There were two things in the industry in January related to Wanli Travel.
First, Robin Li invited a big shot named Lu Qi back from the United States, and he directly served as the president and COO of Bear Factory, and later became a director and vice chairman of the board of directors.
Lu Qi's last job before returning to China was senior vice president of Microsoft, which is known as the highest position a mainland Chinese has ever held at the headquarters of a Silicon Valley technology company.
It is said that the reason why Lu Qi could not survive at Microsoft was that after Steve Ballmer retired, he lost the competition with an Indian guy for the position of Microsoft CEO.
All in all, this is a star manager who is attracting attention in the industry.
It can be seen from the appointment that Robin Li has high hopes for his arrival, and the outside world also has high expectations for the new atmosphere he can bring to Xiong Factory.
This is an important signal that Xiong Factory is actively seeking change.
Although Lin Yi is now close to Factory A, he also has a lot of cooperation with Factory Xiong, so he specially expressed congratulations for this.
The second thing is that in January, Mobike completed a Series D financing of more than US$200 million, with Wanli Travel once again leading the investment and continuing to increase its equity ratio.
The bike-sharing war is now in full swing. In terms of media attention, it is no less than the original ride-hailing war. Funding is also coming one after another, as if history is repeating itself.
But Lin Yi didn't pay much attention to it, so he didn't care much about it.
Anyway, he only needs to pay attention to being able to survive without being dragged into the water when the shared bicycle overturns. For this reason, he has prepared a plan to escape.
Apart from these two things, everything else is a step-by-step routine, and Lin Yi's job is relatively easy.
Until something else happened.
February 14th is Valentine’s Day again. Since the merger of Wanli Travel and Tuktuk Taxi, a new player has suddenly entered the long-dormant taxi industry.
A few months doesn't seem to be a long time, and Lin Yi will soon digest the Tuk-Tuk taxis and Ubers he swallowed in one gulp.
But this is not the key. The key is that the person who took action this time was not a stranger.
It's King Star.
Each taxi group announced its trial operation in Jianye and began recruiting drivers to take orders. Although there was no fanfare, it quickly attracted countless onlookers.
"Do you know about this?"
Lin Yi has a good relationship with Wang Xing. The senior management of Wanli Travel all know that they were trying to survive among the three giants, and they often flirted with each other.
Later, although Lin Yi took money from Factory A and could not openly get too close to Wang Xing, the traitor from Factory A, they did not completely stop contacting each other forever.
Just two or three months ago, they were chatting and laughing together in Wuzhen. At that time, there was Zhang Yiming, and they were dubbed the "New Big Three" by the media.
"This guy Wang Xing is not very authentic. He called me brother and sister in person, but then he gave me a knife without even saying hello."
Lin Yi said he was very disgusted, but in fact he was not angry because he was mentally prepared for this.
"Then what do we do?"
"I'll make a phone call first and go over and scold him."
Lin did as he was told and dialed a number on the spot. He didn't rush to each group's office to scold him because Wang Xing probably wouldn't see him.
received.
"Brother Xing, what do you mean? You came in casually after taking a fancy to your little brother's territory, without even saying hello. Isn't it too rude?"
Wang Xing seemed to be well prepared for his accusation. He followed his words and said, "Your door is always open. I just come in to take a look. Don't worry too much."
"You know the style of each group and have the courage to try it."
When he said the door is open, he meant that the ride-hailing industry has no real moat.
Moreover, the synergy between one city and another city is not obvious, so the scale effect is not significant, which is very unfriendly to industry leaders.
This disadvantage holds true for Lin Yi now. If Wang Xing can really take away Wanli Travel's market share, it will also hold true for him in the future.
From this perspective, taxi-hailing is not a good business.
Then why is Wang Xing still trying to grab it?
Because the valuation of the taxi-hailing industry is high, even though it is the industry leader, the valuation of each group buying and taking out is only half of that of Wanli Travel!
He had a clue about this when he was in Wuzhen.
Lin Yi secretly cursed in his heart, what nonsense is there to dare to try, what you say is better than what you sing, isn't it just to grab whatever piece of meat is fat?
"Brother Xing, I have no control over your choices in business. But with your big appetite, aren't you afraid of breaking your teeth?"
There is only one sentence on the opposite side: "Every regiment is not afraid of fighting."
Lin Yi felt that these words sounded familiar. It seemed that Wang Huiwen had said something similar when he represented every group to acquire the casual takeaway website.
Yes, this is the old and new grudges.
"I know that each group is fighting, but the past three years of Wanli Travel have not been a vegetarian. In fact, you have witnessed the cruelty we have experienced. Are you prepared?"
Wang Xing’s answer is: “It all depends on human effort.”
Tianer was chatted to death by him.
Lin Yi put down the phone without saying a few words. When he was done, he said with emotion: "Sure enough, businessman friends are temporary. I declare that the plastic friendship between me and Wang Xing is over."
He still had time to joke, but others were not so relaxed.
Each group has only opened one city, but they are not only capable of opening one city. If they really want to fight, they will be in trouble again.
No one wants to repeat the subsidy war of the past three years.
What's more, Lin Yi also promised investors that he would achieve profitability in 2017.
"There's no need to be so pessimistic. We don't want to fight another subsidy war, and neither do the investors in each group."
"Wang Xing's sneak attack could have been bigger, but he only chose one city, which shows that he doesn't want to make the same mistake again."
"It's not a lie when he says he's trying. To put it bluntly, he's just trying to find out what we're up to and see if there's any bargains to be made."
That's what I said, but you can't place your hopes on the other party's restraint.
Liu Jianni reminded: "We always have to respond to each group's affairs, and everyone is watching from the outside."
"Do you believe that if we don't do anything, not only each group, but also those groups, Shenzhou, which were already half-dead and about to disappear, will suddenly come back to life?"
Lin Yi naturally understood this truth, so he also agreed not to let Wang Xing have an easy time.
"The money that should be spent must still be spent. Inform the city manager of Jianye to cancel his profit assessment. Now his primary goal is to prevent the promotion and spread of each group's taxi rides."
"If he can't handle it, just pack up and get out. I'll pick someone who can handle it and go to Jianye to replace him."
These are all routine operations. What makes Lin Yi a little unhappy is that this will affect his profit goal.
Fortunately, there is only one city.
It must also be controlled in one city. If it really spreads, Lin Yi's plan will be completely ruined and the rhythm of the next few years will be disrupted.
"Wang Xing is indeed looking for trouble, but we can't always let him make trouble for others. As the saying goes, don't be disrespectful in return. Someone should take care of him."
"Let me think about it, what kind of trouble can we cause for Wang Xing?"