Over the years, “capital-led industry development” has become a golden rule, and we have seen too many industries rise, fall, and repeat under the madness and caution of capital. A case in point is the same-city freight industry, which followed the O2O concept in the early days.
Around 2015, enthusiastic capital favored all kinds of opportunities in the industry, once creating a lively and prosperous era of “a hundred teams war”. However, in the past one or two years, the competition pattern of the entire intra-city freight industry has gradually become clear, and a few platforms have their own clear positions. Capital sees more clearly and naturally sits down to make rational judgments. Instead of rushing forward in a rush in the past, today’s capital is more interested in platforms with comprehensive strength.
On July 12, 58 Express, a freight platform in the same city, announced that it had completed the first phase of $250 million in financing, which was led by Huaxin Investment and joined by Cainiao, China-Russia Fund, Hongrun Capital, Qianhai Mother Fund and parent company Home Group.
By logistics industry big guy rookie take a fancy to, 58 speed naturally will also be covered with a halo. But pragmatically, if 58 doesn’t have a leg to stand on, then no rookie will.
58 Express, which survived the industry crisis, not only merged with GOGOVAN last year to become the leading short-haul freight platform in Asia, but also completed its “coming-of – the – coming-of – the – coming-of – the – of – the – 58 group last year. And the capital enters the arena in this node, it is the recognition of stage achievement of independent operation of 58 fast transport in essence.
The new commercial flow system is a new driver of inter-city freight
From its early wild growth to its deadly shuffle to its present steady growth, intercity freight is actually facing the envy of other industries: the rise of a new business flow system, which is a big reason why newbies are bullish on 58.
In the past two years, consumption upgrading has been regarded as an irreversible trend and has catalyzed upgrading reform in all walks of life. But what most people may not realize is that behind the increase in demand, they tend to focus more on the service of commodity circulation rather than purely on appearance and quality, which have obvious ceilings.
Support commodity circulation services, including efficiency, standardization and other factors of continuous breakthrough is the current new business flow system. In fact, society has been immersed in the new business flow system for a long time, such as 2C takeaway, medicine and other instant delivery services, and 2B fresh, moving and other bulk goods services. But in recent years, the ranks of the new business flow system continue to expand, the presence of higher and higher.
In recent years, the new business flow system in the change of technology and mode of new development, to all aspects of logistics have put forward higher requirements. On the one hand, the underlying designers of the new business flow system are still users, who are flexible and therefore willing to pay for better logistics services. On the other hand, the superstructure of the new business flow system is a variety of logistics platforms, whose competition forces them to constantly evolve to align with the new species of the industry.
It is not surprising that the high frequency of rigid demand, coupled with the geographical short-distance of the city, makes freight transport the main character of the new business flow system. Because in the new business flow system, the two core variables are to allow more commodities to be added to the circulation of commodities, and to allow commodities already in the system to adapt to the faster circulation speed. This is not difficult to understand, for example, in the past fresh cold chain logistics is a big problem, but now not only more enterprises can do it, everyone’s competition has also shifted to the coverage of the cold chain distribution system to a certain extent.
Therefore, under the direction of the external environment of the new business flow system, more enterprises can do more things. Take 58 Express as an example, intra-city freight covers some high-frequency distribution needs of b-end and small-B-end, and this is where the new business flow system adds to intra-city freight.
First, the city freight in the new business flow system occupies the geographical position, the new demand and the new upgrade demand are in the city freight this field; Second, the boundary of freight in the city is constantly blurred, the extension of the scope of service and more critical players to enter, so that the appetite of freight in the city is open, any distribution demand can be connected to a single.
DCCI released “2017 China in-city B2B intelligent distribution Industry research” report shows that the size of China’s in-city freight market is growing year by year, by the end of 2017, the total freight market will reach 1.5 trillion yuan. It is the quantitative change of distribution scope and qualitative change of distribution service under the new business flow system that promotes the continuous prosperity of same-city freight transportation.
Wolves fight for food, “wisdom” logistics is the key word
Cross-city freight is a piece of fat meat, which is a fact that the platform and the capital behind the platform will not deny. Now the city freight seems to have a point in 2015 when the appearance, capital is not stingy investment, as well as more bystanders waiting to join, the city freight battlefield is welcoming a group of covetous hungry wolves.
If they don’t grab more of the market, there may be a real survival problem for existing platforms. Imagine that when everyone else is running fast forward, a slight lag may be labeled as a chronic death. And as the history of cross-town freight has taught us the hard way, shuffling washes out those who get it wrong all the time and those who don’t get it right all the time.
Looking ahead to the next decade, the construction and whitewashing of the new business flow system will ultimately come down to efficiency, with players in the arena always fighting an efficiency war against themselves and their opponents. Like the bloody 58 Express, from the dark days of “Battle of the Hundred” to its emergence as a head platform, its efficiency genes have been evolving with the help of Internet models and technological iterations.
How to make the service better and faster is the root of the efficiency war, and also the work of intelligent logistics. The concept of smart logistics has been constantly fermenting in recent years. From e-commerce giants to logistics giants, all of them are using various means to make logistics smart. Because they know that technology is the core gene of logistics efficiency and service, and cleverness is the core gene of technology.
Inter-city freight is a part of logistics, and the key word “wisdom” is unavoidable. Facts also prove that many platforms have already taken action. According to 58 express’s public information, 58 express has gone through three stages of wisdom. It can be summarized as follows: use Internet mode to concentrate resources; Using big data to improve the efficiency and precision of demand matching; Algorithms drive efficiency and improve system intelligence.
The wisdom of the three stages reflects the process of 58 Express gradually improving the “intelligence” of freight transportation in the same city. However, 58 Express obviously wants to do more than that. The phased strategy is only the general direction. Only by intelligently conquering the pain points of the market can we have a greater say and appeal. Since the beginning of this year, 58 Express has been deployed in the Internet of Things, new energy smart cars and other areas.
Just looking at the industry, all the big players involved in logistics are doing this, including the noob who invested in 58 Express. The overall environment, but all sensitive platforms are recognized that smart logistics should be done as early as possible, because this is a matter of technology, maybe one day a revolutionary technology can let itself take off.
58 Express also wants to beat time, but the technology iteration is a gradual process. However, with these smart measures, 58 Express can use its own technology and experience to consolidate its advantage in some barriers in the same city freight industry, which is a hard condition for 58 Express to open up more market share.
The whole city freight market, in fact, many players and 58 express mentality is not much different, although this group of hungry wolves are clamoring to grab the market, but absolutely can not get rid of “smart logistics”.
In the new city freight track, smart logistics becomes the winner
In the trillion-dollar market for freight in the same city, it may not be difficult to get a scoop. Cloning existing platforms to get it for a while may be a piece of cake. But to take a ladle every day, or to drink from a bucket every day, is not so simple.
Even new business systems are constantly creating a whole new track for cross-city freight. The track has various favorable conditions, such as the positive policies of the logistics industry, such as the continuous penetration of the new business flow system to bring diversified demands for freight in the same city. But that doesn’t mean there’s a platform to eat the fat man in one bite.
Go to this stage of the same city freight, for market size growth and other good conditions should not have what to celebrate the move. Instead, platforms in the industry, especially headsets, should be thinking about what differentiates them from the rest, or even kills them. Take 58 Express as an example, there is no need to say more, but how to use the money to enrich themselves, thinking about the long-term, but it is not clear in one or two words.
Besides, at present, more players have realized the core competition point of intelligent logistics. This is a good thing, for the intra-city freight industry, everyone is pushing it up, which will bring better infrastructure to the industry, which will benefit all the players. But for the platforms on the floor, tense history seems about to unfold.
In this new university examination, intelligent logistics will become the most core examination point. On the one hand, the specific performance of intelligence is efficiency upgrading. The platform cannot move forward without efficiency evolution. On the other hand, the ontology of wisdom is technology, and technology is the gene of freight in the same city. Bad gene evolution and gene mutation may suffer from “incurable disease”.
From the perspective of the role of smart logistics, logistics is peeling off the traditional shell and using AI, big data, cloud computing and other technologies as the underlying architecture. To some extent, smart logistics will become the standard of intra-city freight transportation in the future, just like the fish-water relationship between mobile Internet and e-commerce today.
Under the new business flow system, on the new track established by the same city freight, a stage of cruel game under each platform is kicking off. The winner of intelligent logistics will decide who is the new loser and when. Not enough “wisdom” logistics to be eliminated, enough “wisdom” logistics is qualified to enter the next stage. As for how to “wisdom”, “wisdom” how long, then the eight immortals across the sea to reveal their powers.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110