What else can the "heartfelt" Ma Huateng give to Liu Qiangdong?

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Who is behind Liu Qiangdong besides Milk Tea Sister? The answer may be Ma Huateng.

Before JD.com went public in 2014, he paid for shares; Liu Qiangdong got married on National Day this year, but he flew directly to Australia to attend the wedding, even though he doesn’t like flying; on the eve of Singles’ Day, he, who has always been low-key, made a high-profile appearance and launched the “Jingteng Plan” with Liu Qiangdong. With the entrance of WeChat and QQ, Ma Huateng is very sincere to Liu Qiangdong.

In the seventh year after Alibaba's original "Double 11" successfully evolved into a major annual "battle" in e-commerce, Tmall shifted the main battlefield of "Double 11" from Hangzhou to Beijing, which made the role of JD.com, which is also positioned as B2C (business to customer), rather delicate.

Therefore, Liu Qiangdong, who has almost become a "hands-off boss", not only showed up this year, but also brought Ma Huateng with him. After the opening of the WeChat entrance did not bring too many surprises to JD's mobile development, the question that still needs to be answered for this "Jingteng Plan" is: What else can Tencent bring to JD?

Ma Huateng and Liu Qiangdong are back to being "clickbait"

"JD.com + Tencent", when seeing an event with this theme, the first reaction was that JD.com and Tencent were going to merge. It immediately attracted the attention of many media and netizens, and both parties have not disclosed the specific content of the event.

Unexpectedly, after a large number of media flocked to the event on October 17, Ma Huateng and Liu Qiangdong simply announced the launch of a new project, the "Beijing-Teng Plan".

"I thought it was a big deal, but when I got there I saw that the two companies were doing marketing together," said a media reporter.

Ma Huateng and Liu Qiangdong have also fought hard for "Double 11". Not only have they made high-profile appearances, but they have also become "clickbait headlines". Judging from the information finally disclosed, the project dubbed "Jingteng Plan" is more of a marketing solution for brand merchants. Among them, Tencent, relying on the massive number of users of WeChat and QQ, provides brands with more accurate brand exposure opportunities covering users of all ages; JD.com is responsible for the implementation of the e-commerce platform, logistics, and warehousing.

If we follow Ma Huateng's words, based on the cooperation between Tencent and JD.com, we can attract brand merchants to join in and introduce more social elements to the traditional buyer-seller relationship.

Specifically, the "Brand-Commerce" innovative business model platform in the "Jingteng Plan" is a joint team specially formed by JD.com and Tencent to provide brand merchants with marketing solutions such as "precise portraits", "multi-dimensional scenarios" and "quality experience".

In plain words, the big data of both parties is used to help the butcher find the buyers who want to buy meat, and then the buyers can buy meat in a multi-dimensional scene similar to QQ space, and then add JD.com's "N" package services such as genuine products, low prices, quality assurance, etc. "In fact, the two of them organized an online shopping marketing on the eve of 'Double 11'." An industry insider told the reporter of "China Business Daily".

What else can social media + e-commerce do?

As one of the important contents of the cooperation between Tencent and JD.com last year, after JD.com acquired 100% of the equity, logistics personnel and assets of QQ Online Shopping and PaiPai.com, as well as a minority stake in Yixun.com, Tencent has gradually provided JD.com with the first-level entry position of WeChat and mobile QQ client and support of other major platforms in the second half of last year.

According to data provided by JD.com, the sales brought to JD.com by WeChat and mobile QQ shopping portals on "Double 11" last year reached 20 times the daily average level in October. Among them, from November 1 to 12 last year, the number of new users contributed by these two portals reached 3.2 times that of the same period in October, and the total number of user orders reached 2.8 times.

Liu Qiangdong's point of view is, "Double 11 this year, the traffic of JD.com and Tencent platforms, including JD.com platform, JD.com app, WeChat and QQ, is undoubtedly the largest traffic platform during the entire Double 11 period. We hope that every brand can win the hearts of consumers and gain the greatest reputation during Double 11 this year."

The big background that cannot be ignored is that, at the moment when the e-commerce landscape is just taking shape, neither Alibaba nor JD.com can achieve significant profit growth through massive expansion of product categories as they did in the past. Even Tencent's simple traffic diversion will still find it difficult to meet JD.com's demand for growth in order numbers and GMV (gross merchandise volume).

In addition, Paipai.com once shouldered JD.com’s ambition to be a C2C (customer-to-customer) platform, especially after receiving strategic investment from Tencent. In the social e-commerce trend led by WeChat, Paipai, which once had Tencent’s bloodline, was given high hopes by JD.com as a pioneer. But now, this pioneer is still at the stage of crossing the river by feeling the stones.

This year's "Double 11", the new situation that JD.com and Tencent need to face is that Alibaba's Tmall headquarters has moved to Beijing, and JD.com's old rival Suning.com has also formed an alliance with Alibaba.

Therefore, the "Jingteng Plan" released this time is also interpreted as the first step in the deep integration of JD.com and Tencent.

"'Social media + e-commerce' has never been seen before in the world. This is the first time we have tried to integrate it in China. We have made some achievements in the past year, but I have more expectations and there is great potential," explained Ma Huateng.

Three "moments" between two men

Nowadays, there are not many opportunities for Ma Huateng and Liu Qiangdong to appear together.

On the one hand, Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent, has always kept a low profile; on the other hand, Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, who once loved to laugh and scold on social platforms, has become less vocal after returning from his study abroad and losing weight. Even so, Ma Huateng always stands beside Liu Qiangdong on important occasions.

In fact, except for serving as a deliveryman during the annual JD.com store anniversary "6.18", Liu Qiangdong's participation in JD.com's major annual promotional activities has been much less than before. Behind this is that Liu Qiangdong, who used to be accustomed to taking care of every detail, has deliberately delegated power in JD.com's organizational management in the past two years.

Back in the Yinfeng Building, Liu Qiangdong patrolled the office every day, observing the work status of employees, asking about sales data, and participating in the formulation of every purchasing and sales strategy. But since JD.com moved to Beichen Century Center, as CXOs (various senior management personnel of enterprises) have arrived one by one, he has almost stopped asking about specific business.

In 2009, JD.com entered a period of rapid development. He gave his senior executives full financial and personnel power and "only looked at the results, not the process." Starting in 2011, Liu Qiangdong introduced CXOs such as COO (Chief Operating Officer) Shen Haoyu, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Lan Ye, and CHO (Chief Human Resources Officer) Long Yu.

The best way to delegate power is to leave the company. In 2013, Liu Qiangdong made up his mind to temporarily leave the company and embark on a "recharge" trip to the United States.

For a high-control figure like Liu Qiangdong, who can firmly hold more than 80% of the voting rights even after multiple financing and equity dilution, it is not easy to take the initiative to stay away from company management. But compared with the more than 40 days of studying at Harvard Business School around the Spring Festival in 2012, this time Liu Qiangdong's "disappearance" is more thorough.

A reporter from China Business News previously learned from JD.com that Liu Qiangdong spent most of his time studying abroad from May to June 2013. After briefly appearing at the JD.com Open Platform Partner Conference in July 2013, he went to the United States again in August 2013 to study at Columbia University. During this period, he did not return to China for about four months.

At that time, there were media reports that Liu Qiangdong changed his phone number after going to the United States, and even domestic executives could not contact him, and email was the only means of communication.

But after returning from "recharging", Liu Qiangdong quickly accomplished a major event that affected the landscape of China's e-commerce industry, which was to accept the "bouquet" thrown by Tencent.

On March 8, 2014, a photo of Ma Huateng dining with Liu Qiangdong and others was circulated online. In the photo, Ma Huateng and Liu Qiangdong stood in the middle, Ma Huateng was wearing a gray sports pullover, and Liu Qiangdong was wearing a casual suit with a red shirt underneath.

This photo was later confirmed to be a very important "first moment" between the two. Two days later, the news of Tencent's investment in JD.com was officially announced.

During the National Day holiday this year, Liu Qiangdong and Milk Tea Sister held their wedding in Australia. Ma Huateng, who never likes flying, was very clear about his "comrade's" life event and flew directly to the scene to send his blessings. This became the "second moment".

More than half a month later, and a year and a half after Tencent officially invested in JD.com, the two once again jointly launched the "JD.com + Tencent" sign, which was another important "moment" for the two on the eve of "Double 11".

Of course, behind Ma Huateng's "heartfelt" attitude lies a simple logic: support the second-in-command and fight against the first-in-command.