Ebang Power [ID: iebrun] in the case of opponents, just like driving, you have to look at the rearview mirror once in a while, but you can't stare at the rearview mirror and drive.
On March 3, Meituan Preferred received a "fine" of 1.5 million yuan from the State Administration for Market Regulation. Also punished were five community group buying enterprises such as Orange Heart Preferred, Ten Clubs, and Food Enjoyment Club.
Since the Spring Festival, the AB noodles of community group buying are showing up. The A side is a huge amount of money, but the B side is criticized by market participants. In the rapid development, the community group purchase was fined 6.5 million yuan by the top grid, which triggered deep reflection.
"In the case of an opponent, it's like driving, you have to look in the rearview mirror once in a while, but you can't stare at the rearview mirror and drive." Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan, said this when answering the question of the media, "How do you see that half of China's Internet is a rival of Meituan".
"Takeaway platform" was once the most prominent label of Meituan, but in recent years, Meituan's tentacles have reached out to travel, payment, hotel travel, local life, fresh group buying... When the 2020 Q2 financial report was released, Wang Xing hinted that Meituan focused on the "Food + Platform" strategy and increased investment in new business areas such as fresh retail and motorcycles.
In August 2020, Meituan launched the e-commerce business "Tuanhao Goods". Meituan's official introduction to "good goods" is: good goods, high-quality production areas, delicious and inexpensive fruits, and new and peculiar department stores, a free shipping package for the whole site.
The price of "good goods" products is generally low, and the price of commodities in the hot selling area is mostly around 10 yuan, and the intention of the main sinking market is obvious. Observing the "tuanhao goods" is easy to find that the home page display is similar to Pinduoduo, and the name of "tuanhao goods" is also reminiscent of the predecessor of Pinduoduo - fresh social group purchase e-commerce "pinyin goods".
A few days ago, the "good goods" made low-key adjustments, adding mother and baby, digital, office, beauty, car products, shoes and bags, electrical appliances, women's clothing, men's clothing, etc., which are divided into nineteen sub-sections. The iPhone has been added to these high-priced items, and the hot selling plate has begun to flow information, and according to the characteristics, needs and browsing traces of different users, it has been transformed into the distribution logic of "thousands of people and thousands of faces" to recommend goods.
According to a manager inside meituan told Ebang Power [ID: iebrun]: "Meituan's opening up of new business 'tuanhao', it is indeed to kill the traditional e-commerce field, but this is bitter, because Ali, Pinduoduo, etc. are also attacking the advantages of Meituan's local life." ”
The industry generally believes that the launch of "Tuanhao Goods" means that Meituan has begun to get involved in traditional e-commerce business, trying to enter the hinterland of Ali, JD.com and Pinduoduo. The main low-priced products, and it seems that the sword blade points directly to Pinduoduo, if the US group opens the "friends group" function, the battle with Pinduoduo is probably inevitable.
Meituan and e-commerce giants are plotting a piece of cloth, leaving the industry with the question of whether Meituan can attack the city in the hinterland of traditional e-commerce, or is it alone and deep into the mire? For the industry, how should we view the development of good goods?
"Nascent" group good goods:
Punching is cost-effective, kicking and kicking are more expensive
In August 2020, Tuanhao goods are just small programs hidden in the Meituan App, not even on the first screen, and need to slide right to the second screen to find it.
With the gradual improvement of goods and functions, Meituan opened a first-level entrance to the group, just at the bottom of the App, the second Tab, which was previously a discovery column, and later renamed e-commerce.
After half a year of testing, Meituan has launched the Tuanhao goods App, which is currently available for download in the Apple App Store. It can be seen that the US group has a clear rhythm of the way of playing good goods of the group, and it is full of the determination of the US group to attack the city in the field of traditional e-commerce. Moreover, this "method of warfare" is quite the traditional style of the US regiment.
According to the public information of Meituan, at present, millions of merchants have settled in the group good goods, supporting user group purchase or separate purchase. Entering 2021, the marketing promotion has a trend of increasing the size, and it can be seen from the App that there are many new benefits: explosive products, discounts, full reductions, and can grab red envelopes after placing orders.
It is understood that now want to join the group of good goods merchants, need to have a complete enterprise qualification, the team has store operation experience, store deposit of 10,000 yuan, deduction point 1% -5%, settlement cycle is T +7 (T user signing time, default signing time 14 days).
Ebang Power [ID: iebrun] survey learned that Tuanhao goods is actually the B2C e-commerce business incubated by Meituan Flash Sale, using the "direct origin + commodity group purchase" model, using the national, full-site free shipping method, and the new version will be online to put together the group function.
"From the perspective of Meituan, it is necessary to maximize the benefits by improving the retail puzzle, Meituan buys vegetables to achieve self-operation, Meituan prefers to focus on community group buying, Meituan Flash Purchase is responsible for non-meal delivery, and Tuanhao goods are complementary to the e-commerce platform." An executive inside Meituan told Ebang Dynamics [ID:iebrun].
A supplier of tuanhao goods revealed to Ebang Power [ID: iebrun] that tuanhao goods are currently mainly "poaching" Tmall, JD.com, pinduoduo's head and waist merchants, and the conditions for settling in tuanhao goods are relatively relaxed. From this point of view, tuanhao goods are more like aiming at Tmall and Juhuasuan, like a miniature version of Tmall. From the perspective of category, this is more verified. For example, digital brands such as OPPO and vivo have also settled in the form of flagship stores. Within 4 months, Tuanhao goods expanded from fresh snacks to all categories.
From the perspective of operation mode, Tuanhao goods are similar to Pinduoduo. Develop with a third-party logistics system and an open platform model. At present, Tuanhao goods are mainly lower-priced brands, and gradually expand to low-priced brand goods. From the perspective of the pricing of tuanhao goods and the low-key development strategy in the early stage, tuanhao goods obviously regard the sinking market as the main target, and the sinking market has a large and scattered user base, high service costs, diversified user needs and price sensitivity, which is the main battlefield of Pinduoduo.
Since the middle of December 2020, Tuanhao goods has taken another step closer to Pinduoduo, readjusting the traffic rules, in accordance with the "thousands of faces" recommendation mechanism, using algorithms and models to achieve accurate sales forecasts, and highly mirroring Pinduoduo.
At the same time, Tuanhao goods tried the "live broadcast + group purchase" model very "covertly". In December, the scroll bar above the tuanhao cargo port was hung on the link of the tuanhao goods live broadcast with goods, which the average person would not notice. After entering the live broadcast room, the live broadcast interface and the way to place orders are not significantly different from Taobao Live, click the shopping bag button at the bottom of the screen, select the desired product to trade. Despite its low profile, the good goods of the US group are indeed "creeping forward" on the road of "offending" Pinduoduo and Ali juju at the same time.
However, in the territory of traditional e-commerce, to pose a real threat to Ali and Pinduoduo, Tuanhao is still slightly immature. Internal relevant people are silent about SKUs, in addition to the official disclosure of millions of merchants settled, other public data is almost non-existent, although the US group in traffic support and other aspects of the strength is very large, to achieve the effect will take time.
On the contrary, the immaturity of the first version of Tuanhao goods has caused some complaints, such as in addition to the verification code and account password, it does not support any other login methods, and there are many categories in the classification, but many product sales are 0.
No product is born perfect. The Internet product itself is maturing in continuous iteration, and Meituan seems to know this, which is also the reason for choosing a low profile. However, no matter what the outside world, especially the opponent, looks at, the "muzzle" of the good goods has objectively aimed at Pinduoduo and Juhuasuan.
Wang Xing is not an e-commerce dream
But the US group needs an e-commerce battlefield
Understanding the way the US group plays, the process of "appearing in the rivers and lakes" of the good goods of the group seems to explain some problems.
In January 2010, the first domestic group buying website was launched, and in the six months after that, almost all major players entered the market, such as Hand, Wowo, Glutinous Rice, Dianping, and Meituan. At that time, the US group was still "invisible to everyone".
In 2011, the number of group buying websites reached a staggering 5,000, and the 12 companies in the head alone raised 7 billion yuan in the capital market, which was named after the "Thousand Regiments War", and Wang Xing's "strategic ability" contributed to the final victory of the US group. Looking at Wang Xing's strategic capabilities, there are several aspects:
Expansion strategy: take the second and third-tier cities as the core, follow the first-tier cities, attack the first-tier when the players who attack the first-tier cities fall, and harvest the fourth- and fifth-tier cities when the "scattered soldiers" collapse.
Subsidy strategy: refuse to spend money to buy flowing water, subsidies are to take the commanding heights of supply. Enhance the user's experience with high-quality supply.
Profit strategy: with strong operational capabilities to fight for 4% profit, when the entire industry loses, meituan achieved profitability, occupying a favorable terrain.
Wang Xing is a terrible opponent, because he has a considerable ability to understand the essence of affairs; because the US group attaches great importance to strategic execution and operation. From previous experience, the US group is good at biting opponents and achieving overtaking at the right time. However, for the US group, Ali Juhua and Pinduoduo are still obstacles that it cannot pass, after all, Ma Yun and Huang Zheng are also not idle people.
Wang Xing has been concerned about Pinduoduo and Taobao for a long time
Meituan's traditional e-commerce dream has long begun, and when Meituan was founded in 2010, Ali launched a group buying website Juhuasuan. In 2013, the fierce battle of group buying was in full swing, and the US group quietly entered the hinterland of Juhuasuan, acquired the physical group buying website Mengbu.com, insisted on 3 years later, and was unable to defeat Juhuasuan and gave up.
In 2015, Meituan merged with Dianping to lay out hotel tourism and improve the industrial chain. Also in this year, Huang Zheng's Pinduoduo was established, using the model of social grouping to enter the e-commerce industry, and rapidly grew, listed in the United States in just 3 years, and the market value even exceeded that of meituan.
In a sense, the traditional e-commerce field occupied by Ali, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, a red sea, the giants have established a very wide moat, a very high barrier. The US group entered at this time, and the odds of victory were unpredictable. However, exploring the goals and strategies of Meituan Wang Xing, it may be found that "revitalizing the rivers and mountains" and re-entering the traditional physical e-commerce is the way that Meituan must go, it is not the Opportunity for Meituan to find scraps, but as a giant, it must hunt.
In Wang Xing's view, too many people pay attention to the boundary, rather than the core, which is not right. Synthesizing Wang Xing's external speeches, it is not difficult to find that Wang Xing's thinking is horizontal and ecological. He hopes to build a borderless business system to meet people's "food, clothing, shelter and transportation". "Such an ecology, do not expect a single company to be dominant, do not expect to end the war, everyone must accept that competition is the new normal, there is no end." He said.
At present, meituan has more than 300 prefecture-level cities and more than 1,500 counties and districts in terms of community group buying, covering more than half of China's districts and counties. Judging from the number of Kaesong, Meituan preferred to be the first. From the perspective of order volume, the current peak volume of Meituan has exceeded 25 million, and it is also in the first echelon of the industry. The number of monthly active users of the Meituan Preferred Mini Program has also approached 100 million, leading the industry. In terms of the market occupation of takeaway platforms, the advantages are more obvious.
"Whether it is takeaway or community group buying, home service and other formats, all belong to the local retail category, Meituan urgently needs a product to cut into the national e-commerce market, and it is imperative for the group to have good goods." One of the suppliers preferred by Meituan told Ebang Power [ID: iebrun].
Objectively, the takeaway market occupies the first square, the community group purchase first square, and the number of Q3 users in 2020 reached 470 million, and the average number of transactions per unit user was 26.8 times per year.
"The huge data provides strong support for Meituan to return to traditional e-commerce." The above-mentioned industry insiders believe that the local retail format is mainly fresh, and to enter the real sense of e-commerce, the test of meituan is the construction of the supply chain. If the supply chain is solved, Meituan may successfully convert the community group purchase traffic to the physical e-commerce with higher customer unit price. If not, meituan's physical e-commerce dream this time is still possible to die.
Under imperialism
Can the US group tear open an incision
Jia Penglei, president of Ebang Power [ID:iebrun], described the e-commerce pattern in 2020 as a platform "imperialism" in a speech. He believes that the first manifestation is monopoly, the entire e-commerce is monopolized by platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat and so on; the second is manifested in coloniality, and the survival of many merchants increasingly depends on the "luck" of the platform; the third is manifested in the expansion of the platform; the fourth platform will eventually move towards unification.
Meituan is almost in the first echelon of takeaway to home and even community e-commerce. Returning to the traditional physical e-commerce pattern, the US group is indeed facing "imperialism". According to financial reports and public data, as of December 31, Alibaba's AAC (annual active consumer number) in China's retail market reached 779 million. On the MAU (Monthly Active Users of Mobile Phones) indicator, it was 902 million at the end of December, an increase of 21 million in a single quarter, which is very close to China's existing 940 million netizens (as of June 2020) and has reached the ceiling. JD.com has 441 million active purchase users per year.
Pinduoduo is particularly eye-catching, China Fund News data show that Since its inception, Pinduoduo's growth ability is amazing, the number of users in three years increased by more than 300 million, as of the end of the third quarter of last year, the number of annual active buyers on its platform reached 731 million, an increase of 36% year-on-year, and in the third quarter, the company's revenue reached 2.086 billion US dollars, an increase of 89% year-on-year.
"Pinduoduo is in the Ali, Jingdong two-point e-commerce world, the vast majority of Chinese people think that the e-commerce jianghu has been fixed at the moment to enter, its entry, so that the e-commerce jianghu from two points of the world into a three-legged standing." A manager of Pinduoduo told Ebang Power [ID: iebrun]. The development history of Pinduoduo obviously gives more enlightenment to enterprises such as Meituan that are dreaming of e-commerce. "Pinduoduo's early positioning was a low-cost product aggregation platform, which quickly completed the initial user accumulation with the social 'group' fission mode by accessing the WeChat traffic pool, and tore open the mouth of traditional e-commerce traffic." After the traffic scale, it quickly attracted a group of small and medium-sized businesses that were 'abandoned' by Ali to settle in, and gave preferential conditions such as free. The manager believes that "compared with ali and JD.com's search logic 'people looking for goods', Pinduoduo has opened the business logic of 'goods looking for people', thus opening up the big blue ocean of the sinking market, which is the reason why Pinduoduo is attracting much attention in the industry today, and social e-commerce opportunities are still there." ”
Carefully observing the actions of today's e-commerce giants, there are also huge opportunities for e-commerce in the sinking market, which may also be one of the factors for the US group to enter the market at this moment. According to Sina Finance data, since the beginning of 2019, the sinking market has contributed 60% to 70% of Ali's growth every quarter. Taobao Special Edition has been online for less than a year and has achieved hundreds of millions of MAU. According to the CNNIC Statistical Survey on the Development of China's Internet Network, as of June 2020, the number of Internet users reached 940 million, and the Internet penetration rate reached 67.0%; the scale of rural Internet users was 285 million, accounting for only 30.4% of the total Internet users.
Opportunities and challenges coexist, meituan at this moment to launch the group of good goods, hard and hard traditional e-commerce giants, what effect can be achieved? It depends on whether the US group can give full play to its strategic operational advantages and super execution. From the perspective of business model, China's 300,000 communities and 600 million yuan of monthly income of 1,000 yuan sinking market foundation, is bound to accommodate the coexistence of several group giants. From the "Thousand Regiments War" in 2011, the birth of Pinduoduo in 2015, to the upsurge of community group buying in 2020, the "Group" model has continued to evolve in the voice of doubt. "In the future, there is still the possibility of the birth of new species in the group," said a founder of the group purchase platform who previously lost in the Hundred Regiments War, saying that the key is whether it can innovate in the core business model and catch up with competitors in operation.
For the "borderless" of the US group, there is no shortage of voices in the industry that question it is that its essence is to "spread the pie" in the field of e-commerce retail, and the effect is doubtful. "It is unlikely that the scale of Taobao, Pinduoduo and JD.com will reach Taobao, Pinduoduo and Jingdong in the field of traditional e-commerce in a short period of time." Pinduoduo category Xiao II pointed out that Meituan is the king of local life, but it is not easy to build a national e-commerce supply system. "It's two sets of logic."
Meituan insiders revealed that for the good goods of the group, it is a chess game that the us group must play, and it cannot be absent in the traditional e-commerce sector, "It needs to build and exercise the national supply system through the good goods of the group, and build a retail matrix." When the Meituan takeaway and community e-commerce achieved the first, the 4 million knights only sold some takeaways and fresh food. In the future, it is inevitable to cross to the high unit price products of traditional e-commerce, otherwise, the traffic is wasted. ”