America's Road to Fame

Chapter 380 What If It Succeeds?
And as Zoom has expanded its business scope throughout the United States, their transaction volume has also increased surprisingly.

Take Amazon as an example. Their turnover in the previous four quarters was about 300 billion US dollars. Especially this year, their turnover has risen very fast. Their turnover in the first two quarters of this year, compared with the last two quarters of last year, has increased by more than 40%.

The growth rate of Zoom's turnover is even more exaggerated. Their turnover in the previous four quarters has exceeded 100 billion US dollars, which is close to one-third of Amazon's. However, it should be noted that Zoom's turnover growth curve is more Exaggeration, the turnover in the first two quarters of this year is more than double that of the last two quarters of last year, and the average turnover growth in each quarter exceeds 30%.

This is why Amazon increasingly sees Zoom as a great threat, because it is clear that Zoom is on a high-speed growth path. Covering, and the reason why self-operated products are gradually enriched is in it.

However, although Zoom's turnover exceeded 100 billion in the previous year, its profit margin was still a bit low, and it was still at a loss in the previous year.But this is not a problem, because the main reason for this phenomenon is that at the initial stage, Zoom, according to the requirements of William Chen and Rick Walton, was to remain unprofitable, but to use huge preferential measures to attract users.

The effect of this measure is remarkable. In just one and a half years, Zoom has become the second largest e-commerce company in the United States after Amazon, and most importantly, with the increase in sales of Zoom, As well as the development of self-operated business, their bargaining power over suppliers is constantly increasing in bulk purchases, which means that they can purchase at lower prices, even after the company's normal operation, After retaining an appropriate profit, it is still possible to supply customers at a low price.

What's more, they are still gradually improving their purchase channels from Huaguo, including daily necessities, small household appliances, clothing and other products, which can get lower purchase prices than other local suppliers, and sell at low prices in their self-operated business.

This is why Zoom company managers, including William Chen and Rick Walton, are not worried about the current status quo of Zoom's insufficient profitability.

From these situations, Rick Walton also saw the possibility of catching up with and surpassing Amazon, and even surpassing Wal-Mart Group, which is why his attitude has changed unconsciously, and he no longer seeks to integrate Zoom into the company. The reason for entering the Wal-Mart system.

But even so, we still have to talk about it. William Chen is also curious about what kind of valuation Wal-Mart Group will give Zoom this time. You know, Amazon’s price-to-earnings ratio is close to 75 times. Compared with Zoom, the company is on a faster development track. Taking Amazon as a reference, it is not too much to give a price-earnings ratio of 100 times when evaluating.

At the end of the conversation, I came back to Groupon. In fact, for Groupon’s group buying business, Zoom still needed it at the beginning. After all, the data of their group buying activities can help Zoom’s self-operated business. Adjustment.

However, at the current stage, Groupon's help to Zoom's business has been negligible, and the two also have some similarities.

Don’t think that only the group buying model is a good way for merchants to clear inventory during the economic crisis. Zoom’s self-operated business can also achieve this effect and is more efficient.

In fact, Zoom has developed to the present, and it is no longer simply purchasing those products and then putting them on the shelves for customers to browse or search for purchases.

From the very beginning when the app was launched, Zoom has paid great attention to the use of recommendation algorithms, and Zoom is also cooperating with the R&D center of Meta Technology and Siri to apply their research results in the field of artificial intelligence to the user's products. Recommended.

Users of the Zoom APP can find that as they use it longer, the recommendation of the APP will have more and more accurate results. Sometimes you don’t even think about the APP yourself, and you have already used the daily necessities you may use at this time. Or other department stores put it in front of you through personalized recommendations.

These things are not complicated. Through the usual statistics on the frequency of these loyal users buying certain daily necessities, in the relevant user portraits, we have been able to make accurate judgments about their lives.

Maybe when the condiments you bought last time or fast-moving consumer goods such as toilet paper and shampoo are about to run out, Zoom has already recommended related brand products that you are used to.

Of course, at some point, Zoom will help some merchants clear their inventory at a cheap price in their self-operated business, and then related products will be recommended to users who need them with the highest priority at the first time, which makes Zoom self-operated. The efficiency of the operation to clear inventory is very high.

This kind of inventory clearance, whether it is scale, profit, or even efficiency, is higher than Groupon's group buying activities.

It can be said that Rick Walton's only concern about Groupon at present is that if they give up control, then this company belongs to Amazon, which will affect certain businesses of Zoom, and Amazon will definitely not let go. Opportunity to counter Zoom by supporting Groupon's transformation.

"For this, there is no need to worry too much. From Andrew's decision to bring in Amazon to participate in this financing, it can be seen that he is still very concerned about his control over the company. Therefore, now that we are the major shareholders, what he needs to guard against is We, and when Amazon becomes the major shareholder, then what he needs to guard against will be Amazon, and Amazon will certainly not allow too many constraints on Groupon."

William Chen comforted him.

"You mean, we retreat to advance? But there are still risks..."

"Relax, Rick, if we don't have confidence in Groupon, then give up fighting Amazon and sell Zoom to Walmart as soon as possible."

"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like trouble."

Rick gave Chen William a white look, and said.

"You might as well think of it this way, Amazon wants to send us money, isn't it just used to develop Zoom? With this 100 billion US dollars, it is enough to make Zoom's valuation several times..."

William Chen patted Rick Walton on the shoulder and said:
"Besides, even if we leave Groupon, it doesn't mean that Groupon will be handed over to Amazon. We have a total of 60% of the shares, 30% to Amazon, and let them invest in the rest. The rest... Isn't Google also interested in Groupon?"

"Google? At that time, what they hoped was to acquire Groupon, and the highest asking price was only 60 billion US dollars..."

"Sometimes now, why not try talking to them?"

"I don't think it's a good idea, William, and even if your plan works out, with Amazon and Google, I'm afraid Groupon will be more difficult to deal with."

Thinking about it this way, it seems that what Rick said makes sense. In the previous life, Groupon’s stock price fell to the bottom during the economic recovery of the United States after the concept of group buying cooled down. But at that time, Amazon was behind them, let alone Google. The two giants were introduced into this company, and if they accidentally let them transform successfully, wouldn't they be shooting themselves in the foot?

Thinking of this, William Chen extinguished his whim. If only Amazon was behind Groupon, William Chen would not be afraid, but if Google, a search giant, was added to attract traffic, and Amazon provided e-commerce resources, such a blessing Under the circumstances, Groupon is really likely to succeed in its transformation, although the slowness of Groupon in his previous life does not seem to be so resolutely giving up the good situation of group buying and making a difficult transformation.

In the end, the result of the discussions between William Chen and Rick Walton was to agree to Amazon's request to acquire their shares, and then William Chen went to talk to Walmart Group to see what they thought about Zoom.

(End of this chapter)