aircannonsinc Chapter 485 Next Stop: Are You Hungry?
Chapter 485 Next Stop: Are You Hungry?
JD.com responded even faster than Lu Ran had expected.
The evaluation period was originally scheduled for one week, but the other party sent their feedback in just four days.
On Thursday afternoon, Lu Ran was in his office reviewing the AI engine module breakdown report submitted by Zhao Yiming when his phone vibrated. Chen Mo had sent him a message: "JD.com has agreed. Zheng Kai said it's been internally evaluated, and both the business and technology departments have given their approval. He wants to meet again on Friday morning to finalize the framework details."
Lu Ran put down his phone, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.
He originally thought it would take at least a week, given JD.com's large size and multiple layers of management, any decision involving supply chain data would inevitably involve several approval processes.
As it turned out, the other party completed all the procedures in just four days. This speed itself illustrates one thing—the sense of urgency within JD.com is much greater than he imagined.
The next morning, Lu Ran and Zhou Mingzhe went to JD.com's headquarters together.
This meeting was much larger than the last one; five people were sitting in Zheng Kai's office.
In addition to Zheng Kai, there was a vice president of the supply chain business unit, a head of a technology architecture group, a legal counsel, and a young strategic analyst responsible for taking meeting minutes.
Zheng Kai cut straight to the point without any pleasantries: "President Lu, the internal assessment has concluded that cooperation is feasible. The technical department reviewed the framework of the solution you provided last time and determined that there are no major technical obstacles. The business department also believes that supply chain optimization is a key focus at present and is willing to allocate resources to cooperate."
He paused for a moment and glanced at the vice president of supply chain next to him.
The other person was a man in his forties, surnamed Wang, with short hair, wearing a dark blue jacket. He looked like a man who got things done and didn't beat around the bush.
Mr. Wang chimed in, "Mr. Lu, let me be frank. JD.com has been competing fiercely with Tencent's e-commerce platforms for years. While we still hold market share, our growth rate has clearly slowed. Tencent's platforms have social media traffic entry points; users can place orders directly through WeChat. Ours relies on users actively opening the app and searching. The customer acquisition cost difference between the two is almost double."
He paused, pulled a line chart from the folder in front of him, and pushed it towards Lu Ran: "This is the market share trend over the past three years. Tencent's e-commerce market share has risen from just over 30% to nearly 50%. Although our share hasn't fallen, our growth has almost stagnated. If this continues, in five years the entire e-commerce landscape will become one dominated by Tencent, with everyone else sharing the rest."
Lu Ran took the picture and glanced at it; the direction of the lines did indeed look rather pessimistic.
He returned the diagram: "Mr. Wang, I understand your concerns. But if it's just supply chain optimization, the direct impact on market share will be limited. What can truly change the landscape is whether you can secure a user entry point that isn't controlled by Tencent. AI technology can help you improve internal efficiency, but without solving the external traffic problem, even the highest efficiency will only be wasted internally."
Mr. Wang nodded: "You're right. So JD.com is considering another direction—the fixed recommendation slot on the app homepage and the sharing of gaming-related consumption data are just the first step. If the subsequent cooperation goes smoothly, we can even do deeper integration at the user account system level, allowing JD.com users to log in directly with their TUTU account, skipping the WeChat login step."
Hearing this, Zhou Mingzhe put down his teacup: "User account systems integrated? You're willing to open up at this level?"
"Yes," Zheng Kai replied, "because JD.com itself also wants to break free from its dependence on WeChat login. You are victims of WeChat login, and so are we. It's just that the ways we are victimized are different—you users can't log in, while we users are redirected from WeChat to our competitor's platform. Same entry point, two different kinds of harm."
The meeting room remained quiet for a long time.
Lu Ran was thinking about something else—JD.com's willingness to make deep integration at the account level showed that they were more eager than he had expected to find a user entry point that was not controlled by Tencent.
This presents a greater opportunity for TUTU than AI collaboration itself. If successful, TUTU will have another frequently used scenario outside of gaming.
"How do we define the framework?" Lu Ran steered the conversation back to the main topic.
Zheng Kai pulled a printed draft from the pile of documents and handed it over: "This is a preliminary framework I had the legal and business departments draft together. It boils down to three core points—first, TUTU will provide JD.com with an AI-driven supply chain optimization system, including a complete solution for demand forecasting, inventory management, and logistics scheduling. Second, JD.com will provide a fixed recommendation slot for TUTU's games on its app homepage and will open up some anonymized data on gaming-related consumer behavior. Third, the two parties will collaborate on IP development at the tournament system and esports team level; the specific form will be discussed separately."
Lu Ran flipped through the draft; the clauses were written very clearly, with no ambiguities.
The only thing that caught his eye was the phrase "the specific form will be discussed separately" in the third clause.
Zheng Kai framed this statement to mean that JD.com's investment in the esports team has not yet been finalized, and TUTU needs to come up with a complete plan before they can decide how much resources to invest.
After reviewing the draft, he closed it: "I agree with the general framework. We'll go over the specific details one by one when we officially sign the contract. But I have two additional suggestions—first, the featured slots shouldn't only feature one game; they should cover all TUTU products, including Minecraft and CrossFire. Second, the data sharing period shouldn't be too short; it should last at least a year, otherwise there won't be enough time to accumulate and iterate user profiles."
Zheng Kai exchanged a few words with Mr. Wang next to him in a low voice, then turned back and said, "The first point is fine. We can accept the second point, but we need to supplement it with a data security agreement that clearly defines the boundaries of authority for both parties regarding the scope of data use and storage methods."
"Can."
After the framework was finalized, the atmosphere in the meeting room became much more relaxed than before.
Mr. Wang stood up, shook hands with Lu Ran, and said, "I hope this cooperation can bring something new to both sides." Then he and his team left the stage first.
Zheng Kai stayed behind and discussed several specific matters with Lu Ran and Zhou Mingzhe, agreeing to produce a draft of a formal cooperation agreement within two weeks.
When they came out of JD.com's headquarters, Zhou Mingzhe walked next to Lu Ran, carrying a copy of the draft in his hand, and his expression was much more relaxed than when he arrived.
"I didn't expect JD.com to make progress so quickly. I originally thought it would take two or three rounds of negotiations to finalize a deal."
"They're even more anxious than we are," Lu Ran said as they walked. "Tencent's e-commerce platforms have squeezed their space too much in recent years. They used to be able to hold on by relying on their advantages in logistics and supply chains, but now Tencent is also starting to invest heavily in logistics, and JD.com's cards are being laid bare one by one. They need a new variable that can disrupt the existing landscape."
"So we're stuck right at this point—AI technology is that variable."
"right."
The two got into the car. Zhou Mingzhe placed the draft on the seat, turned to look at Lu Ran, and asked, "So, who are you planning to contact next? JD.com is just the first step. You're not going to be satisfied with just one company, are you?"
Lu Ran leaned back in his seat, staring at the receding street scene outside the window: "No. One e-commerce platform solves the shopping scenario problem. But users spend time on more than just shopping every day; they also eat, travel, and entertain themselves. Tencent has secured an entry point in each of these scenarios—their e-commerce platform for shopping, Meituan for food delivery, Didi for transportation, and video and music platforms for entertainment."
He turned his gaze from the window to the road ahead: "If we only partner with one company, it's just adding another leg to our journey. We need to look in all directions, targeting all the key scenarios that can address users' daily needs. JD.com solves shopping, another company solves dining, another solves transportation, and another solves entertainment. Each line is independent, but each can get what they want from AI. When they're linked together, it won't be so easy for Tencent to block our entry points."
Zhou Mingzhe thought for a moment: "So you already have a next target?"
"Got it. A food delivery platform."
Lu Ran had been thinking about food delivery since last week.
Long had a general understanding of the landscape of the food delivery market—Meituan, backed by Tencent, held nearly 60% of the market share, while the remaining 40% was divided among several smaller platforms, the largest of which was Ele.me, which held about 20%.
The remaining less than 20% is comprised of several other miscellaneous platforms, which are not significant enough to constitute a substantial market.
Ele.me's advantages lie in its early start, wide merchant coverage, and deep user base, but its disadvantages are also obvious—its size is only slightly more than one-third of Meituan's, and it does not have a social traffic portal like Tencent to support it.
Meituan users can place orders directly through WeChat, while Ele.me users must open the app separately. This difference in entry point leads to a nearly 100% difference in customer acquisition costs between the two.
In addition, Meituan's cash pool is much larger than Ele.me's, and it launches a subsidy war every now and then. Ele.me can only grit its teeth and keep up. After it finishes, its cash reserves are thinner and thinner, and the cycle repeats itself.
Besides, Alibaba Group doesn't exist in this world, and Jack Ma doesn't exist either.
Many companies that were part of the Alibaba group in their previous lives exist independently in this world, and they generally find it difficult to compete with the behemoth that is Tencent.
While researching, Lu Ran noticed a detail: Ele.me's investment in technology was significantly lagging behind Meituan's.
Meituan's recommendation algorithm and delivery scheduling system have undergone several iterations, while Ele.me is still using an old version from two years ago.
This results in Meituan's delivery time being on average eight to ten minutes faster than Ele.me for the same order.
When prices are similar, users will naturally choose the one that delivers faster.
He asked Zhou Mingzhe to help contact the head of Ele.me. Zhou Mingzhe spent two days connecting him with an old friend who had worked in the catering industry for many years.
The other party's surname is Liu, and his name is Liu Chengdong. He is one of the co-founders of Ele.me and is currently responsible for the company's overall operation and strategic direction.
Zhou Mingzhe said that Liu Chengdong's attitude was "we can talk, the sooner the better," which clearly shows that he was also feeling the pressure from Meituan.
After thinking for a moment, Lu Ran asked Zhou Mingzhe to set the meeting time for next Wednesday afternoon.
Before that, he needs to prepare an AI application plan for the food delivery industry.
If the AI engine is integrated into Ele.me's delivery scheduling system, it can predict order volume in real time, optimize rider routes, and dynamically adjust delivery times, theoretically reducing the average delivery time by two to three minutes.
These two to three minutes represent a decisive difference in the food delivery industry—the core demand of users when ordering food is speed. If you are three minutes faster than your competitors, users will choose you first.
Another aspect is cost optimization.
After the delivery routes are optimized, the number of orders a rider can take per hour can increase by more than 10%, which means that the same number of orders can be completed with fewer riders, and the delivery cost will be reduced accordingly.
The cost reduction can be converted into a price advantage, allowing Ele.me to engage in a price war with Meituan without increasing its losses.
Meanwhile, the AI engine's real-time order prediction can help the platform schedule delivery capacity in advance, avoid delivery delays caused by order surges during peak periods, and reduce rider idleness during off-peak periods, thus keeping labor costs lower.
He spent three days writing the proposal and took it to Ele.me's headquarters in Shanghai on Wednesday afternoon.
He wanted to show Ele.me what future technology was and what a disruptive force was.
Only then will they willingly submit and cooperate.
...