Lin Yuan's Honesty

After some irrelevant chatter, the topic finally returned to normal.

The host also began to show his professionalism, "Mr. Lin, as the AI technical director of Tesla Takeout, you must be very clear about Tesla's true purpose in entering the takeout business."

Lin Yuan nodded, "That is natural."

"So what is Tesla's true purpose? Is it to conduct a crazy technical experiment?"

"Uh, no, not really.

When I first came up here, I told everyone that a year ago I was still delivering takeout. There's a saying: know where you're going, don't forget where you came from.

When I was delivering takeout, I kept thinking, delivery riderss and merchants are clearly the main body of this industry, so why do these two main parties have no say?"

The host immediately interjected, "Because takeout platforms need to use a lot of modern IT technology, and these two parties you mentioned do not possess this technology. Therefore, they can only act as service providers. In fact, the core of a takeout platform lies in the platform itself. The platform connects customer demand with service providers. Without the platform as a bridge, the takeout industry would cease to exist."

"You are very right. The platform is a bridge." Lin Yuan answered cheerfully, "I also don't deny that in the early days of takeout platforms, a large amount of capital was invested, tens of billions of yuan. It was this huge investment that validated the feasibility of the internet takeout industry and made everything possible thereafter.

Therefore, takeout platforms should rightfully receive huge returns.

If large investments don't yield large returns as feedback, then no one will be willing to invest in any innovative industry in the future.

However," Lin Yuan changed the subject, "this world is constantly moving."

"After the takeout platform wars produced the ultimate winner, the original competitive atmosphere dissipated, replaced by a de facto monopoly. And what problems does monopoly bring? I think everyone can find the answer in reality.

Has the takeout platform done any constructive work on food safety? Has it continuously improved the delivery riders's treatment?

Or to put it more bluntly. When capital invests huge sums in a field and completes the early business model validation, how much return should we allow it to collect? Of course, today I am not discussing the specific amount of return. But I believe no one would think that this return should be unlimited."

Lin Yuan then paused, giving everyone some time to think.

After a brief discussion among the crowd, Lin Yuan continued, "Many students here are about my age. You are about to look for jobs, or have just gone through the job search process. I'll ask you a very simple question—if, in a company, a smart person, after hard work, can use that one effort to forever suppress others in the future, would you agree to that?"

The young students present immediately shook their heads repeatedly, and some even spoke bluntly, "How can latecomers ever get ahead like that?"

"Exactly, if the predecessors lie on their laurels, how can latecomers get ahead?

The takeout industry is the same. How much return should takeout platforms take? At least for now, I haven't seen any limit to this return.

I only see that takeout platforms firmly occupy the initiative in the takeout business. Let's analyze the source of this initiative.

Does it come from heavy asset betting? Obviously not, right? What heavy asset investment does a takeout platform have? Does it need to open stores? It doesn't even need to bear the burden of Riders; it only needs to support a bunch of programmers and operations staff.

Compared to the share of the national takeout market, this is a typical internet light-asset play.

The internet's favorite business logic is this light-asset play. Some people even gloat, calling themselves 'using other people's money to do their own business'.

But, students. Let's think about the education we received since childhood. Is this approach right?

Isn't this approach evil?"

"It is natural to demand huge returns after huge initial investment. However, to fantasize about forever using other people's funds, or even enslaving other people's bodies, to achieve a light-asset dream, isn't that evil?"

After these words, the young students looked at Lin Yuan with different eyes.

It was a look of admiration. Lin Yuan had touched their hearts at that moment, effectively becoming their spiritual leader.

Lin Yuan struck while the iron was hot, continuing, "Some students might wonder: Why doesn't the state just intervene?"

A chorus of agreement immediately sounded from the audience.

Lin Yuan immediately explained, "This is very difficult. Take the takeout industry, for example. How can we determine the standard of return that takeout platforms should receive? We cannot calculate profit acquisition in a planned way within a market economy. Therefore, problems brought about by the market can only be solved through market-oriented methods.

Therefore, my purpose in promoting Tesla Takeout is to try and establish a standard for the takeout industry. A clear commission deduction standard, so that merchants and delivery riderss who join this platform, and customers who order through this platform, can clearly understand the cost composition of an order.

At the same time, we hope that one day in the future, we can open up the formulation of this standard.

We do not wish to become another monopolistic takeout platform. Upholding the spirit of open source, we hope to introduce standards and rules to allow more capital to participate in the takeout industry.

I hope to make takeout a life service function, rather than a tool for some capital to manipulate and amass wealth.

Otherwise, everyone, look at the current reality.

From takeout to ride-hailing, which platform says it's making money?

They cry poor every year, but we never see them throw in the towel.

Furthermore, you can open any APP and see.

I'm not just talking about takeout APPs; look at any internet APP. You'll find that one thing these internet companies want to do most is to lend you money. What they want to do most is to be creditors, to be rent collectors in the new era.

Of course, this is a very broad topic.

I'm just chatting casually. If a young person who is not yet worldly can borrow money so easily, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

We have always emphasized stable social development, but if we excessively encourage young people to over-consume and overdraft their future, isn't that counterproductive?

Our internet companies cannot all aspire to be landlords of the new era. Internet technology should not become a tool for collecting rent in the new era.

This is perhaps my biggest wish for promoting Tesla Takeout this time."

The students present were very excited to hear this, and the host nodded repeatedly.

However, the host soon quietly remarked, "I probably understand Mr. Lin's meaning. You're saying that internet companies shouldn't cut leeks too hard, but we all know that Tesla is the originator of cutting leeks."

"Haha~~" Lin Yuan could only laugh awkwardly, "But Tesla won't cut without a bottom line, and we will try our best to be transparent. Even when selling cars, we didn't introduce 0 down payment. Many times, some strategies are forced by the market; some things are unavoidable when you're in the game.

Besides, at least when we cut leeks, we use the money to build rockets, right?"

Lin Yuan's answer was direct and concise, and he didn't shy away from the question.

"The world itself is complex, and we'd best not expect too much. We should still try to compare more. If doing something were that simple, Tesla wouldn't have been brought in, would it?"