Reinventing the Millennium

A much-watched conference in the business circle has come to an end, and the heads of the four giants are still active. The "Jiggan Yike" headed by Alibaba has received a certain amount of response and turmoil, which has attracted attention from both inside and outside the industry about the next development.

In addition, there are more new faces active on the stage this time. Companies such as Youku Tudou, LeTV, and Vipshop have recently gone public, and established companies such as Sina and NetEase are also revitalized. There is indeed a trend of a hundred flowers blooming.

Of course, there are triumphs and disappointments, and those who are frustrated never come back, especially Li Guoqing, who founded Dangdang and Dangtuan successively. He chose e-commerce and group buying, two fast-growing tracks. As a result, he got up early and rushed A late set.

On the first day of April, when Fang Zhuo was driving to Yike's headquarters, a thought suddenly came to his mind.

It's normal for Qingzi not to come here these two days, why didn't Zhang Chaoyang come either?

There were too many people in this meeting, and there was the theme of being under siege. Fang Zhuo asked with some self-doubt: "Did Zhang Chaoyang come two days ago? I seem to have seen Wang Xiaochuan."

Liu Zonghong, the co-driver’s secretary, replied: “Mr. Zhang didn’t come this time.”

Fang Zhuo was slightly surprised: "Huh?"

"I heard that they have been in seclusion since last year." Liu Zonghong said about the news he heard, "I heard someone said yesterday that Mr. Zhang is depressed. I don't know if it is true or not."

Fang Zhuo's surprise disappeared: "Oh."

Liu Zonghong turned slightly sideways, peered at his boss's expression from the corner of his eye, and found that he couldn't tell what his mood was.

When he almost arrived at the company, Fang Zhuo said, "Is he still on the phone? Find it for me, and I'll ask him. Hey, I told him before that you have to look at everything."

Liu Zonghong nodded in agreement: "Okay, I'll ask someone from Sohu and I should be able to contact Mr. Zhang."

No matter how closed the boss is, no matter how much company management is handed over to senior executives, there should still be the most basic contact channels.

Fang Zhuo seemed to have opened up his chat box, recalling his exchanges with Zhang Chaoyang over the years. Generally speaking, Brother Chaoyang is still a good person, and Sohu can be called the Whampoa Military Academy on the Internet.

He finally shook his head and sighed: "Let's see if we can let him come to Shanghai for recuperation. I think he and Zhou Xin can play together."

Liu Zonghong praised in his heart that the boss was still kind-hearted and interested in his friends.

However, he persuaded: "Mr. Fang, you can't. Mr. Zhou likes to go fishing in the sea. If Mr. Zhang sits on the boat and looks at the endless sea..."

Fang Zhuo thought it made sense and said in deep thought: "This is a matter. Let him come to Yike Research Center and squat for a while. I think our research center has a lot of strange research, and some involve physical theory. Maybe he can solve it." he."

Liu Zonghong once again praised the kind-hearted boss and said that he was not with the wrong person.

The car arrived at the headquarters and the group got out.

When Fang Zhuo was about to reach the elevator door, he asked casually: "Has Wang Xiaochuan gone back? If you are still in Shanghai, make an appointment to come to the company for a chat."

Liu Zonghong's footsteps were casual, and he had to give his boss more praise. Mr. Fang was really kind-hearted and did not want to bother Mr. Zhang with those career-related scandals.

Moreover, it is clear between public and private! It's a win-win!

Liu Zonghong followed his boss to the 23rd floor. When he saw him summoning Qi He, Liu Qiangdong and other members of the general office for a meeting, he immediately went to get Mr. Zhang's contact information.

This boss is really in seclusion. It took several people to get the most basic contact information. The situation is indeed abnormal.

Liu Zonghong briefly looked over the documents handed in today, but he didn't have any thoughts in his mind. On the other side, Suning's April offensive had already begun.

In the middle of last month, Suning announced its April activities, and Zhang Jindong also expressed a tough stance two days ago.

Sure enough, Suning's online website Suning Cloud Shang has the website slogan "The lowest price on the entire Internet in April, buy home appliances from Suning". In the promotion launched today, it also named its friends in a very straightforward way, saying "Better than Tesco" Cheaper” online promotion.

In addition to being extensively familiar with many matters of Yike, Liu Zonghong also had some knowledge of the situation in the building next door. He knew that Yigou had been mobilizing troops and generals in the past half month, including but not limited to adjusting the positions of some senior executives, and today there are more It was a meeting with nearly 20 important suppliers.

The meeting in the president's office was not over yet. Liu Zonghong urgently sorted out the latest news, knowing that his boss would definitely give priority to it.

However, the length of this morning's meeting was somewhat beyond Liu Zonghong's expectation. It didn't end until eleven o'clock. Tesco on the other side had already given a price comparison response and launched new promotions on its website.

When Liu Zonghong walked into the president's office, the first thing he reported was the next door: "Mr. Fang, Mr. Su is meeting with suppliers such as Haier and Gree."

Fang Zhuo glanced at the time: "Yes, I know. There is a reception at noon. I will go over to meet you later. This is to fulfill the director's duty of supporting the company."

"Tesco will definitely win." Liu Zonghong expressed the confidence in the camp.

Fang Zhuo smiled and said: "Price wars are temporary, whether they win or lose, they are all temporary. We should still focus on long-term development. Tesco's long-term strategy is fine."

The price war will not stop, but long-term development is the top priority.

"I saw that Mr. Liu and the others looked very solemn when they went out." Seeing that his boss was in a good mood, Liu Zonghong handed over Mr. Zhang's number while talking about his observations just now.

"It should be okay. This year's new phone release has been pushed to September." Fang Zhuo entered Zhang Chaoyang's contact information into his phone and said casually, "The European development of Yike Cloud's business is a very heavy task, and domestic mobile phone competition is downward. It’s also worthy of attention.”

Because Bingxin will introduce a new process at 32nm, production capacity will be postponed, and Zhurong chips need to be further optimized. This is the first time that Yike has been postponed to the third quarter since the release of mobile phones.

Fang Zhuo discussed the changes with senior executives such as Yu Hong, Pan Ben, and Liu Qiangdong.

Taiji has already delivered 28nm chips to customers, and it has strengthened its cooperation with Qualcomm and is likely to launch a quad-core processor based on this advanced process within the year.

Due to the ice core manufacturing process, Yike may face lagging chip performance soon after the new phone is released, which has not happened in the past few years.

The good news is that Qualcomm chips based on 28nm may not be purchased by Samsung, and the chips equipped by Samsung will only use its own mass-produced products, which are also made using the 32nm process.

Taiwanese reporters are eyeing the ice core, but Samsung is also striving to catch up with Taiwanese reporters and will not compete with its enemies in this regard.

Although Apple in Yusan's family has had disputes with Samsung, it cannot get rid of Samsung's mass-produced chips in a short period of time. Although it has been revealed that it is colluding with Taiwanese reporters, it still needs research and development time.

This means that Qualcomm’s chip design based on the world’s most advanced process will most likely not be used by the world’s three most representative smartphone brands for the first time.

Looking at it this way, I really can’t tell who is hurt more.

Yi Ke: I don’t use Taiji’s chip.

Samsung: If you don’t use it, then neither will I.

Apple: I want to use it, but... forget it, let others use it.

Whether the struggling second- and third-tier mobile phone brands such as Nokia and Sony can see a turnaround is a competitive situation that Yike discussed and prevented this morning.

Liu Zonghong followed the situation of the company's flagship in his mind and asked: "Then the 'unparalleled' tablet will also be released in September?"

"It has to be pushed back, and 'unparalleled' requires more effort. The response of the first generation was really mediocre." Fang Zhuo shook his head, "Everyone said it lived up to the name."

Android's adaptation performance on tablets is really not good, and this needs to be improved iteratively.

Yike has been criticized in this regard, but it is not in a hurry to try to reverse the situation. It still needs to be polished. Therefore, the second generation of "unparalleled" tablets may have to be pushed to the fourth quarter.

There is even a suggestion from the R\u0026D department that the Galaxy II may consider trying 28nm chips. Anyway, the delay is also postponed, so it is better to postpone it for a bigger one.

This is an option that is still under discussion.

Liu Zonghong was talking about the tablet, and what he handed to his boss was the latest information sorted out on the tablet.

Ali shouted the slogan "Just do Yike", and Suning now officially fired the first shot of the siege.

Fang Zhuo scanned it and didn't see anything new. Price wars were the only thing on the Internet.

He pondered for a moment: "Suning is still limiting its scope to its online website and has not spread to its own offline stores. Zhang Jindong himself also knows that what he can carry is limited. Now he just wants a name. How can he win? "

This was something discussed at the dinner party before. It is difficult for offline stores to bear a price war for a long time, and Suning cannot completely separate online and offline.

Liu Zonghong did not express an opinion. He just wanted to be a listener at this time.

Fang Zhuo clicked on the website on his computer and browsed around briefly. He found that even the page of "Suning Cloud Commerce" was similar to that of Tesco, and the related slogans were even more conspicuous.

He closed the website, pressed down the tablet, and said with a smile: "It's good to give some profits to everyone. I won't say anything to the media anymore. I'll leave it to Mr. Su."

Tesco’s competition is to bring the war to Suning’s core areas.

This weakness is obvious, but those in the game who are obsessed with the growth of stores, revenue, and market value do not think it is a big problem.

When Fang Zhuo got up and went to the next building, a new wave of responses from Tesco was also spread out on different platforms.

“We sincerely invite Suning’s 1,687 stores to share profits!”

“Yigou insists on the same prices online and offline!”

“Not just online, go to Suning to see it offline, come to E-commerce to buy online, you will pay double the price difference if you buy more!”

Tesco launched an invitation to a comprehensive price war with its friends, rather than just talking about Suning's online "Suning Cloud Business".

This wave of publicity did not receive an immediate response from Suning.

At 12 o'clock at noon, Fang Zhuo appeared in the conference room on the 23rd floor of Tesco and met many important suppliers.

The focus of Suning's attack this time is interesting. They are "major appliances" in home appliances, which belong to the group with relatively room for compression of profits. Naturally, Tesco invited suppliers of major appliances.

Except for Zhang Xuebin, the head of Changhong, Fang Zhuo didn't see many acquaintances, but everyone was familiar with Yike BOSS.

Fang Zhuo received a lot of greetings. He also smiled and said hello before sitting down and mentioned the situation this time.

"It's another price war. The last time it was similar was when we fought with Gome. At that time, Suning was still our partner."

At that time, Tesco had insufficient publicity channels, weak offline warehousing capabilities, and limited carrying capacity. In addition, Gome was the number one in the market, so it had common interests with companies such as Suning.

"Mr. Fang, your price war is also very difficult for us." Changhong's Zhang Xuebin said, "Both sides have to pressure. Tesco has been so aggressive since the beginning, but Suning has been... gentler."

His words were more euphemistic, but they actually showed that suppliers have choices.

In terms of revenue last year, Tesco had slightly more revenue than Suning, but they are roughly the same size. In theory, if a supplier is squeezed too hard, it can naturally choose the other party.

As Zhang Xuebin spoke out, other executives from Haier, Hisense, Konka, Skyworth and other companies also spoke out. This is a real conflict of interests.

Today, Mr. Su proposed a way to subsidize the website and suppliers together, but it was not very accepted. However, everyone was not willing to completely offend the angry Tesco. The price war is only temporary, but the market is long-lasting.

Suning can just provide checks and balances. If we really say that we will not supply Tesco to you from now on, this is not the best way to deal with it.

"Suning's good days are over." Fang Zhuo did not directly respond to the practical problems of this group of executives, but said with a smile, "This year is probably Suning's best year."

He threw the biggest gimmick on the table.

Suning’s revenue exceeded 90 billion last year. Are its good days coming to an end?

Many people in the conference room exchanged glances, knowing that Fang Zhuo was afraid that he was going to scaremonger people to make everyone bet on Tesco with a better future.

"It would be fine if Suning didn't vigorously transform its online business, but as soon as it does, the synchronization problem between online and offline will be immediately amplified. You all are in the electrical appliances business, and let me ask you, now first-line stores are often consumed What is the question the reporter asked?" Fang Zhuo said seriously.

A group of executives didn't take the question lightly.

Su Wei supported from the side: "Based on our survey, offline stores most often encounter words such as 'yours is not as cheap as online' and 'online is cheaper', and what can make customers make up their minds is nothing more than 'ours. The store cannot run away, "We have after-sales service," and "You can install it today if you buy it today."

Zhang Xuebin laughed and said, "Yigou also conducts this type of investigation."

"Yigou also has offline channels. We truly offer the same prices online and offline. We know the pain points best." Su Wei said, "We also know the operating costs of stores. Therefore, we have acquired Dazhong Electric Appliances before. 'It never expands, it just serves a certain display, transit, and after-sales role."

She continued: "Store expansion is very hard. Suning's 1,687 stores are opened one by one. In the current situation, it is not an advantage, but a burden."

“Let’s put it this way, throughout the year, the leasing expenses, personnel salaries, store decoration amortization, fixed asset depreciation, water, electricity and energy fees of offline stores account for at least 7%-9% of revenue. This is the most real number. How to solve it?"

"Suning's offline operating costs last year were around 8 billion. Who is left to digest this? Online profits have already been pushed downwards."

"How can it be out of sync between online and offline, and how can it be explained to consumers? Since they are all from the same family, and they all belong to you, Suning, then I can just place an order online."

Su Wei talked eloquently.

Fang Zhuo made a simple judgment: "As long as Suning expands online, its gross profit margin will be dragged down, and the operation of offline stores will become a bleeding point, and then it will turn from prosperity to decline."

When Zhang Xuebin heard this, he sincerely asked: "What can Suning do?"

"It's difficult no matter what you do, Mr. Zhang, don't you understand?" Fang Zhuo sighed, "Suning just dies quickly or slowly."

The head of Yike has sentenced Suning's future to death.

Logically speaking, such a person with an extremely biased stance should not believe his words.

However, Mr. Fang... his record is still outstanding.

What he said about living may not mean that he will live, but what he said about dying... did come true a lot.