Wu Xiao Guang: The new game of electric dealers

The beginning of the snake, the field of electrical business again.

February 17, Jingdong Mall chairman and CEO Liu An internal letter, disclosed that the company has completed the fourth round of about 700 million U.S. dollars of financing; Two days later, its rival Suning issued a notice, the company name into "Suningyun Group Co., Ltd." to create "cloud quotient" mode; in early March, Suningyun, chairman of the Jindong relay in the "two sessions" proposal "to strengthen the electricity business levy, supervision of Vie", a stone provoked thousands of waves, Taobao official Weibo even open back; several days later, Alibaba Group announced, Lu successor before the resignation of Ma Yun as CEO.

In the hustle and bustle, the first four big electric business giants in China seem to have no movement.

In an office building in the former Sea of Shenzhen, the CEO of Tencent's holding company (ECC) sits on the sidelines in a sunny new office. He is concerned about industry dynamics but does not intend to participate or even comment. Wu Guangguang led the company how much seems a little maverick, whether its individual, or ECC, the display of the low-key and pragmatic temperament seems to be consistent with the temperament of Tencent.

Frankly speaking, the strength of the Beijing-east, Ali Gap is still relatively large. "Wu Night light does not mince the current industry of ECC" weak position. 2012, Tencent's business platform Xun net turnover of 6.8 billion yuan, open platform (QQ mall +qq Net purchase) turnover of 12.5 billion yuan. The same time Jingdong mall data is 60 billion yuan, Suning easy to buy 18.3 billion yuan, Alibaba's Taobao + days cat is more than trillion.

In the face of the current market pattern and future market trend, by the internal staff affectionately known as "Kind Boss" Wu, as always calm calmly. In his words, "We are no longer so entangled." "And this calmly behind is Wu night light and the whole Tencent after more than a year of" Tangled ", know how to play the electric business, more clear the ECC strategy and development path.

At least, in the past year, as the number of interviews has increased, the frequency of such uncertain words as "possible", "not necessarily", "perhaps", "Look again" in the narrative of Wu-Guang is decreasing.

Tencent Board Chairman and CEO Ma MA in the 2012 annual meeting of the company mentioned the electric business, but also a great Yunkai: "Although Xun is a loss, but Xun let Tencent losses very confident." "In the course of the development of Xun, he saw the appearance of user's word of mouth, think this is for the future and long-term investment." And almost at the time of Wu night's interview with "Global Entrepreneur", in Beijing, "The two sessions" of "Pony Brother" again talked about Xun, "we press the past to pat the idea is very difficult to win, so we did the Business-to-consumer, and then acquired the Xun, with our platform after the integration, found a point of focus." ”

Undoubtedly, in Tencent's business Chess game, 2010 investment, the 2012 holding of the Xun net become its bigger and stronger "knife soldiers."

2012, ECC has two nodes, 5 18 and 8 15-May 18, Tencent Electric business holding company independence, Wu Night Light was appointed CEO, then open platform QQ Online shopping officially started; August 15, Jingdong, Su Ning set off the electric business war, Xun actively intervene, thus a gun became popular.

Thus, in Wu night light planning, the future of Tencent will form an "open platform + self-business" mode. And the two have a clear division of labor, the self-employed, that is, Xun network is responsible for expanding the market, improve infrastructure and establish user reputation, and profitability to the open platform.

Centralized play + multi-platform linkage of lien and longitudinal tactics in the light heart gradually mature Wu.

"Knife Soldier" Xun

At the end of the Lunar New Year, it is Wu Guangguang's busiest time. He suddenly received a report, Xun receive Jingdong mall a paper warning letter, ask it immediately stop for Jingdong Mall "expensive on compensation" activities, and in Xun net home open apology.

Wu decided to put up a public statement after discussion with the management of the communication network. From a consumer and legal point of view; Soon after, its management in the media interview again, said that not only will not be able to withdraw your compensation services, will also be in the near future "pay" to upgrade, "price protection" into which. March, borrow 3 15 potential, Xun as scheduled launch "Price protection" This lethal weapon, commodity prices than Jingdong will compensate, within 24 hours, the price of their own website down, the same will pay the difference to consumers.

The air "war" is the first Xun and once did not see their own Jingdong mall directly to fight.

Low price has always been the capital of the Beijing-east siege, but from last year 8 15 electric business war began, it had to face than their own volume of nearly 10 times times the Xun net, the latter with Tencent came, aggressive. However, according to Tencent Electric business related Personage said, the real "sting" Jing Dong is the end of last year, Xun killed into the Beijing-East hinterland-the market.

December 10, 2012, Xun Network announced a high-profile march into Beijing, and played five rings within the public Xun net shopping, morning orders will be served before 14:00, noon orders in the evening before 18:00 service, evening orders in the morning of the "three to send" signs. Obviously, this manifesto poses a threat to Jingdong mall's "211" model of fast delivery of 2 11 o'clock daily as a time dividing point.

Price and distribution become Xun breakthrough two sharp weapon. It is the first time for Tencent, which has billions of internet users, to support its overwhelming physical ads. Apparently, Xun has become the "sharp knife" of Tencent's electrical business breakthrough.

From the weak to compete with the industry giants, from a regional company developed into a national enterprise, more from the Wu night light on the Xun of thinking and adjustment has never been interrupted.

Two years ago, when Wu Guangguang first walked into Xun warehouse in Shanghai, may not think of the future will choose it as Tencent electric dealer "knife soldiers." An area is not large warehouse, placed a few shelves, the category is very few, the process is not perfect.

But at the same time, no exposure to the retail of the Wu night light also feel very interesting. "has never been to the retail warehouse, before only to the store to see, after reading, found that the original electricity dealer is such, came to an order, how to take it down from the shelf and then package to the user, there are quite many algorithms in the inside, very fresh." ”

But self-employment is not so simple, the first involved in the Wu night light of the next road is not smooth.

At the beginning of 2012, the market came out of Tencent Electric Power Xun holding, although there is no official announcement, the company has quietly begun to integrate. At that time, the move will only try to Xun to create Tencent's proprietary platform, and QQ online shopping open platform parallel.

Why Xun? As we all know, from 2010 and 2011 Two years, Tencent has invested heavily in a number of vertical electric companies including Xun, Tesco, wheat bags, Kelan diamonds, etc., but Tencent and Wu night light finally chose Xun as the self-platform, And after the independence of the electrical business of which (other electric dealers as a strategic investment to stay in the Tencent group).

"We didn't know what it was, but we did see a good user experience with the consumer. Wu Night light gave an answer. And after a period of operation, he found that not all categories can be bigger, and it seems only 3 C digital such standard products due to market capacity is large enough, customer unit price high enough and promising. So Xun stand out.

Soon, Tencent team gradually entered, from the IT system to the flow, from the supply chain to warehousing logistics, Tencent electric operators are beginning to transform the Xun.

Even so, last May, the big promotion, Xun still encountered a "happy troubles"-burst warehouse. After that, the category is not rich enough has been criticized. This is the user value of the first Tencent is absolutely intolerable. "Tencent to do the product must be the ultimate." Wu Guangguang said.

At that time, Wu night light facing the situation is, one side of the "weak" Xun difficult to grow rapidly in a short period of time, while the platform and open platform to go hand-in-hand with the tactical lack of strength, "a punch down a bit to hit the feeling of cotton, not excited." ”

So, Wu night light ready to change a play, based on the operation of the data analysis, he found that the product quality of self-business to ensure that the price is low, fast delivery and make the user's precipitation degree higher. "Between the two, the more sharp, the knife to kill out can tear a hole, and then the open platform and the past to run, and finally complete the combination." "And last year 8 15 electric business war also confirmed the" knife style "the feasibility of playing.

Thus, Xun from the sole responsibility of Tencent's proprietary function of the official upgrade to become the entire Tencent electric dealer "knife". In the past year, in addition to the already aggressive expansion of the South China market, in the northwest, southwest and so on nearly 10 cities in full bloom. 2012, sales amounted to 6.8 billion yuan, an increase of 300%.

Open platform: Fine route

Wu Night light chose Xun single pole Mengjin, at the same time, Tencent's open platform is also experiencing a "big change". In terms of scope, its influence should be no less than 2011 years of Taobao "October siege" event.

March 21, 2013, the use of nearly 5 years of QQ Mall logo will become a history, completely from the Tencent website disappeared. At the same time, the user clicks into the default page will also be from Pat NET into QQ online shopping. After this adjustment, as the Consumer-to-consumer platform Pat Net and as a consumer QQ network shopping will also be further isolated, the former as a long tail exists, and the latter will become the bearer of non-standard products of the open platform body.

In a logo and a page jump behind the changes, the biggest change is the original QQ mall more than 14,000 business owners. According to the current plan, 14,000 merchants can only retain 5,000 high-quality, and upgrade to QQ online shopping, while the remaining 9,000 businesses either choose to enter the racket net, or withdraw the shop. 9,000 is not a small number, how to smooth transition is Wu Guangguang have to face the problem. But from the current situation, did not appear in the days of the Cat Mall encountered the plight of large-scale business protests.

From Pat NET to QQ Mall, Tencent has followed Taobao, the cat for many years, but as a catch, Wu night light understand must be a alternative.

Comb the day cat (the original Taobao Mall) the development of many businesses, commodity rich is one of its biggest advantages, so far it still has more than 60,000 merchants stationed. But Wu Guangguang said, "QQ online shopping platform will reach 10,000 this year, I feel more." ”

Wu prepared to do the opposite and do subtraction. He gave Tencent Electric business open platform positioning is a boutique route. This understanding is based on his knowledge of existing open platform flaws, and also on the good user experience brought by the consumer. "When users buy standard goods, they pay more attention to cheap prices, reliable quality and fast delivery, and for non-standard goods, a good user experience is reflected in the exquisite, display and operation of your goods can give me a unique feeling, a delicate and interesting feeling." He added, "There is no way to do it, Taobao has done very well." ”

In Wu night light Look, "the user comes to me here always must have a reason, I always want to find some differentiation localization." When you as a market chaser must give yourself a position, this is no way, the boss does not need to locate, and the boss also had better not have positioning. ”

Taobao as a "pathfinder" development has been dominating the world, but its present shortcomings, is also becoming the driving force behind the innovation, such as more and more users feel Taobao shopping time is too expensive. Wu Night light is keenly aware of this, "there is more and more entertainment needs, you should spend more time to play, to see movies, to eat, to accompany the family, you should buy things as soon as possible, and Tencent's open platform for the big logic is based on this." ”

From 2012 onwards, QQ network shopping has begun to redesign shop decoration, merchandise placement, picture upload, text description, customer service and many other details to standardize into the business, so that users more efficient.

Unification is unavoidable.

Whether it is a sharp knife or adjustment, the surface is to see each of the tactics, there is no big action, but Wu night light in fact with the team are secretly exerting power infrastructure construction.

Recently, Tencent's technical team is in the process of debugging the background system, April or so, Xun and QQ online shopping will be through, then can realize account, shopping cart, payment and other integration.

Xun and open platform although the two teams owned by Tencent Power companies operate separately, the category is different, but they are not two parallel lines. To Xun as the pioneer, QQ network to improve the platform to keep pace with the former, and finally realize the combination of the two is Wu night light wishful thinking. and to explore this approach, he almost "tangled" nearly a year.

Until today, Wu night Light still think that building an open platform is Tencent's core mission, "Tencent should play a good role is the platform." "At first he did design ECC tactics," he said. Last year, in the first half of Tencent, the concept of B2B2C is frequently mentioned, QQ online shopping has been introduced into a good music buy, ke lan diamond, wheat bags and Dangdang and other vertical electric operators, but also set out to the QQ Mall's high-quality merchants to upgrade to the platform.

But soon, he found that the whole E-commerce market is immature, many links are not perfect, resulting in the supply chain is difficult to optimize, and the first generation of logistics, the present situation also makes distribution appear disorderly. Many aspects of the disconnect let Wu night light to realize that this model is detrimental to the user experience, and is a punitive type.

"In the early stages of electric market development, the platform to some extent to do more things, such as infrastructure construction." "At that time, Wu night Light has another plan, he wants to use the controllable higher mode of self-consumer to assume the task of building infrastructure, no longer rely solely on third-party logistics companies."

At that time, Xun, as the self-platform of ECC, has begun to layout warehousing logistics throughout the country, which is undoubtedly the best choice to practice its ideas. But Wu, who has just been deeply involved in the self-employed, is not sure. "In a dilemma, it means slow, heavy, big, and big losses, of course," he said. "Wu Xiao Guang and his team have been discussing for a long time," we don't even know whether this is a business model or a scam. At that time, Tencent did not know whether Xun's Shanghai model could be replicated nationwide.

Finally, Wu night light back to the original point-the user experience. By comparing data analysis, he determined that the user's praise and retention are much higher than the open platform. And the successful replication of Xun in South China also gave it great confidence, at the same time, through the dismantling of income expenditure, found that the loss can be effectively controlled. And these also become Tencent electric dealer to determine Xun net as "sharp knife soldier" deep reason.

In the planning of the Wu-night light, the future once the rapid network to build the entire infrastructure mature, open platform merchants can be directly merged, through their own controllable system to achieve the docking with the user.

On the other hand, Tencent is also trying to complete the integration of the front-end category. According to people who have contacts with major domestic electric companies, said the cat President Zhang Yong said, to strictly distinguish between the standard and non-standard goods, and plans to 2013 the two in the supply process to make some changes. If according to its ideas, means that Taobao built on the basis of the pure shop system to build a set of standard commodity system, and the standard category of 3C Digital start of the Beijing East is interested in non-standard products for the store transformation.

Non-standard goods suitable for shop form, and the standard commodity is more suitable for classification by category seems to be the new trend of the electric business industry. Tencent electric business seems to have a natural advantage, the next will try to be its flagship standard category of goods Xun and non-standard class-oriented QQ online shopping for front-end integration.

Both the early stage of their respective positioning, the later business gradually merged, coupled with the huge flow of Tencent, the common construction of Tencent's unique development model. And the most important thing is that this "open platform + proprietary" model for its profitability laid the foundation, "the standard category of goods losses controllable, and non-standard classes can certainly make money." Wu Night light gives such a conclusion.

It seems that the 2013 electric business, Wu night light is destined not to remain silent.