The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 955 E-commerce
There are now two Internet worlds in the world, and similarly, there are two World Internet Conferences.

One is the World Internet Conference in the United States, and the other is the World Internet Conference in China.

The World Internet Conference in the United States is held in Silicon Valley, while the World Internet Conference in China is held in a different city every year. This year it will be held in Hong Kong.

In fact, more than 60% of the participants of the two World Internet Conferences overlap. Among the 40% that do not overlap, some are official personnel from both sides, and the other part are relatively smaller Internet technology companies.

At a World Internet Conference like this one, the focus is on famous scholars and heads of Internet giants.

As for small Internet technology companies, they want to find opportunities to obtain angel investment or find partners.

Liu Ziyu and Chen Nianzhen's "Dandelion" company is a veritable Internet giant that occupies a large market in the fields of computer and Internet security.

The fame of these two people is spreading around the world at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In China, Liu Ziyu and Chen Nien-jen represent the image of Chinese women in the new era and the image of a new generation of entrepreneurs.

In the world, Liu Ziyu and Chen Nien-jen represent the image of progressive young women and are representatives of women's rights. Countless people admire them and put them on a pedestal.

Liu Ziyu and Chen Nien-zhen also travel abroad more frequently every year to participate in various forums and exchanges.

"There is a very interesting young man whose major is not computer-related but foreign language. He founded a company called 'Web Service Company' to help people develop foreign trade and investment websites. He believes that people will be able to buy things on the Internet in the future," said Liu Ziyu.

Liu Tao raised his eyebrows, and a person appeared in his mind.

Liu Tao asked: "What is the name of this young man?"

Liu Ziyu thought about it, stood up and searched in her bag, and finally found a business card, "My name is Ma Yun, from Hangzhou."

Liu Tao suddenly realized.

Sure enough, some people are unwilling to remain ordinary even if the times have changed.

Ma Yun is a trendsetter in China's Internet era and an innovator in the digital economy. He was once the richest man in China.

Some information emerged in Liu Tao's mind, reminding him of something.

If Liu Ziyu hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten this character.

"How is his company doing now?" Liu Tao asked.

Liu Ziyu thought for a moment and said, "His team's turnover this year has exceeded one million, and it has achieved profitability."

"What's wrong, brother, do you know this person?" Liu Ziyu asked curiously.

Liu Tao smiled and said, "I don't know him, I'm just interested."

"But his ideas are quite interesting. He is indeed a very interesting young man," said Liu Tao.

Liu Ziyu said, "Brother, do you think it's really possible to do business on the Internet?"

"The Internet is a virtual world full of infinite possibilities. We can do business in real life, so why do we do business on the Internet?" Liu Ziyu asked in return, "For example, here in Hong Kong, can't we buy things from Shanghai or Beijing through the Internet?" E-commerce refers to business activities that use microcomputer technology and network technology.

The concept of e-commerce was actually proposed a few years ago by Liu Tao at a World Internet Conference, but it was not taken seriously.

Some people in the United States and China have also tried to engage in e-commerce, but they are still in the initial stage, with simple functionality and are just small-scale operations.

When it comes to e-commerce, some people may trace it back to the 70s, when British inventor Michael Aldridge invented a system that allowed consumers to contact businesses electronically in 1979. To do this, he connected the consumer's television to the retailer's computer via a telephone line. His invention was one of the first communication tools to allow interactive mass communication - but it was expensive and did not make financial sense for most businesses until the Internet became more popular.

By 1982, the world's first e-commerce company was founded, the Boston Computer Exchange (BCE), an online marketplace for workers to buy and sell used computers. BCE was launched before the World Wide Web and ran on its own dial-up bulletin board system.

But when it comes to e-commerce, it was not until around 95 that it could be considered a little bit of a thing. Because by then, the Internet had become a mature hub for global communication and connection. In 1995, Netscape, a web browser from a US-based company, had about 1000 million users worldwide. In the same year, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon, which was just an online book market. Within 30 days of its launch, it shipped internationally to 45 different countries.

China's e-commerce is actually developing faster. After all, China is at the forefront of the world in terms of computer and Internet construction.

Even in the 80s, China's informatization plan had been drafted and a number of Internet technology companies in the field of e-commerce were born.

A few years ago, at the National Informatization Work Conference, various provinces, cities and regions successively established informatization leading groups and other offices, and each province began to formulate its own informatization construction plan, including e-commerce.

Even aspects such as online payment have been opened up, and there are relevant laws and regulations.

However, in terms of e-commerce, the development is not fast. Liu Tao believes that the development of online shopping is very slow.

On the contrary, pilot work in broad e-commerce areas such as government Internet access, state-owned enterprise Internet access, e-government, online taxation, online education, and remote diagnosis has been very fast and has entered the promotion stage first.

For example, the government's access to the Internet was first piloted in Kunming City, and then in Yunnan Province in 1990, and is now being promoted nationwide.

When enterprises went online, the first pilot project was carried out within the Panshan system, and then other state-owned enterprises were expanded to pilot projects.

E-government is now being promoted nationwide to improve the efficiency of government affairs.

Online tax payment is currently in the national promotion and trial stage.

Online education has already started its trial phase from Southwest University's online education to more than 30 universities including Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Capital University of Technology.

Remote diagnosis was promoted from Panshan Hospital to major hospitals in Kunming, Beijing, and Shanghai.

As for the railway system, online ticket booking or ticket purchase from ticket machines, or ticket purchase from subway ticket machines, are essentially also broad e-commerce.

However, these are all dominated by Panshan Group. In the civilian field and private companies, there is no large-scale Internet technology company. In Liu Tao's opinion, what they do is just small-scale, and none of them has a turnover of more than 100 million.

Liu Tao can do a lot of things, but he can't do everything.

He prefers to do the basics, build the stage, and then let others perform on the stage and show their strengths.

In his opinion, the field of e-commerce lacks a trend-setter and a leader who can lead the rapid development of e-commerce.

Now, the leader has finally emerged.

(End of this chapter)