Reinventing the Millennium

At the beginning of the new year, Bumblebee was defeated in Shanghai, and the competition in the online ride-hailing market became increasingly fierce.

According to statistics, in the last two months of last year, daily subsidies ranged from hundreds of thousands to millions to millions or even tens of millions... In the last few days of December, four first-tier online ride-hailing brands had subsidized more than 1 100 million Huaxia coins.

In the end, the four brands burned more than 5 billion in funds in 2 months.

This momentum did not end after entering January 2014, but became even crazier.

As of the 15th, when Shanghai issued the online car-hailing license, which was halfway through January, the four brands had jointly burned another 4 billion.

Two and a half months, nearly 10 billion subsidies!

This scene shocked everyone inside and outside the industry!

Such a short period of time, such a high amount of money, and the four giants all coming together... rare and intense!

As soon as the Shanghai License Day passed, Didi, Kuaidi, Dada, and Bumblebee successively announced that they had received additional financing. This time, even if YBAT was not the lead investor, all four of them also made additional investments, and each of the four brands also had new investments. Even overseas investment institutions have entered the market.

Obviously, with nearly 10 billion invested, it is impossible to give up and stop. There must be a winner.

However, with such a large-scale money burning, many investment institutions that are following up and waiting are a little timid. Which one will survive? Which two? Not everyone can survive.

"Hey, Bumblebee is definitely out of business. Don't blame me. To be honest, Du Ji, your revenue throughout the year is only so much. How can it compare with the other three companies?"

"Moreover, Duji has no appeal in the investment community. Not to mention compared with the old Jianghu like Yike, it can't even compare with Alibaba. How can it win? I feel sad for Robin!"

"Let's look at this financing in January. The other three companies have attracted more investment institutions. Duji still takes the majority of the capital. Now it can only bite the bullet and follow."

"SoftBank is an interesting company. It invests quickly and also invests in Dada. It seems that it is optimistic that Yike and Alibaba will win in the end."

"Bumblebee will become more and more difficult. If only Duji invests and other venture capital does not follow, what is the difference between this and Duji doing it by himself? Is an Internet company making taxis by itself?"

Li Guoqing made a timely appearance in the first month of 2014 to comment on the fiercely competitive online ride-hailing market.

Nowadays, the market has formed a fault. The shadows of the four YBAT companies are undoubtedly on the first floor, and the remaining half-dead ones are on the third or even fourth floor.

And these four companies are ranked first. Kuaidi backed by Alibaba ranks first, Dada backed by Yike and Didi backed by Penguin are almost as different. Although Didi started first, it has been lagging behind due to the "Penguin Wallet". Da catches up, and the last one is naturally Bumblebee.

The Hornet is not able to attract much venture capital, and the "Duji Wallet" it needs to promote is also lagging behind. In the middle of the month, it almost lost the important market of Shanghai, and the future situation is really worrying.

Moreover, the more worrying the prospect, the more it will lead to subsequent funding problems. Institutions’ money is not for good deeds. Of course, they hope to invest it in the winner. Even if the winner does not accept it, it is better than losing it.

Li Guoqing gave a serious and objective analysis.

At the end, he did not forget to emphasize his personal brand image: "Hey, as long as I, Lao Li, don't do it myself, my vision is still accurate. You can rest assured to listen."

"This time, don't tell me, although I am a veteran in the Internet, I have never seen such a waste of money to play, it is really fun!"

"What's even more exciting is that we can see the ebb and flow of the giants through this money burn. This is so rare!"

What Li Guoqing said was true emotion, and it also represented the mood of some people.

I have never seen such a waste of money!

When does it end?

However, burning money in this way is indeed very effective. The cooperation of the four giants has greatly increased the popularity of taxi-hailing software. No matter which company it is, it is always a taxi-hailing software, and it has really changed many people's travel choices.

Sometimes it's cheaper to go out than to drive, or even cheaper than taking the subway or taking the bus. Of course, that's a treat from the giants.

On January 19, just three days after Shanghai launched a trial platform license, Didi’s founder Cheng Wei accepted an interview with the media and responded to several questions. The first point was to praise Shanghai’s standardized operations and believed that this would help the industry. To achieve healthy development, Didi must also assume the responsibility of being an industry leader in improving transportation.

Immediately, he talked about the current fierce competition.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the past three months may have been the most intense business competition I have ever experienced in my life, and it is no exaggeration to say that the next three months may continue to push this matter even higher."

"Everyone knows that I used to work in Alibaba's B2B business and I have quite a lot of experience, but this competition is quite eye-opening for me."

"Some competitors actually released fake download packages. It was clearly A, but after downloading it became B. I was really amazed."

Cheng Wei smiled when he said this and did not continue to comment on this matter in depth. After all, Didi's development process also has many ways to open others' eyes.

“We have just received investments from Penguin and Tiger Management, and the money on our account is definitely enough, but frankly speaking, these don’t give me much sense of security.”

Cheng Wei pointed to his head and said: "I am always surrounded by a sense of crisis and awe, and I am always thinking about Didi's profit model and market competition."

The sense of crisis comes from the rapid development of competitors, and the sense of awe... comes from the uncertainty of new regulations and policies.

As soon as Shanghai City issued the license, the Hornets had to defeat Maicheng. This incident greatly shocked Cheng Wei, who had been talking to Li Yongjin a few days ago. He didn't know what that old man Li was thinking, but Judge from your own perspective...

The Hornets lose Shencheng, which will bring a serious blow.

Shencheng is not only a matter of the city market, but also confidence, up and down, and inside and outside. This is not a voluntary giving up by the Hornets. In the eyes of outside investment institutions, this is simply backed by Yike. Dada was driven away immediately!

Cheng Wei is still not sure whether Yike did anything, but... just assume that he did, and it's not a loss!

The reporter asked a question at this time: "Mr. Cheng, if you rank your competitors, who do you think should be ranked first?"

Cheng Wei was silent for a moment and replied: "Dada is first, Fastest is second, and Bumblebee is third."

"Why is Dada, which has a lagging market share, ranked ahead of Kuaidi?" the reporter asked for the reason.

“Dada is developing too fast. We must admit that Yixin is a truly national-level application software. When it becomes a channel for taxi-hailing software to be distributed and promoted, Dada’s competitiveness will increase exponentially. ." Cheng Wei mentioned Yi Xin.

Dada is the first user of Yixin’s open mini program.

Dada took advantage of Yixin's huge traffic. Even if it entered the market very late, it was still catching up quickly, basically only lagging behind Kuaidi, which can also be built into Alipay.

With such a successful demonstration as Dada, Yixin's mini program functions have become more and more attractive to merchants, and it has become an extremely successful direction developed by Yixin.

When Cheng Wei thought of this, he could only sigh in his heart, maybe this is Mr. Fang's "win-win approach", especially when it also attacks the development plan formulated by Duji.

Compared with Penguin, who is good at using traffic weapons, Yike, the new traffic overlord, is really not bad at all when used. One appearance allowed Tesco to defeat the attacks of Taobao and Suning, and another appearance directly helped Dada. of takeoff.

In addition, what is even more frightening is that Yike seems to be quite restrained in using Yixin. It does not rely on the ace QQ like Penguin because... it has more chips in its hands.

Cheng Wei himself couldn't help but buy a full-screen Yike Mars Pro, not to mention his CTO Zhang Bo, who is almost a fan of Yike.

In December, when he was burning money and getting angry, Cheng Wei asked his CTO angrily: "Mr. Zhang, if you have nothing to do, just read Yike's news and analyze its technology. Do you know that it is our biggest competitor?" "

Then, he got an answer that made him lose his temper.

"Mr. Cheng, our opponent is Dada, not Yike. If it were really Yike, we might all have died. Now at most we can only use part of our energy to face Yike's YMS Division." Zhang Bo said calmly. .

What else could Cheng Wei say.

When faced with reporters' questions about his prospects, he couldn't help but laugh when he thought of YBAT this time and Y, which was significantly higher than the gap: "I just hope Yike's eyes don't look down, just look up, haha, let's go It’s just a joke, I have one sentence for Didi in the future: Dare to compete, dare to compete.”

Barely concealed, the founder of Didi showed his fear of Yike and Dada.

The history of burning money in the past two and a half months is also the history of Dada's rapid development. This momentum of money, people, and resources is too scary.

Cheng Wei is very convinced that this fear is not just for him, but should be a sentiment shared by all practitioners in the industry.

Also, you may still have a fantasy every night, how great it would be if you got investment from Yike!

However, whether you are afraid, envious, brave to compete, or helpless to avoid the battle, the money burning in the online ride-hailing market will obviously continue for some time.

However, because this year’s Spring Festival falls on January 31st, there will always be a gap for people to take a breath and reorganize competition and consider the future.

Cheng Wei is now thinking about something. If Bumblebee cannot get funding in the future and there are problems with its development, maybe it can be taken down cheaper, which may be able to get Duji's support.

However, there is also a problem.

Penguin's investment is to promote "Penguin Wallet", and Duji also wants to promote its payment. The two companies seem to be completely unable to reconcile on this point.

On January 24, there was only one week before the Spring Festival. As if to let everyone have a good year, subsidies in major key cities did show a trend of cooling down.

That night, CTO Zhang Bo suddenly mentioned a piece of news while having dinner together: "Mr. Cheng, I don't know if this is good news or not. IDG's Xiong Xiaoge was interviewed in Tokyo and angrily criticized Nikon's semiconductor business for fraud. "

Cheng Wei was stunned when he heard this, and said a little confused: "What does this have to do with us?"

"As we all know, Xiong Xiaoge is Mr. Fang's Go... Uh, Xiong, why did he go to Japan to invest in Nikon's semiconductor company when he has nothing to do? He must be under the orders of Mr. Fang. Didn't you say yesterday that you haven't seen Mr. Fang recently? He must be concerned about the ice core, and Xiong Xiaoge should be a part of the ice core affairs." Zhang Bo made a clear analysis.

"I hope so." Cheng Wei said this, and then asked, "Nikon's business is fraudulent? Is it true?"

"It must be true. Isn't there a concentrated exposure of Japanese companies' fraud before? Why do Sony and Toyota commit fraud but not Nikon?" Zhang Bo said with a smile.

Cheng Wei saw everyone nodding while eating, and he understood everyone's current impression of Japanese companies. A wave of fraud revelations that attracted the attention of the world has indeed shaken the image of Japanese companies in the past.

It doesn’t seem unusual that there is another well-known Japanese company that is making counterfeit goods this time.

However, it is related to Nikon Semiconductor, IDG Xiong Xiaoge, and possibly the ice core situation. The domestic media did not exaggerate the news from Tokyo this time. Only busybodies and industry insiders are more concerned about it.

Unlike China's domestic media, many well-known newspapers in Japan have published headlines similar to "China's number one investor criticizes Nikon for fraud."

The Asahi Shimbun also asked sarcastically: Is anyone going to bow again?

Nikon has not yet taken action, but Japan's own media has already made preconceived judgments.

This matter... doesn't seem complicated.

If well-known investors from China come over, they will definitely be interested. If it is true that according to the Nikon employee who did not want to reveal his identity, Xiong Xiaoge was commissioned by Ice Core International, then the wafer foundry company in China will definitely be more willing. Seizing the opportunity for cooperation, what incentive does it have to lie?

Oh, you said there was the villain named Fang who took away the Sony sensor behind the scenes...

There may indeed be some motivation.

Even if Fang Zhuo had not set foot in Japan, even if his reputation as China's number one investor was already very resounding, when the incident broke out, the Japanese media quickly focused on Lao Mo and made relevant appeals.

"Nihon Keizai Shimbun", one of Japan's three major newspapers: ソニーのTRADE を二度とrise こさないでください!

——Don’t let Sony’s tragedy happen again!

"Yomiuri Shimbun", which is also one of the three major newspapers: Fangzhuo is alert!

——Beware of Fang Zhuo!

At the same time, Nikon issued a statement denying Xiong Xiaoge’s accusation of fraud, believing it to be a deliberate slander and obviously harboring bad intentions.

"Old Xiong, are you coming back for the Spring Festival?" Fang Zhuo paid attention to the development and called Xiong Xiaoge.

"No, I'm in Tokyo. If you have any bad media or malicious colleagues, throw it at Nikon!" Since Xiong Xiaoge is acting as a glove, he hopes that things can be done well. The problem is... he found that he After the criticism, the Japanese media exposed the purpose one after another and directly targeted Fang Zhuo behind the scenes.

This, this is really well-known, and I can't blame others.

Fang Zhuo only replied with one word: "Yeah."

"What do you mean?" Xiong Xiaoge asked.

"It just means there is no rush." ​​Fang Zhuo replied, "Someone in Europe will speak out. Nikon's PPT machine is true. You can stir it up more."

Xiong Xiaoge was a little relieved. It seemed that there might be more dirty water than he thought. Moreover, the bald Kong Yu didn't see many people since he came to Tokyo, and he didn't know what kind of dirty work he was doing.