On November 2nd, the industry recently rumored that Baidu is secretly incubating an E-Commerce project named “Baiyou”, which focuses on fresh food. At present, Baidu Public Relations Department has not commented. If the rumors are finally implemented, this means that Baidu will restart the E-Commerce project to divide the fresh market dividend.
Just as Ali has repeatedly fought in the social field, Baidu is also in the field of E-Commerce. In 2008, Baidu launched the “Yes” online shopping platform, hoping to build a C2C E-Commerce platform similar to Taobao. Unfortunately, compared with Taobao, which was established in 2003, it has obviously missed the best time to enter C2C. The online retail business could only be closed in March 2011.
Since C2C can’t get through, Baidu tried to enter the B2C business in January 2010, and announced that it has invested 50 million yuan to establish a joint venture company, Le Cool Day, with Japan Lotte, mainly engaged in online retail business such as clothing, electric food and food department stores. However, in April 2012, the announcement of the official website of Le Cool Sky Mall meant that Baidu’s E-Commerce dream was once again shattered. In October 2015, Baidu announced that it would create the largest E-Commerce in China’s food sector under the name of the Group, and Baidu and other investment sources to invest in more than 200 million US dollars. However, as of this year, I have bought a net for four consecutive years of losses. In addition, in 2015, Baidu also launched the E-Commerce platform Baidu MALL, positioning high-end, targeted to invite well-known brands, and only directly cooperate with the brand official. Two years later, Baidu MALL’s website and official post bar quietly closed. Baidu, which has been frustrated repeatedly, closed all E-Commerce projects in 2017 and has not yet entered the E-Commerce sector.
Among the BAT Big Three, Baidu has always been known for its search. For the E-Commerce field, it has been weak compared with Ali Tencent. The rumor that Baidu restarted the E-Commerce project layout fresh field, it is clear that Baidu‘s E-Commerce heart is still not dead, but in the face of the billion-dollar fresh market may be able to fight.
In 2018, it can be said that the capital is cold, the financing news has been greatly reduced, and the fresh track is still hot. According to the 2018 (China) Online Retail Market Data Monitoring Report, in the first half of 2018, there were 8 financing incidents in the fresh energy E-Commerce sector, with a total financing scale of nearly 500 million yuan. At the same time, Ali, Jingdong, Suning, Yonghui and other online and offline retail giants are also intensively in the fresh and new retail. Among them, Ali regards box horse fresh as the benchmark of the new Ali retail ecology, Yonghui’s super species, Suning The fresh food of its own Su Shengsheng and BBK is catching up.
Although the Internet giants are all working hard on the fresh market, due to the heavy line, high supply chain and strong dispersion, no real giant brand has been formed nationwide. Baidu itself is a large-scale traffic provider in China. It has great advantages in big data, coupled with the accumulation of agents in search sales, which has accumulated certain advantages for entering E-Commerce. Although Baidu also faces shortcomings in supply chain and logistics, if it is to operate the operation of fresh E-Commerce in a light mode, it may be able to get a share of the Internet giants.
In the second half of the mobile Internet, as information gradually subsided, the willingness of giants to explore business boundaries became stronger and stronger, and competition became more diverse. It is a challenge and an opportunity. Even though Baidu’s previous involvement in E-Commerce business has been frustrated repeatedly, fresh E-Commerce is an opportunity that is immediately in front of you. If you play your own advantages, it may become a new breakthrough.