“Don’t be afraid of difficulties. In this world, apart from being born into a good family and enjoying wealth and glory, nothing else is easy.

No matter how difficult it is, we have to do it step by step. Taotao certainly holds the initiative and has the power of life and death over individual merchants and express delivery companies.

But as long as all of our express delivery companies come together and speak with one voice, will Taobao still dare to play the game of choosing one from the two?"

Just as Li Zehua was about to give a long speech about his plan, Yu Weilong pushed the door open. In fact, he was just watching near the International Convention and Exhibition Center.

No one knew better than him how powerful Taotao was, but he obviously underestimated the impact of the Yahoo split on Ali.

It was not until the deputy general manager who stayed behind in Qiantang brought him the exact news that he came to his senses.

It turned out that Ali was in a state of panic. Even at the Double Eleven event and Cainiao Network project meeting that were being prepared, Mr. Ma did not show up and only sent a senior vice president of the group to preside over the meeting.

Although people at the meeting were still talking a lot about the prospects and were playing the game of choosing between two options openly or covertly, everyone knew that it was just bluffing.

Yu Weilong regretted it, but he couldn't find a suitable excuse to come in and attend the press conference. Just as he was struggling with this, Li Zehua called him.

He lit a cigarette outside and hesitated for a while before going upstairs reluctantly. After entering the room, he looked out of breath as if he was in a hurry.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm feeling a little unwell and just came back from the hospital."

Everyone in the room smiled knowingly at his explanation. Nie Tengyun joked, "Mr. Yu, take care of yourself. You can make endless money."

"Your health is more important. We are not in a hurry."

Li Zehua smiled, and after a few pleasantries, he sent a circle of men's friendship and clicked, "Since Mr. Yu is here, let's get down to business.

Huitong wants to liquidate and package its shares for 200 million yuan. Mr. Yu, you are a senior in the industry, what do you think? "

Yu Weilong was stunned. Is it so exciting just after arriving?
After thinking for a while, he shook his head decisively, "Two hundred million is too expensive. In the current economic environment, unless Mr. Xu takes back the control of the warehousing and logistics center."

Xu Jianyao retorted angrily, "I can get it back, why should I sell the company?"

"Then we can't be taken advantage of!"

Nie Tengyun sneered, "Boss Xu can't just take advantage of us and play us like monkeys, right?

Huitong has at least 4 large ones and dozens of small distribution and operation centers, with at least half and as much as % to % of the shares in the hands of franchise partners.

You just sold the company and walked away, leaving us and the franchisees to deal with the remaining debts? How can you explain it clearly? "

Xu Jianyao flicked the ash off his cigarette. "We are all from Tonglu. Where can I run to? You have taken over Huitong. You have plenty of cards to play. A few franchisees are no threat to you."

“Why don’t our resources count as money?

Everyone knows how difficult it is to deal with franchisees. ”

Yu Weilong sneered, "Either you take back the controlling stake in all the core assets, or you lower the price. I think 100 million is good enough!"

Xu Jianyao couldn't sit still any longer. "One hundred million? Why don't you just go and rob it?"

"Just rob you, what? If you don't agree, go find Tao Tao and see if they are willing to pay a high price to buy your company?"

Yu Weilong was bullied from both sides and was caught in the middle by the Hummingbird rookie. He wanted to please both sides, but he didn't have the ability to do so.

When it comes to direct sales, the example of Yanjing Yuantong is there. Both sides once gathered hundreds of people and almost broke out into a fight.

Until now, the negotiations are still going on, the other party refuses to give in, and the purchase price has repeatedly exceeded his psychological bottom line.

Seeing that the big franchisees in South China and East China are following suit, once they all start to make trouble, Yuantong’s main business will be affected.

I'm feeling annoyed, so it's inevitable that my words may contain some personal emotions.

Dong Ge and Nie Tengyun were just watching the fun and adding fuel to the fire, hoping that the two men would start fighting.

They realized that Old Xu had been hit hard one after another and seemed to be giving up the job.

As for Yuantong, although it is a veteran of the Hummingbird system, it has been wavering this time. With JD.com and Yunda for comparison, its importance has been overshadowed.

Mr. Yu was taking advantage of the situation to show off his abilities, but unfortunately he tried too hard and failed.

Only Li Zehua had a smile on his face, sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai. This is the advantage of being a platform, and everyone demands something of him.

When the two of them were arguing, he stepped down and simply took the initiative in his hands, "Since Mr. Xu is determined to sell the company, don't talk about 200 million.

Let's make a compromise, each of us take a step back, and Mr. Xu will help take back Huitong's scattered shares. We can each pool our money and offer Mr. Xu an acceptable price. How do you think?"

Xu Jianyao had a bitter look on his face, "Boss Li, I'm really not trying to shirk my responsibility. Everyone here knows what franchisees are like. They are the local bosses!
I rely on express delivery companies every year, spending hundreds of millions of profits to support myself. Today, it has become a big mess. If I had the ability to solve it, I would not come to you today. "

Li Zehua looked around and saw Liu Qiangdong looking indifferent. He was playing the direct game and had no feelings at all.

Nie Tengyun looked up at the sky without saying a word.

Yu Weilong was left sighing, "Don't ask me, I don't know where to find the 30 million I promised to Yanjing Yuantong. If you force me, I won't give you a penny."

It's funny to say that in history he really didn't give it. He only paid a few million of the 30 million he promised. After taking back the initiative, he turned his back on it and refused to acknowledge it.

The subsequent lawsuit lasted for several years. As Yuantong developed better and better, the internal interest disputes became more and more complicated.

The power of the original franchisees is nothing compared to the tens of billions of profits that followed.

In the end, the franchisee had to give in and the matter was left unresolved.

But right now, as e-commerce and online shopping are booming, express delivery companies have to temporarily compromise in order to cope with the huge incremental market demand.

Franchisees are a hurdle that almost all express delivery companies cannot avoid.

Didn’t you see that when SF Express was directly operated, Wang Wei was directly threatened with personal injury, so that no matter where he went, he was always accompanied by several bodyguards.

"How about exchanging it for shares?"

Li Zehua tried to find another way. "As the saying goes, money gathers people and money disperses people. In this regard, we might as well learn from SF Express, ZTO Express, or even Zhongtong Express."

Nie Tengyun asked curiously, "I can understand Chen Ping from SF Express and ZTO Express, but Zhongtong is composed entirely of franchisees. Mr. Lai called me a while ago and tried to ask if there was any chance for cooperation."

"Oh, I forgot.

That's great, please ask Mr. Nie to call Mr. Zhongtong Lai, and take this opportunity to have a chat."

Li Zehua slapped his forehead and quickly changed his tone, "There is no end to making money. Look at how comfortable SF Express is today, earning hundreds of millions in net profit every year. Even Tao Tao can't do anything to SF Express for a while."

There is no way for the time being. If Hummingbird had not appeared, Taotao’s first iron fist in integrating express logistics resources would have hit SF Express.

The news did not mention what exactly happened at the time, and the parties involved remained tight-lipped.

Mr. Ma even told the media with a smile that Mr. Wang Wei was one of the entrepreneurs he admired most.

This is just enough to fool a three-year-old child.

Anyway, after Wang Wei left Taotao, he began to try to get involved in e-commerce, starting with the earliest Youxuan. He burned tens of billions of dollars in more than ten years, and everyone knows the final result.

It's so cool!

However, SF Express's direct operation model has allowed it to continue to thrive. Even Ali, JD.com, and Pinxixi, which have achieved trillions of dollars in revenue in the future, cannot defeat SF Express.

“It costs money.”

Yu Weilong sighed, "Not to mention the distribution center, this kind of national logistics and warehousing core warehouse, SF Express spent billions to build it.

Take the regional distribution and operation centers for example. One will cost hundreds of millions. Judging from the current growth in the number of express parcels, each province will need several in the future.

Nowadays, consumers have higher and higher requirements for timeliness and service. Car rental can no longer meet the needs, and they have to buy their own vehicles.

Based on the minimum calculation of one truck for every ten outlets, to complete the layout of hundreds of prefecture-level cities, important county towns, and tens of thousands of terminals across the country, at least thousands of heavy trucks will be needed.”

Li Zehua felt a headache after hearing this. Is this a joke? Every express delivery company does this. Even if they invest 10 billion, it still wouldn’t be enough.

He interrupted, “Why do you have to target the national market from the beginning?

Do you have the ability to do this? You are not afraid of eating it to death."

Nie Tengyun didn't like what he heard. "It was you who proposed direct sales. It's difficult to recruit franchisees. You think the investment is too much. If you don't do anything, then I might as well invest in Cainiao and continue to expand through franchising."

This was just something he said in anger, but he was also under a lot of pressure. There were constant voices of opposition within the company, and many people couldn't understand why everyone was making money when the situation was so good.

It has to change!
Do you have this ability?

Learn from SF Express and ZTO Express. Don’t you see that ZTO Express is almost out of business now?

Over the years, only SF Express has been successful. Liu Qiangdong tried to smooth things over, "Don't worry, let me be fair, Mr. Li is actually doing this for everyone's benefit.

It is certainly difficult to do direct sales, but if you succeed, won’t you be the ones who benefit the most?

If Mr. Nie feels that the resistance is too great, it is ok to maintain the status quo. "

If there is anyone here who is really trying to sabotage us, it must be Brother Dong, even though he has also invested in Hummingbird.

He also wants to use Hummingbird to develop JD.com, but that doesn’t mean he supports Hummingbird’s partners in direct sales!
Each of them is directly operated and each has strong combat capabilities, so how can JD.com break through successfully?

Nie Tengyun glared at him unhappily and was about to speak when he saw Li Zehua waving his hand, "Mr. Nie, what are you thinking about?

What I mean is that in the early stages, everyone did not have enough funds to take care of the whole country.

Just like what Mr. Yu said just now, there are more than 300 prefecture-level cities and thousands of counties in the country. It is impossible to arrange distribution centers in every place.

There are so many of us, and we can get together to sit down and talk calmly, isn't it for the benefit of the people?
So everyone listen to me, if you want to do direct sales, you must succeed and never give up halfway.

But don't dream of becoming a big winner in one go. We can't operate direct sales nationwide. We can try some areas first, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and you must want all of them.

But can we discuss this with other areas in Central China, South China, North China, Southwest China and East China?

For example, in my hometown of Hunan Province, the cities of Xingcheng, Heng, Chang, Yue, Bao, Lou, and Huai do not have enough funds to support full coverage.

Then why can't we work together, for example, Yuantong will do the north of Xingcheng and Yuezhou; Yunda will do the south of Xingcheng and Heng and Zhu; and JD will do the southwest.

Everyone works on their own area, establishes their own operation and allocation system, and focuses on tapping the business potential of their region.

Once you make money and the economic environment improves so you can raise funds smoothly, you can consider the next step of expansion.

And with the Hummingbird platform, the next step is for you to continue to control the operation center, focus on developing the ability to process data in an information-based manner, and achieve high-tech levels.

The rest of the trivial matters can be handed over to Hummingbird. You guys make money upstream, and we have plenty of people to do the most basic chores. Isn’t that great?”

Liu Qiangdong responded the fastest, "This is good, no one will give up on making money, everyone will compete based on their own abilities!

For the third, fourth and fifth tier cities that are lagging behind temporarily, everyone can take a piece of the pie, and with Hummingbird coordinating interests in the middle, we can also share resources with each other. "

“That sounds good, but can you share JD.com’s express delivery with us?”

Yu Weilong pursed his lips, "You can't just talk about it. With the current cooperation basis, who would believe it if you don't show sincerity?"

There is some cooperation between the two parties, but not much, after all, JD.com has to support its own son.

All e-commerce platforms are the same in this respect. They want to do everything and make money from everything.

Affiliated express delivery companies, such as JD Logistics, often rise and fall along with their parent company's e-commerce and online shopping.

For example, Rufengda, Tiantian, and EMI which was later acquired by Jitu. Well, EMI is an exception.

Unexpectedly, Dong Ge nodded readily, "No problem, as a responsible and tolerant company.

JD.com can, under certain conditions, open up most of its businesses to everyone to work with.”

"real or fake?"

Nie Tengyun became interested. "Don't lie. I heard that Jingdong's business volume is growing at a rate of one or two times per year. This is a big piece of fat meat."

"Absolute fidelity!"

Liu Qiangdong doesn't care whether they enter the market or not. The main reason is that the development speed of JD Logistics cannot keep up with the sales growth.

There was already cooperation, and now with Hummingbird acting as the go-between, there will be no problem. He cannot sit idly by and watch Cainiao Network grow and develop.

This will affect JD.com's overall planning, of course, SF Express is not included.

If JD.com's target is Ali, then JD Logistics' target is SF Express.

To show his sincerity, he put forward some necessary prerequisites, such as industry deposit, service satisfaction, punctuality rate and so on.

Yu Weilong and Nie Tengyun bargained for a long time but couldn't come to a conclusion, so they simply agreed to continue the discussion in the afternoon.

“The zoning will effectively reduce our internal friction and make rational use of limited funds. In the future, you will even be able to achieve a certain degree of data sharing through the background of the Hummingbird Network.

For example, Yuantong has few outlets in the southwest region, but it has accepted express parcels there. The market is here, so high prices are definitely not an option, and the delivery fee of a separate truck is not cost-effective.

What should I do?
easy to do!

The next step for Hummingbird Network is to connect the data with all your express delivery companies and provide real-time tracking from the moment the order is received.

This includes but is not limited to which station the express is distributed from, where it is sent to, when it will arrive, which specific outlet it has arrived at, and who will deliver the goods to the door. Only in this way can an order be considered completely completed.

We can also further optimize this model, break with past traditions, and boldly enable new models.

For example, Yuantong’s goods have a transportation network advantage in area A, but are at a relative disadvantage in area B. For cost considerations, can they be arranged to be shipped by JD.com or Yunda, which have advantages in area B?

Such resource sharing will greatly improve your timeliness and competitiveness, shortening the time from two or three days to one day or even a few hours.”

Several people were very interested, but they were arguing over the ownership of the data, the mode of cooperation, and who was in charge.

Only Xu Jianyao was licking his wounds with a bitter mouth. It would have been great if he could have participated in it.

Li Zehua ignored him and continued, "Just as shipping has containers, why can't we unify the standards for transportation tools and purchase heavy trucks of the same standard?

Then, according to the specific space, various types of standard boxes are developed. For example, how many small parcels can be placed in a standard box, and a unified standard is established.

No matter where we ship from, the destination is always a distribution center, whether it is a provincial capital or a prefecture-level city, it is always a destination.

As long as the standards are set, it is always better to be busy in the background than in the terminal. In addition, there is the most convenient one, for example, assuming that a vehicle can carry 8 standard containers.

Yuantong only has 7 boxes, and Yunda has just one box. Can they be taken together? Just like we help consumers check the express delivery movements and arrange to receive them in advance.

Will it greatly reduce the costs for each company?

As for large items, they take up space anyway, so we should continue to use special vehicles for delivery. We can completely follow this approach for online shopping express parcels, which account for the majority of our shipments.”

Nie Tengyun was stunned, "What on earth is in your head?
Brother, I really admire you for your wild imagination and wild thoughts. Oh no, your wonderful ideas.

Yes, it can be done. In the current market situation, the growth rate is more than 50% every year, especially for online shopping express parcels which are small in size, light in weight and large in quantity, so it is worth doing.

As long as unified packing is done at the collection site, resource utilization can definitely be greatly improved, but the background technology is a bit behind.

Also, give money!

Having said so much, Yunda is still waiting to buy rice to cook. "

"Put the money aside first."

Li Zehua also has no money, even though he had just signed the contract and the amount involved was 2 million US dollars. But how could venture capital transfer money so quickly?

In the development of Hummingbird and Pinxixi, which one doesn’t cost money?
"As for the technology you mentioned, wait, it won't be long before I figure it out!"

I'm not bragging when I pat my chest so hard it makes a loud noise.

QR code, come out!
Compared with traditional barcodes, the efficiency of QR codes is greatly improved. Don't be afraid if you don't have a smartphone, you can check out the barcode scanner that is specially connected to the computer.

As long as you can scan the content and successfully connect to the computer, even the most complicated work can be simplified instantly.

That is, the number of back-end service personnel in each express delivery company needs to be greatly increased.

It is definitely impossible to achieve fully automated sorting in the early stages. We are not Walmart or Amazon, so we don’t have that much money for automation.

Don’t worry, there are ways to deal with not having money.

For example, a long time ago, a company that made daily necessities always produced products with empty packaging, resulting in a high complaint rate.

If you ask a professional team to do the math, the starting point is several million. Is the factory owner willing to spend this money?

Arranging people to test one by one with so many products every day, it would be impossible to finish even if you die of exhaustion, and it would also reduce the shipment rate, isn't that nonsense?

Finally, he slapped his brain and called the workers, offering a generous reward to whoever could solve the problem!
Facts have proved that as long as your thinking does not slip, there are always more solutions than problems. A high-power electric fan can solve all troubles.

Blow hard towards the production line; the empty packages are light in weight and will be blown away in minutes.

A few million more?

An electric fan costing a few hundred dollars and a few dozen dollars in electricity bill can solve all your troubles!
(End of this chapter)