Jack Ma and Liu Qiangdong appeared, Ali and Jingdong changed coaches, and this 618 left a mark in the history of e-commerce
E-commerce is about to change
Author/ IT Times reporter Sun Yan
Editor/Sun Yan
What a life and death battle for e-commerce!
During the 618 period this year, Jack Ma and Liu Qiangdong appeared one after another, and the "key gentlemen" of these two e-commerce giants smelled the crisis, followed by a series of major organizational adjustments.
On June 20, Daniel Zhang issued an internal letter to all employees, stating that from September 10, 2023, he will no longer serve as chairman of the board of Alibaba Group and CEO of Alibaba Group, and will thereafter serve as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group. Cai Chongxin, Executive Vice Chairman of Alibaba Group, will become Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba Group, and Wu Yongming will become CEO of Alibaba Group, while continuing to serve as Chairman of Taotian Group.
Ali changed coaches
90 days since Ma Yun returned to China, Ali changed coaches.
According to media reports, Ma Yun suddenly convened the heads of various businesses of Taotian Group, held a small-scale communication meeting, and pointed out three directions for Taobao Tmall: return to Taobao, return to users, and return to the Internet.
What makes Jack Ma, who is in a state of retirement and returning to his role as a teacher, point the way? Ma Yun believes that the current competitive situation facing Taotian Group is very serious, he used Nokia and Kodak as examples, he believes that a company from industry benchmark to death, half a year to one year is enough, in the Internet industry this speed may be faster.
A return to Taobao means that traffic is skewed towards small and medium-sized businesses, and Ma judges that the current situation will continue, so the next opportunity is Taobao rather than Tmall.
Returning to users is Taobao's top priority, and IT Times has investigated the e-commerce customer service experience many times, and finally the problem points to Taobao customer service. Taobao 88VIP members experienced 4 customer services, but the problem was still not solved, and an online shopping took two months. If you are not an 88VIP member, it is difficult to even wait for a reply from the human customer service, and you will only reply "urging" after waiting for it. Many cases are placed in front of every consumer, which makes people have to question that the customer service authority of the Taobao platform is too low to solve the problem, which is completely inconsistent with consumers' expectations for Internet efficiency.
Alibaba is not unaware of the problem of efficiency, in order to make the elephant dance, Daniel Zhang showed his own housekeeping skills, split Alibaba into 6 major business groups and a number of business companies, will be possible independent financing and listing, has been launched is the cloud intelligence group from Ali Group spin-off listing, Cainiao Group and Hema have also started listing, overseas digital business group independent financing.
After completing the biggest organizational change in 24 years, Daniel Zhang stepping down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, even if there is still one year before the end of his term, everything is for the purpose of flattening the organization and transforming it into the front office, that is, efficiency when facing consumers.
Taobao.com, hatched from 1688, does business for C-end users, and itself relies on service to win. In recent years, more and more C-end users are even willing to go to 1688 for wholesale shopping to find various Tao brand homologous factories. Of course, there are objective reasons behind the weak consumer environment and the shift to low-priced goods, but for Alibaba's entire system, this is a failure of services, and consumers believe that the services provided by the platform are not worth the price attached to the goods.
Efficiency and service are the foundation of e-commerce, for example, watching live broadcast, you have gained the quality control of the big anchor team, after-sales double insurance and bargaining, but you pay the same or even more time cost to watch the live broadcast, even if it is reduced to a live broadcast room, you must balance efficiency and service.
E-commerce collective farewell to GMV
"Large items are bought on JD.com, small pieces are bought in Pinduoduo, and I haven't used Taobao for a long time." Typical e-commerce users around them are changing to price-sensitive users. In 618 this year, e-commerce platforms are rolling prices, and Jingdong and Taobao have successively sacrificed tens of billions of subsidies. However, just like Double 11 in 2022, all e-commerce platforms have tacitly agreed not to disclose total sales, but major brands are announcing themselves as champions in a certain segment.
According to relevant estimates, the total sales of Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce in 2022 will exceed 50% of Alibaba's domestic e-commerce business. According to the estimates of 618 GMV (total sales) this year by platforms such as Star Map Data, Taobao Tmall may have shown negative growth. The number of people watching the live broadcast increased by 60% year-on-year, and the store broadcast transaction of participating merchants increased by 2~3 times compared with the daily average.
Citi analysts released a report showing that JD.com's GMV of 618 this year increased by 6%~8% year-on-year; Although Pinduoduo did not disclose the specific sales of 618, its revenue increased by nearly 60% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, and its net profit increased by 212% year-on-year; During the 618 pre-sale period, the GMV of pre-sales in the Douyin home appliance industry increased by 808% year-on-year, and the GMV of Douyin e-commerce reached 1.6 trillion yuan last year, and this year's goal is to exceed 2.3 trillion yuan. Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce have put enormous pressure on JD.com and Alibaba.
Behind the numbers game, the user finally calculates the arithmetic problem of the shopping festival, and it is cheapest to buy it only when it is most needed.
Under the weak consumption, e-commerce collectively bid farewell to GMV, and Ali and JD.com were forced to the intersection of the fork in the road.
Jack Ma, Qiangdong Liu
The tacit understanding of choosing a successor
"Change the rivers and lakes, the green mountains will not change, the green water will flow for a long time, and there will be a period later." In 2019, "Clear Wind" Jack Ma bowed his hand and said goodbye to 60,000 Ali classmates, friends and media.
"Green mountains do not change, green water flows for a long time, create a new river and lake, and meet again." In 2023, "Xiaoyaozi" fine-tuned Jack Ma's farewell speech, just like Daniel Zhang practical, low-key, cautious style, he is an excellent successor, in the 4 years he took over, 3 years were in the epidemic, allowing Ali's big ship to withstand the storm; He is also the inheritor that Jack Ma has always admired, and he goes wherever he needs to.
On the point of choosing a successor, Liu Qiangdong and Ma Yun reached an agreement, Xu Ran, like Daniel Zhang, is a CFO. When companies are big enough, they all need a professional manager who can do the math — good at breaking down abstract dreams into numbers and concrete goals. The bigwigs retreated into the background and could still steer the strategic direction, just as Jobs chose Cook.
In terms of personality, Xu Lei is still too similar to Liu Qiangdong. Xu Ran took over is also a symbol of JD.com's return to the "Liu Qiangdong era", this year 618 is on JD.com's 20th birthday, Liu Qiangdong appeared, Xu Ran made his first public appearance as the CEO of JD.com, explaining in detail what is the "35711" dream? Facing the next 20 years, JD.com can have 3 companies with revenue of more than one trillion yuan and net profit of more than 70 billion yuan; 5 companies that entered the world's top 500; 7 listed companies with a market value of not less than 100 billion yuan from scratch; can pay 100 billion yuan in taxes for the country; More than 1 million jobs.
This is reminiscent of the fact that Daniel Zhang also took over on Alibaba's 20th anniversary, and set a concrete five-year goal for Alibaba: to serve more than 1 billion consumers worldwide and achieve a consumption scale of more than 10 trillion yuan. Alibaba's long-term goal in the future is to serve 2 billion consumers around the world, create 100 million jobs and help 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises make profits by 2036.
It's just such a coincidence, it's like falling into a pattern.
The two major e-commerce giants have changed coaches one after another, and the two e-commerce bigwigs who have retreated behind the scenes have successively "come out of the mountains" to point out the direction, and this year's 618 will inevitably leave a mark in the history of Chinese e-commerce, and it is also the beginning of changes in China's consumer market.
Typesetting / Ji Jiaying
Image: Alibaba JD
Source: IT Times public account vittimes
E N D