Reborn: Billionaire in College

Just as Cheng Congwu said, Uber's entry into China is such a big event that Didi and Kuaidi are more anxious than AutoNavi.

Right now these two companies are fighting each other to the death, and it will be even more difficult for Uber to come along now.

Other small online ride-hailing companies are like a bunch of lice that don't itch. If the sky falls, there will be a tall man to hold it up. They have Gaode behind them, so no problem.

For AutoNavi, what it does after all is a platform. If Uber wants to become a leader in China, it will inevitably have to cooperate with AutoNavi.

Both Cheng Wei and Lu Chuanwei were overwhelmed.

There is Gaode, which is both an enemy and a friend, putting pressure on the company, and now Uber comes to disrupt the situation.

“I really don’t know what to say about Alipay. On the one hand, they invested in Kuaile, and now that Uber has come in, they have provided Uber with a payment channel. Otherwise, I don’t think Chen Pingjiang would have paved the way for Uber, and it would have been difficult for Uber to come in so easily.” Cheng Wei is extremely wary of Uber.

In fact, Uber contacted Cheng Wei at the beginning of the year and expressed its intention to invest and acquire a 40% stake.

Although Didi Chuxing was still relatively small, Cheng Wei had the confidence and ambition to reject Uber.

After being rejected, coupled with the butterfly effect of Chen Pingjiang's press conference, Uber decided to enter the Chinese market on its own.

The Chinese name is Uber.

Wang Gang smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Northwest Shanxi is in a mess. The current situation is like a tangled ball of string. We must sort it out. We can't continue to fight a price war so quickly. We must unite the forces that should be united and find new opponents."

Cheng Wei looked over and said, "Foreigner, tell me in detail, how do you deal with this?"

Wang Gang asked back: "Who do you think is our biggest competitor? Kuaidi, Uber or AutoNavi?"

Cheng Wei smiled and said, "You want me to say? It must be AutoNavi, but it's too high, and its identity is very mysterious. It's both an enemy and a friend. It can bring us orders and divert orders, and it occupies the No. 1 position in the market. Kuaidi is the weakest, because they have to rely on Ali for blood transfusion. Once Ali cuts off funds, it won't survive for too long. As for Uber, it's a global chess game, so funding should not be a problem, and it can also rely on profits from other regions to subsidize the Chinese market."

"The force that can be united is naturally AutoNavi, the one that can be swallowed up is Kuaidi, and the one we have to deal with is Uber. If we merge with Kuaidi, we can get the final say, but if we merge with Uber, it may not be the case. They have a big appetite, and AutoNavi will have to beg them."

Wang Gang nodded: "It's the same as what I thought, so let's continue to focus on the Didi Kuaidi merger."

"Well, I plan to recruit Liu Qing to be in charge of the merger with Kuaidi." Cheng Wei mentioned a name: "She also invested in Kuaidi at Goldman Sachs, and she is the daughter of Mr. Liu, and has a good relationship with Mr. Ma."

The two hit it off immediately.

A quick merger is a natural thing, as conditions in all aspects are relatively mature.

We have discussed mergers before. We are all Chinese companies, so we should face the outside world with one voice at this moment. We are the weakest, so we don’t have to worry about losing our voice after the merger.

The most important thing is that Wang Gang and Kuaidi’s angel investors are old acquaintances.

After making up their minds, the two acted quickly. Wang Gang went to contact the other end, and Cheng Wei went to invite Liu Qing.

Not long after, Liu Qing verbally agreed to join Didi.

The pie that Cheng Wei drew is pretty good.

A month later, Liu Qing officially joined Didi as COO, responsible for the company's new private car business, brand public relations, business cooperation and other work.

Before Liu Qing joined the company, she was already helping Cheng Wei negotiate a merger with Kuaidi.

But he was soon rejected.

Lu Chuanwei is not stupid either. He doesn't want to watch the fight to the end, so he surrenders now.

He also wants to be the head of the new company.

At this point, Cheng Wei suffered his second defeat.

.........

Chen Pingjiang stood in front of the window, looking at the hustle and bustle of the traffic outside. The cup in his hand kept spinning, making a rubbing sound.

Behind him, Li Xi asked tentatively: "Mr. Chen, someone is saying that Uber is applying to be connected to the AutoNavi platform?"

Chen Pingjiang smiled and turned around and said, "I just received the news. Does anyone outside know about it?"

Li Xi said: "It's not hard to guess. Uber didn't have a smooth start this month. If they want to get more orders, they have to find us."

After Uber held its press conference in Shanghai, it moved quite quickly.

Unlike Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, which both started by tapping into the taxi market, Uber initially took compliance into consideration and adopted a daily payment method, renting the entire capacity of the taxi from a rental company in Shanghai, allowing drivers to wait on the road to take orders, and even if there were no orders, they had to be on standby in the app at any time.

But this method is difficult to sustain. Uber found that this method was too loss-making. After all, renting a car and a person for a day for a few hundred dollars may result in a loss of half of the daily income of a single car.

Because they don't have enough orders!
Therefore, it is reasonable to want to connect to the Gaode ride-hailing platform.

Cheng Congwu couldn't decide on such matters, so the problem was thrown to Chen Pingjiang, who was also hesitant.

There are several points of hesitation.

1. If Uber is rejected, Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache will certainly raise their hands and applaud. But this is not what Chen Pingjiang wants? Killing Uber is a good goal, but it does not mean to cultivate Didi Dache, which is equivalent to supporting competitors.

Otherwise, if Didi follows the original script, after merging with Kuaidi, it will swallow up Uber and eventually grow into a towering tree. It will inevitably compete with AutoNavi in ​​the end. Wouldn't that be Chen Pingjiang aiding the enemy?

2. Accepting Uber would be like opening a gap for Uber, allowing Uber to grow faster. It is hard to say what the future situation will be like.

The key point is that the conflict with Didi is a conflict among the people, which is different from that with Uber. If Chen Pingjiang's actions deviate the process and Uber eventually kills Didi, wouldn't he become a sinner?

"After all, why haven't Didi and Kuaidi merged yet?" Chen Pingjiang shook his head. There was still no opportunity for the two companies to merge.

Hearing Chen Pingjiang's murmur, Li Xi was startled and blurted out: "Mr. Chen, are you planning to do this?"

Chen Pingjiang raised his eyebrows. "The merger of these two companies is inevitable. They wanted to merge, but they just couldn't reach an agreement over control. However, the ideas of their founders are not important in front of capital. Capital only cares about profits. The merger of the two companies can bring enough profits to capital, and there will be more funds and means to deal with Uber. So, what we have to do is to make a big difference by using a small effort, and intervene in the merger of Kuaidi and Didi to get control."

really!

Li Xi was shocked to hear the news.

My boss really dares to think.

Didi and Kuaidi have each raised so much money, and there are a lot of shareholders behind them.

Now his boss actually wants to interfere and take control. It is simply a fantasy, but it sounds exciting enough.

That's right!

Chen Pingjiang's ultimate goal is to take over Didi and Kuaidi and defeat Uber, but it is still difficult to implement at present.

But he must do it.

Otherwise, once Didi and Kuaidi merge and become a behemoth, Uber may not be able to beat the local players.

By then, Gaode will have a hard time.

Therefore, either I have to break up their merger or I can get enough votes in the merger to use for my own benefit.

Chen Pingjiang only had one chance, which was the merger of Didi and Kuaidi. If he missed this chance, once Didi and Kuaidi merged, AutoNavi would have to watch the rise of the giant.

Li Xi frowned: "Mr. Chen, this is probably very difficult, right? It's not that it's a matter of funds, but this merger will eventually subvert the model of AutoNavi."

There is some reason for Li Xi to think this way.

If AutoNavi wants to gain control, it must merge its taxi business with Kuaidi and Didi.

As a result, orders on Gaode's ride-hailing platform will be largely directed to Kuaidi and Didi, which means that other online ride-hailing companies below the top will no longer get orders and will gradually die.

In the end, what remained of AutoNavi was the company formed by the merger of Kuaidi and Didi.

In that case, there would be no point in calling Amap a “platform”.

Chen Pingjiang said indifferently: "Take a long-term view. By that time, the domestic market will be ours. It won't matter whether AutoNavi is a platform or not."

Li Xi was stunned, already frightened by Chen Pingjiang's generosity.

What a fantastic idea.

Horrible business thinking.

But the more he thought about it, the more exciting it became. At that point, Chen Pingjiang would have another unicorn company under his name, although the equity of this company was somewhat dispersed.

Chen Pingjiang has been thinking about the logic of this matter since the day Uber entered China, and now the plan is gradually becoming more complete.

If things remain the same, although Gaode will still be a ride-hailing platform, Didi has already become the dominant force, and the online ride-hailing market will form a pattern of two giants competing for supremacy.

Everyone’s market share will be around 50%.

But if such a merger is completed and Chen Pingjiang gains control, there will only be one dominant online ride-hailing company in China, and Chen Pingjiang will have more room to carry out capital operations.

By making the pie bigger, Chen Pingjiang's income will be higher than before.

What is more crucial is that it has gained the right to speak in the domestic online car-hailing market.

There was almost no cost or effort involved.

There is no need to fight, burn money, or invest. Just wait and enjoy the ready-made benefits.

When talking about this point, Li Xi tactfully did not continue asking, because every sentence that followed was a highly commercial secret and he did not want to take the blame.

Just watch quietly this drama of the snake swallowing the elephant!
If the operation is successful, this merger case will be included in the case analysis courses of major business schools.

"Then should we call President Cheng over to inform him? After all, he is still the CEO of AutoNavi. Shouldn't we also listen to his opinions?" After a long time, Li Xi said slowly.

Chen Pingjiang nodded: "We should ask Lao Cheng to come over and see what he thinks. I wonder if he agrees or not."

Li Xi laughed when he heard this.

What's there to disagree about? Once the goal is achieved, the new company controlled by AutoNavi will become the No. 1 in the domestic online car-hailing industry, or even the only one.

Let alone a market of hundreds of billions, even two or three hundred billion is normal.

And Gaode paid almost nothing, or very little. (End of this chapter)