July 19, 2007 – stlplace

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Last Updated on July 24, 2007 by stlplace

Heelys sold 5.1 million pairs of its walk/skate shoes in the US during 2006. Note in the US there are about 36 million kids between age of 6 to 14, Heelys’ core customer. In other words, every one out of 7 kids in the US got a pair of Heelys, which sells from $49.99. The question for Heelys is: how far can this go? Can they sell to the other 6 kids? Or can they make the existing customers come back?

As of last quarter, Home Inns (China) has 145 hotels in operation, with average 120 rooms per hotel (total about 18,000 rooms). Home Inns got about 268,000 members, which account for more than 40% of its sales (hotel stay). To make it simple, about 7,200 (= 18,000 * 40%) is reserved for the members. A quarter has 90 days, so there is 7,200 * 90 = 648,000 room nights. So on average each member stayed 2.5 (= 648,000/268,000) nights in Home Inns last quarter.

E-House China: the brand

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Last Updated on July 19, 2007 by stlplace

From the F1 Prospectus:

“…Mr. Zhou has over 14 years of experience in China’s real estate industry. Mr. Zhou has been the chairman and president of Shanghai Real Estate Consultant & Sales (Group) Co., Ltd. since 2003. From 1997 to 2003, he served as a director and the general manager of Shanghai Real Estate Exchange Co., Ltd., and as the deputy general manager of Shanghai Jinfeng Investments Co., Ltd., a company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange…”

What is Jinfeng Investment Co. exactly? Well, it’s the owner of Jinfeng Yiju (easy housing), here is its web site www.ehousee.com. While it’s not as popular as the leading China real estate web site soufun.com, Jinfeng Yiju (its web site and stores) are quite popular in Shanghai and a few neighbouring cities. I have looked for houses using their web site, and they give decent results. They have retail stores (offices) too.

On the other hand, the E-House China has only a corp web site at www.ehousechina.com. So much for the “e”. But I did see their offices in a few places. They have a big listings in the Hongqiao office.

So what am I trying to get? It seems odd to me initially that two companies shares similar names or trademarks. I guess the people at Jinfeng probablly just let Mr. Zhou use their name because they are “friends”.