Alibaba Tencent'S Card Slot "Cloud Exhibition" Auto Industry Digital Upgrade Speed Up

Under the background of new infrastructure in full swing, after the Cloud Fashion Week and Cloud Concert, the Cloud Auto Show also came.

A few days ago, the Shanghai Municipal Government and Alibaba announced to carry out in-depth cooperation. The two sides jointly build a "cloud exhibition platform" in Shanghai - Cloud Exhibition Co., Ltd., to build the first cloud exhibition platform covering all walks of life, and to promote global trade in a digital way.

On the same day, the "first exhibition" of the cloud exhibition platform was cars. Four flagship new cars, namely, SAIC Roewe RX5 PLUS, Volkswagen ID.4 pure electric coupe, 2020 Ford Mustang, and Jixing 2, were simultaneously released on Tmall's debut. Consumers can watch the auto show without leaving their homes.

Affected by the epidemic, the previous Canton Fair in 2020 also joined hands with Tencent to create online exhibitions. This move is a manifestation of actively embracing change in the new situation of the epidemic. According to data, Shanghai has an annual exhibition scale of nearly 20 million square meters and a number of nearly 1000 exhibitions, making it the first exhibition city in the world. At present, China has 22 of the world's top 100 exhibitions, including 12 in Shanghai.

Since offline channels are no longer unblocked, new opportunities can also be found by relying on new technologies and online resources. "As a window for the world to see China, Shanghai's responsibility and mission determine that we should attract the latest products and technologies to show up in Shanghai, which is the starting point for co building a cloud exhibition platform." Zhou Minhao, president of the Shanghai Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that online development and offline development are a process of coexistence, complementarity and mutual progress.

Automobile "digital" upgrading

In the special period, offline sales of automobiles were blocked, and opening online stores and live broadcast car sales became a new way for automobile enterprises to break through innovation. In addition to launching new cars on the cloud exhibition platform, 11 brands, including Roewe, MG, SAIC MAXUS, SAIC Volkswagen, also issued shopping cart rights through Tmall.

It is reported that Alibaba will provide systematic solutions for the characteristics of the exhibition industry. For example, through 3D modeling, MR, AR and other technologies, Alibaba Cloud has created an immersive exhibition and trading experience for exhibitors at home and abroad, and created a "exhibition robot" to truly realize "one exhibition connects the world".

At present, more than 40 automobile enterprises such as Tesla, Mercedes Benz, BMW and Audi have settled in Tmall. By the end of March, there had been more than 15000 live automobile broadcasts in Taobao's live broadcast room. In a single week, the Tmall Meow team had led nearly 8000 transaction orders through live broadcast. On April 28, Tesla, the leading brand of new energy vehicles, took a test drive live on Taobao. Within one hour, nearly 4 million people gathered around, which was equivalent to 20 consecutive auto shows.

The huge flow of live broadcast has brought new development opportunities to automobile enterprises in special periods. Moving the release, exhibition and sales of new cars online and expanding the business of online economic sector has become a common choice for automobile enterprises. "The negative impact of the epidemic has not been completely eliminated. Fortunately, the government has introduced a series of support policies in time to stimulate the consumption and revival of cars. In April, Geely's sales increased by 4% year on year, while Volvo's growth was more than 20%. In the future, we should focus on safety and return to production at the same time. We should make more use of technology and online advantages." Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, said at the press conference on the same day.

Julian Blissett, executive vice president of GM and president of GM China, also revealed that in the past, many of its auto products have been linked and cloud released with multiple Internet platforms. This model is very creative and an unprecedented attempt.

In the past two decades, the automobile industry, as the leader of the traditional manufacturing industry, has only made some changes in some links closer to the user end, and the Internet is just a diversion portal. Compared with household appliances, clothing and other industries, there has been no real structural change in the circulation of automobiles. According to the data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the domestic production and sales of automobiles in 2019 were 25721000 and 25769000, down 7.5% and 8.2% respectively from the previous year. Affected by the epidemic, the sales of new cars in China fell by 43% year-on-year in March this year.

On May 18, Dasouche and Geely Auto announced that they had reached a strategic cooperation and launched the first new digital direct retail model of "true direct sales, one price" in China. Yao Junhong, founder and CEO of Dasouche, told reporters of the 21st Century Business Herald that the auto industry was forced to slow down due to the epidemic, and enterprises should take this opportunity to reflect on the importance of digitalization and Internet. "The automotive industry urgently needs to upgrade the industry through the Internet and digital technology, improve operational efficiency, deeply tap user needs, and transform from a product center to a user center."

"Cloud" exhibition bonus period

With the development of technology, the traditional exhibition has ushered in a breakthrough development. In addition to the cars being moved to the cloud exhibition, the Canton Fair 2020 was also moved to the "cloud" on April 15. The holding of the online Canton Fair is not only an innovation under the special economic situation, but also the first large-scale practical battle after the industrial Internet was officially set.

According to the data, the exhibition scale of each previous Canton Fair reached 1.185 million square meters, with 25000 domestic and foreign exhibitors, and about 200000 overseas buyers from more than 210 countries and regions. This time, Tencent and Alibaba have successively laid out plans, and the cloud exhibition platform has also taken the lead in opening the prelude to the full link digitization of the exhibition industry.

On April 13, the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on Innovating the Exhibition Service Mode and Cultivating New Kinetics for the Development of the Exhibition Industry, which mentioned that we should promote the innovation of exhibition formats, actively guide, mobilize and support enterprises to hold online exhibitions, and make full use of 5G VR/AR、 Big data and other modern information technology means, hold cloud exhibitions, carry out cloud display, cloud docking, cloud negotiation, and cloud signing; Encourage offline exhibitions hosted by the government to take the lead in online exhibitions, and support professional exhibition organizers to open online exhibitions for offline brand exhibition projects.

Zhou Minhao said that building an exhibition platform on the cloud would help the exhibition industry expand new digital growth space and help domestic and foreign trade enterprises affected by the epidemic to reduce costs, improve efficiency and expand the market.

In fact, the cloud exhibition is not only an innovation generated in a special period, but also a natural result of the development of the digital economy. Affected by the epidemic, the exhibition industry has temporarily stagnated. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 300 exhibitions around the world have been postponed or cancelled. Now, with the help of AI, 5G, big data, cloud computing, etc., the "cloud exhibition" era of online and offline integration is taking the lead in Shanghai.

Zhang Yong, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alibaba, said that Shanghai and Alibaba explore cloud exhibition, firmly believe in the perfect combination of online and offline, "The combination of online and offline is not only to turn the offline content and current forms of expression into online, but also to creatively develop the exhibition experience through new technologies, so that virtual exhibition halls, real-time transactions, real-time promotion, and real-time negotiations can become an immersive interaction and experience of online and offline integration, which can truly form the first space and The perfect combination of the second space, physical space and digital space. "

The construction of new infrastructure for exhibition is also another business innovation of online new economy. The exhibition industry is a typical "one industry leads all industries", with significant platform effect. The digitization of the exhibition industry can drive the digitization of exhibitors from all walks of life, thus promoting the ecological transformation and upgrading, and also inject confidence into the world trade in uncertainty.