8 years of gambling has finally come to naught! Jack Ma started asset sales, and another Internet story is over!
As early as 2016, Ma Yun once put down his arrogance and said: There will be no e-commerce in the next ten years, only new retail! After that, Jack Ma led Alibaba and successively acquired a total of 78.7% of Sun Art Retail's shares. Many people may not know about Sun Art Retail, but if I say RT-Mart, then everyone should be familiar with it, this Sun Art Retail is the parent company behind RT-Mart.
Under the leadership of Ma Yun, Alibaba has successively launched offline store platforms such as Hema and Intime Department Store, building a new retail model of online ordering and offline pick-up. There is one thing to say, Ma Yun's starting point for engaging in new retail is actually correct, online shopping is indeed very convenient, but the quality and efficiency of goods are problems, and at the same time, the characteristics of e-commerce determine that it cannot create more jobs, and if it can promote the combination of e-commerce and offline physical stores, then the involution of society may also be reduced a lot.
Speaking of which, as early as 2012, Ma Yun and Wanda's Wang Jianlin made a bet on the future development of e-commerce and retail, and the content of the bet was: 10 years later, if e-commerce accounts for 50% of China's retail market, Wang Jianlin will lose 100 million to Ma Yun, otherwise, Ma Yun will give Wang Jianlin 100 million.
In order to win this gamble, of course, it can also be said that it is to verify its own judgment, Ma Yun-led Alibaba has successively launched the "new species" of the retail industry, Hema, invested more than 40 billion yuan to acquire the shares of Sun Art Retail, spent 5.37 billion Hong Kong dollars to make a strategic investment in Intime Department Store, and invested in a number of offline physical stores such as Suning, Sanjiang Shopping and Bailian, as the offline carrier of Alibaba's new retail.
However, Ma Yun did underestimate his peers, or rather, underestimated the vicious competition in the industry. Although Ma Yun has the intention of engaging in offline, in the face of Pinduoduo, which is an e-commerce platform that is extremely cost-effective, the online plus offline model is destined to be unable to compete. The second is that the general environment has changed, and the income of a large number of ordinary people has not increased but decreased in recent years, and the consumption upgrade that Ma Yun expected not only did not come, but became a consumption downgrade, which also further hit Ma Yun's new retail model.
Therefore, although he has gambled for 8 years, in the face of reality, even Ma Yun has to start the asset sale mode. Not long ago, RT-Mart's parent company, Sun Art Retail, temporarily suspended trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and made it clear that the company would usher in acquisitions and mergers. At the same time, the founder of Hema stepped down and Intime Department Store was also rumored to be negotiating a sale.
It should be said that Ali's abandonment of the new retail business has long been a sign. At Alibaba's earnings call in February this year, Ali's co-founder Tsai Chongxin made it clear that Alibaba's balance sheet still has some traditional brick-and-mortar retail businesses, which are not the core focus business, and Ali's withdrawal is reasonable.
Cai Chongxin's words are equivalent to slapping Ma Yun in the face.
Of course, to be realistic, looking back on the failure of Alibaba's new retail business, we can attribute it to the vicious competition in the industry and changes in the general environment, in fact, it can also be attributed to Jack Ma himself.
In fact, Ma Yun himself may not have figured out what new retail is, which can be found from the "New Retail Research Report" released by Ali Research Institute in 2018, which explains new retail as follows: enterprises rely on the Internet, through the use of big data, artificial intelligence and other advanced technology means to upgrade the production, circulation and sales process of goods, and then reshape the business structure and ecosystem, and the deep integration of online services, offline experience and modern logistics A new retail model.
The biggest feeling after reading this passage is that I can understand the words, but I can't understand them when they are connected. To put it bluntly, this is an explanation for the sake of explanation, and these so-called Internet slang just prove that Ali's definition of new retail itself is very vague. In addition, e-commerce and offline are two very conflicting things in themselves, of course, if they can be combined, it is indeed a good thing, but obviously, Ma Yun cannot solve this problem. Taking RT-Mart as an example, in the past, RT-Mart had the advantage of "taking it directly", but now it has to make concessions to the online platform and recommend customers to place orders online to receive coupons, which eventually becomes a drainage tool for Taobao.
In my opinion, the new retail frantically advocated by Ma Yun may be a "false proposition" in itself, but it is just a special product of the period of fierce competition on the Internet, spelling concepts and pies.