China Times Finance Original Production Reporter: Zhang Limin Editor: Zhou Xuesong Drawing: Zhang Yuxuan.
Among the many heavyweight news, Taotian Group quietly released a seemingly unimportant news a few days ago, which may actually be a preview of how to develop in 2024.
In the future, the main business position of Taote merchants will be transferred to **, and the goods will retain various data tags such as sales and evaluation. This news is not long, and there is no particularly heavy content, and even from the word "last", it can be seen that this is "old news".
However, Beijing Business Daily gave a comment worth thinking about: some practitioners believe that after Ali's return to ** and low prices, Taote's sense of existence will inevitably be weakened.
And if you want to understand this sentence accurately, you have to start with Taote's positioning.
In the face of Pinduoduo's aggressiveness, Ali was a little 'at a loss', and in a hurry decided to treat others in his own way, and launched Taote, trying to deal with Pinduoduo's low-price strategy by 'throwing money' subsidies. Song Xiangqing, vice president of the China Business Economics Association and founder of Huadebang, gave a description in an interview with the China Economic Times Financial Reporter that it can be said that he gave Taote a "first-class version".
According to Alibaba Group's "spiritual leader" Ma Yun, it is necessary to focus on the first, and at the same time, the new CEO Wu Yongming revealed from time to time that the future "low price" must be the main strategy, but weaken a product that has been entrusted with important tasks, what card does Ali Group play?
The relevant person in charge of Taotian Group gave this reply in an interview with the China Economic Times Financial Reporter: "Taote continues to develop, and at the same time increases the full supply of the best to serve Taote's original market users. ”
Ali Rashomon? How do you get a low price?
Taote doesn't want to stay
In fact, combined with the current growth of Ali and the situation of Tmall, Taote should stay.
In February, Alibaba Group disclosed its results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, showing that Alibaba's revenue in the previous quarter was 2,603500 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%, but the operating profit decreased by 36% year-on-year to 225100 million yuan, net profit fell sharply by 77% year-on-year, only 107200 million yuan.
Although Alibaba explained that the year-on-year decline in operating profit was due to the impairment of Sun Art's intangible assets and Youku's goodwill, combined with the financial report and the data disclosed by Taotian Group, it can be seen that Taotian Group's revenue increased by only 2% in the fourth quarter of 2023 when the number of platform merchants and the number of 88VIP members achieved double-digit growth.
At that time, looking at Pinduoduo, the news that the market value once surpassed that of Ali Group quickly dominated the hot search on the social ** platform.
Taotian Group needs a "sharp weapon" to deal with Pinduoduo, and looking back on Taote's past, it should also have such a layout idea.
In 2018, Pinduoduo IPO was incubated in the C2M division of ** (established by the integration of **'s daily sale and 1688's supply center). The 2020 *** version appeared in the March financial report, and Daniel Zhang, then CEO, said that the ** version is the positioning of serving "low-end users" and "a more concise and completely cost-effective platform". Since then, the ** version has been "soaring", and the team has rapidly expanded to 1,000 people, independent in May 2021 and renamed Taote, and at the same time issued a high-profile marketing strategy, with the intention of obviously competing with Pinduoduo.
From independence to integration, it also took two years.
Song Xiangqing explained the change in Taote's status: "The emergence of Taote is not a strategic move by Alibaba, but a market strategy response, which is a business adjustment. 'Crazy money' type of competition itself is not sustainable, and Pinduoduo adopts a low-price model, and what reaches out to the market is a fist that gathers all the strength, and Taote is only a part of the low-price marketing in Ali's business model, and only a small half of the fist that is not clenched but played doping is stretched out to the market, compared with the two, it is not surprising that Taote was defeated. ”
According to the data, the revenue and profit margin of Ali's China commercial division in fiscal 2022 decreased from 43% in fiscal 2021 to 31% in fiscal 2022, mainly due to the increase in investment in Taocaicai and Taote.
In view of the fact that Taote has not been able to achieve breakthroughs in the fields of merchant maintenance, low-price consumption, and traffic play, it is only a matter of time before Taote gradually fades out of the consumer's field of vision. Song Xiangqing believes that the decision of ** is wise: when Ali realized that the "throwing money" subsidy maintenance and Pinduoduo's direct competition strategy was wrong, he began to emphasize reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and the value of the existence of Taote, which burns money, is no longer large, and it is a wise move to merge into **.
At this time, no matter how Taotian Group replied, in fact, from all aspects of the movement, Taote's fate has been seen.
At the beginning of 2023, Taotian Group announced five major strategies internally, among which "** force" is considered the most important battle. At the end of the year, Wu Yongming, the new chairman and CEO of Taotian, reiterated: "Power is the core strategy that runs through all levels of commodities.
Then in 2024, the new stage of Taotian Group will be clear - how to put the best power into practice, and Taote's relocation should be the clarion call for the beginning of execution.
Is 1688 Ali's last move to resist Pinduoduo?
The pressure is given to Taote, and Taote is integrated, which means that it is the main force to achieve the new stage goal of Taotian Group.
According to the report of "Late LatePost", Taotian's management shared internally at the beginning of 2024 that they saw that users' perception of ** force lagged behind other opponents, which is an important reason for the challenge of **growth and the loss of old users.
*A new round of low-price strategy is believed to be coming soon.
It is understood that at present, the user side of the first is further optimizing the search and recommendation algorithm, and the goal is to more accurately recommend low-priced goods with corresponding consumption bands for users at each level. On the supply side, the business threshold of brand dealers began to be lowered, and the supply of white-label goods in industrial belts and factories was expanded.
Song Xiangqing suggested that Ali wants to achieve "low price" and "good goods", and should highlight its direction and leadership in the business portfolio, focus on the core business, dilute or even withdraw from some non-core businesses, and accelerate transformation and upgrading in terms of technology platforms and scene creation.
It is worth noting that Ali Group is not only working **, it seems that 1688 is also brewing a follow-up move.
In September 2023, 1688's "1688 Strict Selection" announced the official launch of the membership-based supermarket "Plus Membership Store". According to the Beijing Business Daily, many of the merchants of 1688 and Taote and Tao Factory are from the same industrial belt, but the cooperation between 1688 and Tao Factory has been ongoing. Whether it is Tao Factory, Tao Special or 1688, there is a situation of mutual communication between goods and factories.
Could it be that on the bright side of 1688, as the relevant person in charge of 1688 said, the main Sam Ping is actually the regeneration of Taote?
Song Xiangqing prefers this to be a business attempt, and he said that there are differences between 1688 and the original Taote platform in terms of business positioning. In the case of Taote's merger, the low-price strategy of "one wholesale" to "pick up" the C-end consumers who were "left behind" by Taote is most likely a flexible and flexible approach taken by Ali in order to make up for the lack of market after Taote's merger, which is a complementary marketing method, with the purpose of solidifying the original customer base and expanding the new customer base, which is conducive to expanding the scale of the 1688 market.
Of course, no matter how Ali lays out, there is only one ultimate goal, that is, to return to the status of the former big brother, and to be more specific, to catch up with and surpass Pinduoduo.
Does Ali still have a chance?
Focusing on me, taking superior resources as the key, and focusing on the core business is the magic weapon for the operation of Ali's brands such as **. The integration of Taote can further increase the supply of low prices and attract more new users, but in order to achieve self-transcendence and transcendence of major competitors, we must accelerate the construction of a new development pattern with innovation as the core driving force, adhere to the concept of large consumption, integrate into the large industrial system, and expand the international market. Song Xiangqing answered.
Rational, objective and unique
Director丨Wang Hui
Producer丨Li Piguang, Wang Yu, Liu Weimin.
Chief Planner丨Wang Songcai.
Editor-in-Chief丨Zhou Xuesong Deputy Editor-in-Chief丨Zhang Limin.