Inside the Binhai Shengjing West Tower office building, Zhang Yida warmly shook hands with Chen Bingyao, the third generation rich man, and said, "Mr. Chen, we meet again."
"Yes!" Chen Bingyao said with emotion. When we met last year, we were all CEOs of start-up companies, so they were barely on equal footing. At most, Ruixiang was just a little bigger and its valuation was a little higher. The difference wasn't that big.
When we met again this year, the other party was already well-known internationally.
Yimin Wangjin was listed on Nasdaq, with a market value of US$5 to 6 billion; Ruixiang received a massive financing of US$2.5 billion, and its valuation expanded to nearly US$30 billion;
Huimin Travel Group launched Green shared electric scooters, making a name for itself in Silicon Valley; Musical.ly overtook Facebook and YouTube to occupy the first place in Apple's rankings...
There were so many similar news that even as far away as Singapore, he kept hearing about the outstanding achievements of the young man in front of him who was a whole round younger than him.
"This is He Qingxuan, assistant to the chairman of Huimin Travel Group."
Zhang Yida then introduced He Qingxuan to Chen Bingyao who was standing behind him. Chen Bingyao's eyes lit up when he saw a pretty Chinese girl standing in front of him.
Unlike girls in Southeast Asia, she has a unique graceful temperament.
Chen Bingyao stepped forward and shook hands with He Qingxuan again, and praised: "Hello, Miss He, you are so beautiful!"
He Qingxuan frowned, feeling that this man was really straightforward. Before he came, he had heard from Zhang Yida that Chen Bingyao was from the third generation of wealth. He came from a famous family in Malaysia, had a good family tradition, and was highly educated.
Now that I think about it, it's nothing more than that. Out of sympathy, He Qingxuan nodded to him lightly: "Thank you for your compliment!"
Chen Bingyao asked for trouble, touched his nose, and asked Zhang Yida and others to sit down.
When Zhang Yida saw this, he was also thinking that Chen Bingyao might have received Western education for a long time, and all kinds of thinking and behavior have been completely Westernized. Many third- and fourth-generation rich people in Southeast Asia are in this situation.
After sitting down, Chen Bingyao started talking to Zhang Yida. He said: "BTP.bike has launched 10,000 shared bicycles in Singapore, but at the same time we have also encountered a lot of troubles."
Zhang Yida nodded and motioned for him to continue speaking.
Chen Bingyao added: "Singapore's land area is only 719.1 square kilometers. Although it has been reclaiming land from the sea, the foundation is here. No matter how much land is filled, the land area will not be comparable to a prefecture-level city in China."
"I remember that Singapore's land area seemed to be more than 580 square kilometers when it became independent in 1965, right?" Zhang Yida asked.
Chen Bingyao nodded and said: "Yes, you are right. The area was so big when Malaysia became independent.
Fifty years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the influence of ocean currents, a large amount of sediment was deposited near Singapore and surrounding islands every year, which increased Singapore's land area by several square kilometers.
In addition, for Singapore, another major way to increase its land area is through land reclamation. The land area created through land reclamation now accounts for 23% of Singapore's total land area.
As Singapore's population grows, this number may continue to rise in the future."
Chen Bingyao paused and then said: "To say so much, it means that land in Singapore is a very tight resource, and every inch of land must be effectively utilized.
In order to protect the environment and land, Singaporeans have reached an almost pathological level.
Therefore, our shared bicycles are subject to great supervision, especially when several shared bicycle companies have emerged in the local area.
For example, obike and SG bike have also launched thousands of shared bicycles in Singapore.
I calculated that the total number of shared bicycles in Singapore has exceeded 30,000.
You know, Singapore’s total population is only around 5 million.
The size of this city is not like Beijing or Shanghai, so so many bicycles are placed on the streets, especially the problem of haphazard parking, which troubles the Land Transport Authority of Singapore very much.
In addition, many citizens feel that shared bicycles clog the streets and affect urban transportation convenience and the city's image, so they frequently complain to the transportation bureau.
The transportation bureau has talked to me many times. The first is to control the number of bicycles to avoid wasting resources; the second is to enable electronic fences to solve the problem of random parking of bicycles."
Through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, Zhang Yida had a panoramic view of the prosperous scene of Tanjong Pagar Port in the distance. After pondering for a moment, he said: "Then stop the pace of expansion!"
Chen Bingyao asked again: "Do you mean to stop the expansion in Singapore, or the entire Southeast Asia?"
Zhang Yida and Chen Bingyao looked at each other and said, "The whole of Southeast Asia."
"Why?" Chen Bingyao looked puzzled.
Zhang Yida explained: "There are too many problems with sharing bicycles overseas. I think the model may not work."
Chen Bingyao looked at Zhang Yida with suspicion and said: "You have given up before you have even tried this in other areas?"
"Singapore can't even handle it, let alone other countries."
Chen Bingyao advised: "Singapore has a small land area and population. Countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, I think we can still enter trial operation."
"How much is the bicycle fee in Singapore?" Zhang Yida stared at Chen Bingyao and asked.
"S$1 every half hour." Chen Bingyao replied.
Zhang Yida added: "1 Singapore dollar is 5 yuan. The per capita income and currency exchange rate of other countries are not as high as Singapore. I am worried that I will lose money when I go there."
What Zhang Yida said was true to his heart, that is, if Singapore has money, it would be better to build a shared bicycle.
After hearing this, Chen Bingyao kept frowning and thinking. After a long time, he said: "Then you have to try it! Are you not willing to invest any trial and error cost?"
Zhang Yida saw that he would not give up until he reached the Yellow River, so he said: "How about this! You increase your capital in BTP.bike, and then purchase a batch of bicycles and put them into several other countries for trial."
"Okay!" Chen Bingyao agreed without hesitation. Huimin Travel Group controls 70% of the shares of BTP.bike, and Grab only holds 30% of the shares.
Now that Zhang Yida is giving up BTP.bike, he is willing to be the successor.
Seeing that he agreed so readily, Zhang Yida said: "You don't want to use shared bicycles to promote GrabPay, do you?"
Chen Bingyao smiled and said: "This is also a good mobile payment promotion tool!"
"Your abacus is very good!" Zhang Yida nodded secretly. Chen Bingyao is indeed very discerning.
Huimin Bicycle is also responsible for the promotion of Mobao Pay in China. It should be feasible to copy this model to Southeast Asia.
However, Huimin Bicycle has 7 million bicycles in the country and tens of millions of users.
If Chen Bingyao wants to copy his own path to success, he may have to burn a huge sum of money.
However, Zhang Yida was not tempted. In his previous life, there were no shared bicycles in Southeast Asia that were not popular.
I’d better focus on the domestic shared bicycles and the European and American shared electric scooter markets!
In other regions, try to participate in the form of technology licensing or small investment.
If it succeeds, you will get a share of the pie. If it fails, it will not have any impact on the main market of Huimin Travel Group.
Good steel must be spent on the blade!
The two agreed on a joint venture to share bicycles, and also talked about a joint venture for electronic payment company GrabPay.
Chen Bingyao said: “Currently GrabPay has opened up markets in many countries with the help of our taxi-hailing software Grab, but there are still a few application scenarios.
We at Grab plan to launch the food delivery software GrabFood this year. Taking this opportunity, GrabPay can also expand more application scenarios."
"Are you planning to combine Didi with magnesium dumplings for takeout?" Zhang Yida said with a smile.
"Didi and Magnesium Tuan are both very powerful companies and worthy of our learning." Chen Bingyao said modestly.
He has researched on well-known mobile Internet companies in China. When given the right opportunity, he is ready to copy them one by one.
"Do you still have enough funds? Ruixiang can invest another amount for you."
Zhang Yida smiled and asked Chen Bingyao whether he was very optimistic about Grab, the largest unicorn in Southeast Asia in the future.
Some time ago, Grab completed a US$350 million Series E financing led by China Investment Corporation with participation from Didi.
Ruixiang also invested US$100 million, acquiring 5.56% of Grab's shares based on a post-investment valuation of US$1.8 billion.
Chen Bingyao is also a business elite, so of course he will not do such things as "indiscriminate integration".
He has just completed US$350 million in financing, and he will not consider financing again within a year.
Financing is not always better, but a series of issues such as the company's growth rate, valuation increase, and the management team's say must also be considered.
He quickly shook his head and said: "There will be no further financing in the near future."
Zhang Yida said with a smile: "Ruixiang will always be your strongest supporter. If you are short of money, just tell me."
Chen Bingyao knew very well what Zhang Yida had in mind.
By holding 5.56% of Grab's equity, Ruixiang indirectly holds 2.85% of GrabPay's equity. In addition, Ruixiang directly holds 49% of the equity. The total number of shares has achieved the purpose of controlling GrabPay.
Fortunately, Ruixiang did not forcefully take away GrabPay's management rights. On the contrary, it continued to provide Ruixiang's various mobile payment patents and technologies.
He has also clearly seen Ruixiang's purpose, which is to make money and focus on commercial interests. He still has great respect for the founding management team headed by him.
"By the way, GoJek is also a company you invested in, right?"
Faced with Chen Bingyao's question, Zhang Yida felt a little embarrassed. It was indeed a bit unethical to place a bet between these two sides.
But there was nothing he dared not admit. Zhang Yida nodded and said, "Yes. What's wrong?"
"We are about to enter the Indonesian market. We are blind, but we will not show mercy."
Although Chen Bingyao said it more tactfully, Zhang Yida also heard a hint of his unhappiness and said with a smile: "Business competition is a very normal thing."
Chen Bingyao thought to himself, don't blame me for defeating GoJek.
He is very confident in his Grab, and all his opponents are just chickens and dogs.
"By the way, there is a party tomorrow night, you should come too!" Chen Bingyao said.