in April 2008 when my partners and I were still in university. At that time, we all felt that finding a job would not be our best choice after graduation because of the global financial crisis. Then the idea occurred to us to start our own business. Although we also knew that it may not be a good choice under the financial storm, we believe, at least we could keep our future in our hands.
Q: Why did you choose to establish an online food-ordering system?
A: First, we thought we knew more about the e-business field than other businesses. Second, we found that there was no such online food-ordering system in our region, where it's really needed. It was a big market that no one had explored. Last but of course not least, it would not cost us too much to start up.
Q: But your resume says you haven't finished your study in Jiao Tong University. You dropped out?
A: No, suspended. Before I established the online system, I applied for a suspension so that I can continue my studies in the future. Drop out? That would be a shame.
Q: Where did your money come from at very beginning?
A: Anywhere. We borrowed, we saved, we even used our tuition fees since we suspended our studies.
Q: Have you met some tough situations since starting?
A: Sure, a lot actually. The toughest one must be in the summer of 2008, when we had just started up. A thief took my computer and cell phone from my dormitory. The loss of about 20,000 yuan was not a big deal, but all the data and information for our company and our customers were in that computer. That meant we had to totally restart our job.
Besides this case, at the very beginning, many restaurant owners could not accept our ideas since they didn't know much about the Internet. But we never gave up, and this has changed a lot.
Q: How about your situation now?
A: Pretty well. Now we have over 50 restaurants registered and over 5,000 online members. The daily trade volume on our platform hits more than 10,000 yuan.
Now we mostly sell our system to those restaurants. We don't have to deliver food by ourselves any more like we did at the beginning.
Q: Do you have any plans or goals for 2010?
A: This year, we're going to expand our market, registering 1,000 restaurants with an annual trade volume of 100 million yuan. We want to become the biggest online food-ordering platform in the future.
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