America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 528 Amazon Takeout

While Ernst was enjoying the attentive service of his secretary in his office in Queens, New York, Bezos was looking at the latest food delivery industry report on his computer at Amazon headquarters in Seattle, his brow furrowed.

In the center of the screen, a bar chart for comparison stands out.

Amazon's Flash Delivery service holds an absolute dominant position with a market share of 81%, while Amazon's newly launched food delivery service only accounts for 19% of the market. The huge gap between the two is like an invisible chasm in front of Amazon, so glaring that Bezos cannot take his eyes off it.

This figure is far from the expected target in the early planning stages, like a huge boulder weighing on Bezos's mind.

From the outside perspective, Amazon's announcement of entering the local food delivery market is still in the preparatory and planning stage.

Those who follow this industry and keep up with Amazon's news know that Amazon's food delivery service has already been launched.

However, instead of being rolled out across the entire United States, Seattle was chosen as the first pilot city.

What Bezos didn't expect was that Amazon's food delivery service would have such a dismal market share.

Half a month has passed, and Amazon's market share in food delivery is only 19%, or more accurately, 18.4%.

This is Seattle, the headquarters of Amazon, their home turf.

If Seattle is in such a terrible state, what about the other cities in Walton, and even the vast market of the United States?

"Actually, from an objective analysis perspective, this result has already exceeded expectations."

Bezos slowly raised his head upon hearing the sound, his sharp gaze fixed on Black sitting opposite him.

The other person's face held a complex expression, seemingly reassuring yet mixed with a sense of helplessness in the face of reality. "You should know that our initial phased goal was simply to carve out a piece of the market share from flash delivery within hours, and seize 15% of the market."

"The current figure of 18.2% has exceeded our initial expectations."

Bezos stared intently at Blackburn, his undisguised displeasure palpable.

Blackburn shook his head slightly and let out a low sigh, as if he had anticipated Bezos's reaction.

"I know what you're trying to say," he said, meeting Bezos's gaze, his tone growing increasingly serious. "I'm also very clear that this is just pilot data from Seattle, and it doesn't have any real market reference value. If we look at the national market, our market share might not even be 10%."

"However, you should also be aware of how many inherent and acquired disadvantages we have in this competition."

"The delivery riders at Flash Sale are already highly skilled, Flash Sale's route planning system is mature, and the offline stores they partner with are advantages that we cannot match right now."

"But our disadvantages are also our advantages, which is that we can still improve, we have clear goals and huge room for improvement."

"But with flash sales, he can only move forward by trial and error."

Bezos remained silent, then turned his gaze back to the computer screen, sliding his finger across the mouse to bring up the comparative data on delivery times.

The average delivery time for each order on the Amazon platform is over 78 minutes.

According to the latest data obtained by Amazon's intelligence department, the average delivery time per order for Flash Delivery has been successfully reduced to 36 minutes.

The difference between 78 minutes and 36 minutes is more than double.

In today's fast-paced life, especially for users who seek convenient and efficient food delivery, such a significant difference in delivery time is almost equivalent to a decisive competitive disadvantage.

When products, prices, service quality, and other factors are similar, consumers can make their choice with their feet.

As Blackburn said, it's a rider problem, but also a system planning problem.

As for the riders, Amazon's riders are all complete novices who have only undergone some simple training before starting work.

Regarding flash sales, I heard that they underwent nearly a month of training before launching their flash sale service within hours, with riders in various regions...

He personally familiarized himself with every street and every house number within the service area.

Furthermore, the difference between the two sides is even more pronounced in route planning.

Before the launch of Flash Sale, a lot of manpower and resources were invested in technology research and development and repeated testing. By simulating order distribution in different scenarios, the rider order matching algorithm was continuously optimized. Subsequently, it was iterated and improved countless times based on actual operational data, and finally a mature, stable, efficient and accurate route planning system was formed.

Amazon's food delivery system is more of a simple modification of the existing logistics network and a copy of the flash sale model, resulting in a hybrid that is neither fish nor fowl.

A resolute glint flashed in Bezos's eyes as he said firmly, "GGC, we must acquire this company."

"Are you kidding me?" Blackburn's eyes widened instantly, his face filled with disbelief.

"We simply don't have enough funds to support such a huge acquisition right now. Even Flashbuy gave up on it back then, and we only managed to poach some core engineers and management from them by offering high salaries."

In this era, there are no smartphones to assign you tasks or let you locate yourself.

Flash sale order dispatch relies on two main tools: a car radio and a map drawing system.

After modification, the vehicle radio can achieve real-time location tracking of the rider, although there is still a delay of more than ten seconds.

Once a user places an order, the hourly delivery system can immediately detect the location of the nearest rider.

This allows for rapid order dispatch.

This modified car radio is highly compatible and can be installed and used in both cars and motorcycles, making it very convenient.

Hand-drawn maps form the core foundation of the entire delivery system.

Accurate maps are essential for determining where users place orders, which area riders are currently in, how to accurately calculate which rider can accept the order the fastest, and how to plan the shortest delivery route.

Satellite map?

You can't even use it if you want to.

The most successful commercial mapping website today is Mapquest.com, which was launched in 1996.

It was originally the drafting department of Donnelley Corporation in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and later spun off to form GGC Corporation.

In 1996, Mapquest.com, the world's first online commercial map website, was officially launched, expanding traditional mapping services into the online commercial field.

This website demonstrated strong market appeal from its early stages, garnering 100 million clicks within 30 days of its launch.

Keep in mind, that was in 1996.

With its practical features such as providing the best route between two points, Mapquest.com quickly became a mainstream online map service platform, capturing 70% of the market share.

When Flashbuy was founded, Ernst wanted to acquire the company because of its hourly delivery service.

GGC offered a price of $13 billion, which made Ernst give up.

In a few years, when the U.S. Geological Survey's satellites become available, why not just lease them to develop image maps? Buying a website version of a hand-drawn map for $13 billion is just ridiculous.

However, the map issue still needed to be addressed, so Ernst opted to poach talent, primarily recruiting personnel from GGC, to develop a simple map system suitable for hourly delivery.

"Then let Wall Street keep pouring money in," Bezos said firmly. "We don't have time to rebuild our mapping system like we did with Flash Sale. Without a mapping system, food delivery is like a mouse in a maze; it's impossible to reduce delivery times."

"Don't forget Wall Street's demands."

Blackburn paused, then fell silent.

In the recent funding round, Wall Street demanded that Amazon's food delivery users reach five million and daily sales exceed fifty million US dollars by the end of the year.

For them, spending money isn't scary, and Amazon losing money doesn't matter either, but Amazon's potential must reach the expected level.

In that period, market value was something they could manipulate at will.

"Have you ever thought about the difference between Amazon and those startup internet companies? They're all tools for Wall Street to fleece investors, soulless shells that only develop for the sake of users."

Bezos slammed his hand heavily on the table, as if his sore spot had been touched. "But I need Amazon to survive first. What's the point of discussing these goals and ideals if Amazon goes bankrupt?"

He was no longer willing to listen to their advice and instructed, "I'll contact Wall Street to handle the acquisition of GGC. Those partner brick-and-mortar stores are key; you need to keep a close eye on them."