Chapter 379： What if it was successful?
And as Zoom has expanded its operations across the U.S., their transaction volume has also grown astonishingly.
Taking Amazon as an example, their turnover in the previous four quarters was around 30 billion US dollars. Especially this year, the turnover has climbed very fast. Their turnover in the first two quarters of this year is compared with the last two quarters of last year. increased by more than 40%.
The growth rate of Zoom's turnover is even more exaggerated. Their turnover in the previous four quarters has exceeded 10 billion US dollars, which is close to one-third of Amazon's. However, it should be noted that Zoom's turnover growth curve is even more. Exaggeration, the turnover in the first two quarters of this year is more than double the turnover in the second two quarters of last year, and the average turnover in each quarter has increased by more than 30%.
That's why Amazon increasingly sees Zoom as a great threat, because it's clear that Zoom is on a fast-growing path, and of course, this is also in line with Zoom's completion of an entire US-wide rollout this year. Coverage, and the reason why self-operated products are gradually enriched is in it.
However, although Zoom's turnover in the previous year exceeded 10 billion, its profit margin was still somewhat low, and it was still in a loss in the previous year. But this is not a problem, because the main reason for this phenomenon is that at the initial stage of Zoom, in accordance with the requirements of William Chen and Rick Walton, that is to remain unprofitable, but to use great preferential measures to attract users.
The effect of this measure is remarkable. In just one and a half years, Zoom has become the second largest e-commerce company in the United States after Amazon. Most importantly, with the increase in Zoom's sales, As well as the development of self-operated business, their bargaining power for suppliers is also increasing in bulk purchases, which means that they can purchase at lower prices, even after the company normalizes operations, After retaining a reasonable profit, it is still possible to supply customers at low prices.
What's more, they are still gradually improving the purchase channels from China, including daily necessities, small household appliances, clothing and other products. They can get lower purchase prices than other local suppliers and sell them at low prices in their own business.
This is why the managers of Zoom, including William Chen and Rick Walton, are not worried about the current situation of insufficient profitability of Zoom.
From these situations, Rick Walton also sees the possibility of catching up and surpassing Amazon, and even surpassing the Wal-Mart Group, which is why his attitude has changed involuntarily, and he no longer seeks to integrate Zoom into the company. into the Walmart system.
But even so, the discussion still needs to be discussed. William Chen is also curious about what kind of valuation the Walmart Group will give Zoom this time. You must know that Amazon's price-earnings ratio is now close to 75 times. In comparison, Zoom is on a more rapid development track. Taking Amazon as a reference, when valuing it, it is not too much to give a price-earnings ratio of 100 times.
At the end of the conversation, I came back to Groupon. In fact, for Groupon's group purchase business, Zoom still needed it at the beginning. After all, through the data of their group purchase activities, it can help Zoom's self-operated business. Adjustment.
But at this stage, Groupon's help to Zoom's business has been negligible, and the two have some similarities.
Don't think that only the group buying model is a good way for merchants to clear their inventory in the economic crisis. Zoom's self-operated business can also achieve this effect and is more efficient.
In fact, Zoom has grown to the present, and it is no longer simple to purchase those products and put them on the shelves, allowing customers to browse or search for purchases.
From the initial launch of the App, Zoom has paid great attention to the use of recommendation algorithms, and Zoom is also cooperating with the R&D center of Meta Technology and Siri to apply their research results in the field of artificial intelligence to users' products. recommended.
Users of ZoomAPP can find that as the time of using it becomes longer, the recommendation of the APP will have more and more accurate effects. Oftentimes, you have not thought of the APP yourself, and have already listed the daily necessities or items you may use at this time. Other department stores are put in front of you through personalized recommendations.
These things are not complicated. Through the usual statistics on the frequency of these loyal users buying certain daily necessities, in the relevant user portraits, they have been able to make accurate judgments about their lives.
Maybe when the seasoning you bought last time or the fast-moving consumer goods such as toilet paper and shampoo are about to run out, Zoom has already recommended the related brand products you are used to using for you.
Of course, at some point, Zoom will help some merchants to clear their inventory at a cheap price in its self-operated business, and related products will also be recommended to users who need them in the first place, which makes Zoom self-service. The efficiency of the camp to clear the inventory is very high.
This kind of inventory clearance, whether in terms of scale, profit, or even efficiency, is higher than the group buying activities carried out by Groupon.
It can be said that Rick Walton's only concern for Groupon is that if they give up control, then the company will belong to Amazon, which will affect some of Zoom's businesses, and Amazon will certainly not let it go. Opportunity to counter Zoom by supporting the transformation of Groupon.
"There is no need to worry about this. From Andrew's decision to bring in Amazon to participate in this financing, it can be seen that he still cares a lot about his control over the company, so now that we are a major shareholder, what he needs to guard against is We, and when Amazon becomes a major shareholder, then what he needs to guard against will become Amazon, and it will not allow Amazon to have too many constraints on Groupon.”
William Chen comforted him and said.
"You mean, we advance by retreating? But there are still risks..."
"Relax, Rick, if we don't have confidence in Groupon, then give up fighting Amazon and sell Zoom to Walmart as soon as possible."
"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like trouble."
Rick rolled Chen William's eyes and said.
"You might as well think like this, Amazon wants to send us money, isn't it just for the development of Zoom? With this 10 billion US dollars, it is enough to double Zoom's valuation several times..."
William Chen patted Rick Walton on the shoulder and said:
"Besides, even if we leave Groupon, it doesn't mean that we just give up Groupon to Amazon We have a total of 60% of the shares, 30% to Amazon, and let them invest in the rest. , the rest...isn't Google also interested in Groupon?"
"Google? At that time, what they wanted was to buy Groupon wholly, and the highest asking price was only $6 billion..."
"Now and then, why not talk to them and give it a try?"
"I don't think it's a good idea, William. Even if your plan can be achieved, with Amazon, plus Google, I'm afraid Groupon will be more difficult."
Thinking about it this way, it seems that Rick is right. After the group buying concept in the previous life finally cooled down, the stock price of Groupon fell to the bottom during the economic recovery of the United States, but at that time they were behind the dollar Amazon, let alone Google, if they really put this Both giants were introduced into this company and accidentally let them transform successfully. Wouldn't that be shooting themselves in the foot?
Thinking of this, William Chen extinguished his own whims. If only Amazon was behind Groupon, William Chen would not be afraid, but if Google, a search giant, was added to drain traffic, then Amazon would provide e-commerce resources. Under this circumstance, Groupon is really possible to transform successfully, although the sluggish Groupon company in his previous life did not seem so decisive to give up the good situation of group buying and make a difficult transformation.
In the end, the result of the discussion between William Chen and Rick Walton was to agree to Amazon's request to acquire their shares, and then William Chen went to discuss with Walmart Group to see their thoughts on Zoom.
Taking Amazon as an example, their turnover in the previous four quarters was around 30 billion US dollars. Especially this year, the turnover has climbed very fast. Their turnover in the first two quarters of this year is compared with the last two quarters of last year. increased by more than 40%.
The growth rate of Zoom's turnover is even more exaggerated. Their turnover in the previous four quarters has exceeded 10 billion US dollars, which is close to one-third of Amazon's. However, it should be noted that Zoom's turnover growth curve is even more. Exaggeration, the turnover in the first two quarters of this year is more than double the turnover in the second two quarters of last year, and the average turnover in each quarter has increased by more than 30%.
That's why Amazon increasingly sees Zoom as a great threat, because it's clear that Zoom is on a fast-growing path, and of course, this is also in line with Zoom's completion of an entire US-wide rollout this year. Coverage, and the reason why self-operated products are gradually enriched is in it.
However, although Zoom's turnover in the previous year exceeded 10 billion, its profit margin was still somewhat low, and it was still in a loss in the previous year. But this is not a problem, because the main reason for this phenomenon is that at the initial stage of Zoom, in accordance with the requirements of William Chen and Rick Walton, that is to remain unprofitable, but to use great preferential measures to attract users.
The effect of this measure is remarkable. In just one and a half years, Zoom has become the second largest e-commerce company in the United States after Amazon. Most importantly, with the increase in Zoom's sales, As well as the development of self-operated business, their bargaining power for suppliers is also increasing in bulk purchases, which means that they can purchase at lower prices, even after the company normalizes operations, After retaining a reasonable profit, it is still possible to supply customers at low prices.
What's more, they are still gradually improving the purchase channels from China, including daily necessities, small household appliances, clothing and other products. They can get lower purchase prices than other local suppliers and sell them at low prices in their own business.
This is why the managers of Zoom, including William Chen and Rick Walton, are not worried about the current situation of insufficient profitability of Zoom.
From these situations, Rick Walton also sees the possibility of catching up and surpassing Amazon, and even surpassing the Wal-Mart Group, which is why his attitude has changed involuntarily, and he no longer seeks to integrate Zoom into the company. into the Walmart system.
But even so, the discussion still needs to be discussed. William Chen is also curious about what kind of valuation the Walmart Group will give Zoom this time. You must know that Amazon's price-earnings ratio is now close to 75 times. In comparison, Zoom is on a more rapid development track. Taking Amazon as a reference, when valuing it, it is not too much to give a price-earnings ratio of 100 times.
At the end of the conversation, I came back to Groupon. In fact, for Groupon's group purchase business, Zoom still needed it at the beginning. After all, through the data of their group purchase activities, it can help Zoom's self-operated business. Adjustment.
But at this stage, Groupon's help to Zoom's business has been negligible, and the two have some similarities.
Don't think that only the group buying model is a good way for merchants to clear their inventory in the economic crisis. Zoom's self-operated business can also achieve this effect and is more efficient.
In fact, Zoom has grown to the present, and it is no longer simple to purchase those products and put them on the shelves, allowing customers to browse or search for purchases.
From the initial launch of the App, Zoom has paid great attention to the use of recommendation algorithms, and Zoom is also cooperating with the R&D center of Meta Technology and Siri to apply their research results in the field of artificial intelligence to users' products. recommended.
Users of ZoomAPP can find that as the time of using it becomes longer, the recommendation of the APP will have more and more accurate effects. Oftentimes, you have not thought of the APP yourself, and have already listed the daily necessities or items you may use at this time. Other department stores are put in front of you through personalized recommendations.
These things are not complicated. Through the usual statistics on the frequency of these loyal users buying certain daily necessities, in the relevant user portraits, they have been able to make accurate judgments about their lives.
Maybe when the seasoning you bought last time or the fast-moving consumer goods such as toilet paper and shampoo are about to run out, Zoom has already recommended the related brand products you are used to using for you.
Of course, at some point, Zoom will help some merchants to clear their inventory at a cheap price in its self-operated business, and related products will also be recommended to users who need them in the first place, which makes Zoom self-service. The efficiency of the camp to clear the inventory is very high.
This kind of inventory clearance, whether in terms of scale, profit, or even efficiency, is higher than the group buying activities carried out by Groupon.
It can be said that Rick Walton's only concern for Groupon is that if they give up control, then the company will belong to Amazon, which will affect some of Zoom's businesses, and Amazon will certainly not let it go. Opportunity to counter Zoom by supporting the transformation of Groupon.
"There is no need to worry about this. From Andrew's decision to bring in Amazon to participate in this financing, it can be seen that he still cares a lot about his control over the company, so now that we are a major shareholder, what he needs to guard against is We, and when Amazon becomes a major shareholder, then what he needs to guard against will become Amazon, and it will not allow Amazon to have too many constraints on Groupon.”
William Chen comforted him and said.
"You mean, we advance by retreating? But there are still risks..."
"Relax, Rick, if we don't have confidence in Groupon, then give up fighting Amazon and sell Zoom to Walmart as soon as possible."
"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like trouble."
Rick rolled Chen William's eyes and said.
"You might as well think like this, Amazon wants to send us money, isn't it just for the development of Zoom? With this 10 billion US dollars, it is enough to double Zoom's valuation several times..."
William Chen patted Rick Walton on the shoulder and said:
"Besides, even if we leave Groupon, it doesn't mean that we just give up Groupon to Amazon We have a total of 60% of the shares, 30% to Amazon, and let them invest in the rest. , the rest...isn't Google also interested in Groupon?"
"Google? At that time, what they wanted was to buy Groupon wholly, and the highest asking price was only $6 billion..."
"Now and then, why not talk to them and give it a try?"
"I don't think it's a good idea, William. Even if your plan can be achieved, with Amazon, plus Google, I'm afraid Groupon will be more difficult."
Thinking about it this way, it seems that Rick is right. After the group buying concept in the previous life finally cooled down, the stock price of Groupon fell to the bottom during the economic recovery of the United States, but at that time they were behind the dollar Amazon, let alone Google, if they really put this Both giants were introduced into this company and accidentally let them transform successfully. Wouldn't that be shooting themselves in the foot?
Thinking of this, William Chen extinguished his own whims. If only Amazon was behind Groupon, William Chen would not be afraid, but if Google, a search giant, was added to drain traffic, then Amazon would provide e-commerce resources. Under this circumstance, Groupon is really possible to transform successfully, although the sluggish Groupon company in his previous life did not seem so decisive to give up the good situation of group buying and make a difficult transformation.
In the end, the result of the discussion between William Chen and Rick Walton was to agree to Amazon's request to acquire their shares, and then William Chen went to discuss with Walmart Group to see their thoughts on Zoom.
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