---
title: "Ma Yun Goes Left, Ren Zhengfei Goes Right: An Era of Surging Waves Arrives"
description: "People love chasing trends, hoping to soar even with extra weight, but end up being wrapped like dumplings. The real trend is never a hot topic but the overarching direction of social development, shaped by underlying logic and the interplay of decisive forces. Even someone as powerful as Ma Yun must follow the trend or perish. The current trend is 'platforms step back, value takes the stage.'"
author: "苗庆显"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2020-12-17"
language: "en"
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---

# Ma Yun Goes Left, Ren Zhengfei Goes Right: An Era of Surging Waves Arrives

> People love chasing trends, hoping to soar even with extra weight, but end up being wrapped like dumplings. The real trend is never a hot topic but the overarching direction of social development, shaped by underlying logic and the interplay of decisive forces. Even someone as powerful as Ma Yun must follow the trend or perish. The current trend is 'platforms step back, value takes the stage.'

People love chasing trends, hoping to soar even with extra weight, but end up being wrapped like dumplings.
**The real trend is never a hot topic but the overarching direction of social development.** This trend is shaped by the underlying logic of social operations and the interplay of multiple decisive forces. Even someone as powerful as Ma Yun must follow the trend or perish; he cannot change it, only adapt.
What is the current trend in social development? It's the same phrase from last year: **"Platforms step back, value takes the stage."**
In 2015, Alibaba confronted the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and emerged victorious.
This wasn't Alibaba's strength but the choice of the era—a time when internet infrastructure was booming.
In 2020, despite Alibaba being many times stronger, its series of setbacks could keep melon farmers busy for a year: from Ant Group's IPO suspension, to repeated antitrust scrutiny, to the saying "There is no Ma Yun's era, only the era's Ma Yun," to being directed to look at "the sea of stars" and not covet the common people's "few cabbages."
It's not that Alibaba has weakened, but the era has changed. The massive platform infrastructure work is largely complete; it's time to step back.
This year, a popular term is "involution," meaning everyone works hard but the total gains don't increase. To keep harvests from declining, you must work harder until exhausted, only to be rolled over.
Is there any truth to this? Of course.
If you still think in terms of platforms and traffic, whether it's enclosing land or grabbing traffic, you'll naturally be caught in involution.
But if you change your mindset, you'll find that "involution" is nonsense.
**In the value era, the test is whether you can provide value to users and society, and how you provide different value.**
The dividend of the era is the greatest dividend. I sincerely hope readers can gain a deeper understanding of the era's development, discover opportunities in trends, and find strength in trends.
**-01-**
One afternoon in 2006, an afternoon that should be remembered by history.
Ye Maozhong was smoking a cigar and chatting with three big shots. If more people had heard that conversation, China would have more billionaires.
Ye said: "This is an era of maximizing spatial value. Three things will greatly appreciate: houses, billboards, and calligraphy/paintings. Which would you choose to invest in?"
Two chose houses, one chose billboards, and Ye said, "I choose calligraphy and paintings."
The results are known.
Looking back at that moment over a decade later, we feel Ye had a god's eye view. All three things he mentioned skyrocketed. In 2006, average housing prices in Beijing and Shanghai were only 6,000-7,000 yuan, lower than many counties today, and rose tenfold in ten years. Now, famous calligraphy and paintings worth tens of millions were only a few hundred thousand then, a 200-fold increase.
This is like a god's perspective.
Amazing? Of course! Was it luck? There was luck, but there was also a more critical factor.
**That is an accurate judgment of an era.**
If you only remember the words "houses, billboards, calligraphy and paintings," you'll forever be banging your head against the wall: "Why didn't I..."
If you remember another phrase, you'll benefit for life: "This is an era of maximizing spatial value."
Sentient beings fear results; bodhisattvas fear causes. Sentient beings see "the soaring prices of houses and billboards," but bodhisattvas see "the era of maximizing spatial value."
The dividend of the era is the greatest dividend of society.
**We often say "an era has ended" or "an era has arrived," but our judgment of the era always drifts with the tide, and we turn a blind eye to the landmark events of change.**
Lao Na, the most famous self-media person in the FMCG field, said: "People drink chicken soup and say the era abandons you without even saying goodbye. But the era wants to say, 'How didn't I greet you? I hinted and signaled you again and again, but you didn't appreciate it. What can I do? I didn't fail to greet you; I shouted until my throat broke, but you ignored me. So I walked away, and you were left with nothing, yet you say I abandoned you without a word.'"
**-02-**
Lao Miao often told companies that the 2008 Beijing Olympics was an important landmark event, marking the arrival of the decentralized era.
Before 2008 was the golden age of TV media: an ad would bring gold, CCTV exposure made fundraising easy, terminals became cooperative, and even arrogant hypermarkets gave you a second look. In that era, appearing on CCTV brought success or at least staged success.
Niu Gensheng said then: "The only factor related to sales is advertising."
There were also many experts advocating "advertising burns money" and "the bid king is harmful."
But advising against advertising then was like advising against buying houses; it delayed many companies.
Based on accurate judgment of the era, Ye Maozhong was the most steadfast advocate of the advertising dividend. Whenever conditions allowed, he encouraged companies to invest in CCTV or satellite TV, helping many companies achieve rapid success. At that time, Ye was at his peak.
Once, in high spirits, Ye pointed at a playing ad and said to us: "Half of the ads currently airing in CCTV's bidding slots were made by us." As he spoke, the five-pointed star on his hat shone.
But the 2008 Olympics saw something bizarre.
I remember a promotional ad before the Beijing Olympics, roughly saying: If the Tokyo Olympics made Sony and Toyota, and the Seoul Olympics made Samsung, then who will the Beijing Olympics make?
It's hard to believe now, but the consensus among businesses then was that as a grand and unprecedented event, Olympic sponsorship or promotion was crucial and could potentially establish or overturn industry structures.
I remember two companies I served: their Olympic sponsorship was taken by direct competitors, and both were on high alert, trembling, feeling like disaster was imminent.
But after the Olympics, the storm passed, the world didn't end, and consumers didn't even remember whether the milk sponsor was Yili or Mengniu, or whether the sportswear sponsor was Nike or Adidas, or Li Ning who lit the torch while walking in the air.
From then on, Lao Miao told companies most about abandoning indoctrination advertising (the term "decentralization" wasn't popular then). Marketing equals communication; use communication thinking to understand all marketing elements, integrate communication into all marketing elements, and do integrated marketing communications. I distilled Mr. Schultz's IMC theory into four keywords, now industry consensus:
**Interaction, information flow, all touchpoints, and communication unification.**
Similarly, in 2013, many consumer goods companies peaked almost simultaneously.
On the surface, it was the end of the deep distribution model, but behind it was the end of the consumption era of "one product trying to satisfy the majority," and the arrival of the era of niche products (or segmented products) classified by value resonance and personal labeling. These are also manifestations of Mr. Kotler's Marketing 3.0 thought.
In recent years, the boom of niche products, trendy brands, internet celebrities, traffic stars, and communities has practically confirmed this.
**-03-**
In 2019, an even bigger landmark event occurred—Ma Yun's retirement.
Ma's retirement is not just Alibaba's affair but a bellwether for the whole society.
In the last decade, Ma was the most shining star entrepreneur, a godfather figure. His farewell is not just a personal choice but also the choice of the era.
Our magical market needs a god. Sailing the sea depends on the helmsman; all things grow by the sun. As a neighboring country's famous song goes: "Without you, we can't live."
But the formation of each god is not solely due to personal and corporate achievements but also a product of the era.
China's first generation of corporate godfathers were star entrepreneurs like Zhang Ruimin and Liu Chuanzhi, mostly in manufacturing—products of the "Made in China" era.
When we saw Liu Chuanzhi win the route dispute with Ni Guangnan, what were we waiting for? Industry and trade outweigh research; roll up your sleeves and make and sell products. That was the era's signal.
The second generation of star entrepreneurs were Zhang Chaoyang, Ding Lei, Shen Nanpeng, Zhu Xiaohu, Wang Jianlin, Pan Shiyi, etc., showing us the power of capital, new things, and "spatial value maximization."
In the last decade, the most prominent entrepreneurs were in internet companies, even hardware makers like Xiaomi had to label themselves as internet companies. Among them, Ma was the undisputed godfather, though Tencent and Alibaba have nearly equal influence and scale.
**-04-**
The most critical word influencing this decade is "platform."
Why? We need to continue from the Beijing Olympics story. Because centralized media, channels, and terminals were weakened or eliminated, the market urgently needed new decentralized centers, which required new infrastructure and basic services. Platforms provide these.
The term "platform" has become somewhat mystical, with talk of "empowerment." Let's first explain what a platform is.
I saw an interview with Yu Qian about how he and Guo Degang went to the countryside to perform crosstalk. Conditions were simple; there was no stage. They used two tractors facing each other, lowered the tailgates to form a stage, and climbed onto the tractors in their military coats and gowns to perform.
Exactly: the tractors are the platform, and the products and services providing value are Guo Degang and Yu Qian. Which is more important, Guo Degang or the tractor? It's hard to say; usually Guo Degang is more important, but in the last decade, the tractor was more important.
Because all old tractors had problems, everyone was eager to find new tractors to perform on.
So the giants that rose in recent years are all platform-based. Transaction and information are the two most critical factors in business, so Alibaba and Tencent became the two largest, most important, and most conspicuous tractors. Compared to Tencent, Alibaba's platformization was more thorough.
Ma has a famous saying that sounds like hype but is true:
**"Alibaba is not in e-commerce; we provide services to e-commerce companies. We aim to cultivate more e-commerce companies like JD.com."**
Of course, this can be rephrased: an e-commerce platform is essentially an advertising company plus an online real estate company, collecting stall fees and advertising fees.
When infrastructure is built and tractors are everywhere, the most important thing is Guo Degang and Yu Qian. After all, audiences come to hear crosstalk, watch performances, and see the stars.
Making the tractor more spacious, adding a canopy, air conditioning, and microphones does improve the experience and comfort, which is enhancing consumer experience. But the platform's role has shifted from leading to secondary. Even if you embroider flowers around the tractor, you can't return to the leading role.
**-05-**
A landmark event of platforms stepping back and value taking the stage is the severe setback of Ma's New Retail. To paraphrase Ma: **"It's not that New Retail is failing; it's that 'Ma's' New Retail is failing."**
**Ma's "New Retail," whether it's "rebuilding people, goods, and scenes" or "providing consumers with value and services beyond expectations at all times," ultimately still uses the "platform thinking" of previous years, not "value thinking."**
Once you go against the trend, no matter how big you are, you'll hit the rocks and quickly collapse.
The truly decisive landmark event is:
Since early 2019, Ma's position as the top entrepreneur has been replaced by an entrepreneur who has been low-key for years but whose strength doesn't allow it—yes, Ren Zhengfei.
Due to the trade war and US sanctions, this veteran entrepreneur was pushed to the forefront. Under the spotlight, his management wisdom and philosophy were quickly accepted, earning much praise.
**This is also the choice of the era. Even if Ma didn't retire, his era had already ended.**
**If Ma represents platforms, integrating resources and enclosing land, then Ren represents value, technological innovation, and industrial revitalization.**
**-06-**
**The past decade was the decade of platforms, of Ma Yun, of grand land enclosure by major platforms.**
**The next decade will be the decade of value, of Ren Zhengfei and his ilk, of stars emerging and showing their talents.**
The trend of the times is the overall development trend of society, a decisive situation formed by the clash of various forces. It doesn't change silently; it always winks at you, gives you signals, and even appears as conspicuous as an elephant in the room. What affects your judgment is only your fixed cognition and colored glasses.
**By leveraging the era's dividend, you can defeat stronger opponents; by seeing the underlying logic, you can firmly walk in the right direction, steadily and far.**
Ma has left, a new era has arrived. Good, all worth celebrating.
Source: Lao Miao Tears Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao)
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