The summer heat is gradually disappearing and early autumn is approaching.
It’s the best time of the year in Beijing. Unfortunately, autumn is too short, and it won’t be long before the cold winter comes again, as well as the “haze” that left a deep mark on everyone’s hearts last year.
Cheng Congwu drove his car on the way to the company. The early morning breeze slipped in through the window and could not erase the gloom and worry on his face at all.
In the past few months, Amap and Baidu have launched a price war.
First, Baidu reduced the price of navigation to 6 yuan, then launched a free offline map function, and then packaged five products including maps, search, and video for only 5 yuan.
At the same time, it has made efforts in the mobile phone manufacturer pre-installation and mobile phone application distribution market, and has placed a large amount of advertising... so much so that before the end of the third quarter, Baidu's navigation and map market share has increased by 4 percentage points.
On the other hand, Gaode did very little and really didn't have the confidence to fight head-on.
All this made him upset and angry.
"Good morning, Mr. Cheng!"
"Mr. Cheng!"
When he arrived at Gaode Company, the employees came and went to greet him. Cheng Congwu walked into his office with a straight face and said nothing. As soon as he sat down, before he could do anything, his assistant hurried in.
His heart skipped a beat. He had experienced this scene several times!
Sure enough, the assistant said: "Baidu just announced that starting from next month, it will carry out a three-month limited exemption event until the end of the year!"
"..."
Veins burst out from Cheng Chongwu's forehead, he was anxious and angry, as if the machine was stuck for a few seconds, but he didn't give any instructions and waved his hand to let him go.
The assistant didn't even ask, and turned around silently and left.
This is the current situation inside the company. Everyone is panicked, pessimism is spreading, and there is no sense of security.
"..."
Cheng Congwu sat by himself for a while, turned on his computer, logged into Maiwo Weibo, and as soon as the homepage refreshed, he saw the announcement just issued by Baidu.
Nowadays, almost all companies have Weibo accounts, which provide timely updates. Business leaders often express their opinions and quarrel and curse on Weibo.
As he looked at the Baidu announcement, his mentality became more and more unbalanced. He couldn't help but pull the keyboard and posted a message using his own account:
"Baidu is an Internet company. It should be free and should not charge any fees. It used to charge for downloads and also reduced prices, but now it is free of charge. What do users who paid when prices were reduced think? They should lose money!"
His personal account has few followers, and after posting it, there were very few retweets.
However, several senior executives of the company commented:
"Baidu navigation experience is very bad, we should really lose money!"
"Lead people into the ditch. [embarrassed] [scared]"
"What do companies that sell fake medicines expect to do? [dog head]"
Don’t think this is low-level. During business wars, senior executives from both sides would spit on each other and even fight. It’s just that Gaode people are in decline, so posting insults on Weibo makes them even more angry.
Half a day passed in the blink of an eye.
In the afternoon, Baidu responded very quickly, sending three messages in a row, and @ amap:
"Sorry, we are just an Internet company!"
"I'm sorry, but the introduction of limited exemption is really unfair to paying users!"
"So we decided to refund users who paid to download during the price reduction period!"
Hiss!
This time, Cheng Congwu was really shocked.
Even if each person was refunded 6 yuan, it would add up to tens of millions. Baidu would throw it away without batting an eye.
If he had been within the tolerance before, this refund finally allowed him to see what the Internet environment is and what the Internet business war is!
This day was extremely painful.
Cheng Congwu leaned on his chair, and as he leaned against it, it became dark. The falling night made him feel even more powerless.
In particular, I saw Baidu's reluctance, issuing a series of statements: "Amap accused Baidu of 'selling fake medicines' and 'leading users into a ditch' without any factual basis, which has adversely affected Baidu's reputation. We must investigate
legal liability……"
Ah!
Cheng Congwu suddenly became happy.
Everyone knows that Baidu sells counterfeit medicines, but 99% can be scolded, and Gaode will be held legally responsible for scolding. Weakness is the original sin!
"Let the wind out..."
Cheng Congwu called his men and gave helpless and transparent instructions: "We hope to meet new and powerful partners to jointly develop free business of navigation and map products."
…………
After the news got out, major manufacturers interested in working here came to contact us, including Baidu.
Yes, if Baidu provides enough money, Cheng Congwu will really consider it.
The essence of business war is to seize or monopolize the market. As long as this goal can be achieved, bayonets can be fought one second, and mergers may occur the next. Even if the founders are not willing, the shareholder capital behind them can make them do so.
For example, Youku and Tudou, Meituan and Dianping.
Of course, Baidu was ranked last, and the first person Cheng Congwu received was the fast-acting Alibaba - Cai Chongxin came in person.
Tsai Chongxin was born in Taiwan and is a Canadian. He studied in the United States in his early years, worked in finance, etc., and is a standard template.
In the 1990s, he met Jack Ma, and just like Wolong came out to assist Liu Bei, he gave up his high-paying job in the United States and joined Alibaba.
The first thing he did was to explain the rights and interests of the shares to everyone in front of a broken blackboard. He also made eighteen English contracts in line with international conventions and asked Jack Ma and the Eighteen Arhats to sign them.
To a certain extent, if Tsai Chongxin had not joined, Alibaba might have been a grassroots team maintained by "emotions" and "ideals."
After that, he used his connections to attract investment for Alibaba, playing a key role in many historical nodes, and was called "the man behind Jack Ma."
However, he was known in later generations, probably because he became the owner of the NBA Nets and single-handedly created the Big Three of Harden, Irving, and Durant.
Cheng Congwu and Cai Chongxin met.
Cai Chongxin brought Ma Yun's development vision and some beautiful imaginations about AutoNavi's localized life services. The two chatted happily, and they seemed to regret meeting each other late.
"Since Amap wants to transform, it must conform to market trends... Free, free is necessary!"
"That's what I mean too. Due to the company's lack of strength and being targeted by Baidu, it has not been able to advance."
Cheng Congwu smiled bitterly.
"Let's talk about a few conditions. We have determined the big conditions, and we can slowly discuss the details."
"Okay, you tell me!"
"Alibaba attaches great importance to the strategic value of AutoNavi and is willing to pay more than your market value to acquire it. However, we also need to raise funds. We can do it in two steps. Alibaba will buy shares first and then acquire it wholly.
Now that it is a wholly-owned acquisition, AutoNavi will delist from the U.S. stock market.
Furthermore, Alibaba will provide data resources to AutoNavi. Correspondingly, AutoNavi must also meet the development needs of the group's overall strategy. To give the simplest example, there will be some changes in personnel."
What Cheng Congwu understands from this sentence is that there will be adjustments to the senior management and middle management of AutoNavi.
Talk about terms, even if you are inclined to agree in your heart, you still have to think about it with your mouth, and Cai Chongxin will naturally agree.
After the meeting, Cheng Congwu has been pondering the pros and cons of combining with Alibaba, and then debated whether to take the initiative to contact Yao Yuan. After all, Yao Yuan was the first to propose the acquisition, and 99 is also very powerful.
This is a two-way choice. If Gaode wants to find a backer, he naturally has to find the toughest and most suitable one.
At this moment, he also received a call from Yao Yuan, inviting him to attend the Meizu launch conference next month.