Yunji Inc. (YJ): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

How does a pioneer in China's membership-based social e-commerce, Yunji Inc. (YJ), navigate a challenging market while pivoting its entire business model? Despite reporting a widened net loss of over RMB 100.7 million (US$14.1 million) in the first half of 2025, the company maintains a strong repeat purchase rate of 71.0%, proving its core membership base is defintely sticky. This deep dive will explore Yunji's history, its unique social-sharing mechanism, and its current strategic shift toward becoming an experiential health and wellness platform-a move critical to stabilizing its declining revenue, which dropped to RMB 158.3 million in H1 2025; what does this mean for its long-term viability and your investment thesis?

Yunji Inc. (YJ) History

You're looking to understand the bedrock of Yunji Inc., and that means going back to its roots as a pioneer in China's social e-commerce space. The company's history is one of rapid growth followed by a necessary strategic pivot, especially as of 2025. The direct takeaway is that Yunji Inc. evolved from a pure-play, membership-based social e-commerce platform into a focused, multi-channel retailer centered on the high-margin, high-retention 'organic living' segment, a shift clearly reflected in its H1 2025 financials.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Yunji Inc. was built on the vision of leveraging social networks for retail, a model that quickly scaled in the competitive Chinese market. The founder, a serial entrepreneur, saw the power of community leaders driving commerce.

Year established

Operations commenced in May 2015 through its initial operating entity, Yunji Sharing Technology Co., Ltd.

Original location

The company is headquartered in Hangzhou, China, specifically in the Xiaoshan District.

Founding team members

The company was founded by Shanglue Xiao, who also serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Initial capital/funding

While the initial seed funding amount is not publicly detailed, a major capital injection came with the Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq Global Market in 2019. This offering of 11,000,000 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) generated total gross proceeds of approximately US$121.0 million.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

The company's trajectory shows a classic tech-to-public-market sprint, followed by a critical re-evaluation of its core business model to chase profitability and user retention.

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The most significant shift for Yunji Inc. has been the pivot announced in 2025. Honestly, the old, broad-market social e-commerce model was struggling with soft consumer confidence, so the company had to get laser-focused. This transformation re-anchored the entire business around the concept of becoming a 'trusted advocate for organic living.'

Here's the quick math on the need for this change: in the first half of 2025, total revenues declined to RMB158.3 million (US$22.1 million), and the net loss significantly widened to RMB100.7 million (US$14.1 million) compared to the same period in 2024. The strategic refinement of product selection, though impacting short-term sales, aims to stabilize the long-term financial picture by focusing on a higher-value customer base.

• Flagship Product Success: The launch of Youjiang Organic Milk, a key product in the new strategy, generated RMB5 million in sales at its debut, quickly establishing the company's health-focused brand awareness.
• Private Label Strength: The beauty brand SUYE also proved the new focus works. Its PRO-XLANE FIRMING ESSENCE LOTION generated over RMB4 million in sales at launch, with a high 32% of buyers being returning dormant users.
• Channel Expansion: The company is defintely expanding user acquisition through both online and offline channels, including leveraging community group leader stores to penetrate the retail market with organic foods.

This re-focus on organic health and wellness, combining curated product offerings with immersive wellness experiences, is a clear action to deepen customer engagement and maintain a high repeat purchase rate, which stood at 71.0% for the twelve months ended June 30, 2025. To be fair, a high repeat purchase rate is a strong signal, and the new strategy is built to capitalize on that stickiness. You can find more detail on the company's long-term direction here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Yunji Inc. (YJ).

Yunji Inc. (YJ) Ownership Structure

Yunji Inc.'s ownership structure is dominated by individual retail investors, a common trait in smaller-cap, high-volatility stocks, which means the stock's price movements can be more erratic. As of late 2025, the company remains a publicly traded entity on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol YJ.

Yunji Inc.'s Current Status

Yunji Inc. operates as a public company, trading American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the NASDAQ Global Market (NASDAQ: YJ). This status provides liquidity but also subjects the company to rigorous reporting and compliance standards, which is important for transparency. The company's market capitalization as of November 2025 is relatively small at approximately $7.14 million, reflecting its current market valuation and scale. This small size means that even minor trading activity can cause significant price swings, a key consideration for investors looking at Breaking Down Yunji Inc. (YJ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

To be fair, the company is navigating a challenging market, reporting a significant net loss of RMB100.7 million (US$14.1 million) in the first half of 2025, which widens the loss from the prior year. This financial pressure is defintely a factor in its low market cap.

Yunji Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is heavily skewed toward the general public, suggesting a high retail investor interest and a lower level of institutional oversight compared to large-cap stocks. Here's the quick math on the breakdown of shares outstanding, based on recent 2025 data:

What this estimate hides is the potential concentration of power. While the institutional stake is only 10.94%, Ares Management LLC holds virtually all of that, making them a powerful voice in corporate governance. Also, the reported 0.00% insider ownership in some 2025 data is highly unusual for a company where the founder is still the CEO, suggesting a complex share structure or a reporting lag in public data, so you still need to watch for insider filing activity.

Yunji Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by its founder, who maintains a long tenure, providing continuity but also potentially limiting fresh perspectives. The leadership team has seen recent changes, particularly in the finance department, which is crucial given the company's financial challenges.

• Shanglue Xiao: Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He has been in the CEO role for over 10 years.
• Nan Song: Senior Financial Director. Ms. Song was promoted to this role in July 2025, bringing significant internal experience after serving in various financial capacities since 2015.
• Kaye Liu: Investor Relations Director.
• Chen Chen: Independent Director. Appointed in January 2024, he also serves as President and CFO of ATRenew Inc., bringing external financial expertise to the board.

This structure means the founder's vision is central to the strategy, but the addition of experienced independent directors like Chen Chen helps to balance the board's oversight, especially concerning financial reporting and corporate governance.

Yunji Inc. (YJ) Mission and Values

Yunji Inc. is fundamentally shifting its business model to become a trusted advocate for organic living, moving beyond its original identity as solely a membership-based social e-commerce platform. This strategic pivot centers its cultural DNA on promoting health, wellness, and high-quality, curated products to its community of members.

You need to understand this transformation because it maps directly to their financial strategy: focusing on high-margin, high-retention categories to drive profitability, especially after reporting a net loss of RMB100.7 million (US$14.1 million) in the first half of 2025.

Given Company's Core Purpose

The company's core purpose is to leverage its social e-commerce network to deliver a curated, high-value selection of products, now with a clear strategic emphasis on organic health and wellness. This focus is what drives their product curation (Standard Product Units, or SPUs, are strictly controlled for quality) and their community-driven sales model. Think of it as using social connection to vet and distribute better-for-you products.

Official mission statement

While a single, formal sentence is not explicitly published, Yunji Inc.'s current strategic mission is clear: to advance its transformation toward becoming a trusted advocate for organic living. This mission is executed through a commitment to product quality and a unique, membership-based social e-commerce model that prioritizes community engagement. Here's the quick math on why this matters: their repeat purchase rate stood at a strong 71.0% for the twelve months ended June 30, 2025, which proves the loyalty of their engaged user base.

• Be a trusted advocate for organic living and wellness.
• Pioneer a membership-based social e-commerce experience.
• Offer high-quality, curated products at attractive prices.

Vision statement

The long-term vision is to establish Yunji Inc. as a comprehensive, experiential health and wellness destination, moving beyond just a transaction platform. This involves building an integrated portfolio that combines organic health products, beauty offerings, and immersive wellness experiences. For example, their flagship product, Youjiang Organic Milk, achieved RMB5 million in sales at launch, which helps establish that health-focused brand awareness among consumers.

• Transform into an experiential health and wellness destination.
• Deepen customer engagement through high-retention categories.
• Achieve long-term, sustainable growth by improving profitability.

Given Company slogan/tagline

The company does not widely publicize a simple, consumer-facing tagline, but their actions and strategic communication consistently point to the core value proposition of 'Organic Health.' The shift is defintely a brand-defining moment. This focus is what guides their product development, such as the SUYE PRO-XLANE FIRMING Series, which generated sales exceeding RMB10 million at launch. This strategic focus is the real, actionable slogan for investors and partners.

• Focus on Organic Health (Strategic emphasis).
• Leverage social interactions for value (Core business model).

If you want to dive deeper into the ownership structure behind this strategic shift, check out Exploring Yunji Inc. (YJ) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Yunji Inc. (YJ) How It Works

Yunji Inc. operates as a membership-based social e-commerce platform in China, using a proprietary Supplier-to-Business-to-Customer (S2B2C) model to connect a curated product supply chain directly to consumers through a network of incentivized, sharing members.

The company's core value proposition is delivering high-quality, often private-label, products at attractive prices by leveraging social interactions and a highly efficient, centralized supply chain to reduce traditional marketing and distribution costs. The strategic focus in 2025 is a pivot toward high-margin, high-retention categories like organic health and wellness.

Yunji Inc.'s Product/Service Portfolio

Yunji Inc.'s Operational Framework

The operational framework is built on a tight, membership-driven ecosystem that maximizes social sharing and minimizes inventory risk. It's a lean model that relies heavily on technology and curated product selection.

• S2B2C Model: Yunji Inc. sources products from suppliers (S), sells them to its members who act as micro-store owners (B), and these members then sell to the final consumers (C) through social networks like WeChat and QQ. This is a defintely smart way to scale without massive ad spend.
• Centralized Supply Chain: The company manages centralized merchandise sourcing and logistics, which helps negotiate favorable pricing and ensures quality control before products reach the member-sellers. This efficiency helps keep the cost of revenues low, which was 52.7% of total revenues in H1 2025.
• Membership and Incentives: Users become members by invitation, gaining access to exclusive deals and discounts. Members are incentivized with rewards (like Yun-coins) for promoting products and recruiting new members, effectively turning a customer base into a sales force.
• Technology Integration: Advanced technologies, including big data and artificial intelligence (AI), are used to optimize the user experience, predict consumer demand, and recommend the right products, which is crucial for their high-retention strategy.

Yunji Inc.'s Strategic Advantages

The company's ability to maintain a high repeat purchase rate, even during challenging economic times, highlights its unique advantages in the competitive Chinese e-commerce landscape. The repeat purchase rate for the twelve months ended June 30, 2025, stood at a strong 71.0%.

• High Customer Loyalty: The membership model fosters an engaged, sticky user base, evidenced by the 71.0% repeat purchase rate. This loyalty reduces the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) over time.
• Curated Product Focus: A deliberate strategy of refining product selection toward 'organic living' and high-quality private labels (like SUYE) reinforces the brand as a trusted advocate for wellness, moving away from a generalist e-commerce platform.
• Social Network Integration: Deep integration with major Chinese social platforms allows for organic, community-driven sales, which is more persuasive and cost-effective than traditional advertising. This leverages existing social trust.
• Asset-Light Model: By utilizing its members for distribution and focusing on centralized sourcing and efficient supply chain management, Yunji Inc. operates a relatively asset-light model compared to traditional retail giants. This allows for quicker pivots, like the recent shift toward organic health products. You can read more about the company's long-term direction here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Yunji Inc. (YJ).

Yunji Inc. (YJ) How It Makes Money

Yunji Inc. primarily makes money through direct sales of curated merchandise to its members and by charging commissions and service fees to third-party merchants on its marketplace platform. It operates on a membership-based social e-commerce model, leveraging a network of members who promote products and the platform itself through social media channels like WeChat.

Yunji Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

As of the first half of the 2025 fiscal year (H1 2025), Yunji's total revenues were RMB 158.3 million (US$22.1 million), a sharp decline from the prior year, reflecting a difficult consumer environment and a strategic shift toward high-margin categories.

The core of the business is still the direct sale of merchandise, which accounted for RMB 131.7 million (US$18.4 million) in H1 2025. To be fair, the decline in sales is partly intentional, as management is refining the product selection to focus on organic health and wellness, which are defintely higher-margin items.

Business Economics

The economic engine of Yunji Inc. is built on a high-retention, social-driven model, which aims to lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) significantly compared to traditional e-commerce. You're essentially getting your customers to do your marketing for you. The key economic fundamentals are:

• Membership Model: Members pay a fee or fulfill certain purchase requirements to gain access to discounted prices and incentives for promoting the platform. This creates a sticky user base.
• High Repeat Purchase Rate: The company maintained a strong repeat purchase rate of 71.0% for the twelve months ended June 30, 2025, which is a critical indicator of customer loyalty and lifetime value (LTV).
• Product Curation and Margin Focus: Management is actively shifting to a strategy centered on high-margin, high-retention categories, specifically organic health products and beauty offerings, to improve profitability even as overall sales volume drops. This is a trade-off: lower revenue now for better quality revenue later.
• Supply Chain Efficiency: Centralized merchandise sourcing and efficient supply chain management allow the company to control costs and offer attractive prices to members, supporting a relatively solid gross margin.

Yunji Inc.'s Financial Performance

The financial health of Yunji Inc. as of H1 2025 shows the strain of its strategic transformation and a soft consumer market, but also highlights areas of operational efficiency. You need to look past the top-line revenue drop to see the underlying cost structure changes.

• Gross Margin: The gross margin remained relatively solid at 47.3% in the first half of 2025, indicating that the shift to high-margin products is working on a unit-economics level.
• Net Loss: Despite cost optimization, the net loss significantly widened to RMB 100.7 million (US$14.1 million) in H1 2025, compared with a net loss of RMB 8.0 million in the same period of 2024. This is a major headwind.
• Cash Position: The company reported cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of RMB 217.1 million as of June 30, 2025. Here's the quick math: while this is a substantial reserve, the current rate of net loss means the company is burning through reserves quickly, which increases the pressure to reach profitability.
• Operating Expenses: Fulfillment expenses decreased by 51.7% to RMB 20.6 million (US$2.9 million) in H1 2025, showing effective cost structure optimization through reduced warehousing and personnel costs.

For a deeper dive into the metrics driving this performance, you should read Breaking Down Yunji Inc. (YJ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Yunji Inc. (YJ) Market Position & Future Outlook

Yunji Inc. is currently navigating a challenging transition, shifting from a broad social e-commerce platform to a focused advocate for organic living, a move designed to stabilize its declining revenue by prioritizing high-margin, high-retention categories. Despite a sharp revenue decline to RMB158.3 million (US$22.1 million) in the first half of 2025, the company's future hinges on the success of this niche strategy and maintaining its strong repeat purchase rate of 71.0%.

Competitive Landscape

Yunji operates in the hyper-competitive Chinese e-commerce market, where its membership-based model is a small, specialized niche against the dominance of giants. Its true competition lies in the smaller, focused social commerce and wellness platforms, but the sheer scale of the major players dictates the market's pricing and logistics environment.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's pivot to organic health products and wellness experiences is a clear attempt to find a defensible, high-margin niche, but the execution risk is high given the current financial strain. Here's the quick math: the H1 2025 net loss of RMB100.7 million (US$14.1 million) shows the urgency of this turnaround.

Industry Position

Yunji Inc. holds a niche position in the broader Chinese e-commerce sector, distinguishing itself through a unique membership-based social e-commerce (S-E-C) model. It is no longer a mass-market player; it's a specialist. Its key move in 2025 is the full commitment to becoming a leading platform for organic living, focusing on curated products and private labels like the Youjiang Organic Milk, which generated RMB5 million at launch.

• Membership Value: The core strength remains its engaged user base, demonstrated by the consistently high repeat purchase rate.
• Product Curation: The company uses a rigorous selection process and big data analysis to optimize its Standard Product Units (SPUs), which is crucial for a curated platform.
• Channel Focus: A key strategic initiative is empowering community group leaders with organic foods, leveraging the private domain e-commerce trend to drive sales.

To be fair, the company's financial health is weak, and the stock is considered a high-risk investment by some analysts. Breaking Down Yunji Inc. (YJ) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors is defintely a necessary read. Still, the focus on high-margin products and cost optimization is the right action to support long-term, sustainable growth, even if the near-term outlook is difficult.