Reinventing the Millennium

Alibaba was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with its share price soaring to $94.15 on the first day. In the evening, it announced that its underwriters had exercised the over-allotment right.

This means that Alibaba raised a total of approximately $25.1 billion in this IPO, setting a new record for the amount of global IPO financing. Before it, this record was also held by a Chinese enterprise, created by the Agricultural Bank of China in 10 years, with a total financing amount of $22.1 billion.

At the same time, on the first day of listing alone, Alibaba's market value exceeded $200 billion, making it a global giant comparable to Microsoft, Google, Yike, Apple, Oracle, Intel and other companies.

Unlike these technology companies with global layouts, Alibaba's business focuses more on the Chinese market, and its uniqueness and rapid growth are dazzling.

Alibaba has attracted many investors and reporters since the roadshow. More than 800 investment professionals attended the first roadshow in New York. After the successful conclusion of the first day of listing, many well-known media were waiting for Alibaba's "acceptance speech".

The head of the group, Ma Dian, was quite proud of the interviews from various media.

He has given speeches of varying sizes in recent days, but today's speech, which took advantage of the excellent stock price on the first day, attracted applause.

However, since it is listed in the United States and is from China, Alibaba is inevitably compared with Yike. This has been the case since the roadshow began, but Ma Dian didn't answer such questions before, or just smiled and passed them by.

Now, Alibaba is standing at the $200 billion position, and it seems that it can be discussed.

"You ask me how Alibaba compares to Yike? Let's put it this way, Yike is a very strong company, and it has a very strong offensive in the Chinese market."

"From the perspective of overall competition, Alibaba is a company that can go back and forth with Yike, but in the core e-commerce business, Yike or the Yike system has always been at a disadvantage."

"This is not easy. After all, Yike is one of the companies with the highest market value on the planet."

Ma Dian gave a description of the competition of "going back and forth" and "core suppression", and he didn't think this was a low profile. Now, from the perspective of market value alone, only Google and Microsoft are ahead of Yike.

So, as he said, competing with Yike is not an easy thing.

However, such an attitude is not Ma Dian's style. He changed the subject and said with a smile: "To compete with Yike, you have to do one thing right, that is, to gain a leading advantage and constantly consolidate it."

"As you can see, Alibaba did it! And it's done very well!"

"I feel that Alibaba is terribly strong now!"

"But, what's more wonderful is that Alibaba will be even stronger!"

"We are confident to face any competitor, whether in China or in the world, whether it is Amazon or Yike, we have the confidence to win the competition!"

"Alibaba is the world's best Internet company in terms of sales!"

"In the future, we will expand our business to the world, globalize our e-commerce infrastructure, help small companies around the world sell their products to every corner of the world, and help consumers around the world buy products from all over the world smoothly!"

Ma Dian's confidence and aura won warm applause, as if he was not accepting an interview, but another small speech.

However, compared with the recent troubles of Yike, Alibaba's first day of listing directly hit the 200 billion US dollar threshold, and its momentum is indeed not comparable to the other two giants in China.

In fact, as Yike's market value continues to rise, and as Duji's market is increasingly eroded, the names of the four giants have gradually been mentioned by few people.

The two companies are nearly 20 times different, so how can they be compared together?

It was Yiguo, a subsidiary of Yike, that replaced them.

YBAT→YATY.

Now, because of Alibaba's booming listing performance, the term "four giants" seems to be outdated, and "Huaxia Securities News" adopted an evaluation that appeared on the Internet.

"Ali's $200 billion is obviously not the end, it's just the beginning for Ali."

"In the past ten years, the past twenty years, from the Internet to mobile Internet, from core business to multi-faceted expansion, from the Internet Three Musketeers to the Four Giants, from the old Four to the new Four, now, it has become a bipolar pattern."

"Under the two poles of Ali and Yike are the seniority rankings of other giants."

"This is probably good news for Duji. It is still a giant, but there is also an indelible shadow hanging over the giants."

"Leaving Duji aside, these big companies are more willing to face Ali's A or Yike's Y?"

"Well, Duji is definitely not willing to face Y."

It's too late to miss YATY, now the bipolar YA is on the stage!

Because of the affirmation of "Huaxia Securities News", this bipolar statement was quickly reprinted under the situation of Ali riding the wind and waves, as if it was finalized.

In the last three days of January, Alibaba still maintained an upward trend, and its market value reached 225.8 billion US dollars when February was about to come.

As a celebration and because Alibaba's IPO raised a lot of money, both Taobao and Tmall launched massive pre-New Year discount promotions, which put great pressure on Yiguo, which maintained its usual practices.

In the past few years, Alibaba and Yiguo have maintained their respective home turfs in the first and second half of the year, trying to erode but not attacking in a big way, and pre-New Year promotions are basically the third most powerful activities of the year.

Although Yiguo has made some preparations for the listing of its rival, Alibaba's promotion this time is almost as strong as its 618.

Su Wei was inevitably annoyed by this situation.

She rushed into the president's office of Yike 23 after finishing her work on the first day of February, and strongly requested President Fang Da to adopt the suggestion of Yike's executive vice president to send a congratulatory message to Alibaba for its successful listing.

"You guys are still discussing bad ideas together, right? Sending a message is not elegant." Fang Zhuo did not have any emotions because of the promotion friction caused by Alibaba.

"No, Yiguo is under a lot of pressure. You have to come out to help me share the burden. People are coming for Yiguo in the Yike system, not just for Yiguo." Su Wei asked for help.

"How about this, you tell the media that I have found a way to compete with Alibaba, so that you can always slightly snipe Alibaba's stock price momentum." Fang Zhuo smiled.

Su Wei did not take it as a joke, and really thought about the feasibility seriously.

According to the reputation of the man in front of her, if he had come out to say this to the media instead of relaying it herself, it would probably immediately cool down the newly listed Alibaba.

Su Wei is very clear about Fang Zhuo's influence.

It's just... this won't relieve the pressure on Yiguo. On the contrary, if Alibaba really studies and thinks seriously, will it raise the importance of the short video track by several levels?

Su Wei knows the future plan of Douyin. She thinks about it and doesn't want to cause a chain reaction because of the momentary rush.

Fang Zhuo looked at the thoughtful teacher Su, as if he knew what she was thinking, and smiled: "Don't worry, Alibaba can't compete with us in the short video track."

With the popularity of Douyin, several similar applications have appeared on the market, and Penguin, Duji, and Alibaba have already entered the market. This reaction speed is still quite fast.

If Yike didn't pay attention, perhaps they would continue to wait and see, but as soon as Yike pushed, they followed without hesitation.

Among them, the most challenging is still Penguin's social traffic.

As for Duji and Ali, the former has dispersed traffic, and its main focus is on guarding the core search, so it will not pose too much of a threat. As for the latter...

Ali's social networking is always a little lacking. It is obviously doing it seriously, but it seems to be perfunctory, and this short video is no exception.

The startup projects outside these three companies are even less of a concern, as it is difficult to match the competition in terms of funds and resources.

Speaking of Penguin, although it is the most challenging, Yike is not afraid of it even in its heyday, let alone the current version.

Based on all these, Su Wei is very optimistic about the final victory of Douyin, but she is still waiting and thinking about the e-commerce impact brought by this model.

But no matter what, she doesn't want to attract stronger attention from competitors for Douyin, which has only been born for a month.

Su Wei sighed: "Forget it, forget it, I won't pass on the message. However, fortune and disaster go hand in hand. Alibaba has received a lot of funds from its listing this time, and it has a big promotion before the New Year. Ma Dian is also in high spirits in New York. I'm afraid it is really going to implement consumption upgrade thoroughly."

Alibaba has already created a B2C Tmall, and both Tmall and Taobao are particularly coveting the mid-to-high-end users cultivated by Yiguo over the years.

Regarding "consumption upgrade", Alibaba has made similar statements in the past two years, but the execution has always been weak.

Now, Alibaba has gone public in one fell swoop and has reached the most dazzling position. Ma Dian wants to expand the global market, and Tmall is confidently sharpening its knife...

It is possible that this is a real round of competition for mid-to-high-end customers.

In February, there was a big promotion before the New Year, and in March, it was small home appliances, and then it was not far from the traditional big promotion in June. This continuous period is a sweet period for Alibaba to easily carry out activities.

"Hey, that's good. Alibaba has money, and I think the guys are rich. Well, this is a two-pronged approach." Fang Zhuo couldn't help laughing, "We must see the effect."

Alibaba has already shown a tendency to pay more attention to Tmall than Taobao. If it clearly proposes a competitive strategy similar to consumption upgrading, Taobao merchants will be the biggest weapon to dig out the foundation of the old company.

Fang Zhuo took a sip of water and thought about Alibaba's recent executive configuration for a while. The two phases confirmed that there are indeed such signs.

"Alibaba is doing consumption upgrading, and we are doing consumption downgrading. Yiguo will hold back. Do you think we should start directly on Yiguo or set up another subsidiary?" Su Wei asked.

"Your general office discusses it. I think it's all right. You can also call Sun Tongyu from Mi Tuan. He is best at this. Yes, you can call him to consult." Fang Zhuo mentioned Sun Tongyu, the former president of Taobao. He also performed well in Mi Tuan, and he was kicked out because of development differences.

Although it is a different time, we can still discuss the superiority and inferiority.

Fang Zhuo thought so, and his calm mood suddenly became a little excited. He smiled and said, "How did I answer you just now? Did you say to set up a subsidiary? Why not, Yiguo invites Sun Tongyu to the subsidiary to take charge of the work. I want to see such a duel."

Su Wei spread her hands and looked at the fickle man in front of her.

No, not fickle, his heart to stir up trouble has not changed, but he has been focusing on the changes in Yike recently.

"Let's discuss it again, and we have to wait and see what Ali will do." Su Wei remained calm.

Fang Zhuo nodded with a smile. It is indeed necessary to see how hot Ali, which has received a large wave of funds, is.

He personally made a cup of coffee for Teacher Xiao Su, then chatted for a while about the competition with the new global giants, and finally gave it away as a gift.

However, now that they had talked about this, Fang Zhuo actually called Sun Tongyu directly and talked about his now prosperous old club.

"Hey, it's good for a large company to form an operating mechanism. No one can survive without it, and everyone can survive without it." Fang Zhuo sighed after chatting for a while.

Because Alibaba went public, Yike was the company that was being compared, but no one dared to underestimate Yike's market value, including Ma Min.

However, also because of Alibaba's listing, Sun Tongyu, the once extremely high-ranking "God of Wealth", also became a little popular. The reason was that the media who wanted to poach everything ridiculed his choice.

Mi Tuan can also be regarded as a member of Yike Group, but the two are more about investment, cooperation and complementarity. The former has also been looking for more profit models.

It would be fine if Sun Tongyu really joined Yike, but unfortunately, after he left Alibaba, he became an opponent of Alibaba in the group buying market.

——"If Sun Tongyu had not left Alibaba, he was also one of the bell-ringers for the listing. Even if he now curbs Alibaba's attack in the market segment, it would not be beneficial to the overall situation. Alibaba, which has received more funds, will definitely invest in group buying The market is doing something bigger.”

Sun Tongyu was really not in a good mood these days. Now that he heard what Mr. Fang said, he said helplessly: "Mr. Fang, who do you want?"

"I'm just sighing. I'm just waiting to see if anyone can surprise Alibaba in the e-commerce field." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.

Sun Tongyu frowned and said nothing, and asked after a moment: "Mr. Fang, if you have anything to say, if it's inconvenient to call, I'll visit you right away. If anyone wants to give Ali a surprise, I, Sun Tongyu, will help out immediately."

"Mr. Sun hasn't let go all these years." Fang Zhuo sighed.

"Does Mr. Fang mean that I need to let it go?" Sun Tongyu asked, and continued without waiting for the other end of the phone to answer, "Or do you mean that if I can't let it go, Mr. Fang can hand me a sharper knife?"

Mi Tuan is already a sharp knife, suppressing Alibaba’s development in the group buying market.

But, isn’t there something more sharp, the kind of knife that can poke a hole in one go?

Fang Zhuo said succinctly: "Come on at nine o'clock the day after tomorrow."

Sun Tongyu cheered up. Well, Mr. Fang is indeed the kind of person who can't wait to put a knife in his hand.

In fact, the knife may have been sharpened until it was shiny.