This article is from WeChat official account: silicon Star man (ID: guixingren123) , Author: Lianzi, the original title: “The new crown epidemic, which is stirring the Silicon Valley Pond “Dead Water”, title picture from: Visual China
The Glass Jar restaurant in Santa Cruz, California, is currently processing orders from food ordering websites non-stop.
But about a year ago, Zachary Davis, the owner of this restaurant, rejected the continuous invitation to cooperate with the olive branch from the ordering website. On the one hand, he believed that if the delivery process was too long, it would affect the dishes. More importantly, he does not recognize the high commissions of these takeaway cooperative software, which will greatly increase the cost of selling a dish.
But on March 15 this year, when the US city governments announced a stay-at-home order, he began to compromise.
“(Outbreak) We shut down completely for a period of time, took inventory, and then reluctantly realized this(accept for takeaway) is the only way to survive.” Zachary told the media.
Although restaurants are gradually opening up during the epidemic, more than half of Glass Jar’s revenue still comes from these food delivery websites that he was reluctant to contact.
A year ago, Zachary was not the only “old-fashioned” in the Silicon Valley restaurant circle that showed resistance to the delivery platform. In the past many years, even in the heart of global technology, Silicon Valley, daily life here can remain unchanged for many years-only a small proportion of young people are willing to accept the “newer” lifestyle of food delivery, even if the food delivery model is in Asian countries It has already spread to thousands of households and has become a part of ordinary people’s lives.
In fact, in the United States, despite the rapid development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and software development, these technologies that are closely related to people seem to be several shots slower than China: even if Chinese residents accept food delivery early, American people are more willing Going to a restaurant to eat; even if Chinese residents have accepted contactless payments and no longer carry their wallets, American residents still stubbornly refuse the Apple Pay function.
To 201In 8 years, the penetration rate of Apple Pay in the United States was only 3%. It seems that compared to Musk’s rockets, Google’s self-driving cars, and Apple’s constantly updated hardware products, the American people have not been enthusiastic about “technology changing lifestyles”.
But the new crown epidemic has unexpectedly stimulated these once stagnant life technology fields. Those scientific and technological advances that have been “late” over a decade have finally come.
1. Four pillars and accelerated listing plan
Doordash recently submitted an IPO application. The market value of the listing is about 32 billion U.S. dollars, which is nearly double the valuation shortly after the outbreak of the epidemic in June this year, and is favored by many Wall Street people. The company plans to “absorb” 2.8 billion US dollars in the public listing process, and the single share price is between 75 and 85 US dollars.
Several other rivals Grubmarket and Postmates, who tried to let Americans experience food delivery and delivery services, also tasted the sweetness of ultra-high profits during the epidemic.
With UberEats, these four mainstream food delivery companies have been in a quadrupled state from the semi-closed state of the United States in April this year to September this year. In a short period of five months, their combined revenue exceeded 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, more than double the 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in the same period last year.
In addition to the takeaway industry, the epidemic has also given new vitality to the startup company Instacart, which helps people purchase daily necessities in the supermarket. Similarly, Instacart also announced that it will be listed in the first half of 2021 in a few months.
Two, 14 years late, Wal-Mart sounded the horn to fight Amazon
In addition to providing more development opportunities for these entrepreneurial and innovative companies, the “stimulus” brought by the epidemic has also unexpectedly forced the stagnant ordinary businesses in the United States to undergo online transformation.
While online shopping in China has become something everyone is doing every day, American merchants are constantly inferior in online shopping, “not thinking about making progress.” If you complain about the online shopping experience and Guisu Express before the U.S. epidemic, it may not be finished day and night.
When the epidemic first started, the Silicon Stars placed an order on Rite Aid, and it was delivered about 5 weeks later. In the past few years, mainstream online shopping platformsApart from Amazon and eBay, there are no rising stars that can compete with them.
But now, when people have to choose online shopping, businesses have to face transformation.
After half a year of “forced by the situation”, whether it is Target, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, which was acquired by Amazon, or even pharmacy Walgreens, have begun to compete with each other on the “online shopping” track.
Under competition, the online shopping industry in the United States is progressing rapidly. In addition to Whole Foods’ one-hour delivery service and roadside self-pickup services, Wal-Mart has emerged as a free one-day delivery service and two-day delivery service, which is in direct confrontation with Amazon.
This week, Wal-Mart even issued a statement stating that it will cancel the 35-dollar free shipping limit for users with Walmart Plus members after December 4. This move is considered by the outside world to be the traditional supermarket Wal-Mart formally joining the e-commerce war and openly challenge Amazon. Walmart Plus, which was launched in September this year, is also considered a direct challenge to Amazon members.
If it weren’t for the epidemic, the online shopping membership system launched by Amazon 15 years ago has never even been copied and challenged.
Wal-Mart has also tasted the sweetness of the continuous new developments in the online shopping field.
In its earnings report released in August of this year, Wal-Mart stated that its online sales have increased by 97%. In the financial report, Wal-Mart pointed out that there are two main reasons behind this growth: Many cities in the United States were “half-closed” after the outbreak of the epidemic in the second quarter, and people are more choosing online shopping. At the same time, in response to this change, Wal-Mart took the initiative to increase the same-day delivery service and store door pick-up service.
What makes Wal-Mart happy is that such growth has not been weakened by the policy of gradual economic restart in the following months.
In addition, Walgreens is also trying to launch a free mail campaign during the epidemic, hoping to attract more users to use its website to order daily necessities and break its single identity as a “pharmacy”.
After this kind of contention, the online shopping of the people of Silicon Valley has become more and more satisfactory, and the express delivery speed has been relatively faster. These changes have allowed more and more Americans to rely more on online shopping to solve daily needs.
three, Apple makes a fortune in silence
In addition to frequent takeaways and online shopping, the American people have finally been able to stand up in terms of payment methods.
In 2018, only 3% of users in the United States were accustomed to using this contactless payment. At the same time, 64% of people in the UK have frequently used contactless payment, while more than 96% of residents in South Korea have frequently used contactless payment.
It can be said that when the world relies on various “scan code payment” methods and no longer relies on credit cards and cash, the United States does not look like a developed country in the field of living payment.
When the epidemic arrived, American people and merchants began to accept contactless payment methods such as Apple Pay in order to reduce contact in the payment process.
In the last earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized that Apple Pay and Apple Card have grown rapidly during this quarter.
“We have always been very enthusiastic about the development of the payment field.” Cook said, “Apple Card has done a good job in the past quarter, and Apple Pay has developed very well. As you might guess, the epidemic has caused people Start accepting contactless payment methods.”
At the same time, he emphasized that this change will definitely not disappear after the epidemic is over. He firmly believes that most of these users will develop this new payment habit in the past six months and completely abandon the old credit card model.
In short, whether we discover it or admit it or not, the American people have been forced to accept many new technological changes that have brought to their lives during the epidemic. At the same time, U.S. technology companies finally made their efforts after being late for a few years, trying to do more on the matter of technology changing the lives of ordinary people-whether it is iterative updates or more cutting-edge research and development.
Maybe after the epidemic, when everything returns to normal, people in the United States will suddenly find that their lives have become a lot easier.
This article is from WeChat official account:The Silicon Star (ID: guixingren123) author: Lianzi