Wall Street Legend

  Chapter 296 Doing business is not easy

   These days, the retail industry is also highly competitive.

  Wal-Mart had a profit margin of about 7% when it first started, how much is left now? It's only in the early four percent, which is almost a hundred dollars worth of goods sold. The company can earn a little more than four dollars. This is not the money shareholders can get, and the net profit will become even less.

With the price-to-earnings ratio exceeding 21, investors are no longer optimistic about Wal-Mart. A little trouble will cause the company’s stock price to fall, and it has almost come to an end. At the peak, Amazon’s stock price can reach three or four. Walmart High.

  Investors pay more attention to the possible benefits of Internet companies, not only limited to dividends, but also the rise or fall of the stock price itself. Speaking of a company as powerful as Boeing, its market value is actually less than 100 billion US dollars.

From this point of view, Wal-Mart is indeed likely to seek transformation, try to contact Amazon, and try to acquire it. Such actions are enough to show the attitude of Wal-Mart’s top management, just like the merger of Warner Times and AOL back then. Expectations are good. , but unfortunately acquired the wrong company at the wrong time.

The reason why Ye Dongqing asked about packaging is that Amazon’s profit margin is not high, so it can only desperately reduce costs on the current basis. If you can save a dollar on the packaging cost of each order, it will be great in the long run. A handsome income.

"I have considered this aspect and am preparing to acquire a carton manufacturing company. Now that a user's single order is over 99 US dollars, we not only deliver it to the home for free, but we also bear the packaging cost. The profit is not high. Saving is saving, often packing all the goods in the same box, which can not only save transportation space, but also save packaging costs.”

  Mr. Jeff Bezos’s tone is a little helpless. At present, e-commerce companies want to compete with traditional retail giants, and their strength is more than a little bit worse. Amazon should now consider how to survive.

Although the market environment is much better than in the first three years of the 21st century, it is still not very friendly to the e-commerce field led by Amazon. The main reason is that it is not easy to open up the market, and it faces huge losses every day. many.

Looking on the bright side, at least more investors are willing to take over stocks, and the financing plan can be carried out smoothly. In the second half of 2000 and the whole year of 2001, investors regarded Internet stocks as garbage, which was very serious. Few people are willing to spend money to invest.

   "I was busy a while ago, so I didn't look at the data carefully. After I go back, I will help analyze it and see where else I can reduce the cost." Ye Dongqing continued drinking the smoothie and said.

  Mr. Bezos nodded, and continued: "Sometimes I really envy you, entering an industry that doesn't require much effort, that Facebook, just ensure that the number of users is large enough to attract others to advertise.

  In Amazon, most of the products are sold by ourselves, and we can’t even sell advertisements like eBay and charge auction fees. You can’t imagine how many nights I was tortured by the high cost and couldn’t sleep. "

   "It should be easier in the future. With the increase in the number of transit logistics warehouses, the cost and transportation pressure will definitely be slightly reduced. The number of orders will increase, and it is true that each order will earn less, but it will be a lot of money if it is accumulated.

  Why don't you go directly to the manufacturers and squeeze more profit from them? For example, in the case of the same quality, which company offers a lower price, the company will sell more products. This is also a disguised advertisement. If the sales volume is large enough, they will be willing to give up part of the profits, and the manufacturing industry will The market needs to be cultivated. "

"...This is a very good idea, but I think we should still follow the wishes of consumers, but we will indeed provide more promotion resources for high-margin products, and then sort them according to sales volume to ensure that high-margin products remain in the market for a long time. The front end of the webpage allows consumers to see it at a glance."

  The two were chatting, exchanging their thoughts with each other.

Ye Dongqing didn't tell the other party that it's not easy to do online social circles. Recently, professional lobbyists from K Street are being invited to activities in Washington, trying to promote policies such as Internet social information and network security that are beneficial to him. The trouble is, in addition to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other pro-American regions, Facebook has faced multiple non-public censorship in Europe and the United States, mostly under the banner of national security.

Facebook is not easy, and the promotion of Skype is even more difficult. Several major communication operators in the United States have already set their sights on it, and foreign telecom operators even regard Skype as a scourge, because Internet calling technology involves their important interests, and they are already starting to deal with it. The seizure was carried out, and bad news reached Ye Dongqing's ears from time to time.

In order to kill this program, the Communications Industry Association of America even sent representatives to try to get in touch with Ye Dongqing, wanting to spend money to buy this program. The quotation given last week was as high as 1.1 billion US dollars, lower than the valuation of Skype The main reason is that they don’t think Skype can survive in the future, so they are reluctant to spend too much money. In addition, they are also worried that after the acquisition of Skype, other similar products will appear, and the money wasted in vain.

A bit of pressure, but not too much pressure. Skype currently has more than 80 million users around the world, with a valuation of about two billion U.S. dollars. These users are enough to help him resist many risks. If it is blocked, communication operators are worried that there will be Cascading negative effects.

Of course, Ye Dongqing is at the center of the storm in this whole matter, but the video call technology in his hands and a series of breakthroughs he has achieved are estimated to be realized in about half a year before going public. Block video call technology together? What's more, shortly after the launch of Skype, similar technologies have appeared, such as the Online program launched by Google.

  The larger the scale, the more disputes it will cause. Ye Dongqing occasionally finds it annoying when she is robbing the market with big companies and facing countless litigants who are crazy about money.

  Sitting in the Starbucks cafe for more than two hours, the topic gradually jumped from business to the scenery of Yellowstone Park, and then to the charming restaurant in London. It was after ten o'clock that we parted, and we agreed to visit Seattle next time.

Before leaving, Mr. Bezos said that Ye Dongqing’s thinking was very mature, which made him feel like chatting with his peers. Of course, Ye Dongqing’s mental age is not young, and the only thing that seems childish is probably the personal emotion. He is a prodigal son who doesn't know how to fall in love, and he doesn't want to live a stable life with others for the rest of his life...

  (end of this chapter)