Reborn: Billionaire in College

This is not the first time that Xiao Ma Ge has dealt with Chen Pingjiang. He knows that this guy has many tricks and it is hard to guard against him.

I kept thinking about why Chen Pingjiang wanted to take over Didi's shares.

Is he cheating himself?
This idea was rejected by Pony Ma not long after it came up. Chen Pingjiang didn't need to do this, as he didn't have much money. Tencent only invested 2500 million US dollars in Didi in the B round.

It may be a lot for other people, but is it a big deal for Chen Pingjiang?

Self-imagination is the most deadly.

Chen Pingjiang looked at Xiao Ma Ge in silence for a long while, then smiled and said, "Don't guess. Now even I don't know what to do. I just want to keep a backup plan. There is no need to seize the equity for now. We can just sign a proxy holding agreement."

Brother Xiao Ma smiled and said, "No problem, just do as Mr. Chen said."

Chen Pingjiang currently has no plans to do anything with this equity, he is just planting a nail.

However, Brother Xiao Ma reacted quickly and withdrew early, which gave Chen Pingjiang an opportunity.

The current online ride-hailing market is very twisted.

Quitting is actually a wise choice.

…………

Beijing.

Wang Gang smiled bitterly and spread his hands, saying to Cheng Wei: "We don't have much money in our account, so we have to start the C round of financing this morning. But I consulted Tencent, and they said they are not very interested in Didi's C round of financing."

Cheng Wei was a little surprised: "Ma Huateng came to visit us three times before, and he was so eager to help us win this battle, why did he back down at the critical moment?"

Little did they know that Teng Xu had chosen to run away and sold his shares to Chen Pingjiang.

Wang Gang said: "We don't have that much time to wait for Tencent's response, so let's contact other companies as soon as possible."

The online car-hailing war with Kuaidi consumed a lot of Cheng Wei's energy and also caused Didi to suffer huge losses.

Sometimes, he is not so confident about the future.

The main thing is that after going through so much trouble to kill the express delivery company, we still have to face the covetous Gaode.

In Cheng Wei's view, AutoNavi was like a giant watching two ants fighting with great interest.

But now that things have come to this, it is impossible to stop even if you want to.

Even if they want to stop, the capital they represent does not want to stop.

If they withdraw now, all their previous investments will be wasted and even more hopeless.

Although the merger has been discussed several times, there has been no substantial progress.

The attitudes of both parties were very clear: the merger was acceptable, but no one was willing to give up the leadership of the new company, let alone take the money and leave.

So, things got stuck here.

They knew that it would be bad for everyone if they continued to fight like this and that merger was the only way out, but they were all evenly matched at the moment and everyone hoped that the other side would give in.

It is foreseeable that unless there is external intervention, the merger process between the two companies is still relatively far away.

At this time, Wang Li, the director of the operations department, hurried in and said with a happy face: "Baidu has just announced that Baidu Maps has also launched a taxi-hailing service."

"Haha, this is good news. AutoNavi has always been a big concern for us. Now that Baidu has stepped in to stop them, our pressure is much less. We can avoid the bad luck of working for AutoNavi to the greatest extent."

…………

The launch of the taxi-hailing service on Baidu Maps has caused quite a stir.

This made Chen Pingjiang shake his head and smile bitterly.

Old Li, Old Li, he always follows without saying a word.

This was the case with the group buying business before, and also with the Zero-Balance Wallet business later on. Is the map-based taxi-hailing business still coming along now?

Do you really think that I, Chen Pingjiang, am made of mud?
Cheng Congwudao: "The current taxi market has basically formed a pattern of 'AutoNavi aggregation platform + Kuaidi Didi + transportation companies'. I didn't expect Baidu to disrupt the situation at this time."

At present, Gaode's aggregation platform has monopolized 60% of the taxi-hailing orders. Kuaidi and Didi, who are desperately spending money to attract customers, only occupy % of the market together. The remaining % of orders are divided among hundreds of online car-hailing companies across the country.

But now that Baidu has entered the market, it will obviously bring changes to the market, shaking the monopoly of AutoNavi gathering platform and making the following online car-hailing companies uneasy.

Chen Pingjiang nodded. "Robin Li's move is not wrong. If I were him, I would do the same. After all, Baidu Maps and Amap are 25 to 8, so being an aggregation platform is just right. Moreover, online car-hailing platforms are asset-light, which saves the hard bone of transportation companies."

Chen Pingjiang's words were not groundless.

Kuaidi and Didi, which mainly adopt the self-operated model, must face higher compliance costs than the Gaode gathering platform.

The Ministry of Transport requires that online taxis must have "three certificates in one" for the platform, the driver and the vehicle. That is, the online taxi platform needs the "Online Taxi Booking Business License", the driver needs the "Online Taxi Booking Driver Certificate", and the vehicle needs the "Online Taxi Booking Transport Certificate". If the driver is found by the transport management department to not have the latter "two certificates" while dropping off passengers, he will be fined a high amount ranging from 1 to 3 yuan.

But Gaode does not have such troubles, because the orders are ultimately sent to the transportation company to be completed.

The platform does not need to purchase vehicles or recruit drivers, nor does it need to apply for "license plates" across the country, thus saving a lot of operating costs.

At the same time, the aggregation platform does not need to be involved in person, but can directly connect to online ride-hailing companies through SaaS service providers, which will increase the efficiency of reach.

Although Baidu entered the market the latest, it still has the ability to "surprise attack" in the online car-hailing market. After all, Baidu Maps has huge traffic, which is the best weapon.

"Interesting, the situation suddenly becomes complicated."

Chen Pingjiang smiled playfully.

With Baidu's entry into the game, the forces must both check and balance each other and cooperate with each other.

"This involves a game of strength, resources, traffic, services, prices, users, drivers, public relations and many other aspects."

Small platforms naturally welcome the launch of Baidu’s gathering platform. Connecting to one more platform means they will get more orders.

Gaode not only has to guard against the growth of Didi and Kuaidi, but also has to actively win them over.

This is like a big brand like Three Squirrels, which relies on Taobao and Tmall while also actively developing its store on JD.com. The brand does not want to rely on a single online shopping platform and hopes to develop its own market.

However, Tmall can only express its dissatisfaction with Three Squirrels opening a store on JD.com, but it cannot actually do anything. If it forces Three Squirrels to choose between the two, it may violate antitrust laws.

After thinking carefully for a while, Chen Pingjiang waved to Cheng Congwu.

"Our main competitor is naturally Baidu, because it is a gathering platform like us; the next competitors should be Didi and Kuaidi, because these two companies always want to expand their brand influence, develop their own apps, and divide up the taxi users. So, the next step is to select some promising small self-operated platforms, and discuss investment or cooperation, and gradually support them, so as to eventually form a situation of 'fake platform, real self-operation' or 'half platform, half self-operation'."

Cheng Congwu nodded, thinking that this was indeed the best way.

Since Baidu wants to be an aggregation platform, AutoNavi cannot openly ask its online ride-hailing companies not to join Baidu.

The only option is to support a group of online car-hailing companies to boycott Baidu, so that users cannot get a car on Baidu even after trying for half a day.

Aggregation platform, aggregation platform, if there are no online ride-hailing companies or very few online ride-hailing companies settled in, the situation will be broken.

…………

Beijing.

Li Yanhong was full of confidence and felt that he had made a good move this time.

He discovered a pattern: as long as he followed Chen Pingjiang closely, even if he couldn't get the best results, he would still be able to get a share of the pie in the end.

This was the case with Zero-Balance Wallet at the beginning of the year. Although no big money was made, at least the market was opened up.

Following Chen Pingjiang is definitely better than wandering around like a fly with its head covered.

Baidu has missed many important strategic opportunities in the past. Missing them does not mean that Baidu did not participate. In fact, Baidu often actively participated, but it was not attentive enough and lacked the determination to occupy an important position.

Baidu has always felt like it can't even keep up with the heat in these years.

Angels are also known in the investment world. They often spend a lot of money to acquire a shabby company, but after the acquisition, it will go bankrupt in no time.

Aren’t the most obvious examples Baidu Nuomi and 91 Assistant?
Over the years, Li Yanhong has become numb to losing. He has failed in everything he does, and he has even started to doubt himself.

If Baidu wasn't such a big company, any other company wouldn't be worth his efforts.

Especially since 2012, Baidu's stock price has been falling again and again, and it has driven Mr. Li crazy.

On countless late nights, Robin Li in the Baidu Building had no intention of going home. He was different from his usual calm self and became a little anxious.

Not long after Baidu's market value reached its peak, it experienced a rapid decline.

Li Yanhong was reflecting, but this time, he did not blame his enemies or his opponents. He preferred to believe that he lost to himself, to his own bets - the cash cow business "bidding ranking" and "medical advertising" that he had built up with all his heart... unexpectedly one day turned around and hit him hard. Li Yanhong was still a little unconvinced. He believed in feng shui and planned the layout, but he was careful about everything, but even a wise man can make mistakes, and finally the ancient prophecy of 2012 became the turning point of Baidu's rise and fall.

Regardless of whether the above scenario eventually plays out, 2012 may really mean "2012" to Baidu.

Up to now, Baidu has not only fallen below the important support level of $105, but also fallen below the $100 mark, and has set new lows one after another.

Li Yanhong is under a lot of pressure from shareholders.

At the beginning of the year, Baidu replaced Tencent with a market value of US$460 billion to become the second largest Internet company in China. However, the situation changed dramatically in just a few months.

First, Baidu was attacked by 360 in the search field. After 360 withdrew from the search engine, Baidu's stock price fell from $133.66 to $111.44 in two weeks, a cumulative decline of 16.6%. So far, Baidu's stock price of more than $90 has fallen by about 8% from mid-August, and its market value has evaporated by more than $30 billion.

The sudden weakening at its peak is not without warning.

For so many years, Baidu relied on its monopoly in the search market, but ignored and lost opportunities to expand into other areas. Especially after Google withdrew from mainland China in early 2010, Baidu, which thought it had won the battle, became even more arrogant. Some netizens likened it to a "long paid vacation", which is a very appropriate metaphor. However, since it is called a vacation, it is destined that the good days will eventually end.

In the field of social networks, Baidu lacks any strong actions.

Although iQiyi has been created in the video field, it is now just a small company.

There is no need to talk about group buying.

Look at Google, which was defeated by Baidu. It has achieved success in video, email, social networking, operating systems and browsers.

Many things are on the surface. Robin Li cannot escape blame for Baidu's decline.

However, after following Chen Pingjiang and making two correct moves in a row, Li Yanhong felt like the confident self again.

"Our mission this year is to build a good aggregation platform. We will do whatever Chen Pingjiang does. He has AutoNavi Maps, and we have Baidu Maps. He has Renren Weibo, and we have Baidu Tieba. He has WeChat, and we have search." At the meeting, Li Yanhong, who felt that he had found his direction, even spoke with a bit of complacency. "In short, our stock price cannot fall any further!"

His confidants who sat below him had already become numb over the years.

I listened carefully to what Li Yanhong said and was too lazy to even speak out my own thoughts.

The main reason is that Robin Li is not a communicative person and lets his subordinates make decisions on everything.

If his subordinates do something right, he won't say anything. If his subordinates do something wrong, he will record it and then explode after a while. This is the kind of person who puts a lot of psychological pressure on his subordinates. His subordinates can only do things right and not wrong.

There is also a joke circulating in the market, "Before Baidu Vice President Yu Jun was about to leave, Li Yanhong tried to retain him many times, hoping that Yu Jun would propose conditions to keep him from leaving. Someone suggested that he should propose conditions to Yu Jun himself to show his sincerity, but Li replied: If he refuses, how embarrassed I will be?"

During this period, all the employees suffered from PTSD caused by Lao Li.

Ever since the stock price plummeted, Mr. Li has begun calling for learning about wolf culture, but Baidu does not have the fund to do so, so there is no point in learning it.

What's more, if Robin Li himself does not change, it will be difficult for Baidu to truly change.

Baidu executives also privately compare Robin Li and Chen Pingjiang.

They found that Robin Li was the kind of person who was very greedy for power, which could be seen from the fact that he firmly held the positions of chairman and CEO.

Look at Chen Pingjiang, he has so many industries under his name, and he succeeds in every one of them.

The gap between the two sides is not a little bit.

"Mr. Li, now that we have launched the taxi aggregation platform, we must compete with AutoNavi for more resources from online taxi companies and ensure that all transportation companies are connected to the Baidu platform."

Li Yanhong smiled and said: "No problem, we can subsidize the platform, 5 yuan per order, half to the user and half to the platform driver, to compete with AutoNavi." (End of this chapter)