2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 841 A Battle Between Two Rich Kids
"Stop bragging. It's good that the cars are selling like hotcakes. It's okay if the delivery time is delayed a little. There's nothing we can do about it."

"Rushing to deliver the car is a headache too. Times have changed, brother."

When a consumer makes a decision to buy a car, if you ask him what he cares about most, Tan Jincheng believes that delivery time is definitely a very important factor.

Previously, it was a seller's market, and consumers didn't have many choices. They could only wait or pay extra, and were exploited by 4S stores.

But with increasingly fierce competition and a growing number of car models to choose from, consumers may not be willing to wait for you.

Not everyone has the fan base that Xiaomi has; some people who can't wait for your car will turn to other OEMs instead.

According to Weilai's plan, apart from customized models, the delivery time for all of its main market-oriented models will be shortened to four to six weeks. As long as the delivery time is fast enough, it will be able to grab more orders.

This requires the manufacturing department to make good use of production capacity.

"Tell me what's going on with Pinduoduo? At this rate, it won't be long before they have over 100 million users."

"What else could it be? It's just the same old thing. We're targeting the lower-tier market. If you want to invest, just wait for the Series B round."

At this time, Tencent had not yet invested in Pinduoduo, but once they did, it didn't feel like an investment at all; it felt more like a partnership with Huang Zheng to start a company. The level of resource allocation was something that many of Tencent's internal projects couldn't achieve.

"This is a pretty interesting project. You caught it again, kid. By the way, why didn't you take me with you this round?"

"You have no shame. If we followed your style of acquiring shares, we would have entered in the Series A round. How would others compete? We only need a small share."

Tencent's strategic investments aim to acquire as much equity as possible, ensuring at least a 10% stake after the IPO. Even their private placement in Orange Technology resulted in a 10% stake. Over the years, they have also increased their holdings in the secondary market, currently holding 11.78% of Flash Technology's shares, making them the second-largest shareholder of Orange Technology.

This is quite similar to Ahri, who is also used to taking more shares.

"Hey, isn't it rumored in the market that you can make money by following your venture capital? I want to experience that kind of treatment too."

"Forget it, you've made enough money already; alright, go talk to General Manager Huang, I'm still in the workshop right now."

Pony Ma has clearly developed a strong interest in Pinduoduo, which is good; getting him involved earlier will also help alleviate some of the workload at Orange Technology.

In addition, Pinduoduo is indeed worth paying attention to. Besides having so many powerful backers behind it, there is another very crucial factor in Pinduoduo's success, namely the Shanghai Stock Exchange government.

Back then, Ahri originally planned to stay in Shanghai. In order to keep Ahri, and Ahri also intended to stay in Shanghai.

At that time, they asked Lao Ma a question: what should be done if counterfeit goods are sold on e-commerce platforms, and how should Ali (Ali) handle it?

Old Ma arrogantly said he wouldn't handle it and wouldn't pay attention to consumer complaints, which made the Shanghai authorities hesitate. It was this hesitation that led Ali to return to Hangzhou.

Ali's attitude caused some concerns for the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which at the time still primarily relied on offline thinking.

However, as everyone knows, what happened next surprised the Shanghai Stock Exchange officials. It turns out that this thing has really been fine all these years.

The emergence of Pinduoduo provided an opportunity for the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It's just selling counterfeit goods, it's just competing in being low-end, who doesn't know how to do that? When the rapidly developing Pinduoduo met the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which needed a star internet company, both thrived.

Rumor has it that if Pinduoduo were to seriously handle all the complaints it has accumulated, it would take 20 years to finish.

"Don't hang up yet, let's chat a little longer. Tell me how you got in touch with President Huang and President Duan. I know you have a good relationship with Lao Ding, but that shouldn't be enough reason for you to contact Huang Zheng, right?"

"Haha, you can guess for yourself, or we can talk about it next time we meet. The Internet Conference is coming up soon, isn't it?"

There are many internet conferences, but the one Tan Jincheng mentioned is clearly the second World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen in mid-December.

Compared to the first edition, the second edition was better prepared and received more attention.

It is jointly organized by the State Internet Information Office and the Zhejiang Provincial Government. It is said that the person in question will personally attend and give a speech. Preparations have been underway since mid-October.

After thinking about it, Pony Ma realized that it was indeed the case. By the end of the year, they could obtain more data from Pinduoduo, which would allow them to conduct a comprehensive evaluation.

"That's true. We can talk about it in more detail later. Let's have a meal together this year too."

Last year, Ding Sanshi's dinner party, which brought together three generations of internet professionals, caused a sensation and trended on social media for several days.

Having his own territory and being in high spirits lately, Little Ma naturally wants to set up a gathering of his own.

"I'm fine with it, since I don't have to pay for it anyway."

"Alright, it's settled then. I won't disturb you while you're patrolling your territory."

After hanging up the phone, Brother Ma seemed lost in thought.

In the internet industry, most people categorize Tan Jincheng as belonging to the Tencent system, and there's nothing wrong with that view. However, Pony Ma obviously doesn't think it's that simple.

Tan Jincheng, whose core businesses are e-commerce and gaming, holds a rather delicate position in the internet industry.

It's true that Tencent can provide a lot of traffic for his two core businesses, but thinking you can control him is obviously wishful thinking. In Pony Ma's opinion, Tan Jincheng doesn't belong to any camp.

Some of them are independent entities like NetEase and Sohu. They may not seem large in scale, but they have their own unique way of surviving.

This is especially true in recent years, with strategic partnerships with star internet companies such as Bitauto, 36Kr, ByteDance, and Xiaomi, its own third-party payment system, and Gaode Maps, which currently serves the world's largest Chinese map service market.

Aside from its weakness in the social networking field, Tan Jincheng's internet business has formed its own unique industrial chain, making it impossible for other companies to control it.

The partnership with Tencent has filled the gap in Orange Technology's social networking capabilities. If Pony Ma thinks that this will allow him to control Tan Jincheng's internet business, he is really overthinking it.

The cooperation between the two parties is more of a win-win model.

The sudden launch of WeChat red envelopes, the deployment of express car services, and the acquisition of MiTalk all benefited from the cooperative foundation between the two parties. Because of such a neutral partner, Tencent gained a significant advantage in its competition with Ali.

His contribution to achieving such a significant advantage this time is undeniable.

"Brother Ma is quite considerate; he shows his gratitude indirectly after receiving some benefits."

Accompanying Tan Jincheng on his inspection of the workshop was Zhang Xupeng, his good friend who came to report on the cooperation between a certain group and Dianping. The triumphant Ma had finally secured the deal with the group.

"Not bad, he's easier to deal with than Lao Ma, and he's less calculating."

Tan Jincheng was well aware that Xiao Ma was chatting with him about this matter with a certain group, and that he had plenty of ways to learn about Pinduoduo.

"It's probably because of his professional background. Old Ma used to be a teacher, so his teaching style is a bit more didactic."

Zhang Xupeng clearly understands his old friend's personality. From a personal perspective, neither of them really likes dealing with teachers, mainly because they both love to lecture.

"Flash Technology's stock price is expected to rise for several days after the market opens. The valuation is quite high after this merger."

During the National Day holiday, the biggest news in the internet industry was the merger of Meituan and Dianping. The reason why the word "merger" is used instead of "acquisition" is mainly because the share swap ratio between the two parties was 5:5.

In the final round of valuations, Meituan's valuation remained at $70 billion and Dianping's at $40 billion. Judging from their eagerness to make a deal, Meituan was willing to lower its valuation to pursue a merger, indicating that Wang Xin really didn't want to play with Ali anymore.

It's still the same merger of the industry's number one and number two companies: co-CEOs, unchanged personnel structure, and Huaxin Capital still serving as the financial advisor. There are no changes from previous major mergers.

"Hehe, the internet industry really knows how to play the game. They just manipulate the financial statements and the valuation more than doubles."

The merged company is valued at $150 billion, a significant increase from the combined valuation of the two companies at $110 billion, clearly in preparation for the next round of financing.

"That's right, our small investment has increased tenfold in less than a year."

LOL. FlashTech's current market value is around 160 billion yuan, while its 1% stake in a certain group is worth nearly 10 billion yuan in RMB. Even so, you can only consider this as the beginning.

"Just you wait and see, these shares might one day be worth half of our company's market value."

After thinking about it, Zhang Xupeng had to admit that Tan Jincheng was right; the valuation systems of the two were not the same concept at all.

"This is a pleasant surprise for us. If the company's growth falters in the future, we can reduce our shareholding to make the financial statements look better."

"It's not impossible, but this time Little Ma and Wang Xin got what they wanted, and Old Ma is going to be upset again."

In the case of Meituan and Tencent, Ali and Tencent played different roles. From a corporate governance perspective, Wang Xin switched sides to escape Ali's control, indicating that Ali had little control over Meituan.

Tencent's influence on Dianping is incomparable to that of Meituan. In addition to Tencent itself, its capital partners, such as ByteDance's advertising platform and Sequoia Capital, also hold shares in both Dianping and Meituan.

In addition, in terms of business cooperation, Meituan was willing to lower its price to cooperate with Tencent, which is obviously because it values ​​Tencent's traffic. Even Ele.me, which originated from campuses, has been able to grow by Tencent's traffic.

"This time it's different from the merger of Express and Didi. It's said that both sides support the merger, but in reality, it's just that Ali was kicked out."

"That's roughly how it can be understood. Also, Dianping gave up its voting rights and decision-making power in Ele.me."

After the merger, Ali's status in Meituan changed from a strategic partner to a financial investor, which was a bit of a blow to Jack Ma this National Day holiday. However, the biggest blow should be to Nuomi and Ele.me, whose positions have become quite awkward after the merger of these two old rivals.

Since the group-buying wars began in 2010, Meituan and Dianping have been bitter rivals. They fought for five years without either side being able to defeat the other, but no one expected them to merge.

Currently, in the O2O or group-buying market, Meituan, Dianping, and Nuomi occupy almost 80% of the top three positions. Before the merger, it was a battle between the three BAT companies.

This merger not only ousted Ali from the game, but also put Baidu in a very awkward position.

After the merger of Baidu and its subsidiaries, Li Keqiang told the media that he would invest 200 billion yuan to aggressively enter the O2O industry, which meant investing heavily in Nuomi.com.

Another company in a very awkward position is Ele.me. Tencent has invested a lot in Ele.me through Dianping and its own series of investment partners. Although Dianping's shares have been diluted to almost nothing after several rounds of investment, it still retains voting rights and decision-making power.

Ele.me did not participate in this merger, and Dianping quickly relinquished its voting rights and decision-making power within Ele.me, which raises serious questions about its stance.

"That's normal. If the two companies merge, Ele.me's strategic importance will be reduced. Although Dianping won't remove Ele.me's interface, it will definitely be integrated with Meituan. In addition, its priority will definitely be higher than Ele.me's."

"What will happen to your shares in Ele.me?"

"It doesn't matter, someone will take over eventually. Ele.me will definitely maintain its independent development, but they will definitely need to find new strategic shareholders. Tencent has given up on them, so they can only look for Ali."

As is well known, Ali is quite generous when it comes to acquisitions; if you're willing to sell to them in full, they'll really pay you.

"Actually, if it weren't for selling a few cars, I wouldn't want to invest in group-buying websites or ride-hailing apps. They burn through too much money."

The primary market and the secondary market are somewhat different. Taking stocks as an example, the secondary market is more free. Even if you buy the stocks of your arch-rival, there is nothing they can do. After that, you just need to hold them, and the profit or loss is predetermined.

In the primary market, such as some popular financing rounds, if you just want to make a simple financial investment, people may not be willing to take you along.

It's not as simple as investing 1 million and making 100 million as the media portrays it. To obtain high profits, you must make sacrifices. Each round of investors has its own responsibilities and obligations.

"It is indeed a money-burning game. To put it bluntly, it's just a game of musical chairs. It's much more practical for us to just sell products honestly."

He was in charge of the investment with a certain group. From the moment they came into contact, he felt a little uneasy. This time, the investment institution seemed to treat money like it was nothing, with the amount in units of hundreds of millions, and in US dollars.

Tan Jincheng pointed to the busy workshop and laughed, "You can't say that. Each has its own advantages. Let's not talk about solving employment issues, but at least it has boosted the economy. Without these capitalists burning money, our car sales would be much lower."

Since September, the supply of cars in Weilai has fallen short of demand, and delivery dates have been repeatedly postponed. A large part of the reason is that Didi and Uber are competing fiercely. In addition, the three major food delivery websites have also purchased a lot of electric vehicles from Shanchi.

In recent years, physical businesses have indeed benefited greatly from the internet boom. Those that have successfully transformed have made a fortune. Especially in the early stages, internet companies not only burned money on subsidies to meet their own development needs, but also made joining their platforms almost free.

Take Pinduoduo as an example. Its entry requirements are now almost the same as those of Taobao in the early 2000s. The subsidies are quite substantial, and any brand is welcome. This gives a lot of room for small Taobao shop owners who are struggling to survive.

The biggest advantage of these internet platforms is that they were very generous and had a lot of money in the early stages, providing substantial subsidies and giving many ordinary people an opportunity to make money.

The same applies to ride-hailing, food delivery, and other similar platforms.

"Take our cars for example. In addition to the direct boost to sales from the ride-hailing industry, there is also the economic effect driven by the high income in the industry."

Needless to say, when you have money, you spend it.

On the third day after Meituan and Dianping's conflict, Ele.me's CEO released an internal email aimed at clarifying external speculation about Ele.me.

The email contained three main points: First, it reiterated that Ele.me did not participate in the merger and will continue to develop independently in the future. Second, Dianping remains one of Ele.me's shareholders, but its share has decreased after multiple rounds of financing, and it has also given up its board seat and voting rights after the merger.

The third and most important point is that Ele.me, Meituan, and other food delivery platforms will continue to maintain a fierce competitive relationship.

Although the outside world generally believes that the most important thing is that Dianping gave up its voting rights and board seats in Ele.me, Tan Jincheng believes that Zhang Xuhao should have been expressing the third point the most.

The competition ahead remains fierce. With a strong foreign player already gone, he must quickly reassure the team in order to avoid being completely passive in the upcoming food delivery competition.

Zhang Xuhao, born in 1985, was able to compete on equal footing with Wang Xin, who was as shrewd as a monkey and had fought in the group-buying war, which is enough to prove his ability.

"A business battle between two rich kids."

"What do you mean? You don't think Nuomi is a good company? Old Li said he would invest 200 billion."

"Haha, forget about Lao Li. What project has he actually succeeded in besides searching? Besides, when the eldest and second eldest fight, it's always the third eldest who gets hurt."

"If Old Li heard you say that, he'd be furious."

"What's there for him to be angry about? It's true."

Almost all of the people who started the business with Lao Li have left, shining brightly in various industries. Ultimately, it's due to the company's management mechanism.

Compared to Lao Li, Lao Ma was in a worse mood.

The defection of a certain group to the enemy has dealt a heavy blow to his new retail plan. With the complete collapse of the group, Ali is already considering withdrawing his investment from the group.

At the same time, they also set their sights on Ele.me, which was gradually falling out of favor, and sought cooperation with them.

Like Little Ma, Tan Jincheng is also in high spirits this month.

The construction of the branch in Shanghai is progressing rapidly, and the construction of the power battery factories in Lingang Industrial Zone and Liyang is also progressing well. Weilai's power battery production capacity is beginning to enter a period of explosive growth.

Tesla's $40 billion order with Xuanwu Battery is already halfway through this year, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the order will be delivered by next year.

A new round of battery supply contracts with Tesla is already being prepared.

In addition, as a leading enterprise in China's new energy vehicle and power battery industry, Weilai New Energy Academician and Expert Workstation is under construction and is scheduled to be unveiled in 2016.

This project is a collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The establishment of the postdoctoral station will greatly promote Weilai's reserves and improvement in new energy technologies.

2015 10 Month 17 Day.

Outside the special care delivery room of Beicang District People's Hospital, Tan Jincheng was waiting anxiously.

"Stop spinning around, it's making my eyes blurry. It's the second child, what's there to worry about?"

"Hey, I'm just anxious, not worried."

Today, his and Gu Qingqing's second child is due, a daughter.

The name has already been chosen: Tan Jinqin.

It's a homophone of his name and Gu Qingqing's name.

Outside the corridor of the VIP delivery room, a large number of people were waiting, including Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing's families, hospital leaders, and even some representatives from the district.

Tan Jincheng's anxious and uneasy appearance was somewhat unbelievable to them, and extremely rare to see.

Father-in-law Gu Hongshun and mother-in-law exchanged a smile, but a hint of regret was also visible in their eyes.

Gu Qingqing is an only child. If Tan Jincheng hadn't appeared, given her family's economic situation, they might have even had a son-in-law who moved in with them.

When Gu Qingqing found out she was pregnant, her son-in-law said that if it was a boy, he could take the surname Gu. This made the elderly couple very happy, and they praised their son-in-law for being so open-minded.

It's a pity, she's a girl.

Each generation has its own ideas, which Tan Jincheng understands. He doesn't really care what surname the second child should have; many powerful figures' descendants even change their surnames specifically to protect them.

But as for my daughter, let's forget about it.

"What a lucky child! He was born to inherit a fortune of hundreds of billions, a super-rich second-generation heir."

Outside the corridor, several visiting representatives were whispering among themselves. These were people who couldn't squeeze in, but being sent here already indicated that they had a relatively close relationship with the Tan Jincheng family.

"That's right, they were born with everything."

In the recently released Forbes China Rich List, Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing ranked fourth with a net worth of 1109.7 billion yuan. The three people ahead of him are Wang Mutou, who has been enjoying great success in the past two years, and the two Mas.

Behind him is Lei Jun, a key partner of Tan Jincheng, whose Xiaomi valuation has soared, ranking fifth with a net worth of 838.2 billion yuan.

Despite the stock market crash, Tan Jincheng's net worth has almost doubled compared to last year, thanks to the addition of a listed company, making him the fastest-growing billionaire besides the richest man in China.

Among the list of only four billionaires, his age of 30 and his wife's age of 28 stand out.

Besides showing off on the domestic rich list, Tan Jincheng also appears quite impressive on the global rich list, with a net worth of US$178.4 billion, ranking 51st on the global rich list.

Born into a super-rich family, isn't that what a super-rich second-generation heir is?
(End of this chapter)