Reinventing the Millennium

Fang Zhuo received the news in advance and felt the warning, but still spent New Year's Eve with his family as usual.

Recently, there have been a lot of overt and covert warnings. Although this time I learned it with certainty from a friend on such a traditional festival, it is not too surprising.

Before going to bed, it was already one o'clock in the morning. Su Wei helped Fang Xiaoman, who was already asleep, tuck in the quilt and asked with a smile: "What's the bad news?"

Fang Zhuo was surprised: "Is there something written on my face?"

"Your CEO, naturally, his expression remains unchanged despite the collapse of Mount Tai, but I can feel something strange." Su Wei said calmly.

Fang Zhuo said "hmm" and said: "Bingxin will probably go to Ami's strict selection, and Yike can hold on for a while. However, when Bingxin and some related news are officially released, Yike will have to go." ”

After all, Yike is a Nasdaq-listed company with a large market value and influence. However, last year there was news that Washington had difficulty in mediating. This was a non-static lowering of expectations, and the expectations of the entire market continued to decline.

Regarding the company's stock price and market value, Wall Street analysts have always praised Yike's revenue and market in the past three months, but they always have to add a twist.

——Yike Global market uncertainty is increasing.

Some analysts just give simple judgments, while others list various recent news.

As of the Spring Festival, Yike's market value not only failed to exceed US$400 billion, but instead fell to around US$390 billion.

When Fang Zhuo talked about this matter years ago, he often borrowed a word to describe it, "the politics are cold and the economy is hot."

Yike's business performance is very outstanding, but geopolitical factors have been increasing.

"Ami's strict selection, Ami's strict selection..." Su Wei muttered this word twice, feeling that it was unexpectedly appropriate, and asked, "When will Bingxin be on the strict selection list?"

Fang Zhuo frowned: "This is really annoying. The earliest is next month, and the latest will not be later than June."

Su Wei understood that she didn't want Bing Xin to spend the first half of the year safely.

She took two steps, put her hand on Fang Zhuo's arm, and said: "So... it's time to burst out with greater work enthusiasm from Yike to Bingxin. Since we are going to be on the list, it proves that this strict selection has not Wrong choice."

Fang Zhuo nodded slightly: "I just feel sorry for Ice Core. If it continues to develop like this, there is really hope that it will always be at the forefront. This is Mr. Qiu, Professor Hu, Dr. Liang, and the sweat of all Ice Core employees." , what a pity, what a pity.”

He had several regrets in a row. If the ice core was not affected by external forces, it could directly compete with Taiwan Ji.

"Don't you want to talk about Yike?" Su Wei smiled.

"After all, I am much younger than Professor Hu and Dr. Liang. I have the patience and time to continue waiting." Fang Zhuo shook his head and did not intend to report the news to the ice core in the next two days. He always let everyone go through it first. Two days festival.

"Everyone is prepared in their hearts. Dr. Liang has said it a long time ago. Let's get through the fun first. At least we can achieve this small goal." Su Wei consoled her.

Fang Zhuo patted Weiwei's hand with his backhand, walked to the window, looked at the night sky outside that was still occasionally lit by fireworks, and said, "Well, Yike's secondary listing in Xiangjiang will be accelerated."

When the ice core is carefully selected, Yike will be greatly affected and will soon become the target of "everyone is looking for trouble". As a friend said, there will be regulations even if there are no regulations.

Regardless of whether this matter is compliant or not, whether Yike will sue afterwards or not, that is a matter of hindsight.

"This is a force majeure factor. Once it comes, let's make peace with it." Su Wei added, "It's going to be like this anyway, so let's do Ali to cheer up."

Fang Zhuo looked back, and Weiwei seemed to be the CEO of Tesco again at this moment, making a small and cunning suggestion.

He said helplessly: "If Y is not doing well, he has to pull A along with him, right? The two poles will perish together, and Tesco will take over in the end."

Su Wei made a gesture of pulling her tie and laughed: "The mastermind behind the scenes only shows up at the end."

Fang Zhuo shook his head and suppressed many things in his heart. Big things had to wait until he woke up to talk about it.

The next morning, the first day of the Lunar New Year, it was only then that snowflakes fell in Shencheng.

Fang Zhuo didn't do anything else in the morning when he woke up. He just smiled and sent red envelopes to juniors, big and small, and then warmed himself by the fireplace, read the newspaper, and responded to text messages from his boss and friends.

Near noon, he received a New Year's greeting call from Wei Zhe. Of course, the New Year greeting was just the traditional opening, and the main topic was advice from the investors of "Dada Taxi".

——Don’t burn it, it can’t be burned anymore, merge it.

The market for taxi-hailing software was booming from October 2013 to the first half of 2014. The war had gradually subsided, but due to Uber's intrusion into China, a new round of money-burning subsidies started.

In other words, this market has been burning for a full year and a half.

Looking back at domestic business competition, this kind of time and scale of money-burning competition also makes history.

Some people simply estimate that the taxi-hailing software market has burned at least 30 billion in the past year and a half, and the first one to be burned was Duji, which sold its taxi business to Uber, followed immediately by Penguin, and Didi took part of its shares Sold to Kuaidi, it basically accepted Alibaba’s inclusion.

The current market is a free-for-all between three companies, Uber, Kuaidi and Dada.

Compared to the two giants behind Dada and Kuaidi, even the foreign company Uber is somewhat unable to sustain such far-off market subsidies.

Yike certainly does not lack money, nor does it lack the ability to find investments. The same goes for Alibaba, which has just gone public and set an IPO record. On the contrary, it is Uber... Even though it dominates the global market, it must be cautious about its next decisions.

The main driver of this merger is SoftBank Group from Japan.

Son Zhengyi first invested in China Kuaishou, and then Dada. As if this investment was not satisfying enough, he finally invested in Uber abroad.

Therefore, seeing that the competition in the Chinese market is extremely fierce, as a joint shareholder of the three companies, he initiated a more healthy competition.

Wei Zhe had briefly discussed it with IDG, Shen Xin and other shareholders before calling Mr. Fang, but their attitudes were relatively noncommittal.

He felt that this might still depend on Mr. Fang’s intention.

Regardless of Dada's own wishes, the merger cannot proceed without Mr. Fang's nod.

"What kind of merger is the merger of three companies? Isn't this a monopoly?" Fang Zhuo mentioned a word that he often heard recently and responded to Wei Zhe with a smile.

"Masayoshi Son has no specific plan. He just thinks that the current competition is not good for the company, so he wants to bring together companies to cool things down." Wei Zhe said truthfully.

Fang Zhuo asked: "Mr. Wei, what do you think?"

Wei Zhe came from Alibaba, and the work he was responsible for never lacked money, but it was indeed the first time he had seen such a money-burning field like taxi-hailing software.

"The taxi-hailing market is indeed overheated. Although it has indeed cultivated users' usage habits, this kind of competition has no end in sight for the time being, and Dada is indeed having a headache." Wei Zhe expressed some thoughts.

"If you can't see the head, you can't see the head." Fang Zhuo said this.

Wei Zhe made a change: "However, although we have a headache internally, we all believe that Dada will definitely not be the first of the three families to fall. No matter what happens to Alibaba and Uber, we have the will to persist until the end."

Fang Zhuo laughed twice.

After a moment, he said: "In principle, I do not support the merger now."

Wei Zhe waited for the next step, usually this kind of "in principle" would turn around.

However, he waited for nearly twenty seconds and there was still no movement on the other end of the phone, and then he realized that this was probably Mr. Fang's principle.

"When does Mr. Fang think the market situation will become clear?" Wei Zhe can only look for Mr. Fang's potential meaning. Since it is not "merger now", it may still support it in the future.

"Who do you think is most likely to give up first, Alibaba or Uber?" Fang Zhuo asked.

Wei Zhe replied thoughtfully: "Uber."

He then explained the reason: "Alibaba has just been listed and has no shortage of bullets. Moreover, it has made great moves a year ago, and subsidies for taxi-hailing software have also increased. They are obviously more enterprising. I think Uber will consider it more." The price of winning the Chinese market.”

Uber has not yet gone public, and probably has no plans to go public in recent years. It may be under greater pressure than the two domestic companies.

"Okay, wait a few days, Dada will hold a meeting, and I will ask Qi He to come over. As for when it is suitable to merge in the future, let's wait until Uber is driven out of the Chinese market." Fang Zhuo made a decision and said , "Ali has a lot of desire to attack before the year. The competition for the first fireworks after the year will start with Dada."

He continued: "Not only Dada, I will also ask Mr. Lei to come over later to see how our business can be shared. Dada will be burned, rice balls will be burned, and I will force Alibaba to use electronic payment."

Wei Zhe didn't know whether he was surprised or happy when he heard Mr. Fang's categorical words.

Although the merger was rejected, Mr. Fang’s words proved that capital has not receded and will gain greater momentum.

As a former senior executive of Alibaba, he is very clear about the significance of electronic payment. The so-called two poles of YA are the only ones capable of continuing tit-for-tat in e-commerce, payment, maps and other fields.

The other two companies, Duji and Penguin, have already fallen behind.

According to Mr. Fang, the competition with Alibaba is likely to intensify this year, and Yike itself will spend a lot of money on promoting electronic payments.

He finally paid New Year's greetings to Mr. Fang. After hanging up the phone, he digested the news for a while and then called Xiong Xiaoge, the head of IDG.

"Mr. Xiong, Dada will not accept Sun Zhengyi's merger proposal." Wei Zhe made the decision first.

Xiong Xiaoge spoke slowly: "Dada's decision... was it carefully considered? SoftBank probably made the call yesterday."

"Yes, we are very cautious. Not only that, we will also increase subsidies in the new year to further occupy the market." Wei Zhe continued to make his second decision.

Xiong Xiaoge spoke obviously faster this time and his attitude became clearer: "General Wei, Dada's current subsidies are already very strong, and its market share is now the largest in the country. Do you think it is necessary to do this in this way?" Will we increase subsidies under the current circumstances?”

He was vaguely worried about the current situation of burning money in the taxi-hailing circuit. He really didn't expect that this thing would burn like this. It would be enough to maintain the status quo without merging, but now he wants to increase efforts. So, Dada Don’t we still need to continue to raise large amounts of financing?

Who gave you the courage?

Liang Jingru?

Wei Zhe said with certainty: "Yes, this year we will see another opponent fall, whether it is Kuaishou or Uber."

Xiong Xiaoge frowned and said, "Mr. Wei, I don't want to interfere..."

Wei Zhe interrupted, "In addition, Dada is also cooperating with Yike in the electronic payment market."

Xiong Xiaoge suddenly calmed down, oh, it's not Liang Jingru, it's Mr. Fang who gave you the courage.

As the first investor in China, he couldn't change his tone immediately, but the initiative of this matter was obviously on Yike's side.

Xiong Xiaoge was silent for a few seconds and said, "The competition in electronic payment is indeed very fierce. If you look at it this way, it will not only be Dada that will participate?"

Wei Zhe praised in his heart that Mr. Xiong's brain is still fast.

"I will meet with Mr. Lei in a few days. In the first quarter, we will also do a deep connection with AutoNavi Maps. According to Mr. Fang's intention, this year's efforts will be greater. Alibaba is very proud, and Yike must also respond." He replied.

When Xiong Xiaoge heard this, the first thing he thought of was not the electronic payment dispute between Alibaba and Yike, but the situation Yike is facing now.

Will Yike start to fight with Ali from now on...

He didn't bother with Wei Zhe on the phone anymore. After the meeting time was confirmed, he turned around and called Mr. Fang to ask about the moves within the year.

Fang Zhuo had nothing to hide in this regard. Short videos do need time to accumulate, and Sun Tongyu is also a hidden arrow, but electronic payment is an important competition, and he doesn't intend to give in.

"Is there any new news from Yike?" Xiong Xiaoge guessed whether Mr. Fang had more certain good news, such as having reached an agreement with Washington.

"There is no specific news. Anyway, Yike will be listed in Hong Kong." Fang Zhuo sighed, "No matter what happens there, I have confidence in the domestic market."

Xiong Xiaoge turned his head: "Mr. Fang, what do you say?"

"Depend on you." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Everyone comes out to mix together, don't you have loyalty at this time?"

Yike's own Yizhifu promotion naturally does not require others to pay, but Dada, Mi Tuan and other companies in the Yike system are all independently operated, and the money is not all from Yike.

Xiong Xiaoge suddenly felt a little anxious: "Boss Fang, you have so much wealth..."

"This is to take care of you. Otherwise, if I don't let you pay now, I will be embarrassed to ask you when I have the chance in the future, right?" Fang Zhuo said casually.

Xiong Xiaoge exhaled, forget it, now those who want to pay will probably have to line up, and what Boss Fang said is not unreasonable...