Chapter 2459 Soft power is king

Zhou Buqi was still elaborating on his point of view, saying: "The domestic manufacturing industry is already very strong. We can produce almost all the goods we need daily. Not to mention large companies, for many small and medium-sized enterprises, their production capabilities are It is already strong enough. If the cost-effectiveness of the products is taken into account, it is definitely the best in the world. These companies can obviously produce the most popular products, but they are always unable to sell them and always face the risk of frequent bankruptcy."

Lei Jun smiled and said: "This sounds like what Boss Ma said. Whether it is Taobao or Alibaba's B2B business, including small loan business, they are all dealing with this series of issues."

Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "Maybe, I was influenced by him. It's not like you don't know that he is a big liar."

Lei Jun said: "However, Boss Ma only deals with the domestic market."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Taobao has indeed found a way for many small and medium-sized enterprises to survive, but the decline of domestic physical businesses is also an inevitable negative impact. If we want to completely solve this problem, we still have to find ways to open up overseas markets." ."

Domestic production capacity is too strong and too many goods are manufactured, resulting in serious oversupply in the market.

What to do if there is a surplus?

The policy introduced by the authorities is to “reduce overcapacity”.

That is to give up part of the excess production capacity, so that the supply and demand relationship in the market will be balanced. But this means that many factories have to close their operations, many factories have to lay off employees and go bankrupt.

When choosing between "open source" and "reducing expenditures", of course the "open source" solution is the best!

How to open source?

Just to open up overseas markets.

The country's overcapacity reduction policy is more importantly a policy guide for state-owned enterprises. For example, many steel companies have experienced economic crises in the past few years. In order to stimulate the economy, they are operating at full capacity in production.

Now that the economic crisis has passed, the sequelae have emerged.

It is necessary to dispose of relevant excess commodities.

If he wanted to sell the products produced by these large state-owned enterprises abroad, Zhou Buqi asked himself that he did not have the ability, and his business territory did not cover heavy industries.

It is entirely possible to promote overseas consumer products produced by some private enterprises!

Zhou Buqi said: "You know Jingtao, right?"

Lei Jun said in awe: "Of course I know. Your team built an e-commerce platform in Japan. It purchased a lot of goods from China, and the transaction volume seems to be greater than Alibaba's B2B overseas business."

Zhou Buqi said: "In the past year, Jingtao's domestic product purchases exceeded 18 billion yuan. What do you think of this data?"

"It's shocking!"

Lei Jun really admires him from the bottom of his heart.

When he was the general manager of Jinshan in his early years, he focused on developing the Japanese market. He knew how difficult it was for foreign investors to do business in Japan, but he did not expect that Boss Zhou would actually do it.

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "Actually, this is a very restrained figure. Chen Dong... is the CEO of Jingtao. The data analysis he gave me showed that it was very possible to purchase goods worth more than 40 billion yuan from domestic sources last year. . But the actual transaction volume was only 18 billion yuan, less than half."

"Oh?" Lei Jun was very curious, "What's the reason? Is it the product quality?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, product quality is a very important aspect. There is also another aspect, which is the product design and brand. It is impossible for Jingtao to ruin its own brand and sell some fake products. Moreover, it is necessary to Try to sell products that Japanese consumers like as much as possible."

Lei Jun frowned slightly, "This is difficult. It's difficult to choose products. What's even more difficult is how popular the products are with consumers. Domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies are already weak. They basically only produce and are not interested in products. They don’t understand it at all. When it comes to overseas markets, they don’t understand it even more. Many foreign businessmen place orders for those manufacturing factories by setting the models and then teaching them step by step for a period of time. Some even send technicians to help. Improve process flow.”

This statement reveals an important factor in the market's replacement of technology.

Many domestic foundries receive orders from foreign companies and produce goods according to their requirements. However, what should we do if our own technology is immature and our production technology is insufficient?

In order to reduce the cost of goods, foreign businessmen need to train their partners and send technical personnel to provide guidance.

Take copycat mobile phone manufacturers for example. The founders of these manufacturers all came from foundries. They took production orders for foreign mobile phones from Nokia, Philips, Samsung, Motorola and other foreign countries. Then they learned how to make mobile phones, and then started their own businesses.

In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the development of domestic heavy industry relied on the step-by-step guidance of experts from the Soviet Union. In the past two decades, the domestic manufacturing industry has grown rapidly and relied on the help of foreign capital.

However, foreign investors will not teach core technologies.

Only some basic, common-sense guidance will be given so that the domestic manufacturing industry can produce most basic life products. Sino-German relations are so good, and German car manufacturers keep some of their core car technologies as secretive as possible.

Zhou Buqi said: "The domestic manufacturing industry is very strong, and what is strong is only basic manufacturing. Building a computer or a mobile phone has really no technical content. Building a refrigerator or a washing machine is even simpler. Those in China Most manufacturing companies have technical capabilities at this level. And such technical capabilities are often the least important factor in the sales of goods."

If it is a core technology, it is absolutely powerful and has great competitiveness in the market.

If ordinary manufacturing technology is worth a penny, it is an exaggeration to say it is worth a penny, but it is probably worth a penny.

Lei Jun knew this very well and said with a smile: "If it is a planned economy model, it must be based on manufacturing capacity. If it is market competition, especially in the current globalized market structure, then it must still be based on brand , design, sales, and after-sales are mainly based on soft power.”

Xiaomi mobile phone is.

How good are Xiaomi phones?

Judging from the product alone, it is not very good at all, much worse than the products of China Cool Alliance.

But its soft power is amazing.

It has established a strong brand; it caters to the market and makes products for young people; its sales model is even more powerful, almost all of which are at a loss to make money, focusing on the ultimate cost-effectiveness.

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, that's what it means. Jingtao cut off more than 20 billion expected domestic orders last year for this reason. Those domestic manufacturing factories only have the hard power of production and manufacturing, and they have no market at all. The soft power of globalization. This is of course related to the scarcity of goods and insufficient supply under the planning model in the past, where everything was based on production. But this is 2013, our supply of goods is saturated, and everything should change. "

Lei Jun shook his head, "It's not easy to change this. Look at those copycat phones? Counterfeit phone manufacturers are top students who ran away from the manufacturing army. They are only at this level. There are still serious problems in China. The Soviet-style thinking in the planning era focused on the hard power of technology and weakened the soft power of the market.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Xiaomi has succeeded. Xiaomi has no hard power. It just relies on the soft power of the market, brand building and market operation. It has defeated those copycat manufacturers with hard power, and even defeated the Chinese The giants like Kulian have all been pulled down.”

Lei Jun waved his hands repeatedly and said humbly: "It doesn't matter, Aisda plays a greater role."

Zhou Buqi did not answer this question and continued the topic just now, "I have published a book called "Platform Economy", which expounded a point that the platform economy is inseparable from 'self-operated' and 'third parties'. Taobao seems to be an exception, and it is completely based on third parties. In my opinion, the reason why Taobao is so successful is that it has captured the strong demand of domestic manufacturing in this era. Similar to you, they all attack from the pain points of the manufacturing industry. "

"Oh? Tell me?"

Lei Jun wanted to hear his opinion, because he also wanted to make Xiaomi a platform. Fanke failed, Xiaomi cannot make the same mistake again.

Zhou Buqi said: "Domestic manufacturing factories can only manufacture and have no soft power at all. What should I do if the brand and design are missing? Simple, plagiarism. They produce exactly the same products for big foreign brands, using foreign brands. , foreign design. What about operations and sales? Taobao provides the platform, and Taobao provides the best channel."

Lei Jun's eyes widened suddenly, and he finally understood Boss Zhou's overall thinking. He took a deep breath, "Taobao only provides manufacturing factories with back-end channels in the market, but does not provide them with the brand design of front-end products. Services. Manufacturing factories can only fake, imitate, and copycat."

"Yes, this is my thinking."

"So, you want me to do these front-end things?"

"Finally made it clear."

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief.

This concept is too big.

It is really not an easy task to explain what you mean clearly and make the other party recognize it.

Lei Jun thought slowly and said: "Xiaomi will provide the 'Xiaomi' brand, and then form a strong design team to provide product design. Give the design samples to the manufacturing factories, and they will produce them. Then you will provide overseas products." Channel, responsible for overseas sales.”

Zhou Buqi patted his thigh, "Yes, that's what it means!"

Lei Jun thinks this idea is feasible and has great potential. "Those manufacturing factories lack front-end and back-end capabilities, so they can only receive orders, manufacture and deliver goods when due. Once they are affected by external influences and lose orders, they will face Bankruptcy is full of uncertainty. Your way of thinking really solves this problem in all aspects! You are much better than Boss Ma. Taobao only solves the back-end problems, and it is only for the domestic market. You This is a perfect wrap!"

Zhou Buqi shook his head and said solemnly: "You are taller than a giant by standing on his shoulders, but you laugh at the giant for being too short? I think you are mocking me."

"It's a joke, don't take it seriously." Lei Jun laughed, and then said with admiration, "I just think that the development idea you have built to help domestic small and medium-sized enterprises is indeed more mature and powerful than Alibaba's idea."