So far, Wanli Chuxing is still considered to be a go-getter of the Xiong Factory Clan, so naturally his number one financial backer father is the handsome middle-aged man Robin Li.
Robin has been having a rough time lately.
At the macro level, by 2015, the gap between Bear Factory and Goose Factory, which had successfully transformed into mobile Internet, became more and more obvious.
As for the business level, the o2o business that Xiong Factory has high hopes for has not improved either.
It cannot be said that it has no achievements at all. Xiong Factory has invested a lot in the field of group buying and food delivery, and other competitors have not paid attention to it at all. Apart from the two strongest players in the industry, it firmly occupies the third position.
But the embarrassing thing is that the top two in the group buying market are Every Group and Dianping, and the top two in the takeout market are Every Group and Are You Hungry, both of which are closely related to Factory A and Goose Factory.
Another change is that Dianping.com has received a new round of financing of US$850 million, which has exceeded the D-round of each group three months ago.
Coupled with the US$350 million that Hungry? received earlier, Goose Factory has the upper hand in this round of financing.
What's a little embarrassing is that they don't seem to regard the wealthy Xiong Factory as their first target, but instead rush to encircle and suppress every group.
Ignorance is the greatest humiliation.
Robin Li welcomed Lin Yi's arrival. Wanli Travel is the only non-staff member of Xiong Factory's 020 team, but it is also the only one that has occupied a leading position in the market.
Currently, it is temporarily lagging behind Dudu. Strictly speaking, it can be said to be a non-war crime. After all, the key step for Dudu to achieve overtake is to merge with Kuadu.
"How are you doing now? I think the subsidy war for the express train business has started again recently?"
Robin Li felt much calmer when he mentioned the subsidy war this time, because it was the first of its kind at the beginning of last year, and he had never encountered it before in his many years of industry experience.
But since the taxi-hailing industry took off, the group-buying and food-delivery industry soon became aware of the power of subsidies, so they followed suit in the past year.
This is also the reason why their financing amount is increasing each round.
This time, because there was no need to pay half the price from Xiong Factory Wallet, Robin Li didn't understand the details so clearly, but he still read the briefing.
Having said that, Xiongchang Wallet, in addition to reaching its peak of development during the first subsidy war, has now shown decline due to usage scenarios. Li Robin can fully feel the drag of the payment business on the entire o2o strategy.
"Yes, although the momentum of this round of subsidy war is not as good as the last time, this is because consumers have become accustomed to it. In fact, as the scale of business continues to expand, our expenditure will be higher than the last time."
"I came here this time to have many places to seek help, and only Xiong Factory can help with traveling thousands of miles."
Robin Li was mentally prepared for this. He waved his hand and said, "You say it."
Lin Yi had been preparing for a long time before he came: "The first thing is that Dudu has launched an enterprise version of the business, which allows users who can take a taxi back to the company for reimbursement after taking a taxi, and use it directly in the name of the company.
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"The advantage of this is that it can save them from the tedious process of handling bills and reimbursement, as well as the financial pressure of not having to advance money themselves. It can also facilitate fund management for the company."….
"It's not very high in terms of business ratio, but it is attractive to large corporate customers with strong payment capabilities."
"In this case, the company's choice will replace the choice of individual users, so Wanli Travel is also planning to follow up. I think besides ourselves, Xiong Factory should be the first customer we serve."
The number of employees in the Bear Factory itself is not large, but this is an obviously symbolic move that can highlight the "special relationship" between the two companies internally and externally.
This is just a trivial matter. Robin Li nodded simply: "No problem."
In fact, this incident was just a foreshadowing. Lin Yi kept trying: "The second thing is that we want to borrow the resources of the Xiong Factory."
"When we established the safety committee, we had an idea to introduce artificial intelligence technology to ensure the safety of the trip."
"In addition, our technical department has many directions for continuous research and improvement, such as how to maximize overall efficiency through matching between vehicles and passengers, and how to choose routes to achieve the optimal itinerary."
"These problems have actually been solved in the process of our cooperation with the lbs business department, but I want to continue to deepen the cooperation on this basis."
"Specifically, I hope that Wanli Travel and Xiongchang can jointly establish a smart transportation research institute, which will not only tackle the problems I just mentioned, but also all technologies that can improve traffic conditions will be included in the research scope."
Lin Yi has naturally coveted Xiong Factory's strong technical reserves, and Robin Li is also willing to support this issue, because the data generated by thousands of miles of travel every day is also very important to Xiong Factory.
Of course, Xiong Factory had invested so much that it couldn't all be used to make wedding clothes for Wanli Travel, so they still had careful discussions on the research direction and how to use the results.
In terms of name, since it was jointly established by two companies, Lin Yi suggested not to name it after any one company, but just call it "Smart Travel Joint Research Institute."
Robin Li didn't have any special obsession with this, and he didn't intend to use his status as a shareholder to overwhelm him, so he settled on it simply.
"Who is in charge of this institute?"
Robin Li's original thought was that Lin Yi didn't have enough technical experts at all, and even the CTO was poached from under him.
Because in the IT industry, people like that are highly valued and cannot be afforded by people who travel thousands of miles away, so most of them still have to be hired by Xiong Factory.
But he miscalculated. Although Lin Yi had no one with him, he still knew the person.
"I suggest that Professor Li Feifei from Jingdian should serve as the chief scientist of this research institute. She is a domestic expert in this field and has a certain reputation internationally."
These are the basic conditions that Lin Yi mentioned, and the female professor may not be the only one who meets them. The key factor he considers is of course the romantic relationship between them.
Robin Li himself indeed attaches great importance to technology, so he has heard about these well-known professors in the academic world, including Professor Li Feifei.
He knew that Lin Yi was born in Jingdian, and the choice of Professor Li Feifei was probably due to some connection between the two. However, at least this person was not an insider from Wanli Travel. It would definitely be an exaggeration to say that she was Lin Yi's person.
In the cooperation between the two parties, Wanli Travel is of course in a relatively disadvantaged position, so it is understandable that there are certain demands on candidates.
Robin Li did not agree hastily. He suggested: "How about this? Ask Professor Li Feifei to come over another day, plus our respective technical staff, and the three parties will discuss the institute's affairs in detail."
This matter cannot be decided by just patting one's head, and Lin Yi has not discussed it with Professor Li Feifei before. He plans to go to the school to find her after leaving the Xiong Factory.
"Then there is one last thing. Given that the current subsidy war is very fierce, we urgently need the next round of financing to supplement it. We hope that Xiong Factory can also provide financial support."