PDD StockProRecently, WeChat and Taobao have come out to sanction Doubao, which I find amusing. They publicly boycott it, but behind the scenes, they are most likely quietly hiring like crazy to do similar RPA businesses. Just like the 3Q War back in the day, Tencent criticized 360 for infringing on QQ data and user privacy while launching an identical PC Manager. Privacy issues in China are not the real problem; interests and territory are. They don’t hate Doubao—they just hate that Doubao isn’t under their company. As for RPA, I don’t think it will be the final product form of AI, but it has given AI manufacturers a big inspiration: AI shouldn’t just compete on parameters but should solve real-world problems.
$PDD(PDD.US)Today I watched the demo video of Doubao Mobile Assistant, and it was impressive. I always thought Apple Intelligence should reach this level, but it hasn't. There was a demo about shopping scenarios where a voice command could list all the same SKUs from different e-commerce platforms and pick the cheapest product. In the future, it might even provide sorting rules based on the best store reputation and fastest delivery. When AI becomes the main entry point for shopping, all e-commerce platforms will become suppliers to AI, reduced to mere utilities. This is the scenario of AI's dimensional reduction strike on e-commerce. I believe AI's reshaping of e-commerce goes far beyond this. Currently, none of the major e-commerce platforms are exploring this direction (including Alibaba, which has been heavily investing in AI), at least not with a mature demo like Doubao. I think this is a strategic mistake by $BABA-WR(89988.HK)$PDD(PDD.US)$JD.com(JD.US), and it could be fatal. Some people think it's good that Pinduoduo focuses on its core business, but I believe while defending your territory is important, many technological revolutions come from outside. Just like how Nokia wasn't defeated by another Nokia but by the iPhone, if you don't develop certain technologies and others do, by the time you realize and try to catch up, it'll be too late.
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