Rewrite the Technological Landscape

"Multinational e-commerce? Coincidentally, I just heard someone talk about this in the past two days."

Ma Yun couldn't help being a little curious, "Few people in China would mention the term cross-border e-commerce. Who did you hear it from?"

"A company called DealExtreme."

"So it's DX." Ma Yun suddenly realized.

Compared with well-known cross-border e-commerce companies such as Lantingjishi, Milan.com and AliExpress of Ali, DX is much less famous, but this company was founded earlier than other companies. It was founded in 2006. This year's maker conference won the third place in the entrepreneurial project.

DX mainly sells 3C products, with low prices and forum marketing as the core means, especially DX’s forum marketing, which is called the level of the ancestors.

However, Meng Qian is more concerned about his ability to impact cross-border e-commerce in 2006.

"I don't know how DX analyzes the current cross-border e-commerce environment." Ma Yun first understood the situation.

Meng Qian focused on talking to Ma Yun. What DX said was mainly about the history of cross-border e-commerce.

From 1999 to 2003 was the 1.0 era of cross-border e-commerce. The main business model was online display and offline transaction foreign trade information service model, which basically did not involve transactions.

The profit model at this stage is mainly to collect membership fees from companies that display information, and gradually derive bidding promotion, consulting services, etc. to provide suppliers with one-stop information flow value-added services.

Representative platforms include Global Sources and Alibaba.

In 2004, it entered the second stage of cross-border e-commerce. There are more and more transactions in this stage, including B2B and B2C. In the B2C field, eBay is currently doing better.

DX is mainly interested in the cross-border B2C market. They believe that the dividends of domestic information asymmetry will become smaller and smaller, but the dividends of information asymmetry between countries have just begun. Rapid development and strong price advantage allowed him to see business opportunities.

"There is no problem with the judgment of the market. In fact, I have also communicated with the chairman of DX, but to be honest, I am not very optimistic about the long-term development of this company." Ma Yun said bluntly.

"Oh? How to say?"

"DX only wants to be a platform, and he only sees the market." Ma Yun leaned forward a little, "During the internal meeting of Ali earlier this year, we were discussing a question, is e-commerce really just a platform? If Ali only works as a platform in this life, how long can we last?

How on earth did we beat eBay? Is it really free? As the dust settles, I don't think so now, free is one of our advantages, but I can only call it a local advantage now, in fact, I have already mentioned some things, the reason why we can beat ebay It is also because we have three magic weapons, Alipay, logistics advantages, and the Dafeng Group Alliance.

If we continue to dig deeper, behind Alipay is the financial system, behind the advantages of logistics is the logistics system, and behind the alliance of Dafeng Group is technology, traffic, and capital.

Therefore, being an e-commerce platform can be compared to a computer company. Some computer brands are actually simple assembly companies, but they can also sell products and become a good brand through marketing and price means. Focus on core technologies, including chip R\u0026D, motherboard R\u0026D, and graphics card R\u0026D.

So which of these two computer brands is more likely to develop for a long time? "

Meng Qian picked up his teacup and smiled, "Boss Ma just said that Dafeng Group is awesome."

"Haha." Ma Yun continued with a hearty smile, "So if Taobao really wants to become a great and sustainable company, it can't just focus on the platform itself, which is the easiest thing to be replaced. This is even more so with commercial platforms.

Just like the one thing I care about most now, logistics. Now that I am doing cross-border e-commerce, there is no domestic logistics company that can be on the stage. The platform needs to cooperate with foreign logistics companies, so if one day foreign logistics companies deliberately obstruct it, how can I do it? manage?

This is what Mr. Meng often said, stuck neck. "

Meng Qian nodded subconsciously, and couldn't help but think of the Huawei shipment being transferred to the United States by FedEx and hundreds of shipments being detained. If someone mishandled it, this matter will be over.

"Why do you care most about logistics?" Meng Qian noticed the details in what Ma Yun said just now.

Ma Yun said frankly, "Through testing the waters overseas, I have a deeper understanding of e-commerce. E-commerce is not simply an online platform to help buyers and sellers build bridges. The essence of e-commerce It is still trade, but what is behind the development of trade?

To put it bluntly, trade comes from the circulation of goods and products. Every link in the circulation will produce economic behaviors, thus forming a prosperous economy. Therefore, no matter how trade develops, even on a larger scale, as long as it is linked to the economy, logistics is inseparable.

It is logistics that promotes the development of trade, and trade can drive economic development. Therefore, if you want to stand on the commanding heights in international trade, you cannot do without the construction of transnational logistics. "

"Then what do you think of domestic logistics companies?"

Ma Yun looked helpless, "If you want to talk about international logistics, let me put it this way, foreign logistics has been developed for 30 years, while our domestic logistics has not even started."

"Taobao, the main logistics company in China, should have been in contact with it. In your opinion, do you have any more potential?"

Ma Yun curled his lips and shook his head, "I don't see any particularly bright companies yet."

"Do you know about SF Express?"

"Xiangjiang Wang Wei's SF Express? I know, I have contacted it not long ago, oh yes, I remember I still have SF Express's report here." Ma Yun dug out a document from his briefcase, "Hey, that's it, at the beginning of this year According to the latest data, SF Express has established 2 distribution centers, 52 transit yards, more than 2,000 trunk line transit vehicles and more than 1,100 business outlets in China, covering more than 100 large and medium-sized cities and more than 300 cities in 20 provinces in China. County-level cities or towns.

In terms of scale, it is still good, and Wang Wei told me before that SF Express plans to establish its own airline company before 2008, and the current airline sales work has already started. "

"Then do you think this company has potential?"

"The development speed is quite fast. I think the potential is not small in China, but I still don't give much hope when it comes to the world. After all, the company's foundation is not enough. It is too difficult to make up for the gap of the past 30 years."

Meng Qian couldn't help asking, "If you want to develop international logistics, what problems do you need to overcome?"

"The three most basic questions are, firstly, the express mail supervision center in the destination country. The express mail supervision center is an essential facility for the development of international express delivery and a key node for the difference between express mail customs clearance and air general cargo clearance. But in Omi, you want to establish your own It is almost impossible for the express delivery supervision center in China. For customs clearance in the United States, Express Express of the Neon Country must find a local partner in the United States.

The second is the independent delivery network at the destination. This is a monopolistic and high-threshold business. Currently, the only logistics companies in the United States with independent networks are UPS and FedEx.

Including what Wang Wei said before, if SF Express wants to do cross-border logistics in the future, it can only rely on the United Parcel or FedEx network for delivery in the United States. It is almost impossible to build your own network in the United States.

That is to say, one day we want to boycott FedEx and choose to use SF Express, and we may find that FedEx is responsible for the delivery of SF Express in the United States, which is so helpless.

Another problem is that if you want to open an all-cargo plane direct to Omi, you need to negotiate air rights with the other country. Who owns the air rights? Of course, it is in the hands of the state, so this matter is not easy to discuss. "

Meng Qian's expression became serious and serious, "International logistics is a tough nut to crack."

"To be precise, going to emerging markets to challenge logistics is gnawing at the bones, but going to developed countries to develop logistics is gnawing at stones."

Meng Qian leaned back, looked up at the ceiling of the office, and said to himself, "Even if it's a diamond, I have to chew it."

Ma Yun, who was about to drink tea, paused subconsciously. He raised his head and looked at Meng Qian as if to make sure he had heard correctly. Deep in his heart, he of course hoped that Meng Qian would take action, hoped that Meng Qian would do this, but just now After talking about the difficulties, Meng Qian had the intention of challenging even without a chance to talk about it. Ma Yun couldn't help admiring, "You are still you, never afraid."

Meng Qian waved his hand indifferently, just as Ma Yun predicted, even SF Express will not do well in the international market in the future. His distribution in the United States really depends on the American logistics company, but logistics is a thing of the past. will become more and more important as the economy develops.

No one in Huaxia in this field can stand up, so Meng Qian will stand up. As for success or not, anyway, if you fail, you will still be the same as in your previous life. How bad can it be?

Although Meng Qian is not familiar with this field, he still has some impressions of what will happen in the financial crisis. In addition, even if Omi cannot go deep, at least the Asian region, at least the emerging markets must be won, and it will be better than the previous life. , The worst plan is to waste some money.

Anyway.

Counseling certainly does not exist.