I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 624 Zhu Fang's "Cooperation" and the Two Horses' "Secret War"

This one
Fang Qingye was unsure whether Zhu Yunlai knew the truth.

But on second thought, Zhu Yunlai is the general manager of CICC, which is an investment bank and naturally involves futures business. His sudden visit to talk to him about these things today is definitely not without reason.

After careful consideration, Fang Qingye replied, "I don't think ADM and Louis Dreyfus were necessarily scammed. At least they made a lot of money in the futures market in the early stages. It's just that they were too greedy and wanted to make a profit in the spot market as well."

"As for me, I did participate in this hype, but I'm not the ringleader at all," Fang Qingye firmly denied.

These days, being a gang leader rarely ends well, especially being the ringleader.

Zhu Yunlai chuckled and didn't press the matter further. Instead, gazing at the winter scenery of the nursery, she suddenly remarked:

"2014 is about to pass, and a new year is coming. As Wang Anshi said, 'The sun shines brightly on thousands of households, and new peachwood charms replace the old ones.'" At this point, Zhu Yunlai turned to look at Fang Qingye: "I hope to cooperate with you, Chairman Fang, in the future."

"Thank you. Me too."

Zhu Yunlai didn't specify what the collaboration would entail, but Fang Qingye understood that everything she had said so far revolved around "futures."

The domestic and international commodity futures markets will be turbulent next year (2015), with major capital groups engaging in a world-class battle, which may present opportunities for cooperation.

"Oh, by the way," Zhu Yunlai said as they walked, "I heard that your company, ByteDance, is currently in its Series B funding round?"

"Yes, the financing institutions and the amount have been determined. I will convene a shareholders' meeting to vote on it when I return," Fang Qingye said truthfully.

"Unfortunately, CICC was still preparing to invest."

"What? Mr. Zhu, are you also interested in these internet companies?" Fang Qingye asked in return.

“Yes, COFCO’s Mingcheng Financial and China Construction Bank’s Jiantou Huake have both invested in Ele.me, and CICC can also invest in ByteDance. You know, China Construction Bank and CICC are both controlled by Central Huijin Investment Ltd., so we’re practically brothers,” Zhu Yunlai said with a smile.

“ByteDance will definitely need to raise more funds later. If you’re interested, Mr. Zhu, I’ll give you a call then,” Fang Qingye said.

"can."

"President Zhu, let me preface this by saying that," Fang Qingye was about to remind him when Zhu Yun said, "Does this mean we're only allowed to make financial investments? Don't worry, CICC only focuses on securities, foreign exchange, public fund sales, and equity investments. We're not good at operating internet companies, so we won't interfere."

"Hehe, then our cooperation will be very pleasant," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"I think so," Zhu Yun replied, then suddenly sighed, "State-owned capital missed out on investing in the first generation of internet companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu; we can't afford to miss out on the second generation...wait, where are the two Jack Mas?"

Fang Qingye also noticed that neither of the two Mr. Mas were in the courtyard.

"They're probably admiring the flowers," Fang Qingye said.

The two were indeed admiring the flowers, standing in front of the orchid greenhouse, each holding a steaming cup of tea, looking at the lush green orchid leaves inside.

“These orchids are nice, and this tea is nice too,” Ma Yun said.

Ma Huateng nodded.

“WeChat Pay has been growing very rapidly recently,” Ma Yun suddenly changed the subject.

Ma Huateng smiled slightly, picked up his teacup and took a sip: "If users like it, we're just going with the flow."

“Alipay’s transaction volume for Singles’ Day this year was 571 billion yuan.” Jack Ma looked at the other party, “but in the area of ​​mobile payment, you are indeed catching up quickly.”

"That's how the internet is; it changes quickly, and it's not just Tencent that's involved. Now, isn't there another company?"

As Ma Huateng spoke, he looked around the nursery again.

Ma Yun understood what he meant.

"Eleme is still small and not worth worrying about."

Ma Huateng shook his head. "Back then, weren't your Alibaba and my Tencent quite small?"

Ma Yun was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed heartily: "The payment industry pie is big enough to accommodate Alipay and WeChat, so adding another one like Baopay won't make a difference. We don't need to fight to the death."

Ma Huateng nodded: "That's what I think too."

“Then how about this—” Ma Yun turned to look at Ma Huateng: “Alipay integrates with WeChat, and WeChat Pay integrates with Taobao. That would be a win-win situation.”

Ma Huateng paused for a moment, then shook his head: "Taobao has been blocking WeChat links for more than just a day or two."

"The rules are negotiable."

"Does Alipay want WeChat's social network?" Ma Huateng asked Ma Yun calmly.

Ma Yun laughed: "Are you afraid we'll do socializing?"

“I’m not afraid.” Ma Huateng laughed. “But WeChat’s moat isn’t so easy to cross.”

The two fell into silence again.

After Ma Huateng spoke up again, he said, "How about we talk about something simple first? Like a collaboration between Didi and Kuaidi?"

“That’s fine,” Ma Yun responded immediately.

Just then, he suddenly heard footsteps, turned around and saw Fang Qingye and Zhu Yun, and immediately greeted them with a smile.

"Chairman Fang, General Manager Zhu, Pony (Ma Huateng) and I are discussing the merger between Didi and Kuaidi. What do you think of it?"

The two companies are indeed merging!

Fang Qingye thought to herself.

Also, seeing that these two have been here for quite a while, and their tea has gone cold, what have they been talking about?
At this point, Zhu Yunlai said with a smile, "From an investor's perspective, a merger is certainly a good thing. The subsidy war you're currently waging is burning through too much money. Isn't the merger of Ele.me and Meituan a good example?"

"Chairman Fang, don't you think so?" Zhu Yunlai looked at Fang Qingye again.

"Yes." Fang Qingye nodded.

However, the fate of Didi after the merger has been fraught with difficulties.

The tea and conversation lasted for more than two hours before everyone left, and the courtyard became quiet once again.

It was purely a private gathering, a chat over tea with no real topic, but it quickly appeared online.

The title was "First there was Ding Lei's Wuzhen dinner party, then Fang Qingye's Nanxin tea party." There was also a photo taken with a mobile phone, showing a group of bigwigs drinking tea and chatting.

Who took this photo?
There's no way to investigate this, but it's not exactly a private matter either.

What troubled Fang Qingye was that his unremarkable nursery had suddenly become popular, and strangers would come to curiously spy on it. This forced him to strengthen security and build a guard room at the entrance of the nursery and arrange for people to be on duty.

The hype surrounding the Wuzhen Summit is gradually fading, and New Year's Day is just around the corner.

According to Fang Qingye's work and plan, after New Year's Day, the first thing to do is to convene a bidding review meeting for the Tuofang and Jinghai buildings to determine the contractors who will design and build the two buildings. Then, he will go to Yanjing to hold ByteDance's shareholders' meeting.

This afternoon, Fang Qingye was looking at documents in his office at Jinghai Bank. He had been quite busy lately, so he had given up his usual afternoon relaxation at the nursery.

Let's talk about it after we're done with this busy period.

Hearing a knock at the door, Fang Qingye said "Come in," and the door was pushed open, whereupon a beautiful young woman in a woolen coat walked in.

Luo Yun, General Manager of Huacheng Development.

(End of this chapter)