If Li Yanhong kept raising the stakes, Cheng Weixing would have no choice but to keep fighting.
"Then speed up our expansion. We’ll use speed to overwhelm their slower pace. Don’t be afraid to lose money. Cheng Weixing is losing 1.2 billion a month and I haven’t said a thing, so what are you afraid of?"
A small smile played on Chen Yansen’s lips as he teased.
Pei Yi smiled knowingly and quickly nodded in agreement. Within the group, Fast Taxi’s valuation wasn’t even in the first tier, but its monthly marketing expenses were the highest.
Not even Orange Technology or Pinbei Mall could burn through money like that!
After hanging up, Chen Yansen paused in thought for a moment before calling in Wang Teng. He instructed him to contact Daniel Ek about integrating Spotify’s music data source into the Moss Smart Speaker, and to add music libraries from Penguin Music, Kugou, and Kuwo to the Alexa Smart Speaker.
There were Chinese people living abroad and foreigners living in China. Although this user segment was small, there was no reason to ignore it.
Besides, a considerable number of users in China enjoyed music from Europe and America. It was hard to say how many more Smart Speaker sales this move would generate, but doing something was better than doing nothing.
「Meanwhile.」
His peace talks rejected, Li Yanhong had spent the last few days searching for investors (or rather, suckers). As soon as DiDi Dache’s subsidies stopped, its average daily orders began to decline, having now fallen to 600,000 per day.
But Li Yanhong felt the risk was too high to invest alone.
Among the three BAT giants, Penguin and Ah Li had both sided with Fast Taxi.
Among state-owned institutions, Huake and Huaxin were putting both money and effort into backing Fast Taxi.
Among foreign firms, Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technology had chosen to side with Fast Taxi.
Very few opportunities remained for Qian Du Network. After a round of talks, only Ping’an and IDG Capital showed any interest in investing. But to Li Yanhong’s fury, the representatives from both companies refused to accept the 8 billion Hua Yuan valuation.
The most they would offer was a valuation of 6 billion!
In other words, the 1.2 billion from Qian Du Network’s Series E investment would shrink by a quarter in less than a month.
Of course, Li Yanhong refused!
The negotiations between the two sides reached a stalemate, with neither willing to back down.
Who would have thought that Junlian Capital, armed with a priority exit clause in their contract, would approach IDG Capital and sell its 8.1% stake in DiDi Dache for 500 million Hua Yuan, at a valuation just over 6 billion.
Zhu Nanli’s motives for investing in DiDi Dache had never been pure to begin with. After Liu Yiqing became the Managing Director of Goldman Sachs Asia, he immediately lost interest in the CEO position at DiDi Dache.
In one move, Junlian Capital made a hundred million and successfully cashed out.
Upon hearing this news, Li Yanhong nearly contacted Xiong Xiaoge of IDG Capital to sell Qian Du’s shares to him as well.
’At least Xiong Xiaoge’s offer is more sincere than Chen Yansen’s!’
But then he thought about Qian Du Network’s LBS division and its O2O strategic layout. With a long sigh, he forcibly suppressed the negative feelings welling up inside him.
’A single setback doesn’t mean anything. DiDi Dache hasn’t reached the point of surrender yet.’
’Qian Du Network doesn’t lack money!’
After weighing his options again and again, Li Yanhong decided to make an additional investment.
The next morning, under his strong push, Qian Du Network injected another 800 million in capital into DiDi Dache, keeping the valuation level with the Series E round.
This time, Li Yanhong didn’t dare provoke Cheng Weixing. He called in Xiang Hailong for a three- or four-hour chat. The core strategy was: don’t go head-to-head with Fast Taxi, reduce subsidies, and use the funds to improve product features and expand the scope of operations.
"Boss, I don’t want to clash with Cheng Weixing head-on either, but every time DiDi Dache’s business expands to a new city, Fast Taxi follows us the very next day, sticking to us like glue," Xiang Hailong said with a bitter smile.
"Focus your efforts on the user experience for both passengers and drivers. Pause the promotional subsidies. We’ll talk again once DiDi Dache has accumulated a sufficient order volume and fulfillment capability," Li Yanhong instructed ambiguously.
In short: reduce subsidies and expand the service area.
Seeing Li Yanhong’s firm attitude, Xiang Hailong knew better than to argue. He was well aware that his boss was already dissatisfied with him; a few more words and his job might be on the line.
In the Qian Du Headquarters Building, there might be someone better suited to be CEO of DiDi Dache, but so what?
’Looking out for my own interests is far more important than the company’s!’
He wouldn’t be giving up his position unless Li Yanhong himself ordered it.
After leaving the office, Xiang Hailong returned to Digital Valley and gathered the heads of all departments and major regions to redeploy DiDi Dache’s Q4 development plan.
Meanwhile, after securing 300 million in Series A funding, Cheng Wei unhesitatingly went into overdrive.
The total number of DiDi Bikes deployed in Yanjing quickly increased from 1,000 to 3,000. At the subway exits and in commercial districts with the highest foot traffic, the shared bikes were everywhere.
Seeing this, a local couldn’t help but remark, "Whoa! Holy cow, I haven’t seen this many bicycles in years. This is really something else!"
The fee for a DiDi Bike was one Hua Yuan for the first 30 minutes. After that, it was an additional one Hua Yuan for every 15 minutes, with no upper limit.
But what Cheng Wei hadn’t expected was that as the number of deployed DiDi Bikes increased, so did the number of stolen bikes.
Out of a total of 3,000 bikes, a count yesterday revealed only about 2,860 remained.
had vanished into thin air!
Cheng Wei couldn’t help but think of the old man with the angle grinder on the first day DiDi Bike launched.
It wasn’t hard to imagine where these bicycles had gone.
’We have to install GPS tracking devices on the bikes,’ Cheng Wei thought to himself. ’Otherwise, once the number of deployed bikes reaches 10,000, just finding them will be a huge problem.’
Furthermore, the first-generation mechanical locks had too many bugs. It was pure self-deception; because each bike’s combination was fixed, users only had to memorize it to ride for free as much as they wanted.
If that continued, how was DiDi Bike supposed to make any money?
At this thought, Cheng Wei made up his mind to replace the mechanical locks with smart locks.
In fact, a third-party company had already offered a technical solution, but he had shelved the idea, considering the cost too high.
Now, if he didn’t make a change, it wouldn’t matter how many bike retrievers he hired.
Without GPS tracking, where would they even look?
...
...
「Hang City, Panzhou Technology Headquarters.」
This was a bicycle factory with an annual output of up to 8 million units. It was equipped with four independent bicycle production lines and painting lines, primarily as an OEM for brands in Europe and America.
"President Hu, a pleasure! And this is?"
In the first-floor lobby, Yuan Zhen, the boss of Panzhou Technology, greeted Hu Weiyi enthusiastically while shaking her right hand.
She was the CEO of OFO Bike. That title alone was enough to earn his utmost respect.
The business model for shared bikes had long since spread throughout the industry. Whoever could land a purchase order from a shared bike company was set to make a fortune.
Who wouldn’t be tempted by production contracts for millions of units at a time?
"Hello, Boss Yuan. I’m Wang Zihao, the COO of OFO Bike."
Wang Zihao, dressed in a sharp suit, introduced himself with calm composure.
Although he was only twenty this year, his dark complexion and sturdy build made him look older than his age—like he was twenty-six or twenty-seven.
"President Wang, hello! Welcome, welcome. Let’s head upstairs and talk," Yuan Zhen said, beaming.
He had to be cautious when dealing with a major client.
"President Yuan, please," Hu Weiyi said with a nod.
Following behind the two of them were several colleagues from the business department and two lawyers to provide support for the upcoming collaboration.
Unlike DiDi Bike’s low-cost strategy, Hu Weiyi’s requirements for the OFO Bike were that its components—the frame, tires, seat, brakes, and so on—had to be sturdy and durable, with the cost controlled to under 400 Hua Yuan.
This was because after being equipped with electronic devices like a smart lock, solar panel, embedded chip, GPS module, and SIM card, the cost would soar to over 500 Hua Yuan.
After hearing Hu Weiyi’s requirements, Yuan Zhen looked troubled.
The old saying "you get what you pay for" was especially true in manufacturing.
To meet OFO Bike’s manufacturing requirements, the material costs alone would be no less than 500 Hua Yuan. The costs for the aluminum alloy frame, reinforced tires, anti-rust chain, and other parts simply couldn’t be reduced.
The two sides debated fiercely all morning without reaching a conclusion.
Yuan Zhen glanced at his watch and invited Hu Weiyi, Wang Zihao, and the others to the cafeteria for lunch, suggesting they could continue their discussion in the afternoon.
"No, thank you, President Yuan. We have other things to do this afternoon," Hu Weiyi politely declined.
Yuan Zhen understood her meaning. After a moment of deliberation, he said, "President Hu, I can downgrade some of the components for you. My lowest offer is 460 Hua Yuan per bike."
"I’m sorry, but to be frank, that price doesn’t meet our company’s bottom line for cost control," Hu Weiyi said, shaking her head.
"President Hu, I’m not going to lie. You could search the entire East China Region and you wouldn’t find a lower price," Yuan Zhen said.
"Then I’ll go to North China," Hu Weiyi said with a faint smile. She waved goodbye to Yuan Zhen, got into a Mercedes E350, and told the driver to head to the next bicycle factory.