We have built a local life services platform for Chinese users and local merchants in France, integrating city information, community content, merchant discovery, food and travel group buying, digital coupons, and offline redemption into a single entry point. This allows overseas Chinese to access information and complete purchases in a more familiar way, while also making it easier for local merchants to operate online.
Overseas Chinese Don't Need a Translated Yellow Pages
Local information in France is scattered across maps, social media, merchant groups, and websites in different languages. To find a restaurant, an event, or a discount, users often have to search across multiple platforms and judge for themselves whether information is outdated or offers are genuine.
On the other side, local Chinese merchants also lack low-barrier online operation tools, with content, offers, orders, and redemptions spread across different channels. What we saw was not just an information problem, but a lack of a complete loop between user discovery and merchant operations.
Community, Trust, and Real Transactions Must Work Together
A platform needs content and interaction to continuously attract users; but once outdated information, fake merchants, and duplicate offers increase, trust quickly declines. Digital coupons, from purchase and refund to in-store redemption, also involve state synchronization among users, merchants, and the platform.
True overseas localization is not just about changing the language. Local maps, online payments, consumption tax rules, and merchant operating habits all differ, so the transaction process needs to be redesigned rather than directly copying the domestic model.
Build Community, Then Complete the Loop with Merchant Services
We allow users to access information, participate in interactions, search for merchants, and purchase group deals within the platform; at the same time, we provide merchants with tools for publishing offers, managing orders, and scanning codes for redemption, turning content traffic into real offline consumption.
To maintain platform trust, we have added merchant profile review, coupon status verification, refund rules, and role-based permission management, ensuring that every coupon has a clear status from sale to redemption and minimizing outdated information and transaction disputes.
In terms of business model, we have not relied solely on advertising for platform revenue, but have designed multiple paths such as transaction commissions, merchant promotions, membership benefits, and local event partnerships.
What we ultimately solve are three interrelated problems: users cannot find reliable information, it is difficult to judge whether offers are genuine, and merchants lack truly effective online operation tools.
Technology is not the goal — exponential business growth is.
