The other three were surprised by Lin Yi's pessimistic attitude.
Because at this point in time, there is no doubt that it is the most glorious moment in Wanli Travel’s three years and the most glorious moment since the birth of this industry.
They believe this is just the beginning.
But from what Lin Yi said, he seemed to think that he was already at his peak.
In fact, they have discussed the issue of industry bottlenecks for a long time, but they are not as solemn and confident as they are in front of investors, and their chests are beating loudly.
But having just become the industry leader, it seems too early to act like this.
"Lin Yi, I completely agree with the company's next development direction of achieving profitability, which is also what investors hope for."
"But they may also want to see that our business can have some protection and barriers, rather than just anyone coming in and grabbing a piece of the cake."
"In order to achieve the goal of profitability, it is necessary to cut off those unprofitable branches and vines, but in the eyes of the outside world it is a signal to shrink the front line, and we may need to make more positive statements."
"We have already invested in Mobike before, regardless of whether you are optimistic about it or not, but shared bicycles are just shared bicycles after all."
"For us, no one expects two wheels to be able to leverage four wheels. We still need more stories to support the valuation of Wanli Travel."
"Even if we really planned to do this, we can't just tell everyone that we are a boring online taxi company."
The obsession with growth is also a form of greed.
Complaints are complaints, this issue still has to be taken seriously. Lin Yi unexpectedly agreed: "You are right, so we don't play with two wheels, we play with four wheels."
"Um?"
Lin Yi had never mentioned this idea to anyone, and it was the first time the other three had heard of it.
"In addition to our main business, the further development of Wanli Travel is nothing more than leveraging our industry influence to develop in the upstream and downstream directions."
“In the entire travel industry chain, the one with the most imagination and the potential to produce disruptive results is, of course, new energy vehicles.”
Lin Yi's words are actually not very convincing.
In 2016, new energy vehicles are not a new topic. The theme has been updated several times in the stock market, but it has not yet shown the momentum to lead the times and innovate the industry.
At that time, traditional car manufacturers were still strong and were dismissive of the emerging electric vehicles. Toyota, the world's number one, was still holding on to its hydrogen energy patent.
Among geeks who like to try new things, buying a Tesla is quite fashionable. South African-born Ma Yilong has become famous with his big rocket with an empty fork, but he has not yet become well-known to everyone.
As for China, new energy vehicles have been associated with scandals such as subsidy fraud for many years. The industry is in chaos and there are all kinds of cynicism in the society.
Every year we talk about overtaking in curves, but unfortunately we only see curves but no overtaking.
In short, Lin Yi just expressed his disdain for the online ride-hailing industry, but the option he proposed seems even more unreliable.
"Building cars...Lin Yi, new energy vehicles are certainly a big trend, but professional car manufacturers have worked hard for so many years and have not let this fire catch up."
"Manufacturing, heavy assets, high investment, and long cycle are all elements that investors hate the most, and they can be rejected at a glance."
"To take a step back, even if we don't mention the question of when the prospects of this industry will be realized, we are empty-handed. We don't even have anyone who can repair cars, let alone build cars. We are almost starting from scratch."
"Building cars is not like the Internet. One computer, two servers, and a coder who knows programming can start the business."
"As far as I know, even taking parts to assemble a car that can be driven on the road requires a huge team of engineers and a lot of financial investment."
To be honest, these people, including Lin Yi, are all laymen in the automobile industry.
If Lin Yi hadn't been reborn, he wouldn't have dared to tell what stage of development new energy vehicles or electric vehicles were at, and whether the money invested would be in vain.
Lin Yi was mentally prepared for their concerns and had his own explanation.
"Of course I know that building a car is not an easy task. Otherwise, there are so many smart people in the world, and it wouldn't be our turn to take advantage."
"The elements you just mentioned that investors hate the most don't sound sexy at all, but those are exactly what we lack the most."
"moat."
"If we are a company that focuses on manufacturing and have such a dominant market share, we don't have to worry about waking up and the world will be turned upside down. Instead, our upstream and downstream companies have to worry about being sucked out."
"You may think this is too optimistic. To say the least, even if we fail, we still have many tangible things on hand."
"Land, factories, production equipment, and iron boxes that can be driven one after another on the assembly line."
"I'm not saying that building a car is foolproof, but I'm just saying that this may be the most promising development direction we can find. Can you imagine other larger markets in this industry chain?"
This left them speechless for a moment.
The automobile industry is the largest industrial category in modern society.
"But Lin Yi, the large market size is not the reason for us to get involved in this industry. It is really hard for me to imagine what kind of evaluation a taxi-hailing software company will get if it crosses the border to build cars."
"In other words, what resources and talents do you think we have to do this?"
Lin Yi's answer is: "We have a market."
"Although we are just a platform that provides travel services, and we do not provide the driver's vehicles, as a direct operator, we actually have many means to have an impact."
"When we take some preferential support measures, it can greatly affect the car-buying or car-using choices of online ride-hailing drivers."
"Building a car is not difficult at all."
"Although we don't have a background in the automotive industry, how many of the so-called new forces that have emerged in the past two years have professional backgrounds?"
"As long as we spend money to build the car, we can find a way to sell the car to online ride-hailing drivers."
"Even if we don't consider social sales, if we only complete the replacement of all online car-hailing vehicles within a certain period, such as within ten years, this scale is completely enough to support a large-scale automobile factory."
This sounds somewhat reasonable.
However, Lin Yi still hasn't completely convinced others. After all, this is the company's most important future development strategy, and it has to be cautious.
They decided to entrust a professional team to conduct more detailed and complete industry research to support the company's key decisions.
Lin Yi did not feel disappointed.
If he only considers the growth of his personal wealth, what he should do now is to discount all his assets and then directly exchange them for Tesla stocks. This should be the option with the most generous returns in the next few years.
It seems like a thankless task if you have to do it yourself.
But besides paper wealth, there are many things Lin Yi wants to pursue.