Tencent and Alibaba's B-side Age of Navigation

Driven by the wave of digitalization, Internet giants such as Tencent and Alibaba are undergoing an unprecedented transformation. As the dividends of C-end traffic gradually dry up, the B-end market, with its huge potential and the new trend of digital-real integration, has become a new blue ocean for corporate growth.

When the traffic dividend on the C-end began to disappear, more and more players began to shift their focus to the B-end market.

Whether it is the important role played by the B-end market in Tencent’s financial report or Alibaba’s emphasis on 1688, all of them are direct reflections of this phenomenon.

It is foreseeable that this situation will continue.

In the future, we will see more players paying attention to the B-end market, and the B-end market will begin to replace the C-end market and become the new engine in the new Internet cycle.

One of the main reasons why so many players are once again focusing their attention on the B-end market is that the C-end market can no longer bring them new growth, while the B-end market has begun to adapt to the development trend of digital and real integration, releasing new and greater vitality.

For any player who wants to gain something in such a new cycle, it is necessary to regard the B-end as a new market and to find new ways and methods to grow together with the B-end market.

As Tencent and Alibaba continue to shift their development focus to the B-side, we can see that more and more new signs are beginning to emerge, and eventually they will converge into a new development direction.

1. Tencent and Alibaba are reshaping their roles and status

When people mention Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba, the first thing that comes to their mind is that they are a platform and a center.

Under the halo of platforms and centers, Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba continue to see themselves as matchmakers and intermediaries, and continue to shape themselves into a third party independent of the B-end and C-end.

It is under the influence of such a role and status that we see the emergence of so many "Internet +" models and platforms.

When information becomes greatly enriched and the supply side becomes greatly enriched, the information asymmetry between the B-end and the C-end begins to be broken. As a result, the matchmaking and intermediary roles established by Tencent and Alibaba for themselves begin to encounter more and more difficulties and challenges.

What we are seeing now, the shrinking market value of Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba, and the various problems exposed by the "Internet +" model, are all direct manifestations of this phenomenon.

To change this, Tencent and Alibaba will inevitably need to reshape their roles and status, transforming from their previous matchmaking and intermediary roles to one that is deeply integrated into the industry.

Tencent's integration of data and reality and Alibaba's AI e-commerce are direct manifestations of this phenomenon.

It can be predicted that in the future, Tencent and Alibaba will no longer be an independent entity outside the industry, but will become an entity deeply involved in the industry, an entity with deep connections with all processes and links of the industry.

This is what we must go through as the B-side era arrives.

If we want to make a difference in the B-side era, we must get rid of the previous development model that is dominated by matchmaking and intermediation, and find a new role and status that is deeply integrated with the B-side industry and empowers each other.

Only in this way can we find new blue ocean in such a new era.

2. AI is replacing the Internet as a new engine

Looking at the development history of Tencent and Alibaba, we can clearly see a clear thread, that is, the Internet plays a very important role in it.

It can be said that Tencent and Alibaba have seized the new dividends released by the popularization and implementation of Internet technology, which has enabled them to achieve such tremendous development in an era of development dominated by the C-end.

If we summarize and define the development engines in the C-end era, Internet technology is undoubtedly one of the most important engines.

In the C-end era, whoever can better implement and apply Internet technology, and whoever can use Internet technology to derive more new business models, will be able to achieve something in such an era.

However, when the power of the Internet is gone, especially when it begins to gradually lose its effectiveness in improving efficiency and expanding scale, relying solely on the Internet as the main engine begins to encounter more and more difficulties and problems.

When the dividends of the Internet disappeared, we saw the rise and fall of a series of technologies represented by blockchain, metaverse, and AI.

At least from the current situation, AI is replacing the Internet and becoming the new engine.

We can see a clue to this from the fact that players represented by Tencent and Alibaba are constantly looking for new answers from AI to break the bottleneck of Internet development.

We can see this very clearly through the huge function and role that AI plays in Tencent's rejuvenation and through Alibaba's full embrace of AI.

It can be said that in the future, what will truly determine whether players can achieve success in the B-side era is not the Internet, but AI.

Whether players can truly find new energy in AI and truly tap into new gold mines in AI is the key to determining whether they can win in the B-end market.

Just as the C-end era belongs to those players who have achieved success in the "Internet +" model, the B-end market will inevitably belong to those players who have achieved success in the "AI +" model.

Only by truly focusing more on the implementation and application of AI, and only by constantly finding players who combine AI with more scenarios and more industries, can we become the new Tencent and the new Alibaba in the B-side era.

3. New Models Are Being Created

In the C-end era, the business model is based on the matchmaking and intermediation of Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba.

If we summarize and define the model of such an era, it is more like a business model dominated by the upgrading and transformation of the end of the industry.

For any player who wants to make a difference in such an era, finding ways and methods to upgrade and transform the end of the industry, or upgrading and transforming the end of the industry in a certain scenario or industry, will make a difference.

All the well-known Internet players we see now have been derived and emerged in such a big background, and all of them have been derived and emerged following such a development idea.

After in-depth analysis, it is not difficult to see that in the C-end era, it is actually the C-end users who have undergone essential and thorough changes.

For those B-end users at the front end of the industry, they themselves have not actually undergone any fundamental and thorough changes.

When Tencent and Alibaba shift their development focus to the B-side, we see that new models are beginning to take shape.

In this process, they began to focus on solving problems with production elements, processes and methods on the B-side.

Whether it is the application of new technological elements represented by AI, or the birth of new business models represented by self-supply and self-sales, we can see that new models are being nurtured.

If we summarize and define the new model, the decentralized and de-platformed new model is undoubtedly the most appropriate.

It can be said that after experiencing the baptism of the B-end era, the three-in-one business model represented by B-end - platform - C-end that we have seen in the C-end era will be replaced by the two-in-one business model represented by "B-end + platform" - C-end.

The "B-side + platform" here is actually more like a new evolution of digital-real integration initiated by Tencent and Alibaba.

In the future, Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba will eventually be deeply integrated with B-side users, thus transforming into a "digital-real complex."

IV. Conclusion

When Tencent and Alibaba began to shift their development focus to the B-side, what they conveyed to the outside world was a strong signal that the B-side era had already arrived.

For such an era that has already arrived, Internet players represented by Tencent and Alibaba are looking for new roles for themselves, truly finding new engines for development, and truly giving birth to new models.

When this series of "new" things come together and are truly able to take on the responsibility of new development, the door to a new generation may be opened. And only by grasping these "new" things can we make a difference in the new cycle.