Chapter 132 I'm Just Rich
"The collaboration between Internet giants and new financial forces: No driving ahead!"

"Shocking! Jack Ma and Pony Ma spent 2 billion on this man in three months. They were arm in arm, drunk and partying all night long."

"After two months of fierce battle, Didi and Kuaidi finally reached a settlement to jointly resist foreign enemies. In the popular trend of the Internet industry where not taking sides means death, Xie Jingxing went against the current and gathered Tencent on the left and Alibaba on the right - I am the wave. "

The weather in Shanghai turned cooler in mid-November, and the sunshine was shining brightly at noon. The golf course located in the suburbs, away from the hustle and bustle, was still lush and green.

Peng Zhijian, general manager of Tencent's strategic investment, was lying under a parasol, quickly flipping through news reports about the renewed battle of online ride-hailing. While he couldn't help laughing at the funny parts, he also felt quite melancholy.

From the beginning of the WhatsApp acquisition in June, Xie Jingxing took the initiative to visit him and ask for a meeting, but the two sides failed to reverse their positions, which took a full five months.

He had gone all out to acquire Didi, but now he has no say in the matter. This time he came to Shanghai only for the Dianping project.

A battery-powered shuttle bus creaked over and interrupted his sigh. Peng Zhijian put away his phone and walked over to greet him with a smile: "Mr. Xie, Mr. Zhang, long time no see."

"Not too early, not too late, just right."

Xie Jingxing was wearing a cashmere casual outfit and a cap on his head. He took the golf bag from the caddy in a serious manner and said, "I came prepared today. Whoever loses will have a gamble."

"Mr. Xie has a set of golf clubs autographed by Tiger Woods, the 09 Australian Masters champion. He just showed it off to me. We teamed up to win it." Zhang Tao said cheerfully.

Peng Zhijian resolutely accepted: "Reliable, if we lose, I will give you a signed green flag from the Masters."

"I'll offer two celebrity signed golf balls," Zhang Tao added.

The prize is not valuable, so I just found an excuse to chat. Xie Jingxing turned his head and looked at Song Anli indifferently: "Don't be polite to them, fight well. If you win the prize, we will split it in half."

"Don't be so confident. We may not win for sure."

Song Anli was wearing a casual white long-sleeved shirt and long pants, with a cashmere vest of the same color as her outer jacket. She looked very formal, but in fact, she had hardly played golf.

A few days ago, she came back from a business trip in Silicon Valley and enrolled in the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. She socialized with the socialites in her class and played it a few times. It was a waste of time. She was so busy all day that she had no leisure time. It felt like a waste of life.

Xie Jingxing was almost the same, his golf skills were mediocre and he could barely make a couple of passes.

This can be blamed on the bones in the Americans' knees. In the 1980s and 1990s, white Americans liked to use golf as a tool for socializing and doing business, which was out of their fanatical spiritual worship of their British ancestors.

But the old Englishmen living in the tunnels believe that sport is pure sport, and that golf that is dressed up with social and business attributes is a complete waste of time, so it is better to go direct and play golf.

Therefore, the new rich in the United States, who have largely gotten rid of the strong culture of their British ancestors, are no longer interested in this kind of thing. Instead, the domestic middle class is gradually beginning to pursue the style of "elegant sports and social interaction".

Even as the number of young religious believers in Europe and the United States has plummeted year after year, the number of Christian believers in China has increased year after year...

In the past, public intellectuals criticized people without faith as barbaric and ignorant. Now, public intellectuals criticize those who believe in religion as superstitious and ignorant. This is a unique and strange sight.

If the Americans were weak-kneed and still knelt, then Xie Jingxing would definitely be able to master the superb football skills comparable to Liu Luanxiong while studying in New York, and he might even be baptized and say "God bless you".

"Tencent has hundreds of millions of online user resources and social traffic portals, and Dianping has high-quality offline local life data resources. Together, we form the most complete O2O model."

As the golf ball arced through the air, Peng Zhijian held his forehead and looked out: "Tencent will provide Dianping with all-round traffic support, and at the same time respect all of Mr. Zhang's ideas."

"Just like Didi, you can talk to Cheng Wei. Up to now, we have burned more than 1 billion in cash, and we have never interfered with any internal operational decisions of Didi."

He spoke calmly and eloquently: "Mr. Ma has publicly expressed Tencent's current investment strategy more than once. All the companies we cooperate with are in a symbiotic relationship. There is no one controlling the other."

"I believe in Mr. Peng's sincerity. After all, we all want to cooperate with each other for a win-win situation. However, Tencent is too big for us, and we often have no choice."

Xie Jingxing's early reassurance allowed Zhang Tao to express his concerns honestly.

For example, WeChat banned its own idol Meilishuo in the name of "excessive marketing". It is not impossible for such internal fighting within Tencent to happen to Dianping.

The aftermath of the internal strife within the giant is too much for Dianping to bear. When the time comes, it will have no place to cry. He wants to meet with Zhang Xiaolong.

Secondly, the investment amount of Tencent and Taihe must be very high. Xie Jingxing initially gave a pre-investment valuation of US$25 billion. The two companies must take a total of at least 4% of the equity share, which roughly means that about US$ million will be received in cash.

It would be too difficult to spend the money if you fail to formulate a strategic plan in advance. Zhang Tao suffered a great loss because he had too much money in his pocket, and the money-burning war in the group buying field started out of control.

Two years ago, Dianping received $1 million in financing led by Sequoia Capital. The poor people who suddenly became rich didn’t know how to spend the money, so a few brothers in the company’s management got together and proposed, like a dragon and a phoenix, to first use million yuan for advertising, just a little bit of money to sprinkle around.

As a result, after spending 100 million yuan, competitors such as Meituan quickly followed suit, and as the money was burning, everyone suddenly realized that they couldn't stop.

Zhang Tao looked at the company's employees who were proud of getting $100 million in financing and looked down on their peers who were clamoring to fight to the end. He was dumbfounded and at a loss as to what to do.

Gaopeng has the support of Tencent, Meituan clings to Alibaba, but Dianping has no godfather.

So last year he had to beg for help from everyone, asking Sequoia China to help find Taihe Capital to lead the investment. He received a total of US$6000 million in financing at a lower valuation price than the previous year, and barely managed to survive until now.

In other words, after all the hard work, the valuation didn't increase at all, but instead fell. It was a loss so great that even my mother wouldn't recognize me.

With so many lessons from the past in front of him, Zhang Tao has a huge psychological shadow. At the very least, Tencent and Taihe must ensure that they will not burn through money and run away halfway. They should either simply give up or promise to support Dianping with all their strength to the end.

"Mr. Zhang's worries are unreasonable. Do you think Tencent can beat Alipay in the field of online mobile payments?"

Peng Zhijian swung his club vigorously and said without waiting for a response: "Tmall, Taobao, Yitao... almost all ToC e-commerce platforms are related to Alibaba, and the e-commerce industry happens to occupy the vast majority of the online mobile payment market."

"Let alone relying on Didi, even if Tencent took over the entire transportation, game recharge, and tourism and entertainment online payment scenarios, it would be difficult to beat Alipay in the field of online mobile payment."

Peng Zhijian restrained his expression and looked directly at Zhang Tao, holding up three fingers: "But that's how it is. Didi burned through more than 1 billion yuan in less than three months."

"This is not only a fight for every inch of land, but also a feint at the strategic level."

Xie Jingxing admired Song Anli's graceful figure swinging the club not far away, and casually interrupted to comment.

The way to swing a golf club is similar to that of swinging a hoe. It requires the unity of waist and horse, and uses the waist to generate power to drive the whole body. A woman with a good figure can look pleasing to the eye and full of explosive beauty when she swings the club properly.

Zhang Tao and Peng Zhijian looked at each other and said in unison, "For offline payment scenarios?"

"We all know that whoever can control the millions of small and micro businesses that provide offline local life services will be able to seize the offline payment market and create a closed loop in the life service field." Xie Jingxing held the club with both hands like a colonel: "And Tencent happens to have the best offline payment entry point, so this is the main battlefield for Tencent and Alipay. There is no way they will give up Dianping."

Dianping.com had 35 billion page views last month, 75% of which were from mobile devices, and it has 9000 million independent mobile users.

For Tencent, which wants to attack the offline payment scenarios in local life, this is a very sharp knife. Zhang Tao and Peng Zhijian are clear about this, but they are reluctant to proactively provide data when they have to bargain over the specific financing amount later.

As Taihe was an early investor in Dianping, Xie Jingxing had no burden to simply point it out.

The same is true for Tencent. With 900 million users of WeChat and QQ, Dianping can use Tencent's money to directly penetrate third- and fourth-tier cities in its next strategic plan, while confronting Meituan head-on.

Although both parties are in the same group-buying track, Zhang Tao has been confused in the past two years and has actively avoided the group-buying market and lived on the large amount of high-quality merchant review content accumulated over the years.

Strictly speaking, Dianping is currently a life service information platform that provides users with information on restaurants, hotels, etc., and its group buying business involving payment transactions is in a very poor state.

Things are different with the entry of Tencent. In September, Didi Kuaidi became really popular and Alibaba launched QR code payment ahead of schedule, which indirectly reduced the difficulty of transactions in offline mobile payment application scenarios.

However, in recent days, with the entry of China Auto Rental, vicious competition has restarted. The relevant departments believe that these people are shameless and dare to jump around after the meeting, so they banned QR code payment.

Based on this situation, offline payment transactions have become more difficult. Users must add friends before using Alipay/WeChat Pay. Both merchants and users naturally tend to use WeChat, as payment transactions are ultimately interactions between people.

Interaction is socializing. Adding WeChat allows you to chat and view your friends’ circle, but adding Alipay seems to only be able to grow a Haloxylon ammodendron tree.

"First, expand offline group buying business; second, occupy third- and fourth-tier cities; third, deepen the development of local leisure and entertainment business. If we want to do it, we must build a closed loop and fight Meituan in all aspects."

Xie Jingxing finally concluded: "You only need to think about how to spend the money wisely, and I will think about where the money comes from."

"...I'm so excited just hearing this." Zhang Tao responded after a long silence.

Peng Zhijian had a complicated expression: "Think carefully, the all-round competition between us and Alibaba was started by President Xie. He is the biggest warmongerer."

"It can be seen. Tencent and Alibaba's online car-hailing and group-buying reviews are strategic competition for mobile payment ports, but Mr. Xie seems to be just a simple financial investor. He is able to resolutely participate in the battle to this extent... He is the only one in the domestic venture capital circle." Zhang Tao took the opportunity to hint and test the issue.

Tencent and Dianping have perfect strategic complementarity, so he really doesn't understand why Taihe, a venture capital firm, is so actively involved in the game.

"I just have money."

Xie Jingxing gently pushed the club, and the golf ball rolled lightly over the lawn and into the hole.

"Clap clap clap."

Song Anli smiled and clapped her hands, and several caddies following behind her quickly responded with applause. They could get a lot of tips.

Zhang Tao remained silent, and Peng Zhijian sighed helplessly.

He also wondered why Pony Ma and Mr. Liu were willing to go forward and retreat together with Xie Jingxing. If he looked deeper, there was no need for Tencent to involve Taihe in this investment.

As long as Tencent joins the market, Dianping's data will inevitably improve significantly with the investment of various resources, and it will be easy to double its valuation. In the end, even if it cannot beat Meituan, Tencent will cover the bottom line for strategic considerations.

Taihe is guaranteed to make a profit in this round of financing, which is equivalent to obtaining a quota for new shares with double the guaranteed return of IPO in the secondary market.

This is too outrageous. If Tencent hadn't switched to charity, then there must be something he didn't know...

"Don't just stand there, you haven't lost yet, keep going." Xie Jingxing threw down his club and greeted with interest.

Peng Zhijian perked up and walked back, saying, "How much equity space can Mr. Zhang spare? Since it is a strategic investment, Tencent will lead the investment."

"We'll talk about the valuation at a maximum of 25%. We're fighting in the front and the pressure is very high, so we have to reserve space for subsequent rounds of financing." Zhang Tao raised his baseball cap.

Peng Zhijian did not comment: "Tencent can give a pre-investment valuation of US$16 billion and a 20% equity stake."

"I'm going to raise this round through Grapefruit Capital. I'm going to give you a pre-investment valuation of $18 billion and I want 8% equity."

Xie Jingxing paused for a moment and added: "Of course, this is just a general direction. You guys can discuss the details and we'll have a result before the Lunar New Year."

Lead investment and follow-up investment not only mean priority in terms of the board of directors, exit and repayment mechanisms, but also have a say in financing itself.

In the same round of financing, the lead investor pays more and bears higher risks. Its stronger strength also allows it to provide more invisible resources to the invested companies.

Conversely, this is reflected in the financing valuation. The invested company values ​​the lead investor at 1 yuan per share and the follow-up investor at 1 yuan per share.

This situation often occurs in founding companies that are sought after by buyers. In actual operations, the valuation gap is even greater, just like the D round of financing that Didi just completed, in which Xiyou made a follow-up investment at a low price as the lead investor.

The investment and financing between Dianping and Tencent is a strategic one, while that between Taihe is a financial one. The former has the highest priority, and the latter should pay more money.

And because the pre-investment valuations given by both parties are different, the proportion of financing equity involved is relatively large and has certain fluctuations, and the specific calculation is quite complicated.

The valuation remains unchanged at 16 billion. The smaller the financing share Tencent accounts for, the more losses it will suffer; the larger the financing share Dianping accounts for, the more losses it will suffer.

A few people talked about it verbally, but they couldn't figure out the accounts in their minds for a while. The tone was set and put aside for the time being. Zhang Tao then talked about the actual control of the company, saying that Tencent must respect Dianping's independent operation and write it in black and white in the contract.

For example, Zhang Tao really dislikes the crappy map made by Tencent, but Cheng Wei can tolerate it, and he can’t.

Dianping currently has good cooperation with Alibaba's AutoNavi and NavInfo's Tuba Navigation. If Tencent Maps is not useful, Dianping will not connect to it.

Peng Zhijian disagreed. He was not the biological father of Tencent Map Division, so he didn’t care about Tencent Map.

Furthermore, with Xie Jingxing standing in front of him, he couldn't ask Dianping to take care of Tencent's map business.

You have to know that this is a powerful dictator who was able to hold back his energy and force the heads of many heavyweight investors, including Pony Ma, to force Cheng Wei to launch the "10 billion subsidies".

If the people from Tencent Maps are unhappy, they can come and talk to Xie Jingxing in person.

(End of this chapter)