Rebirth 2006, creating a super consortium

"Dong, the B2C model is essentially an asset-heavy model, so it's not surprising that JD.com is losing money!"

Liu Lidong was a little curious: "Heavy asset model?"

"That's right!" An Xin nodded and explained, "The supply chain of the B2C model is very complex, covering business sectors such as sourcing, warehousing, and logistics. These business sectors are basically offline heavy assets, requiring a lot of manpower, capital, and resources to improve related channels. So it's not wrong to say that it is a heavy asset model!"

“To be honest, if we follow the normal path of the B2C model, it would cost an astronomical amount just to complete the initial construction of the supply chain!”

Liu Lidong shook his head with a complicated expression: "Boss An, you are right. I naively thought that I could reduce the pressure on the supply chain through the advantages of fast sales on the Internet. However, after exploring, I found that not only did it not reduce the pressure on the supply chain, but it also put financial pressure on myself!"

"Ha ha!"

An Xin laughed loudly and said, "Qiang Dong, I'm not looking down on JD.com. In fact, the previous JD.com was not even a B2C platform. At best, it was just a middleman platform. As for the loss? It's not even a small loss!"

Liu Lingdong smiled bitterly and shook his head, saying, "Please don't laugh at me, Mr. An. Don't I want to go with the normal B2C model? Bullshit. I don't have any money. If I had money, I would definitely spend it to death!"

An Xin certainly knew Liu Lingdong's difficulties, and said with a smile: "After the acquisition is completed, the e-commerce division of Micro Times will receive the first 5 million yuan of development funds, which is enough for you to burn for a while!"

Liu Lidong exclaimed: "The first 5 million RMB?!"

"Yes, the first 5 million RMB!"

An Xin nodded slightly to confirm, but after seeing the excited Liu Lidong, she immediately reminded him: "Liu Lidong, don't be too happy too soon. The 5 million yuan is not all used to build a B2C platform!"

"Ah?" Liu Lingdong was dumbfounded: "Boss An, if it's not used to build a B2C platform, then what are you using it for?"

An Xin shook her head and explained, "I said it on the phone yesterday. We are going to do both B2C and C2C!"

Liu Lingdong frowned when he heard this: "If we want to do both B2C and C2C, we have to create two platforms. Will this be troublesome?"

An Xin spread her hands towards Liu Lingdong and asked, "Why do we need two platforms? We can just have one platform!"

"what?"

Liu Lingdong was a little confused and asked in a low voice, "How do we build a platform?"

Tsk, how should I put it, An Xin can actually understand Liu Lingdong’s doubts at this moment.

After all, in 2006, the integration platform of b2c and c2c had never appeared!

The first e-commerce company to take the plunge was Alibaba. In 2008, they launched Taobao Mall, officially entering the B2C e-commerce field and starting the integrated development of C2C and B2C.

Obviously, Alibaba's attempt was very successful. It not only broke down the barriers between different e-commerce models, but also firmly established itself as the leader in China's e-commerce.

After thinking for a while, An Xin slowly said: "Dong, why can't we integrate the two models of B2C and C2C?"

"For example, we can create a C2C main platform, and then create a B2C self-operated mall as a supplementary section embedded in the C2C main platform. Is that not possible?"

Liu Lingdong was stunned and muttered to himself, "So this is actually possible? Why didn't anyone try it before?"

An Xin knew the reason, and immediately gave the answer: "Because of funding and supply chain!"

"It's easy to understand the funding. Model integration requires a lot of money, at least tens of billions of dollars. And now e-commerce platforms are short of money. Even a leader like Alibaba is short of money, and it's a big one!"

"As for the supply chain, it is even more difficult. To be frank, no e-commerce platform currently has the ability to connect both C2C and B2C supply chains. This ability is not only reflected in money, but also mainly involves factors such as resource integration and supply integration."

"So these two reasons alone are enough to block all e-commerce companies that want to try!"

Liu Lingdong suddenly realized what was going on, and then said sincerely: "Mr. An, you have explained it very clearly, and I understand what you mean. So what should we do next?"

An Xin smiled slightly when she heard this, and held out four fingers to Liu Lingdong: "Four preliminary plans!"

“First, we spent a week figuring out the platform functions we wanted to implement, and then we spent three months to complete the development of the platform!”

"Secondly, we need to form a professional marketing team. This marketing team is very important. In the future, it will not only be responsible for offline promotion, but also for opening up the merchant channels required by C2C!"

“Third, in order to solve the supply problem of the B2C self-operated mall, we need to acquire one or even several offline retail companies, and then transform them into the supply chain of the B2C self-operated mall after integration!”

"Fourth, we need to build our own logistics network system. This work is time-consuming and laborious, but we can first select a few key cities as storage centers, and then use these storage centers to complete the radiation of the regional logistics network!"

After listening to An Xin's explanation of the preliminary plan, Liu Lingdong was silent. After a long while, he spoke faintly: "Boss An, 5 million RMB is not enough to complete this preliminary plan, especially the third and fourth plans!"

"The fourth plan is easy to say. If we only select a few key cities in the early stages, 5 million RMB will be enough!"

"But the third plan is not something that can be solved with 5 million RMB. It will require at least more than billion RMB to start with!"

An Xin laughed and said, "Of course I know that this amount of money can't handle the entire plan, but didn't I say it before? This is just the first batch of funds for the Micro Times e-commerce division!"

"This money is just for you to complete some of the preliminary planning and other necessary expenses!"

"As for the third plan, we can first select a specific acquisition target, and then discuss the specific acquisition amount with the acquisition target. As long as the specific acquisition amount is determined, Micro Times can immediately start the B round of financing!"

"Dong, I've said before that Micro Times is different from other Internet companies. Our financing channels are very smooth. You don't need to worry about development funds!"

After listening to An Xin's explanation, Liu Lingdong nodded in understanding, and then said readily: "Boss An, then I have no questions about this preliminary plan. Now I just have one question, when will we officially start working?"

Good man, what a workaholic!

An Xin secretly complained, then said with a smile: "After we sign the acquisition contract, you can start working!"

"Of course, you can do some preliminary preparations in the next few days. That way, you can get started faster when the time comes!"

"no problem!"

Liu Lidong agreed with a smile, but suddenly thought of a key question and asked quickly: "Mr. An, has the e-commerce platform of Micro Era been named?"

An Xin nodded slightly and said, "Of course, the main platform will be called Weigou, continuing the tradition of naming with "Wei" as the first character in the Wei era. As for the B2C self-operated mall, well, let's continue to call it JD Mall. What do you think?"

After hearing that An Xin had retained the name of JD.com, Liu Lingdong was very moved and assured excitedly: "Mr. An is thoughtful! Don't worry, I will do my best to make Weigou the top e-commerce giant in China!"

"We'll see!"

...