Yu Yongfu: "Internet +" will bring increments and variables

As "Internet +" has been promoted to a national strategy, this term has become a popular term among the people. Recently, I was asked by CCTV Finance Channel to talk about a few of my views, and I would like to share them with you. My understanding of "Internet +" is two key words, increment and variable. This year, Premier Li Keqiang proposed that China's economy should start a "dual engine", one is to create a new engine, mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and the other is to transform the traditional engine, transform and upgrade public services and traditional industries. "Internet +" can play an important role in both of these and become the core driving force for China's economic demand growth and industrial changes.

The so-called "incremental" refers to the use of the Internet, especially the mobile Internet, to create new models and products, such as third-party payment represented by Alipay. In the past, users did not dare to pay online when buying things online because they were worried about security issues. Alipay broke through this bottleneck by using third-party guaranteed payment, which facilitated users and promoted the overall development of China's e-commerce industry. However, after the emergence of Alipay, the total amount of bank card and cash consumption did not decrease, so it is an incremental business. LBS is the incremental business brought by the mobile Internet. Before the emergence of Internet maps such as Amap, we could only rely on checking maps and asking for directions when going out and driving. The emergence of smartphones has popularized LBS services and generated new dimensions of information and services, such as navigation to avoid congestion, location queries for life services such as catering and movies, so it is a typical incremental business.

"Variables" refer to the transformation of production methods and business models of traditional industries through the Internet. Today, we are talking about the concept of "Internet +". The biggest change is that the innovation and entrepreneurship wave that was only concentrated in the Internet field in the past will spread to all 360 industries in the society in the future. For entrepreneurs, this is definitely good news.

Last week, CCTV's "Financial Weekly" reported a "hot pot express" startup project. If the weather is bad today and you don't want to go out, but you don't want to simply order fast food, you want to eat hot pot, but most hot pot restaurants don't provide delivery services, what should you do? A Chongqing entrepreneur came up with a solution. He doesn't open a hot pot restaurant himself, but provides delivery services specifically for hot pot restaurants in Chongqing. Let's put aside some of the problems that this model may face. Its emergence is good for merchants, users and itself. It finds the pain points of user needs in traditional industries, which is a kind of innovation.

Under the background of "Internet +", the key to entrepreneurship and innovation is to find the real pain points. Alibaba Group has three major strategies for the future: rural e-commerce, big data and globalization. Rural e-commerce is aimed at the problem of insufficient commodity richness in rural areas. The so-called rural e-commerce not only allows the specialty agricultural products from all over China to sell well, but also allows farmers to buy the most cutting-edge products and services after making money. China has a population of 1.3 billion, of which 600 million are Internet users and 300 million are e-commerce users. The penetration from 300 million to 1.3 billion is a key link in rural areas.

Now the abundance of goods in central cities is already very high, and the current pain point is to obtain them quickly. However, it is different in rural areas, where there are no large shopping malls, and the types of goods that users can access offline are very limited, but the traditional logistics costs are too high. Behind this pain point is the opportunity for innovation. For example, rural users' demand for goods is usually not as urgent as that of urban users. Urban online shopping requires next-day delivery, while in rural areas it can be accepted within three days. So can we combine the three-day demand for one delivery? In addition, must the goods be delivered to every household? Would it be more efficient and less costly to centrally deliver to street vendors?

How should traditional industries respond to the "Internet +" trend? At any time, business is developing. If you don't advance, you will retreat. As a force, the Internet will have a huge impact on 360 industries in the future, but some will be faster and some will be slower. If today's department stores still only sell physical goods, they will definitely be impacted by e-commerce. In fact, people's demand for experience economy and on-site services is constantly increasing. If department stores are transformed into urban commercial centers that integrate entertainment, catering, and shopping, it will be difficult to be overturned. In the face of change, either you are passively liberated or you actively make a revolution. I have always emphasized the view that we must respect "non-Internet" and traditional industries do not need to belittle themselves in front of the Internet. Now there are more and more general Internet talents, but in turn, those who have a deep understanding of traditional industries are scarce, so teams that understand non-Internet industries will have more advantages in the future.

"Internet Plus" is not only applicable to user services, but also helps governments and enterprises improve operational efficiency. For example, in the past, when we talked about "digital cities", we were referring more to improving government efficiency through informatization. The increasing openness of data can help governments discover needs more accurately than before and meet needs in a more flexible way.

Amap is one of the main businesses I am responsible for at Alibaba. Amap has always focused on travel and location information services. With its professional data collection and production and big data processing capabilities, it has formed a professional infrastructure platform and continuously created new value. For example, the "China's Major Cities Traffic Analysis Report" that Amap has been working on for the past year has provided good information and decision-making references for relevant institutions. Now we want to further open up this professional capability. The Amap Traffic Public Information Service Platform, which is about to be launched, can not only generate real-time traffic conditions in a city down to a specific business district, a certain road section, or a certain accident, but also use big data processing capabilities to quickly respond to solutions to avoid congestion, and even reversely predict future road conditions.

These information and capabilities can be shared with relevant agencies. For example, we have already contacted and cooperated with many traffic radio stations. In the past, they usually broadcast traffic conditions based on data from the Ministry of Transportation. Now with the AutoNavi platform, they can not only supplement more comprehensive information (such as historical traffic information, emergencies reported by users in real time, and future traffic condition forecasts), but also provide detours to solve congestion problems. Soon we will also cooperate with more partners such as the traffic police and the Transportation Commission to significantly upgrade the existing public traffic information services. In the past, these departments used text messages as a platform to serve the public. Now they can push and notify information through AutoNavi Maps. This alone can save a city's traffic management department nearly 1 billion in promotion costs. At the same time, it changes one-way communication to two-way interaction, allowing users to participate in the sharing and calibration of traffic information, allowing management departments to catch the "Internet +" express train and better provide services to the public.

In addition, the increments and variables brought by "Internet +" are also reflected in improving the global competitiveness of Chinese enterprises. The development of the IT industry in the past 30 years has formed two major centers in the world, one is the innovation center of the United States, and the other is the market center of China. With the rapid development of mobile Internet, China has a first-mover advantage in the world, so in some innovative models, such as UC Browser and WeChat, they are globally competitive. At present, UC Browser has not only won the market in China and India, the two countries with the largest populations in the world, but also has a market share of more than 10% in more than 10 countries in the world. At the same time, in the past, in traditional industries, China could only play the role of a manufacturing base for a long time, but now "Internet +" is not only a major trend in China, but also in the world. If some traditional industries in China can seize the opportunity of "Internet +" and quickly realize transformation and upgrading, we will take the lead in global competition.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.