aircannonsinc Chapter 484 Cooperation Plan with JD.com
Chapter 484 Cooperation Plan with JD.com
Chen Mo's efficiency was higher than Lu Ran had expected.
When I asked Zheng Kai out on Wednesday, he responded more enthusiastically than I expected, saying we could meet on Friday afternoon.
At 2 p.m. on Friday, Lu Ran and Chen Mo arrived on time at the office building where JD.com's Shanghai Innovation Business Department is located.
That building is in Pudong, twenty-five stories high, with a dark blue glass curtain wall on the outside. On sunny days, the reflection is so bright that it's blinding.
The access control system downstairs uses facial recognition. It was Lu Ran and Chen Mo's first time there. After the receptionist verified their appointment information, she temporarily registered their photos, and the two were able to pass through the gate smoothly.
When the elevator reached the 22nd floor, the door opened to reveal the reception area of JD.com's Innovation Business Department.
The background wall is a whole dark red display board with the "JD.COM" logo and a line of small print: "Fast, Efficient, and Cheap".
Zheng Kai was already waiting in the conference room.
He looked to be in his early forties, wearing thin-rimmed metal glasses, a dark gray turtleneck sweater, and a light black down vest over it. He looked younger than Lu Ran had expected.
When he saw Lu Ran and Chen Mo come in, he stood up from his seat, took two steps to greet them, shook hands with a moderate force, and said, "I've heard so much about you, Mr. Lu, and you've worked hard, Mr. Chen."
The three people sat down on either side of the conference table.
Zheng Kai didn't bring anyone else; it was just the three of them in the meeting room.
The small talk was very brief.
Zheng Kai talked about what JD.com's Innovation Business Department has been doing recently, mainly in two directions: one is to integrate data with offline retail, and the other is to try new user growth channels.
When he mentioned the e-sports team project, his tone became noticeably warmer. He said that JD.com has been looking for a way to reach young users, as the efficiency of traditional Google channels is declining and the benefits of short video platforms are also shrinking. E-sports is one of the few sectors that is still growing rapidly.
"We've conducted internal research, and the proportion of users under 25 years old in JD.com's current user profile is declining year by year. It's not that we're not attracting young people anymore; it's that young people themselves are leaving. They spend more time on games, live streams, and social media platforms, and shopping has become something they do incidentally, not something they actively search for."
Zheng Kai put down his water glass and looked at Lu Ran: "President Chen told me that TUTU has been planning some new directions recently, not just in the games themselves, but also in some technical aspects. I'm quite curious, so I invited you guys here today to talk about it."
Lu Ran picked up the conversation: "President Zheng, I'm not here today to talk about games. I want to discuss something else with you."
He opened his laptop, which displayed a PowerPoint presentation, but the content of the presentation had nothing to do with the game.
The first three pages are all data comparisons—the turnover efficiency of the traditional retail supply chain, inventory management costs, and forecast accuracy—while the following pages are the "optimized" expected data.
Each number is followed by the label "AI-driven real-time analysis system".
Zheng Kai watched very carefully.
He didn't interrupt Lu Ran's explanation, occasionally glancing down at his notebook to jot down a few notes, and occasionally looking up at the charts on the screen. His expression gradually changed from polite when he first sat down to focused.
After finishing his explanation, Lu Ran closed his laptop: "This system is still in the internal testing phase, but the basic architecture is already running smoothly. If we integrate it into JD.com's supply chain system, the accuracy of inventory forecasting will improve significantly, and the out-of-stock and slow-moving rates will decrease. I can't guarantee specific figures right now because I haven't seen JD.com's actual data yet. But if I have access to the data to conduct a simulation test, I'm confident I can provide a reliable forecast within a month."
Zheng Kai thought for a while after listening.
He didn't reply immediately. Instead, he looked down and reviewed the few lines he had written in his notebook, then looked up again: "Mr. Lu, your proposal is very appealing. But I want to ask a more fundamental question—what is your purpose in doing this? TUTU is a game company, and a game company doing supply chain optimization for e-commerce sounds like crossing into a completely different industry. You're not here to do a deal with me; you're here to provide me with tools. So what do you want?"
Lu Ran waited for him to finish speaking before speaking himself: "Mr. Zheng, your question is very direct, and I will answer it directly as well. I want JD.com to provide TUTU Technology with support in terms of e-commerce traffic redirection. Specifically—a fixed recommendation slot on the JD.com app homepage, data sharing on users' gaming-related consumption behavior, and priority exposure for TUTU products on JD.com. These resources are just an adjustment in traffic allocation for JD.com, but for us, they mean a new user entry point, an entry point completely unrelated to WeChat login."
After hearing this, Zheng Kai leaned back.
His expression didn't change much, but Lu Ran noticed that his fingers on the table tapped the surface unconsciously, at a moderate pace.
"You want an independent user portal that isn't controlled by Tencent. You're not doing a deal with JD.com; you're securing a backup plan for yourself."
"You can understand it that way," Lu Ran said, "but that doesn't mean the collaboration is worthless to JD.com. AI-powered supply chain optimization is a real efficiency improvement, not just empty promises. If this system works, JD.com can reduce inventory turnover days by about ten days, while keeping the existing number of products and warehouse scale unchanged. You know better than I what that means in the e-commerce industry."
Zheng Kai tapped his fingers twice on the table, then asked, "This system, is it only available on TUTU right now?"
"Only TUTU has it. And for the next few years, only TUTU will have it. It's not because we've monopolized the technology, but because the technological barrier is too high. For other companies to catch up, the time and cost would be enough for us to complete two or three iteration cycles."
Zheng Kai leaned back in his chair, took off his glasses, wiped them with the corner of his shirt, and put them back on. "President Lu, I've heard what you said, and I understand your proposal. But I can't give you an answer today. I need to go back and conduct an internal evaluation with the business and technical departments. If the proposal is feasible, we can discuss the cooperation framework in more detail. But I want to tell you in advance—if we really cooperate, JD.com has very strict controls on data security. After your system is connected, the data cannot leave the country, cannot be stored on any third-party servers, and can only run in JD.com's internal private cloud environment. Can you accept this?"
Lu Ran nodded and said, "That's fine. Our system is designed modularly, with flexible deployment methods, and there are no technical obstacles to adapting it to a private cloud environment."
Zheng Kai closed his laptop: "Okay. I'll give you initial feedback by next Wednesday. If the internal evaluation goes smoothly, we'll schedule another formal cooperation meeting."
As Lu Ran stood up, he shook hands with Zheng Kai again. Just as Lu Ran was about to leave, Zheng Kai added, "By the way, about your esports team, I heard you are indeed recruiting?"
"It's in the preparation stage. Specific training and operational details are still being planned."
"Okay. Then we can push this together from both sides," Zheng Kai said. "JD.com will handle the esports teams, and TUTU will handle the tournament system. The two sides can create synergy at the IP level. Traffic will flow between them, which will benefit both."
Lu Ran nodded, said nothing more, and walked out of the conference room with Chen Mo.
After the two entered the elevator, Chen Mo spoke: "His last mention of the team was an attempt to forge a deeper bond of shared interests. JD.com hasn't finalized its investment in this team project yet. If TUTU is willing to provide traffic support at the tournament system level, the internal resistance to pushing the team through JD.com will be much less. He's testing your limits."
Lu Ran watched the elevator floor numbers jump down one by one: "I know. But he's not wrong either. Teams and tournaments are indeed naturally linked. We have a tournament system, they have teams. From a player's perspective, they are two links in the same ecosystem. If the cooperation can proceed smoothly, it will be good for both sides."
The elevator reached the first floor and the doors opened. The two people walked through the lobby and outside.
Lu Ran stood at the entrance of the office building without rushing to leave. He looked up at the 25-story building, his mind not on today's meeting, but on the deadline Zheng Kai had mentioned earlier—to provide preliminary feedback before next Wednesday.
A week is neither a long nor a short time.
If the feedback from JD.com is positive, we can push it forward again within two weeks.
That means we can at least finalize the cooperation framework before July.
As he walked, he thought, and a rough route map was already in his mind.
First, get JD.com's approval to confirm the feasibility of the AI supply chain optimization solution, and then use JD.com's case to promote the next partner.
An e-commerce company, a logistics company, a retail company, and a financial company—these companies, when linked together, form a network.
Each company is independent, with its own business logic and interests, but each can get what it wants from AI.
As Lu Ran walked to the intersection and waited for the red light, his phone vibrated.
He took out his phone and saw a message from Chen Mo. It was just one line: "I think the meeting this afternoon went well." It was followed by a panda emoji with a clenched fist.
Lu Ran replied with an "Mm," then added, "After you get back, compile a summary of today's discussion and send it to me. Before the second round next week, I need to determine who's leading the internal evaluation at JD.com. If it's someone from the business department, the pace will be faster. If it's someone from the technology department, it might take longer."
"Received." Chen Mo replied quickly.
Lu Ran put his phone away, the green light came on, and he stepped across the zebra crossing.
The road ahead isn't narrow, but you need to take each step carefully.
Fortunately, he still had plenty of bricks to lay.
And he has more than one path.
...