Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

{Time: June 3, 2003}

{Location: Flower Planting-Special Zone}

If you want to ask what the greatest advantage of a reborn person is, Ning Zimo thinks it must be the understanding of the future.

But how to take advantage of this advantage must rely on timely and advanced planning.

Perhaps after using Pingguo's Aite Yuns as an example, everyone in the Emperor Penguin group would think that they were aiming at Pingguo as a benchmark. But in fact, only Ning Zimo knew it.

The preparation he made today was to compete against Mariana.

In a previous life, in 2008, the outstanding performance of Mariana, the world's largest online retailer, in e-book sales made people begin to rethink their previous judgments about the advancement of e-books.

Then in July 2010, Mariana announced that sales of e-books exceeded hardcover books;

Then by January 2011, e-book sales exceeded paperback sales;

By May 2011, ebook sales had completely surpassed paper books (total non-ebook sales exceeded total paper book sales). For every 100 paper books sold (including hardcover and paperback books)

At the same time, 105 e-books can be sold (excluding free downloadable e-books).

In 2011, Mariana's Kindle revenue will reach $3.8 billion;

Until 2012, e-book sales will exceed paper books by 10%, the transaction volume on Kindle will reach 2.4 billion U.S. dollars, the transaction volume of e-book sales will be 3.7 billion U.S. dollars, and the total revenue on Kindle will reach 6.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The reason why he didn't think about the data from that year was because the market data from 2012 in his previous life was the short-term goal that Ning Zimo felt he could promote and achieve in the near future.

The future is still very long, but in this era when even the future leader of e-books, Mariana, has not yet paid attention to e-book copyrights, it is necessary to cut off its future development space in advance.

Just thinking about it is a very powerful thing.

Waving my fists in my heart, there is still quite a while of preparation time before the actual implementation of Buffett's lunch. These days are left to the team to make good preparations, and what issues need to be understood from the "stock god".

Ning Zimo himself has more important things to deal with. Today, the founder of Chiva Robot will come to talk about investment. Ning Zimo is sitting in the small conference room of Specax without the group, thinking about today

How to talk to the other person.

…

Ning Zimo didn't wait too long. Not long after Ning Zimo sat down, the founder of Chiva walked into the conference room led by Elon Musk.

Three thin-faced men in suits and leather shoes sat on the sofa next to Ning Zimo after a brief introduction.

When Mick Mountz, Raffaello D'Andrea and Peter Wurman were looking at Ning Zimo, Ning Zimo was also looking at them.

They knew Elon Musk's famous name, but the young oriental face opposite him seemed quite unfamiliar to everyone.

But they couldn't help but pay attention to the details Elon Musk showed when he introduced him.

Because with every movement of Elon Musk,

They all showed respect for this young man.

respect?

this means,

This young man is in Elon Musk’s heart,

Even people who are more important than them.

While thinking and talking and laughing, Mick and the other three also took off their suit jackets.

Raphael, who rolled up his shirt sleeves, even showed off the angular muscle lines on his forearms. At first glance, he looked like someone who exercised on a daily basis.

At first, Ning Zimo was a little worried that the other party would ignore him.

But as we chatted, he gave up this worry, because with the cooperation of Elon Musk, he completely took the initiative in the topic.

"Mick, Raphael, we may all think that the market for robot products must exist, and investing in it must be planning for the future. We also agree on this. But where is your specific positioning of robot products?

Do you have a clear idea?"

After the initial conversation, Elon Musk fulfilled his promise to Ning Zimo and let Ning Zimo take the lead in this investment.

As a result, the situation gradually came under Ning Zimo's control.

Ning Zimo had a clear purpose in taking the opportunity to raise this issue.

It can be said that everything we talked about through specax today is actually preparing for the b2c e-commerce platform that will be launched in the near future. E-books and even music, movies and television, these are the products that will be sold by the b2c e-commerce platform in the future.

They are all commodities.

Before Qiwa started negotiating, Ning Zimo classified it as part of the automated warehouse it was targeting.

It belongs to,technical support.

However, Ning Zimo was thinking about one thing.

It was not until March 2012 in the previous life that Mariana acquired Chiva Robotics for US$775 million. At that time, this acquisition was still the second largest acquisition in Mariana's history.

Since Mariana's acquisition, Chiva has entered a silent period and stopped its marketing activities. Chiva has become a barrier to Mariana's unwillingness to share technology with competitors, and has become a barrier to Mariana's ability to lead other e-commerce platforms in the world.

's top priority.

At that time, the robot had already shown its value, so people started to pay attention to it.

But it's only 2003, and robots are mostly used in heavy industries such as automobiles. And most of them are fixed-point robots, which are completely different from the logistics robots Ning Zimo envisioned.

In the early 21st century, no matter which country you are in, it is still in the period of demographic dividend. Logistics is basically a matter handled by humans. Who would have thought of relying on robots to solve logistics problems?

Even if they think of using robots to solve problems, who can figure out how to use robots to solve logistics problems?

Although we are now faced with the opportunity to acquire Chiwa Robots, how do Chiwa's founders consider the future development direction? This will directly determine when to acquire Chiwa and integrate it into the future b2c e-commerce platform.

Has the ability to compete with Mariana.

Therefore, what Ning Zimo has to do now is not only to acquire Qiwa, but also to understand how the founders of Qiwa Robot define the direction of their products.

If Qiva has the right direction, the Qiva system can appear in B2C automated warehouses earlier, and the B2C project that has not yet been officially launched can have the qualifications to soar.

After Ning Zimo raised the question directly, Mick, one of the founders of Qiwa System, actually got his eyes lit up.

Mick Muntz was born in Frankfurt, Germany, to parents in the U.S. military. He is an alumnus of MIT and Harvard Business School and has worked at Motorola and Pingo.

Before founding Chiva, Mick Munz worked at Webvan, a failed online grocery platform.

The failure of webvan led Mickmundz to conclude that webvan was caused by the inflexibility of the existing material handling system and the high cost of order fulfillment. This problem inspired Mickmundz to imagine that through a system that could be used to request orders at any time,

A system for any carrier offering any item creates a better way to pick, pack and ship orders.

To realize his vision, Mick Munz turned to two of his friends, Peter Warman and Raphael Andrea, who were experts in the fields of engineering and robotics.

When the beautiful vision was placed in front of the three people, the three hit it off, and Chiwa Company was born.

What worries Mikmundz is that when he was looking for investment for Qiva in the past period of time, all the questions from investors were focused on what Qiva's robot was.

But the young man in front of him, who even Elon Musk expressed respect for, was different. He directly informed him of his judgment on the robot market, and even pointed the question directly at the product's positioning.

This made him understand that this young Ning not only had a desire for robots, he must have thought about and had a certain understanding of robots.

Glancing at the two friends beside him, Mick thought for a while and said, "Ning, I can tell that you have your own needs and even opinions about robots. I can tell you about our team's philosophy.

What we are considering is to use robots to realize automated warehouses. If the staff responsible for picking items do not need to move around the warehouse to pick up the goods, but stand still and wait for the goods to move to their hands, pick them up and put them into boxes.

, that is such a beautiful thing.”

As soon as Mick finished speaking, Raphael, with his muscular arms, jumped out and answered, "Mr. Ning, please believe us. We have a complete idea for Qiwa's robot, but we just lack the funds to complete the project.

If you and Mr. Elon are willing to invest money, I believe we can implement the product soon."

Elon Musk frowned as he listened. Just now, when Ning Zimo directly mentioned their vision for robot products, Mick's answer was spot on. He planned a beautiful vision.

It stands to reason that as long as we follow this approach, we can negotiate a good result.

But when this sharp-edged Raphael jumped out, he ruined this beautiful atmosphere.

But Elon was not prepared to say anything. Although he borrowed the venue of speacx to implement this negotiation, the protagonist of this negotiation is Ning Zimo. He must leave enough space for the protagonist, because this small situation is his own

The young people I admire will definitely encounter this situation in the future.

Under Elon's gaze, Ning Zimo seemed unmoved and just nodded.

Looking at Raphael with a smile, Ning Zimo said, "So your robot's positioning relies on vision, and there are some auxiliary reference lines on the ground. The robot is even equipped with a recognition system that can recognize objects.

At the same time, the robots that handle the tasks should have priority, and the robots with lower priorities should wait. The difficulty for a large group of robots working together lies in task allocation, and how to arrange the robots to pick up different shelves most efficiently."

Elon saw that the scene changed with Ning Zimo's words. Raphael, who was sharp just now, frowned, while Mick beside him patted his thigh excitedly, "Yes, that's right! We

I have been thinking about how to solve the problem of automatic path finding for robots, but your method of laying auxiliary reference lines is definitely the simplest solution."

Mick is very excited, because for the Chiwa team, the current problem is how to explain to investors how this Chiwa system works.

These problems did not seem to exist in front of this young investor. He even mentioned some details. Those creative details are enough to make up for the shortcomings of Qiwa robot research and development, and are almost the limit of what Qiwa can do in the short term.

But as soon as Mick finished speaking, Raphael beside him frowned even more. He reached out and patted Mick's arm, waking up his old friend from his excitement, and gave him a hidden look.

.

Obviously, Raphael was not satisfied with his old friend exposing his trump card.

Ning Zimo saw some of the small actions of the three of them and knew that there would be some differences in their personalities.

But from the perspective of Ning Zimo, a person from the future, looking at the present, he really doesn't want to be involved in this million-dollar investment.

mmp,

This is to force me,

Magnification move?

Ning Zimo's mind was spinning rapidly, and he quickly revised his negotiation strategy in his mind.

Glancing at the Chiwa trio, Ning Zimo stepped closer and said, "If I were asked to define a logistics robot, I would consider a centralized logistics processing center. There, there are robots that deliver the goods to the order processing personnel.

On the truck, they sort and pack the goods. The conveyor belt robots then distribute the packaged goods to vehicles in different areas.

The forklift robots will deliver the packages into the carriages in accordance with the predetermined unloading sequence. The dispatch center that allocates tasks for these robots will allocate the tasks of the robots in advance based on sales data so that they can operate at the most efficient efficiency."

Ning Zimo took a deep look at Raphael, who had a confused look on his face, and continued with a raised corner of his mouth, "But I know very well that the core thing of the logistics center is not a robot, but a set of logistics data processing centers.

This data processing center is a software system that coordinates the entire process of product self-warehousing, shelving, sales, outbound delivery, distribution, and replenishment, and all robots or warehouse personnel only complete the delivery of goods according to planned tasks.

The data center will implement a warehouse allocation plan for nearby warehouse space based on supply chain and inventory data.

For example, arranging warehousing: the data center will perform preprocessing in advance based on the size, vulnerability, and marketability of the goods to achieve efficient storage and even delivery of goods.

Another example is sorting: the data center will optimize the picking route for each robot. When it is no longer possible to fully implement mechanized management, it will first realize the goods and find people to manage the goods."

Ning Zimo picked out a few less important things in his mind about the key processing points of the logistics center.

This system is the automated warehouse management system that Mariana was proud of in its previous life.

Ning Zimo did not put forward the most important order optimization plan because it was the biggest secret of the logistics center.

When Ning Zimo mentioned these things, he had already stood up and stood in front of several people.

Looking down from a high position is also one of the negotiation techniques for taking the initiative.

"Whether it's Frankfurt, Germany, or Cologne. If I want to connect several suitable robot manufacturers in series, I believe that investing in hardware will not take up too much money for me, and software is the strength of me and my team.

.”

As soon as Ning Zi finished speaking, Elon Musk burst out laughing.

"Gentlemen, I just looked at you when I introduced Ning. This Ning is an important part of Beibao's 1.8 billion sale to Billionaire. As the youngest COO in Beibao's history, he once led companies including Beibao.

He is very familiar with the software team including Baocto."

Elon pointed at Ning Zimo, looked at the Chiwa trio and said with a smile, "When Ning was at Beibao, he was a genius engineer who was called a 'creative genius'."

Elon’s praise is in my ears,

But Ning Zimo looked calmly at Rafael Andrea opposite.

Although he is not young, I still don’t know what he is thinking?

I always have multiple plans for my future!

Raphael wants to show off on a small project like Chiva!

Those don't exist.