However, behind all the social status quo, there is his existence of economic logic
We first sort out the facts, and then go to explore the solution.
In fact, behind the high-risk occupation of the takeaway boy, it is the result of an infinite number of games played by "Meituan riders, stores and consumers".
If you have studied economics or game theory, you should understand that the current game is the most efficient and has the greatest social welfare.
So how to maximize social welfare in the context of efforts to achieve fairness, become this paper needs to solve the problem.
First a hint: reading the article may make you feel uncomfortable.
One
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The originator of the exploitation and oppression of Meituan riders is not Meituan, not the caterers, and not us consumers, but themselves.
We often hear takeout riders lament why my delivery time is another 2 minutes less, Meituan is so hateful.
We'll explain why this problem arises below.
Let's look at the background of Meituan, which is not expanding due to rising consumer demand for delivery.
In the FY19 financial report released by Meituan, there are now a total of 2.95 million people ****, joining Meituan's delivery industry, compared to 18 years, the industry personnel growth of 18%.
That means 300,000 new people have joined the industry to compete.
From the statistics, for every 100 yuan of takeout ordered by consumers on Meituan, Meituan earns 2.19 yuan, the rider earns 10.47 yuan, and the store earns 87.35 yuan, in order to facilitate the later calculations, let's round up the whole amount
i.e., 100 yuan, Meituan share of 2 yuan, the rider share of 10 yuan, and the store share of 88 yuan, which adds up to 100 yuan
We'll just Starting from the rider to take orders to analyze:
At the beginning, Meituan may give with the distribution of the rules is, 1 kilometer regulation 10 minutes delivery, that is to say, if you use the Meituan ordered a 100 yuan of hot and spicy hot pot, hot and spicy hot pot of the store is 2 kilometers away from you, then you need to wait for 20 minutes can be eaten.
That means the delivery boy made 10 bucks in 20 minutes.
But there are a lot of takeaway boys who are not satisfied with making only 10 bucks in 20 minutes, they are eager to make more money, so they choose a more aggressive delivery speed
Not hesitating to run red lights and go against the flow of traffic, which makes their delivery time, 1 kilometer and 5 minutes to complete.
So that 100 yuan of spicy hot pot, some aggressive takeout riders, made 10 dollars in 10 minutes.
Since the number of people in the takeout industry is increasing, the industry is becoming more and more competitive, and everyone wants to stand out in the industry, with the fastest speed, to receive more orders, and make more money
But in the process, the saddest thing happened:
Big data system in the original data model, 1 kilometer stipulates 10 minutes to deliver
But in the data accumulated by more and more "active delivery riders", the system is constantly learning and improving its algorithmic equations.
Accumulating data over and over again, the system began to dictate that 1 kilometer needed to be delivered in 5 minutes
That's what it's called: Meituan, the disappearing 2 minutes. That's how it came about.
Is it because of Meituan? No;
Is it because of the harshness of consumers? Neither!
Rather, it's the fact that these takeout riders, through the data they generate, influence change the entire arithmetic, and that big data itself is nothing more than a passive acceptance of the results of the riders' behavioral patterns.
The hellish difficulty of delivery stems from the riders themselves.
We see Meituan or HungryMall calling for consumers to give riders an extra five minutes.
HungryMall is dumping the pot on the consumer, when it's not really the consumer not giving the rider time at all.
If 3 million riders were to form an alliance, and riders were unified to deliver food 5 minutes slower, then the entire Meituan and HungryMall system would adjust its "delivery formula" again.
Objectively speaking, do we, the consumers, really care, mind, delivery time more than 5 minutes?
Hungry's statement, which seems to be blaming today's consumers for how harsh they are, is over the top.
We get the feeling that it's the consumer who is oppressing the delivery boy, including the People Magazine article that wants consumers to be more tolerant of the delivery boy.
But it really isn't us oppressing the riders.
These takeout riders have jobs that arguably fulfill the job expectations they have.
Flexible hours, a typical income of $10,000 or so, meeting life expectations, not having to look at their bosses, and especially the fact that there's no threshold, so anyone who knows their way around the road can do the job and dictate their own work scenarios.
This kind of working conditions, in fact, has been very satisfying, so it is easy to understand that the food delivery industry has become the most sought-after industry in China in the past two years.
There are two ways to address the safety of delivery boys
The first is to set a minimum delivery limit.
Meituan by assigning the task, according to the local congestion and other road conditions, the estimated time used to deliver food, if the estimated delivery time is 30 minutes, then 35 minutes, no longer allow the rider to take the order, so as to put an end to the rider fierce competition in the industry.
After Meituan limited the minimum time, there is no need for riders to rush to desperately deliver, they just need to abide by the rules of the road and deliver in peace.
There will be no more "disappearing two-minute problem".
Secondly, the delivery boy has formed a buyer's monopoly.
That is to say, all the delivery workers, through a certain mode of unification, we form a "union" model.
Through their monopoly power, they can get more revenue in the whole market, and all of them will keep the bottom line, not to do anything to speed up the delivery.
(Readers, this is a big business opportunity, this market is a trillion dollar market, there is still no such organization in any country in the world )
Two
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With the facts out of the way, let's talk about the underlying thinking behind this
We have to say that the Meituan big data system has created a Nash equilibrium between the riders, the stores, and the consumers.
Meituan riders choose between safety and income in this ecosystem.
Shopkeepers make a choice between personal income and giving income to the Meituan platform in this ecosystem.
Consumers in this ecosystem make a choice between personal consumption and getting time.
With the constant revision and evolution of Meituan's big data, Chinese producers are getting 90% of the profits, which we know is a very rare statistic.
Foreign food delivery platforms other than China are lucky to give stores 70% of their profits, which shows how much the US craves Jitterbug's data-crunching power.
This is the strength of China's data computing technology, giving full play to the market's self-regulation mechanism, so that the market forces independently to maximize social welfare.
Under this three-way game, each party has found an equilibrium point, so that the current Nash equilibrium will not be broken.
Many people have called on Meituan to be kind and treat riders better.
In fact, we can understand just from the fact that more and more people are engaged in the rider industry, the riders are not getting a lot of dividends from this market. After all, only a market with high dividends will continue to attract talent.
What Meituan is doing is nothing more than making competition fairer across society through the power of technology.
For example, the so-called disappearing two-minute delivery time of Meituan is actually benefiting all consumers.
Meituan for the merchants, seek than the world, a better return, many merchants have begun to choose not to rent front room, focus on the takeaway business.
The predicament of today's riders is due to advances in algorithmic science and technology, and the invisible hand that puts takeout riders in the most dangerous working conditions as Meituan riders, stores, and consumers all seek to maximize profits.
The protagonist of today's article is the takeout rider, and each of us is actually being changed by data.
From the Stone Age, the age of farming, finally the Industrial Revolution freed human hands.
And the 5G era, the age of big data, has once again placed man in the age of being dominated by numbers.
The predicament of takeout riders today is just the tip of the iceberg of a war in which machines liberate humans and then rule them.
The riders are the only ones stuck in the system, and perhaps all we can do is smile and embrace this era of being dominated by data!