Do you think that the internet is too big for agriculture?

Yesterday, it was reported that Alibaba had a comprehensive layout of agriculture. However, the reporter learned from Alibaba that the so-called layout of agriculture is only the e-commerce industry's expansion of third-tier cities and rural markets. From the "Ding's pig" that has not been released so far to the silent "strong East rice", the Internet company's agricultural dream seems to be difficult to shine into reality. After many high-tech and big-armed people entered agriculture, they discovered that the agricultural sector was “very deep” and couldn’t play.

Yesterday, it was reported that Alibaba had a comprehensive layout of agriculture, but the reporter learned from Alibaba that the so-called layout of agriculture, but e-commerce to increase the third and fourth tier cities and rural markets, is not an investment and a comprehensive layout. The reporter learned that Internet companies such as Netease and Jingdong Mall, which had been involved in agriculture before, were nothing more than "little rain and rain," and "Ding's pig" has not slaughtered so far. The "strong East rice" is also quietly silent. This year, Internet companies have come alive. In the context of tightening their wallets, their dreams of getting involved in agriculture are more difficult to shine into reality.

Alibaba denied the overall layout of agriculture

Yesterday there were reports that Alibaba was playing a big game in the agricultural sector. These initiatives included the splitting of B2B business into services for the wholesale of domestic and foreign agricultural products, the organic channel of Taobao.com, the creation of an eco-agricultural service chain, and the sale of fresh agricultural products. And Alipay deploys rural areas.

However, the reporter learned from Alibaba that Alibaba did not lay out the argument for agriculture, but only introduced more agricultural products and penetrated into the rural market. A report released by the Alibaba Group Research Center on the 9th said that in 2012, sales of agricultural products on the Alibaba platform reached 19.8 billion yuan, and there were a total of 260,000 online shops selling agricultural products. Alipay Group’s Alipay Company stated that it has formally established the New Rural Division to expand the number of non-e-commerce users in China's third-tier cities and rural areas.

The company emphasizes an optimistic view of the rural market. Third-tier cities and rural markets will become the "next gold mine" for China's e-commerce and payment companies. “The mode of operation of agricultural e-commerce has become increasingly diversified, and the combination of online and offline has become the future development trend,” said Liang Chunxiao, vice president of Alibaba Group and director of the Ali Research Center.

From the current point of view, Alibaba has not directly invested in aquaculture as it did with NetEase.

Daisuke has been more optimistic about hype than hard work

In fact, although some Internet companies are optimistic about agricultural investment, they are just doing a little trick and they are more hype than hype. For example, NetEase announced pig raising plan has been more than three years ago, so far no result. At the end of last year, some media reporters went to Zhejiang Ding’s pig farms to see the remains of a large area of ​​woodland. They grew crops such as bamboo and tea. These crops were originally there and have not changed their appearances until now. In the entire pig farm, the reporter did not see a pig.

Jingdong Mall has high-profile publicity and investment in agriculture, and it is basically dead. The reporter learned that Liu Qiangdong, chairman of the Board of Directors of Jingdong Mall, only invested 500 mu of organic rice in his hometown Suqian the year before. The main output of rice was to supply relatives, friends and staff. He himself also claims to increase the scale to a thousand acres, but at present, the "Jiandong Rice" on the Jingdong Mall has basically no external sales, and even the company's internal employees have less and less "strong East rice." Just last week, Liu Qiangdong proposed a “recuperation”, saying that all of Jingdong’s business will revolve around the main line of e-commerce and will not break away from this main line and will not do anything unrelated to e-commerce.

Causes:

Do not understand that agriculture will not fail

In recent years, the Internet, information technology and other means are constantly changing the mode of production of traditional agriculture, attracting many high-tech companies and venture capital to actively pay attention to agricultural investment.

From the perspective of investment over the years, from 2006 to 2011, a total of 180 investment cases have been disclosed in the agricultural sector. Since 2010, the IPO of agricultural enterprises has entered a stage of rapid development. Since the beginning of 2012, nearly 20 agricultural companies have filed for listing.

After many high-tech and big-armed people entered agriculture, they discovered that the agricultural sector was “very deep” and couldn’t play. NetEase CEO Ding Lei acknowledged that it takes only a year or two for rural land leases to be completed, and that there are many setbacks. Some people also said that pig farming does not seem to have the technical content and low barriers to entry, but in fact, its hidden threshold is high, and the requirements for capital and technology for large-scale agriculture are not low at all.

The investment group report shows that in the investment cases from 2006 to 2010, there were less than 30% of projects that actually started to make profits, and profitable projects were mostly concentrated in the consumption sector downstream of the agricultural industrial chain.