Chapter 129 Who is the Father and Who is the Son

Thanks to the medicine sent by Liu Qing, by mid-October, Xie Jingxing's cold had recovered, and the typhoon disaster had passed after leaving behind devastation.

However, the online ride-hailing industry is still in turmoil. On October 10, Didi announced that it had completed its Series D financing. The specific financing details are unknown, and the media speculated that the post-investment valuation was as high as US$17 million, an 8% increase compared to the valuation of the previous round of financing more than a month ago.

As soon as this news came out, it once again added fuel to the hot Internet venture capital circle. Didi is far ahead in maintaining the highest financing record for domestic startups, and even its strongest competitor Kuaidi can't even see its taillights.

People with bad intentions said that Xie Jingxing was crazy and that Pony Ma was tricked by him into rocking with him, in order to create a big case to rival WhatsApp.

In fact, this round of financing was led by Liu Qing. This woman was much more ruthless than Xie Jingxing. Didi's post-investment valuation in this round was as high as 10 billion US dollars. It transferred 12% of its equity and raised 1.5 million US dollars.

西柚资本领投5200万美元拿到5%股权；华兴新经济、H Capital、CPE源峰三家以每1%股权1400万美元的价格瓜分7%股权。

Liu Qing somehow convinced Tencent to give up on following the investment in this round, and used his personal connections to attract three leading venture capital institutions to join the partnership. Grapefruit Capital enjoyed the right to follow the investment and made a follow-up investment at a low price.

In this way, Tencent will be able to obtain a higher share in Didi's next round of financing; Didi will introduce three new investors in one fell swoop to balance the equity distribution and increase corresponding invisible resource support; Xie Jingxing's previous support for Didi's equity restructuring and other series of actions will reap rewards.

In summary, everyone is happy, and the equity structure is delicately balanced: Jinshajiang and Huaxing's several small shareholders hold a total of 15.3% of the shares.

Taihe holds 15.2%, Xiyou 9.5%, CCB 9.1%, the founding team 28%, the option pool 8%, and Tencent 14.9%.

Taihe Pomelo Group continues to maintain its position as the second largest shareholder. The founding team and the option pool hold just 36% of the shares. Subsequent equity restructuring to an AB share structure is imminent.

On October 10, Didi completed the full acquisition of Bumblebee at a package price of US$22 million, and Liu Qing quickly started the equity restructuring work.

Baidu is the biggest victim in this transaction. It had burned through 20 million US dollars in the previous bloody battle in Shanghai, but now the entire company is only sold for 20 million, and it has lost so much that its pants are barely curling up.

Another investor of Bumblebee, 5Y Capital, is slightly better, but this project is destined not to appear in the company's official website introduction page. Venture capital has always been a one-man show at the expense of thousands of soldiers, and only one out of ten projects is considered successful.

As for the remaining nine huge pits where people had fallen and died, they could only quietly wipe the blood off their faces and happily say that it was okay. After all, it was easier to cheat investors out of their money only when they had confidence.

At the same time, Didi and Bumblebee formed a marriage. Deng Wei took the money and was unwilling to be eliminated. She turned around and wrote a short essay in the circle of friends to be sarcastic to Li Yanhong. A big guy, an unexpected person, jumped out inexplicably and acted cheaply.

—— Jia Yueting, nicknamed "Returning to China Next Week" by people in the industry, made comments on the online ride-hailing industry in his circle of friends, saying that the sharing economy is an area that can change the world, but it is very regrettable that several leading companies currently fighting in the industry have no spirit of sharing, openness and mutual assistance.

It seems that it is standing on the moral high ground, upholding the sense of responsibility of a great entrepreneur, and is ready to try to change the current situation of the industry.

Considering Deng Wei's background of fighting with Tudou.com and several old video websites such as Sohu and LeTV, Jia Yueting's statement seems that there may really be follow-up. As the father of Faraday, we should give him some respect.

I just don't know from what angle he will make his approach. At present, the internal conflicts of Yidao Car have not exploded yet, and Baidu will not give up Yidao easily.

Xie Jingxing was laughing as he watched Li Yanhong's encounters one obstacle after another. Then, Chief Operating Officer Zhao Dong, unwilling to be left out, followed Deng Wei and jumped out to disrupt the situation.

In an interview with reporters, he said: We have always had good communication with government regulators. They said they don't want to kill taxi apps, but to regulate the entire taxi market. We will actively cooperate with the government's requirements and better adapt to the needs of the market and government supervision.

Everyone knows that what the regulatory authorities are regulating is malicious competition. When the relevant departments’ talks ended in failure and Didi continued to go its own way and make big financing and mergers and acquisitions one after another, his words sounded particularly disgusting.

And at the end of the interview, the criticism was directed at Xie Jingxing, implying that the internal competition in the online car-hailing industry is completely dominated by certain powerful investors, and peers are helpless.

This was not the first time that Xie Jingxing had been taken advantage of by this guy. In an impatient manner, he responded in an interview with New Fortune Magazine that if the online ride-hailing platform could not obtain financial support from investors, it would turn around and come up with twisted ideas from the user side.

On the evening when the press release of the exclusive interview was released, Liu Qing quickly called and criticized him for being cautious in his words and actions. Then, in an active public relations attitude, she promised that as long as the regulatory authorities clearly stipulated that online ride-hailing services could not increase prices, Didi would immediately cancel the price increase function.

Time passed day by day in the chaotic quarrels, and in the blink of an eye it was the end of October. With the intensive holding of various related industry public activities at the end of the year, the quarrels became more and more intense.

First, at the annual financial summit held by the financial magazine "China Business Network", the deputy director of the Institute of Finance of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences mentioned that the frequency of internal financing in the domestic financial system has increased too fast, and the traditional financing market has a tendency to develop towards the concept of "shadow banking" abroad.

The Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China took the opportunity to reiterate the focus of financial reform next year.

Compared with the two leaders' calm and steady approach, the two expert professors from University of International Business and Economics and Guangdong University of Finance were much more sharp in their words and directly named Mr. Ma.

The general meaning is that Internet finance has not caused an impact on a global scale, but only in China. It is not Mr. Ma who made Alipay so awesome, but the unique financial system in China that made him successful.

Internet finance must have a strong platform to provide bottom-line supervision and risk control. If we only look at the various so-called big data credit finance innovations, products such as P2P wealth management and Alipay will ultimately end up as bubbles and then collapse.

Xie Jingxing felt his scalp tingling when he heard this. The experts and professors these days have a rather wild and unrestrained temperament.

As expected, during the tea break the two expert professors were besieged by many of Ma's followers, who almost said to them, "You two pedantic sour chickens, if you can do it then do it, if you can't, stop talking nonsense."

Xie Jing acted as if it had nothing to do with him and ran to the senior leader to avoid interviews with reporters. He was not interested in Internet finance at all.

This industry is really not something he can get involved in, and there is no need for him to get involved, at least for now.

Just as he was chatting and laughing with senior leaders about macroeconomics, China Business Network awarded him the "PE/VC Leader of the Year" award.

This thing has no gold content, but it was taken by a young man in his twenties who had just started out, surpassing many experienced people.

Xie Jingxing instantly helped the two expert professors to attract all the firepower, and he engaged in verbal battles with all the idiots with a fake smile.

[When I was 22, I completed a $235 billion cross-border merger and acquisition. What about you? ]

When "First Financial Daily" put Xie Jingxing's response on the headlines the next day, causing an uproar, he rushed to Beijing to attend the China International Finance Academic Summit hosted by the Central University of Finance and Economics.

The theme of the academic financial summit was less exaggerated, and the theme revolved around the monetary system, market liberalization and internationalization, and inflation. Financial reform was slowly emerging at an irreversible pace, and Xie Jingxing could already see the explosion of the securities market next year, and at the same time he felt inexplicably powerless.

The financial summits held one after another in recent days have proved that there are smart people in the industry, and there are quite a few of them. However, all of them are powerless against certain foreseeable risks. As long as we move forward, they are bound to happen, and there is no way to retreat or avoid them.

Liu Chih-Ping and several old acquaintances of Juntai also attended this influential summit. After the meeting, he organized a small gathering to discuss the issue. Everyone agreed that funds should be prepared as early as possible, as next year's money-burning war in the venture capital circle will enter the bloodiest year in the history of domestic business.

Online car-hailing, online travel, K12 education, food delivery, bubbles are floating in the wind...

After staying in Beijing for two days, time entered early November. Xie Jingxing returned to Shanghai to attend the Global CEO Development Summit and met many protagonists who would be on the money-burning battlefield next year.

"Mr. Xie, nice to meet you. I've heard Yiming mention you before."

A middle-aged man with a pair of round glasses and a slightly bald head greeted me.

Xie Jing Xing nodded slightly with interest and jokingly said, "Boss Wang, do you need investment?"

"...No wonder Yiming said that Mr. Xie is so decisive and efficient." Wang Xing was caught off guard and laughed.

Xie Jingxing didn't take it seriously and continued, "Cheng Wei and Zhang Yiming are both from Longyan. I heard that you are too. If you can invest in Meituan, you can probably make a story of 'Three Heroes of Longyan' come true."

"Mr. Xie, if you really have any ideas, I will contact you when Meituan needs funds." Wang Xing responded politely.

Zhang Yiming went to Huaqing Jiayuan Community to start a business because he was there. The two had a good personal relationship and often exchanged entrepreneurial experiences with each other. He started his business early and had rich experience and qualifications, so he was regarded as the big brother.

Another fellow villager from Longyan, Cheng Wei, came to Didi with his business plan before starting his own business, hoping to ask the big brother for some advice. He only gave a two-word evaluation at the time - garbage.

Now seeing that Alibaba and Tencent have all entered the market, and Xie Jingxing has single-handedly promoted Cheng Wei to become the biggest dark horse in the venture capital circle this year, it is impossible for him not to feel disgusted.

"I was attending an event in Beijing a few days ago. I was hungry at night and ordered takeout. I found that Meituan also launched a takeout product. Mr. Wang has a keen business vision. I am very optimistic about the prospects of Meituan." Xie Jingxing said lightly.

Wang Xing was annoyed and hurriedly explained: "It's just a pilot project in Beijing. The food delivery market is too small and too slow. GrubHub (Gaopeng) abroad took 10 years to go public and went through a merger. It only has to orders a day."

"Not necessarily. I just invested in Shanghai's local food delivery product 'Ele.me'. Its founder Zhang Xuhao showed me a business plan that said the future market capacity could reach an average of 1000 million transactions per day. I told him to add another zero." Xie Jingxing spoke frankly.

If he cannot acquire shares in Meituan, then next year's Zhang Xuhao will be this year's Cheng Wei. He will use the nearly 1 billion US dollars in cash flow he holds to vote and designate the food delivery industry as the absolute protagonist in next year's Internet money-burning war.

"An average of 1 million transactions per day? Frankly speaking, Mr. Xie is a bit radical."

Wang Xing secretly thought what a coincidence, as Meituan’s internal new product development department also estimated an average of 1000 million transactions per day for the food delivery industry.

This summer, Baidu, which has always been a supporting role, acquired Nuomi. In his opinion, Li Yanhong's behavior of shouting slogans is like eating shit and not being able to keep up with the heat.

Competition in the group-buying market has essentially come to an end, and Meituan needs a new growth point, so it chose the food delivery industry, which has huge market potential and highly fragmented competition.

Apart from Ele.me, which has gained fame in Shanghai, countless other small food delivery companies are operating in regional cities and have no potential to cover the national market.

Meituan, which has experienced the "Thousands of Group Wars", has no rivals in the food delivery field in terms of management level and organizational ability. Wang Xing believes that it is as easy for him to control the food delivery industry as it is for a father to beat his son.

The premise is that giant companies and powerful investors do not enter the market, so Meituan quietly launched a pilot project in the Beijing area. For a long time in the future, its strategy will not be publicized and marketed externally, especially it cannot publicly emphasize that the food delivery market has great potential.

When a giant company, such as Tencent, develops a new business, the project manager has to report to the department director, who in turn reports to the general manager of the business unit... The approval of the head of the business group may also be needed, and ultimately the final decision must be made by Pony Ma himself.

If any process goes wrong during this period, the project will not be able to make any progress.

Wang Xing is full of calculations that Meituan's small ship can easily turn around, and it would be good as long as he can seize the first-mover advantage by being one step ahead of the giants.

However, this young man who boasted that he had completed a US$22 billion cross-border merger and acquisition at the age of 235 seems to be faster, which is a bit not good.

Wang Xing's mind raced and he felt a chill in his lower back. He talked about all sorts of things while testing the waters and exaggerating the risks of the food delivery industry to the point that it was comparable to the Melatonin scam.

Xie Jingxing listened to his nonsense for a while, and ended the conversation with a light sentence before the opening ceremony of the meeting: "Pay more attention to the news. You should be able to see the news of Ele.me's current round of financing of 3000 million US dollars in the next two days. Grapefruit Capital led the investment and Sequoia China also participated in the investment."

This was the first time he had dealt with Shen Nanpeng since his rebirth. Zhang Xuhao took the valuation and business strategy advice he gave to Sequoia China, and then went back to Grapefruit Capital with the valuation and business strategy advice given by Shen Nanpeng based on this.

He and Shen Nanpeng didn't even have a phone call. Both sides unanimously decided to let Jinshajiang and Matrix China, the two early investors, take a break. In this round of financing, the valuation was raised and each of them invested US$1500 million to take up a 23% equity share.

Wang Xing's mouth twitched. If Meituan's attack on the food delivery industry is like a father beating his son, then the phrase "Sequoia China's Neil Shen" is the father of the entire entrepreneurial circle, plus Xie Jingxing of Taihe Capital, who has been stirring up trouble this year.

These two bastards are so bullying. What’s so great about being rich?
Fortunately, Sequoia China is also a major shareholder of Meituan. He may have to go to Shen Nanpeng to cry and have a good talk.

After simply confirming with Wang Xing that he was the right person, Xie Jingxing hurried into the main venue to socialize. There were indeed quite a few people attending the conference today, the most important of whom were Liu Qing's father, Mr. Wang's father, and Mr. Ma.

Even if you go through a lot of twists and turns to establish some relationship with him, it's only natural to take the initiative to say hello out of courtesy.

Furthermore, he won another award and was named Economic Person of the Year by the Global CEO Summit, tied with Lu Zhengyao, CEO of CAR Inc. Liu happened to be the chairman of this summit.

Xie Jingxing felt that there was deep malice in his heart. He would accept any beating or scolding he might receive. It would be better to discuss who was the father and who was the son face to face.

(End of this chapter)