On May 4, 2014, Peking University planned a cultural performance to "commemorate the 95th anniversary of the May 4th Movement".
As a well-known alumnus and one of the sponsors of the event, Zhang Yida was invited to attend the party.
Robin Li and Dongfang Yu also came and sat in the first row. Sitting next to them were:
Li Bing, chairman and CEO of Yiju, Sun Tao, chairman of Karaka, Zhao Wuquan, chairman of Green Cursor, Hou Bing, chairman of Gaowei Map, Wang Zhidong, chairman of Xinlang, Zhuang Bangxin, chairman of Xueeryou, and many other listed company leaders.
Zhang Yida is sitting in the second row, and those sitting next to him are:
Zhang Chenchao, founder and chairman of Qunar, Tang Lin, founder of Yiyindai, Yang Yihu, founder of Renrenyouxin, Xu Yi, founder of Beautiful Talk, Wang Junyu, founder of Wandoujian, Chen Hua, founder of Singma, and Xu Xu, founder of Dakou Recruitment Network
Dan, the founder of Honey Baby Liu Lan, the founder of Snowball Fang Siwen and other chairman and CEO of startup companies.
The seating arrangement is very knowledgeable. The first row is full of senior leaders, scientific research masters and business tycoons of listed companies.
The second row and the third row are Zhang Yida and other small bosses of start-up companies.
Although they are small bosses, they are actually pretty good. There are high-end ones like Ruixiang with a valuation of US$3 billion, and medium-level ones like Renyouxin, Meilihua, and Wandoujian, which have received hundreds of millions of US dollars in financing.
The relatively new companies such as Changma, Qike Recruitment, Sugar Baby, and Snowball have also received tens of millions of dollars in financing at this stage.
Zhang Yida is a little surprised. Why is Zhang Chenchao, a big boss in the OTA industry, sitting in the second row? His Qunar.com was listed in the United States last year, and now its market value is as high as US$3.5 billion.
Zhang Yida walked to the second row, said hello to all the brothers and sisters, and then found the seat with his name written on it and sat down.
The first row is full of aunts and uncles in their 40s, 50s, 50s and 60s. I won’t go into details.
The second and third rows are also almost all young and middle-aged people in their late twenties, late thirties, etc.
Zhang Yida's young face is indeed a bit eye-catching here. At first glance, he is definitely no more than twenty-two or three years old.
Anyone who didn't know Zhang Yida asked around: "Who is this kid? Is he the president of the student union?"
People who knew the inside story joked: "He is not the president of the student union, but a small Internet financial giant.
Ruixiang Jinke, founded last year, just recently completed a $500 million Series B round of financing led by Temasek, and is rumored to be valued at more than $3 billion."
"What a great guy. I think he is only in his early twenties at most! Did he start a business right after graduation?"
"His name is Zhang Yida. He is a freshman in the History Department. He is only 19 years old."
"What a cheating life! Our honey baby only received several million US dollars in Series A financing in November last year. Compared with this little junior brother, we will be turned into scum in seconds!"
"It's really cool. I'm currently planning a Series C round of financing. It's estimated that the amount will be tens of millions of dollars. There is still a future in finance."
"There is a future in finance. It is big finance, such as banks, securities and credit guarantees. Snowball has been established for so many years and has been an investor exchange community, but the valuation has not reached 400 million US dollars. The C round wants to raise 40 million
Even the knife is difficult."
"Yihu, Senior Brother Tang, how are you Renrenyouxin and Yiyindai doing lately? Internet finance is so hot this year!"
“Renren Youxin only raised US$130 million in Series A last year, so there should be big moves this year!”
"What a big move! I'm almost worried to death because I'm burning money every day. It's hard to make a profit! It's better that Junior Brother Zhang's sharpness is comfortable, and the advertising fees are lenient."
"Yes! Yiyindai and Ruixiang have been cooperating in customer acquisition promotion since last year. The advertising expenses cost me heartache! However, I am very satisfied with the customer acquisition effect. From last year to this year, the number of investors in Yiyindai has increased. Hundreds of thousands."
"Yiyindai, do you have cooperation with Renrenyouxin and Ruixiang? The two senior brothers should take care of my little brother's Dagou.com. Our Dagou.com focuses on Internet job recruitment, and there is still a lot of room for cooperation with Internet companies. "
"Lao Xu, there are dozens of Internet companies here. You will definitely gain something by handing out business cards to each of them. I think this can work!"
"Yes, our companies belong to various industries. We can really cooperate more!"
"Their big guys who went public have set up a Peking University Entrepreneurs Club, which is a second-level branch organization authorized by the Peking University Alumni Association. We can also set up an organization for start-up companies! It's called the Peking University Young Entrepreneurs Association. Referred to as "Beijing University Youth Enterprise Association"."
"I think this will work. We are all alumni and come from all walks of life. Some are in tourism, some are in finance, and some are in maternal and infant e-commerce, recruitment, application markets, entertainment and other industries. Let's get together. If you have nothing to do, you can still communicate and we can complement each other’s resources.”
…
Zhang Yida was sitting on his seat, next to him was Zhang Chenchao who was going somewhere. Zhang Yida stretched out his hand, shook hands with Zhang Chenchao, and introduced himself:
"Senior Brother Zhang, hello! My name is Zhang Yida, from the History Department."
Zhang Chenchao knew something about Zhang Yida and joked with a smile:
"Hello, I am Zhang Chenchao from the Department of Electronic Engineering."
Zhang Chenchao was born in 1976. He is a mathematical prodigy and an entrepreneurial genius.
He was admitted to Peking University at the age of 18. He started doing search 2 years earlier than Robin Li. He started his own business three times and succeeded three times. He earned 100 million at the age of 24 and built a 30 billion Qunar in 8 years.
Zhang Yida is similar to him in some aspects, and the two of them had a pleasant conversation.
Robin Li in the front row turned his head and looked at Zhang Yida and said:
"Junior Brother Zhang, congratulations to Ruixiang for completing Series B financing! Next, we can deepen our cooperation with Qiandu."
"Haha, Senior Brother Li. We have been advertising on your search engine. If we increase our cooperation in the future, you will have to give me some discounts."
Zhang Yida had dealt with Robin Li before in raising equity investment funds, and he was quite familiar with them, so they started joking together.
"Haha, this is all a trivial matter. When I go back, I will ask the advertising department to sign a new cooperation agreement with you, and I will give you the highest level customer discount." Robin Li also replied with a grand smile.
Zhang Chenchao turned his eyes aside and started chatting with other entrepreneurs.
Robin Lee didn't greet him, and he just ignored Robin Lee.
These small details all fell into Zhang Yida's eyes, and he knew the specific reasons very clearly as he had many years of memories for later generations.
In 2011, Qiandu Strategic invested US$306 million in Qunar and directly obtained 62% of Qunar's equity. Zhang Chenchao's shareholding ratio dropped to 7%.
At that time, the fierce battle between Qunar and Ctrip was in full swing. Ctrip spent 1 billion to fight a price war, trying to make losses even if Qunar’s second-ranked company and Elong, the third-ranked company, were killed.
Zhang Chenchao had no choice but to sign the sale contract with Qiandu.
In March and April this year, Qiandu wanted to merge Qunar.com with Ctrip.
As the founder and CEO of the company, Zhang Chenchao is particularly opposed to merging with his mortal enemy.
In fact, by this time in 2014, the relationship between Qiandu executives and Zhang Chenchao had already cracked. There are two main reasons:
As a company controlled by Qiandu, Qiandu has no particular tendency to integrate resources in the field of travel search, and has also taken a lot of Ctrip content;
There is a certain conflict between Qunar’s hotel and other businesses and Qiandu’s map and group buying businesses;
More importantly, communication between Qiandu Holdings and Qiandu Holdings is still not smooth.
Qiandu is currently engaged in a fierce battle in the O2O and video fields, and does not want to continue to "burn money" in the online travel field. However, Zhang Chenchao insisted on defeating Ctrip. As a result, Zhang Chenchao and Qiandu's management were very unhappy.
Due to all the above reasons, Zhang Chenchao now doesn't even bother to say hello when he sees Robin Li.
In 2015, which is next year, Ctrip will announce that it has reached a deal with Qiandu. Through the equity swap with Qiandu, Ctrip will own approximately 45% of the total voting rights of Qunar.
Qunar changed from a holding subsidiary of Qiandu to a holding subsidiary of Ctrip. Ctrip became a holding subsidiary of Qiandu.
Qunar suddenly became a grandson from a son!
Poor Zhuang Chenchao, Qiandu and Ctrip reached a private transaction agreement, and he was kept in the dark until a few days before it was announced to the public.
The most ironic thing is that before cooperating with Qiandu, Zhang Chenchao said this in an interview:
"Will Qiandu restrict our development? It has no such right in the legal field.
Qiandu is a very trustworthy company. It will never go back on its word and will do what it says it will do. This is a very important reason why I like Qiandu very much."
Thinking of this, Zhang Yida felt that the elegant uncle Robin Li in front of him suddenly looked much more ugly.
But think about it carefully, businessmen! Maximize profits.
Moreover, it is not a company he founded personally, and there is no deep affection for it. The transaction is still controlled by Qiandu, and the direct holding becomes an indirect holding.
The control is still in the hands, it just changed the form. Moreover, after Ctrip took over the world, the stock price skyrocketed, and Qiandu also made a lot of money.
From the moment Zhang Chenchao's shareholding ratio dropped to 7%, he was actually out of the game.
Zhang Yida expressed some emotion that he still holds 52.5% of the shares in Ruixiang, and his management and decision-making rights are still very stable.
But in the future, if Ruixiang wants to grow bigger and defeat the giants, it is estimated that it will have to accept multiple rounds of financing, and its shares will be further diluted.
When he and Lin Zhenyang's combined shareholding ratio drops below 10%, their voting rights will basically fall below 50%.
In this case, he must be alert.
After all, no one wants to be kicked out of the business they founded.
Capital is a double-edged sword. If used well, it can help companies seize the market and help them take off; if used poorly, it can backfire on the founders and even lead them out of business.
Tang Lin, Yang Yihu and others are organizing and planning to establish a "Beijing University Young Entrepreneurs Association".
Zhang Chenchao came over and listened to it, and he agreed with it. He also recommended that they invite Zhang Yida to join the association.
Then a group of people explained to Zhang Yida the starting point of the establishment of the association and its future operational direction.
After hearing this, Zhang Yida also felt that he could join one. After all, in this society, it is not possible to fight alone.
With such an alumni entrepreneur platform, everyone can help each other and complement each other in terms of resources to achieve a win-win situation for all parties.
After everyone reached a preliminary intention, they did not continue to chat in depth.
Because the cultural performance is about to begin.