Chapter 247 The era of free navigation maps! Who the hell is this person who is so ruthless?
Yanjing, Digital Valley, Didi Taxi Studio.
Cheng Wei picked up a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Li Guangping opposite him with a look of embarrassment on his face.
The environment here is extremely simple. If it weren't for the novel online car-hailing model and the popularity of Kuaidi Taxi that attracted the attention of investment banks, Cheng Wei knew that the vice president of Today Capital would never condescend to come to his workshop-style entrepreneurial base.
"Mr. Cheng, your conditions are quite difficult." Li Guangping took the mineral water, glanced across the small and cramped space, and joked with a smile.
Previously, Today Capital missed the opportunity to invest in Kuaidi Dache, and now Kuaidi Dache’s valuation has exceeded US$600 million.
The big boss Xu Xin believes that instead of investing in the already large-scale Kuaidi Dache, it is better to turn his attention to Didi Dache.
Today's capital will have greater profit margins.
Cheng Wei smiled awkwardly. Although what Li Guangping said was hurtful, he did not dare to refute.
This is the first and only venture capital institution that actively wants to invest in Didi Dache after the project was established.
If you don’t have money, you can’t speak with confidence.
Seeing that the balance in his account was almost gone and he could not get any more investment, he could only announce the failure of his business venture in shame and go back to work.
"Mr. Li, this is the business plan for Didi Taxi. Please take a look."
Cheng Wei pushed a thick document in front of Li Guangping.
Li Guangping smiled faintly, opened the business plan and started reading it as if no one was around.
In Cheng Wei's vision, there are a total of 1.3 million taxis in the country, with daily operating revenue of up to 300 million yuan, which is more than 100 billion yuan a year. Even if Didi Taxi only takes 10% as commission, the annual revenue will be 10 billion yuan.
By then, the valuation of Didi Taxi will exceed 100 billion! "When will Didi Taxi be launched?" After a while, Li Guangping put down the documents, looked up at Cheng Wei, and stared at him sharply.
"By the end of the month at the latest." Cheng Wei said through gritting his teeth.
In fact, he had already realized that the outsourcing company he had contacted for 90,000 yuan was not reliable at all.
He couldn't say for sure whether it could be launched as scheduled by the end of the month.
But in order to raise funds, Cheng Wei had no choice but to talk nonsense.
"Too slow! Kuaidi Taxi has already entered the Luzhou market. Including Hangzhou and Jinling, there are 20 million potential users within their business coverage area. Didi needs to speed up."
Li Guangping shook his head and said solemnly.
I want it fast too!
But I don’t have any money! Cheng Wei smiled bitterly and couldn’t help but complain wildly in his heart.
He has suffered a lot during this period, because most of the people in the team were business people from Zhifubao's B2C division and had no knowledge of technology at all.
The slow progress of research and development made him so anxious that he couldn't sleep for whole nights.
On the one hand, Kuaidi Dache was rising strongly, raising US$90 million and aggressively seizing the online car-hailing market in Hangzhou, Jinling and other places; on the other hand, the nightmare of entrepreneurial failure always lingered in his mind.
If he resigns from the position of General Manager of Ali and fails to achieve results, not only will his old colleagues ridicule him, but even his parents and relatives will question his decision.
Cheng Wei took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Li, I know that Didi Dache has no advantage over Kuaidi Dache in terms of technology and capital, but I firmly believe that with such a large domestic taxi market, at least two or three unicorn companies can be born."
What this means is that even though I have no money and no technology, as long as Today Capital invests in me, it will not be difficult for me to get second or third place by virtue of my advantage of being the first to enter the market.
Li Guangping smiled freely. He admired Cheng Wei's honesty.
In his opinion, Didi Dache is not without advantages. Including Cheng Wei, all of them are core members of the Zhifubao sales team and are definitely experts in market development.
Just like after investing in Meituan, Ali sent Shan Jiawei, the head of China Resources Iron Army, to Meituan to assist Wang Xin in managing the ground promotion team, thereby accelerating the pace of market expansion.
In just less than a year, Meituan's market share jumped to second place in the industry.
Wang Xin’s trading ability is certainly partly to blame, but Shan Jiawei’s contribution is also indispensable.
This is also another main reason why Xu Xin chose to invest in Didi Dache.
"How much do you want? How much do you think Didi Dache is worth? What percentage of the equity are you willing to give?"
Li Guangping looked at Cheng Wei with a smile and asked three questions in a row.
Cheng Wei was slightly stunned. He only wanted 5 million to develop the App first and then move to a more comfortable office.
As for how much Didi Taxi is worth currently, he has never really thought about it seriously.
Cheng Wei was silent for a while. After a long while, he finally answered: "8 million, I can give Capital Today a 15% stake."
"3 million for 20% equity, but you can guarantee that it will be online before the end of the month." Li Guangping didn't even say a word of refusal, but just informed Cheng Wei in a flat tone, leaving no room for the other party to bargain.
Facing the powerful Li Guangping, Cheng Wei wanted to use his rich negotiation skills to communicate with the other party, but when he met Li Guangping's playful eyes, he immediately swallowed his words back.
It is better to lose part of the equity than to lose the right to survive of the project.
Cheng Wei was quite happy. He stood up, shook Li Guangping's right hand, said words of thanks, and happily accepted the investment from Today Capital.
He was so short of money! His old colleague Wang Gang took out all his savings to support his own business. If Didi Taxi failed, Cheng Wei would have no way to explain himself to anyone.
You can’t say that with this 800,000 yuan, you couldn’t even create an app, right?
Fortunately, Capital Today helped him out of his urgent need! After seeing Li Guangping off, Cheng Wei excitedly called Wang Gang and said, "Didi has raised money!"
The other side.
At No. 18 Changsheng Road, more than 20 kilometers away from Digital Valley, Xiao Jun walked into the headquarters building of AutoNavi Maps with a radiant look.
A year ago, he was set up by Cheng Congwu and Hou Jun and had to leave the management center of AutoNavi Maps in disgrace. Now he is back.
At this time, Cheng Congwu was sitting in the office with an embarrassed look on his face, waiting for Xiao Jun to come and take over.
Three days ago, Senlian Capital sent an appointment email: Xiao Jun will officially serve as the CEO of AutoNavi Maps starting from April 10th.
Cheng Congwu would never believe that there would be such a coincidence in the world. He was certain that this Xiao Jun was his old friend and subordinate who had been kicked out by him.
However, Cheng Congwu changed his mind and shrugged indifferently.
Amap has become a thing of the past, and he and Hou Jun’s next focus will be on the cultural and tourism development projects in Fenghuang Ancient Town.
After thinking it through, Cheng Congwu walked out with a smile, intending to put aside his grudge with Xiao Jun.
As soon as I approached the office area, I saw Xiao Jun walking towards me.
There were constant compliments coming from all around!
"Boss Xiao? Is it really you? We thought it was just a coincidence!"
"With you here, Gaode Map will definitely be able to defeat Qiandu!"
"Boss Xiao, I have booked a private room at Jingzhao Yin tonight, let's catch up together."
As Xiao Jun walked along, his eyes glanced at the people who greeted him. Among them were old employees who had always supported him, as well as subordinates who parted ways with him and joined Cheng Congwu.
No one expected that Xiao Jun would quietly get close to the new boss and take the position of CEO.
"Congratulations!"
Cheng Congwu stopped, stood opposite Xiao Jun, stretched out his hands, and looked at him with a bright smile.
It seemed that he wanted to give Xiao Jun a hug as old friends.
Xiao Jun burst into laughter. His previous anger, grievance and confusion disappeared at this moment.
In a trance, he recalled that many years ago, the three of them huddled in an office with only an electric fan, studying together the production of electronic maps, the application process for surveying and mapping qualifications, etc., trusting each other and working together.
"Mr. Cheng, I forgot to say goodbye to you when I left Gaode last time. It shouldn't be too late to make up for it this time, right?"
Xiao Jun said calmly.
"Not really! The idea of creating Amap came from you. It started with you. I am very happy to be able to hand it over to you again."
Cheng Congwu responded with a smile.
Xiao Jun nodded and applauded in agreement.
Led by him, the AutoNavi employees around him applauded vigorously to witness the handover moment of the top person in charge of AutoNavi Maps.
In the end, Xiao Jun forced himself to endure it and swallowed all the questions he had about Cheng Congwu.
That afternoon, a spokesperson from the marketing department of AutoNavi Map announced: From now on, AutoNavi Navigation will completely cancel its charging policy.
Whether it is electronic maps or navigation services, they are all free! This measure has led to a rapid surge in the number of downloads of Amap on the App Store, Android App Market, 91 Assistant, Wandoujia, App Store and Orange App Store.
In just one hour, the number of downloads exceeded 4 million! This is just as shocking as when Penguin Video suddenly announced that it would be free and completely cancel its membership system more than a decade later.
After receiving the news, Qiandu Map and Kaili were stunned for a moment!
I’ve seen price wars, but I’ve never seen anyone use a free strategy right from the start.
Carlife is doing fine as its business is mainly pre-installed navigation systems for car manufacturers and it does not have a B2C segment.
Qiandu Maps was immediately furious! Huang Wei, the person in charge, took out his cell phone and called Cheng Congwu, cursing, "What the hell! AutoNavi doesn't want to make money, and doesn't want Qiandu to make money either?"
"Mr. Huang, please don't get me wrong! I am not the CEO of AutoNavi Maps now, and this new policy has nothing to do with me." Cheng Congwu explained quickly.
"Xiao Jun? Do you mean that Senlian Capital is manipulating behind the scenes?" Huang Wei asked suspiciously.
He knew that Senlian Capital had acquired AutoNavi Maps, but he didn't know that on the first day Senlian Capital took over AutoNavi Maps, the CEO was replaced by Xiao Jun.
"Maybe." Cheng Congwu said with a chuckle.
Huang Wei knocked on Li Yanhong's office door with doubts.
"Robin, AutoNavi, as the electronic navigation product with the largest market share, has now announced that it will be free. We must follow up as soon as possible, the sooner the better." Huang Wei said in a serious tone.
When he figured out Amap's free strategy for the B2C market, the last shred of fantasy in his heart was shattered.
After hearing this, Li Yanhong said nothing, but frowned and a look of hesitation appeared on his face.
Although the profit share of B2C business is small, the annual minimum income is 30 million.
Before, when he heard the name of Senlian Capital, he always felt that Chen Yansen was incredibly talented. He had earned a fortune of tens of billions at the age of 20, and his business talent was amazing.
But at this moment, the names of Senlian Capital and Chen Yansen suddenly became particularly hateful.
Li Yanhong hesitated.
"Robin, be a little slower! Individual users will all turn to AutoNavi. Once they gain scale advantage, it will be several times more difficult for us to surpass AutoNavi in a short period of time."
Huang Wei urged anxiously.
"Let the marketing department issue an announcement!" Li Yanhong sighed and waved his hand.
Huang Wei couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw that his boss listened to his advice. After responding, he hurried out to find the staff from the product and marketing departments to first shut down the charging function of Qiandu Maps and then issue an announcement.
The news that the two major electronic navigation maps would become free immediately became a hot topic.
This has almost changed the travel habits of ordinary Chinese people. Many people who can't tell the directions no longer get lost with the guidance of navigation.
Physical maps are entering the countdown to elimination! At 22:00 that night, a more important news came out: Lashou.com was suspected of financial fraud and its IPO plan was shelved.
"Who sent the complaint letter to the Securities Association? Find it for me!"
At the Lashou.com headquarters, Wu Bo was about to go crazy. They were just one step away from going public, so who the hell was this person who was so ruthless?
(End of this chapter)
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