Wanli Travel's express train business preparations were not that fast, and after the merger, Dudu Kuaidu obviously had the same concerns and was still behind them in terms of progress.
But something is urgent.
Price war!
Whether it’s Uber’s price cuts, the red envelopes that everyone is sending out, or the discounts for traveling thousands of miles away, there is actually no difference, just give them the money.
Strictly speaking, this should be regarded as the second round of subsidy war, and although Uber is the initiator, it actually spent the least.
Because it has entered few cities and the existing order volume is also small, it must be subsidized by taxis before it can be distributed.
Of course, its scale is also rising rapidly now, which is somewhat similar to the situation among the three companies in the early stages of the first round of subsidy war last year.
The biggest rival of Wanli Travel is actually Dudu Kuadu. They are the most powerful rivals and their scale is already very large.
Except for the decline in the order volume of the platform just after the first round of subsidy wars, as the penetration rate of taxi-hailing software and smartphones themselves has become higher and higher, the scale of the industry has been moving upward.
After Uber fired the first shot this time, Wanli Travel and Dudu Kuai immediately followed up, skipping the previous climbing stage and almost immediately reaching the peak subsidy level.
Moreover, last time there was a third-party payment platform that only had to pay half of the money, this time the taxi app has to pay out of its own pocket.
Lin Yi asked his CFO for confirmation: "How much do we need to spend?"
"$40 million a week!"
Jenny Liu is very professional, she is not a simple question and answer machine.
"After my calculations, this is the average subsidy amount we can achieve under the current conditions, which means that it is about 160 million US dollars per month. The natural growth during this period has been calculated."
"Our last round of financing was US$800 million. Without considering the cancellation or reduction of large-scale subsidy measures, we can only last for a total of 5 months."
"Considering that the money was received in August last year, the actual capital reserves we have on hand can only support it until the end of June at most, which means that the next financing must be received before this point in time."
After hearing this, Lin Yi cursed: "Damn, it's only three or four months. It's so exciting."
Liu Jianni didn't pay attention to his insignificant emotion and continued to report the situation she had learned.
"Uber's current operation scale is too small but it is still growing at a rapid rate. However, considering that Uber does not operate taxis at all, I predict that its subsidy scale can reach up to 20 million US dollars a week."
"If Kalanick says he will invest US$1 billion in the local market without discount, the money will last for almost a year."
"Of course Uber is very rich. US$1 billion is not his upper limit. He is fully capable of continuing to fight as long as necessary."
"On the other hand, after the merger of Dudu Kuaidu, the combined market share of the two companies is already higher than that of Wanli Travel, so their expenditures should be higher than ours."
"But they are also richer. The last rounds of financing for Dudu and Kuadu were 700 million and 600 million respectively, and the time was after us. It is expected that their capital reserves after the merger should not exceed 1 billion US dollars."
"If Dudu Kuaidu's spending speed is 1.5 times that of ours, then their existing funds can probably be used for 4-5 months; if it is 2 times, then the exhaustion time will be about the same as ours."
Lin Yi concluded: "In other words, there is a high probability that our financing time with Cheng Wei will still be in a collision."
He has not considered Uber for the time being, because although Kalanick's financing environment is better, it mainly raises funds in the United States, and there is little overlap between investors on both sides.
"You're right."
Liu Jiani said without hesitation, "Considering that everyone has already gained an advantage over us, and Liu Qing has shown strong financing ability before, we have to make plans early."
Now that the second round of the subsidy war has just begun, it may not be a good time to start financing immediately, but if the time comes, it may be too late to rush.
Although financing is the job of Liu Jianni's supervisor, she also mentioned Liu Qing directly, and she was obliged to remind Lin Yi of this.
Lin Yi thought for a while and gave a guideline: "Don't worry too much about valuation during this round of financing. Prioritize ensuring the financing amount."
Of course he is not underestimating it when he says he doesn't care about the valuation. It is a two-faced thing. Otherwise, if investors are not optimistic about your performance, they will not pay for it.
It has been more than half a year since Wanli Travel’s last round of financing, and the overall scale has at least doubled, so the valuation will naturally increase accordingly.
Liu Jiani immediately agreed: "This idea coincides with mine. I will try my best to get all the money I can get."
"Judging from the current situation, both Uber and Dudu are going to fight. We can't do it without sufficient financial reserves. We will have to wait until at least the next round of industry consolidation before things can turn around."
"This time I will be more targeted than in the last round of financing. We may not need to meet too many institutions, but I will not be too selective about the background and funding sources of venture capital. The more ammunition the better."
Although it was a bit uncomfortable for Wanli to travel due to the recent merger of the two cities, Lin Yi was also very nervous for a time.
However, the taxi-hailing industry is still a hot topic in the eyes of venture capital investors, and they should not be so depressed that no one cares about it.
Liu Jianni further suggested: "In this situation, the major shareholders and Xiong Factory as our business support are particularly important."
"I know that in the last round of financing, you didn't want to give Xiong Factory the opportunity to increase its holdings, dilute his equity as much as possible and reduce our dependence on Xiong Factory. I also support these."
"But one moment is another, and now is a difficult period. We can't continue to play the same way as the downwind battle. You must win over Robin Li."
Lin nodded to express his understanding.
Although he was wary of Xiong Factory, he didn't have any special grudges. He had to bow his head under the roof, but he still knew how to assess the situation.
"After the last round of financing, our relationship with Xiong Factory is not as close as before, and Xiong Factory has invested heavily in o2o this year."
"I can still say something about this matter, so I will go to Robin Li as soon as possible to show my face and ask for more money."
After the two people discussed it, the basic strategy was finally decided, and they both had an idea.
Liu Jianni’s estimate is reasonable, and the subsidy amount for Wanli Travel has indeed reached US$40 million per week.
You must know that during the last round of subsidy war, they only reached a maximum of 40 million yuan a day, which was only a short-term peak.
In a year's time, this round will be just the norm.
Maybe it was because the first time brought about the same result, but the second time was familiar. Although the amount prepared this time was larger and the money was burned faster, Lin Yi didn't feel that frightened.
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He stood in front of the glass curtain wall of his office, looking at the busy traffic on the street below, and mentally calculating how many of them were online ride-hailing drivers.