沃尔玛在中国设立了一个特别专案，招募中国最领先的科技合作伙伴，以满足沃尔玛门店和仓储的需求。该专案反映了沃尔玛致力于提高效率做出的努力，也显示出中国正在成为技术创新的一个来源。扩博智慧通过为其提供计算机视觉技术，成为沃尔玛该专案的合作伙伴，为沃尔玛在中国的众多门店提供服务。
A Walmart store in Shanghai. Photo by Bloomberg
原文连结（后附原文）：https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2019/04/30/ai-shining-bright-in-asia-pacific-four-lessons-from-the-milken-institute-symposium/
去年，一家为冷藏食品和饮料而生产超薄毛毯的中国初创企业获得了重大突破：沃尔玛(Walmart)决定在其中国的30家电子商务仓库使用这种毛毯。这家初创公司通过沃尔玛的一个名为Omega 8的特别专案获得了这笔利润丰厚的交易。Omega 8招募中国最优秀的科技公司与之合作，为沃尔玛实体门店和零售业务开发最新的技术。
沃尔玛去年8月设立了Omega 8这一计划，旨在通过与中国创业公司合作更快地获得新技术，帮助其在华门店提高效率。该专案突显出，中国正开始成为技术创新的源泉。沃尔玛等外国公司正与中国本土零售商和阿里巴巴等线上巨头展开激烈的竞争，沃尔玛通过寻求在中国本土这样激烈的竞争环境和严酷考验下培养出来的创业公司合作，来应对这样竞争格局。
划重点：沃尔玛在中国设立了一个特别专案，招募中国最领先科技的合作伙伴，以满足沃尔玛门店和仓储的需求。该专案反映了沃尔玛致力于提高效率做出的努力，也显示出中国正在成为技术创新的一个来源。
“首要目标是降低实验成本，时间也是一种成本。”Ben Hassing说。 Ben Hassing不久前还是沃尔玛中国电子商务和技术主管，参与了该专案的启动。今年早些时候Ben Hassing被提升为跨境贸易全球主管。
自成立以来，约有18家中国初创企业与沃尔玛在华运营和技术团队合作。沃尔玛计划在今年年底前与总共50家零售商合作。沃尔玛管理人士说，沃尔玛将为这些合作伙伴提供一个机会，他们将可以把产品卖给沃尔玛在中国的400多家门店，也可能是全球门店。
沃尔玛在美国孵化器是一个典型的企业风险投资专案。在中国，沃尔玛不投资参与Omega 8的初创企业，而是希望通过与本土技术公司合作，创造更多推动业务发展的新技术。此外，入选Omega 8的公司通常不需要为沃尔玛发明全新的技术，但是以其现有的技术和解决方案服务沃尔玛，帮助沃尔玛解决现有的业务痛点问题和需求。
沃尔玛高管Andy Lei建立并监督了这一专案发展。他说，中国初创企业更擅长运用技术解决复杂的任务。Andy Lei说，“中国的初创企业更多地是基于应用程序，他们更关注场景落地。”
沃尔玛通过所谓的“黑客之旅”(hack tours)找到了大多数应征者，这些应征者之前已经在服务沃尔玛，帮助其解决最具挑战的技术问题。Ben Hassing说，“沃尔玛目前有很多需要填补的空白，我们需要针对痛点的解决方案。”他补充称:“(我的团队)没有巨大的资源，不能去押注，也不能对初创企业进行钜额投资。因此，这样的技术的合作是最好的方式。”
专案成员企业之一扩博智慧创始人兼首席执行官严治庆介绍了该公司参与Omega 8的情况。他说，在沃尔玛高管了解到他们的机器视觉技术被可口可乐用于监测中国商店的冰柜是否库存充足后，沃尔玛来招募了扩博智慧加入这个专案。扩博智慧最初是用一个影象识别系统来检测中国风机叶片上的裂纹，然后再将其相关技术转向零售市场。
扩博智慧目前正在测试一种安装在沃尔玛中国地区超市冰柜上的智慧硬件装置，当需要重新进货或重新安排商品时，该装置会向员工发出警报。顾客在开启和关闭冰箱门时会触发装置上的摄像头，帮助沃尔玛跟踪产品被取出的频率以及货架安排何时发生变化。
严治庆说：”作为创业公司，选择与沃尔玛合作，其品牌和资源以及Omega 8专案本身，让我们放心。”
Walmart Taps China’s Startups for Innovation
Walmart set up the Omega 8 program last August to help its stores in China become more efficient by getting access to new technologies faster. The program underscores how China is beginning to emerge as a source of technological innovation after decades of copying. Foreign companies like Walmart, fighting a fierce battle against local retailers and online giants like Alibaba, are seeking to tap into a pool of Chinese talent forged on a crucible of fierce local competition.
“The No. 1 goal is to reduce the cost of experimentation,” said Ben Hassing, who until recently was Walmart’s head of e-commerce and technology in China and who was involved in launching the program. “There isn’t a lot of capital involved, and time is a cost too.”
Some 18 Chinese startups have participated since it launched, partnering with Walmart’s operations and technology teams in China. Walmart plans to work with a total of 50 by the end of the year. The program offers them a chance to sell their product to Walmart’s more than 400 stores in China and possibly to its stores globally, executives say.
Omega 8 is not a typical corporate venture program like Walmart’s U.S. incubator Store No. 8, which develops startups looking to create new technologies. Walmart doesn’t invest in the startups participating in Omega 8. What’s more, the firms in Omega 8 typically don’t invent entirely new technologies for Walmart but do modify their existing technologies to suit the retailer’s needs.
Walmart executive Andy Lei, who created and oversees the program, said U.S. startups are more focused on creating new technologies, while Chinese startups are better at applying existing technologies to solve complex tasks. “Chinese startups are more application-based and competing on speed,” Mr. Lei said. “They are more focused on the use cases rather than on the invention.”
Walmart finds most candidates for the program through so-called hack tours, where it brings representatives of startups through a Walmart store, teaches them about its retail operations and then explains its biggest challenges. “We had a lot of gaps we needed to fill and didn’t have a solution for our pain points,” Mr. Hassing said. “[My team] doesn’t have immense resources and can’t go and place bets and do huge investments in startups,” he added.
Walmart gives the firms 60 days to come up with a proof of concept of the modified technologies, so it can quickly identify the ones that have potential. Both sides are free to walk away if the projects don’t work out. Mr. Hassing, who was promoted to global head of cross-border trade earlier this year, said Walmart can’t wait years for new tech as business in China is highly competitive and rapidly changing.
Walmart executives declined to provide a complete list of the startups it has worked with for competitive reasons and because it wants the startups to keep a low profile. However, they did describe some of the projects being tested.
Clobotics founder and CEO George Yan described his company’s participation in Omega 8. He said Clobotics was recruited to join the program after Walmart executives learned of their machine-vision technology used by Coca Cola to monitor whether coolers in Chinese stores were properly stocked. Clobotics first began with an image-recognition system for detecting cracks in Chinese wind turbine blades before it pivoted to retail.
Clobotics is now testing a device attached to some Walmart refrigerators in China that alerts employees when items need to be restocked or rearranged. Customers do the work for the company when they open and close the refrigerator doors, which triggers a camera that helps Walmart track how often products are taken out and when shelf arrangements change.
Mr. Yan said he wouldn’t have been open to working “for free for 60 days on a project” with “some company I had never heard of.”
“The fact that Walmart has a program with dedicated resources and a structure put my mind at ease,” Mr. Yan said.
