????劉強東的辦公室與奧運場館、北京標志性的“鳥巢”體育館（Bird's Nest）近在咫尺。坐在這間大辦公室里，劉強東向我們介紹了他創辦京東商城（360buy）的靈感來源。京東商城是中國的一家電子商務網站，增長十分迅猛，全球投資者排著隊等著給它投資【它有點像亞馬遜（Amazon）和新鮮直送（Fresh Direct）的混搭版】。京東商城明年的銷售額有望達到15億美元。今年38歲的劉強東是個和藹安靜的人，此次是他第一次接受外媒采訪。當然，劉強東大可以說，他預見了中國的崛起和互聯網大爆炸，并且聰明地找到了利用這兩種趨勢的生財之道。但他卻坦率地對《財富》雜志（Fortune）表示，京東商城與其說是一個靈感激發出的產物，還不如說是一個在絕境下被逼出來的產物。

????2002年末，中國爆發了致命的“非典”疫情。最初的幾個月，沒有人知道這到底是什么疾病，也不知道該怎么治療，數十名患者相繼死去。恐慌蔓延，人們縮在家里不敢出門，全國許多企業都關門大吉。

????當時劉強東擁有一家很賺錢的電子產品分銷企業，在四個城市擁有12家零售辦事處。但“非典”的爆發給他的企業帶來了沉重的打擊。他說：“我們當時虧了很多錢。”劉強東本人也只能待在北京的公寓里。不過他手下的幾個經理已經待得快發瘋了，他們偷偷溜進北京的辦公室里開會，探討應對之道。其中有個經理靈光一現，想出了利用互聯網來銷售公司部分存貨的辦法。就這么簡單？某種程度上可以這么說。劉強東對我們說道：“我當時幾乎還不知道互聯網是什么。真的，我以前從來沒用過互聯網。”

????不過劉強東還是批準了這個主意。到2005年，他的網上生意已經頗見規模，銷售額逼近1,200萬美元。他把各大門店的經理召集起來，問他們：我們是不是應該關掉所有的實體店，成為一家完全的在線企業。經理們一致表示同意，認為公司應該走電商這條路。于是在2005年末，京東商城的前身誕生了。

????如今，這家公司在全中國共雇傭了12,000名員工，業務范圍也挺進到書籍和音樂，而且引起了業內某最老道的投資者的關注。其中，俄羅斯的數字天空科技（Digital Sky Technologies）集團今年就為京東注資5億美元，這家公司也是Facebook、社交游戲開發商Zynga、和團購網站Groupon背后的投資者。另外全球最大零售企業沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart），藍籌股風投公司紅杉資本【Sequoia Capital，也是蘋果（Apple）、谷歌（Apple）和YouTube的投資者】也都是投資了京東商城。劉強東還表示，希望能在2013年年底前讓京東在美國上市。

????與其他電子商務企業相比，京東商城的優勢是它強大的物流系統，這也是令京東深受沃爾瑪等投資者青睞的一個主要原因。京東商城做出了這樣的保證：如果顧客在中午11點以前提交訂單，那么他在當日下午6點前就會收到產品。同樣，如果顧客在晚上11點提交訂單，那么他在次日早9點前就會收到產品。（為了驗證這一保證是否真實，在過去兩周時間內，《財富》雜志在北京提交了一個小訂單，在上海提交了三個訂單，果然每次都如約而至。）京東的每名快遞人員都配備了一個銷售終端，讓顧客可以在收到產品時用銀行借記卡刷卡付款。另外，京東商城還有一個“100分鐘政策”，如果顧客投訴一款產品，那么快遞人員會在收到投訴后的1小時40分鐘內返回顧客的門前。鑒于京東的快遞系統如此有效，劉強東打算在今年年底前將它打造成一個開放系統，允許任何其他公司付費使用此系統——包括京東在電子商務領域的主要競爭對手當當網（Dangdang）。

????眼下，尋找新的創收方式有一定道理，因為今天的中國電子商務市場已經陷入了價格大戰，這對任何一方都不是什么好事。三年前有一位風險投資家曾經參與了京東的第一輪融資，他表示中國的電子商務市場正在“變得更加擁擠”。

????的確如此。如果你問劉強東，他認為京東最主要的競爭對手是誰，他會告訴你，是中國最大的實體電子產品零售商——蘇寧電器（Suning）。他承認蘇寧已經成功地把它的業務搬到了網上，現在正在利用它的影響力壓低與電子廠商的價格。

????不過蘇寧的競爭策略并沒有給劉強東造成損失。就在十年前，劉強東還是一個小小的電子產品店的店主，做夢也沒想過能與中國最大的電子產品零售企業——蘇寧電器展開競爭。但是現在劉強東手握大量現金，而且他的快遞網絡遍布全國300個城市，這些都讓他在競爭中占據了優勢，不過同時他也需要想出一些新的賺錢點子。

????對此，他并不擔心，只是簡單地說：“我們拭目以待吧。”因為劉強東深知，靈感有的時候會來自最意想不到的地方。

????譯者：樸成奎

????Sitting in his big office, a stone's throw from the iconic Bird's Nest, the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, Qiangdong "Richard" Liu is explaining how he got the idea for 360buy, China's fast-growing e-commerce site (a mashup of Amazon (AMZN) and Fresh Direct), which global investors are lining up to back. Sure, Liu could claim that he had foreseen the rise of China and the Internet explosion, and that he had brilliantly found a way to capitalize on both trends. But in his first interview with a non-Chinese publication, Liu, an affable but quiet 38-year-old, tells Fortune that the success of 360buy, which is on track to hit $1.5 billion in sales next year, was less a product of inspiration than one of desperation.

????At the end of 2002 the deadly SARS virus broke out in China, and for a few terrifying months, as dozens of people died, no one knew what it was or how to treat it. Businesses across the country were shuttered, as people huddled in their homes.

????Liu owned a profitable electronics distribution business, with 12 retail offices in four cities, but the SARS outbreak was a serious blow. "We were losing a lot of money then," he says. He stayed confined in his apartment, but a few of his managers, going stir-crazy, sneaked into the office in Beijing and discussed ways to cope. One of them came up with the idea of trying to move some of the company's inventory via the Internet. A eureka moment? Only of sorts: "I barely knew what the Internet was back then," Liu says now. "Seriously. I had never used it."

????Liu, 38, nonetheless approved the idea, and by 2005 his little electronics distribution business was on pace to do $12 million in Internet sales. He convened a meeting of his top store managers and asked their opinion: Should they just shut the bricks and mortar and become an online business only? They all agreed: The company would go online only, and at the end of 2005, what would become 360buy was born.

????Today the company employs 12,000 people across China, has pushed into books and music, and has caught the eye of some of technology's most sophisticated financiers. Digital Sky Technologies (DST) -- the Russian firm that is backing Facebook, Zynga, and Grouponinvested $500 million this year. Wal-Mart (WMT), the world's largest retailer, and Sequoia Capital, the blue-chip venture firm that has backed Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and YouTube, are also backers. Liu says he hopes to take 360buy public in the U.S. no later than the end of 2013.

????The company's advantage over other e-tailers -- and the thing that has helped attract the likes of Wal-Mart -- is its masterful logistics. The company guarantees that if a customer types in an order before 11 a.m., he or she will receive the product before 6 p.m. the same day. Similarly, anyone who orders before 11 p.m. will get the package by 9 the next morning. (Fortune tested that claim, placing one small order in Beijing and three in Shanghai over the past two weeks. It worked every time.) Each delivery person is equipped with a point-of-sale terminal to allow customers to pay with their bank debit card upon receipt of a product. Further, the company has a "100-minute policy": If a customer has any complaints about a product, a delivery person will be back at his doorstep within an hour and 40 minutes after the complaint is lodged. The 360buy delivery system is so effective that by the end of the year, Liu is going to farm it out, allowing any company to use it for a fee -- including e-commerce archrivals like Dangdang.

????Figuring out new ways to produce revenue right now makes some sense, because the retail e-commerce space in China is in the middle of a price war that can't be good for anybody. It is also "getting more crowded," as a venture capitalist who was in 360buy's first round of financing three years ago says.

????Indeed, ask Liu who he thinks 360buy's primary competitors are, and he cites China's largest brick-and-mortar electronics retailer, Suning, as his No. 1 rival, TK acknowledging that it has moved online effectively and now wields more clout to lower prices with electronics vendors.

????The irony of that isn't lost on Liu, the former small-time electronics shop owner. A decade ago he would never have dreamed of competing with the country's leading electronics retailer. Liu has a nice pile of cash and a delivery network in 300 cities to help him maintain his edge, but he'll need to keep generating new moneymaking ideas.

????Not that he's worried. "We'll see what happens next," he says simply. As Liu knows all too well, inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources.