This article comes fromWeChat Official Account: Understanding Economy (ID: KANDONGJINGJI), author: Written by Xi ( “ant gold clothing: rise Technology and Finance unicorn” author), title figure from the visual China
Facing the future, when China’s economic growth changes from factor-driven to innovation-driven, what we already have may not be enough to support our future development.
For Jack Ma, there is no shortage of misunderstandings.
If we know more, we may have a different look and feel.
Let us first tell a story ten years ago. Two businesses that seemed small at the time have become the pillars of Ali and Ant. Their growth comes from Jack Ma’s thinking about the future.
In 2010, Sun Quan, then head of Ali Finance. Yes, he is now the CEO of Ant, leading the team to make a financial loan product. At that time, Sun Quan had only a dozen people. At that time, his resources were very limited, not even a data analyst. At that time, Alibaba’s mid-station capabilities had not yet been established, and the data was in a state of segmentation. If Alibaba’s small loan runs a calculation, the entire Taobao system may be paralyzed.
When Sun Quan reported to Jack Ma on behalf of Alibaba Finance, Jack Ma gave his torture. Jack Ma felt that the loan amount limit was too high, and he did not fully use data and technology to solve the problem. In Jack Ma’s mind, small businesses also have credit, and Alibaba Finance aims to serve small businesses.
At that time, Dr. Wang Jian was also present, and by the way, he is now an academician. At that time, he was leading Alibaba Cloud and was eager to find Alibaba Cloud’s first customer. He used a very vivid and widely spread metaphor, “Helicopter is not an airplane”, in order to persuade Sun Quan to use a new technical architecture.
Don’t look at the benefits of Sun Quan becoming the CEO of Alibaba Cloud in the next few years and voicing lotus flowers on the financial company Amway Cloud. However, at that time, Sun Quan had no idea about cloud computing.
Finally, Jack Ma made a hit with a hammer.
1. The average loan scale of Ali’s small and micro financial loans cannot exceed 200,000 yuan;
2. This loan business must run on cloud computing.
When I was poor and white, Jack Ma asked Ali Xiaodai’s left hand and Alibaba Cloud Computing’s right hand to warm each other. These two businesses, which were both in their infancy at the time, developed and grew in this way. Today, of these two businesses, one has become the largest source of profit for Ant Group; the other constitutes the most valuable business of Ali Group today.
So, let’s look at it again today. Although the Ant micro-loan business is also a loan, this kind of loan is based on data to judge credit. It is the first time that data generates commercial value. It is a loan, not a loan. Therefore, Jack Ma concluded the five new ideas, including the new finance. At that time, many people couldn’t understand it, but in fact, the practice of others was not as good as Ali.
At this time, let’s look at Ma Yunti’s three core elements of Internet finance: data, big data-based, and big-data-based credit system. Does it suddenly become clear?
Can’t solve problems on the same level as creating problems
Before Ant’s listing, it stands to reason that Jack Ma did not need to Diss the traditional financial system, but he still did it. At the same time, people can’t help asking, why did he do this?
Ma Yun is now the richest person in China. Ant also got the way to go public just before his speech, and completed the pricing of the listing. According to the traditional Chinese concept, “make a fortune with silence” at this time is the best. Therefore, many people don’t understand Ma Yun doing this, and no one knows why?
As a person who has been observing the Ant Group for a long time and is fairly familiar with Alipay, inAfter watching Jack Ma’s speech video carefully, I was not surprised. On the contrary, I think this is Jack Ma, who has not changed at all for so many years.
Information asymmetry is absolute. There is a huge information asymmetry in Jack Ma’s internal and external cognition. So, I think, as someone who has relatively more information, I have the responsibility to write this article and talk about my views on this matter. I don’t want to convince anyone, but I hope to use the information I have. , To reduce this information asymmetry, because misunderstandings and estrangements often arise from this.
You may have watched Ma Yun’s earliest photogenic video. On the bustling streets of Hangzhou at night, the TV station designed a bureau to take away the manhole cover. Hangzhou often lost the manhole cover at that time, and the TV station performed a scene to see if there were any citizens. Able to come forward. At this time, Ma Yun stood up.
Ma Yun stood up to prevent manhole cover stealing in his early years Video exposure, running back and forth looking for the police
There is also a video circulated on the Internet. When Jack Ma was starting a business in Beijing, he went to government agencies and met with closed doors. Do you remember what he said. China is opening up. If foreigners visit our website, there is nothing on the Internet in China, which is not good. I believe that when Jack Ma at that time said these things, people around him would think he was either a lunatic or a fool. But more than twenty years later, Jack Ma made all this a reality.
Ma Yun’s 1996 Beijing sales run business was painfully rejected
Guo Guangchang once said in public that when he didn’t understand Ma Yun, he always felt that this person was talking big, but later learned that Ma Yun is a person who knows and does what he did. What he said was what he believed, and with continuous efforts, Lead the team to turn the vision into reality.
Peng Lei also said that Jack Ma is very fun. In Alibaba in his early years, Jack Ma also said that we would go to take a boat to protect the Diaoyu. It is close to here from Hangzhou. Although it sounds not marginal, this person loves toss.
Ma Yun is not short of money now. He who has retired can actually support his life. If he comes out to say that offends people like this, there must be something he thinks is right behind him. As a company founder, he must fulfill the responsibilities and responsibilities. .
Today, in the new Six-Medition Excalibur sorted out by Alibaba, the spirit of responsibility of “this moment, it is none other than me” is one of Ali’s six core values. If you ask the employees of Ali and Ant why they subscribe to such values, they will tell you that it is because the people around them, including the top leaders, do the same.
In 2020, today, when Ant is about to go public, Jack Ma still does this. We can speculate that when Ants do business, they will still be like this and will still maintain their 16-year way of doing things. Still have the ability to continue to innovate.
As Tesla founder Musk said, as the founder of the company, all the problems that the entire company cannot solve will be distilled to his level. So is Jack Ma. Although he has retired, he can’t care about Ali’s affairs, nor can he care about Ant’s affairs. On the occasion of “traveling against the current, and retreating if you don’t advance,” the fact that he came out to talk was a huge boost to the situation.
As the first founder of the company, Jack Ma must have said this for Ants to strive for better development space, butMa Yun’s words are definitely not just for ants, he is talking about a social issue.
Einstein said that you can never solve problems at the same level as creating them. Jack Ma clearly knows that he needs to start from a higher level. Only when the situation is solved at a higher level can the current company’s problems be solved. This is the new financial system he mentioned. This is what he calls the credit system. This is the future-oriented regulatory system.
This is not Jack Ma’s first time
It is not the first time that Jack Ma has spoken out about the new finance.
In January 2004, Jack Ma was inspired by corporate social responsibility at the Davos annual meeting. He felt that the development of China’s e-commerce must solve the payment problem, so he called Hangzhou Base Camp that night. A phone call requested that Alipay be activated quickly.
At the end, he said, “If you need to go to jail, I will go.”
At the time, there were legal risks for unlicensed companies to enter the payment industry. It’s not that Jack Ma has hesitated, but he knows that China’s e-commerce payment problem will eventually be solved by someone.
Alipay was born.
At the beginning of 2010, the Great Hall of the People in Hangzhou, the annual meeting of Alipay, when the company was happy for the rapid increase in payment scale, Jack Ma poured cold water on everyone. He mentioned the problem of customer experience and mentioned that Alipay needs more people Take charge.
Finally, he said, “In 2010, I hope everyone will take responsibility for customers, take risks for customers, and innovate for the Chinese financial community. As long as you say, I am responsible for customers, responsible for society, and bold Be brave to innovate and move forward. If you are in jail, I will sit with everyone. There will be no problem.”
Afterwards, Peng Lei led Alipay to return to customer value, and Alipay went out of its own way. At the end of 2010, fast payment was launched. China therefore ushered in the era of mobile payment.
In 2013, at the senior management strategy meeting at the beginning of the year, Jack Ma once again urged everyone to bear social problems and increase innovation. In order to worry that Alipay is frightened by outside questions and disputes, he said, “Today we have no way to hide in the corner.”
At the time, Jack Ma didn’t know that an innovative business codenamed Project No. 2 launched on December 22, 2012 had quietly sneaked in. 2013 in a few monthsIn June, Yu’e Bao was born.
Subsequently, it changed the landscape of China’s Internet wealth management.
Sixteen years ago, in 2004, in Jack Ma’s office, when discussing why Alipay was established, he told Peng Lei and others who were present at the time: “In the future, payment will become the infrastructure of all Internet.”
Sixteen years later, Ant wrote in its prospectus, “We are born to serve small and micro businesses, and inclusiveness is our philosophy. We believe that open technology platforms can create a fair environment for service providers And financial institutions can reach customers that could not be covered before. We firmly believe that focusing on customer needs and providing solutions for them will ultimately lead our business to success. Our decision-making is guided by long-term mission rather than short-term benefits. “
Some people say that ants have become an empire, squeezing the innovation space of small companies. However, when computing and data capabilities have been transformed into public products by Alibaba Cloud, small companies like us can also do Internet entrepreneurship. , Our server is on Alibaba Cloud. Today, our system integrates Alibaba Cloud + Tencent Cloud + HKUST Xunfei. These giants did not trample us to death. The form formed by their open technology gave us growth Space and moisture.
Today, Alipay wants this to happen in the service industry, in China, and in the world.
This is the future in Ma Yun’s eyes.
The technology faces the future, what are we missing?
Of course, Jack Ma’s statement is also biased.
Of course, the financial system has its professionalism. China’s financial system is built through sweat and hard work by generations of Chinese financial professionals. As a globally recognized risk capital management standard, the Basel system certainly has a huge effect in absorbing losses and maintaining financial stability. No one can deny this, nor should it deny it. Of course, without the Chinese financial system, without the issuance of payment licenses from the central bank, without the enlightenment and tolerance of leaders such as Zhou Xiaochuan and Guo Shuqing, it would certainly not be the success of Alipay today.
However, Jack Ma’s statement does not deny these things. I think he wants to remind everyone that facing the future, when China’s economic growth changes from factor-driven to innovation-driven, what we already have may not be enough. Support our future development.
Ma Yun’s criticism can of course be softer, more consideration can be given to the listener’s feelings, and more moderate and comprehensive, but sometimesNow, if no one speaks so directly, the listener will not feel that strong. If Jack Ma chooses the middle and gentle, Jack Ma is not Jack Ma. Just like the phrase that made the bank remember for ten years, “If the bank does not change today, we will change the bank.”
Ma Yun Bund Summit speech full video
Objectively speaking, the problems of the financial system pointed out by Jack Ma do exist today. The poor transmission mechanism of monetary policy has always been a problem for regulators. This is what he said about the “big rivers” and “swamps”. It is undeniable that today, banks’ small and micro loans still rely on real estate guarantees or do things based on traditional mortgage methods. This is what the “pawnshop thinking” part wants to illustrate. Here, we can understand that this situation is related to the background and tradition of the establishment of the bank, and to the past economic growth mode. However, if we look to the future, we should be able to understand why Ma Yun said this and the correct direction of the financial system and even the entire financial market reform.
Ma Yun did what he should do. Set up a controversial topic, so that everyone can think about such a problem,
“Facing the future, what is missing in our financial system?”
This article comes fromWeChat Official Account: Understanding Economy (ID: KANDONGJINGJI), forAuthor: You Xi (Author of “Ant Financial: The Rise of Technology and Finance Unicorns”)