Reinventing the Millennium

On the day when Fang Zhuo and his party returned the application, Tesco, a new domestic e-commerce player, had been online for five days.

In the past five days, President Su Wei's evaluation in the weekly report could be described in four words - good or bad.

And if we refer to external public opinion, it is - polarization.

There was still smoke in the e-commerce competition last year. This year, with Taobao announcing that it is leading eBay in market share, different e-commerce brands have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

In the past two years, the listing of Yike, Ctrip, Shanda, and Penguin... have made the concept of the Internet surge with an astonishing craze. Venture capitalists have the deepest experience of this.

Internet + e-commerce has become the craze among the crazes. The Internet on the left, e-commerce on the right, and project documents appear repeatedly in front of us.

However, this concept is hot, but it is more expensive to actually implement it.

Take Taobao as an example. At the beginning and end of last year, it raised two large sums of money in order to compete with eBay. How can ordinary people play with this?

Let’s look at Yike after Penguin set up Paipai.com to enter C2C. It then entered into B2C and established Tesco. It looks like it is even more of a money burner.

On the afternoon of March 1, "China Securities News" published an analysis of domestic e-commerce, pointing out the industry's views on the two development models of C2C and B2C.

Compared with B2C, C2C is undoubtedly an asset-light business model, and is more generally considered to be a model that is in line with the development of domestic enterprises.

——"The total transaction volume of China's e-commerce reached 440 billion yuan in 2004 and will surge to 700 billion yuan in 2005. The rapidly growing domestic e-commerce market provides huge growth space for e-commerce companies, enough to give birth to international level e-commerce enterprise.”

——"Last year, two local companies and two international giants were fighting each other. This year, the situation in both B2C and C2C has become clearer. Our local companies seem to understand consumer preferences better."

——“As Taobao and Dangdang gradually gain dominance, more local companies have joined the e-commerce battlefield.”

——"Penguin launched Paipai.com based on its huge user base, which is full of vitality. NetEase is looking for partners in South China, aiming to share the book e-commerce market."

——"Yike, which has been rumored to be entering the e-commerce market, has finally officially made its move."

——"It is worth mentioning that although they are both B2C, Yike has made greater progress than its predecessor Dangdang. It has launched a full range of brands including 3C products, and it has gradually won over Dangdang, Amazon and even last year. Bertelsmann with a certain market share has formed a direct competitive relationship."

——"The interesting detail is that Yike made two investments in Dangdang. The first time was successful, but the second time failed. It is said that it was the setback of the investment that made Yike officially make up his mind to compete in person. "

——“The day before Tesco went online, our reporter visited Tesco’s No. 1 warehouse in Kunshan. It is said to be a semi-automatic storage and sorting center built by former Amazon warehousing experts over several months. It is known as the largest warehouse in China. The largest e-commerce warehouse.”

——“Regarding Tesco and its other competitor Bertelsmann, Tesco’s parent company Yiko is a shareholder of Sony Bertelsmann Music Company and is rumored to have in-depth cooperation with Bertelsmann Media’s music copyright.”

——"Three 'rumors' about Tesco are far from enough to outline the full picture of Tesco, but we believe that Tesco will definitely set off a new wave in the domestic e-commerce market."

…

The second day after Tesco went online.

A reporter interviewed Li Guoqing, the head of Dangdang.com, and asked him what he thought of Tesco.

New players are targeting all categories, including books, which is Dangdang’s core business.

Therefore, everyone was inevitably surprised when they saw Yike after the website was launched. After all, Yike and Dangdang have an investment relationship and are somewhat in love with each other.

Moreover, when looking at the dynamics of Yike's acquisition of Dazhong Electrical Appliances, most people in the industry believed that Yike was starting from the electrical appliances side - the more informed the people, the more they thought so.

Li Guoqing had held an impromptu company meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss the entry of Tesco. He really didn't expect that the other party would pick books together.

“Solve your competitors within six months.”

Li Guoqing only gave a brief response to the reporter's interview, full of confidence and attitude.

He did have confidence and had to show this confidence.

Li Guoqing had been involved in the field of book publishing before he started Dangdang. He brought his offline experience online and achieved success in one fell swoop. Last year, he gradually suppressed Amazon's momentum, which gave him even more confidence.

As for the meeting discussion on the competitive situation of Tesco, the final result was——

"Yike's focus must be on electronic products, otherwise Yike would not acquire Dazhong Electrical Appliances. This is a complement to offline channels."

"They have just launched, and the energy of all categories must be allocated. In the book field, we must take advantage of the other party's weakness to knock off its tentacles."

“We are not even afraid of Amazon, so why are we afraid of a counterfeit version of Amazon?”

"Last year was an important step in stepping out of Dangdang's full category. This year we will accelerate the pace of full category development while maintaining the core book business."

"Six months is enough."

In this way, when reporters' cameras hit his face, Li Guoqing had to show his confidence.

Forget about everything else, but even if it's that man on the other side, you can't be timid in your core business without fighting.

…

The third day of Tesco’s launch.

This day is March 3rd.

A considerable number of people in China who are paying attention to the dynamics of Yigou's entry into the e-commerce market are ultimately concerned about Yike, the parent company behind it, or in other words, Fang Zhuo, who controls the direction of Yike.

Li Guoqing's confident declaration of war fermented overnight, and basically everyone in the Internet industry knew about it.

Everyone is more interested in how Tesco will respond.

However, Tesco has not made any move, but is still checking for deficiencies and filling in the gaps during operations.

This morning, Alibaba’s head Ma Chen held a daily meeting to discuss the competition between Taobao and eBay in the first half of the year.

At the end of the meeting, he talked about Li Guoqing's response and said with a smile: "Mr. Li is really confident. This reminds me of eBay. After acquiring eBay, they claimed to end the Chinese e-commerce market within 18 months. The war is about to expire, and eBay is getting worse and worse."

Taobao CEO Sun Yutong heard this and asked: "Mr. Ma thinks Dangdang will lose?"

Ma Chen smiled and said: "In the book sector, I don't know who will win between Dangdang and Tesco."

He took a sip of tea and continued: "But as for Mr. Li and Mr. Fang, I think Mr. Li will lose."

Sun Yutong asked the reason: "Why? I think Mr. Fang's previous development momentum of pharmaceutical e-commerce was average. He has a good music player, so he may not be able to do well in e-commerce, right?"

Before Ma Yan could speak, Cai Chongxin, who was standing next to him, spoke up: "His medical e-commerce company is small but well-equipped. It was more of a breakthrough because of the original policy. The medical e-commerce company may not have potential, but it is difficult now." , I think Mr. Fang did not devote resources to develop pharmaceutical e-commerce because of this consideration."

Ma Chen said at this time: "I think Mr. Fang is rich and can make money better than Mr. Li, and he dares to spend money more than Mr. Li."

Cai Chongxin agreed with this and thought: "It's better not to say what Mr. Li said. Mr. Fang is not a kind-hearted person after six months. The two families will probably fight each other until we completely defeat eBay. Or if we suppress its market share to 20%, I think we can free up our hands to engage in B2C."

Ma Yan was silent.

As the CEO of Taobao, Sun Yutong said in a somewhat fierce tone: "B2C is too asset-heavy. Taobao can completely suppress eBay. The next step is to sink the network to a lower market."

Cai Chongxin frowned and said: "The B2C path is feasible. When E-commerce was launched, Dangdang and Amazon were still there to restrain it. Should we wait for it to become the Amazon of the East before we can catch up with it?"

Seeing that Sun Yutong was still arguing, Ma Chen tried to smooth things over: "You guys have more confidence than me. Kill eBay first and then talk about other things."

Both men no longer express their opinions on Taobao's development.

Ma Yan turned his eyes slightly from their faces and ended the meeting happily.

Generally speaking, Taobao's development momentum is very good. It has forced eBay to reduce the related fees for website item registration, window display becomes free, and as for the monthly rental fee for ordinary stores...

The original monthly rent was 50 yuan a month, but now it will be 35 yuan a month.

Ma Chen believes that eBay's posture has not been awakened yet, and it is expected that this confident competitor will completely wake up in the second half of this year.

Just as the Taobao meeting ended, the head of another e-commerce player who was also new to the market recorded an interview program on CCTV and also talked about the current market changes.

Ma Huateng came to CCTV this time because he was invited to participate in the program during the advertising period, so he wanted to promote his own Paipai.com for free.

“In the C2C market, our local companies definitely have advantages.”

"President Yi Kefang also talked about this last year by the West Lake. I have the same view as him. The localization of international giants is a difficult challenge beyond everyone's imagination."

"They are always superstitious about their successful experiences, so eBay has begun to lag behind this year."

"We at Paipai.com are confident that we will catch up with eBay this year."

Ma Huateng did not mention Taobao, which is indeed difficult, but now it is unanimously open to the outside world.

The host asked: "Mr. Ma, which model do you think is more suitable for China, C2C or B2C?"

When Ma Huateng heard this question, he felt that he was digging a hole. Although he was doing C2C, his answer was impartial and he listed the advantages of each.

Sure enough, the next question is to ask about your views on B2C Tesco.

"Yigou is not the first B2C company in China. Dangdang.com is developing very well. In fact, regardless of B2C or C2C, the boundaries between the two will become blurred with the development of the domestic market."

Ma Huateng was still vague.

The host did not dig into the question, but took a piece of paper picked out from the audience and changed it to a lighter question: "Mr. Ma, if Alibaba's Ma Ren, Dangdang's Li Guoqing, and Yike's Fang Zhuo all stood in front of you and asked If you were to apply for a job, which one would you choose? And why?”

Ma Huateng was stunned and laughed out loud.

Along with his laughter, there was also laughter on the scene, as if this laughter before answering already indicated some answers.

Ma Huateng spread his hands: "If these three come to me for a job, really, I will definitely laugh out loud like just now."

There was another faint laugh in the audience, and they were even more curious about the choice of the Penguin Leader.

Ma Huateng thought for a few seconds, and first eliminated one wrong answer. Mr. Li removed it first. Between Mr. Ma and Mr. Fang...

He replied seriously: "If I had to choose one, I would choose Mr. Fang."

The host has the same curiosity as the audience: "Why?"

Ma Huateng smiled: "This choice can make up for my regret."

Everyone present listened quietly to what was going on.

"Actually, I might actually have a chance to invite Mr. Fang to Penguin."

"I actually invited him once."

"I interacted with Mr. Fang relatively early. At that time, the registration website he was running encountered some setbacks, and there were rumors in the industry that his company was going to collapse."

"So, I called him and invited him to come to Penguin as vice president."

Ma Huateng expressed regret: "I shouldn't have just made a phone call at that time. I should have flown to Shanghai to find Mr. Fang. In that case, I might be the richest man in the country now."

The audience was amused again, and then they realized that such a thing had happened before.

The host asked a question on the spot: "Mr. Ma, you still have a chance in the future. If Mr. Fang really joins, which direction will you put him in charge of? I think he is a better president. I can't let him join and you go out." Bar?"

Ma Huateng wondered for a moment whether the host meant something, but he dismissed the idea and said with a smile: "He can be whatever he wants to be. If he is a professional manager, he must be the best in the country." Successful professional managers are what all companies are clamoring for.”

The host picked another note and asked: "Do you support Mr. Fang's Tesco or Mr. Li's Dangdang?"

"I support Dangdang." Ma Huateng replied without hesitation.

The host was surprised. Just now, Mr. Ma had categorically recognized Mr. Fang’s ability. Why did he turn around and support Dangdang?

Ma Huateng gave an explanation: "I know that Yike has investment in Dangdang, and Mr. Fang wins no matter who wins."

This was obviously not a serious answer, but it was enough to suit the atmosphere of the scene.

…

March 5, evening.

Fang Zhuo and his family arrived home by car from the airport.

That evening, Fang Zhuo, after taking a short rest, went to Su Wei's house to hear the progress of the work.

He asked about Dangdang.com.

"Why didn't you give a response?" Fang Zhuo was not very satisfied with this point of Su Wei. When he was flipping through the paper message summary, he once thought that it was because of Teacher Su's usual working style, which was too gentle!

"Yike Investment has shares in Dangdang.com." Su Wei replied seriously.

Fang Zhuo frowned. He would not forgive her dissatisfaction at work just because she was beautiful tonight.

"I'm afraid that Dangdang will be killed as soon as Tesco shows its strength." Su Wei hesitated, "Wouldn't the investment be in vain?"

Fang Zhuo: "..."