Chapter 326 I'm Too Rich

The glass curtain wall blocks the dazzling spring sunlight, and the interior is filled with soft and bright tones.

Xiao Ma carefully wiped the lenses, put his glasses back on, tilted his head and looked out the window, breaking the silence with a random conversation: "Is the competition in the online car-hailing market about to end?"

"I estimate it will take at most one year."

Xie Jingxing said carefully: "Uber China has greatly increased Uber's overall losses worldwide, and Kalanick will be under great pressure when facing shareholders."

"Didi has burned nearly 20 billion yuan in direct subsidies to the market, and Tencent has also burned a lot of money."

Pony Ma smiled bitterly: "The entire Internet industry is becoming more and more extreme now, with tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars being burned in every track."

"In fact, in my opinion, under rational competition, online ride-hailing and group-buying food delivery are not worth spending so much money on."

He concluded by himself, and Xie Jingxing remained silent. Everyone knew that the current market was irrational, but why was there such an extremely emotional competition? Who could take the initiative to stop it?

"Whether it's netizens or professional media, I don't recognize their so-called BTA stance."

Although Pony Ma denied it, he actually admitted that the extreme emotions and money-burning were related to the giants' choice of sides. He pressed his temple and said, "I suffered a loss in the 3Q war, which is unforgettable. So now Tencent is willing to achieve win-win results with third-party partners in all fields."

"That makes sense." Xie Jingxing listened seriously.

Pony Ma sighed helplessly: "Of course, we must admit that there is competition objectively, but subjectively we are not without cooperation with Alibaba. Didi and Kuaidi are examples. The various money-burning wars caused by this are very complicated. How can it be explained clearly with just one sentence of standing in line?"

"...Indeed." These words did touch Xie Jingxing's heart.

As early as when he gradually invested in Kuaishou and ByteDance, acquired Pony.com, and integrated a series of pan-entertainment industry chains, he had maliciously planned to form alliances in this field to target Tencent.

During this period, Mr. Ma extended olive branches one after another. First, he persuaded the Zhejiang Business Group to invest in Grapefruit Capital, and then cooperated with Meizu Mobile and Xinhai Fund on two major projects in mobile terminal and chip manufacturing.

According to common sense, the cooperation between the two parties in the field of pan-entertainment is a natural outcome.

But the result is that Mr. Ma has a deeper malicious intention towards Tencent, and he doesn't even consider Meituan as his own. On the one hand, he invested in Meituan Maoyan by acquiring a stake in Light Media, and on the other hand, he operates Taotaopiao on his own. In addition, he has a local life project "koubei.com" which is accumulating momentum and is ready to be launched.

Xie Jingxing passively turned to Tencent and created a billion-dollar unicorn, Microfilm Era, out of thin air. The two companies tied themselves together to lay out the distribution business at the downstream of the pan-entertainment industry chain.

So now there is a strange situation where he has joined the Tencent camp and is fighting a multi-billion dollar war with Alibaba in the field of local life services, while at the same time cooperating with Alibaba in the chip and mobile phone industries.

The word "chaos" is particularly prominent. It is difficult to see the clear ideas on how to lay out the subsequent pan-entertainment strategy.

"Tencent has never intended to be the imaginary enemy that others have imagined." Pony Ma stated slowly.

Xie Jingxing's thoughts suddenly came back: "What do you mean?"

"Meituan, if possible, end the competition through mergers and acquisitions as soon as possible. If that doesn't work, then continue to fight."

Xiao Ma Ge gave the answer. Facing Xie Jingxing's hesitant and suspicious look, he paused for a moment and explained calmly: "At present, WhatsApp has officially launched the mobile payment function in the Southeast Asian market, and there will be mobile payment ports for shared bicycles in China in the future."

"Our successful cooperation in this field can be extended to all fields such as entertainment and games in the future, so I respect your decision very much."

"But it's not just you. We treat all Tencent partners equally."

Xie Jingxing nodded slightly as if thinking about something. He said that it was okay to welcome opposition regarding the pan-entertainment business cooperation. It was not because WhatsApp was accommodating him, but on the contrary, he would not compromise on anything because of it.

With the expansion of its mobile payment strategy to Southeast Asia in the past six months, Tencent is gradually finding the positions it has blocked due to its early entry; while in China, it is frequently interacting with Alibaba, and various investment projects in media and entertainment are pouring in funds.

On the other hand, Tencent established China Literature Group to confirm the strategic position of pan-entertainment, as well as the bottomless pit of losses of Weishi short video and Tencent Video.

It was normal for Xiao Ma Ge to have some vague awareness of this. It might not be directed at him, but he probably just keenly sensed some risks.

"The fight between Didi and Uber is not the end. The same is true for the local life service sector. As long as someone is willing to spend money, it will never stop."

Xie Jingxing calmed down, retracted the topic and stood up: "Before we truly unify the market, Meituan is just a relatively large stone on this road, so I don't care whether I step over it sooner or later."

"Maybe its existence is a good thing?" Xiao Ma Ge laughed and joked.

Xie Jingxing agreed seriously: "At least it can help us expand the overall market share of group-buying takeout."

"Don't be too confident. Whoever loses will be the pioneer." Xiao Ma Ge joked.

Xie Jingxing shrugged and walked out of the office: "Cheng Wei thought so before, and now Uber is the king and the pioneer."

"I just found a farmhouse that does great roast lamb. What kind of wine should I have with it tonight? Cheers to the king."

"Your weather in the south is hot and humid, so an iced beer should be good."

As the words fell, the office door closed. Xiao Ma Ge withdrew his gaze and looked out the window. It started to rain under the blue sky, and the water droplets meandered along the glass curtain wall.

The slanting sunlight, which was already impenetrable, spread out and refracted, creating a hazy and blurred scene, with light and shadows intertwined and mixed, with no clear boundaries between them.

…………

Downstairs of Tencent headquarters, there is the 'Aima Ge (image)' coffee shop.

Qu Dejun was sitting by the window, watching Xie Jingxing rush in despite the drizzle, and then he greeted and took photos with the Tencent employees in a relaxed and casual manner.

It took me more than ten minutes to walk such a tiny distance. When he finally arrived in front of me, he looked like a celebrity for some unknown reason.

“It won’t be trending on the Internet, right?”

Qu Dejun was a little worried. The project should be kept confidential before it is finished. The two of them showed up at Tencent headquarters in a flashy way. Without being on the hot search, people with ulterior motives could guess all kinds of nonsense. Xie Jingxing looked regretful: "I'm not as popular as before. If I want to be on the hot search, I have to buy some publicity."

"..."

Qu Dejun was speechless, thinking that his good-for-nothing young master could make it to the hot search list just for eating fried rice from a roadside stall, so it would be strange if you couldn't make it to the hot search list.

Xie Jingxing was not pretending to be cool. Since he resigned from his heavy duties at the end of last year, he had hardly appeared in the public eye intentionally for hype.

Even until today, after fighting with Meituan for two months, Xindai has not gone to Xindai’s headquarters to talk to Zhang Tao in person.

As a result, his fame and popularity dropped rapidly, and this year he topped the trending search list for several days because of the gossip about him and Concubine Pei.

There was a fan club that compiled a statistical table of the time that popular idols spent on the annual hot search list. Xie Jingxing fell out of the top ten with a total time on the list of more than 300 hours. His fan leader was furious and spent money to buy data to put him on the top of the Weibo celebrity list.

As a result, he incurred public wrath and attracted siege from fans of several fan clubs. He frantically processed data with the perseverance of a female worker in a medieval black workshop. After three days of fierce battle, he was beaten to second place, proving that money is not omnipotent. Our brother has many fans who are as powerful as Yugong moving mountains!

"Mr. Qu, why don't Wanda invest in me to make a movie? I've dreamed of becoming an actor since I was a child." Xie Jingxing took a sip of coffee and said in a low voice.

The corner of Qu Dejun's mouth twitched: "I don't know much about art, but I personally think that your desire for performance has great potential to be tapped!"

"That's good. It seems that I am still very popular in the eyes of professionals like you."

Xie Jingxing chuckled to himself: "For this round of financing of Xinda'e, I guarantee that the subsequent guaranteed exit method will be Yunhe Logistics' repurchase of shares."

"Yunhe Logistics Buyback?!"

Qu Dejun sat up straight instantly and confirmed in a deep voice, unconsciously glancing around for fear of being heard by others.

Xie Jingxing did not answer but asked: "So, do you agree with the promise I made, and do you think other investors agree with my promise?"

Qu Dejun frowned and fell silent. After a long time, he nodded slightly.

In addition to the cinema business, Wanda Group's projects such as tourist parks and shopping malls are also covered by the O2O local life service category from the Internet perspective.

What he just talked about with Zhang Xiaolong alone was that he hoped to seek cooperation on traffic ports including mobile payments.

Therefore, the cooperation project initiated from top to bottom, Micro Film Times, is divided into two levels. On the bottom, Wanda Cinemas will invest in Micro Film Times, and on the top, Wanda and Tencent will participate in the current round of financing of New DAE as the main body of the group.

This was also the reason why he and Xie Jingxing had just worked together in Xiao Ma's office to fight for Tencent's long-term traffic port agreement. After all, they were going to become shareholders of the new Da'e, so it was reasonable for the butt to determine the head...

However, the problem is that, leaving aside the human factor of strategic camp selection, minimizing the risks of financial investment behavior itself is an iron rule.

Just as Liu Chih-Ping said, all the professional venture capital institutions including Huaxing Fund will first ask whether there is any possibility of merging the two companies in the future no matter they want to participate in the new round of financing of either New Dangsong or Meituan.

The essence of this issue is the subsequent exit of investment.

The current competition intensity is so high that investment risks have soared. There is no prospect of going public in sight, so we can only hope that the two of you will merge first to end the war, and then everyone will have the security of cashing out and running away.

Only when you feel safe will you dare to invest money. This is a very simple and plain logic.

But on the other hand, the cooperation between Tencent and New Dangui is deeply binding, and Pony Ma is willing to fight to the end and naturally does not care about the level of risk.

Wanda is a little awkward being caught in the middle. They don’t have mobile payment, and the most they can do is shallow-level cooperation in online ticketing and some local life businesses.

If Xinda E cannot provide enough sense of security, Qu Dejun will inevitably feel anxious. This is his responsibility as the head of Wanda’s financial investment business.

But now Xie Jingxing has given a mediocre answer. In the future, if New DAE fails to defeat Meituan and goes bankrupt, Yunhe Logistics will repurchase shares to cover the losses of shareholders.

Although Mr. Xie is very strong, his personal reputation has always been good and he has almost never let his partners suffer losses. Everyone still recognizes the promises of such an excellent capitalist.

As for whether it is possible to merge with Meituan, his attitude is obvious and he will make absolutely no guarantees.

"This commitment is valid for all potential investors," Xie Jingxing finally emphasized.

Qu Dejun hesitated: "How much financing does Xinda E want in this round?"

"Let's raise $20 billion first, and we'll figure it out later if it's not enough."

Xie Jingxing thought for a moment and added: "If you don't have enough cash to turn over, I can lend you some money first."

"..."

Qu Dejun was choking on his breath. You lend us money, and we use the money to invest in you?

His eyes suddenly lit up when he looked at Xie Jingxing. Mr. Wang was increasingly dissatisfied with the group's share price that had fallen below the IPO price after its listing on the Hong Kong stock market, and he had already considered delisting the group and listing it domestically.

Delisting and privatization require tens of billions of cash flow to repurchase shares. This guy in front of me looks like an evil rich man with explosive cash flow. He is really like a pillow given to him when he dozes off!
"Well, our traditional heavy asset enterprise's cash flow is definitely not comparable to Mr. Xie's, but as for the investment in Xinda E, I will just squeeze out three or five hundred million US dollars from my teeth. It is not a problem to come up with three or five hundred million US dollars. I will support Mr. Xie's work in every way!" Qu Dejun patted his chest.

Xie Jing Xing said casually without noticing anything: "Cooperation is a win-win situation, everyone helps each other, and you're welcome if you need anything."

"Of course. Speaking of which, the 'Education Power' project jointly launched by Panda TV and Jiaotong University was launched last month. When Mr. Wang informed me of the progress, he also specifically mentioned Mr. Xie's keen business sense."

Qu Dejun completely forgot what he said to Song Anli in private yesterday. What's the point of learning from past mistakes? It was just a small misunderstanding. The real thing is that everyone will get rich after the Education Power Nation goes online.

He admired what Mr. Xie did from beginning to end!
Xie Jing Xing smiled with his full white teeth: "Then it's settled, the sooner the better, the sooner the better. We will start the Microfilm Era and New Big Hungry M&A and financing projects simultaneously tomorrow!"

He thought to himself, it doesn't matter who Wanda sells its high-quality assets at a low price to, but Xiao Xie is really too rich, and when the day comes when Wanda needs money to delist, he must be the first one to ask for help.

He and Xiao Wang are brothers, and their intentions are clear to all the world!
(End of this chapter)