On April 20, 1994, through a 64K international line, China was fully connected to the international internet, marking the beginning of the Chinese internet era. At the outset of the internet's introduction to China, no one likely imagined that it would establish such close ties with the real world and ordinary people, or that within just 20 years, it would become an indispensable part of the world, society, and the daily lives of hundreds of millions.
The Internet's Mapping of the Real World China's first-generation internet companies were born through exploration, with Sina, NetEase, and Sohu becoming standouts. The first-generation internet products mostly used information as a means to complete the mapping of the real world. Numerous websites became portals, beginning to impact the traditional media industry, making information flow, bringing people closer, and facilitating frequent information exchange.
In this first phase, the invention of email was likely the first thing that connected the internet to the world. Through email, the isolation, loneliness, and inconvenience caused by spatial distance became a thing of the past. The email systems of major portals became the first-generation account systems, but at that time, account systems had not yet been elevated to a strategic position by enterprises.
Account Systems: The Making of BAT The internet's development in China spans only 20 years, but the changes it has brought are earth-shattering. China's second-generation internet companies rose rapidly in a short time, expanding territories and quickly dividing up China's internet market. They are BAT—Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent—becoming the three giants of China's internet world.
The key to their rapid rise and success was the establishment of account systems. Among them, Alibaba and Tencent were the most extreme, with Alibaba's Taobao account and Tencent's QQ account becoming the "IDs" of Chinese netizens.
With the continued development of the internet, we entered the mobile internet era. To adapt to the changing scenarios of mobile internet, BAT began binding phone numbers. Alibaba's massive Taobao app, Tencent's QQ and WeChat, and Baidu's search engine all quickly adapted to the mobile era.
Through the establishment and coverage of personal account systems, Alibaba and Tencent rapidly expanded from commercial and communication fields, achieving their current scale. The internet's impact on the real world has also shifted from simple mapping to improvement, even reshaping. Only by establishing their own account systems can enterprises have the opportunity to occupy a place in the internet tide; this is the rule of the game across the internet. In the Western world, Facebook and Google accounts are their primary account systems.
This is the value of account systems in the personal era of internet development. The three mountains of BAT weigh on every Chinese citizen, with each person holding one or more internet IDs. China's internet development has thus entered a stage where the landscape is initially set.
Seizing Enterprises and Merchants: The Internet Enters a New Era For the internet to map, improve, and reshape everything in the real world, in addition to personal account systems, it is also necessary to establish account systems for organizations such as merchants, enterprises, and government entities.
For an internet platform, covering all industries is extremely difficult, so to establish merchant and enterprise account systems, it is inevitable to enter specific industries. By covering different industries, the mapping of organizational internet business is completed.
From the current stage of development, the three giants have first chosen the catering industry for coverage. Many new enterprises seized the opportunity, leading to the emergence of applications like Meituan, Dianping, Ele.me, Koubei, and a series of catering apps. Today, most merchants have one or several catering app accounts. Since these new enterprises are not yet fully fledged, they are forced to take sides, and now the best applications have been acquired by the three giants. They use capital accumulation to cover emerging fields. In the foreseeable future, industries such as supermarkets, automobiles, health, medical care, and education will gradually be mapped into the internet through different industry-specific solutions.
This has given rise to a new product called cloud computing, where all big data is stored in the cloud. The external transaction needs of merchants and enterprises, such as the O2O model that has been popular in the catering industry, essentially map merchant resources to the internet in the commercial field. In addition, merchants and enterprises should have another need: management. Thus, the SaaS model and enterprise-level management applications emerged.
As an important path for building account systems on the enterprise side, the three giants have also launched their own enterprise-level management applications. Alibaba launched DingTalk, and Tencent launched WeChat Work. Through open platforms, they will gradually extend personal accounts to organizational structure modules. Whoever captures this market will continue to lead in the internet field.
The Internet Transformation of Traditional Industries Is Imperative Many people say that the barriers of traditional industries are difficult for the internet to break through, but no matter how difficult, it is the trend. The internet transformation of traditional industries is imperative; the change lies in whether it is led by internet enterprises or initiated by traditional industries.
Based on the development history of the internet, we can derive the methods and pace of internet penetration into traditional industries. There are two main points: first, leveraging account systems and previous capital accumulation and traffic advantages to quickly penetrate traditional industries; second, seizing the two major needs of merchants and enterprises—transaction and management—to build comprehensive big data and cloud computing solutions.
As a representative of traditional industries, if the FMCG industry remains complacent and refuses to change, the outcome will be to be reshaped by internet giants, losing the opportunity to complete the internet transformation of the enterprise and the industry through its own transformation using the "+internet" approach. The internet development of the traditional FMCG industry is difficult step by step, but it is both a challenge and an opportunity. Given the rapid pace of internet development, the time left for the FMCG industry to transform itself is running out.
Zhuang Jianzhong Director, Yin Consulting Group Co-founder, Kairui Management Consulting Company Founder & CEO, Yunbao Shangmeng MBA, National University of Singapore Dual Bachelor's degrees in Statistics and Journalism & Communication, Xiamen University Long-term provider of management consulting services to China's tobacco industry, serving over 50 enterprises including China National Tobacco Corporation, Zhejiang Tobacco, Gansu Tobacco, Hainan Tobacco, Xiamen Tobacco, Nanjing Tobacco, Shijiazhuang Tobacco, and Guiyang Tobacco Led or participated in large-scale management consulting projects for dozens of enterprises, including China Southern Power Grid, Green Home, Longyu Food (Hong Kong listed company), Hansheng Yacht, Huayuan Real Estate, Zhejiang Xiaoshan Airport, and China Construction Bank Founded and successfully operated multiple internet industry websites Founded a management software enterprise, becoming an authorized service provider for large companies such as IBM, Alibaba, and Digital China Independent startup coach, successfully guiding multiple startups onto a fast development track Singapore Food Industry, Singapore PSB Management Consultant Former TV program producer and senior financial journalist -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing professional, practical, and actionable tutorials for enterprises and distributors Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Selected Excellent Articles | 002 Distributor Market Operations | 003 Terminal Visit Management | 004 Sales Supervisor Skills | 005 Sales Volume Improvement Techniques | 006 Channel Expansion | 007 Managing Distributors | 008 Distributor Development | 009 Distributor Internal Operations Management | 010 Team Management | 011 Efficient Distribution Techniques | 012 Sales Manager's Eighteen Skills | 013 KA Operation Methods and Strategies | 014 First Lesson for New Salespeople | 015 Internet, Brands | 016 Distributor B2B Transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]