Many of my friends lost money in their business this year. I would like to summarize why business is becoming more and more difficult.
Many people may not know that the changes in modern business have been upgraded from the 1.0 era to the 6.0 era. The core of making money in the business 1.0 era is the product price difference. What the factory earns is the price difference from "raw material" to "finished product", and what the merchant earns is the price difference from "origin" to "destination". Ordinary consumers do not have much choice, and this time is a "seller's market".
The core of making money in the business 2.0 era is the explosive single product, this time is the world of the traditional Internet! We all know that the higher the product sales, the lower the cost, so sellers like "popular" products, and the sales volume of a product can exceed one million. At this time, third-party platforms dominated traffic and rankings, and the "seller's market" quickly became a "third-party market." At this time, "whoever dominates the market is making more money", so we can see a phenomenon: sellers don't make much money, and most of the profits are taken away by third-party platforms.
The core of making money in the era of Business 3.0 is value-added services. At this time, the variety of products is very rich and the number of products is sufficient. People's needs have become how to find their own "good products", which requires adding value to products, such as refinement, customization and in-depth. In the past, products were made first, and then consumers were found; in the future, consumers were first found, and then customized production. At this time, the market environment has transformed into a "buyer's market."
The core of making money in the business 4.0 era is trust, and the tool for making money is social media. Whoever can gain the trust of more people will be the biggest winner. Why is self-media delivery more and more popular? Because self-media solves the problem of "trust" to a large extent. In the previous era of graphic and text, the products we saw were often beautified, so many of the products we bought were different from the ones displayed, which led to a crisis of trust between the two parties. When we trust and like a self-media creator or network anchor, we tend to trust the products he recommends. The market environment at this time has been transformed into a "trust market".
The core of making money in the era of Business 5.0 is intangible products. The Internet allows everyone to be both a seller and a buyer, and everyone can speak for themselves. This means that the competition in the future will become more and more sufficient, and when the competition is absolutely sufficient, the profits of all physical commodities will be infinitely close to 0. Adam Smith said in The Wealth of Nations that lower profits are not the result of business recession, but on the contrary, it is the inevitable result of business prosperity. What are we missing in the future? It is spiritual guidance, auxiliary decision-making, learning, companionship, relief, relaxation and entertainment, identity attributes, and so on these intangible things.
The core of making money in the era of Business 6.0 is algorithms. Through the analysis of the 5.0 era, we know that what human beings need more at this time is spiritual sustenance and the placement of the soul. Obviously, Douyin and YouTube will occupy more of our time. With the rise of individuals, the trend of building personal brands has become more and more obvious. Future solutions based on Web3.0 (blockchain) will ensure maximum fairness and equality. The core of this is the algorithm. For example, after your content is published, recommend it to 100 people first. If the like rate and reading completion rate are good, continue to recommend it to 1,000 people. If it is good, recommend it to 10,000 people... This is for newcomers. The most fair, and at the same time can warn those "old people" not to stay in the past glory, the value of each person can only depend on the content of the present. Excellent "algorithms" give everyone the opportunity to show their talents, so that everyone can see what they are interested in, without concentrating resources on a few head accounts. The last question, do you think these six periods exist at the same time in a country? What's your opinion?