"Today, are all the shareholders here? I want to announce something!"
In the conference room of Huimin Travel Company, Zhang Yida was sitting at the front seat, looking at the dozens of shareholder representatives present on both sides of the conference table, preparing to announce the merger of the company.
Smith was also sitting in the conference room, watching Zhang Yida attentively, ready to hear what the "big surprise" Huang Xiaofeng said was?
"Huimin Travel, Pinduoduo, and Doushi will be merged into one group. After merging into one group, they will fully integrate the resources of each platform and strive for higher valuation/market value goals!"
Investors were blown away when they heard this, and began to think about the feasibility of the merger, as well as the pros and cons.
Smith asked directly: "Mr. Zhang, can you tell me the benefits of the merger?"
“The simplest point is to improve the profitability of Huimin Travel through the new group’s ecology.
For example: The current bike-sharing war is not over yet. Hellobike and BlueBike are still fighting stubbornly in first- and second-tier cities.
At present, they basically have no chance to grow bigger, and they will not pose much of a threat to us.
Of course, this is the case if Jack Ma and Chen Wei don’t have a hothead and spend three to four billion US dollars.
If they are willing to spend billions of dollars to come in, they will still have to fight the bike-sharing issue."
Investors laughed, and the current pattern of shared bicycles has basically become stable.
Jack Ma and Chen Wei each have a basic business base, so how can they invest billions of dollars in the market?
If you say that this industry is like a gold mine, they may change their minds.
If you invest billions of dollars today, you can recover your capital or more in a short period of time.
But shared bicycles are obviously not this kind of "gold mine" industry! You are not a gold mine, but you are a silver mine, right?
But Huimin Bicycle is nothing. Perhaps it is more appropriately called a "mine".
Some investors have already regretted it. Huimin Bicycle's market share is indeed large, but making profits is not as easy as it seems.
After the C round of financing was completed, they were worried about whether Huimin Travel could raise another round.
If it cannot be melted, the situation will be critical.
"Yida, please stop being so pretentious and tell me directly, what are the benefits of merging?"
Xu Xiaoming was also present, and he urged Zhang Yida to finish speaking quickly.
"Okay, let me continue."
Zhang Yida added: "Hallo Bicycle and Xiaolan Bicycle are backed by Ali and Didi. Although they are not willing to spend billions of dollars to come in, they can still drive a nail in the field of shared bicycles for us.
They have been pursuing a free strategy in first- and second-tier cities. In order to maintain the market, we have no choice but to follow suit. Therefore, Huimin Bicycle has the largest losses in first- and second-tier cities.
Their purpose of doing this is, on the one hand, not to give up on the traffic entrance of shared bicycles, and on the other hand, it is probably for strategic purposes to retain the possibility of counterattack.
At this point, everyone should have almost understood it! If we, Huimin Travel, want to make a profit, we must change our thinking.
After merging with Pinduoduo and DouShi, we can launch some joint activities.
For example: if you use TikTok for half an hour, you will get a free Huimin bicycle for half an hour of riding time;
For purchases over 100 yuan, 200 yuan, and 500 yuan at Pinduoduo, you will receive a free Huimin Bicycle riding weekly pass, monthly pass, or quarterly pass.
If you ride Huimin Bicycle for half an hour or an hour, we can also give Pinduoduo shopping coupons to help Pinduoduo increase GMV...
This business linkage model will push up Pinduoduo's GMV, increase the usage time and stickiness of DouYu users, and increase the frequency of use of Huimin Bikes.
The profits of the other two companies, the group’s profits, are also the profits of Huimin Bicycle.
Of course, this is just an example. Specific business collaboration requires careful discussion and study by the operations team on how to maximize benefits."
“Yida, what do you mean is that bicycles will continue to be ridden for free, but some conditions will be added to make them free, such as watching DouShi short videos and shopping on Duoduo?
Let these two companies make profits and then feed back to Huimin Bicycle in the future?”
Zhang Yida looked at Shen Beipeng, nodded and said, "Yes, that's what it means. The three APPs also need to open accounts with each other to drive each other's business."
"Isn't Pinduoduo a bit too low-priced? I heard that things are very cheap here, but the quality is not particularly good." Zhu Xiaohu from Jinshahe Venture Capital interjected.
“Pinduoduo was originally designed to sink the market and cater to those customers who are sensitive to price.
The cost is there, and if you want to have the same quality as a product that is several times or even ten times more expensive, it is just fantasy and fantasy.
Don't look at the "consumption upgrade" that is being shouted about every day in China. In fact, the majority of people earn less than the average wage.
The base of users in these third- and fourth-tier cities definitely accounts for more than half of the 1.3 billion people."
Zhu Xiaohu nodded, Zhang Yida was right.
Don’t think that the white-collar life in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is the average level of Chinese people.
As an investor, he is well-informed and naturally knows that many ordinary people are far from reaching the so-called "average salary line" published.
"I heard that Pinduoduo has an annual GMV of tens of billions, and it is a good e-commerce platform. But DouShi, it is said that it only has users but no revenue?" Zhang Ying of Matrix Partners Global began to criticize again.
"There is no revenue because we have not yet launched full commercialization. DouYu users use the app for much longer than ordinary users. If we start receiving ads, it will be easy to increase the revenue.
But now DouVision is still in the stage of rapid growth, fishing in the dry lake is not worth the loss.
In addition, Musical.ly, a subsidiary of Douyin, has conquered cities in Europe and the United States and is invincible. It has topped the App Store download charts in various countries for a long time and has been very successful overseas."
Zhang Yida knew that it would not be easy to reorganize several companies, so he praised DouShi very hard.
"I heard that DouShi's valuation is US$7 billion?" Ren Yu asked.
"Yes, we just completed a $1 billion Series A financing some time ago."
The investors present secretly smacked their lips. The amount of this Series A round was much larger than that of other companies’ Series C and Series D rounds.
"Is this valuation too high?" Zhang Sanshi expressed the sentiments of most investors present.
"How could it be so high? All the data can withstand scrutiny. We made the valuation against Kuaishou, and it is very reasonable."
Xu Xiaoming also stood up to help Zhang Yida, "Yes, the valuation is not high. How many apps have more than 100 million users in less than a year? Moreover, the user activity is extremely high, and it is very commercially valuable. .”
"Ahem, um...Mr. Xu, I heard that Zhenke Fund is also a Series A investor in DouShi?"
After saying that, Gan Renping from Qiming Venture Partners looked at Xu Xiaoming with a half-smile.
"Although Zhenke is also an investor in DouShi, we are also an investor in Huimin Travel. We will not favor any party."
Xu Xiaoming behaved very openly. He really didn't take any side, so he didn't feel guilty at all.
"Then what is the current valuation of Huimin Travel? Several months have passed since the Series C financing. It can't still be 6 billion US dollars, right?" Tong Shijie of GGV Capital looked at Zhang Yida.
Zhang Yida said: "The valuations of the three companies will be re-evaluated based on the previous round of financing and based on the current operating data.
No company or investor will suffer a loss, and we will conduct valuation assessments based on fair and equitable principles."
The other investors stopped talking. Zhang Yida had already said this, and they were trying to save him face by waiting to see how the situation would develop next.
Then, Pinduoduo and Doushi also held shareholders’ meetings.
The financing rounds of these two companies are several rounds smaller than that of Huimin Travel, and there are not many investment institutions. In addition to Penguin, they are Zhenke Fund and Blackshirt Capital.
Therefore, the negotiation was much easier than Huimin Travel, and we quickly reached a consensus.
At the same time that Pinduoduo, DouShi, and Huimin Travel hired external agencies to conduct due diligence, a press conference of Zhonghe Group was also held in Beijing.
At the meeting, Zhang Yida announced in a high profile that Lu Qi would be hired as the CEO of Zhonghe Group.
The reporters in the audience were confused. They had never heard of such a number one company? Could it be some new project launched by Zhang Yida?
"Hello Mr. Zhang, is Zhonghe Group your newly established company?"
Facing the reporter's question, Zhang Yida smiled and said: "Yes, that's right, it is indeed a newly established company."
"Will this new company take artificial intelligence as its main research direction?" the reporter asked again.
"Including artificial intelligence research, but it is not the entire business of Zhonghe Group."
The reporter asked again: "Mr. Zhang, can you give us more details?"
Zhang Yida said: "Not yet, you will know after a while."
Seeing that Zhang Yida was so unhappy, other reporters rushed to Lu Qi and asked him questions.
"Dr. Lu, I heard that you rejected the recruitment of domestic BATJ and chose the unknown Zhonghe Group. What is the purpose of this?"
Lu Qi smiled and said: "Because Mr. Zhang and I have a good rapport and we both have some common goals."
"Does this common goal refer to artificial intelligence research and development?"
"Include that too!" Lu Qi nodded, "But not all. Zhonghe Group's goal is to become a global technology company."
The reporter became even more curious about this mysterious Zhonghe Group, which wants to become a global technology company.
Is this slogan too exaggerated? Penguin, Ahri, and Qiandu are not worthy of such a title.
"Excuse me, Dr. Lu, what is the salary offered to you by Zhonghe Group?"
Lu Qi laughed, "This is personal privacy and will be kept secret for the time being, but it's still a step above what I did at Microsoft."
The reporter was even more curious. Lu Qi's annual salary at Microsoft was tens of millions of yuan, not including stock dividends.
The salary offered by Zhonghe Group is even higher than that of Microsoft. Is it hundreds of millions? This is really the working emperor.
"Dr. Lu, do you think there is a big gap between mainland China's AI companies and the top AI companies in Silicon Valley? Can they catch up with them?"
Finally asking a more nutritious question, Lu Qi said with a smile: "There is definitely a gap, but it's not as big as imagined, probably only a few years.
In some areas, China still has competing or even leading companies. As long as it catches up, I think it can catch up with the United States."
"Dr. Lu, what is the direction of Zhonghe Group's AI research and development? For example, chat robots? Unmanned driving? Business intelligence analysis? Healthcare?"
Lu Qi smiled, "You said there are too many fields? We will focus on one field first, such as business intelligence analysis.
Others will depend on the specific research and development progress.”
Many reporters came to the venue to interview today. Artificial intelligence is a big gimmick. In addition, the Chinese working emperor returned to China to join Chinese technology companies. There are too many hot topics in the news.
Therefore, many reporters actively asked questions, generally focusing on several key issues such as "artificial intelligence" and "Zhonghe Group".
Zhonghe Group is still an empty shell, and the integration has not been completed, so Lu Qidu did not discuss it in detail.
On the other hand, Lu Qi talked more about artificial intelligence.
He talked about the AI craze in Silicon Valley, how a large number of companies have entered this field, how many patents they have obtained, and how R&D results will transform traditional "Internet" companies.
That’s right, Internet companies have become traditional companies in the face of AI.
In addition to Internet companies, traditional industries and manufacturing industries can also be empowered by AI.
Lu Qi said: "AI industrial model prediction refers to the use of industrial big data to intelligently allocate raw materials, output, production time, waste emissions and other data through AI, and ultimately obtain an intelligent production model that is higher than extensive production.
In addition, expert experience can also be converted into AI models and then put into production in reverse to solve the problem of workers' lack of experience;
There is also the transformation of maintenance and equipment management experience into AI models to predict equipment failures, intelligently manage maintenance systems, etc.
As a major manufacturing country, our country will have a huge impact from AI technology changes, and we must be prepared.
Robots replace assembly line workers, translation machines replace translators, virtual anchors replace hosts, and smart medical care replaces radiologists...
The arrival of the AI era will bring changes to the entire business and society."
Lu Qi explained in simple terms, selected several industries, and briefly explained the impact of AI.
Lu Qi is still relatively pragmatic, talking about "weak artificial intelligence" that will basically be realized in recent years, and does not talk about "strong artificial intelligence" like the Terminator.
Because it is too far away, and the current generation may not be able to see it in their lifetime.
Many reporters present were fascinated by what they heard. While listening, they took notes of Lu Qi's speech and prepared to publish a story when they got back.
The title is "The Artificial Intelligence Era is Coming, Are You Ready?"