Chapter 747: Damn it, Jack Ma is biting his master
After the news was broadcast, Luming Mall became famous.
Many people were surprised to find that they could actually order home appliances online. Not only were the prices cheaper, but there were also door-to-door installation services. They didn’t even have to worry about counterfeit or shoddy products because the products were self-operated by Luming Mall and guaranteed by the richest man himself!
The richest man is so rich, he wouldn’t still sell fake goods to cheat people, right?
As a result, for three consecutive days, the number of new registered users of Luming Mall increased sharply. Many elderly people who did not know how to use computers asked their sons or daughters to help buy things.
Without middlemen making a profit from the price difference, the prices of electrical appliances are naturally ridiculously cheap, and the competitiveness is unmatched by those stores.
Originally, Luming Mall had always been low-key and developed secretly, so it was not well-known. Now that Lu Yiming has personally come out to endorse and advertise it, how much influence will it have?
Luming Mall became an instant hit, with its transaction volume changing every minute , leaving Gome and Suning completely stunned, because Luming Mall was actually snatching the meat from their bowls.
After all, we all sell home appliances. If users spend money with me, they will not spend money with you. What we are playing is actually a zero-sum game.
Gome and Suning were furious. They had been fighting each other for so many years and finally defeated all other competitors and became the channel operators monopolizing the entire home appliance market. However, Cheng Yaojin suddenly appeared and defeated them without even opening a store.
At the Suning Mall headquarters, a group of leaders gathered urgently to discuss how to deal with Luming Mall.
"This Lu Yiming Mall is really hateful. It actually sells home appliances on the website. Users can place an order with just a few clicks, and the products are delivered to the door and installed. Isn't this stealing our business?"
"Yes, the key is that the prices of things in this Luming Mall are lower than those in our mall. We really don't have any advantage."
"If you ask me, we still have some advantages, right? After all, people can see the goods in person when they come to our stores, but they can't see this when they order online."
"What's that? Luming Mall offers seven days of no-reason returns and fourteen days of guaranteed exchanges. If you don't like the product you bought, you can just call and take it away. It's no different from the service we provide."
"Are we just going to sit there and watch as Luming Mall takes over our territory and encroachs on our trial production?"
After much discussion, they found themselves becoming more desperate. After all, the services they could provide were also provided by Luming Mall, but the price offered by Luming Mall was something they could not afford.
Luming Mall does not need to spend expensive rent on a storefront. It only needs a warehouse to store goods, which saves a lot of money. Then the orders can be completed online, so there is no need to pay sales to fool customers, which saves money again. By saving here and there, the cost is much higher than that of all its peers, and the selling price can be set very low.
Suning and Gome also wanted to engage in a price war, but after calculating the prices of Luming Mall, they estimated that if they really wanted to compete with Luming Mall on price, they would soon suffer the biggest loss in the country.
The key is that you can get discounts in Luming Mall if you spend a certain amount of money. How can you seek justice for this?
The two giants in the Xianxia electrical appliance industry suddenly felt that the world had changed. The advantages they were proud of before disappeared in the blink of an eye. The only advantage was that they could buy things in their mall and use them immediately, and the goods were delivered to their homes immediately, while if you bought things in Luming Mall, you might have to wait three or four days before you could get them.
But what does that matter? The things in Luming Mall are cheap.
Ordinary people's time is not valuable, and this does not waste any time, it is just the simplest delayed gratification. But making money is a real chore. Buying something in Luming Mall can save hundreds of yuan, although you have to wait for three or four days, but how many people work hard for three or four days and still can't earn these hundreds of yuan.
What's more, shopping in Luming Mall does not interfere with work and study.
Some people are willing to exchange their time for money, but the time of most people is worthless and cannot be exchanged for money.
As the saying goes, it’s fun to watch the fun, no matter how big the event. Soon, some people on the Internet began to brag about Luming Mall and posted on the forum to severely criticize the two physical chains.
The shopping experience in physical stores varies greatly due to the difference in the quality of the employees. If you encounter some employees with poor quality, the shopping experience will be a disaster.
With so many stores and so many employees in the two offline supermarkets, there must be some with outstanding personalities. Those who had unpleasant shopping experiences in physical stores posted comments to share their experiences.
There is no doubt that the Internet is an amplifier, just like a collection of wrong questions. You may get 99 points in every exam and only get one question wrong, but in the collection of wrong questions, all of them are wrong questions.
The same is true on the Internet. Praising the good and the right requires guidance, while complaining about failures and mistakes is spontaneous. When the posts complaining about the two physical stores pile up higher and higher, you will wonder how there can be such unscrupulous companies in the world that have not yet closed down.
Suning and Gome were both overwhelmed by the sudden outcry and quickly went up to defend themselves. It would have been better if they hadn't said anything. As soon as everyone saw the company representative, they fired back like a cannonball hitting the bull's eye. In just half a day, these users were criticized so much that their accounts were deleted.
This shows the power of netizens.
Helplessly, Suning and Gome could only announce that all stores would conduct employee training and quality improvement.
The key is that this will cost a lot of money.
As a result, won’t it be even further behind Luming Mall?
Don’t forget that Ali is also eyeing you closely!
There are countless individual sellers on Taobao, each showing off their skills. I dare not imagine what the situation will be like in the future!
In the forum, in addition to those who criticized Suning and Gome, some people also focused on Luming Mall itself.
"He still petted the cat during the interview. Is this the richest man?"
"Envy, we don't allow pets in our office."
"The cat in Lu Yiming's arms looks very similar to the Tmall logo that Taobao has recently created."
It is no longer a secret that Lu Yiming is a shareholder of Alibaba. Tmall has also officially announced that its logo is an abstract orange, the prototype of which is the orange in Lu Yiming's arms.
Someone who knows more about the situation immediately shared some information below: "This cat was originally a stray cat. Later, the richest man's mother saw it while buying groceries and took it home to adopt it. Now its profile picture is directly posted on the homepage of Tmall. It is said that this was Jack Ma's own request. He also likes cats."
"I'm so envious. I really want to be the cat in the richest man's house."
"It's really unexpected that the richest man would keep such a cheap local cat."
"What kind of local cat is this? It's obviously chubby and cute. It looks a bit like a Northeastern golden tabby cat."
"Haha, this cat's name seems to be Fat Tiger."
For a while, the comments section became a gathering place for cat lovers, and the content of the discussion gradually went off topic.
Even in the following period, the price of orange cats in pet markets across the country generally increased by more than one or two times.
At home, Lu Yiming was feeding Fat Tiger with dried fish. Ning Xuehua came back from shopping and saw this scene. She immediately complained, "Stop feeding him. Look at how fat Fat Tiger is now. Take him to the community to run and exercise, and come back in half an hour for dinner."
Lu Yiming poked Fat Tiger's belly with disdain: "Look at you, you're only a little over a year old, how come you're so fat?"
Fat Tiger meowed, turned around and walked outside. His disdainful look seemed to be saying: Don’t you have any idea why I’m so fat?
"Oh, you still dare to look down on me? You won't have any supper tonight!"
Lu Yiming took out a noose and tied it to Fat Tiger, saying, "Let's go. If I don't tire you out today, I will write my name upside down."
Just as I had packed up and was about to go out, I saw Jack Ma coming over with a few gift bags, and the two of them happened to meet.
"Boss Lu, what are you going to do?"
Lu Yiming shook the rope in his hand and said, "Walking the cat, what else can you do? How come you have time to come here today? Aren't you in Hangzhou to preside over the battle?"
Jack Ma put down the gift bag in his hand, squatted down, picked up Fat Tiger, stroked Fat Tiger's belly, and said in a relaxed tone: "Although eBay is still launching various promotions, the overall situation has actually been decided. It doesn't matter whether I am here or not."
Seeing Jack Ma's state, Lu Yiming couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Thinking back to the time when Whitman’s strong attack came, Jack Ma was so anxious that his eyebrows were almost on fire.
Now the situation has changed. eBay failed in Xiaguo, Whitman returned empty-handed, and a company worth tens of billions of dollars was beaten to a pulp by Jack Ma and a group of unorthodox people. It can only be said that this result was something that most people did not expect.
Even Jack Ma himself did not expect that eBay would be so vulnerable at first.
Lu Yiming said: "This is called not adapting to the local climate. The European and American methods only work in Europe and the United States. It is impossible to copy them directly in Xia Country. As the saying goes , local climate and soil nurture local people. Only our own local enterprises can adapt to local ways of playing and rules."
Jack Ma sighed and said, "That's true. I was too timid before. I only thought about how powerful eBay was and how influential it was internationally, but I didn't expect that they were going to come and grab our market. In terms of population size, we directly occupy a quarter of the world's population. There is no need to be vain."
"That's the truth."
Lu Yiming nodded slightly and continued, "So, if you want to come to our territory to eat and drink for free, you have to lie down like a tiger or coil up like a snake. If you want to come to our house to make money and become our boss, where in the world can you find such a good thing? I support you in killing eBay."
After reminiscing about the "glorious past years" together, Jack Ma finally talked to Lu Yiming about business: "Mr. Lu, I plan to separate Tmall from Taobao and develop it independently, specializing in the B2C market in the future."
When he said this, Jack Ma was observing Lu Yiming's expression. After all, if Tmall entered the B2C market, it would be competing with Luming Mall. Not long ago, Lu Yiming said in an interview that Alibaba specializes in C2C, which does not count as duplicate investment with Luming Mall. As a result, in the blink of an eye, Jack Ma said that he would enter the B2C market. To outsiders, this could be interpreted as a slap in the face.
In any case, Lu Yiming is a major shareholder of Alibaba, and he just helped Alibaba to repel the attack of eBay. Jack Ma suddenly said this, which seemed to be a bit like crossing the river and destroying the bridge.
Therefore, Jack Ma must see Lu Yiming's reaction. If Lu Yiming firmly opposes, Jack Ma will definitely choose to postpone this plan.
At present, no matter how Alibaba develops, it must not go against Lu Yiming, otherwise it will definitely be counterproductive.
And Lu Yiming quickly understood Jack Ma's plan.
He intends to enable Alibaba to have three business models: B2B, B2C, and C2C, to fully cover the e-commerce market.
I have to say that this idea is very ambitious and courageous.
In the original world, Jack Ma was still developing his own financial payment tool, Alipay, which was the top priority and the core of the core in Alibaba's entire plan.
But now it has been intercepted by Lu Yiming.
If Jack Ma wants to use Alipay, he must cooperate with Lu Yiming.
Unless he gives up Alipay and starts his own business.
But it is not so easy to cultivate user habits. By the time Jack Ma comes up with something that can replace Alipay, Alipay will have evolved to who knows how many generations it has reached, and the number of users has already increased. Even if Jack Ma comes up with a payment tool, it is hard to say how many users he can attract.
Lu Yiming knew very well that Jack Ma came over and said these things to test his reaction. After all, according to the ancient novels, Jack Ma was stabbing his old boss in the back and had a rebellious mind. Jack Ma wanted to win all three models, and he must compete head-on with Luming Mall in the B2C field.
Lu Yiming was instantly reminded of the "cat and dog war" in his previous life, and this time, he was afraid that it would turn into a cat and deer war.
Thinking about this scene, Lu Yiming couldn't help but laugh out loud.
When Jack Ma saw this, he suddenly panicked.
You can be angry, you can be furious, and call me ungrateful, but what does your smile mean?
This doesn't make sense.
Jack Ma suddenly couldn't figure out Lu Yiming's thinking.
"Mr. Lu...Mr. Lu, what are you laughing at? Is there something wrong with what I said?"
Lu Yiming came back to his senses and quickly said, "I didn't mean to laugh at you, I just thought of something interesting."
Jack Ma: “…”
Aren't you just making fun of me?
After a while, Lu Yiming stopped laughing and said seriously, "Let's get back to the point. The domestic e-commerce market is huge and can accommodate both Luming and Taobao. As for competition, that is inevitable. I will not intervene directly, and I will not put pressure on Alibaba as an investor. If any of your companies succeed, I will make money, so there is no need for me to suppress you. You are a very courageous person. I invested in you because of this. And the fact that you dare to challenge me directly today also shows this point."
Jack Ma knew that Lu Yiming would definitely do what he said, so he breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he also felt great admiration for Lu Yiming's vision.
The reason why he came here today to talk to Lu Yiming about this matter in person was to observe Lu Yiming's reaction so that he could make adjustments at any time.
Lu Yiming is a major shareholder of Alibaba. Although Jack Ma is confident that he can control Alibaba, facing a legendary figure like Lu Yiming who has rarely failed since his debut, he dare not guarantee that he can survive the competition with Lu Yiming.
Especially after seeing how Lu Yiming helped Alibaba defeat eBay, I felt that his skills were even more amazing and I had nothing but admiration for Lu Yiming in my heart.
Afterwards, the two exchanged some of their respective views. It must be said that after Taobao defeated eBay, Jack Ma straightened his back a lot, and his personal temperament changed very obviously, which made Lu Yiming have a sense of "once the wind and clouds rise, the dragon flies 90,000 miles."
Moreover, Lu Yiming even observed that Jack Ma was much more assertive when talking to him and was no longer as timid as before.
Seeing the change in Jack Ma, Lu Yiming felt emotional: It is indeed wishful thinking to have such a celebrity as a younger brother. In ancient times, there were so many generals wearing yellow robes, not to mention modern society. Who would be willing to be a younger brother forever?
In fact, Jack Ma’s Tmall wants to do B2C, and Lu Yiming’s Luming Mall also has plans to enter the C2C field.
The so-called doing business means that everyone is calculating his own little interests.
"Okay, I'm here to discuss cooperation with Gree, so I won't delay your business."
After getting the answer from Lu Yiming, Jack Ma planned to leave.
Lu Yiming didn't stop her, but said politely: "Don't worry, eat first, my mom has already cooked on the stove."
Jack Ma declined and said, "No, I have an appointment at noon."
"Okay, go ahead and do your thing."
After Jack Ma left, Lu Yiming took the things Jack Ma brought into the house.
Ning Xuehua saw Lu Yiming coming back after just leaving the house, and immediately yelled, "Didn't I tell you to go walk the cat? Why are you back again? Don't be lazy."
Then, he saw what Lu Yiming brought in, and immediately asked curiously: "Huh? Who brought this?"
Lu Yiming said: "Just now when I was leaving the house, I ran into Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, who just came to see me. He sent these things to me."
Ning Xuehua stretched her neck to look outside and asked, "A guest is coming? Then quickly ask him to come in and cook. Where is he? It just so happens that we have already arrived at the restaurant, so let him stay and eat with us."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Don't look, everyone has left. He is very busy now, how can he have time to stay and have a slow meal with you?"
