Such an idea has also been criticized by some people. Notably, famous investor Charles Xue commented on Weibo that "half physical and half online, Chongqing beauties part-time services, is nothing surprising."
There are also reports claiming that Suning.com is acquiring a third-party payment company without a license, which has already been submitted to the People's Bank of China for review. The B2C platform trend is becoming increasingly evident. If successful, Suning.com will have the ability to connect B-end industry applications with C-end consumer payments. It has the potential to unify cash flow, logistics, and information streams, and even provide supply chain management services externally.
In Zhang Jindong's view, JD.com, which has taken the lead, is still far from being a stumbling block in Suning.com's path forward. Compared with other B2C websites, Suning.com has only one goal: to create a real internet platform. This is where Suning.com differs from other websites. Suning.com does not have sales pressure, nor does it need to attract investors' attention to achieve another round of financing.
The market downturn has made even Suning Appliances, this market-recognized quality stock, unable to escape unscathed. Chairman Zhang Jindong's personal wealth has also shrunk to 18.701 billion yuan, suffering heavy losses.
Zhang Jindong's "grand plan" is not about traditional store expansion models for development but rather placing his bets on the e-commerce platform - Suning.com. His strategy is not limited to simply moving Suning store businesses to the internet platform. Currently, Suning.com's business scope almost covers all conceivable areas, such as home furnishings, department stores, books, audiovisual products, sports and outdoor activities, online legal services, educational consultations, and more.
Not long after, Zhang Jindong spent over a million yuan to acquire the domestic domain name suning.com and unveiled Suning.com's new logo. This move stood out especially when the capital winter was approaching and major e-commerce companies were reducing their advertising budgets. It seemed to be signaling "preparing for a big battle."
At the same time, the number of new stores opened by Suning Appliances across various locations continues to grow steadily. The grandiose goal of reaching 3500 stores within ten years is still fresh in everyone's minds, and opening 200 stores per year is ongoing.
Zhang Jindong's hope for Suning is not just "Walmart + Amazon," but a full integration of offline and online operations. By 2020, he aims to achieve a tremendous target of 680 billion yuan in revenue, with 300 billion yuan coming from Suning.com and the remaining 380 billion yuan from physical stores. This means that in the next ten years, Zhang Jindong plans to recreate another Suning through Suning.com.
However, Zhang Jindong, who has always been self-assured, seems overly confident in his own planning. He has laid out a very ambitious three-phase plan: From 2011 to 2013 is the first phase, focusing on building the framework of an internet enterprise; the second phase from 2014 to 2016 aims to become the leader in the industry scale; finally, between 2017 and 2020, transforming Suning.com into a fully networked lifestyle platform.
Currently, the General Manager of Suning.com is Li Bin, the second person chosen by Zhang Jindong to lead Suning.com. The previous General Manager was Ling Guofu, who resigned in August last year. Speculations suggest that the reason for the change was due to Zhang Jindong's dissatisfaction with Ling's management of Suning.com's development. The official statement was "health reasons." Some senior executives of Suning even remarked, "This position requires one to work hard, and his body could not bear it."
With a 22% decline leading the way, the A-share market in 2011 unfortunately ranked as the third smallest annual increase in history. This not only caused retail investors significant losses but also forced the major shareholders of listed companies to face a reduction in their wealth.
Family Zhang Jindong: Company: Suning Appliances (Weibo), Shareholding ratio: 31.67%, Listing date: July 21, 2004, Current wealth: 18.7 billion yuan, Wealth reduction: 9.8 billion yuan
Old rival Gome suffered significant losses during its internal strife in 2010, allowing Suning to surpass it in performance. At the moment Gome was recovering and had many things to do, Suning boldly announced its new eleven-year plan and strategy, aiming to take the initiative and surpass its competitors in momentum.
The competitive force brought by Zhang Jindong, a veteran in the home appliance industry, has made many e-commerce companies nervous. Monitoring data shows that Suning.com officially went online in January 2010. In its first year, it achieved sales of 2 billion yuan and became the third largest player in the B2C industry in the third quarter of last year with a 22.4% market share, trailing only behind Taobao Mall and JD.com.
Reported by Ji Xin / Wu from Financial Weekly.
However, despite the somewhat disappointing figures, Zhang Jindong appeared spirited in 2011.