Click 'Read Original' for details. According to the latest news, 1919, as a public company listed on the NEEQ, officially announced that it has received a strategic investment of RMB 2 billion from Alibaba Group, with an overall valuation of RMB 7 billion. Not long ago, Yijiupi, a leading B2B platform in the FMCG industry, announced a $200 million Series D financing led by Tencent, which was hailed as a miracle in the capital winter. In 2018, when the overall economic environment was widely criticized, 1919 and Yijiupi achieved inspiring results for the liquor industry, once labeled as "traditional" and "backward," injecting a shot of confidence in the new economic environment. 1 Internet giants have never given up their "craving" for the liquor industry. On October 16, the author's high school junior colleague working at Ant Financial excitedly sent a WeChat message: "You know Yang Lingjiang, right? He's coming to give us a sharing session today." This was just one of Alibaba's decisions after observing 1919 for over a year—inviting Yang Lingjiang to share with the Ant Financial team. Public information shows that on November 4 last year, Alibaba signed a strategic cooperation agreement with 1919 in the name of the group. At that time, even Yang Lingjiang himself did not realize that this was Alibaba's observation and test of him. Earlier, in March 2016, Baidu Nuomi established a strategic cooperation with 1919, starting the "craving path" for the liquor industry. In the autumn of the same year, Yijiupi announced a $100 million Series C financing involving the merged Meituan-Dianping (Meituan + Dianping). Since then, the old internet giants BAT and the new internet giants TMD have officially begun their layout in the liquor industry. As mentioned earlier, Alibaba's exploration of the liquor industry and attention to 1919 has been "loving you for more than two or three days." During the Double 11 battle in 2014, the gunfire between 1919 and Jiuxian.com was still fresh, but at that time, Alibaba did not clearly show special interest in the liquor industry. It was not until November 4, 2017, when Alibaba signed a strategic cooperation ceremony with 1919 in the name of the group rather than the Tmall platform, that the industry began to speculate and discuss Alibaba's interest in the liquor industry. This was indeed the beginning of Alibaba's observation and inspection of 1919. In this cooperation, Ma Yun's "New Retail" proposed at the Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference began its journey of implementation in the liquor industry. At the same time, Yang Lingjiang's positioning of the "New Retail" platform also officially began. 2 Alibaba + 1919: A strategic cooperation where "neither side loses." After receiving the RMB 2 billion strategic investment from Alibaba, Yang Lingjiang probably heard the most "Old Yang, you're awesome!" But in fact, 1919 is equally valuable for Alibaba's layout in the liquor industry. This is clearly a win-win cooperation. In today's era of rampant "New Retail," people's attention to the once-mythologized "online" has begun to shift rationally and objectively to offline. Having thousands of well-managed and well-operated offline stores, 1919 has naturally become a scarce resource. Ma Yun is the first proponent of New Retail, and New Retail is also an important way out for Alibaba as an open platform. Traffic is hard, and the transaction form is the key to converting hard traffic into sustainable and permanent productivity. New Retail is the way out. In the liquor industry, the significance of New Retail is to provide consumers with better services through more effective transaction forms, and 1919 is adept at this. With more than 1,000 directly-operated and directly-managed stores, the core asset of 1919 is not the stores themselves, but the advanced management and operation model explored through them. As the retail trading platform with the most traffic, Alibaba's tentacles reach into all walks of life, but its weakness is that it cannot go deep into every industry. To achieve qualitative changes and remain invincible in the next decade, it is urgent for Alibaba to establish a firm foothold in every industry. After a year of observation and testing, it set its sights on 1919, believing that 1919 will become an important lever and bridge for it to open up the entire liquor industry and even deepen the establishment of new retail formats in the entire FMCG industry. For 1919, standing with Alibaba is not a bad thing. Even from the most superficial competitive situation, Yijiupi stands with Tencent, so 1919 also needs to "rely on a big tree to enjoy the shade." Of course, this is not Yang Lingjiang's ultimate dream. Most importantly, 1919's six business lines will receive comprehensive support from Alibaba in terms of traffic, resources, users, and technology. If Alibaba is compared to a trunk with sufficient nutrients, 1919 is the branch extending into the liquor industry. And this branch will receive unlimited nutrients from Alibaba's trunk. Moreover, Alibaba will not participate in any daily operation and management of 1919, only adding two seats to the board of directors. After learning the unofficial news that Alibaba would strategically invest in 1919, the author asked Yang Lingjiang: "It is said that Alibaba's investment means a cultural wash of the invested company. What do you think?" "It's great. I really like Alibaba's culture," Yang Lingjiang replied. This is probably the most important reason for 1919 and Alibaba to come together: cultural alignment. 3 Expanding stores, categories, merchants, and services: Yang Lingjiang is realizing his ambitious promises one by one. More people are concerned about what 1919 will look like after Alibaba's strategic investment, which requires full imagination. But for Yang Lingjiang, this is not imagination but a plan and a dream. "Stores are one of 1919's core business formats. We will use Alibaba's investment to launch a fund to further expand the number of stores." The next step for 1919 may become a 1919 we don't recognize. It will focus on four directions to realize Yang Lingjiang's ultimate dream: Expanding stores. Stores are the core advantage that 1919 will never give up, and in the next step, this core advantage will be rapidly amplified. Yang Lingjiang will realize the ambitious promises he once made. According to the author's understanding, 1919 will use four paths to achieve store expansion: 1. Use its own funds for expansion; 2. Use raised funds for expansion; 3. Cooperate with first-line brand manufacturers to transform original specialty stores and incorporate them into the 1919 management system; 4. Use "Next Door Warehouse" to break the high threshold of 1919's liquor direct-supply store expansion and achieve a leap in quantity. Expanding categories. Just as Yijiupi transformed from liquor B2B to FMCG B2B, a liquor e-commerce that doesn't want to enter the FMCG industry is not a good liquor e-commerce. 1919 is no exception. It will enter the FMCG industry. Whether it's offline stores or the "Quick Drink" APP, 1919 has a large amount of consumer data and high-quality traffic. "Herding one sheep" and "herding a flock of sheep" are not essentially different. In the next stage, 1919 will fully expand its categories, fully utilizing existing consumer data and traffic advantages to transform from a liquor vertical to an open FMCG platform. Expanding merchants. Since cooperating with Baidu Nuomi, 1919 has already shown its ambition to unite small restaurants and various terminal retail stores. Modern society's population is classified by labels, and the so-called successful business model is to include the most labeled people with the fewest classifications. 1919 is exactly doing this. Tobacco and alcohol are inseparable, and dining and alcohol are even more inseparable. 1919 wants to include all merchants with the highest overlap with "alcohol." If one day 1919's 400 phone number or the Quick Drink APP becomes the "Quick Eat and Drink" APP, don't be surprised. Expanding services. As early as 2016 at the "722 Supplier Conference" held in Shanghai, Yang Lingjiang announced his sommelier plan, but at that time, the sommeliers, played by waiters in changed uniforms, did not bring much real surprise to the industry. But the good news is that 1919's sommelier team has now taken shape, becoming one of the highlights of 1919's extended services. Providing more services to the same group of people and providing the same services to more groups of people are both important. 1919 will provide more types of services and higher service quality, expanding the economic value of the existing stock. Whether in the eyes of the industry or the capital market, 1919's receipt of RMB 2 billion in strategic investment from Alibaba is a major news worthy of excitement. But it is no exaggeration to say that 1919's development steps have not changed because of this. This investment only accelerates its development pace and improves the efficiency of Yang Lingjiang's realization of his ultimate dream. At this special moment, Yang Lingjiang put forward some new thoughts. He believes that compared with industries such as home appliances and 3C, China's liquor industry, due to the late start of marketization and private consumption, is still in a "primitive society" and has not yet completed purification and survival. Ten years later, the largest enterprise in the liquor industry will definitely be circulation-oriented. Yang Lingjiang, founder and chairman of 1919, published an open letter on this. In the open letter, Yang Lingjiang reviewed the 12-year journey of 1919, continuously taking the initiative to challenge and self-revolutionize, overcoming numerous difficulties, constantly exploring and innovating, and achieving gratifying growth. In the open letter, Yang Lingjiang also talked about the outlook for the next five years of 1919. Standing at the node of carrying forward the past and opening up the future, 1919 will accelerate its expansion pace and become the second banner of Alibaba's New Retail. At the end of the open letter, Yang Lingjiang stated that on the road ahead, 1919 is ready and poised to take off. It will also face the next five years with a mindset of starting anew. Attached is the full text of the open letter: This article is compiled from WeiJiu and the Internet. On October 23-24, during the Autumn Sugar and Wine Fair, the "2018 FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference" hosted by New Distribution will be held. At that time, New Distribution will invite industry experts, FMCG warehousing and distribution specialists, and distributors who have transformed to unified warehousing and distribution platforms to discuss and answer questions about the future development trends of FMCG city distribution logistics and practical cases of distributor transformation to unified warehousing and distribution, with the theme of "New Distribution, New City Distribution," hoping to bring you different inspiration and thinking! The specific meeting topics are as follows: List of participating companies In no particular order Hunan Zonglan Diandan Network Technology Co., Ltd. Jingbang (Wuhan) International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. Mengniu Dairy Qinghai Hanxiang E-commerce Co., Ltd. Unilever Service (Hefei) Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch Huicong Hunan Xuan'ang Food Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Tongdaoren Information Technology Co., Ltd. Qingdao 888 Trading Co., Ltd. Uni-President Enterprises (China) Investment Co., Ltd. Hunan Province Zhongxiang Gongpei Logistics Co., Ltd. Shenglong Ingredients COSCO Shipping Logistics Warehousing and Distribution Co., Ltd. Guangxi Yongpai Liquor Industry Co., Ltd. Shangqiu Kangrong Trading Co., Ltd. Jinan Dingzhong Economic and Trade Co., Ltd. Liaoning Bimai Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. Kunming Xiongjia Trading Co., Ltd. Shaanxi Houheng Trading Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Dingwo Enterprise Information Consulting Co., Ltd. Shaodong Jiajiale Trading Firm Boda Trading Industrial Bank Changsha Branch Wuhan Muchen Convenience Store Chain Co., Ltd. Fujian Fuxing Yuncang Logistics Co., Ltd. Guizhou Yilimi E-commerce Co., Ltd. Jiangxi Xiao Laoer E-commerce Co., Ltd. Jinshan Koufu Shanxi Taihang Yuanjing Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Shanxi Dezhun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Shaoyang Tongdeli Trading (Xiangbang Logistics) Huanfu Tongda Express City Distribution Beijing Xinjingxiang Food Co., Ltd. Wuhan Huizhong Tianhong Liquor Co., Ltd. Changsha Paide Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Chao'an Tuqiang Guizhou Yihe Bopin Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Jiangxi Kang'en Industrial Development Co., Ltd. Xiangtan County Yisuhe Town Yuhua Paper Store Luoyang Yuanlang Trading Co., Ltd. Tongchuan Yaozhou District Huayuan Supermarket Co., Ltd. Hunan Yongfu Jiujiu Trading Co., Ltd. Zhejiang Chengchengtong Logistics Co., Ltd. Chongqing Kaiguo Materials Trading Co., Ltd. Beijing Xianmaixianmai Data Technology Co., Ltd. Hanchuan Qixing Trading Co., Ltd. Tongxin Jiuzhiru Trading Co., Ltd. Guizhou Meiguo Guoguo Network Technology Co., Ltd. Hubei Anjie Logistics Co., Ltd. Hubei Kuaixiao Hulian Technology Development Co., Ltd. ...... Representatives of distributor transformation (proposed) In no particular order Rong Jun, Chairman of Jiangsu Huashang City Distribution Network Co., Ltd. Wang Bo, Chairman of Hubei Yijiaren Logistics Co., Ltd. Jiang Shuming, General Manager of Chengdu Xingrenxing Trading Co., Ltd., Sichuan Liu Jichen, Chairman of Shandong Yunbang Warehousing and Logistics Co., Ltd. Tu Mingyu, Chairman of Chongqing Lingyu Consumer Goods Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Yang Su, Chairman of Guangzhou Zhongshan Wanrong Marketing Co., Ltd. Yuan Xia, Chairman of Sichuan Bajie Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Li Qiangyun, Co-founder of Hubei Pengdun Meiyitian Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Zhang Jianyong, Chairman of Henan Xuchang Jiulegou E-commerce Co., Ltd. Ma Haichao, Founder of Hebei Changyi Logistics Co., Ltd. Meng Yucun, General Manager of Hebei (Chengde) Wulian Yuncang Co., Ltd. Zhang Xun, Chairman of Urumqi Su'an Jinchi Logistics Co., Ltd., Xinjiang Zhang Hailing, Chairman of Jilin San Province Lian'gou Qiang Huitao, Founder of Hebei Dunjie Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. Liao Lei, General Manager of Hunan Damei Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. ...... On October 23-24, the 2018 China FMCG City Distribution Logistics Conference hosted by New Distribution will be held in Changsha. Many industry experts have sent their blessings for the conference. Click the video to watch; more details about the conference can be found in the original text. -END-