Two days ago, I heard a colleague discuss during the lunch break that if you want to use SF Express for shopping on Taobao and Tmall, you can no longer choose on the platform, but the buyer and the seller negotiate privately. Therefore, a logistics giant, an e-commerce leader, SF Express and Alibaba, two companies "fight each other", even sacrificing user experience, in fact, only for one thing - "competing for information sovereignty".
After so many years of providing enterprise information services, in this issue of "He Yang Kai Lecture", I want to analyze this "controversy between giants" in essence and help everyone see it more clearly; more importantly, there is no legal basis to check and no cash to be found in this issue. The "enterprise data war" that flows and finally settles is inevitable, and it is not as far away as imagined. In fact, it has something to do with each of us.
The direct trigger of the "SF Ali Incident" was the system upgrade of "Cainiao Network", a logistics company under Ali.
Although it is called "Rookie Network", its background is not "rookie" at all. On May 23, 2013, Alibaba Group jointly established the "Cainiao Network Technology Co., Ltd." (referred to as "Cainiao") with a consortium and a logistics company. SF Express is also one of the original shareholders of Cainiao, but it only accounts for 1% of the shares.
On this year's Children's Day, SF Express suddenly announced that it would close the data interface to Cainiao. All express shipments shipped by SF Express on Taobao and Tmall could not find the express information. This move was controversial on the Internet.
Ali and SF Express have different opinions in their official responses: Cainiao said that SF Express is not adapting to technological progress and does not cooperate with upgrades; while SF Express said that Cainiao wants to establish a monopoly and control SF Express’s technological and business autonomy.
This dispute actually contains inevitability in business.
Before 2013, although Ali had built a fairly complete ecosystem for buyers and sellers, it was an indispensable part of the e-commerce ecosystem, Ali's own logistics system construction was very weak. Arrived the next day, and Ali had not improved over the years.
Wei Zhe, the CEO of Alibaba at the time, also said in public more than once that Alibaba hopes to solve the logistics problem together with express delivery companies, and Alibaba itself does not do logistics. However, due to the continuous inadequacy of logistics information technology and the lack of effective unified analysis and management of the express companies settled in Ali, all aspects of logistics are scattered and the efficiency is very low. Therefore, in order to maintain the market competitiveness, Ali is determined to make up for the shortcomings and create Its own logistics service "Cainiao Network".
说到顺丰，我觉得它是改革开放以来中国民营企业的成功典范。依靠专注和深入，今天顺丰的标签就是“快捷可靠服务好”。从顺丰的发展历程中，我们可以看出创始人王卫对于物流效率的重视。
顺丰不仅在物流IT系统建设方面投入巨大，它更是第一家买入自有载货飞机的中国公司，现在，甚至它更在建设自己的物流专用机场。目前顺丰自身拥有37架载货飞机、1.5万辆车、37万名快递员，在生鲜农产品冷链配送、电商高端配送上占据绝对优势。
顺丰走的是物流效率，而阿里走的是线上电商，可以说，这一开始是非常互补的。
但是，随着信息技术迅猛发展，我们进入信息化和数据化的社会，顺丰阿里的关系变得微妙。
顺丰越来越意识到，掌握入口和数据的重要性。
顺丰高层曾表示，顺丰要从单一的快递服务转型为一体化综合物流服务，变成一个基于大数据和信息化的综合物流服务商。
于是，顺丰也开始尝试电商和物联网的自建，“顺丰优选”和“丰巢”就是两个非常成功的尝试；此外，2016年5月顺丰推出了一款数据增值服务“数据灯塔”，这款产品与菜鸟的数据应用理念类似。
所以顺丰狙击菜鸟发展路径的行动，绝不是一时冲动，而一定是长期规划的结果。双方都明白会有这么一天的到来。
目前，菜鸟和顺丰已恢复了业务合作，但我认为类似争端只是个开始，更惨烈的“入口和数据的抢夺战”可能在后面。
所有牵扯商业利益的博弈，根本就不存在对错的问题。
虽然顺丰在这场战争中看似依靠舆论小胜，但从宏观角度，策略上其实是失掉博弈先手的：
菜鸟背靠淘宝天猫电商平台大树，以技术为核心竞争力轻装上阵，以“巧劲”棋高一着，当别人还没摸清楚套路的时候，就发展到了甚至连“三通一达”都对其俯首称臣的地步。
这非常值得我们深思：眼下充满变化和创新的信息化时代，我们该做些什么？
做企业的人、特别是珠三角靠实业起家的勤勤恳恳的企业主朋友们，除了理清企业发展的主线，一定得尽早把IT信息和科技因素提到战略高度，尽快自主掌握 “云计算、“数据资产”等这些趋势词汇的真正含义。
From the battle between SF Express and Alibaba, we have already seen the beginning of the future competition model— commercial competition has turned into a competition of data and information.
Where should companies start to respond? I think you can start by doing the following three things:
First, from now on, treat enterprise data as "data assets", and value and protect the data assets that belong to you.
Opportunities and threats often come from places that are currently ignored. Taking the logistics industry as an example, data assets are the user's logistics big data information; for other industries, the definition of data assets is different: your design drawings, audio and video samples, legal contracts, financial documents, etc., all related to Documents that are actually relevant to the business are all data assets, and they should be properly stored in a safe and reliable way. Remember not to do things that hand over your data assets to others for short-term convenience or profit.
Second, for the storage of data assets, try to use private cloud as much as possible.
A public cloud is like renting a house, with only the right to use it but no ownership; while buying a private cloud is like buying a house, and private property is protected by property law. Trade secrets and classified data should be kept in a place fully controlled by the business owner. At present, there are various cloud products on the market. In addition to public cloud and private cloud, there is even a product that calls itself "hybrid cloud". In fact, the complexity of hybrid cloud products is beyond the time and energy of small and medium enterprises. If you want to keep and use corporate confidential files simply and securely, I recommend enabling the private cloud directly.
Third, choose a lightweight and pure private cloud product, don't be misled by various functional names.
A cognitive misunderstanding must be clarified: when it comes to private cloud, some people think that it is complicated and difficult to use. Although it is safe, it is only suitable for large platforms with complete IT systems such as large institutions or government units. In fact, now, advanced private cloud products have been made very lightweight and easy to use - not only maintaining security and stability, but also upgrading traditional private clouds about system deployment, implementation, skinning customization, etc., the use experience is extremely simple, "One Landing a private cloud in minutes" is the reality.