Chapter 690 Undercurrent Surges! (Happy New Year's Day)
Seeing Mobike blooming everywhere on the streets of Pengcheng, it started to enter the southern market almost at lightning speed, even though it was only the third city.
However, the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have great market potential and their highly symbolic status. They are battlegrounds for military strategists.
Even the small yellow cars that are obsessed with the college market cannot ignore the importance of these four cities, especially the university markets in these four cities, which also play an important strategic position in the small yellow cars' strategy.
It can be said that both companies have already been secretly working on these four cities, but there is still a wall between them and they have not yet officially met each other.
However, after the last visit from Xiaomi Investment, we had a good chat with Dai Wei, and the two companies successfully reached a considerable investment.
What Dai Wei didn't expect was that this wave was a double blessing. Not only Xiaomi Investment, but also hedge funds from across the ocean followed closely behind.
To a certain extent, being able to win the favor of foreign capital is undoubtedly a recognition of the leader's position in the rickshaw industry. At the same time, with the help of foreign capital, it also provides unlimited imagination for the future strategy of rickshaws.
If the little yellow cars can go abroad and open up overseas markets, wouldn't it be equivalent to a reverse cultural export? In other words, it would bring glory to the country, wouldn't it?
At the thought of this possibility, Dai Wei's ambitions began to expand infinitely, and his sights began to look beyond the domestic market and began to look at the international market.
Although China is very large, with a vast territory and abundant resources, in the face of the huge global market, it is just a small corner.
The favor of capital and the increasing amount of financing have undoubtedly become the nourishment for Dai Wei's ambition. Thinking back to a year ago, they were just living in a small office.
After finally getting an investment, we had the funds to start a small yellow car sharing program on the Peking University campus. From hundreds of small yellow cars, we accumulated little by little to thousands of them all over the Peking University campus.
The sense of accomplishment of benefiting the younger students and giving back to their alma mater made Dai Wei, the former student union president, feel happy, and he gradually became determined to let the little yellow cars leave the Peking University campus.
It was at this time that Zhou Dongsheng descended from the sky. True to his name, he was like a ray of light rising from the sky, bringing millions of dollars in financing to the little yellow car.
It can be said that such a large amount of funds immediately solved the urgent need of the little yellow car and gave Dai Wei the capital to realize his ambition of leaving the Peking University campus.
It was also from that time that Xiaohuangche began an out-of-control snowballing process, starting from the beginning of 2016 when it received a new round of financing.
Now that more than half of 2016 has passed, four rounds of financing have been completed. For Dai Wei and others, one million U.S. dollars is already an astronomical figure.
The current C round of financing of US$300 million has only taken one year. It has not only expanded the financing amount hundreds of times, but also Dai Wei’s spirit.
After all, as the founder of Xiaohuangche, as the amount of financing raised by Xiaohuangche continues to rise, so does his worth.
It’s only been a year since I started my business. Let alone my first million, I have already earned ten, a hundred, and even a thousand is not that far away.
Not only Dai Wei, if the shares were equally distributed to everyone on the founding team, Xiaohuang Car would be enough to create several billionaires.
Even if we look at Peking University, which has a long history and a large number of talented people, it is definitely ranked high if it can achieve such entrepreneurial results in a short period of time.
Of course, in terms of high achievements, he may not be ranked among the outstanding alumni. After all, in the hundreds of years of school history, there are indeed countless people who can be said to be unprecedented and unprecedented in their talents and brilliance.
But when it comes to entrepreneurship alone, the popularity of the little yellow car is enough to make Dai Wei and others become influential figures among Peking University alumni.
To describe it as gaining both fame and fortune is not an exaggeration.
In just one year, things have changed a lot. While Dai Wei felt complacent and elated, he also felt a little incomprehensible to Zhou Dongsheng, who favored one thing over another.
It was obviously me who came first...
However, seeing the rapid rise of Mobike, Dai Wei gradually knew the answer to this question and understood the technical shortcomings of the little yellow bicycle.
It is not too late to remedy the situation. As long as you have the market and scale, it is obviously not difficult to make up for technical shortcomings.
Especially with $300 million in financing in hand, this non-issue problem will naturally be solved.
With money and a market, plus the popularity of small yellow bikes, it was easy for Dai Wei to find a technical partner like 700bike.
And began to invest some funds to catch up in technology research and development. As long as it makes up for its technical shortcomings, Dai Wei believes that Mobike's advantages will naturally disappear.
After all, at the moment, the two parties are not at the same level in terms of market size, whether it is the number of users or bicycles.
Xiaohuangche not only announced with a high profile that it had completed the industry's first Series C financing, reaching the highest single financing record in the shared bicycle industry.
At the same time, it also announced another industry first news, that is, the cumulative orders for small yellow cars have successfully exceeded the industry record of 10 million orders.
Even the number of daily orders has reached 400,000.
There is solid data as support, which also proves that the number one in the industry of small yellow cars is by no means bragging.
After all, looking across the country, among the many Internet platforms in China, the one that can reach millions of daily orders can be counted on two hands.
And the little yellow car that has reached such a scale just by relying on the college market, once it officially starts urban services, there is no doubt that the next Internet platform to reach one million daily orders will be him.
In terms of accumulation at this level, Mobike is undoubtedly a relatively weak competitor.
After all, it always takes time for factories to produce bicycles, and the time Mobike spends on technology research and development, coupled with production cost constraints, greatly increases the difficulty of Mobike's expansion.
In contrast, the expansion rate of the yellow bikes has not slowed down at all. Even if Mobike tries to catch up and overtake the yellow bikes in terms of the number of bicycles, it will not be easy.
After all, this is a simple math problem. When the little yellow car took the lead and walked for a while, the Mobike started to set off, and both sides maintained an almost similar forward speed...
Question, how long will it take for Mobike to catch up with the little yellow bikes?
The answer is self-evident. Before the market reaches saturation, the gap between the two parties will obviously not disappear easily. This is undoubtedly the biggest advantage of being the first to enter the market.
He is also the first person to take risks and be the first to eat crabs, and should get the rewards.
Fortunately, they can’t compete in terms of quantity, but quality is always Mobike’s advantage, and Xiaohuang Bicycle has the consciousness to make up for this technical shortcoming.
In a short period of time, the technical advantages Mobike has accumulated will not be wiped out all at once.
In business competition, it has always been the right way to use one's own strengths to attack the other's weaknesses, and to exploit strengths and avoid weaknesses.
This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Mobike chose Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as its market direction. If it wants to win with quality, it naturally has to find the corresponding consumer groups.
After all, it is obviously impossible for Mobike, which has a relatively high cost, to adopt a strategy such as "rural areas surrounding cities". It can only establish its foothold in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and then gradually develop its plans.
Judging from the current development speed of Mobike, this direction is obviously the right one.
The Beijing-Shanghai-Guangzhou-Shenzhen strategy only needs the last word Guangzhou to fully integrate these four words.
As long as it can gain a firm foothold in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it will naturally be a success for Mobike!
And seeing that the little yellow car has sounded the clarion call for attack, Mobike is naturally ready to take action.
As the saying goes, you can't lose if you lose, and you can't lose with momentum. Since Xiaohuangche has announced its position as the number one in the industry in such a high-profile manner, Mobike naturally has to follow suit.
Just after Xiaohuangche made two "industry first" combination punches, Mobike also disclosed to the outside world that it had completed its Series C financing.
I didn't say anything before, just holding back my energy, thinking that something big would happen at the critical moment. Since the little yellow car had already taken the lead, there was no need to hold it in any longer.
Mobike said it has completed Series C financing totaling more than US$100 million, led by Tenda Capital and followed by a number of capital institutions, including early investors such as Dongsheng Investment.
At the same time, it also stated that it has reached an in-depth cooperative relationship with WeChat, and Mobike has officially entered the travel field of WeChat Jiugongge, and has been assisted by WeChat traffic port.
This also means that consumers and users can use Mobike directly through WeChat and pay the deposit directly through WeChat.
This wave of resource tilt brought about by Tenda’s investment is undoubtedly a direct indication of Tenda’s vote in the field of shared bicycles.
Although Tenda is also an investor in Didi Chuxing, it has made completely opposite choices in the field of shared bicycles.
Obviously, between Xiaohuangqi and Mobike, Tenda is more optimistic about the latter.
With Tenda making its decision and Zhuchang Capital, which led the investment in Series B financing, Mobike has unknowingly gained the favor of the two Internet giants Zhuchang Goose Factory.
The favor of the two Internet giants is not only a financial support, but also a tilt in Internet resources, which is undoubtedly the greatest help to Mobike.
It is precisely because of the traffic boost from Tenda that Mobike expanded rapidly after entering the Pengcheng market and established a firm foothold in Pengcheng.
It can be said that there are people in the DPRK who are easy to get things done.
The Guangshen area is one of them. Looking at the Yangcheng market in the distance is equivalent to coming to the home of the pig factory. As a pig factory that started in Yangcheng, it also has deep-rooted roots in this city.
As an investor who jumped on board the Goose Factory first, he will not be stingy in the allocation of resources. With the support of the Goose Factory, the Yangcheng market can be said to be in Mobike’s pocket.
Although the two companies have always been competitors, they now have common interests in Mobike and can be said to have a common goal for a while.
As an investor, in addition to wanting a share of the pie, you also naturally want to make the pie bigger and stronger together. In this way, the piece of pie in your hands will naturally increase with the tide.
In addition to providing traffic inclines, the two major Internet giants also joined the "VR Treasure Hunt" event as a matter of course, providing part of the traffic and prizes for the event.
After all, for these two big guys who have been sitting at the Internet poker table for a long time, there are too many cards that can be played in this hand of cards.
After Mobike disclosed the news of Series C financing, although the amount is slightly lower, it has the solid support of two Internet giants, which is enough for Mobike to have sufficient competitiveness.
At least in the eyes of the outside world, Xiaohuangqi and Mobike are already competitors on the same starting line to some extent. Both sides have their own strengths and advantages and disadvantages.
There is still a certain gap, but no one has an overwhelming advantage, which also means that the field of shared bicycles has entered a stage of tit-for-tat competition.
As for the dozens of shared bicycle companies that have sprung up across China like mushrooms after a rain, they can only be regarded as green leaves at the moment and cannot be compared with these two.
And with the shared bicycle field forming a situation where the two major leaders are equally divided, and have successively completed hundreds of millions of dollars in Series C financing...
It is really difficult for a key figure who has two things to do not to attract attention.
After all, as the shared bicycle industry has become the new favorite of capital, many capital institutions that want to enter the industry are undoubtedly facing a simple multiple-choice question.
You can either choose one of the two and get a ticket to get a share of the pie, or you can start from scratch and choose to support a new target to follow suit. Even if you can't eat the meat, you still have the opportunity to taste the soup.
With the rising tide of capital, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the threshold for the former has reached a point beyond the reach of most investors. It seems to be a multiple-choice question, but for them, they have no choice.
Therefore, Dongsheng Investment, which has taken the lead in entering the market before the capital tide has risen, naturally looks particularly eye-catching.
It seems to be saying: Only children make choices, I want them all!
As an early investor in two major shared bicycles, this investment has already created hundreds of times of returns in just one year.
Such an eye-catching record, for a group of veteran capital institutions with great achievements, may be just another achievement in their credit book and not worth mentioning.
But for a capital upstart that has only been established for two years, it is undoubtedly a very outstanding achievement. What's more, this is not Dongsheng Investment's only investment.
A thoughtful person only needs to carefully count the projects in the hands of Dongsheng Investment, and it is difficult not to discover a terrible fact!
That is to say, Dongsheng Investment has made every move. As long as it takes action, there will be gains, and the scale of each project has brought considerable profits to Dongsheng Investment.
It can be said that the current investment of Dongsheng Investment still maintains a 100% winning rate!
Of course, for an investment institution that has only been established for a short period of time and still pursues an investment strategy that values quality but not quantity, this record is still within a reasonable range.
However, when we realize that Dongsheng Investment is fully controlled by a young man in his early twenties, this achievement becomes even more amazing!
