Around 20 12, some students discovered the take-away market in Sichuan university, and the small-scale trial operation was not bad. Later, Lazy Egg Network and Fanqi Network also followed suit. At that time, websites could only place orders on web pages. After the website receives the order, it sends a short message to inform the off-campus merchants, and sends a special person to collect meals outside the school. Some people in the school responded to the delivery, and the quantity was small, and they have been losing money. As a result, while taking over the off-campus business, they set up black dens on campus to pull business for themselves, and basically closed down by 20 14. I once asked my brother to go undercover and found that when there was little off-campus business, he had to take one or two orders every day, which means that he lost 70 to 80 yuan every day, and the on-campus business did not make money. It's only a matter of time before I go bankrupt.
Hungry? At the beginning of 20 14, the company has raised $25 million in Series C, covering all cities in China 12, with daily orders of 65,438+million. At this time, the US Mission has just finished testing in the business circle. At that time, the system of Meituan was so simple that it could not take orders automatically. Send full-time staff to call the merchants to take orders, and the merchant information and dishes can only be uploaded through the background Excel records, which is extremely inefficient. At the end of 20 13, the US Mission plans to explore 20 cities and start landing on the beach. The execution is very high, and ten marketing managers are recruited in a week. On June 4th, 20 14, all marketing managers gathered in Beijing and were eliminated during training. /kloc-completed the recruitment and training of 20 marketing managers by the end of June, and planned to open up 20 cities.
I always say, where the competitor's market is, we will follow it and kill the opponent with the opponent's method. That's what the Meituan did, so it's even more insidious. Taking Chengdu as an example, the city manager of Chengdu took the land first, and spent a week doing research, wandering around the campus and major business districts, and counting the number of merchants, take-away vehicles and the proportion of take-away orders. His idea is that resources are limited and time is limited, giving priority to the business circle with the largest stock of existing takeaways. At that time, there was no take-away website in Chengdu, and orders were placed by phone. When Meituan took delivery, it changed the ringtone of the merchant to an advertisement: come to Meituan to take delivery and order drinks. When Meituan's take-away leaflets were sent out, they also attached business information, and their customers were transformed from each other. The takeaway users who originally placed orders with their mobile phones were converted into App users.
Some marketing managers took the initiative to go to the campus to promote, and found that the cost of acquiring users was very low, and the order volume increased rapidly. So they developed the campus ambassador system and designed three levels: campus leader, campus ambassador and building head. Each dormitory is responsible for the first floor, and later it evolved into the person on each floor responsible for the takeaway results of the US Mission. Meituan takeaway found that the white-collar market needs education, the market is not mature (following the habit of ordering food by telephone), and the campus market has been hungry, which is almost the same as that of other takeaway websites. At that time, there was no monopoly, and no monopoly meant that competition was relatively fair. Meituan decided to harvest the campus market first, and then turned to be a white-collar market. They set a strategy: stabilize the existing white-collar market, put most of their energy on campus, first become the benchmark undergraduate colleges in various cities, and use their influence to follow suit.
April 20 14, Chengdu was the first city to set up a campus market. The local city manager is very capable, and it took more than a dozen businessmen to set up the campus. I think Chengdu people are more laid-back, love spending money and have a good market environment. They suddenly realized that there was no need for so many merchants and there were too few ways for students to get takeaway information. As long as there are more than a dozen, they can be attracted immediately. This is information asymmetry. It is very important to distribute leaflets to students and do more publicity. The data shows that the daily order volume of campus can naturally increase after the US group take-out finds that it accounts for 7% of the total number of people. 7% is a threshold. Until then, they must fight the hungry. In June, the two sides showed signs of burning money. At first, the US delegation chose to give drinks. Later, I found that the students who delivered drinks might not like it, so I changed it to the first time to buy 3 yuan. Hungry? Follow up and subtract 5 yuan. They found that burning money is not a bad thing, so they can pull users over first.
At the end of June, Meituan called all regional managers and city managers to meet in Beijing to discuss the development strategy for the summer vacation. They think that take-away is a lazy economy, and once you get used to a certain platform, it is difficult to move any more. Therefore, it is not the best strategy to get customers first and then grab territory. We must first grab the territory and occupy the minds and habits of customers. If we are hungry and don't follow up, it will be difficult for the US delegation to follow up after gaining a foothold. At that time, the US delegation explored more than 60 cities, and more than 40 were hungry. If the US Mission expands on a large scale, it will miss the market if it is hungry and does not follow up. If we follow up, the students who started their business in 2009 lack management experience, and management problems will erupt sharply, which is enough for them. Therefore, the US Mission set the expansion target at 250. In July, Meituan recruited10.5 million people for training, and went to their respective universities to expand their territory at the end of August, and the execution was indeed true. If you are hungry, you can only follow up, and the team has expanded from 700 to 3,000.
Before the start of the summer vacation, Taodian advanced to Sichuan University, and my brother and several classmates promoted it. After three days, it could sell dozens of orders every day. The marketing manager of Taodian was very satisfied and gave them a bonus. At that time, I was very puzzled, and it was strange that I had to pay a bonus for ordering food. Since September, the three companies have started a money-burning war. When you are hungry, new and old users will reduce 3 yuan, and the US group takeaway is that new users will reduce 3 yuan. That's not enough, but it is also adjusted to reduce or exempt 3 yuan by stages for new and old users. If you are hungry, follow up immediately and reduce 4...4.5, 5, 8, 10, half price, and the first order is free. At that time, every business was on many platforms, MINUS 24. Close the store if you are too busy. Anyway, the subsidies are all from the platform. At that time, the take-away platform made up for the merchants, and both students and merchants benefited (merchants raised prices, and the platform subsidized students to lower prices). In the end, students saved a little money and businesses made a lot of money. I read their leaflets and was very angry. I found that they basically had no other strategy except reducing prices. I am really worried about them. To this end, I put forward five corresponding strategies. Several years have passed, and those tactics have not been used up.
People in China are too clever. If there are subsidies, they will pay the bill. My brother once recruited 78 people to pay the bill at one time. I didn't go to the platform at that time, but I also hired students to order half-price meals and sell them to customers at the original price. Major platforms have also found problems. The US Mission first stopped its activities. If you brush it again, it will be permanently offline. If you are hungry, you will freeze the funds directly if you find it. The local subsidy budget of each platform is limited, so BD and the push team try to make merchants bear more subsidies and increase exposure by distributing more leaflets. Later, the platform came forward to monopolize the merchants and let them sign exclusive agreements. If you find that you are logging in on other platforms, you will start to play hooligans and threaten to take money off the shelf. The headquarters gave BD an order, and each pusher must sign 10. If he doesn't sign, he will deduct the money, and if he is enough, he will be rewarded. In this way, the number of American delegations has risen sharply. In specific competitions, I have repeatedly said that Wang Xing is more insidious. When you are hungry, engage in large-scale activities. Generally, the US delegation does not take the initiative and secretly waits and sees. When he is hungry, the activity stops, and he will immediately engage in a relatively small activity to bring the market back in an instant. This trick is very effective, and he is tired of coping when he is hungry.
After the Thousand Regiments War, the push team of Meituan was called Tiejun. I wonder how they manage such a huge team. When I know that leaders swear at subordinates in public meetings, when I know that they preach at different levels, linked to KPI and bonuses, and demand offline posters, banners, door stickers and so on. It should be posted as required and uploaded with photos. I understand. Can't do it? Deduct the money! Often can't do it? Fuck off! At that time, in order to gain the upper hand in public opinion, everyone wanted to announce in advance that their daily order quantity was broken 1 10,000, 14, 10. 10/8, hungry, first announced that the daily order exceeded one million. At that time, the US delegation had 980,000-990,000 orders per day. At this time, should we study anti-billing first, or attack 1 million first? Can you lie about the number? The team has thought about it, so we just watch the fun. They have thought about many interesting details behind it. Sometimes the routines and methods inside can't be seen by outsiders. Before 14, we didn't go to any platform, and we could get subsidies and market dividends. But I think that in the future, businesses will definitely be restricted by the platform, which will be worse than death. What I was considering at that time was how to compete with the platform in the gap. Under the situation that the platform monopolized the market, how could small enterprises survive through the gap and the tail-end market?
I put forward several strategies at that time, and the price war was the worst strategy, so I had to do it. If the other side reduces the price, I will increase the price. If the other party reduces the subsidy, I will reduce the original price. Many people say I'm crazy. Others bargain, and you raise the price instead of dying? I can only ha ha a smile, do you think the price is casually mentioned? There must be logic behind it, and a series of actions should be justified and not disorderly. Years later (15), I asked the team to take food in the US Mission, and the turnover on that day was close to 900. The marketing manager of Meituan found me and asked me why I was able to place 80 orders that day, and whether I had a single order. I showed him the phone records of my customers on QQ, but he didn't believe me. Even so, after the marketing manager left, my store was quickly pegged, and nearly 20 thousand funds were frozen, which took a lot of effort to take out. Then I moved the battlefield to Baidu takeaway. Hungry? Every platform hasn't been more than three months. Baidu's takeaway deducted me more than 1000 and refused to pay it back. Especially unconsciously let me continue to take orders. I stopped decisively. Hungry? Because of the merger of Taodian, the investigation is getting stricter and stricter. Store and certificate need the same address. I was too lazy to get it, so I simply took it off the shelf and switched to WeChat and micro-store, so I stopped playing.
As the competition came to an end, the US delegation was hungry and changed from subsidizing businesses to subsidizing students. At this time, the subsidies for merchants became smaller, and they began to collect money from merchants, pit merchants, bidding ranking fees, top 20 buyout fees, and drainage click fees. They participated in large-scale activities to make merchants pay a lot of money (for example, 1 yuan must be more than 15 yuan, and the website subsidized four or five yuan, and other merchants paid for it themselves), and they received 6544. Nearly half of the profits were taken away by the website. Without a platform, there is no business, and the use of the platform is subject to people. There are too many merchants entering the school now, which used to be protected by the region. There are hundreds of restaurants around the school, and the competition is relatively small. Now that Meituan is hungry, there is a special delivery team, allowing each merchant to use express delivery, and the distribution range is divided into 3~5KM around. Therefore, more than 3,000 restaurants around Sichuan University can take out food, and the market is diluted. Many businesses have changed from 200 to 300 orders a day to 20 to 30 orders now. I think they finally got what they deserved. I'm waiting, waiting for the US delegation to be hungry, ending all subsidies, charging according to normal fees, and competing for all businesses. At this time, opportunities will be great, and new opportunities will easily appear.
Today, Meituan is still subsidizing the hungry distribution team. Special express delivery is calculated by single quantity. Before 100 is 2 yuan, 100 to 300 is 4 yuan, 300 to 500 is 5 yuan, and above 500 is 6 yuan. I asked some delivery people about the basic order of 5 yuan. My brother is making it himself in Qingdao now, and helping to deliver the takeaway platform by the way. He mainly does crowdsourcing delivery. A single order should be at least about 3 yuan, and there is no cap on it. Sometimes the delivery fee for a single order is forty or fifty, and it takes 70 miles to go back and forth. You said these consumers are so fucked up. If I were his father, I would kill him, son of a bitch, loser! The competition within each platform is also very fierce. Baidu's takeaway market share is small and the requirements are strict. Many deliverymen went to the Meituan team. It is an eternal law that orders are deducted more and labor flows naturally. After the special delivery team came out, the original self-built distribution of many merchants disappeared. Recently, those teams have been found back, indicating that the charges of various platforms have been unbearable for businesses. This is a good phenomenon!
2065438+April 2005, Meituan built its own distribution team, which ended up with Baidu takeaway. First, it found a small team of 20 people from Zhongguancun to test. The test results show that the per capita 17~20 bill can be self-financing, and it is not difficult to send this bill every day before the national promotion. At the beginning, the KPI assessment standard of distribution was mainly based on the quantity of distribution, which created a problem. Pasta and soup, which are slow to serve and difficult to deliver, don't like to take orders, and fast food snacks are rushing to deliver. Specific to each building, there is a demand for simple meals from roadside stalls to exquisite meals in tea restaurants, which requires the platform to integrate merchant resources, and they begin to plan how to diversify the supply to meet customer requirements. These are all explored in specific operations, and there are no shortcuts. I always believe that the problem is there, and you can only find it when you meet it. When you don't match, we automatically ignore it. There is no clever way in the world, only when solving specific problems, we use appropriate strategies.
In studying the hungry competition of the US delegation, we can clearly find the importance of strategy and people. Whether it is the choice and occupation of the market, the construction of distribution team, the integration of merchant resources and the expansion of vertical categories, every step has specific considerations. At that time, when negotiating with KFC and McDonald's. If we dock for two or three months according to the normal procedure, we can't wait. We strongly demand that the docking be successful for more than one month. Even if we manually pick up the customer service, we should transfer the order first. In the strategy of competing for key cities, for example, Shanghai is the base of people's hunger, so we should surround ourselves without fighting and only send ordinary employees to guard it. Excellent personnel attack its periphery first, capture the position and then surround Shanghai. We have also done a lot of homework in knowing people and making good use of them. From management to local distribution, there are rules to follow and everything is required.
A classic case is that Meituan secretly dug a hungry corner and sent private messages to employees who were hungry. If the other party replies and has a certain foundation, they will add some salary to dig it up and steal some details of internal operation if they are hungry. I think their routine is too similar to what I thought. It's too cloudy, haha! In terms of service to merchants, we should also try not to let the orders of merchants fluctuate too much. It is good to have activities, but it is not good to have no activities. If this continues several times, the store will die. How to make merchants accurately estimate orders and maintain stability is also one of the details they consider. In the later stage, it is also a big problem in the precise operation of cost control. They began to build a model, and through data analysis and optimization, they calculated how many people there were in each city. I even suspect that many restaurants recommended by major takeaway websites are fake, and the data of many restaurants are also fake. Their internal corruption will create their own restaurants, they will create many shadow restaurants, and they will take orders from other businesses to increase prices ... These are the logic behind us. If we don't understand, we don't want to understand.
In the concrete operation, corruption is also endless, which is not discussed here, and smart people understand it. What I care about is that it has been three years, and the subsidy can last for one year at most. What should I do after a year of takeaway service? I have always longed for fair competition. Once it is fair or the market is completely transparent and fully competitive, I will have many advantages. Of course, the market will never be fully competitive, and information asymmetry will always exist. It is quite good to be able to share only a small market in various competitions. Anyway, in the future, the take-away platform will not subsidize students, businesses and distribution, and all costs will increase. Connecting a simple takeaway in a complicated way will increase the cost and is a great waste of social resources. It took thousands of years for people to introduce people to fixed restaurants for consumption. Now I have broken this most efficient way, and I can't understand the logic more and more. Anyway, in my opinion, the more chaotic the better, the smarter people can fish in troubled waters and have a chance.