my return 2002

Chapter 386 Third Party Payment License

However, just as the business development of Inspur Group is booming, there are also hidden crises.

That is the third-party payment license. Since Alipay was officially launched in 2003, the online payment business has been welcomed by netizens for its convenient and fast service, and the annual business volume has shown geometric multiple growth.

However, third-party payment is also accompanied by hidden dangers. The higher authorities have never issued third-party payment licenses on a large scale. Except for the third-party payment platform of the "national team", the others are considered illegal operations. If you are not careful, you may go in and step on it. Sewing machine too.

When Jack Ma started Alipay, he told Cai Chongxin that he was ready to go in at any time. Of course, he didn't know whether he would go in by himself or send his subordinates in.

Shen Lang is also facing this problem at present. 360 Payment also does not have a license. It is fine that the upper management did not manage the third-party payment platform before, but in June, the central bank revealed that it will issue the first license in 2011. batch payment license.

For a while, the entire third-party payment platform is in danger, which means that once the first batch of payment licenses cannot be obtained next year, all third-party payment businesses cannot be carried out.

Speaking of which, this can be regarded as the characteristic management of the upper management. Many affairs that pop up first, when the scale is relatively small, the higher-level departments adopt an attitude of turning a blind eye and closing one eye, and let it be discovered. On the one hand, it is due to management considerations The issue of cost, on the one hand, is also the fear that excessive intervention will affect market development.

During this period of time, barbaric development can basically be done as long as it is not illegal, and no one will take care of you.

We often wait until a project develops to a relatively large scale before setting industry standards, issuing licenses, and making it legal. At this stage, we must be careful. Once we violate the rules, we will feel the power of the iron fist of the regulatory authorities.

This is why in China, the first batch of people who eat crabs will take off directly, and the people who come later will step on the pit.

As for the third-party payment license, although Shen Lang has already recruited several shareholders with state-owned assets background to join, it should be no problem, but this kind of thing naturally needs to be foolproof to be at ease.

So since June, Shen Lang has been running around for a third-party payment license. On the one hand, he has contacted the higher-level regulatory authorities, and on the other hand, he has also contacted some other investment institutions with state-owned bank backgrounds through China Resources, preparing to start the second phase of 360 payment. round of financing.

In contrast, Jack Ma is much panicked. It's not that he doesn't have enough contacts, nor that Alipay's influence is not big enough, but that there is a problem with Alipay's shareholder composition.

When he first founded Alibaba, Jack Ma didn’t have much capital, and he couldn’t attract investment in China, because no one believed his business logic. It wasn’t until the Internet economy in the United States improved that Alibaba gradually gained some concern.

But even so, the huge capital required for Alibaba's development still discouraged many investors. It was not until Sun Zhengyi injected capital into Alibaba several times that Alibaba gradually became a little more comfortable.

However, even Masayoshi Son couldn't stand up to Jack Ma's crazy money-burning speed. In 2005, Alibaba received a US$10 billion investment from Yahoo, and its financial situation was completely improved.

But all of this comes at a price. Sun Zhengyi holds more than 25% of Ali’s shares, and Yahoo even holds 39% of Ali’s shares. Jack Ma’s shares in Ali’s management are actually not many.

And when Yahoo signed an investment with Ali, it also signed an agreement. In October 2010, Yahoo will get at least the same board seats as Ali's management. That is to say, it is very likely that Yahoo will parachute executives in the future. Manage Alibaba.

At the same time, what is even more terrible is that while Yahoo controls 39% of Ali, it also controls 39% of Alipay in disguise, because Alipay is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba at this time.

However, in the information disclosed by the central bank, all third-party payment companies must disclose the holding status of foreign shareholders, which frightens Jack Ma.

Because once Alipay is unable to obtain the first batch of third-party payment licenses due to policy reasons, the entire Ali series of products, including Taobao, which has just started to improve its business, will be greatly affected or even go bankrupt.

Jack Ma had no choice but to discuss with Sun Zhengyi and Yahoo. However, how could Sun Zhengyi and Yahoo agree to separate Alipay? Even a fool can see the potential of Alipay. Isn't this poaching their own corners?

Letting Jack Ma talk about it, there is still no progress in this matter. Jack Horse is so angry that he can't turn his face against the largest shareholder and the second largest shareholder.

At this time, Jack Ma envied Shen Lang very much. Compared with domestic Internet companies, the shareholding structure of Inspur Group has always been a wonderful flower. In the early days, Shen Lang did not rely on selling shares to obtain investment, so as to gain market through rapid expansion, but steadily and steadily. , and at the same time use the game business to support the entire 360 ​​ecological chain.

Although the development has been slow, it has been going steadily. Until now, Shen Lang has the controlling stake in all the subsidiaries of Inspur Group, and he alone has the final say.

Although in an interview with some media, Jack Ma once said sourly that this was a stupid way, but in fact he was so envious of it.

But now, Jack Ma has no other better way, he can only continue to negotiate with Sun Zhengyi and Yahoo, and at the same time he called Cai Chongxin to the office.

"We have to find a way. If Softbank and Yahoo really disagree, we can only divest Alipay from Ali in private!"

Cai Chongxin was taken aback: "This is not a trivial matter. If it fails, our reputation in the capital circle will be ruined!"

Jack Ma smiled bitterly: "Do you think we have a better choice now? Yahoo is already dissatisfied with our performance after switching to the Android camp. The Yaba agreement will expire in October. If we can't gain the upper hand, Ali Baba is about to be handed over to the people of Yahoo, look at Yahoo’s current situation, then Alibaba will really be over!”

Cai Chongxin sighed: "Okay, I will make preliminary preparations for this matter first, but it is really not a last resort, so let's not take that step."

In fact, if the performance growth hadn’t been lower than expected after switching to the Android camp, Ali’s management team could still win the support of the majority of shareholders. Unfortunately, the capital market does not look at the process, but only at the results.

After Taobao lost the carrier of the star system, the gap in the mobile market was taken up by JD.com, Meituan and several other group buying websites. The gap in Alipay’s market was directly filled by 360 payment, especially when WeChat came out recently. After that, 360 payment added another payment scene.

On the other hand, Brother Xiao Ma is also having a headache about third-party payment, but it is not because of foreign shareholders, but because of Penguin's third-party payment platform. Tenpay is really a little watery.

Speaking of which, Tenpay didn’t start too late, it has been online since 2005, but no matter how Penguin’s business develops these years, Tenpay is still half-dead.

In order to revitalize Tenpay, Brother Xiao Ma has also used many methods, such as using Tenpay to recharge Q coins, often offering [-]% off, and some even [-]% off during the event, but there are still not many users, and Paipai.com The business has not been done, and Tenpay has become a dispensable existence.

Later, in order to fight against 360 payment, Xiao Ma got a QQ wallet, but the effect was not ideal. Users only used QQ wallet to charge a green diamond for a month at most. The use rate was extremely low. It seems that there are many registered users. But the number of monthly active users is only less than 2000 million.

What is in front of Brother Xiaoma is, Tenpay and QQ Wallet, one is bad, the other is worse, which one should be given priority to obtain a payment license, of course, Brother Xiaoma must strive to get both, but If you can only get one, you have to do multiple choice questions.

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Zhidong suddenly had an idea and said to Xiao Ma: "Why don't we directly integrate Tenpay and QQ Wallet into one company, and open up the interaction channel between products at the same time, so that we can not only integrate users, but also avoid Questions about paying licenses?"

Brother Xiao Ma's eyes lit up: "Okay, this method is feasible!"

The rest of the Internet companies with third-party payment business are also the Eight Immortals crossing the sea to show their talents. Some related people also took advantage of this trend to develop third-party payment business. Naturally, they are not here to grab the market, but to get third-party payment services. Pay for the license plate and exchange it for money.

Shen Lang has also started to prepare for the second round of financing of 360 Payment. Shen Lang did not directly publicize this financing in the venture capital circle, because the main purpose is not to raise funds, but to obtain resources.

But even so, there are still a lot of capital who want to take advantage of this opportunity to participate. Shen Lang's phone has not been stopped all day, and the back cover of the phone became a little hot afterwards.

Shen Nanpeng had been coveting 360 payment for a long time, but Shen Lang never let go, and this time he came to Inspur Group personally to chase and intercept him.

Shen Lang was a little helpless, so he had no choice but to explain the real situation to him. After all, Sequoia Capital in the United States also gave him some help, so it is still necessary to show some sympathy.

"As far as I know, there will be more or less other third-party payment platforms regarding the shareholding of foreign capital. In fact, Mr. Shen doesn't need to be so cautious." Shen Nanpeng still wanted to persuade Shen Lang.

Shen Lang's attitude was rather firm: "It won't work this time, to ensure nothing goes wrong, I can only say sorry, how about this, I will give you a ticket for the third round of financing!"

Although Shen Nanpeng didn't achieve his goal, but in exchange for Shen Lang's promise, he left contentedly.

It's just that other investment institutions were not so lucky, and basically all got rejected.

At the same time, good news also came from the United States. After Su Zifeng officially joined GlobalFoundries, he organized a team to improve AMD's original 32NM process, and it has been confirmed that 32NM chips can be officially mass-produced. TSMC’s 28NM, which is about to be mass-produced, has a process gap of one generation, but the difference in actual use is actually not that big, and it can be made up by design.

The more advanced 20NM process and 14NM process will not make a breakthrough until at least two years later, and there will be at least three to four years before mass production. With this period of time as a buffer, it should not be a problem for domestic chip manufacturing processes to break through 90NM. This basic foundation, such as car chips, server chips, and AI chips, can basically be self-sufficient.

With orders for these application scenarios, domestic chip companies will also have profits to do iterative research and development of technologies, thus forming a virtuous circle.

In July, Huawei, which has been silent, launched the first mobile phone based on the star system-Huawei P1.

Huawei's positioning for this mobile phone is also in the mid-to-high-end market. The price is 3299 yuan. This price is very interesting. It is lower than Xiaomi and Meizu, but it is much higher than some mid-range models.

At this time, Huawei's offline channels mainly rely on mobile operators, and part of the profits from this pricing have also entered the pockets of operators.

However, in 2010, the brand influence of Huawei's mobile phones was not high in the mainland. It was actually a relatively risky behavior to dare to set such a high price.

Yu Dazui also inevitably compared Xiaomi and Meizu during the development conference. This seems to have become a practice in the mobile phone industry, and this naturally aroused Lei Jun's dissatisfaction.

In the evening, an article was posted on YY Weibo, expressing that Xiaomi dared to accept any brand of Pengci.

Shen Lang was holding back his laughter when he saw this Weibo post. He didn't expect Lei Jun to have a hard waist one day. He still remembers that in his previous life, Lei Jun was always told by netizens that he touched other mobile phone manufacturers.

Yu Dazui did not start a Weibo battle with Lei Jun. His energy was devoted to selling Huawei P1 in this way. In fact, he was under a lot of pressure. To create such a product, compared with the previous OEM mobile phone, the sales volume and market share are all given up.

But Yu Dazui still withstood the pressure and took the high-tech route. He was keenly aware of the changes in the market. Although the low-end mobile phone market has a large capacity, the competition pressure is also very high. In a narrow track, only domestic mobile phone brands can squeeze in. Going to more than 30, the market will definitely be reshuffled in the future.

At the end of July, 360 Payment quietly carried out the second round of financing. A total of five investment companies with state-owned bank backgrounds got the ticket, 15% of the shares, and a total of 55 billion yuan in financing.

Both sides are quite satisfied with this amount, but China Resources is the most satisfied. At the beginning, it was only a symbolic investment of 1000 million yuan, but now it has directly increased by hundreds of times. At least it is a thousand times return.

Of course, China Resources will definitely not sell this part of the shares. For a company that is on the rise, no one will sell it unless its own business is failing. Just like Yahoo later, it has to sell Ali shares to survive. It has proved that this company Terminally ill.

(End of this chapter)