2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 777 Which horse to choose?

Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Zhou Mingyu waited at the taxi pick-up point, observing the various taxis coming and going without making a sound, and then flagged one down when the opportunity arose.

Before the taxi driver could react, Zhou Mingyu had already started rambling on about the Kuaidi Dache app.

The accompanying partner immediately handed the driver an installation and user manual without any further ado.

In just two minutes, Zhou Mingyu completed the installation of the Kuaidi app while the driver was completely bewildered. He then waved for the driver to drive away.

It seems simple, but it's not.

"Damn it, I made a big promise to the boss before, this job is really not easy."

Zhou Mingyu spat lightly and offered a cigarette to his partner, who nodded repeatedly, knowing that this was indeed the case.

Before coming to Shanghai, the boss personally trained them and told them that this ground promotion task would not be easy. As a veteran ground promotion worker, Zhou Mingyu did not realize how difficult it was at the time, and even patted his chest and said that it would be too easy to get 1000 drivers to install the software in two months.

Their team not only had to complete the task, but also exceed it, and now it seems that the reality is far from that.

"The boss is the boss after all; he still ended up using the trick he mentioned. Sigh."

The reason they were able to get away with it so easily was that they were impersonating traffic management personnel and using ambiguous language to make the driver believe that it was a task assigned by the traffic management department, so that the driver would willingly take out his phone to install the APP for them.

But a few days ago, the situation was not like that.

A few days ago, they followed their usual sales tactics to get drivers to install ride-hailing apps. The first question every driver asked was, "Do you have any official documents from the traffic management department?" If not, they wouldn't install the app.

After hitting a wall for several days, Zhou Mingyu called a meeting with his team and used this underhanded trick.

In addition, although smartphones are being adopted at an increasingly rapid pace, this is not the case among drivers, many of whom still use older models like Nokia and Motorola.

Another type of driver, even if they use a smartphone, doesn't know what a smartphone is, let alone whether they are actually using a smartphone.

For busy taxi drivers, a mobile phone seems to have no other use besides making calls and sending text messages.

Now, when Zhou Mingyu and his friends flag down a taxi, the first thing they do is ask if the driver's phone is a Nokia or Motorola; if it is, they wave goodbye.

If not, proceed to the next step.

"Boss, our progress is a bit slow. If the team that's pushing it out to users finishes too quickly, and we don't have many drivers installing it, then it'll be useless. We need to think of a solution."

After a few puffs of his cigarette, his partner couldn't help but start to feel anxious.

They have several groups. Some groups are responsible for promoting the driver version of the app to drivers, while others recommend the consumer version to ordinary users. These people appear in universities, subways, and other areas with high foot traffic in major shopping districts.

“We really need to think of a way; how about this, send messages to other people and ask them to use my method to promote our products at airports, train stations and other places, while we go and visit taxi companies and parking lots.”

According to their statistics over the past few days, the smartphone penetration rate among taxi drivers is only about 20%, which means that out of every 10 taxis they flag down, only two have smartphones installed.

Whether these two vehicles will be equipped with it or not is still uncertain; not all drivers are so easily fooled.

Zhou Mingyu was one of the earliest ground sales personnel to work with Tan Jincheng and Lin Yumin. Later, he became Lin Yumin's ground sales assistant and can be considered a veteran in FlashTech.

Having sold insurance, promoted POS machines and small commodities, and even worked as a real estate agent, his early life can only be described as filled with bad luck.

These were all very profitable in certain eras, provided you had a silver tongue. Zhou Mingyu had no shortage of silver tongue, but unfortunately, he chose the wrong time to do things. It wasn't until he started doing ground promotion with Lin Yumin that his luck turned around.

He is now the head of the FlashCar ground promotion team. The fact that Tan Jincheng sent him to Shanghai this time shows how much he values ​​FlashCar.

The process was too slow, so he decided to try to build relationships with taxi companies and parking lots to see if he could get the drivers' phone numbers and speed up the installation process by installing the devices collectively and sending mass text messages.

Otherwise, as my subordinates said, this progress won't be able to keep up with the user version recommendations.

At the same time, the ground promotion team in Hangzhou also encountered the same problem. There was no Flash Promotion team in Hangzhou, and they were much less experienced. Chen Weixin also felt great pressure at this time.

His pressure wasn't just from the difficulties of on-the-ground promotion, but also from internal company pressures and financial constraints.

As a star entrepreneur who started in college, Chen Weixing's game company is quite profitable. The people inside the company don't understand why he's making a ride-hailing app. Why not make money from games instead of making a ride-hailing app?

Lu Chuanwei is also under a lot of pressure. He was an outsider who was appointed as CEO. Although he had the support of Chen Weixin, the original management team did not provide enough support for his abilities and the app.

"Mr. Tan, if we keep burning through this money, we'll probably be broke by the first quarter of next year. Shouldn't we start preparing for a second round of financing?"

From the moment he started developing the ride-hailing app, Chen Weixin knew it was an extremely money-burning project. The first thing he said to Tan Jincheng was that he didn't plan to make any money within the next three years.

Ideally, a startup should be able to survive for 18 months, but that's actually very difficult.

It's certainly not a problem for major investors to invest all the money, but in that case, the founders might lose control of the company, so multiple rounds of financing are necessary to balance things out.

"Don't rush into fundraising. Right now, you two need to get the company on the same page and not hold it back."

Tan Jincheng didn't actually want to interfere too much in the operation of the investment company, but Kuai's situation was special.

Chen Weixin couldn't dominate the company like he did. After the app was launched, there was a lot of internal controversy among the shareholders of Fancheng Holdings, and their cooperation was extremely low. The development of the app was assisted by people from Tan Jincheng's side.

Even now, during the promotion phase, things are still the same. Tan Jincheng finally understands why, in his previous life, with Ali's support, the number one car-hailing service in terms of market share was controlled by Chen Wei after the merger, while Chen Weixin chose to step down from management.

Chen Weixin said somewhat helplessly, "That's right, Mr. Tan, do you have any good ideas? Our company's shareholders are a bit complicated."

"It's simple. Separate Kuaizhi from the rest and stop using Oceanwide Holdings. Since they're not willing to play along with you, start from scratch and let them regret it later."

"However, you'll have to sacrifice some interests for this. Also, you'll need to focus more of your energy on Kuaizhi later on, which could very well lead to the loss of control over Panhai. You need to think this through carefully."

Starting a business in college has its advantages, but the disadvantages are also obvious.

That means it's very difficult to attract investment. Even if you do manage to attract investment, you have to give up most of your equity. Chen Weixin's first investment was from the father of a friend, and consequently, most of the control of Fancheng was in the hands of his friend's father.

Later, new investment institutions came in, and coupled with their initial unfamiliarity with company management, their influence diminished considerably.

If Kuaizhi wants to spin it off, it will undoubtedly have to relinquish some of the profits from the gaming industry. Fancheng has a game that can earn two or three hundred million yuan a year, which is why the management is reluctant to develop a ride-hailing app.

Isn't it better to make money quietly?

In fact, from the perspective of Fancheng's management, this thinking is not wrong. They can make money with low risk by developing games in a low-key manner, and the game industry is also very promising.

There's no need to enter the ride-hailing industry and fight with capital. Currently, there are about 40 or 50 ride-hailing apps on the market, among which Yidao and Yaoyao in Beijing have undergone several rounds of financing and occupy a large market share.

YaoYao currently holds the number one market share in Beijing. It has already completed its venture capital and Series A funding rounds. Furthermore, its founders are financially independent and have extensive networks, and its management team members are former Google employees.

If we're talking about who has the most investment value right now, it's actually Yaoyao.

After a moment of silence, Chen Weixin replied, "I'll think about it. I'll hang up now. Mr. Tan, please keep an eye on the financing."

He understood what Tan Jincheng meant. If the current disagreements with the management could not be resolved, Tan Jincheng would probably not continue to increase investment, nor would he provide as much assistance in the future.

It's even possible that he'll invest in other ride-hailing apps.

Chen Weixin's idea was correct. After hanging up the phone, Tan Jincheng asked Zeng Jixiang to contact Cheng Wu, the CEO of Gaode.

"Tell President Cheng that I plan to use Gaode's name to invest in a company in Beijing called Xiaoju Technology. They are looking for money everywhere."

Xiaoju is the core of Didi. After being misled once, Chen Wei finally managed to create the app. According to what Tan Jincheng recently learned in Beijing, Didi has now entered the ground promotion stage.

At that time, Didi was really weak. Chen Wei resigned with his former boss at Ali. The day after he resigned, he founded Xiaoju Technology and rented a warehouse in Zhongguancun to start a ride-hailing app.

Wang Gang invested 80 yuan, and Chen Wei invested 10 yuan, and that's how they got started.

Speaking of Chen Wei leaving his job to start his own business, it was Wang Xin who persuaded him. This guy really likes to encourage his good friends to start their own businesses; Zhang Yiming was like that, and so was Chen Wei.

Chen Wei's experience has been quite bumpy. The first version of the APP was misled and launched a month late. After the ground promotion, the hundreds of thousands of yuan were almost gone. If he could not find an investment institution to invest money, the project would come to an end.

However, it is perhaps these experiences in the first half of his life that shaped his various unconventional approaches to running a business, after all, he started from the bottom as a salesperson.

From a business competition perspective, Tan Jincheng actually favors Chen Wei more.

Ride-hailing apps are an industry closely related to basic public services, and the details cannot be judged by common sense. In many cases, unconventional methods are far more suitable than regular ones, a point that Tan Jincheng has proven with Flash Ride.

"Okay, how much should we bet?"

Zeng Jixiang didn't ask why. He was the one who was responsible for gathering information about Xiaoju Company. Both investors came from Ali. Although they seemed weak, they had good connections, especially Wang Gang.

This guy is someone who often plays poker with Lao Ma.

“How about 300 million US dollars? I’ll provide the money, and we’ll use Gaode’s name for a while. Of course, if Mr. Cheng is interested, you can let him take a stake. It’s up to him to decide.” 300 million US dollars is naturally a drop in the bucket for a ride-hailing app. Besides offering help in a time of need, Tan Jincheng is just reserving a spot. He doesn’t have the financial resources to invest in two ride-hailing apps at the same time.

As for why we used Gaode's name instead of our own, it's because Gaode is more suitable.

With the advent of the mobile internet era, the role of map service companies has become increasingly prominent. Gaode Maps can make the location of Kuaidi Dache (a Chinese map service provider) more accurate, and the same can be done for Didi Dache (another Chinese map service provider).

However, Didi's app development is really no match for Kuaidi's, even though Chen Wei has been very careful since being fooled once.

But there was nothing they could do; they didn't have that much money, so the products they made were still of relatively poor quality.

Tan Jincheng, the Bumblebee, also wanted to invest. He had heard of the company in his previous life, but unfortunately, Baidu beat him to it and invested a considerable amount of money, so he had to give up.

At this time, Boss Tan was unaware that this was a butterfly effect he had triggered. In his previous life, Baidu had not yet officially decided to invest in Bumblebee.

The handsome Mr. Li has recently harbored a great deal of resentment towards Tan Jincheng.

Yu Kai was someone he valued highly, and he planned to have Yu Kai take charge of Baidu's entire artificial intelligence team. Unexpectedly, Tan Jincheng snatched the job away from him.

The last-minute decision to quickly invest in Bumblebee was just to cause some trouble for Tan Jincheng, as Bumblebee's main battleground is the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

With 91 Assistant firmly in his grasp and unwilling to sell for $2 million, and given that Gaode Maps and Baidu Maps are absolute competitors, the fact that Gaode Maps is now poaching the high-end talent he values ​​has led Mr. Li to suspect that Tan Jincheng is eyeing Baidu.

After all, Orange Technology is now part of the Tencent ecosystem.

The reason why Tan Jincheng is not personally investing in Didi at this stage is also based on this: Ali is very politically conscious, and if Tan Jincheng were to personally step forward, Chen Wei might not dare to take his money.

Chengwu is different. Although it is also a company controlled by Tan Jincheng, it is now an independent listed company with its own ideas and its own investors.

Investing in Bumblebee can be seen as a targeted action by Mr. Li against Tan Jincheng.

Mr. Li and his company are a very peculiar entity. In terms of foresight, they are the most advanced among the BAT companies. They have plenty of money and are involved in everything, such as online shopping, games, food delivery, and ride-hailing apps, all of which entered the market very early.

But nothing came of it. Baidu Waimai was a formidable competitor back then, but one questionable move made it seem like they had simply given up on the market.

They started investing in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving a long time ago, and it can be said that they invested heavily, almost like going all in, but after many years, they don't seem to have achieved any particularly outstanding results.

Ultimately, they were surpassed by companies like Huawei. When it comes to autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, internet companies actually have an advantage over hardware companies.

Mr. Tan was of course unaware of Mr. Li's targeted investment, but even if he had known, it wouldn't have mattered.

In terms of products, he has no fear of Mr. Li. Gaode Maps has an absolute technological advantage, and Cheng Wu is also a very capable person. Search services were indeed the king in the PC era, but they are just so-so in the mobile Internet era.

In the mobile internet era, each company's ecosystem is becoming increasingly closed. In addition, due to the crackdown on piracy, the amount of content that can be searched on Baidu will only decrease. Even if they catch the wave, it won't make much difference.

Its decline was almost inevitable.

Mr. Li suspected that Tan Jincheng was targeting him, but he was really overthinking it. He had never heard of Yu Kai in his previous life. If he hadn't joined the EMBA program at the business school and met a group of people from Qingmu, he probably wouldn't know much about Yu Kai.

It can only be said that it was a matter of timing and fate.

The offline promotion was carried out in two cities. Tan Jincheng chose to have the leasing company suspend operations due to management issues at Fancheng, so as not to increase the difficulty of Kuaizhi's independence. This was something he had discussed with Chen Weixin and Lü Chuanwei.

Online promotion is also underway. Although the newcomer, Express, is only being promoted in two cities, it is making a strong impact.

The online promotion strategy is comprehensive, including app store launches, cross-promotion, platform advertising, and promotion on Weibo, WeChat, and MiTalk platforms, which has continuously increased the exposure of the Kuaidi APP.

In his offline promotional activities, Zhou Mingyu also pulled off some shady tactics. He obtained the phone numbers of taxi drivers from many taxi companies and parking lots through some gray channels.

Then, they continuously promoted the Kuaidi APP to drivers by sending mass text messages with pictures and attractive text for more than 20 days.

And I must say, the results were pretty good.

These days, there's no such thing as anti-fraud, and real-name registration for mobile phones hasn't been officially implemented. There aren't that many spam text messages either, and most people trust text messages, especially drivers.

Chen Weixing didn't hesitate for long about making Kuaizhi Technology independent.

On the last weekend before National Day, Chen Weixing, who had come to Ningbo again, told Tan Jincheng that he had completed the independence of Kuaizhi Technology, on the condition that he give up certain benefits in Fancheng and hand over the position of CEO of Fancheng.

"Wow, you're quick! What made you so decisive?"

It had only been 20 days since Tan Jincheng had mentioned this matter to him. In those 20 days, he not only made a decision but also completed the separation. This was a company with hundreds of millions of yuan in net profit every year.

Having come to terms with it, Chen Weixin laughed and said, "Haha, actually, making this decision was also an accident."

"An accident? Tell me about it."

"Mr. Tan knows that we make PC games. One day after get off work, I asked the company's employees, 'Do you still play on the computer after get off work?'"

"And guess what? Only two people answered that they still use computers after get off work, but not for entertainment, but for work."

After taking a drag of his cigarette, Chen Weixin continued slowly, saying that this guy looked very refined and wore glasses, but he was a heavy smoker.

"Of course I was stunned. Everyone knew the mobile internet era had arrived, but I didn't expect it to be so fast. Now, most of us in this industry are spending most of our time on our phones. What am I still clinging to?"

Uh, Tan Jincheng was also stunned and didn't know how to answer for a moment.

That's the reason.

"Okay, it's unexpected, but it makes sense; believe me, you won't lose out. Speed ​​will bring you more, at least it will raise your reputation to a level you can't reach in Pan City."

"Haha, no need to comfort me. I was indeed a little conflicted when I made this decision, but that was just an emotional factor related to starting my first company. Besides, I'm a shareholder of Fancheng now, and they're helping me make money."

A seasoned business leader might make a decision arbitrarily due to a certain factor, but if it is actually implemented, it must be after careful consideration.

Chen Weixin's choice of speed was certainly not arbitrary.

With Kuaizhi Technology now independent, Chen Weixin's visit to Ningbo was not only to sign a new equity agreement with Tan Jincheng, but also to discuss future financing plans. He has now essentially taken a 'do-or-die' approach.

If he can't keep up with the pace, he really will have to 'retire'.

After becoming independent, Kuaizhi's equity structure became simpler. Tan Jincheng's ByteDance held 20% of the shares, Chen Weixin held 70%, and Lü Chuanwei and another founder held a total of 10%, of which Lü Chuanwei held 8%.

Compared to Chen Weixin, Lü Chuanwei was even more optimistic about the ride-hailing industry. He essentially went all in with his entire fortune, and the price of his 8% stake was the loss of his villa in the United States and other assets.

Having clarified its strategy, Kuaizhi's immediate priority was to have its own independent server and rebuild its technical team.

Currently, the server is still using Fancheng's, which is usable at the moment as there are not many users. However, it will definitely not work when there are more users. Besides, after becoming independent, it will need to be separated from that server.

In addition, a leasing company needs to be established, and all of this requires financing.

"Delivering 1000 Aion S vehicles will take time, Mr. Chen, please don't worry about that. Anyway, we can still make it at this stage. Let's talk about financing first. Do you have any thoughts?"

Setting up a rental company also involves circumventing regulations. Currently, policies do not allow private individuals to take orders, but it's different if the car is rented from a rental company.

Putting 1000 cars into the market is enough for now, but only Tan Jincheng dares to do it and can afford it. No venture capital firm would buy 1000 cars and put them into the market on its own.

Tan Jincheng is different. Although Chen Weixing is now almost "getting something for free," he will definitely not be able to avoid paying for the 1000 vehicles.

How about choosing one of the BAT companies?

Chen Weixin actually wanted to talk about Alipay. He had discussed this with Jack Ma when he was in the United States, and had also contacted some other venture capital firms. But overall, he felt that Alipay was more suitable because they had Alipay.

"Sure, I think Mr. Chen is probably interested in Ali, right? But I recommend Tencent. Would Mr. Chen like to hear why I recommend them?"

Chen Weixin didn't expect Tan Jincheng to guess his thoughts so quickly.

"Mr. Chen, is your preference for Alipay mainly due to Alipay? Alipay does have significant advantages and is very beneficial for the promotion of Kuaidi's payment system, I admit that. However, I have two reasons why I would not recommend Alipay."

"First, Ali doesn't create traffic, but rather absorbs it. Look at the companies he invests in and acquires; without exception, they all provide traffic to Taobao and Alipay. Choosing Ali means the future of Express will be difficult."

"Secondly, Ali likes to place various managers in the companies he invests in and directly interfere with their operations. Although Tencent is also domineering, they don't do that."

Tencent has indeed changed a lot since the 3Q War, and these changes have made them stronger. WX Pay doesn't have much of an advantage at this point in time, but what about the future?
To put it simply, the choice between Tencent and Ali depends on the founders' definition of the future.

If you want to grow your business and then sell it to Ali, take the money, retire, and enjoy life, then Ali is the better choice. However, if you want to continue building your business, Tencent is a more suitable option.

Furthermore, Ah Li likes to talk too much about politics, which Tan Jincheng dislikes.

"As for the payment issue you're worried about, it's actually easy to solve. I have Orange Pay, Tencent has Tenpay, and if we co-invest, we can also get Shunwei Capital involved, since they have MiTalk."

Express + WeChat + MiTalk, what else does Didi have to do with it?
If Didi has nothing to do with it, then Shuzhijia has nothing to do with it either, right? Maybe the ride-hailing market will become healthier then?

(End of this chapter)