Chapter 248: 600 million US dollars? Are you taking me for a fool?
"What's coming has finally come!"
After hearing the news, Chen Yansen sighed slightly.
In this life, the market structure of the group buying industry has undergone tremendous changes.
Meituan, which should have won the battle of thousands of groups, has become the perennial runner-up. If it had not raised money from Ali, Meituan would have been out of business long ago, and Wang Xin might have started a new entrepreneurial project.
Lashou.com, which should have been out of fashion long ago, has always occupied the top spot in the industry.
"This incident was either caused by Meituan or Dianping, or Nuomi.com or Wowotuan."
Chen Yansen is very sure.
The company got stuck at the critical moment when Lashou.com was going for an IPO, and the timing was perfectly grasped, which almost cut off Lashou's path to listing.
There is no need to even think about financing or Lashou.
Giving investors false data, it was a good fortune if they didn’t get hacked to death! The next morning, the news of Lashou.com’s failed IPO was reported by most of the mainstream media in China, and CCTV’s midday news even gave Lashou.com a 15-second feature.
For a time, Meituan, Dianping, Wowotuan and Nuomi.com were celebrating!
After all, with increasingly fierce industry competition, once you lose the trust of investors, it’s tantamount to waiting for death.
How can Lashou.com, which has no money and no food, fight against them!
Wu Bo tossed and turned, and as soon as the sun rose, he called investors one by one, but the news he got was the same: "Sell Lashou.com as soon as possible so that we can cash out and exit."
Everyone knows that Lashou.com is doomed.
Zhu Xiaohu from Sands Venture Capital was so angry that he couldn't sleep the whole night. He had long felt that Wu Bo was unreliable. Last year, Ali had thought of investing in Lashou.com.
But Wu Bo was too young and hot-headed, and he insisted that Ali interrupt the launch plan of Juhuasuan and fully support Lashou.com.
Who is Ma Liyun?
They ignored him completely and turned around to invest their money in Meituan.
It can even be said that if someone else sat in the position of CEO of Lashou.com, Meituan would not even have a chance to stand up.
Sands Venture Capital, Medtronic Investments and Renit Fund have invested nearly 200 million US dollars in total. If Lashou.com fails, their money will be wasted.
Zhu Xiaohu and others acted decisively and immediately convened a shareholders' meeting to remove Wu Bo from the position of CEO and replace him with Qiu Junping, chairman of Maiton Investment.
At the same time, a statement was issued, admitting that Lashou.com had lax auditing practices and that it would investigate merchants that placed false orders and impose penalties.
But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this evasive statement is not a positive response at all.
To summarize simply: the following operations and merchants colluded to fake orders, and the company was unaware, did not understand, and did not participate.
The blame was successfully shifted, but it also angered the grassroots development staff in the East China region.
This group of people go out in the wind and rain all day long, braving all kinds of bad weather, sweeping the streets outdoors to expand merchant resources for Lashou.com.
But the company turned around and sold them!
"I only make 2,000 to 3,000 yuan a month, and I don't get any commission for fraud. Without permission from my superiors, I'm too lazy to inflate my performance, falsify my business qualifications, or falsely state the number of purchasers..."
The sales staff of Lashou.com spoke their true feelings in front of the camera.
Little pay, lots of work, and having to take the blame, whoever wants to do this job will do it! In just two days, more than 500 people from Lashou.com's East China region collectively resigned. Before leaving, they also stepped on Lashou, completely confirming that Lashou.com had falsified data.
Among these people, 80% of them joined Kuaipao, put on new work clothes, and transformed themselves into Kuaipao's field business managers.
The remaining 20% basically went to Meituan and Dianping.
In 2012, with offline merchant resources in hand, you can easily find a business job whether you go to a group buying website or a food delivery website.
Sands Venture Capital, Medon Investment and Renit Fund all used their own connections to start looking for new buyers for Lashou.com.
Although there is a famous saying in the investment world: When investing, don't think about cheating others and expect a fool to take over in the end, but when it is your turn to take over, you won't be able to smile.
When Zhu Xiaohu called, Chen Yansen asked in a frown, "Boss Zhu, do you think I'm a fool?"
"If you are willing to take over, Sands Ventures, Myton Investment and Renit Fund will invest another 50 million US dollars."
Zhu Xiaohu laughed dryly.
They are investment institutions, not professional managers. They are good at investing money, but they may not be as good as Wu Bo in starting a business.
Zhu Xiaohu thought it over, stared at the address book on his mobile phone for a long time, and finally called Chen Yansen.
The shadow of a tree, the name of a person, Boss Chen's reputation in the business circle is as solid as gold and stone.
FoxTao, Orange Technology, Pinbei Mall, Kuaipao, Kuaidi Taxi and Toutiao, their projects range from offline to online, from e-commerce to O2O local life, and they have never failed once.
Zhu Xiaohu had no doubt at all, this is the power of word of mouth!
"What's the price?"
Chen Yansen smiled and asked casually.
Lashou.com raised US$110 million in its Series C round of financing, with a valuation of US$1.1 billion. The price exceeded US$200 million, so there is no need to talk about it.
Frankly speaking, Chen Yansen was somewhat interested in Lashou.com, with a service scope of more than 400 cities and nearly 6,000 employees across the country. If he acquired it, he would not only be able to accumulate a large number of merchant resources for Kuaipao, but also drag Meituan and Dianping into the quagmire of group buying business.
Give Kuaishou another two or three years, when the 4G and mobile Internet era arrives, and rely on Orange Technology, Today Technology and Pinbei to divert traffic to it. Even if Wang Xin has three heads and six arms, he will not be able to defeat the fully-fledged Pei Yi.
If Meituan is accidentally crushed, then even Meituan’s food delivery products will not appear in this life.
"600 million US dollars." Zhu Xiaohu tested cautiously.
"Mr. Zhu, I have a morning meeting and don't have time to joke with you." Chen Yansen responded mercilessly.
600 million US dollars? They are treating him like a fool! Sands Ventures, Metton Investment and Renit Fund want to find someone to take over, but they are reluctant to cut their losses. They can actually take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune. How can it be so good?
"The minimum is 400 million. You have to know that Lashou.com has received 170 million US dollars in financing. I know that the current public opinion environment is not favorable to Lashou.com, but its market share is still there."
Zhu Xiaohu persuaded patiently.
"Mr. Zhu is right. I hope LaShou will become stronger and stronger under the leadership of Qiu Junping."
After Chen Yansen finished speaking, he hung up the phone.
Wait until Wang Xin of Meituan and Zhang Tao of Dianping give Lashou.com a hard blow.
Obviously, Zhu Xiaohu and others have not yet faced the reality.
"That's it! That little bastard is making a fuss!" Zhu Xiaohu couldn't help but curse in a low voice when he heard the busy tone on the phone.
Not long after, he contacted Liu Zhiping of Penguin again.
Liu Zhiping did not hesitate and refused decisively.
Gaopeng.com, a joint venture between Penguin and Groupon, has long fallen out of the top ten in the market, and QQ group buying is also lukewarm.
Ma Wenteng is considering whether to merge the two websites to reduce operating costs.
At this point, if you ask Brother Ma to pay for another group buying website, the success rate is almost zero.
Sands Venture Capital, Medon Investment and Renit Fund, which were struggling to find a buyer, had no choice but to let Qiu Junping take over.
In mid-April, the group buying market was surging.
On the one hand, Qiu Junping stepped up activities to please users and merchants, and on the other hand, he used the connections of the Renit Fund in the Lighthouse Country to try to quell the fake accounting scandal of Lashou.com.
As long as Lashou.com can successfully IPO, the crisis will be resolved.
However, Meituan, Dianping, Wowotuan and Nuomi.com did not give Lashou.com any chance to breathe.
While Lashou.com stepped up its activities, each company also launched its own marketing activities in a timely manner.
Meituan abandoned the agency system and fully adopted a direct sales model, rapidly expanding merchant resources and launching special movie tickets at 19.9 yuan per ticket.
Dianping has launched electronic coupons, online reservations and membership card functions.
WoWotuan has transformed into a shopping mall model, combining group buying and e-commerce, focusing on differentiated competition.
Nuomi.com has teamed up with high-quality merchants in more than 50 cities across the country to launch best-selling lists in multiple categories including movies, catering, KTV, etc., and distributed 5 million yuan in cash coupons to users in one go, further squeezing the living space of Lashou.com.
…
…
Early in the morning of April 13th.
As soon as Chen Yansen arrived at the office, he saw Wang Teng coming towards him with a grin on his face.
"Boss, about 100,000 Mac computers were infected with the Flashback virus today. Even hundreds of Macs at Apple headquarters were infected, causing the sales of the Apple 4S to slump."
Wang Teng explained with a smile.
"What's the relationship between Mac and iPhone? How can this virus invade the phone?" Chen Yansen pulled over a chair and sat down, asking curiously.
"Domestic users don't care about these things. It is a fact that Apple is infected by the virus. By selectively ignoring some key information, we can hit our opponents. Why not do it?" Wang Teng replied.
Users will only think that Apple’s claims of system security are bullshit.
After listening to Wang Teng's introduction of the whole story, Chen Yansen learned that in July last year, a Dutch engineer discovered a major vulnerability in Java and informed Oracle, the owner of Java's core patent.
Oracle and Microsoft quickly developed patches for these security holes.
But Apple insisted on developing a Java patch independently, so it was a step slow and was targeted by hackers.
"Partial facts are also facts. Has our sales volume changed?" Chen Yansen asked with a sly smile.
"Compared with the same period yesterday, sales increased by 12.7%. Excluding factors such as traffic changes, it is estimated to have increased by 10%."
Wang Teng replied immediately.
Chen Yansen took out his mobile phone and was met with a barrage of curses on Weibo. Apple users cursed Apple, Android users mocked Apple users, and various mobile phone manufacturers could not help but join in and DISS the security of the Apple system.
The next hot search was the news report that 360 sued Penguin, demanding Penguin to pay 150 million yuan in losses, and Penguin countersued 360, claiming 125 million yuan.
"Old Zhou is really out of his mind. He is suing Penguin in Shenzhen. It would be a miracle if he can win."
Chen Yansen sneered.
If he remembered correctly, Zhou Hongyi not only did not get a penny, but also paid 5 million to Penguin.
It was not until this moment that the 3Q war came to a successful conclusion.
"We will continue to optimize the Aurora OS 1.38 system and wait for Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel's voice interaction engine to go online. Then our fall new products will be halfway done."
Chen Yansen patted Wang Teng on the shoulder and encouraged him.
"Okay, boss. I understand." Wang Teng nodded in response.
Chen Yansen waved his hand, signaling Wang Teng to go back to work, and he took the elevator to the floor where the Orange Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was located.
"Boss, last time you asked me to add natural language processing and speech synthesis technology to the speech analysis function module. I have discussed it with Daniel and it will probably take another month to develop."
When Zhou Chuangxi saw the boss, he took the initiative to step forward and report.
"Then it's not appropriate to call it a speech recognition tool anymore. Let's change it to a speech analysis interaction engine."
Chen Yansen said with a faint smile.
By then, Yuxi will have full-link processing capabilities for speech recognition, natural language processing and speech synthesis. By simply increasing the amount of voice data training, it will be possible to create an intelligent voice assistant for instant communication.
This thing might not be surprising five or six years later, but in 2012, it was definitely a groundbreaking product.
Moreover, Chen Yansen is developing tools and building an ecosystem. On the one hand, he can make money by using technical patents, and on the other hand, he can make use of the data acquisition channels of other mobile phone manufacturers.
"Okay." Zhou Chuangxi opened his mouth, then closed it again and agreed readily.
He actually wanted to suggest to his boss to change the name of "Yuxi", but he changed his mind and gave up.
Yuxi is just a development tool for an intelligent voice interaction engine, and it doesn’t matter what it is called.
If the boss gives such a shitty name to the future smart voice assistant, he will definitely stand up and object.
Immediately afterwards, Chen Yansen called Daniel over, and the three of them went into the office together to hold a technical seminar.
Privately, Daniel calls the weekly "technical seminars" classes, because he can learn something new every time. Chen Yansen can always give him new inspiration in programming languages, development frameworks and database structures.
Just before getting off work, Zhou Hongyi, who I hadn't contacted for a long time, called me.
(End of this chapter)
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