Dialogue with Yami Founder Zhou You: Navigating Market Turbulence, Evolving from a B2C E-commerce Platform to an Infrastructure Hub for Asian Goods Overseas

【Ebrun Original】Yami may not be well-known in China, but if you've studied or lived long-term in North America, you've certainly heard of it. When craving hometown flavors or stocking up for the Spring Festival, Yami is the go-to e-commerce platform for Chinese and Asian Americans.

In the first half of this year, Yami completed a Series C funding round, with Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan as the investor. Mitsubishi owns Mitsubishi Shokuhin (Japan's largest food wholesaler), Lawson convenience stores, and numerous beauty and daily-use brands. After the partnership, Yami will gain access to Mitsubishi's network of 6,500 suppliers, covering almost all mainstream Japanese brands and long-tail premium IPs. Yami's Japanese product range, already exceeding 100,000 SKUs, is set to at least double. Additionally, Yami will expand its private label and enter the Canadian market.

Founded in 2013, Yami previously raised a $10 million Series A led by GGV Capital in 2017 and a $50 million Series B led by Altos Ventures and Balsam Bay Partners in 2022.

"The Japanese supply chain is crucial for Yami; Mitsubishi brings us rich local resources. On the other hand, the U.S. is the pinnacle of consumer goods, so Mitsubishi needs an 'export window' that understands American users. What we value most isn't Mitsubishi's capital, and what Mitsubishi values most isn't our financial returns—funding is simply the best way to align both parties," Yami founder Zhou You told Ebrun.

Over his entrepreneurial journey, Zhou's view on fundraising has evolved: funding is merely 'icing on the cake,' not 'fuel in a crisis.' Now, he maintains strategic focus, chasing no trends and prioritizing user needs. Whether expanding to Canada or developing private labels, for Zhou and Yami, these are initiatives 'to be pursued regardless of funding.'

01. From Food to Full Categories: Bringing Asia's Best Products to North America.

According to Zhou, Yami is currently fully profitable and hasn't actively sought funding; the partnership with Mitsubishi came about by chance. Each summer, Yami recruits interns from top universities. One intern from Harvard, an MBA student sponsored by Mitsubishi, noticed a strong alignment between Yami's operations and Mitsubishi's strategy—Mitsubishi planned to take premium Japanese products and services overseas in the coming years. He proactively introduced Yami to Mitsubishi's Silicon Valley investment office. About a year later, the deal was finalized.

Beyond obvious funding and local resources, the partnership has attracted attention and potential collaborations from more Japanese brands. Zhou notes that now more Japanese brands visit them in the U.S. to launch co-branded products and new releases. "The partnership's significance isn't just expanding categories; we focus on deepening existing collaborations to a higher level."

Public records show Zhou founded Yami after experiencing shopping inconveniences while studying in Kansas, where the nearest Asian supermarket required a two-hour drive. He started the platform with a warehouse under 300 square meters, operating solo, initially stocking only food items. At the time, media often linked Yami to Lao Gan Ma, crediting it for making such Asian specialty foods popular in the U.S.

As the user base grew, Yami expanded into skincare, beauty, appliances, baby products, books, and other categories, also introducing some third-party sellers. Product selection broadened from Chinese brands to include Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian items. By 2022, Yami had over 2 million registered users in the U.S. and an SKU count of 260,000.

Zhou says that with a substantial user base, expansion decisions are driven by user 'calls.' For instance, after adding Japanese and Korean brands, Southeast Asian Americans expressed a desire for home-country products, prompting Yami to extend into Southeast Asian offerings.

Yami aims 'to bring Asia's best products to North America,' Zhou emphasizes that the best products carry brand identity and represent Asia. There are distinct brand characteristics across China, Japan, and Korea: "Japan has fewer new brands, so we focus on introducing established ones and co-creating innovative initiatives; China and Korea have more vibrant markets with many new concepts and brands annually, and we want to be the first to bring the newest and best to market."

02. Navigating Downturns: From Follow-the-Trend Expansion to Strategic Simplification.

Since inception, Yami has traversed over a decade. Zhou admits the journey saw 'turbulent periods.' In 2017, after its first funding round, Yami's scale neared $100 million, transitioning from a startup to a formal enterprise. That era saw domestic trends like unmanned retail emerging. Yami attempted to introduce unmanned retail to North America, establishing a dedicated division. Staffing ballooned to over double current levels, yet business volume was only one-third of today's.

However, this didn't spur growth; instead, high burn rates caused a cash flow crisis, leaving insufficient funds for inventory, triggering a vicious cycle. Internally, rapid hiring led to management challenges, with issues surfacing across the board.

From 2019 to 2021, Yami hit a low point. Zhou describes it as a 'perfect storm'—not from a single problem but a confluence of independent factors producing an extremely rare, destructive outcome. He sought external capital to resolve issues, spending nearly a year fundraising and witnessing capital markets' harsh realities. Ultimately, Yami righted the ship through painful austerity measures: renegotiating with suppliers, layoffs, closing unprofitable divisions, and tightening operations, laying the groundwork for subsequent funding.

Reflecting on the downturn, Zhou says it's something he's 'not sorry to have experienced once, but never wants again.' "In hindsight, not securing funds forced me and the team to pull through ourselves, which turned out to be a blessing." This reshaped his view of the CEO role, realizing a CEO shouldn't micromanage but focus on three things: hiring the right people, formulating strategy, and ensuring sufficient capital.

The once-booming unmanned retail proved a false need, with few survivors. But such trends emerge yearly, requiring Zhou to make decisions repeatedly. Now, for any new venture, he applies three criteria: Does it bring new value to customers? Is it commercially sustainable? Does he possess the core capabilities? Under these standards, Yami's business has become increasingly focused, 'doing less but with higher success rates.'

Take the pandemic-driven fresh food delivery example. First, demand surged due to lockdowns; but sustainability-wise, research showed few profitable, scaled fresh e-commerce players globally; crucially, on core competencies, Yami excels in cross-border supply chains and large-warehouse models, whereas fresh food involves locally produced goods, a localized e-commerce relying on micro-fulfillment centers—misaligned with their capabilities.

"Even when we saw many companies thrive in fresh food during the pandemic, we held enough resolve to say we'll never do it," Zhou said.

03. International Expansion: From B2C Platform to Asian Goods Infrastructure.

Zhou reveals Yami has grown 30-40% annually over the past two years. Notably, new non-Asian customers now outnumber Asian ones by two to one. With 20 million Asian Americans versus 300-400 million non-Asians, he predicts non-Asian customers will be a key growth driver as Asian products gain global popularity.

This year, Yami's primary goal is entering Canada. A decade ago, Yami entered the U.S. market via food; but Canadian supermarkets already offer robust food supply, so Zhou sees greater gaps in non-food categories. Canada is geographically and market-wise closest to the U.S. Zhou plans further international expansion but realizes, "The era of racing to claim territory is over; it's about discovering unmet customer needs, which requires deep market penetration and stability before moving to the next."

Yami's private label strategy follows the same logic—addressing unmet needs rather than competing with existing brands. For instance, they identified a void: no zero-calorie soda in the increasingly popular ramune segment, so they launched their own brands. Similarly, matcha is gaining traction among mainstream U.S. consumers but supply is limited; Yami launched a private matcha brand, securing supply through Mitsubishi, as top Japanese matcha production is pre-sold through 2028.

"These market insights were already present; with resources, we could accelerate execution," Zhou noted.

Recently, Yami's business has diversified beyond its B2C platform, operating stores on TikTok, Temu, and more, even offering agency operations for sellers to sell Asian goods online or offline. Zhou says Yami aims to be infrastructure for Asian goods overseas, transitioning from a single e-commerce platform to a broader ecosystem role—a strategy of turning competition into collaboration.

"Looking at the endgame, I'm confident Asian brands and products will gain increasing recognition overseas, leading to a scenario a decade from now where every distributor sells Asian brands. If we remained purely B2C, Yami would likely compete with everyone in the market." He draws a parallel with the cross-border purchasing trend in China a decade ago: "When the overseas shopping boom hit, all big companies followed; those supporting the ecosystem and importing goods survived—the same logic applies."

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