Chapter 50: There is not much time left for Kuaidu
On January 1, when Wanli Travel and Xiongchang Wallet first started to subsidize, although the total budget amount was not announced, everyone in the industry knew that it was 100 million yuan.
On January 10, when Dudu Taxi and Gouchang Pay were jointly launched, the budget had been doubled to 200 million yuan.
After another 10 days, this time Kuadu and Factory A’s momentum can no longer be said to be a cold start, but a hot start. The 500 million yuan is more than twice that of Dudu!
While Lin Yi was still lamenting that Factory A was really rich and powerful, he immediately refreshed his understanding.
Because on the afternoon of January 21, Kuadu Taxi announced that the original taxi driver reward of 10 yuan per trip, the same as Wanli and Dudu, would be directly increased to 15 yuan per trip.
This increase is also very exaggerated, which shows that after the fermentation of Kuadu Taxi Taxi's front-end time, taxi drivers have become accustomed to traveling thousands of miles and Dudu. If the rewards are the same, there is no need to change.
It takes such a huge investment to cut through the mess quickly and attract them quickly.
On the other hand, Kuadu's high-profile participation in the war was like blowing a horn, attracting all the eyes that had not paid attention before.
The media began to cover the news of the subsidy war in the taxi-hailing industry in one article after another. Related discussions can be seen not only on the Internet, but also in more traditional TV and print media, raising the popularity of the incident to a new level.
Wanli, Dudu and Kuadu are all start-up companies that have received large amounts of financing. There have been some public reports before, so the media also dug up all the news about these three companies.
Founders such as Lin Yi and Cheng Wei have been intensively scrutinized. This is very different from Lin Yi's own hype during the summer vacation, and it is very newsworthy.
However, he did not have time to pay attention to the interview invitations sent by various media this time.
Of course, compared to the taxi-hailing software companies that most people have heard of for the first time, people are still more interested in talking about the shadows behind them.
Ordinary people have no intention of understanding the strategic significance behind the generous subsidies for taxi-hailing software. Their most intuitive feeling is:
bat is so rich!
This cannot be wrong, because the three start-up companies in the taxi-hailing industry are not profitable yet and rely on large investments from the three giants. Even this event is inseparable from BAT's funding.
In any case, the influence of this war has gone beyond the industry itself and is considered "out of the circle".
Lin Yi didn't pay much attention to these things. His attention was still on the other two competitors. So what was his reaction after Kuadu entered the scene?
Did nothing.
Of course, Lin Yi didn't raise his hands to surrender, nor did he want to shy away from Kuadu Taxi. It was purely because the other party was already a step too late.
Why did Kuaidu make the decision to increase its bets only one day after it started?
Because there is not much time left for Kuadu.
New Year's Eve in 2014 happens to be the 30th day of January in the solar calendar.
Kuadu launched the subsidy on January 20. The lunar calendar on that day was the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, and three or four days later it was the Little New Year in the north and the south respectively.
Although it is not a legal holiday yet, foreigners wandering in the city have already started their way home one after another.
In the face of this Spring Festival transportation, which foreign media calls "the largest seasonal migration in human history," it doesn't seem to matter how much money the wealthy BAT bosses spend.
The bustling city on weekdays, the streets bustling with traffic 24 hours a day, and all the hustle and bustle are gradually falling silent, until the two days before and after the Spring Festival, it will completely turn into an empty doomsday scene.
Very cyberpunk.
"Kuaidu is unlucky. Just after it started, it encountered the Chinese New Year, and all economic activities were suspended."
"They should still have some growth in the past few days, but compared to our growth and Dudu's growth some time ago, it can be said to be negligible."
The person who was commenting on Kuadu Taxi was naturally Lin Yi, and opposite him was his most respected funder father, Xiong Factory’s father.
Mr. Robin Li.
Yes, Lin Yi came to report on work again.
"It's not entirely a matter of luck. Their follow-up was ten days late starting from Dudu, and 20 days late starting from Wanli Travel. It should be said that their own response was too slow."
Robin Li was in a good mood. He said he was talking about Kuadu Taxi, but what he was thinking about was Factory A. This was a rare occasion for him to evaluate a company with its Factory A status so easily.
"How's it going over there, Dudu?"
Lin Yi replied: "After the Tuk-Tuk taxi subsidy was introduced, we still received a wave of dividends, although due to server problems, most of the money went to Wanli Travel."
"But based on my understanding of Cheng Wei, he probably won't give up so easily, so I will continue to pay attention to Dudu's movements."
Cheng Wei's silence during this period is very abnormal. Although Lin Yi has found out that he spent seven days and seven nights solving server problems with the help of Goose Factory, but other than that he was too quiet.
Lin Yi had some guesses about what tricks he was planning, but he didn't tell Robin Li. After all, it seemed difficult for Xiong Factory to intervene in this matter.
This is not the purpose for which he came today.
Robin Li had no intention of intervening in the direct competition between Linyi and the other two companies. He was only interested in the performance of Wanli Travel:
"So, Wanli Travel is now number one in the taxi-hailing industry?"
"There won't be any changes until at least the end of the year."
Although Lin Yi's words were predicated, his tone was very firm. Robin Li was not a picky person. He knew that it was not easy to achieve this step.
What Robin Li is considering is whether to announce this news as good news at the Bear Factory's annual meeting and introduce it as the key performance of the year.
In 2013, global smartphone sales reached 1 billion units, surpassing feature phones for the first time, announcing the arrival of a new era.
In China, 350 million smartphones were sold throughout the year. The wave of mobility is no longer a "trend" but a "reality."
To be honest, unlike A Factory and Goose Factory, which have always been called together, Xiong Factory cannot be said to be lagging behind in this process, but it has obviously lacked bright spots.
This was the reason why he urgently needed to show off his achievements in traveling thousands of miles to show off his appearance, but he still had two concerns.
First, there is still a question mark as to whether Wanli Travel’s current dominant position can be maintained. Robin Li also knows very well that the subsidy battle in the taxi-hailing industry has yet to be decided, and there will inevitably be waves again after the year.
Second, although Wanli Travel was invested by him and the outside world has always considered it to be a "Xiong Factory" company, it is not Xiong Factory itself after all.
Robin Li quickly discovered the caring side of Lin Yi, because he actually proactively offered to attend the Bear Factory's annual meeting.
How should I put it, his approach was so positive that Robin Li felt a little embarrassed.