Why should we go global? This is a question worth pondering. Going global may mean a second startup for another business, requiring the recombination of many production factors. Whether it's passive or proactive expansion, there are many points to consider. How big is the market, what can we do, and which categories can we tackle? Today, let's share how to go global scientifically.
Going global is a second startup. Entrepreneurship is actually a very scientific discipline, and so is going global, so I proposed a concept called 'scientific going global.' All our thinking paths, especially in the going global chain, have many pitfalls, ranging from a few million to over ten million. So we hope to think carefully about many aspects, chains, and core production factors. When the dividend comes, embrace it fully and seize it firmly. Otherwise, it may be a dividend, but not necessarily yours.
- Align Consensus
Each company at different stages has different genes, different cells, and thus different growth strategies. Everything is like when you first started your business: finding people, finding money, and we also need to observe the market. The overseas market environment, for example, Southeast Asia may be closer to China, so many of its consumption patterns are similar, making it easy to approach, including supply chain transfer. But another issue arises: low prices. Over long-term competition, low prices become the main theme. So many people want to earn US dollars, but the US is a foreign country; we need to explore its consumption patterns. Comprehensive insight is crucial; only with clear insight can you take precise steps. Internal actions must be most accurate, with no room for error, as the cost is high. So all people, organizations, and resources, even in the US region, must eventually localize production. If your cross-border e-commerce project is within 200 million RMB, I think you don't need to talk about branding; just sell your products well. We currently have four products, each selling over 2,000 units daily, with monthly sales of about 1 million USD each, totaling over 4 million USD for four projects, which is over 20 million RMB. That's nearly 300 million RMB a year with just four bestsellers. So you only need to create bestsellers. If you have many cheap SKUs, the pressure is high, and the cost of retreat is also high. Shipping goods back may cost more than the goods' value. You can only destroy them locally, with a recovery price of about 10% of the selling price. This loss is significant, so you can't ship goods and then figure out how to sell them. Strategy is crucial; you must think clearly first. When you start a project domestically, we must think three steps ahead and take one step. This thinking is important. So going global is a second startup; all production factors need to be recombined. For example, you need to know local customs, local industry understanding, how offline retail works, and how online works. It's not just Amazon; there are many e-commerce platforms. Europe has over 40 e-commerce platforms of various sizes, not just Amazon and eBay. So knowing where your capabilities lie and which market you can tackle is important. Market insight and human organization are crucial. Initially, within 200 million RMB, using domestic short-video and self-media talent for TikTok interest surveys is fine; it's okay for a start. But later, you must localize your organization; many teams must connect with local influencers to create content, as they are closest to local consumption. This is important for human resources and team management, involving many aspects. Previously, we did e-commerce in China, running Douyin, and we were relatively confident; we had reached the top on Douyin. We thought the capability model would be the same for TikTok, but after three months, we found it was far from it. Many operations might be similar, just translating English to Chinese, and browsers have auto-translate features, so the backend is no different. But locals' preferences for products and content were operated based on domestic assumptions. The click-through rate was very low; they weren't interested, didn't understand what you were saying, and just saw it as an ad. Previously, we relied on experience, which essentially self-reinforces around a point: think of a point, then continue thinking along it, alone, believing what you say is right. For example, transitioning from shelf e-commerce to interest e-commerce is different because video is multi-dimensional and can showcase product content. It naturally demands more from people, so this is a significant background.
- Scientific Entrepreneurship
When doing many things, we must think scientifically. Science is a broad discipline, and it's the same abroad. So we must have scientific theories and a rigorous methodology for step-by-step execution. Success can be replicated, and failure can be avoided. In going global, scientific going global is also important. I put a sign in the corner of our office that says 'Scientific Entrepreneurship,' reminding every team member to think scientifically in all decisions. I often receive requests on Feishu from colleagues, such as wanting a budget for something without a Plan B for next steps, or without a Plan C for contingencies. I won't approve those. So when applying for a budget or a plan, what's your Plan B? Without a complete set of thinking, if you're just testing products for the sake of testing, what will you do after the test? We have no idea. The company will gradually make many low-quality decisions, and when it comes to big decisions, you won't be able to make them. You must do scientific entrepreneurship; every step must be rigorous.
Scientific Going Global: Right Things + Right People + Right Methods
Today, I'll focus on this table. Let me break down its logic. We have a project to start, called 'Seed Thinking,' which is the management of the entire business lifecycle. I think this thinking is helpful for many founders and managers. There's a first-level breakdown: the root. Our thinking logic is root, trunk, branches, and leaves, breaking down level by level. In the first-level items, there are right things, right people, and right methods. To succeed in going global, the product, category, and track you choose must be right. If you're just starting on Amazon or eBay now, you might be in the mid-to-late stage, and the dividend may not be yours. So doing the right thing is crucial. Here, I'll share some methodologies on how to find the next right method and operation method. So you can't escape these three: right things, right people, right methods.
- Right Things
It's a project strategy. The next layer down is tactics, which involves more detailed and forward-looking thinking. The essence: Why go global? What do you want? Why do you want it? In your items, there's a role. I propose two roles: proactive going global and passive going global. Proactive going global means I want to globalize. Over 20 years ago, Japan already had globalization ideas; many of their brands had low local and global shares. They had early thoughts of brand globalization, like our parents' generation using Japanese home appliances. Domestic competition is fierce, so we think of going global; that's passive. Everyone's situation is different; you need to think about why you want to go global, which is 'origin thinking.' Is it because your original business isn't growing, has no profit, or is losing money, so you want to go global? Or do you have a desire for a global brand, exploring new business? Or do you think cross-border profits are high? If it's passive, we add another thought: why can you do it? Products are highly homogeneous; if you go global, the factory next door also goes global. Why can you? What's special about your product? What core technology? This thinking is particularly important. So, back to the second-level breakdown's first-level items, there's a business positioning. The boss must make a detailed and clear business positioning on the right things. Additionally, is this going global business line a new business exploration, a must-win growth battle, or a must-win survival battle for you? Sometimes operators can't understand what the boss wants. For example, if I'm an Anker operator, I'm good at high-profile strategies; as soon as I join, I want to show off. But the boss says, let's just try; let's test TikTok's potential, limiting your performance. Would he blame the boss for unclear strategy? No. The boss must clearly know which of the three strategic roles you belong to from the start. So you need to infer and verify from your business positioning possibilities, then confirm. There are three types: new business exploration, growth must-win battle, and survival must-win battle.
First, new business exploration. I make about 200-300 million RMB a year, and I want to try overseas to see if the current dividend exists and if my team can handle it. My first-year expectation is not high; 20-30 million is enough. That's new business exploration. An important indicator is setting a stop-loss line. So the second-level items break down to the third level: set a stop-loss line, with finance leading. You must list core indicators clearly; if you lose 2 million, stop. That's the basic requirement for new business exploration.
Second, growth must-win battle. The original business growth is slowing or stagnant, and you need a second growth curve. You've been doing Amazon for three years, each year at 200 million, with only profit changing because it's being squeezed. Last year you earned 20 million, this year maybe 10 million, and further down to 5%. So you urgently need a second growth curve.
Third, survival must-win battle. On the brink of survival, you need to find a way out; you can only go all in because there's no other way. In e-commerce, you must determine which role you belong to. Next, in the fourth quadrant, you determine your strategy. For example, if positioned as new business exploration, think about where to find people and methods. After positioning, think about who to find and what methods to use to start.
- Right People
Finding people is difficult, but once you find the right ones, success becomes easier; you'll hit the dividend. So you must: see and recognize people, select people for tasks, and recruit soldiers. What kind of generals do you need? This must be clear. In many interviews, candidates say they know TikTok. We need to deeply analyze them. First, is their 'know' clear, familiar, or proficient? We need to dialectically see what they mean. They might mean 'clear,' having played with domestic Douyin and now switching to TikTok. The fourth-level items consider what capabilities they have and whether they can transfer. Second, they say they're familiar, having played in Southeast Asia, and think they know TikTok. But are the product selection directions for TikTok US and Southeast Asia the same? Many regional cultures differ, so consider whether capabilities align, whether the business logic is the same, whether they can quickly master the platform, and language and cultural issues. Third, what is 'proficient'? For example, if I worked at Anker and achieved big results, that's proficient. But their approach is more high-profile because they've spent big money. However, if our business positioning is new business exploration, it may not fit. After anchoring, you can judge subsequent situations. Once you've confirmed the person, what to do next? Define rights, responsibilities, and benefits, and set core indicators for the current stage. Everyone must be clear: do you want profit, sales, or to build a team prototype? This must be explicitly stated. Otherwise, the operator won't receive your instructions and can't manage downward or build the team. Breaking down to the fourth level, your decision is to build a complete team and accept break-even or slight loss for six months. That's your decision. Your positioning and expectations for this business must be clear. From the right people perspective, you must ask yourself: between team executives and partners, don't over-amplify your abilities. For a new business, there's a big risk; some people think they can do it, but their ability might be 70%. Business positioning must be done by capable hands, not by brave ones. Clearly define the team's capability model and expectations. This must be sorted out.
- Right Methods
We must learn to comprehensively view the entire market with industry insight. First, definitely read professional research reports. Professional reports provide industry common sense, with vertical analysis of the US online e-commerce platform landscape, each category, and each industry. You can quickly use their conclusions to build industry common sense. Second, pull data from TikTok and Amazon markets. Product overall data, category data, single product data, and competitor data. Third, pull product cost calculations. See if Amazon's current profit structure aligns with TikTok's, and what spaces can be squeezed. This is essential because the two platforms have different rules and commission points. Fourth, look at mainstream market plays. Influencer marketing or paid traffic, live streaming or automated live streaming; you must know the mainstream plays. Fifth, make a sales plan. For the next half year or year, have a preliminary sales forecast and budget. This affects capital needs; you must predict it and output a professional report. In market insight, there's also competitor insight. If we target a brand that's top in the US region, how do we comprehensively understand it? Below, there's a cost calculation table and a sales plan. So the fourth and fifth-level items output specific reports, with responsible departments and their outputs.
Finally, the most important is finance. If we're doing a 1 million RMB business, from the boss's and manager's perspectives, you must know how much capital is needed for turnover. This must be clear. Don't let the operations team sell wildly without backend support. As an operator, from the moment you join, you must clearly understand the company's situation. You need to plan rhythmically so the company can cooperate better. We'll do financial calculations, such as project budget, sales plan, and human resource development plan. Because you know the playbook, you know that for the first half year, you won't do live streaming, but after half a year, you will, so HR will change. You'll need to hire streamers, assistant streamers, and controllers. He'll produce a complete marketing and financial plan to control sales. Weekly, review sales plan completion and budget consumption progress; they should be proportional. We constantly check this rhythm weekly. The fifth-level items output many standard documents through team collaboration. So cash flow is crucial; it's the essential supply for battle. In cross-border e-commerce, healthy cash flow rolling is the core element for healthy project development. I've seen too many good projects where operations rush blindly, but backend information lags, which is painful. This table deserves more thought, especially for bosses, executives, operators, or business leaders.
To summarize, successful going global equals right things, right people, and right methods.
An excellent operator must have three perspectives. First, the boss's perspective. The boss sees the whole picture, knowing how the project is prepared, where personnel, methods, and budgets are. Second, the operator's perspective. He can steadily advance the project, knowing how to control risks. He can strategize, advance and retreat orderly, lead the team with rhythm, goals, strategies, and methods. Third, the colleague's perspective. For example, if I'm finance or an operations assistant, in this table, what role do I play in the company project? This clarifies individual division of labor and goals, how to advance and collaborate. So excellent operators must be good at managing others' expectations. In the team, they must manage expectations for every position, including the boss's, controlling risks and progress. I once posted a passage on Moments: 'In cross-border e-commerce, if we don't thoroughly study basic issues and lack reliable analytical framework support, hastily taking ad-hoc measures often fails to achieve expected results and may trigger new contradictions because we haven't touched the root of the matter.'
How to Start Scientifically?
- Market Insight
First, comprehensively see the differences between Amazon and TikTok markets. We've seen many brands ranking high on Amazon but inactive on TikTok; many brands not in Amazon's top 100 but first in TikTok categories. We once saw a vacuum cleaner brand that didn't rank on Amazon but was first in TikTok's category. I need to see the dividends from Amazon and TikTok; in TikTok, what's the market size and dividend ceiling? For example, if Amazon has 10 billion in category transactions, what's TikTok's current industry size? How much ceiling do I have? Second, look at share within brands. What ecological niche can I occupy in this brand matrix? This is important. Third, single product competitive differentiation. These brands are on TikTok; where are my differences? Here, beware of experience; entrepreneurship must respect the platform's essential differences, not be blindly confident in products. Our comprehensive market insight for a brand includes this information: when they entered, what products they made, then their TikTok infrastructure, and operational progress. We can see their store registration and influencer outreach. You'll see their transaction channel share: alliance influencers, self-operated accounts, and mall traffic. We break these down; self-operated might be only 9%, influencer-driven 37%, and mall plus paid traffic 53%. This reveals the brand's playbook: using influencer content for paid traffic to drive mall traffic. So from comprehensive market insight, you can see their strategy. Extract their bestsellers, including their playbook breakdown, their market insight, reasons for female user purchases, and product function displays. This table is important; from the detailed breakdown, you can see that in the first phase in September, they did 1.08 million USD. Their playbook was selecting specific products; I found that their Amazon bestsellers weren't directly used on TikTok. They had a specific, exclusive product, and they found influencers with larger body types and 100,000-300,000 followers to promote. The first month they did over 1 million USD, the second month in October over 3 million USD, then they started finding influencers with under 100,000 followers. They started with mid-tier influencers, then moved down. They used data from influencers with conversions to convince lower-tier influencers, using a downgrade approach. The third step coincided with Black Friday; in November, December, and January, they earned tens of millions in revenue, doing 10 million USD in three months. They prepared 7,000 influencers and posted 100 pieces of content daily. The first two months of accumulation were crucial. Cost calculation: platform fees, product cost plus shipping, and influencer promotion and traffic. After that, we know the company's gross margin, how much you're willing to spend on traffic and promotion, and the absolute gross profit value. This needs calculation.
- Selling Point Calculation
Suppose we have a product and want to promote it; we must hypothesize selling points. I don't know which selling points are effective in the market, so I make assumptions. Assume my product has selling points 1, 2, 3, 4, but I'm not sure which is most popular, so I hypothesize. After hypothesizing, I break down 157 top viral videos to see how each video's selling points are distributed. We collect these selling points in a distributed manner, and you'll know where market acceptance concentrates. Next, we start testing bestsellers. Then find influencers, select content, and run ads; that's the standard trilogy. Next, we break down the high-light frames of ad video content. Our colleagues do one thing daily: short video content breakdown. For example, if a video has four peaks, it means traffic retention is highest at those seconds. We study what actions and scripts are in those high-light frames; this is important breakdown work. So in each ad campaign, we continuously iterate content. When you focus back on your selling points, you look for those viral videos and match your scripts. Nodes are also important; many of our explosions happen during promotional nodes, different from daily marketing activities. You'll see Black Friday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day are more explosive; there are several key nodes. To summarize, we generally use hypothesis to test selling points, then amplify through paid traffic. This way, our sales rhythm is controllable; we don't challenge new products with influencer pulse-type sales, which puts pressure on inventory. We generally use paid traffic. After confirming selling points, we invest in traffic and amplify with influencers this year. Then do brand self-broadcasting; future layout must include localization. I have an important message for you: as an operator, you must learn the thinking of peeling away layers. Look at today's table breakdown, including thinking about every detail, every key frame, every script; we've formed a complete methodology internally. This is our anti-fragility capability in the going global field. So top operators' thinking is to peel away layers, considering every point. And you'll see much thinking behind it, which is workflow plus professional flow: your understanding of e-commerce platform application. Professional flow is about converting an operator's personal capability into team capability; this is an important method. Going global is a steel plate; it has many difficulties, information gaps, cognitive blind spots, and human organization issues. It's a hard, extremely difficult plate to kick through, so you need a group of capable, extremely pragmatic people determined to kick through it, seizing a dividend opportunity and going all in. What is all in? You can only have one thing in your eyes. So since we started TikTok in September last year, we've spent 99% of our time on TikTok, focusing all attention there to do it well. I hope everyone achieves better results in this project in the future. I wish you smooth going global, breaking through to become a butterfly. Find your second growth curve, and meet at the top of the TikTok rankings.