Pengcheng Wanli was registered as an industrial and commercial entity in July 2013, more than a year after Lin Yi and others received the US$800 million in financing.
The article mentioned less than a year, which is from the launch of the first version of Wanli Travel APP in early September, which is indeed a few days away.
Of course, I wrote this to highlight the rapid development and momentum of Wanli Travel, a new unicorn. Anyway, Lin Yi had no intention of asking them to correct it because of this "reporting bias".
Rounding it off, it’s almost the same.
In short, Lin Yi can still happily accept the title of "the fastest unicorn in history".
You must know that before this, the ideal vision for Internet entrepreneurship was described as "unicorn in three years and Nasdaq in five years."
No matter how you calculate it, it’s only been one fucking year!
Although Uber's valuation is still several times that of Wanli Travel, in addition to being a noble American company and having significant advantages in scale, Uber was established in 2010.
At that time, Lin Yicai had just returned to this world and was still a high school student studying hard.
No matter which angle you look at it, Wanli Travel’s valuation of US$4 billion is an unprecedented and brilliant achievement.
There has been an extremely optimistic mood in the company recently. Because this is good news, Lin Yi and Liu Jianni did not adopt strict information blocking measures.
Before the official announcement, the news had spread throughout the company to middle-level and above cadres as well as a small number of well-informed grassroots employees.
These people are basically qualified to take company options, and the increase in the company's valuation directly means that their net worth has skyrocketed.
Liu Jiani even received word that someone was already asking her department about Wanli Travel's listing plan.
This may be the ultimate dream of code farmers who are part-time workers. Every time a large-scale Internet company IPOs, a lot of opportunities for freedom of wealth will be wholesaled.
To outsiders who have little idea of the capital market, it seems that a unicorn worth US$4 billion is qualified to be listed based on its valuation alone.
Wanli Travel is certainly still far from an IPO.
Lin Yi and the others were sensitive to this trend. If Wanli Travel occupied the first position in the industry after the subsidy war and increased the confidence of employees, then this time it can be said that they were blind.
Therefore, in this internal company letter, in addition to routinely thanking all employees for their hard work, he also specifically emphasized:
"Although today's achievements are hard-won, Wanli Travel is still a new company in the entrepreneurial stage, and we still remain in awe of the market.
If there is an end point called success, then there are at least high mountains and bumpy journeys between us and it. The whole company must maintain the entrepreneurial style of hard work and be mentally prepared to fight big and bad battles..."
In conjunction with the internal rectification chaired by Li Moyan, Wanli Travel once again adopted relatively large-scale team management measures.
The company's staff is expanding too fast, and there will definitely be people with insufficient talents or unmatched moral standards sneaking in. After the subsidy war, Lin Yi has asked his senior sister to take action.
In the past few months, Wanli Travel itself has eliminated a group of incompetent employees, but this has not caused business fluctuations or external concerns because they have recruited more people to replace and supplement them.
Of course, these are not useless efforts. A combination of punches will improve the cohesion and centripetal force of employees, and the company's management efficiency and execution will also be improved.
But what’s interesting is that Lin Yi’s words in his internal letter about “fighting big wars and fighting bad wars” were interpreted by the outside world as preparing to attack his colleagues.
As the saying goes, "You have a sharp weapon and a murderous intention." You have just received US$800 million in financing, far exceeding that of your peers. How can you wait until you don't make a large-scale attack?
In this regard, Lin Yi explained in an interview: "Of course we have a series of promotion plans, especially for the private car business that was just launched this month. The purpose of this product is to provide differentiated services for customers with financial capabilities and higher requirements.
Excellent and exquisite service.”
"We will continue to invest in the company's original taxi business. Recently, we have built a driver's home in each of the four first-tier cities of Beijing, Shenyang and Yangpeng to serve all online ride-hailing drivers, which has been well received by everyone.
"
"We will also launch activities such as red envelope rewards or free fares for passengers from time to time to thank users for their support."
"But it is true that we do not intend to adopt a large-scale subsidy policy again as we did at the beginning of this year. We believe that such measures are unsustainable and inconsistent with the development laws of the industry. We should not compete with our peers in this way...
…”
Lin Yi's statement made those passengers who were waiting for the second time of picking up wool very disappointed.
This desire is humane. If Lin Yi could communicate with them privately, he might tell them that there is no need to be disappointed too quickly.
Lin Yi has accepted a lot of interviews during this period. It can be said that they come in droves. It is a new publicity season for Wanli Travel and himself.
Among them are some so-called celebrity business magazines that sound very high-end and specialize in making lists and making selections, such as Forbes and Fortune.
"Forbes" claims to be willing to select him as the number one among this year's "Industry Elites Under 30", but Lin is not very interested in this title.
Don't think too highly of the quality of these foreign magazines. They create all kinds of messy lists just to generate income.
Find a few well-known and credible people to cooperate with the speculation. After it has commercial value, young people who are eager to become famous can take the initiative to "sign up" for the remaining positions.
This stuff is basically clearly priced.
Although he is just a fake, some people think that being able to spend such spare money to promote himself is a proof of his strength as long as he is not a pure charlatan.
After all, this is a business.
Lin Yi is certainly not the type to pay money to be on the list. With Wanli Travel's current performance in the industry, he can use it to endorse the credibility of the list.
In order to make this opportunity more attractive, the other party also offered to do a long interview with him. The translation is:
You can help him write soft articles.
Although Lin Yi can brag without hesitation to investors, he does not intend to portray himself as a genius in the media.
Of course, if he wants to, let alone "can program at the age of six", even if he wants to create a character of an evil, arrogant and domineering president, it is not impossible.
Fortunately, Lin Yi was not very interested in this.
This time last year, he was still trying every means to gain popularity for himself, but now that Wanli Travel has reached this stage, he is not too keen on it.
However, Liu Jianni expressed a different opinion, believing that Lin Yi should try his best to increase his reputation and obtain some significant business honors, which would be beneficial for Wanli Travel to maintain its exposure and positive public image.
After all, the entrepreneur's personal image is often related to the company's brand value.
Therefore, the company's public relations team was responsible for the arrangements. Lin Yi still received a group of media and reporters. This 20-year-old young CEO truly became a celebrity in the business world.