S2C Deep Service: The Supermarket Born from Eating Habits Files IPO Prospectus

Previous Article "Master S2C; Don’t Be Obsessed with O2O> This piece was originally written as a casual reflection, yet it has sparked heated debate among entrepreneurs. The prevailing view centers on whether S2C will replace O2O. Many argue that S2C is more grounded and better accepted by users, while others contend that S2C is essentially O2O, rendering the notion of replacement moot. In fact, both perspectives hold merit. However, it is more meaningful to clearly understand the essence of S2C than to merely fetishize the O2O concept. Focus on executing S2C well before revisiting the discussion on O2O.

Today, we examine the in-depth services behind S2C: The Supermarket Built on Consumption。

Today, a customer dined at a restaurant. After placing the order, the server brought out the dishes and said, “Our head chef noticed via the backend terminal that you should not consume excessive calories. Therefore, we have reduced the amount of oil in this dish and appropriately increased the proportion of low-calorie ingredients. Additionally, by comparing your nutritional and caloric intake from breakfast and lunch with your recommended daily requirements, our chef has added approximately 30 grams of chicken to this dish to meet your protein needs for the day. Thank you!”

Analyze this example:

First, users utilize a smartphone or service application that conveniently records their daily dietary and nutritional data. This also includes tracking age, height, weight, sub-health status, PM2.5 levels, weather conditions, mood, physical activity, sleep patterns, work intensity, and medical conditions. By integrating these factors and leveraging cloud-based analytics, the system determines the user’s daily recommended nutrient and calorie intake, calculating both the amount consumed and the remaining deficit. Second, the application partners with offline merchants. When users make purchases at participating merchants, they place orders through the merchant’s terminal software. Since data from the smart application is shared with the merchant’s terminal, although the kitchen staff does not have access to the user’s personal information (such as name or phone number), they can identify the table number and access the specific nutritional and caloric requirements associated with the ordered dishes. This enables merchants to provide personalized services based on this information.

For entrepreneurs, this is S2C deep service.

Human needs unfold from the inside out and from the bottom up. Since our arrival in this world, we have been faced with the need to address and satisfy issues related to disease, sub-health, and mental well-being. Barring certain genetic disorders, the vast majority of these needs revolve around the mouth. It is widely recognized that 90% of health problems stem from dietary habits. Given this, the market for deep-level services driven by oral health is poised to become enormous.

I. The “Oral” Upgrade Driven by Quality Living

Our lives evolve with changes in age, education, career, income, social circles, and environment. Among these shifts, changes in our dietary habits are particularly pronounced. As children, we enjoyed snacks from street stalls, which we no longer consume today. During college, we frequently dined at small eateries, whereas now we mostly choose higher-quality restaurants. When our income was low, we ate simply; as our income has risen, we have shifted toward healthier eating.

At every stage, consumption upgrades are accompanied by evolving “dining” demands, which can be categorized into three tiers: the first tier is driven by “discounts,” the second by “personal preference,” and the third by the pursuit of higher “quality.”

Discount service platforms such as Ele.me, Dianping, and Meituan are all striving to capture users’ “mouths.” The capital market is also strongly supporting this effort, with tens of billions of dollars being deployed to compete in this sector. In terms of return on investment, the relative market size driven by these “discounts” amounts to hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars.

The rise of in-home chef services, complementary organic fresh produce, and customized themed restaurants has made “preference-driven” consumption a reality. Even at the early stage, capital games involving millions or tens of millions of dollars are poised to create a market worth billions or even tens of billions of U.S. dollars, with further development expected to expand the market size even more.

Quality consumption is a personalized, in-depth form of consumption, which we believe will arrive in the near future. If “preference-based consumption” represents the primary level of service-oriented consumption provided by merchants to users, then “quality consumption” will constitute deep, service-oriented consumption. The quality consumption pursued by individuals varies based on differences in their physiological characteristics and living environments. For instance, factors such as work intensity, ambient PM2.5 levels, mood, physical activity, sleep quality, sub-health status, and medical history differ from person to person. Quality consumption will usher in an era of personalized demands, where deep services are designed to meet these specific user needs, as illustrated in the examples above.

II. Health Services Driven by VCBeat

Scenario: A healthcare provider sets reasonable reference standards by continuously monitoring a user’s daily dietary health, lifestyle data, and behavioral patterns. If the user exceeds these thresholds, timely alerts are triggered. The healthcare provider then promptly tracks potential sub-health conditions or diseases that may arise due to these alerts and provides appropriate recommendations, such as seeking medical examination at a hospital or purchasing nutritional supplements.

The scenario described above can be linked to multiple production or service sectors closely related to individuals, including medical products, health care products, nutritional supplements, medical devices, wellness equipment, leisure and fitness, health management, and health consulting. According to research and forecasts by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, China’s big health industry market was projected to exceed RMB 10 trillion by 2020.

Let us now examine the market for disease and health services. Platforms and institutions such as pharmaceutical companies, Chunyu Doctor, Haodafu, and Bohe, which cater to sub-health conditions, disease management, and wellness, are striving to strengthen their connections with users. The capital market is also providing strong support, with tens to hundreds of billions of US dollars being invested, revealing a market capacity that has already reached the scale of hundreds of billions to trillions of US dollars.

Eating and illness represent two endpoints of the health needs continuum. If these two endpoints are connected, we will witness a massive market potential. By capturing dietary data through users’ “mouths,” and combining this with their daily lifestyle data, we can analyze and process such comprehensive information to provide in-depth services. This enables the prediction of potential health issues and the proactive delivery of solutions, at which point the market will explode.

However, the healthcare sector has yet to achieve this level of “connectivity,” presenting significant opportunities for entrepreneurs. This opportunity does not lie in building food delivery or medical platforms, but rather in developing products and technologies that address deep-service needs by tracking and analyzing changes in users’ physiological data. Connecting users with service providers and manufacturers will unlock enormous market potential.

III. Driving Agricultural Development Through the Upgrading of Consumption

As living standards improve, evolving lifestyle philosophies and aspirations have given rise to a market for ecological agriculture, with consumers increasingly willing to bear the associated costs in pursuit of healthier living.

Analysis suggests that companies spearheading new technologies, concepts, and lifestyles will give rise to a large number of enterprises valued at over RMB 100 billion.

As outlined in the application scenarios at the beginning of this article, the analysis of lifestyle data, such as dietary health, enables organic fresh produce and other agricultural products to meet users’ personalized needs, guide them toward a health-first consumption pattern, and provide them with suitable agricultural products.

IV. Driving Financial Consumption Through Oral Health

From the perspective of social psychology theories, it is evident that an individual’s dietary regularity and quality can serve as indicators of their integrity level, income status, and rationality in consumption. If a person maintains a regular diet and demonstrates rational spending habits, their income stability and integrity are likely to be high. In such cases, internet finance institutions can leverage these insights; for instance, banks may issue credit cards based on this data or recommend financial service products tailored to individuals with specific characteristics. Compared to external demands, internal health needs are less susceptible to fabrication and more reflective of true conditions, making them valuable information for financial consumption decisions. Furthermore, platforms can collaborate with third-party partners to offer credit-based consumption options to high-quality consumers.

Deep service embodies the essence of the S2C (Service to Consumption) model, which leverages internet platforms and data processing and analysis to provide personalized services that meet user needs. The S2C model truly brings the principle of “the customer is king” to life by addressing individualized user demands, thereby constituting a genuinely value-creating business model.

The transformation ahead is not one of products, but of services.

As is well known, Moore’s Law has driven down computing costs; sustained national investment in infrastructure has enhanced logistical convenience; investment in the health services industry has heightened health awareness and spurred innovation; and the declining cost of entrepreneurship has attracted increasing capital into the innovation market.

With the explosive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and wearable devices, a solid foundation has been laid for us to deliver in-depth services. In the future, big data analytics will no longer merely involve uploading massive volumes of data; instead, it will integrate data with contextual scenarios and artificial intelligence learning. This approach will yield insights into trends, as well as capabilities for prediction, recommendation, and tracking. For instance, your smartphone will anticipate your needs, destinations, dining preferences, and leisure activities before you even realize them yourself. Merchants, leveraging data analysis centered on you, will understand your needs regarding food, purchases, and services, thereby providing targeted offerings. All of these developments present opportunities for us to compete in delivering deep, personalized services through the “oral” entry point.

If the primary role of the internet is to “enable you to find everything,” then in the near future, it will undoubtedly deliver deep-level services that “anticipate your every need.” S2C deep-level services shift service delivery upstream, leveraging internet technologies to predict user needs in advance, provide personalized services, and establish a true one-to-one connection between users and products or services.

(This article was submitted to VCBeat by Bao Hu. Author: Bao Hu, Founder/Entrepreneur of Wei Nutrition)