2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 678 A Benefactor in My Life
The car market in December lacked the bustling activity of November, but the popularity of the Yuechi A1 remained undiminished.

Weilai Auto has not reduced its marketing budget at all. This month's promotional focus is more on car reviewers, online media, and vehicle advertisements in popular locations in various cities.

I don't know when the practice of topping up car reviewers' accounts started, but it's really useful.

Even in 2023, with the highly developed online media, paying car reviewers could still trick many consumers into buying all sorts of random new energy vehicles, not to mention that the level of internet development in this era is incomparable to that of 2023.

Car reviewers like Chen Zhen and Yan Yupeng, who became well-known in later generations, already had a certain reputation in 2009. In addition, some other car reviewers are currently employed by professional car websites such as Autohome and Bitauto.

The Yuechi A1 received a huge boost in revenue, and even the website received a boost.

Speaking of these two websites, Mr. Tan originally wanted to invest in both, but he found that Telstra, the single largest shareholder of Autohome, held a 55% stake, and that Telstra had acquired the company last year, while the founder of Autohome only held a little over 5% stake.

What's the point of even trying? There was no chance to get involved. But Yiche.com gave him an opportunity in July of this year.

This matter dates back to June of this year, when Li Bing, the founder of Bitauto, personally approached Tan Jincheng to discuss Bitauto's fourth round of financing.

Whether it's FlashTech or now Weilai Auto, they are both major clients of Yiche. Due to business relationships, Li Bing and Tan Jincheng gradually became acquainted and familiar with each other.

Speaking of Li Bing, his fellow villager, his experience is much richer than that of Tan Jincheng. Coming from a background of cowherd, he tried his best to persuade his parents to let him go to high school instead of going to a vocational school like Tan Jincheng's father.

Before graduating from university, I started an internet company with some classmates. Our main business was renting servers overseas to provide domain name registration and website building services for users in China.

Riding the wave of the internet boom, although the company is not large, it is very profitable, earning hundreds of thousands a year.

In 1996, several hundred thousand yuan was an absolutely remarkable figure for a 22-year-old boy from a rural background. However, like many college classmates who started a business together, there was a risk that they would go their separate ways upon graduation due to different pursuits.

This scenario will likely play out in the lives of miHoYo's founders years from now, and in the lives of countless college student startup teams.

Li Bing, who was running the company alone, was at his wits' end when he met his senior classmate Li Mouqing. Li Mouqing invited him to start a business together, which is the predecessor of Dangdang.com.

Li Bing, who sold his old company and devoted himself to the new one, left quietly not long afterward for reasons unknown to outsiders. In short, this young man was out of the picture.

After a period of confusion, he returned to his old profession and served as CEO of another company. Then, in 2000, seeing domestic internet companies going public and creating wealth, Li Bing resolutely started his own internet business again.

Just like his classmates, Yiche.com was launched in June 2000. At the beginning of the company's establishment, it caught the wave of the times and made a fortune through advertising.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, an unexpected event is about to occur.

After six months of booming success, the internet across the ocean experienced its biggest bubble ever. In the eyes of capital, the word "internet" was once synonymous with fraud, and Bitauto was inevitably affected.

The business was booming for less than six months before the classmates who started the business with him left and the investors withdrew their funding.

Back when the average price of housing in Beijing was three to four thousand yuan per square meter, Li Bing incurred a huge debt of 4 million yuan, but he also gained 100% ownership of Bitauto.com as a result.

This must have been the darkest period of Li Bing's life. From a cowherd to a prodigy, from an outstanding entrepreneur to a millionaire in debt, the company shrank from 80 people to 8, and moved to a dilapidated neighborhood. There was nothing he could do but persevere.

Looking at its founding history, Tan Jincheng was much luckier than Tan Jincheng.

Although they were born into privilege and their entrepreneurial opportunities seemed to come from classmates, it appears that they were simply dragged in to take over others' businesses.

At least his business partners, whether in their past or present lives, never thought of abandoning him when things were tough. When they were short of money, they pooled their resources together, and when no one was around, they did all the dirty and hard work together.

The fact that they were able to persevere was simply a matter of luck; they were caught in the SARS outbreak.

SARS was a disaster for the Chinese people, but it must be said that SARS saved the domestic internet industry. Traditional ways of life and work were severely impacted, and using the internet to transmit information, handle work, submit resumes, and have entertainment became a way of life for some people.

The three major domestic portal websites first turned a profit in 2003 after going public, and Taobao also emerged in 2003.

In 2003, Li Bing also paid off his huge debts and started afresh by providing management software and online marketing services to car manufacturers.

"But if we're talking about how he made his fortune, it was a certain investment that led him onto the right path. He was a benefactor in my life, just like Beicang City Investment and Beicang Government were to me."

Similarly, without a powerful background, no matter how talented or capable you are, without the support of a benefactor, your career will never grow big, no matter where you are. Without the initial investment from Beicang City Investment and the support from Beicang District, Tan Jincheng could at most rely on his knowledge from his previous life to run a small business and buy a few stocks, becoming a wealthy man.

It's also possible that one day in the future, the factory will be gone because it offended someone.

The support from Beicang District was crucial for Tan Jincheng. Without it, the small, run-down factory, then known as Shanchi Auto Industry, would never have been able to secure industrial land, and its development process would not have been so smooth.

The safety level of Beicang in 2004 and 2005 was incomparable to that of recent years. Back then, certain gangs were constantly fighting. You think you can live in peace without protection for a factory built by two little kids?

"Specifically, it should be Leader Gu, right?"

Tan Jincheng thought for a moment and smiled, "You could say that. Without his insistence, there wouldn't have been a series of policy supports and investments."

Before the restructuring, Beicang City Investment had very limited autonomy, but there was no need to invest in a small, run-down factory and put in so much money, just like Xie Junhong didn't want to invest in Orange Technology back then.

Even if it was a misjudgment, given the lack of government support at the time, he must have had his own considerations.

However, this kind of thing can most likely only happen in developed coastal cities with a good business environment. These regions are willing to make some risky investments, both in terms of vision and courage.

If you were to go to Tan Jincheng's hometown with a PowerPoint presentation, asking for policy approvals and land grants, you probably wouldn't even get through the door.

I spent the day shopping and called my parents and Tan Jinyue's teacher. My parents were very satisfied with the suggestion. It would be good to visit our hometown while we have some free time. They will make preparations and come to Luzhou tomorrow.

Tan Jincheng also received a call from Li Bing this afternoon. This guy is currently in the United States. Yiche.com is preparing for its IPO. As the major investor in the fourth round of funding, Li Bing will occasionally update Tan Jincheng on the progress.

The fourth round of financing was led by ByteDance's advertising platform, with DCM and Hetong Investment participating. ByteDance's advertising platform invested a total of US$1200 million.

After Tan Jincheng agreed, he handed over the specific negotiations to Huang Ming and did not participate again. However, Li Bing would still call Tan Jincheng from time to time to report on the company's progress.

It has to be said that after several setbacks, he has become much more worldly-wise. Huang Ming knows much more about investing in the internet industry than Tan Jincheng. This is his first investment in the internet sector since taking over ByteDance.

It's like returning to his old profession, which made him incredibly excited. As for Tan Jincheng's idea of ​​investing in Yiche, it's simply because he has some automotive media resources, which are much more important for promoting new cars.

In addition, we can also obtain some data, which is in line with the development of Weilai Automobile.

In addition, Li Bing told Tan Jincheng a piece of news he had heard from Wall Street: the acquisition deal between Volkswagen and Porsche, which lasted for half a year, had finally come to an end, and Porsche was acquired instead of being acquired.

Porsche will be acquired by Volkswagen for 39 billion euros.

There have been quite a few acquisitions in the automotive industry this year, with both domestic and international automakers busy with mergers and acquisitions. There are many classic merger and acquisition cases, such as the love-hate relationship between Porsche and Volkswagen.

Then there was the sensational deal that broke in October: Sichuan-based Tengzhong Heavy Industries and General Motors simultaneously announced that they had completed the acquisition of Hummer. Tengzhong acquired Hummer for $1.5 million, which stunned domestic and international peers.

A company with little connection to the automotive industry and no reputation in the automotive circle insisted on acquiring Hummer despite the lack of approval from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and other departments. Nobody knows why.

The merger and acquisition deal between BAIC and Saab Automobile is also nearing completion. Tan Jincheng heard that Saab Automobile could be acquired for less than 2 million US dollars.

Of course, the most dazzling acquisition this year is undoubtedly Geely, with the competition between the two companies being the hottest topic in the domestic auto industry.

In fact, the Saab and Hummer deals weren't expensive, totaling around 24 billion RMB. Tan Jincheng, who couldn't afford them last year, can easily acquire them this year.

However, if it were last year, he wouldn't have dared to snatch Saab from BAIC, but he might have been tempted by Hummer. Spending some money to build a reputation was an option.

But this year, there's no need for that.

"Go to sleep first. When Mom and Dad come tomorrow, they'll take the little one sleeping in the outer room back to their hometown, and then we'll be free."

Seeing that Gu Qingqing was a little sleepy, Tan Jincheng patted her head and said.

"Where would you find the time? The people here in Luzhou won't keep you waiting for too long."

(End of this chapter)