My Age of Investment

Time flies by and it’s late January in a blink of an eye.

Groupon founder Andrew Mason and a group of senior executives visited China in a low-key manner.

He placed his first stop in China in Beijing because there was an old friend of his here.

In the conference room of Hainei Building, Andrew Mason met his old friend Xia Jingxing and gave the latter a warm hug as soon as they met.

"Darren, I heard that you launched a big rocket and shocked the global technology community. It's a pity that I was on a business trip in Europe at the time, otherwise I would not have missed this wonderful scene."

"Haha, I'll give you a 60:1 rocket model later."

"Awesome! I love this gift."

…

Zhang Yong and several domestic holding executives smiled as they watched Xia Jingxing and Andrew Mason bragging and spanking.

They have all heard of Groupon and know that it is the largest and most popular group buying website in the United States.

Now the founder of Groupon has personally visited a domestic holding group.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Andrew Mason clearly stated his intention to Xia Jingxing.

"Darren, Groupon has now expanded its business to 45 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, etc., and its service network covers the entire North America and Europe.

Our next target is the Chinese market, which is a large market with a population of 1.3 billion and cannot be missed! "

Andrew Mason sat opposite Xia Jingxing, looking directly at the latter.

When he came to China, he chose to be the first to meet Xia Jingxing, not to reminisce about old times, but for the purpose of business cooperation.

Xia Jingxing's Vision Capital America is an important investor in their Groupon, and Xia Jingxing is also the chairman and major shareholder of China's largest unlisted Internet company, Domestic Holdings Group. Therefore, if Groupon wants to enter China, Xia Jingxing will naturally become their priority. Partners to consider.

The consideration here is not only because Xia Jingxing has cooperated with them for a long time, but also because the domestic holding group has extraordinary influence in China.

With Xia Jingxing's help, Groupon may be able to enter the Chinese market more easily than its predecessors such as eBay, Amazon, and Google, and it may be more able to gain a foothold.

Groupon, which has swept the US and European markets, has rich experience in group buying business operations, and Haihai Holdings can easily share the huge business benefits by helping Groupon complete the Chinese market.

In Andrew Mason's opinion, this cooperation should be a win-win situation, and Xia Jingxing had no reason to refuse.

"Tell me about your plan." Xia Jingxing said calmly.

"Groupon invested US$50 million and Overseas Holdings invested US$50 million to jointly establish an independently operated group buying website in China.

I asked a Chinese scholar to help us choose the name. It was called Gaopeng.com, which means that the place is full of guests and business is booming. "

Xia Jingxing smiled, but did not give an immediate reply.

He has always paid attention to China's group buying market and has plans for it.

For example, Meituan.com received his angel investment, Dianping received multiple rounds of capital injections from Vision Capital (China), and Jumei Youpin is also a vision company.

Starting from the second half of last year, domestic entrepreneurs saw the growth miracle of Groupon in the United States, and then began to copy it. During that time, Chinese group buying websites sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and there were new group buying websites almost every week. established.

This year, it’s even more scary. Several new group buying websites are launched almost every day.

According to incomplete statistics, the number of group buying websites in China has reached thousands at this time.

But Xia Jingxing knew that this was far from reaching its peak. At its peak, there were as many as five to six thousand group buying websites competing against each other.

Who will be the final winner of the Thousand Regiments War?

Naturally, it is the one or two companies that are most favored by capital...

Gaopeng chose to enter China at this time. It cannot be said that it is too late. It can only be said that the timing is just right because the market has been cultivated by local Chinese entrepreneurs.

However, in its previous life, Gaopeng did not achieve fruitful results in China. Like most foreign-funded Internet companies that entered China, it was just a passing guest.

The biggest reason for failure, like most foreign-funded companies, is acclimatization and improper management.

Facing Andrew Mason's expectant eyes, Xia Jingxing asked a question with a smile: "Who will Gaopeng listen to?"

Andrew Mason replied without hesitation: "Our two companies each hold half of the shares of Gaopeng. The rights and obligations are equal, so it is natural for both parties to negotiate and make decisions together."

The corner of Xia Jingxing's lips curled up slightly. In his previous life, Gaopeng.com's bad deeds were caused by the words "joint decision-making."

At that time, Gaopeng had two shareholders, one was Penguin and the other was American Groupon.

In an industry with fierce competition, if you try too hard, it will lead to your own destruction.

Moreover, the American team at that time was blindly superstitious about the "successful" experience achieved in the American and European markets. They were too quick, or they used any means to seize the market and sold fake products on the website, which caused the reputation to plummet.

Penguin endorsement is useless, users are not fools and know how to vote with their feet.

From the bottom of his heart, Xia Jingxing was unwilling to cooperate with Groupon. He had already recruited a lot of subordinates in the group buying field, and there was no need to do such hard work himself.

Not to mention whether it will overturn due to "big company disease", "diversion of energy" and other reasons. Even if it wins the group buying war regardless of food and appearance, it will still be easily criticized by Internet peers and netizens.

Of course, some infamy is a trivial matter. The most important thing is whether it will be "anti-monopoly".

Domestic holdings are different from Fuxing Industrial. The latter dominates the field of hard technology and competes with international giants through innovative technologies and larger scale. The country will not only not oppose it, but will also strongly support it. It wants policy for policy. If land is needed, it will be granted.

At least in the next ten to twenty years, Fuxing Industry will not have to worry about being "anti-monopolized" or "forced to break up."

But in the Internet industry, the position of Haihai Holdings is relatively easy to be replaced. Without Haihai Holdings, there are still Penguin and Ali...

Therefore, in general, there is no need for Overseas Holdings to engage in group buying business in person. It can only be invested and used as one of the scenarios for expanding online payment business in the future.

Xia Jingxing thought for a while and replied, "Let me think about it for two days."

Andrew Mason frowned and said: "Darren, this is something that is beneficial to both you and me. Overseas Holding Group has traffic, and we have experience in successfully operating group buying websites..."

Xia Jingxing smiled, waved his hand, and interrupted: "I know everything you said, but I need to consider the overall situation."

"What else are you considering? The Gaopeng.com team will be formed next month. In half a year, the business network will be rolled out to hundreds of large and medium-sized cities across China, overwhelming other group buying websites in one fell swoop. Then it will make a profit in one year and go public in two years!"

Andrew Mason seemed extremely confident in the future development of Gaopeng.com, but in the eyes of Xia Jingxing, his performance was completely different.

Being dazzled by success and being overconfident is arrogance!

"Okay, what you said makes sense, but I still have to think about it again."

When Andrew Mason saw that Xia Jingxing still looked unmoved, even a little perfunctory, he knew that his words had not really impressed Xia Jingxing.

He didn't know what else Xia Jingxing had to consider. He couldn't let Groupon give up its controlling stake in Gaopeng, right?

That wouldn't work. Their willingness to give up half of their shareholdings was already a huge favor to Xia Jingxing. If it were other unknown people, it wouldn't be such a good thing at all.

"Okay, Darren, I will stay in the capital for a few more days, waiting for your final answer."

After saying that, Andrew Mason took a deep look at Xia Jingxing, and then left with a dark expression on his face.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . Mobile version reading URL: