What does Jack Ma’s “ecosystem” really mean?

Alibaba's listing has become the hottest headline news in recent times, integrating the Internet and finance. The interpretations of Alibaba's listing have already been dazzling. As for Tie Ge, he doesn't care who rings the bell, the stock price, or how many stock options Alibaba employees can get. As spectators, we just use it as a topic of conversation.

As a mobile Internet entrepreneur, Tie Ge is particularly concerned about Jack Ma’s “ecosystem”. Here I would like to share my understanding of Jack Ma’s “ecosystem”.

For e-commerce platforms, they target sellers, buyers, and intermediary logistics, and the entire platform is to complete the circulation of capital and logistics, and this rule is applicable to both mobile and PC terminals. The essence of the entire "ecosystem" is to enable platform-related participants to quickly complete the circulation of capital and cash flows, and Alibaba is only an important link in the entire ecological chain. Its strategic approach may provide new opportunities for e-commerce practitioners.

First, the status of the logistics chain's ant army is further enhanced

The development of e-commerce has basically been divided into two modes: third-party professional logistics and self-built logistics. Apart from the starting point and execution efficiency, both types of logistics have many problems. The efficiency of third-party professional logistics is difficult to control, especially during peak periods, and the logistics cost is also a cost that cannot be ignored for stores, especially for buyers who often ask for free shipping. Self-built logistics is also difficult to replicate quickly due to excessive investment. From the actual operation, the efficiency loss caused by the absence of the recipient or the inability to communicate should not be underestimated.

On the other hand, there are many idle laborers in the society who are not professional couriers, which is a valuable asset for the heavy physical industry of logistics. Renren Express, which emerged this year, is integrating idle laborers. Although it has been resisted by some places, Tiege insists that these organizations integrating idle laborers will shine in the future, and they can solve the last mile delivery problem as quickly as possible and can be quickly replicated. Renren Express is one of them, and the property security guards and small shop owners in the community can go a step further and accelerate the operation of the entire logistics through technology and institutional means.

Secondly, offline physical stores usher in spring

We basically don’t need to care about the bet between Jack Ma and Wang Jianlin, because with the rise of mobile Internet, mobile e-commerce and offline entities have become so intertwined that it is difficult to completely separate them and determine which one is the king.

In Tiege's mind, the biggest feature of mobile e-commerce is to incorporate offline resources into core resources, to completely connect offline and online, and to realize an online and offline O2O closed loop.

Undoubtedly, in the entire closed loop, online provides transaction and information flow functions, retains and activates data, facilitates in-depth exploration of user shopping habits, and facilitates in-depth exploration of purchase rates today when the absolute number of users has reached a bottleneck. Offline provides precise user traffic entrances, especially offline physical stores with shopping scenarios, which will bring high-quality target user groups.

In the future, offline stores will sell their own products and cultivate their own online user systems on the one hand, but on the other hand, offline stores will also be crowdsourced versions of "Hey Stores". Offline QR codes and samples will enable users to directly consume impulse products.

Offline stores will have new opportunities because of mobile Internet. With the completion of Alibaba's IPO, Alibaba will certainly invest more energy in mobile Internet and will inevitably integrate this high-quality resource. In the future, Alibaba will no longer only be the largest traffic pool for online shopping, but also for offline shopping.

Finally, the upgrading and improvement of small and micro financial services

Before and after the IPO, Jack Ma has been saying that he will continue to serve sellers, which of course requires financial support.

Alibaba's microfinance and even JD's Baitiao both provide sellers with necessary financial support, enabling them to accelerate the entire logistics chain, and on the other hand, they can also provide sellers with loans to increase product sales. Killing two birds with one stone is of great significance to the final sales of the entire ecological chain.

Further expanding the audience of microfinance and lowering its threshold can further increase sellers' motivation and buyers' purchasing power. From Jack Ma's interview, microfinance currently has no plans to go public, and he also said that its mission has just begun. But Tie Ge also hopes that Alibaba can continue to be open-minded and introduce third-party funds on a large scale to complete the complete upgrade of microfinance. Let the many idle funds in the society complete this work together.

Tiege believes that Jack Ma's "ecosystem" will definitely not be an ecosystem where Alibaba plays a one-man show. That is the law of the jungle in the wild era, not the market economy in today's civilized society. Therefore, Alibaba cannot complete the above three aspects alone, and third parties or entrepreneurial teams that are willing to complete the entire ecosystem can participate together. The entire Chinese e-commerce ecosystem may achieve a leap forward here.

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.