Global Monopoly of Technology

When Ali and Zhifubao's operation team held a meeting to discuss how to deal with Bluestar Technology, a powerful competitor, Luo Sheng, who was far away in Sucheng, and Zhang Bowen, Xu Yong and other core managers around WeChat were at almost the same time. The future of this product's in-depth layout of the mobile Internet is at a meeting.

"...Strategically speaking, the greatest significance of mobile payment business is to absorb a large number of users and funds, which can lay a good foundation for high value-added services such as consumer credit, financial product distribution, and credit reporting. Therefore, whether it is Whether I am Bluestar Technology, or my competitor Ali, such a large-scale Internet giant will not care too much about the profitability of payment itself."

Luo Sheng's voice resounded in the conference room. Today is the third day of the new year, but none of the core executives of the group company have gone home for the New Year. They have to deal with some of the mess left over from last year and take into account future development. , time is the most precious thing.

The biggest difference between entrepreneurs and capitalists is that the former is striving for the realization of ideals and missions through the operation of the enterprise, while the latter is constantly sucking blood through the operation of the enterprise, regardless of the life and death of the enterprise itself.

Luo Sheng, the leader of the meeting, sat with his back against the chair, and pointed at Jiangshan in a few words: "We don't care how Ali plays, I only care about whether to convert payment users into users of high-profit financial services. From this perspective, WeChat Although the payment has killed Zhifubao in the number of transactions, it has not fully opened up the crucial high-margin business."

Hearing this, the core managers at the meeting were a little surprised. This was a bit unexpected. In their past impressions, the big boss never paid much attention to profit, although Bluestar Technology is the world's largest The most profitable company, but the company's senior management has always told the story that the first purpose is not to make profit. Unexpectedly, at this meeting, Luo Sheng emphasized the keywords of high profit and finance.

No way, the time has changed, and the situation has undergone tremendous changes. Bluestar Technology's research funding strategy of US$150 billion within five years, huge debt burden, business development in emerging market economies, and the layout of the mainland market. Independently reducing corporate profits, coupled with the large-scale loss of market share in developed international markets, how can we maintain the company's operations if we do not pursue high profits?

There is no conflict between independently reducing corporate profits and pursuing high profits, because the starting point is not to squeeze profits from the original customer base, but to develop new businesses and find new profit growth points.

Zhang Bowen, who was present at the meeting, said: "The relationship between Bluestar Technology and Ali was officially opened in the new year, and the frontal bayonet collided. WeChat red envelopes are equivalent to undeclared war, but Ali is not a little brother. Having grown into a giant with a valuation of over $200 billion, and having been deeply involved in the payment business market for ten years, I don’t think this mobile payment battle will be won or lost in a short time.”

Luo Sheng nodded in agreement. This also proves that Lao Zhang has a very clear view of the real form of competition.

The emergence of WeChat Pay nowadays has indeed amazed the entire mobile payment market, and with the backing of a behemoth such as Bluestar Technology, practitioners have exclaimed that the mobile payment ecosystem is about to collapse, Zhifubao is about to end, etc. There is an endless stream of remarks, and the media that follow the industry reports are also increasing their exaggeration.

If Ali and Zhifubao can get down so easily, they will not be valued at more than 200 billion US dollars. They are also the second largest cloud computing service giants in China and the overlords who have been working in the payment market for ten years. They still need to give enough. of respect.

Of course, Bluestar Technology also has its own unique advantages, that is, the strong social relationship chain attribute of its family bucket products. It is precisely because of this that WeChat has become a blockbuster in the mobile payment market.

After a while, Luo Sheng took a sip of water and put down his glass to speak again, and the managers attending the meeting were also preparing to record the key points of the meeting.

"This year, the core four words that I want to do in Bluestar Technology can be highly summarized."

Everyone looked up and looked at Luo Sheng curiously. The latter said succinctly: "These four words are scene penetration."

Scene penetration?

Luo Sheng deconstructed these four words after asking the question: "Transfer from online to offline, and offline from retail and catering to more application scenarios such as life and entertainment. Electronic payment has a certain sequence of penetration of scenarios, because different Depending on the degree of onlineization, standardization, and user habits of industry scenarios, the threshold for accepting electronic payments will also be different.”

"From the perspective of the development history of mobile payment, there is a sequence of development of scenarios. The earliest developed scenarios are those that are just needed in life and are troublesome to operate in traditional methods, such as mobile phone recharge and life payment; the second is easily acceptable e-commerce, because It is a purely online scene, and the threshold for using electronic payment is relatively low, and mainland e-commerce companies, led by Tuobao and Zhifubao, are also among the first to accept electronic payment.”

Speaking of which, everyone saw that Luo Sheng's demeanor had changed a little, and he became more concerned, and saw him earnestly: "Starting this year, the next step is O2O, online shopping and offline consumption mode is the key point. , and payment is the last link of online activities, foreign travel software Uber, mainland new Internet companies such as Meituan, Dianping, Ele.me are all typical representatives of this aspect.”

At this time, Luo Sheng looked around the crowd and added, "Who is going to talk about companies like Meituan and Ele.me?"

A few years ago, Luo Sheng suddenly asked questions outside the boundaries of Bluestar Technology's business, and the executives couldn't talk to each other, but now things have changed. Almost any bright spot in the Internet industry will attract the attention of the company's executives, including Businesses outside the Internet will also pay attention.

After all, although Luo Sheng didn't say anything that time, he felt the boss's dissatisfaction.

Following Luo Sheng's question, an executive named Pang Lei soon answered him.

"These domestic companies are indeed the bright spots of the mainland Internet industry. Let's talk about Ele.me. This company was founded in 2008 by four students from Jiaotong University. Starting from the beginning, it has now grown to 12 cities, and the momentum is very good.”

When Pang Lei said this, Zhang Bowen forcibly interjected, tilted his head to look at Luo Sheng and smiled: "I'm hungry, I've paid attention to the development route of this company, it's very interesting, its development route is quite similar to the blue sky back then. Star Technology has developed from Fuda to a national university. Its founder was also born in the same year as Mr. Luo, who was also born in 1985, and is now regarded as a rising star in the entrepreneurial circle."

Luo Sheng couldn't help but laugh.

A moment later, Lei Pang, who spoke before, continued: "Early in the second half of last year, Ele.me, a domestic online food ordering platform, announced that it had completed a $25 million Series C financing, led by Sequoia Capital, and its Series A financing investor Jin. Shajiang and B-round financing were joined by Jingwei Venture Capital, and in the C-round financing, Ele.me’s valuation was close to US$100 million.”

Luo Sheng took advantage of the situation and asked: "Why is a takeaway with a unit price of less than a dozen yuan, and the merchants that settle in are still small restaurants in the form of traditional mom-and-pop stores, and the profit model is still unclear, and there is no top creative website, its valuation. How close to a figure as high as $100 million?"

Pang Lei said with a smile: "Regarding this issue... Mr. Luo, I noticed that this startup company has almost used up its C-round financing last year. I estimate that the E-round financing is about to start. Maybe we can listen to it. Listen to the words of its founder, Zhang Xuhao, and let him tell us this story."

Hearing this, Luo Sheng immediately raised his finger and pointed at him and said directly: "Okay, Pang Lei will go and hear what story the founder can tell on my behalf. If the story he tells is beautiful, Bluestar Technology will lead the investment in E. rounds of financing, or even direct individual investments.”

Pang Lei was stunned for a while, then nodded: "Okay."

Luo Sheng continued to ask, "What about Meituan.com?"

Pang Lei secretly rejoiced that he had done his homework, and saw him answer in an orderly manner: "The company was established in March 2010, with the founder Wang Xin, and Meituan in July 2011. Guang Venture Capital and other institutions also invested a total of US$50 million in Series B financing, with a valuation of US$220 million. In the same year, they were awarded the titles of 'Best Group Buying Website of the Year', 'Top Ten Online Shopping Brands', and 'Group Buying Star'. 11 The monthly sales exceeded 250 million yuan, ranking first in the group buying industry.”

Luo Sheng is very satisfied. It seems that after the last time, the group of people under his command has made great progress. After putting away his thoughts, he gave a concise and comprehensive command: "We should also listen to the story of group buying, including public comments, don't think about controlling it. Enterprises, we don’t care if they fight, we will invest money if the story can move us, and whoever can tell better, we can invest more and let them fight.”

Pang Lei nodded silently and took a note of what Luo Sheng ordered.

With this kind of Gu-raising layout, no matter which side wins, Bluestar Technology will never lose.

If you have money, you can do whatever you want. Bluestar Technology has shifted its strategic focus to the mainland market, which is to prepare tens of billions of dollars of funds for deployment.

The managers present all know that after entering the new year, the BOSS has further determined the specific tactical layout from the determination of the strategic policy.

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