Some time ago, as soon as Pinduoduo's third-quarter financial report was announced, it attracted reports from major **. However, it is no wonder that it can achieve a year-on-year increase of 94% in performance and a 60% year-on-year increase in profit, which is one of the few in China and even in the world.
In addition, on November 29, Pinduoduo's intraday performance in the U.S. stock market surpassed Alibaba for the first time, which created a miracle of growth speed.
Pinduoduo was established in 2015, at that time, Ali's ** and Tmall, but occupied three-quarters of the market share, and now, it only took 8 years, it is almost overtaking the 24-year-old Ali big brother, which has to be admired.
In addition, this also makes people inevitably ask: Why is it not Jingdong that shakes Ali, but Pinduoduo?
To borrow the teacher's "Theory of Contradiction", the answer is: Pinduoduo has grasped the main contradiction, while JD has been wrestling with the secondary contradiction.
The main contradiction for e-commerce platforms is:Low price, and the quality brand, delivery speed, is a secondary contradiction.
Like Amazon's Bezos, who said in a speech, "People often ask me: What will change in the next 10 years?".I find this question interesting and common. No one has ever asked me: what won't change in the next 10 years?In retail, we know that customers want low prices, and that's not going to change in the next 10 years. They want faster delivery, they want more options. ”
Low price is the killer feature of the e-commerce platform;Low price is the main contradiction of the platform to become bigger;There is no low price, no matter how good the product quality is, no matter how fast the delivery speed, it is all floating clouds, and there is no way to capture more consumers.
For JD.com, which has been established for 25 years, this year, it can be regarded as coming back to its senses, Liu Qiangdong declared to the outside world: low price is the most important strategy of JD retail in the next three years.
Pinduoduo low price, ** low price, Jingdong also began to follow up the low price, why do the major platforms choose the low price strategy?
In simple terms,Low prices are in line with human nature。Most people live under the slavery of money, and it is not easy to make money, coupled with the impact of the epidemic in the past few years, many people's pockets have been emptied, so spending money must be budget-conscious.
Low price is the main contradiction of the e-commerce platform, and it is also the main contradiction of the auto parts business.
In the duel between brand quality and low price to save money, low price always prevails. Because the population base of the latter accounts for the vast majority.
In October this year, the state released the data on the disposable income of residents, urban residents, and rural residents across the country for the first three quarters from January to September 2023:
The data shows that the disposable income of residents in the first 9 months of the country: 29,398 yuan.
Disposable income of urban residents in the first nine months: 39,428 yuan.
Disposable income of rural residents in the first 9 months: 15,705 yuan.
The above figure divided by 9 is the average monthly disposable income:
The monthly per capita disposable income of residents in the country is 326644 yuan.
Monthly per capita disposable income of urban residents: 438089 yuan.
Monthly per capita disposable income of rural residents: 1,745 yuan.
As can be seen from the above figures, in the structure of the total population, families below the middle class account for the majority.
Low price is the main contradiction of the auto parts business, so what is the secondary contradiction of the auto parts business?Personally, I think there are two:
The first is the contradiction between a planned economy and a market economy
The more fierce the competition in the auto parts market, the lower the quality of the product will become. The reason why ** will become lower is because the product has sales, and this has sales, in addition to part of the installation on the owner's car, there must be a backlog of stockpiling. And the reason why there is a backlog of hoarding is because of the result of asking the manufacturer for a lower **.
The number of products sold is inevitably less than the number of products produced by the factory. Because when there is a shortage of products, it is inevitable to increase production orders and increase machine investment until there is overcapacity.
Overcapacity will further depress product sales**. Because instead of the product rotting in the warehouse, it is better to return the cost a little bit.
The order production of the factory is usually the result of advance planning, such as: the plan of the main engine supporting factory, the plan of the OEM, the plan of the foreign ** business, and the plan of the after-sales brand.
The intensification of market competition will further disconnect the planned economy of factories from the real market economy, which is an irreconcilable contradiction.
This irreconcilability is not only because the time when auto parts are bad, but also because the consumption of auto parts, in essence, is not a kind of enjoyment consumption of the chopping party, but a reluctant painful consumption. Therefore, this kind of product, there is no possibility of impulsive consumption, and then the overcapacity of the product, can not be through, to achieve incremental market income, can only seize the stock market.
The second is: the contradiction of endogenous value vs external competition
Drucker once said: The existence of enterprises is essentially forTo meet the needs of a certain aspect of society and to achieve a special social purpose.
In simple terms,Enterprises exist to solve some problems in society.
In order for an enterprise to continue to exist, it must be in the market competition, constantly growing new value and new advantages. However, the growth law of endogenous value usually follows a J-shaped curve (first downward, then upward), which has a lag effect.
Why do you say: adhere to reform and opening up, unchanged for 100 years?Because he knows that in the early stage of reform and opening up, the economy is likely to decline. For example, at that time, a large number of people were unemployed, and prices were **. But after the early days, everything will get better and better.
Another example is Huawei, why should it insist on billions of R&D investment every year?That's because there is a certain process to go from science to technology.
Similarly, in order to survive in the market competition, it is also necessary to continuously grow new value and new advantages in the auto parts business.
However, in the lag of endogenous value and the immediacy of competition with the outside world, it is usually an irreconcilable contradiction.
Because can endogenous value grow?Is it right in the right direction?Can you afford to wait?It's all very uncertain.
It is said that you have to be patient in doing things, and there is a lag in growth, but nowadays, most people are impatient.
Like some investors, they are eager to make an investment, hoping that the invested company will have a return that year, and if they fail to meet expectations, they hope to withdraw or match the acquisition.
However, some old enterprises shout innovation all day long, but do not leave enough time for innovation, as long as the performance is affected to a certain extent in the process of innovation, they will end the innovation in a hurry. The result of this kind of innovation with the mentality of quick success and quick profit is to let innovation stay on the slogan, and eventually be overtaken by other enterprises.
Of course, the endogenous value of an enterprise can grow, in addition to firm beliefs and long-term vision, it also needs some luck.
The above are the three common contradictions in the auto parts business.