"I'm sorry Lin Yi, Dai Wei is... young and energetic, so please bear with me. I will definitely give him a good talk when I get back."
Lao Zhu was a showman. Even though he was already scolding his mother in his heart, he still wanted to clean up the mess for that guy.
But Lin Yi shook his head firmly.
"No matter what the attitudes of both parties were just now, at least we exchanged real opinions. I guess there is nothing you can do to change Dai Wei's position."
"I wouldn't change mine either."
It was not the first day for Lao Zhu to deal with Dai Wei, so he knew that he was a stubborn guy who would not listen to advice, but he still had to show confidence when facing Lin Yi.
"Don't say that to Lin Yi. I believe everyone is sincere about the merger of Xiaohuangche and Mobike. Don't break up just because of this small difference. That would be a real pity."
This was no small disagreement, but Lin Yi didn't intend to break up with him and only responded with four words:
"Things can only come down to three things."
Lao Zhu's heart skipped a beat. The situation he was most afraid of had finally appeared. Lin Yi and Dai Wei were so tit-for-tat, and it was obvious that their tempers were rising.
For Lin Yi, this guy Dai Wei has already blown up in front of him twice, and he will never give him a third chance.
Lao Zhu knew that it would be useless to talk more at this time, so he gritted his teeth and left one sentence: "If it doesn't work, I will ask Brother Xiao Ma to come forward. You wait for my news, and I will definitely give you accurate information this time."
After saying that, he hurried away.
There were also Hu Weiwei and Wang Xiaofeng looking at each other. They didn't know why the conversation suddenly broke down just now. They looked at each other and the latter said:
"Then what should we do now? Is the merger still possible?"
Lin Yi waved his hand crisply: "You guys go back to the company right away. There's no need to wait here. Just do whatever you have to do."
"The merger is definitely out of the question. Just think that your trip was in vain."
Hu Weiwei and Wang Xiaofeng breathed a sigh of relief.
To them, the collapse of the merger means that at least Mobike is still under their control.
But it also means that they have not yet been able to escape from the quagmire of shared bicycles. To be honest, the craziness of the industry in the past year has put them under great pressure.
Hu Weiwei wanted to ask one more question: "Then, behind..."
Lin Yi simply interrupted: "Please wait for my news about what happens next."
What he said about waiting for news was not waiting for news from Lao Zhu. It was rude to come back without reciprocating. He decided to teach Dai Wei, who had a lofty ideal, a lesson.
When Lin Yi wanted to invest in a small yellow car, it was just to stop Dai Wei from going his own way, but as a result, he didn't give Lin Yi a chance to intervene from the beginning.
Since we can't reach an agreement, let's find another way.
Wang Xiaofeng seemed to sense that Lin Yi was not going to be nice, so he took Hu Weiwei away, who was still a little confused, and said that he would go back to the company to prepare for the competition with Xiaohuang Che.
Lin Yi was not in a hurry to take action.
This is Pengcheng. Although the negotiation with Dai Wei has broken down, out of respect, Lin Yi still wants to visit Xiao Ma from Goose Factory.
In fact, strictly speaking, they should be on opposite sides in the shared bicycle industry, being the largest shareholders of Xiaohuang Bicycle and Mobike respectively.
But even Xiaohuangche and Mobike can sit down and discuss mergers, so Lin Yi and Xiaoma Ge will naturally not have any ideas of competition.
He explained the negotiation in detail. After listening to it, Brother Ma thought about it and only answered:
"Do what you want."
With Brother Xiao Ma's words, Lin Yi had no worries.
…
A few days later, a well-known financial media published a long article titled "Suspicious funding for shared bicycles, continuous financing still makes ends meet, and seems to be insolvent." The signed reporter was Feng Wenqian.
On the surface, the article questions the operating conditions and profit prospects of the entire bike-sharing industry, but when describing the crazy financing, it keeps using small yellow bikes as an example.
The core point is that it reveals the hidden rules of the shared bicycle industry, which is to misappropriate user deposits that should be managed by dedicated accounts to supplement insufficient liquidity.
This is the first public “negative report” about this industry since the bike-sharing boom in 2016.
This report was like a starting gun. Overnight, related topics such as "the collapse of shared bicycles" and "deposits for small yellow bicycles" were on the hot searches, pushing this industry news to ordinary netizens.
Not long after the news spread, Mobike, one of the two leading bike sharing companies and not named in the article, was the first to respond.
“Dear Mobike users:
Since its establishment, the company has been committed to providing everyone with green, low-carbon, convenient and low-cost travel methods, and has received praise and support from the majority of users.
In the early days, in accordance with the practice of the leasing industry, we collected a certain deposit from users before use as a credit guarantee for users. We have never misappropriated this amount for other purposes.
In order to improve user experience, we recently cooperated with Zhifubao of Factory A, a leading domestic Internet finance company, to launch a credit deposit-free campaign.
As long as your Zhifubao credit score reaches a certain level, you can use all Mobike shared bicycle services without paying a deposit.
At present, Mobike has fully adopted a credit deposit-free model.
We would like to remind all users that through Zifubao credit certification, you can use Mobike without deposit, and the deposit you have paid before can be returned.
Mobike will continue to provide services to everyone and welcomes friends from all walks of life to supervise."
This announcement came quickly, and anyone who was interested could tell at a glance that it was well prepared.
After Mobike's immediate exit, public attention on the issue of shared bicycle deposits was suddenly brought to the forefront.
Although there are many fringe players in this industry who may or may not be named, there is no doubt that the most eye-catching one is another industry leader alongside Mobike.
The little yellow car became the target of public criticism, and all the media were asking about the whereabouts of the deposit.
After two days of silence, they had to respond publicly under pressure from the outside world: "The deposit for the yellow car has never been embezzled. The rumors online are all false and are malicious slander by competitors."
Netizens in 2017 are already well-informed and will not believe just what they hear.
The person who lit the final fire for this matter was Lin Yi.
When he confronted Kalanick back then, he always ended up personally, but now he doesn't have to be secretive when dealing with a mere Dai Wei.
As a giant in the field of travel, Lin Yi bluntly commented when asked this question in an interview with the media:
"Dai Wei is lying."
“I read the little yellow car’s announcement, and it was so confusing that it didn’t answer one core question, which is where the deposit went.”
"If Dai Wei and Xiao Huang Che really have such a clear conscience, there is no need to talk nonsense and they can just post screenshots of their bank accounts."
"The deposit for shared bicycles is an issue left over from history. It does not need to exist under the current industry conditions. As for why it has been misappropriated, the regulatory agency is also obliged to explain."
"I call on all users to withdraw their deposits from the yellow cars as soon as possible. If it is late, there is a high probability that problems may occur."
Lin Yi's words immediately caused an uproar.
Because in the industry, even direct competitors rarely speak harshly to each other directly and quarrel with each other on public platforms.
There are really only a few people like Lin Yi who openly let off steam.
Immediately, netizens took notice and the number of deposit refund applications received on the Xiaohuangche APP increased rapidly.
Soon someone revealed that the time it took for the yellow car to refund the deposit was getting longer and longer, so the negative feedback intensified and more people started to join.
At the same time, more dirty information about the little yellow cars appeared on the Internet, including rumors such as "the founder embezzled public funds and each owned a Tesla" and "the team was extravagant and extravagant, renting a luxury office in the CBD."
The little yellow car has fallen into the biggest crisis since its establishment.