In China's O2O tech, today's 'unicorns' risk becoming tomorrow's 'unicorpses'

In China's hottest tech sector, hundreds of "online to offline" (O2O) start-ups like Shequ001, which draw mobile users to local physical stores and services, have failed as skyrocketing valuations deter investors and put the brakes on fresh funding. Lured by a potential 10 trillion yuan ($1.57 trillion) market for app-based, on-demand, logistics-heavy businesses, venture capitalists and others piled in, throwing billions of dollars at firms that often need only cash and a working app to enter th