King of Capital

Chapter 91 Spinning Baidu

It is a rare good weather in Beijing in September with warm sunshine, gentle breeze and clear sky.

But the leaders of Alibaba's Beijing branch had no intention of appreciating it. They all stood at the airport arrival gate with serious faces, waiting quietly as the group's boss was about to come to Beijing.

A moment later, Mr. Ma led the team into view. The two sides simply shook hands and exchanged a few words. With a low pressure, they drove straight to the AutoNavi Map headquarters in Wangjing, Chaoyang.

In May, the group spent US$10.5 million to acquire a 2.94% stake in AutoNavi Software at a valuation of US$28 billion, with the intention of building a local life service ecosystem.

As a result, the situation changed suddenly just three months later. Baidu secretly stretched out its perverted hands and tried to abduct the young wife that Ali was about to marry. This was simply intolerable.

When Mr. Ma learned the news last night, he was so angry that he almost dropped his sandalwood Buddha beads. He rushed to Beijing to find out what happened, both for his young wife and for the ongoing war of online ride-hailing services.

"Mr. Li from Baidu didn't come in person. I heard that they wanted to acquire the company in full, and the valuation was more than 10% higher than what we gave in May... There has been no change in the map and navigation market in the past few months. AutoNavi has no growth and only maintains its original market share of about 30%..."

There was a lot of chattering in his ears, but Teacher Ma was not interested in listening. He just folded the Buddhist beads in his hands and closed his eyes to rest.

Currently, AutoNavi is the number one in the map navigation market, accounting for 30% of the market share, Baidu accounts for 20%, and other companies of varying sizes, including Google and Apple, account for the remaining half of the market. In this field, Tencent and Alibaba are both entry-level elementary school students.

The former chose to rely on the huge social user traffic pool to develop map products on their own, while the latter chose to spend money to buy the first place in the market.

As the concept of local life becomes increasingly popular, map navigation has become an indispensable traffic entrance and an important part of the closed loop of the ecological chain. Dianping, online travel and even local dating social software all have map navigation application scenarios.

The three Internet brothers collectively known as 'BTA' have used all kinds of methods to enter this field. So far, Baidu, which entered the market the earliest, has received the highest return.

Last month, Baidu ambitiously invested 020 million US dollars in the group buying website "Nuomi". Baidu's Mr. Li privately boasted that he would connect maps with the concept to break the online and offline barriers, and regard "local life services" as Baidu's ticket to the mobile Internet era. He even shouted out the slogan of spending billion yuan to give Nuomi a transfusion and smash Meituan.

As a result, before they even farted, they wanted to acquire AutoNavi in ​​full and use the map as a traffic entrance to fight in the online car-hailing field?
Just as Xie Jingxing felt that Mr. Li was a smart guy whose every move was hard to figure out, Teacher Ma also couldn't figure out what this guy was like.

"I heard that Baidu wants to do mobile payment?" he asked hesitantly.

The subordinate next to him immediately responded: "They are rapidly recruiting a technical team with professional backgrounds related to mobile payment."

“Mobile payment… local life… online ride-hailing…”

Teacher Ma suddenly remembered something and asked again: "Didn't Baidu acquire a mobile software distribution platform two months ago?"

"Yes, it happened in July. We acquired 19 Wireless for US$91 billion." The subordinate answered truthfully.

Mr. Ma's face was wrinkled. Mobile phone distribution in July, local life in August, online car-hailing and mobile payment in September. The fucking strategic direction is adjusted once a month. Baidu is like a spinning top that spins and jumps with its eyes closed. What on earth is it trying to do?!

He quickly turned his Buddhist beads to calm himself down. No matter how much trouble Mr. Li made strategically, his tactic of stealing the base was still relatively correct.

If Baidu takes over AutoNavi and occupies more than 50% of the market share of map navigation, with the support of a large amount of user traffic, Bumblebee will really have a chance to fight with Kuaidi for a few rounds. Alibaba must take back AutoNavi, and he will offer an acquisition condition that AutoNavi cannot refuse.

"Why didn't Robin Li come out in person to talk to AutoNavi?" He turned to think about the negotiation strategy later.

The subordinate was stunned: "Maybe Mr. Li thinks it would be best to take over AutoNavi, but it doesn't matter if we can't? After all, Baidu Maps is the second in the market and has a good growth momentum."

"Then let him rest!"

Teacher Ma was so angry that he laughed. He used all the tactics to steal the home but was too reluctant to talk to AutoNavi in ​​person. He is such a troublemaker. He even wants to get involved in the mobile payment field. It's really funny.

…………

"We don't have a high demand for AutoNavi. Let the two companies compete. Even if Alibaba acquires AutoNavi, we can still cooperate." Pony Ma on the other end of the phone was as gentle as ever.

Xie Jingxing smacked his lips regretfully: "The key is that no matter whether Alibaba or Baidu acquires AutoNavi, they will integrate other small online car-hailing products and use map navigation as a traffic entrance to create an online car-hailing aggregation platform."

"We internally believe that this will not bring much direct competitive pressure to Didi, and from a broader perspective, the market needs competition to be vibrant." Pony Ma said calmly.

"...When did you, Tencent, become so visionary?"

"I have to thank you for that. The WhatsApp acquisition has given us a lot of inspiration. We cannot absolutely monopolize an industry. It is better to let competitors participate and jointly expand the market size."

"Boss Ma, we are talking about work, so let's not tell fairy tales for now."

Xie Jingxing was very upset and didn't want to persuade him anymore, so he changed the subject and said, "Didi crashed again, and we need technical support from Tencent."

"I will arrange a technical team as soon as possible to go to Didi's Beijing office for support at the latest the day after tomorrow. WeChat Pay has also crashed." Pony Ma's tone finally showed a slight fluctuation.

Tencent has recently been embroiled in a technology dispute. The historic acquisition of WhatsApp abroad was equivalent to a big free advertisement, with a large influx of customers in a short period of time causing the server to crash every few days.

WeChat Pay was rushed into service in China and connected to Didi in advance. With the support of the subsidy war, the number of users doubled. Almost 80% of payment transactions were realized through Didi, and the server crashed again and again. Didi was the same. The million in days was not just a slogan. It was real money that was spent to expand the scale of the online car-hailing market rapidly, and the server load limit was broken every day.

The current situation is that Didi collapsed, and taxi users and drivers quickly flocked to Kuaidi. When Kuaidi collapsed, all users returned to Didi. The collapse of both sides allowed Bumblebee, which originally had the smallest market share, to pick up a lot of market share for free.

Xie Jingxing thought for a moment and consoled him, "Actually, Baidu is the most anxious. You and Mr. Ma have spent a lot of money, but at least they have captured the mobile market share. Mr. Li has spent a lot of money with you, but he can only watch the market size increase. We don't know when his mobile payment will be available."

"It won't take long. We'll be able to get it out before the end of the year." Brother Xiao Ma said with a bit of gloating.

At present, Baidu is stealing Alibaba's shares and snatching AutoNavi. Its strategic plan of connecting local life and mobile payment with maps seems good, but it is still a step slow.

By the time Baidu had come up with mobile payment, Tencent had already used online ride-hailing as an entry point and, together with Alibaba, had ignited the entire market.

It is the beginning of September now. With 100 million in ten days, the two parties will burn a total of more than 2 billion by the end of the year. If Baidu wants to follow through to the end, it will be more than 3 billion.

Not only Xie Jingxing and Mr. Ma couldn't figure it out, he also couldn't figure out why Mr. Li wanted to join in. Is the concept of "local life service" alone worth playing with?

Tencent internally estimates that the money-burning war will last until the end of the year at most, and the mobile payment market will reach its short-term market size limit. By then, after Baidu and Alibaba have divided the market, the more than 1 billion yuan burned by Baidu will simply become a sponsor of an unwanted company.

Xie Jingxing thought for a moment and reminded: "I think you should not be too optimistic and pay more attention to foreign countries."

"Are you talking about Uber?" Pony Ma understood immediately.

"If I were Robin Li, I would just guide Uber into China if you guys pushed me into a corner. Now he is spending money with you, and then you will be forced to spend money by him."

Xie Jing Xing said in a gloomy tone: "Being soft-hearted and soft-hearted may not be all bad, what do you think?"

There was no sound from the other end of the phone for a long time. Mr. Li's personality led to Baidu being a typical "group decision-maker". Anyone in the company could make a comment, so they often made a series of indecisive and brain-twisting operations that were difficult to understand.

However, this does not mean that the people who make decisions are really stupid. Those who are qualified to speak out in Baidu are all smart people. They are at the ceiling level in the workplace and their IQ is definitely enough.

When it comes to group decision-making, if it fails, it’s an idiotic operation that no one can understand; if it succeeds, it’s an amazing operation that no one can understand.

If Baidu really takes the lead in bringing in the foreign company Uber, and then successfully takes over AutoNavi, the money-burning war in the online car-hailing market will have no end, and developments will be beyond everyone's expectations.

"You should come to Pengcheng and persuade me in person to acquire AutoNavi." Xiao Ma Ge took a long time to come up with a tentative sentence.

Xie Jingxing was very tired, and said bluntly, "You are the ones who want the mobile market, I just want online ride-hailing."

He made Tencent acquire AutoNavi simply because he regarded Pony Ma as his friend. Later, AutoNavi relied on its aggregation platform to snatch 30% of the market share when Didi held an absolute monopoly. This is a very scary figure.

It is hard to say whether Baidu is doing a good thing or a bad thing if it really uses its magic to take down AutoNavi and introduce it to Uber, increasing the intensity of competition in mobile payments and thus promoting the rapid development of the online car-hailing market.

For example, maybe in the end, Uber China, Didi, and Kuaidi will merge into one and go public in the United States before the international conflict intensifies, then he will definitely make more money.

So Xie Jingxing's mentality is very simple. It's okay to give a few reminders from a friend's perspective, but it's unnecessary to consider Tencent wholeheartedly. Who's son is he if he dies or not...

Pony Ma was made hesitant by him, and the two chatted about nothing. Facebook missed out on WhatsApp and made a full effort to acquire Snap. WhatsApp was in a state of ecstasy due to the censorship by the European Union and India, and so on.

Finally, he said hesitantly that Tencent needed to reconsider and hung up the phone.

Xie Jingxing understands this very well. There are many reasons why Tencent does not want to participate in the acquisition of AutoNavi. First, it wants to create Tencent Maps on its own with the support of a huge social traffic pool. Second, if Baidu and Alibaba fight each other, AutoNavi will inevitably be priced higher.

Tencent just completed a $235 billion merger and acquisition overseas. My waist is aching and I really don’t want to get involved.

Secondly, half of what Pony Ma said is sincere. It doesn't matter if either Alibaba or Baidu gets AutoNavi. Everyone will still cooperate, and it can directly improve market competitiveness.

The larger the size of the online ride-hailing market, the larger the mobile payment market will be. The two complement each other, and Tencent and Alibaba have a tacit understanding in this regard.

"Mr. Xie, it's time for us to go visit Jiaotong University."

Xie Jingxing was thinking about the various chains of interest arrangements and combinations when Song Anli walked into the office and reminded him.

He leaned back and forth in his soft office chair, grabbed a few nuts on the table and threw them into his mouth: "Where did you buy these nuts?"

"I brought it from home. Is there any problem?" Song Anli was puzzled.

"Next time, don't just buy your favorite food, buy some of my favorite food too."

Xie Jingxing discussed this with his right-hand men. Song Anli blushed. The assistant job not only requires playing the role of a lover and a fangirl, but also playing the role of an old married couple... Liu Qiming didn't say what kind of nuts he liked to eat...

(End of this chapter)