Theoretically, there is room for the Internet to penetrate any traditional industry. However, the original forces in some traditional industries are so strong that Internet entrepreneurs need to find a good entry point to gain a foothold.
In the shipping market, there is indeed a strong traditional force that resists the invasion of the Internet. They may be freight forwarders who survive on information asymmetry and are afraid that the Internet will erode their profits; they may own shipping companies that have a monopoly and are worried that the Internet will subvert their position. Therefore, if you want to use the Internet to transform the shipping market, it is very important to find the right entry point.
(1) Information. The simplest way to solve information asymmetry is to provide massive amounts of information. Indeed, practitioners in the shipping market need information, including news events, talent recruitment, regulatory information, research reports, etc. However, information websites are the most basic model, with a low threshold and profits relying on advertising and membership income. Representatives of this model include China Shipping Network and China Shipping Information Network.
(2) Tools. Tools usually have a certain technical content and can solve the basic needs of most companies in the industry. For example, freight forwarding companies generally have a low level of informatization. To this end, Aolin Technology has developed a SaaS-based enterprise management system to improve the operational efficiency of freight forwarding companies. For example, in response to the problem of manual order entry by customs brokers, EasyPass has developed a SaaS intelligent customs declaration tool to help customs brokers achieve paperless customs declaration. For example, “i Tracking” under Yihailan can help users track ships and cargo in real time, allowing cargo owners to control the logistics status of cargo at any time. Under the tool model, entrepreneurs can use tools to acquire a large number of users and then provide more value-added services to these users.
(3) E-commerce. This is the most popular model at present, which includes both ocean freight booking e-commerce and service platforms that provide matchmaking transactions for cargo owners and freight forwarders. Compared with information, tool and other models, the e-commerce model is more important, and it often involves the formulation of transaction rules. However, the explosive power of the e-commerce model is also huge. Once successful, it can dominate the entire trillion-level shipping B2B market. Domestic websites such as “Yunquna”, “Hangyuncheng”, “Kagou.com” and “Weiyun.com” all started in 2015 and are currently in the early stages of competition.