Xueba's computing system

Chapter 230 Lin Yuan's Honesty

After a lot of rambling, the topic finally returned to normal.

The host also began to show his professionalism. "Mr. Lin, as the person in charge of AI technology for Tesla's food delivery, you must be very clear about the real purpose of Tesla's entry into the food delivery business."

Lin Yuan nodded, "That's natural."

"So what is Tesla's real purpose? Is it to conduct a crazy technological experiment?"

"Um... Actually, it's not.

When I first came up, I told everyone that I was still delivering food a year ago. There is a saying that goes: If you know where you are going, you must remember where you came from.

When I was delivering food, I was thinking, it is obvious that the riders and merchants are the main players in this industry, so why do these two parties as the main players have little say? "

The host then interrupted, "Because the food delivery platform requires a lot of modern IT technology, the two parties you mentioned do not have this technology, so they can only serve as service providers. In fact, the core of the food delivery platform lies in the platform, which connects customer needs with service providers. Without the platform as a bridge, the food delivery industry will no longer exist."

"You are right. The platform is a bridge." Lin Yuan answered very straightforwardly, "I also don't deny that a large amount of capital was invested in the early stage of the food delivery platform, which was tens of billions of dollars. With such a huge investment, the feasibility of the Internet food delivery industry was verified, and all the possibilities in the future were possible.

Therefore, food delivery platforms deserve huge returns.

If large investments are not followed by large returns, no one will be willing to invest in any innovative industry in the future.

But," Lin Yuan changed the subject and continued, "this world is constantly moving."

“After the food delivery platform wars emerged with the final winner, the original competitive atmosphere dissipated, and was replaced by a de facto monopoly. As for what problems monopoly will bring, I think everyone can find the answer from reality.

Have food delivery platforms done any constructive work on food safety? Have they continued to improve the treatment of riders?

Or let's put it more bluntly. When capital invests huge amounts of money in a field and completes the initial business model verification, how much return should we allow it to collect? Of course, what I am discussing today is not the specific amount of return. But I believe that no one would think that this kind of return should be unlimited. "

Lin Yuan then paused, giving everyone some time to think.

After everyone discussed quietly for a while, Lin Yuan continued, "Many of the students here are about my age. You are about to find a job, or have just gone through the job search process. I will ask you a very simple question - if in a company, a smart person can use this hard work to suppress others forever in the future, would you agree?"

The young students present shook their heads, and some even said bluntly, "How can newcomers come forward if this is the case?"

“That’s right. If the predecessors rest on their laurels, how can the later generations make a breakthrough?

The same is true for the food delivery industry. How much return should the food delivery platforms get? At least for now, I don’t see any upper limit to this return.

I only see that the food delivery platforms have firmly grasped the initiative in the food delivery business. Food delivery platforms might as well analyze the source of this initiative.

Is it a heavy asset bet? Obviously not. What heavy asset investment does a food delivery platform have? Does it need to open stores? It doesn't even need to support riders. It only needs to support a group of programmers and operations.

Compared with the share of the national takeout market, this is a typical light-asset approach for the Internet.

The most popular business logic on the Internet is this asset-light approach. Some people are even complacent about it, calling themselves "using other people's money to run their own business."

But, classmates, let's think about the education we have received since childhood, is this the right thing to do?

Isn’t this evil?”

"With huge initial investments, it's natural to demand huge returns. But isn't it evil to dream of being able to use other people's money forever, or even enslave other people's bodies, to fulfill the dream of light assets?" After saying this, the young students looked at Lin Yuan differently.

Those were looks of admiration. At this moment, Lin Yuan touched their hearts and in fact became their spiritual leader.

Lin Yuan continued, "Some students may wonder: Why doesn't the country just intervene?"

There was a chorus of agreement from the audience.

Lin Yuan immediately explained, "This is very difficult. For example, in the food delivery industry, how should we determine the return standard that the food delivery platform should obtain? We cannot calculate the profit in a planned way in a market economy. Therefore, the problems brought by the market can only be solved in a market-oriented way.

Therefore, my purpose in promoting Tesla food delivery is to try to set a standard for the food delivery industry. A clear commission rate standard, so that merchants and riders who join this platform, as well as customers who order food through this platform, can clearly understand the cost composition of an order.

At the same time, we hope to open up the formulation of such standards one day in the future.

We do not want to become another monopoly food delivery platform. In the spirit of open source, we hope to allow more funds to participate in the food delivery industry by introducing standards and rules.

I hope to develop food delivery into a life service function, rather than turning it into a tool for making money at the mercy of certain capitalists.

Otherwise, let’s look at the current reality.

From food delivery to taxi-hailing, which platform says it has made money?

They cry poor every year, but they never give up.

Furthermore, you can open any APP and take a look.

I am not just talking about food delivery apps. Look at any Internet app. You will find that the first thing these Internet companies want to do is to lend you money. What they want to do most is to be a creditor, a rent collector in the new era.

Of course, this is a very broad topic.

I was just chatting casually. If a young person who is not experienced in the world can borrow money so easily, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

We have always emphasized the need for stable social development, but if we over-encourage young people to consume ahead of time and overdraw their future, wouldn’t that be going in the wrong direction?

Our Internet companies cannot all think of becoming landlords in the new era, and Internet technology should not become a tool for collecting rent in the new era.

This may be my biggest wish for promoting Tesla delivery this time."

The students present were very excited and the host nodded repeatedly.

However, the host soon said, "I think I understand what Mr. Lin means. You mean that Internet companies should not cut leeks too hard, but we all know that Tesla is the originator of cutting leeks."

“Haha~~” Lin Yuan could only smile awkwardly, “But Tesla will not cut without bottom line, and we will try to be transparent. Even when selling cars, we don’t offer 0 down payment. Many times, some strategies are forced by the market, and there are some things that cannot be helped when you are in the game.

Besides, at least we can use the leeks we harvest to build rockets, right?"

Lin Yuan's answer was straightforward and direct, and he did not avoid the question.

"The world itself is complex. We'd better not expect too much. We should try to compare as much as possible. If it were that easy to do something, Tesla would not be introduced, right?"

(End of this chapter)