Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3221 Disadvantages of the Sharing Economy

The rightful owner has arrived.

Liu Chang, the founder of Banmi, is a woman in her forties.

She is not bad looking, and you can tell she was a very beautiful woman when she was young. It's just that she is getting older and her skin is not as tight as before. It may also be that she is under too much pressure these days, which makes her overall state not very good. In short, the first impression she gives people is...

It’s just that Fu Sheng is a guy with a strong taste!
Zhou Buqi could only express his inferiority, thinking that you are really good, but I am not. What I like most now are those girls around 20 years old who have never been in a relationship. They are much superficial compared to you.

Fu Sheng was afraid that Boss Zhou would scold Liu Chang, so he was there to accompany him.

Zhou Buqi didn't feel embarrassed and waved his hand casually, "Sit down, tell me what's going on."

Liu Chang seemed very nervous. He just stood there and said politely: "Banmi...Banmi is actually an O2O tourism model where locals act as tour guides. Some people, including those in the traditional tourism industry, have tried it before, but most people gave up after a few attempts. This is because it is difficult to increase the volume and scale. For example, some people take tourists to wineries, and some people take tourists to concerts... Each order is a 'single product, single item', and each service is not a standard product."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "How do you improve it?"

Liu Chang said: "My first idea was to do it abroad, in Silicon Valley. But after the product was launched, we soon ran into the same old problem. We worked very hard on operations and promotion, but judging from the situation at the time, the transaction volume in a month was only a few dozen orders."

"and then?"

"Later, during our exploration, we discovered that tourists have a strong demand for visiting Silicon Valley technology companies, so we designed and launched the 'company tour' project, hoping to boost traffic and transaction volume. Sure enough, after the launch of the company tour section, the platform's transaction volume increased immediately. Among the more than 200 'company tours' launched, Banmi is composed of Chinese programmers or other Chinese employees in major technology companies. In one month, the Banmi platform completed more than 1800 transactions, of which 60% were 'company tours', and another 40% of the transaction volume was obviously also brought by 'company tours'."

"Have you analyzed the reason for this?"

"Well..." Liu Chang had analyzed it, but he just didn't know from which angle to explain it to Boss Zhou. "Actually, 90% of our products are priced at zero yuan. This is the purpose of Banmi, which is to promote the joy of sharing. As for the private transactions between tour guides and tourists, we can't influence them. The reason why the company's tour business is so popular is probably related to profit."

Zhou Buqi said: "Profits are one aspect. From the perspective of human nature, the attraction to tourists is voyeurism, and the attraction to tour guides is showing off. Behind this voyeurism and showing off, the company's resources are targeted."

"Yes." Liu Chang lowered his head and began to apologize. "In fact, we were also worried about the corporate tour project at the beginning, but later on, when it became popular, we couldn't bear to let it go. One of the most popular parts of the corporate tour is the free meals. Taking advantage of the relaxed management environment of large Silicon Valley companies, Chinese tour guides take tourists to the company cafeteria to eat free meals."

Zhou Buqi said in a deep voice: "This matter must be treated with caution! You must be more thoughtful when doing things in the future."

Liu Chang secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Okay.

You can still do things in the future, which means that Boss Zhou intentionally let this matter go.

It can be considered as escaping a disaster.

Fu Sheng was standing nearby, smiling and saying, "You can't really blame her for everything. Where was Banmi when she first got into trouble? Airbnb, right?"

Liu Chang said "hmm".

Fu Sheng explained, "In fact, she had already removed the company's products from the shelves when the first incident happened. Later, the reason why Facebook investigated Banmi one after another and caused many other large technology companies to take action was mainly due to reports from competitors."

"report?"

Zhou Buqi looked at Liu Chang with a half-smile. Liu Chang gritted his teeth and said, "In fact, I have also discovered that the job opportunities of Chinese employees who have worked at Banmi have been threatened. Some Chinese have complained about it in their Moments, Twitter, and WeChat groups, and even started to criticize and abuse Banmi. At that time, I realized my mistake and wanted to speak out publicly. But my lawyer told me that it would be better not to take responsibility, otherwise there would be a risk of litigation."

Zhou Buqi's expression improved, "This is the truth."

Now is the wave of O2O entrepreneurship.

O2O tourism is also a very popular entry point, and hundreds of similar companies have emerged in China. It is to connect tour guides and tourists through a platform... As for whether the tour guide is a professional tour guide, this is not important.

Just like online car-hailing.

It is just to connect the driver and the passenger. It doesn’t matter whether the driver is a taxi driver or not.

This is very destructive to the industry.

Many people actually drive public cars to drive Didi. Some even have bad intentions and work as drivers for the rich or powerful. They drive a luxury car to drive Didi and then specifically pick up young and beautiful girls, disguising themselves as the second generation of rich people from the grassroots, and then defrauding them of money and sex.

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Big companies in Silicon Valley, especially Internet companies, have always welcomed outsiders to visit and learn, which reflects the spirit and characteristics of mutual benefit and sharing in the Internet industry. What you did, at the very least, illegally occupied company resources; at the most, it destroyed the working environment of Chinese people in Silicon Valley. More seriously, it may even affect the openness and inclusiveness of the global Internet industry."

"Mr. Zhou, we have deeply realized our mistakes and will take action immediately." Liu Chang quickly made the assurance.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What do you want to do?"

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Liu Chang said: "First, I still want to continue with Banmi, but we will discuss cooperation with the formal channels of technology companies and no longer contact employees privately. Second, Banmi will move from Silicon Valley to New York, and then return to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China, and the focus of operations will return to China."

"Go back to China?" Zhou Buqi glanced at her with a serious look. "You have to be more careful in China. If you make a mistake in Silicon Valley, you still have a chance to escape. If you use the same tricks as Silicon Valley on these big companies in China, you will never have a chance to turn things around."

Liu Chang's face turned pale, "I understand."

Zhou Buqi said: "This O2O sharing economy is now a global trend. In fact, I have been practicing the Internet concept of the sharing economy ten years ago. However, there are several key obstacles to the sharing economy, which has caused various drawbacks in this large industry. In the sharing economy, if you share your own resources, there is of course no problem. But most of the time, people share other people's resources for their own benefit."

This is another warning.

Sharing economy means sharing other people’s resources. If “others” have weak voice and little ability, then sharing will be done and they will have no ability to resist.

If the party whose resources are shared has a strong voice, like Facebook, Apple, and Amazon in Silicon Valley, once giants of this magnitude act collectively, no one can resist. Therefore, if the sharing economy business continues, it will often tend to be self-operated in the end. The platform itself does it, does not share other people's resources, and does not take advantage of others, which can reduce many controversial points.

As for this Liu Chang...

Zhou Buqi gave Fu Sheng some face and let her go.

Even if she was given the opportunity, her idea of ​​O2O tourism wouldn't have much chance.

The tourism industry is closely related to the overall economic environment. In the past few years, the domestic tourism industry has exploded, but starting this year, it has begun to decline. Those who are engaged in tourism startups basically have no hope.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Alright, let's just let this matter go. In Silicon Valley, you should make a statement to the big companies involved. Apologize if necessary. Don't let the Banmi incident affect the image of Chinese people in Silicon Valley too much."

Liu Chang was overjoyed, "Thank you Mr. Zhou for your advice, I'll do it right away!"