Who are the Big Three in Jingxi Nature Reserve? Some people say that the year of 20 16 will be the year that B2B industry will be known, because the "Big Three" of B2B industry have been established in 20 15-Ali, HC and Wang Kuang. These three companies are called B2B giants for two reasons: First, their scale and influence; Second, the strategy is clear.

Undoubtedly, Alibaba's B2B business has always been its proud business group, among which there are many "China Iron Army" which has been circulating for a long time. As the first listed business group of the group, it has extraordinary significance in the field of e-commerce in China; HC Network was successfully listed on Hong Kong Growth Enterprise Market as early as 2003, and its current valuation is 654.38+0.5 billion. Looking for steel mesh, just recently, we got the 1 1000 billion E round of financing led by Jingxi Venture Capital and Zhongtai Securities. As the pioneer of B2B2.0, finding steel nets made a fortune, which gave birth to "finding words".

B2B is developing in a predictable direction, and the future seems bright. Can Ali create more glory? Can HC break the cocoon into a butterfly? Can finding steel continue the myth? What are the models of the so-called three B2B giants? Are there really no loopholes in the three modes?

Ali's B2B strategy is "openness"

Alibaba Group held the B2B Eco-Summit on June 5438+ 10 this year, and invited many partners such as Evergreen Logistics, UFIDA, Sijiqing, Minmetals E-commerce, Minsheng Bank, etc., and strongly announced Ali's "return" to the B2B field. Among them, Alibaba.com and Yitong are responsible for foreign trade, and 1688 is responsible for domestic trade.

According to Billion Power Network, Ali hopes to connect all B2B businesses through Alibaba.com and 1688 platform in the future. Take Ali's 320 million investment in Minmetals e-commerce company Lian Xinyi as an example. After the cooperation, Ali connected Minmetals e-commerce with 1688 business.

Zheng Dong, head of decision support for Alibaba's B2B business group, said that Ali's B2B strategy is to open cooperation, provide Ali's online capabilities to enterprises, and let sellers find buyers better, which is what Alibaba is best at.

Li Duoquan, general manager of the Finance Department of Ali B2B Business Group, expressed the hope to open Ali Infrastructure Big Data to financial institutions to finance small and medium-sized enterprises.

Senior B2B researchers analyzed with Billion Power Network that Ali's B2B strategy is to provide the accumulated transaction data to financial institutions such as Bank of China and Ping An Bank by cooperating with similar companies such as Evergreen Logistics, UFIDA ERP and Minmetals E-commerce, so as to finance small and medium-sized enterprises. Ali uses data precipitation, payment system and other profits.

Ali B2B is the pride of successful people?

According to Billion Power Network, Ali seems to be not interested in vertical e-commerce, because it is very different from HC Network and Looking for Steel Network's admiration for vertical B2B. After Ali invested in Lian Xinyi, an e-commerce company under Minmetals, he did nothing but provide technology and platform docking.

According to the analysis of the above-mentioned senior B2B researcher, self-operated business can ensure the security of data, and at the same time, it can also avoid merchants from swiping bills, so supply chain finance is particularly feasible. Ali's current B2B strategy has many advantages, such as rapid integration of resources, rapid business growth, and less transformation losses on the basis of the original industry. But Ali's so-called "open ecology" also has many disadvantages:

First, from the experience of C-side, it is inevitable that the price transparency will lead to the price war between merchants for brand effect. Although people have been immune to the so-called "cutting off intermediate links" for a long time, some traditional links really need to be cut off. Ali's move can be described as ignoring the urgent task of "supply chain efficiency" and still promoting competition by price. It's really hard to achieve much.

Second, although B-end is highly price sensitive, unlike C-end, B-end has a stronger demand for strong relationships such as safety and durability. If Ali pushes the price war blindly, there are only two products left on the platform in the future, the big merchants with obvious brand effect and the small merchants with "one shot for one place".

Thirdly, if the polarization between 1688 and Alibaba.com is as serious as that between Tmall and Taobao, then financial institutions should be alert to the usefulness and reliability of precipitation data. Alibaba's B2B strategy, seemingly perfect, is actually the pride of the winner.

The insider asked: "If this model is feasible, why does HC spend a lot of money to buy a bank?"

Not long ago, 1688 merchants broke the news to Billion Power Network, saying that at present, merchants are generally reluctant to trade on 1688, because it is not only difficult to "avoid tax" when trading on the platform, but also its traffic can provide a certain degree of influence to the brand, and no advantages have been seen yet. The profit margin of 10% is almost half that of the offline, and it has to endure factors such as rising platform service fees from time to time.

HC, looking for steel investment, why?

According to the statistics of Billion Power Network, in 20 15 years, the financing amount of many B2B platforms reached 10 billion yuan, which entered the field of angel investment. There are two companies with high financing amount and clear strategies: Zhaogang.com and HC.com ... Among them, looking for steel nets has invested in many B2B vertical e-commerce companies such as looking for oil nets, and independently operated B2B platforms in the aluminum industry to find aluminum nets; HC Network has invested in B2B vertical e-commerce companies such as Chemical B2B Fifth City, Rural B2B Cm Network and Mould B2B Sino-American International, and independently operated chemical B2B to buy plastics. Not long ago, HC Network invested 99 million yuan in Shanghai Steel Union.

It is reported that the industry generally believes that finding steel nets and HC nets to enter the investment field is to avoid risks through investment. But this is not necessarily the case.

Jiang Guo, CEO of HC Network, said that HC Network raised nearly 800 million yuan in the capital market in 20 15 years and subscribed for 0/0% shares of Inner Mongolia Jingu Rural Commercial Bank, becoming its single largest shareholder. At the same time, it shows that HC Network is of great strategic significance in angel investment, payment and finance. In the future, HC Network will pay the third party for the vertical platform at zero cost and give a credit line of 10 times.

Wang Dong, the founder of steel mesh, also said in public that angel investment in B2B platform is for finance.

An industry insider told Yibang Power Network that similar institutions have precedents abroad. Large companies set up financial departments, such as GECapital of American General Group and DHLCapital specializing in supply chain finance. HC's intention to acquire Inner Mongolia Jingu Rural Commercial Bank is similar. Looking for Steel Network to cooperate with Jingdong Finance, provide supply chain financial services for Looking for Steel Network and its many vertical B2B platforms, and profit from supply chain finance as a platform.

According to the analysis of the above-mentioned insiders, such loans are generally provided by financial institutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the time varies from a few days to several months, and the capital turnover rate is relatively fast. It is not impossible to realize that the annual flow of supply chain finance exceeds 10 billion in a few years.

Third-party payment software is meaningless to B-side enterprises?

The founder of a vertical B2B platform analyzed with Yibang Power Network, saying that HC Network and Xungang Network have similar intentions, but they are actually different in nature and have their own problems.

From the strategy of HC Network, we hope to promote the development of payment software and finance by investing in B2B vertical platform. These questions are as follows:

1. What is the significance of payment software to B-end enterprises? There is no conclusion in the industry at present. In terms of transaction data, the bill is enough for the platform to control the authenticity of the data, and the self-operated business itself has the function of risk control; From the operating experience, because B-end enterprises often make decisions by many people, online payment may occur, but it is by no means in the form of payment software.

Second, the third-party payment on the B side has great limitations. Enterprises often don't just purchase one kind of goods. At present, although there are many B-side third-party payments, none of them can unify the rivers and lakes. This should not be a problem that can be solved by "subsidies". From the scope, Ali's Alipay may be more likely to occupy this field.

Third, the significance of third-party payment software to the platform is far greater than that of enterprises. If B-end enterprises use third-party payment software, then the platform will have an objective fund pool. Internet infrastructure such as payment software, social platform and search platform has natural monopoly, and its value is obvious to all practitioners.

Fourthly, if we have to talk about the application of third-party payment in B2B platform, then cross-border B2B may become a breakthrough for B2B software. In this field, Ali has taken the lead, because partners provide customs clearance, currency exchange and other services.

It is found that the steel mesh of the financial system is a "disadvantage"

According to Billion Power Network, among the financial institutions currently cooperating with Steel Network, besides financial institutions such as Ping An Bank, there are also Jingdong Finance and Copper Street. The more important factors of supply chain finance are credit line and interest rate. After HC Network became the single largest shareholder of Inner Mongolia Jingu Rural Commercial Bank, it can get supply chain financial products with a cost of about 6%, and the credit line is naturally not a problem.

The founder of a B2B platform revealed that at present, B2B platforms mostly cooperate with banks and P2P platforms in supply chain finance projects. The cost of cooperation with banks is lower, but banks are relatively conservative and the credit line is generally low; P2P platform is the opposite. The reason why B2B platform cooperates with many banks is to provide more credit lines for B-side. The cost of B2B platform is about 10%~ 14%, and the interest rate of B-end enterprise is about 15~35%.

A senior B2B researcher told Billion Power Network that Ali's partners include China Bank and Minsheng Bank, and many banks are watching. I believe that the credit line and interest rate provided by Ali may not be as good as HC in the future, but it will not become its disadvantage.

Finding steel mesh is at a disadvantage in the financial system. According to media reports, under the impetus of Xiongniu Capital, after the cooperation between JD Finance and Looking for Steel Network, its cost is about 9%, which is difficult to match with HC's 6% and Ali's direct docking bank. At the same time, finding a steel net as a start-up enterprise will inevitably fail to gain the recognition of a more conservative banking system on a large scale. However, this unfavorable factor may be improved by Jingxi Venture Capital Holdings (shareholders are Beijing Development and Reform Commission, Shougang Group, Jingmei Group, etc.). ).