Chapter 185 Playing with Li Ying
Alibaba is about to go public in the United States, and Mr. Ma has been working hard to publicly promote the IPO price around the world.

Therefore, even if he had just returned from the capital city after attending the conference and made an appointment to meet Xie Jingxing, it would still be a week later.

In late March, rape flowers are blooming all over Qiandao Lake, and tourists come here to enjoy the scenery of the lake and mountains and eat bighead carp.

Mr. Ma did not take the opportunity to play the trick of sowing discord like Kalanick. Instead, he arranged for a yacht to sail on the lake away from ordinary tourists, with only Li Ying accompanying her, showing his sincerity.

"If it weren't for Mr. Ma's invitation, I would have overlooked this beautiful spring scene." Xie Jingxing returned the favor and set the tone for today's communication.

Teacher Ma had a faint smile on his thin face, and the sandalwood Buddhist beads turned across his fingertips one by one: "Actually, I wanted to invite you to meet me a long time ago."

"The Global CEO Conference at the end of last year?" Xie Jingxing asked knowingly.

"before that."

Mr. Ma was a little helpless: "At the beginning of the competition between Didi and Kuaidi, you went to Yunnan to have fun, but I never had the chance to date you."

"That's indeed quite early. Speaking of this project, I should have taken the initiative to ask you to meet after the merger with Didi Kuaidi." Xie Jingxing thanked sincerely.

At that time, Alibaba issued a "gang hunting order", and many investors including Zhu Xiaohu were cautious and remained neutral, but he was the only one who did not care and went into battle without hesitation.

Alibaba, in preparation for its listing in the United States, tied up a large number of Wall Street institutions, and did not act cleanly in the WhatsApp acquisition case. After receiving a slap in the face from Zhou Fenglan and Yu Tong, it quickly regained its senses and stopped interfering.

After careful consideration, Xie Jingxing and Ali had some minor friction, but both sides were very restrained afterwards.

It is not the first time that Alibaba has used its style to coerce venture capital institutions into taking sides. He was able to lead the Didi Kuaidi merger and acquisition case smoothly throughout the entire process. It can be said that it is not a loss for Mr. Ma to give him face.

Vice versa, Xie Jingxing never deliberately targeted Alibaba in any of the decisions he made on the project.

The past grudges were lightly revealed, and Teacher Ma secretly comforted himself to keep a calm mind and said with a smile: "I have been waiting for your invitation for a long time, so I had to take the initiative to ask you out."

"I've been busy lately, and there are several projects on hand that have exceeded my expectations." Xie Jingxing explained.

Teacher Ma asked with great interest: "Can you share any good projects so that we can help each other?"

"I've been looking at Meizu recently. Is Mr. Ma interested?" Xie Jingxing was well prepared.

Mr. Ma pondered and said, "The Meizu brand is good, but the founder is not so good. He is too conservative and stubborn and can't let go of the family-style obsession of the Guangdong business gang. He wants to control everything in his own hands and can't do business well."

The old horse's sword dance was aimed at the young horse. Xie Jingxing smiled without saying a word and lowered his head to sip tea.

He was not making up excuses. The performance of several projects of ByteDance and Kuaishou did exceed expectations.

According to the development speed of Kuaishou and ByteDance, they should have shined in the second half of the year. However, with changes such as 5Y Capital trying to steal the show and Weibo betting on ByteDance, the timeline is gradually deviating.

This situation will become more and more common, and he will no longer be able to firmly use certain details in his memory as a support for decision-making, and the effect of the foresight plug-in that opens the entire map will be reduced.

You need to explore the new fog of war on your own. The ideal situation is to play both sides, but it is impossible to completely side with either side.

It goes without saying that Tencent and Chaoshang Capital have many overlapping interests. Mr. Ma and Zhejiang Merchants Capital also have coveted resources. For projects like CATL, you can’t just have money and resources to get in, you also need to have a circle.

"I think Alibaba needs traffic more than Tencent."

Xie Jingxing said carefully, Teacher Ma did not comment, this is obvious.

People joke that every time Alibaba invests in a company, it dies, while every time Tencent invests in a company, it takes off. In addition to the difference in investment management concepts, there are more differences in strategic needs.

Tencent has a super traffic entrance and can naturally make the invested companies prosperous. Alibaba needs to treat the invested companies as traffic entrances to make up for the natural loss of traffic in e-commerce and payment businesses.

Mr. Ma does not take the public's ridicule to heart, but he has to admit that Alibaba needs to find a stable traffic entrance.

"Tencent controls the social field, Baidu controls software distribution, and I personally don't see any new entry point for Alibaba in terms of software."

Xie Jingxing leaned forward to help Mr. Ma fill his teacup: "So why don't you jump out of this game and think of a solution at the hardware terminal?"

"Meizu?" Teacher Ma did not comment.

In order to make mobile phones, Zhou Hongyi and Lei Jun had online and offline arguments and fights. Huawei shamelessly blackmailed the operators, and even Meitu XiuXiu wanted to make mobile phones.

Because everyone knows that hardware terminals are good, and everyone is trying their best to do it, why can Huang Zhang succeed?
"In my opinion, Alibaba Cloud Data is currently the best among the major domestic companies."

Xie Jingxing did not answer, and continued to speak: "Try to imagine that ten years later, Alibaba Cloud is connected to hundreds of millions of mobile smart terminals and provides the most basic data support."

"There is no better traffic entrance than this, I'm sure!"

Teacher Ma clenched the sandalwood Buddhist beads and twisted them vigorously: "So why must it be Meizu, and why must it invest in Huang Zhang?"

"It doesn't have to be Meizu, it just happens to be an investment opportunity in front of us. As for Huang Zhang... he is an excellent product manager."

Xie Jing Xing paused for a moment and raised his hand to point at himself: "And I happen to be very good at leaving professional matters to professionals."

Huang Zhang was sidelined and was only responsible for products, while professional managers were hired from outside to run the business.

"Of course, there is still a possibility of failure, and the probability is not low, but who can guarantee that the investment will definitely make money? I am happy to try it together with Alibaba."

As Xie Jingxing spoke, he unconsciously raised his hand: "Then your question has come to the second stage, which has nothing to do with Huang Zhang. Why can Xie Jingxing succeed? Why must we cooperate with Xie Jingxing?"

"I always feel that public speaking ability is an essential skill for an excellent entrepreneur." Mr. Ma did not respond directly.

Xie Jingxing shrugged: "In fact, since the WhatsApp acquisition, I have rarely had the opportunity to demonstrate this ability. Maybe I was a little excited. Sorry."

Mr. Ma was speechless. Putting aside the neurotic and extremely arrogant lobbying of the boy in front of him, investing in Meizu was feasible.

But the problem is that he didn't take time out of his busy schedule just for this little business.

I glanced at my watch and my phone rang at the right time. I sighed in my heart: "Xiao Li, you chat with Mr. Xie for a while. I'll take a call."

Watching Teacher Ma leave the table and walk out of the cabin, Xie Jingxing couldn't help but chuckle.

He saw the Meizu project as a way to show his goodwill to Alibaba and get the best of both worlds, but Mr. Ma saw it as a condition to win him over. If anyone dared to say he was arrogant again, he would definitely introduce Mr. Ma to them.

"Mr. Xie, we are very sincere in wanting to become an LP of Grapefruit Capital."

Limited time did not allow for any politeness, so Li Ying started the conversation a little awkwardly.

Currently, the equity structure of Dianping is that Grapefruit Capital holds 13%, Tencent holds 20%, Sequoia China holds 13%, early investors such as Google hold 7%, and the remaining 47% is in the hands of Zhang Tao's entrepreneurial team.

The equity structure of Ele.me is that Grapefruit Capital holds a total of 25% in the two rounds of investment, Sequoia China holds 10%, Tencent holds 15%, early investors such as GSR Ventures hold 9%, and the founding team holds 41%.

In other words, as long as Xie Jingxing stabs Tencent in the back, Alibaba will have the opportunity to acquire Ele.me, restart the "word of mouth" project, and form a new local life camp.

It doesn’t matter whether Dianping and Meituan are dead or alive, at least they can now compete head-on with Tencent in the mobile payment market.

As a second best option, Alibaba can guide Taihe to invest in Meituan. Whether it is acquiring Dianping or Ele.me, as long as Xie Jingxing and Shen Nanpeng are brought in, Tencent can be squeezed out.

"As a venture capital firm, why should I treat an Internet giant as my mortal enemy? Can you give me a reason that I can't refuse?" Xie Jingxing asked seriously.

Li Ying sat up straight: "You can have a whole group of excellent LPs, and countless high-quality projects in all walks of life are open to you."

"I respect you, and I ask you to respect me. If you think that's all I'm worth, I'll take it as an offense."

Xie Jingxing frowned. Does he look like a bitch who would open her legs for anyone who pays her?

Li Ying's face flushed. "Alibaba is about to go public on the U.S. stock market. You should know how much you can earn from the subscription rights for 500 million shares."

"5 million, 10 billion, 15 billion? What a bullshit!" Xie Jingxing sneered impatiently.

Li Ying suddenly raised her head, clenched her fists and placed them on the table, her eyes unable to conceal her excitement.

Since she got married, no one has ever spoken to her like this, not even Teacher Ma, who always smiles at her.

"Mr. Xie, with friends you can travel all over the world, without friends you can't take a single step. Even if we can't be friends, why make things unhappy?" She gritted her teeth and trembled with anger.

Xie Jingxing raised his eyebrows with disdain on his face: "Are you worthy?"

"What do you want?!" Li Ying stood up suddenly, losing control of her emotions.

Xie Jing Xing leaned back and crossed his legs, looking at her leisurely. After a moment of silence, he suddenly laughed: "I'm sorry."

"...?"

Li Ying was stunned for a moment, blinking her big confused eyes and trying to speak but unable to utter a word.

"The price you offer is not enough to make me destroy my own reputation. It is not that easy to kick Tencent out. If you let Zhang Tao, Wang Xing, and Zhang Xuhao choose, they will most likely choose Tencent rather than Alibaba."

Xie Jingxing complained bluntly: "Everyone knows that every company Alibaba invests in has a failure. It is not a good habit to be too wishful. This is the truth Cheng Wei taught me, and I give it to you for free."

"Don't look at me like that. Teacher Ma left the table halfway through to let you, a poor wretch, talk to me. Isn't it fair for me to use some negotiation skills?"

He explained frankly: "I'm sorry, maybe my approach is a bit extreme, but to be honest, I haven't encountered an equal negotiation for a long time. For me, this is very exciting."

Since his rebirth, only the WhatsApp acquisition case has made him instinctively excited. The subsequent battles between Didi and Kuaidi were not interesting. Today's case was the only two evenly matched scenes.

It's a pity that Lao Ma played tricks and only left the "little friend" for him to play with, and it looks like the little friend is about to be broken.

"Okay, calm down. As you said, more friends mean more paths. Grapefruit Capital welcomes your investment very much, and I also hope to cooperate with you to invest in Meizu."

Xie Jing Xing casually took out two candies from the plate, stood up and said soothingly: "Eat a candy, just pretend nothing happened, after all, you..."

"Wow!"

A cup of water was poured down from above my head, and the atmosphere instantly fell into silence, with only the sound of dripping water.

Teacher Ma stood at the cabin door with his mouth twitching uncontrollably. Li Ying held an empty water cup in her hand with a dazed look on her face. She didn't know how she dared to do this.

All I can say is that Xie Jingxing used all means to push her to the limit and pushed her to the point of collapse. After successfully testing out the bottom price for the negotiation, he still had a smug look on his face and took the initiative to comfort her. It was so shameless, it looked like mercy and charity from a victor!

"Nothing happened. After all, you can't accept that I really stand on your side."

Xie Jing Xing sat back in his chair, pulled open his collar to wipe the water off his face, restrained his expression and spoke word by word.

Li Ying's back was covered with cold sweat, her palms felt slightly numb, and she felt extremely scared as her rationality took over the upper hand again.

Her father-in-law worked hard in Zhejiang Province for most of his life and reached the top. He had close ties with local entrepreneurs. He was transferred to Beijing and retired to the second line around the change of government last year.

In this case, if Xie Jingxing, who has the surname Yu standing behind him, really integrates completely with Zhejiang businessmen, it is really hard to say whether it will be a funeral or a happiness. The grace of God is unpredictable.

"Would you like some candy?"

He waved his hand casually and handed over two mints.

"Xiao Xie, I'm really sorry for the poor hospitality."

Teacher Ma could only sigh. He was an old man and he had worked so hard to get a young person on board but ended up in such an embarrassing situation.

Simply make your attitude clear: "The Meizu project is negotiable. I don't care about Huang Zhang, I just care about whether you are a careerist!"

The reason why he did not look for Shen Nanpeng first but Xie Jingxing was because the latter was young and had little roots, and was not involved in the complicated interpersonal interest chain.

The second is that the latter are more difficult to deal with. The people who come to them with projects one after another are different from the former pure financial investors. They have particularly strong business acumen and style of doing things.

"Mr. Ma, you are too kind. I am not good at dealing with complicated interpersonal relationships. I have been able to get to where I am today thanks to my family and... my lover. They have allowed me to focus on business, so I have to consider whether every decision I make will cause trouble for them."

Xie Jingxing didn't know how much truth or falsehood there was in what he said, and he smiled at himself.

(End of this chapter)