On September 1, 2010, Guojin Securities' analytical report pointed out: 1. In the next one or two years, mobile e-commerce in our country will face a period of explosive development: the large-scale growth of 3G users, gradually relaxing regulation policies for mobile Internet, and the creation of a mobile payment platform by operators are the direct driving factors behind the imminent explosion of China's mobile e-commerce market; 2. From the characteristics of mobile e-commerce development, it can be seen that the early stage is mainly focused on virtual content transactions such as games, music, and information, the mid-term focuses on large virtual transactions like electronic transactions and ticketing, and the late stage develops into a trend mainly focused on physical transactions. The payment method evolves from initial text messages to remote payments, and finally to on-site payments; 3. The prosperity of virtual content in the mobile Internet and the rise of mobile payment platforms are inevitable stages for the rapid development of mobile e-commerce. This is the general understanding everyone currently has about mobile e-commerce. Is this correct? Let's analyze the recent flash sale event launched by Taobao based on mobile phones targeting campuses: This event was described as follows: "An event themed 'Taobao on your phone - One Yuan Flash Sale of Three Essential Items for School Opening.' From September 10th to 30th, daily flash sales at exactly 1 PM include seven days of BYD cars, seven days of Lenovo laptops, and seven days of lephone phones, all sold at a flash price of one yuan. During the shopping process, users have the chance to win a discount package worth hundreds of yuan, and users in Beijing and Hangzhou can also receive six months of free mobile news and 'Taobao World' magazine from Taobao." Several clues can be analyzed from this event: 1. Taobao targets students as its customer base. There are two meanings to this: first, according to the analysis report, the largest customer group for mobile online games currently consists of students and migrant workers. Naturally, migrant workers are not considered potential online shopping customers, but students are quality candidates for online shopping. Second, cultivating customers must look towards the future. Comrade Xiaoping once said, "The popularization of computers must start with children." This indicates that Taobao believes the market explosion still requires some time, and capturing the most likely customer group in the future is the key at present. This also corroborates the correctness of Guojin Securities' first analysis: the near future is the explosive period for mobile e-commerce. 2. Taobao's mobile e-commerce does not gradually improve but directly dives into the theme. According to data disclosed by Taobao, the daily visits to the mobile version of Taobao exceed 30 million, with more than 100,000 daily transactions. The touch pen on a phone is less convenient than a mouse, so based on experience, the single-user PV (page views) of a regular mall is approximately 10, while the single-user PV for a mobile device should be around 3. In other words, the number of unique visitors to Taobao's mobile mall has already reached around 10 million. According to the MIIT data, by the end of 2010, the number of 3G users will reach 60 million. Based on this comparison, Taobao's proportion is already quite alarming! The era of virtual items predicted by Guojin Securities simply does not exist! The e-commerce of the mobile Internet will directly continue and inherit the progress of Internet e-commerce. Taobao has no hesitation, nor do users. Doubt and hesitation are mere overthinking. 3. User demand outweighs the medium. Regarding Taobao's activity design, a phone is the basic need for student groups, a laptop computer represents the affluent needs of student groups, and a car is a luxury need for student groups. For flash sales, the flash-sale goods themselves are the source of viruses, and the activity is a routine viral marketing strategy. Setting the flash sale time at 1 PM every day, which is during students' lunch break, is absolutely the best choice. Judging from last year's results of this activity, the event was very successful and yielded ideal effects. This disrupts the thinking patterns of many people in the industry: mobile Internet and the Internet are different, and the e-commerce model of mobile Internet must be different. In such thinking, the change in media seems paramount, as if it could alter many ways of the Internet. However, Taobao used a simple activity to overturn this concept. User demand is the top priority, while platforms, media, and applications are merely tools! 4. Taobao's experiment tells us that in the mobile Internet field, telecommunications operators may once again become losers, while Internet operators will remain winners. Telecommunications operators are forever trapped in the well of profit from fees, and current mobile e-commerce, search, and geographical positioning have confirmed that mobile Internet is still essentially the Internet, where services attract traffic and users to generate profit models. Sticking to the fee-profit model will keep telecommunications operators in the position of failure in the Internet. What did students expect on the first day of school 20 years ago? It was to buy a bicycle and be able to make a call to their parents at an acquaintance's place. Nowadays, students' expectations are a car and being able to make calls home anytime with their phones. Taobao's campus One Yuan car flash sale event represents a new era. (Zhou Ning, Ningzhe Network)