(Yicai Global) Dec. 31 -- China Evergrande Group, whose business covers real estate and auto manufacturing, has recently partnered with more than 30,000 realty agency stores and 21 million brokers across China to transform its online home selling platform Hengfangtong into trading platform Fangchebao that also showcases cars.

Shenzhen-based Evergrande and 152 intermediaries across China reorganized and established FCB Group in the second half as an omnichannel for online and offline transactions of properties and vehicles, Shi Junping, chairman of FCB Group, said at the company’s unveiling ceremony in Shenzhen yesterday, adding it aims to build the world’s largest and most powerful online technology service group.

Evergrande’s shareholding ratio in FCB Group is still unknown, however.

FCB Group has also released a national brokerage platform and Fangchebao Software-as-a-Service management platform whose business spans transactions in new homes, second-hand housing, new and used cars, as well as home decorations, furniture and car user services. Fangchebao has 30,600 offline stores and 21.62 million broker members, Shi said.

Evergrande achieved sales of about CNY286 billion (USD43.7 billion) in the first half amid the Covid-19 pandemic from its online realty sales platform Hengfangtong and the business model that every employee can be a broker, which brought in 82 percent of the firm’s first-half sales revenue.

The employee-broker business model allows Fangchebao to slash the cost of intermediate channels and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, an analyst said, adding it may end the primacy of real estate brokerage company Ke Holdings’ offline platform, which has about 37,000 virtual outlets.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi