If the addition of Douyin gives Meituan another rival in the field of local life, then Ali’s obsession with local life has destined that in such a field, a fierce battle will inevitably take place.
This time, the exit of Yu Yongfu, who has been called "Prince Ali" countless times, is undoubtedly a direct proof of such a phenomenon.
What is certain is that in the future, local life will still be a chess piece that Alibaba will definitely invest heavily in.
In fact, Alibaba’s attention to local life has already started in the PC Internet era. At that time, local life was still called “Word of Mouth Network”.
With the advent of the mobile Internet era, especially with the rise of new players represented by Meituan and Ele.me, Alibaba’s presence in local life has become increasingly diminished, until it was pushed to the edge of the industry.
However, this has not extinguished Ali’s illusions about local life. Through capital operation, Ali continues to demonstrate its presence on the local life track through AutoNavi and Ele.me.
When Zhang Yong dismissed get out of class, Alibaba veterans represented by Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming began to take charge of Alibaba again, and local life was once again taken seriously.
Therefore, when the two start a new change for Alibaba, local life is still an important area that cannot be ignored.
It is certain that after experiencing the era of PC Internet and mobile Internet, Alibaba will still cling to local life.
When the war between Douyin and Meituan on the local life track is about to break out, Alibaba’s increase in local life will undoubtedly ignite a new war again.
In the future, Alibaba, Byte, and Meituan will start a new battle in the local life field.
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In fact, the meaning of local life to the Internet is simpler and purer.
The reason is that since the first day of the Internet, it has been to meet the needs of people in a certain area.
Koubei.com, a subsidiary of Alibaba, was born under such a background.
However, in the final analysis, one of the important reasons why Alibaba will continue to focus on local life is that there is a huge traffic group behind local life. The traffic group
not only has huge consumption power, but also has very high stickiness.
It is precisely because of this that we can see that Alibaba, Byte and Meituan have the same goal in local life.
When the dividends of traffic no longer exist, especially when the Internet begins to become an infrastructure, local life, as a standard feature, naturally becomes an important breakthrough for Internet players to shorten the distance from traffic and better monetize traffic.
One of the important reasons why Douyin has entered the local life track is that it has accumulated huge traffic in local life in the same city.
In a sense, local life has become an important traffic monetization channel for Douyin.
As for Meituan, the same is true. Unlike Alibaba and Byte,
has a comprehensive traffic group that spans space. Meituan itself is an application derived from geographical location.
It can be said that local life is the "core" of Meituan's core business.
However, Meituan has entered the local life track through recommendations based on geographical labs in the traditional sense.
When the short video era comes, especially when the focus of traffic begins to shift from traditional media to new media represented by short videos and live broadcasts, a recommendation model based on location such as Meituan begins to encounter more and more problems. challenges.
For Alibaba, its persistence in local life is more about seeing local life as part of creating a complete ecological closed loop.
Through local life, Alibaba can monetize the traffic under its ecosystem to the greatest extent and retain its traffic to the greatest extent.
From this perspective, Alibaba’s obsession with local life is more to use it to maintain the existing traffic system, so that its own traffic can be retained to the maximum extent, thereby resisting the trend of byte-based, The impact of competitors represented by Meituan.
二
If Alibaba’s obsession with local life comes from the traffic itself, then local life has begun to play an increasingly important role in returning the Internet to its original nature, which is another reason why it continues to focus on local life. There's a reason why.
We all know that when the development of the Internet enters the deep water zone, especially when the competition on the Internet begins to enter a vertical and deep competition cycle, the real test for Internet players is no longer the absolute advantage in scale and efficiency, but This is the beginning of testing their strengths and advantages in industry depth.
The birth and emergence of a series of new species represented by instant retail are all direct manifestations of such a phenomenon.
It can be said that local life is an important part of improving the comprehensive quality and abilities of Internet players.
has grasped the local life well. The shortcomings and gaps that could not be filled under the mechanism dominated by scale and efficiency can be supplemented and improved in the deep water area of the Internet.
For Alibaba, although it has made a forward-looking layout for local life, judging from the current situation, it still has not truly perfectly integrated local life with its core e-commerce business. The functions of local life and role has not yet been maximized.
How to use local life to make up for Alibaba's gaps and shortcomings in the depth of the e-commerce industry, and how to allow Alibaba to find a new breakthrough in e-commerce, has naturally become an important issue that has to be faced.
It is under such circumstances that we see local life once again being placed high hopes on by Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming.
It is foreseeable that Alibaba’s local life in the future will no longer be an independent existence, but an existence that seeks deeper integration with its e-commerce business.
When local life is deeply integrated with Alibaba’s core e-commerce business, and becomes the main breakthrough point for Alibaba to deepen its efforts in the e-commerce industry, it will be able to truly bid farewell to the development model dominated by scale and efficiency and truly compete in the e-commerce competition. On the road, we will continue to do more in-depth and practical work to find more new development possibilities.
三
Whether it is the role of local life in retaining traffic or the function of local life in improving the shortcomings of e-commerce, to achieve this, it must be based on the perfect integration of Alibaba's local life business. above.
When Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming return to take charge of Alibaba, they will inevitably need to conduct a comprehensive upgrade and transformation of local life.
In my opinion, in the final analysis, we still need to achieve the integration of various business modules under Alibaba’s local life.
Therefore, if there is another reason why Alibaba is worried about local life, the various business modules of local life cannot achieve mutual coordination, which ultimately leads to the difficulty of exerting the functions and effects of local life. Perhaps this is another reason. Aspects worthy of our attention.
takes the two main business modules of local life-Amap and Ele.me as examples.
Although under the leadership of Yu Yongfu, AutoNavi and Ele.me have performed well in recent years, there is still a certain distance between them and the synergy between them.
For Alibaba, how to achieve synergy between Amap and Ele.me is the key to continuously strengthening local life and constantly opening up its imagination space for local life.
From this perspective, another most important reason why Alibaba is worried about local life is that the various business sections within local life have not achieved true synergy, especially with AutoNavi and Ele.me The key is that the core business represented by the company has not been deeply connected.
When Alibaba’s development begins to enter a new cycle, by integrating the core business of local life and finally making it a whole to better complement the changes in its core business, it is Alibaba represented by Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming. It is an important issue that the new leaders must think about.
It was under such circumstances that we saw the resignation of Yu Yongfu.
It is worth mentioning that another important reason why Local Life ushered in a new leader may be that Alibaba wants to rejuvenate its management.
In fact, long before Yu Yongfu, the older generation of Alibaba people represented by Dai Shan had already begun to step down.
From this perspective, Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming’s transformation of local life is also another manifestation of Ali’s rejuvenation of its management.
Conclusion
From beginning to end, Ali has always been worried about local life.
is true in the PC Internet era, and it is also true in the mobile Internet era.
conducted an in-depth analysis of the reasons behind it. It is not difficult to see that the natural and close connection between local life itself and traffic, as well as the function and role of local life in improving its core business, are undoubtedly the main aspects.
In addition, Alibaba itself has not achieved true integration between its various business modules and Alibaba is embarking on a youthful reform. These are also important aspects worthy of our attention.
When we combine these factors with Yu Yongfu's resignation, perhaps we can truly understand the real reason why Alibaba is worried about local life, and perhaps we can have a new understanding of the future local life situation.
—End—
Author: Meng Yonghui, senior writer, columnist, industry research expert, well-known kol, and digital economist.
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