Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 631: Summer Fire
Time flies by like a white horse. Now that 2016 is already halfway through, temperatures across the country have begun to rise rapidly, and midsummer is gradually approaching.
Youth, campus, green, the best time in memory is always easily associated with summer. And for the students who are still in the ivory tower, the arrival of summer is also their happiest time.
One of the most important reasons may be that the longest holiday of the year, summer vacation, is approaching. Secondly, perhaps it is that as the temperature rises, the air begins to be filled with a strong smell of hormones.
For young boys and girls, summer is a season for them to sweat profusely and show off their graceful figures... Oh, of course, this is not the privilege of young boys and girls (funny).
And in the huge university campus, nowadays, besides the pleasing white flowers, what catches the eye is a touch of moving yellow, which is totally incompatible with the lush summer and seems particularly abrupt.
Of course, this touch of yellow is not just the little thoughts in the hearts of many men, but a figure that has appeared frequently on campus since some time ago.
It seemed as if overnight, the campus was filled with uniform, colorful and styled yellow bicycles, neatly lined up on the campus roadsides, attracting a lot of attention.
At first, some students thought that it was just a social practice project organized by a certain class or department. After all, such things are not uncommon in such a large university campus.
The inclusiveness of universities is always the breeding ground for the birth of most great projects, and the group of curious college students is undoubtedly the most suitable users for these nascent projects, without a doubt.
Their strong curiosity is enough to support them in trying all new things, and their unformed ideas can bring strong vitality to the project.
Even in terms of consumption capacity, college students are also a group with great potential. After all, in this last stop after entering the society, the daily necessities of life have not yet become their shackles.
There have been countless successful examples that have proven this point, including but not limited to the Facebook, a social network that is well-known both at home and abroad, and the domestic successful cases such as Xiaonei.com.
Obviously, the shared bikes have chosen the right path and are moving forward rapidly.
Especially since the usage fee of the shared bike is only a negligible 1 yuan, and the 99 yuan deposit is not worth mentioning. After all, it is just a deposit and you can return it at any time if you want.
Therefore, spending no more than two or three dollars a day is considered a very good deal in the eyes of most students.
The most important thing is that young people naturally yearn for the kind of freedom that is unrestrained and without worries. Compared with owning a bicycle of their own, a shared bicycle that can be used at any time and parked anywhere is undoubtedly full of different temptations for young people who do not want to be responsible.
After all, who hasn’t experienced the trouble of losing a bicycle since childhood? Even on college campuses, this kind of thing is not uncommon.
Therefore, these groups were the first to become users of the shared bikes, and from then on, every shared bike that circulated on campus became a vivid billboard.
Coupled with the relatively closed environment of the campus, this trend is enough to easily sweep the entire university, and through the word-of-mouth effect among college students, this new trend can quickly spread among different universities.
With this boost, Ofo's expansion in colleges and universities across the country is unstoppable. After all, Ofo is the only unicorn in this unconventional campus track.
Before Ofo announced its entry into the social market, it basically had no intersection with its competitor Mobike. Both parties were running at full speed in their own tracks.
Although Mobike is equally powerful and has the capital support of a pig factory, it is still far behind Ofo in terms of manufacturing cost, user accumulation and data.
It can even be said that it is an all-round one-sided beating!
After all, the successful path chosen by Ofo is too correct, and relying on its identity and experience as a Peking University student, it has found a model that is perfectly suited to campus development...
Therefore, it can be said that the success of Ofo and its unstoppable development speed are traceable, and the boost from capital has only accelerated the progress of this successful model.
Today, the small yellow car has gradually begun to show the scale effect of a unicorn. It has a huge market of hundreds of universities across the country and has a presence in more than a dozen cities. The number of registered users is already one step away from reaching 10 million.
Compared to the slightly inflated number of registered users, the platform's order volume is always a solid achievement, with more than 5 million orders accumulated and more than six figures of orders per day...
All of this is enough to prove the terrifying growth rate and unlimited potential of Ofo.
You should know that it was only in June 2015 that Ofo officially started to put the first shared bicycle on campus. In just one year, it has grown to such a considerable scale.
All things are difficult at the beginning. There is no doubt that Ofo has passed the most difficult stage of entrepreneurship and has found the right path and successful model. Is it still far from achieving great success?
Such a young and promising project exudes a mouth-watering temptation, enough to make countless capitals salivate.
As I said before, no matter what time, the most scarce things in the capital market are always money-making projects.
The vast amount of capital is like a lot of sand. There are always very few winners who can truly catch the gold, and there will never be a shortage of investment for projects that can make money.
With the entry of Jinshajiang Venture Capital and the emergence of the little yellow car that seems like "the girl next door has grown up", the originally somewhat skinny story has gradually become fuller.
With solid achievements to support it, the room for capital to brag has undoubtedly increased greatly. A story about the shared bikes began to spread in the capital market, with the vivid promotion of GSR Ventures.
Zhou Dongsheng was able to find a real big boss to back Mobike, and the shared bikes easily beat Mobike in all aspects. It would undoubtedly be easier for him to attract the attention of the real big boss.
What's more, with the introduction of GSR Ventures, a well-known capital introducer, Didi Chuxing, as a true unicorn giant in the domestic sharing economy, is naturally very interested in its younger generation.
As a company that is also committed to solving users' travel problems, Didi Chuxing is undoubtedly the expert who can most easily see the potential of shared bicycles.
In terms of solving users' pain points in short-distance travel, there is no doubt that shared bicycles make up for this major shortcoming of the travel ecosystem, which is undoubtedly a link that Didi Chuxing lacks and even cannot make up for.
If they can take over the small yellow car, wouldn't that be the icing on the cake? Not only will it completely make up for the shortcomings of its own travel ecology, but it will also be able to further cover the user environment and completely monopolize the user's travel needs...
No one knows better than capital what is the most profitable and lucrative behavior; that is monopoly!
However, as the saying goes, there are always profitable projects in the capital market... Therefore, for such a sexy project, there are many investors interested in it, not just the giant Didi.
Although Didi, as a giant, has just received a strategic investment of US$1 billion from Apple and is now wealthy, there are also countless places to spend money.
The funds that can be mobilized in the short term are still limited, and Didi, with its huge appetite, will definitely not be satisfied with just leading this round of financing. After all, it has a huge first-mover advantage in the field of shared travel...
Therefore, what Didi wants more is a round of strategic investment to occupy a dominant position. Therefore, although the wealthy Didi has expressed its intention to invest, it is not in a hurry to free up its hands and chooses to sit on the sidelines.
However, other investors did not have her calmness and confidence. Under the leadership of Jinshajiang, they happily reached an intention for Round B financing.
The story of Ofo is not only supported by solid data, but also polished by GSR Ventures, so this round of financing directly exceeded tens of millions of US dollars!
This means that ofo, a new project, has expanded its market value to over 100 million US dollars in just over a year, and this valuation has been recognized by the capital market.
The speed of success and the pleasure of his skyrocketing wealth almost made Dai Wei dizzy. After this round of financing, as the core of the founding team, he has become a true billionaire!
As a post-90s generation, he is already among the young talents in China. Even in his alma mater, Peking University, which has produced many talented people, he has the potential to compete for rankings.
After all... this business has only been started for a year at most. At this rate of wealth growth, wouldn't it only take a matter of minutes to leave a name in my alma mater?
Thinking of this, Dai Wei was full of confidence. His ambition expanded infinitely under the catalysis of capital. While chatting and laughing with a group of capital tycoons, he obtained more than 10 million US dollars in financing.
There is also an olive branch extended by Didi Chuxing, a domestic practitioner of the sharing economy, and this cooperation is almost a foregone conclusion.
After all, in this small piece of land in China, no competitor can compare with itself. For a giant like Didi, it will definitely choose to invest in the industry leader!
As for Mobike?
Now it is still standing still in the city of Shanghai. In Dai Wei's eyes, Mobike has not fully understood the concept of sharing economy...
The cost of a bicycle is more than 3,000 yuan. How can we occupy the market and meet user needs?
Relying solely on this point, it will take a long time to achieve economies of scale. It is totally incomparable with my own project. By the time I occupy the whole country, Mobike may not even have left Shanghai, right?
I don’t know why Zhou Dongsheng, the investor, values this project so much... Dai Wei thought disapprovingly.
They even put all their resources into Mobike, and even appointed Papi Jiang, a top internet celebrity, as its spokesperson...
If it is used on the small yellow bikes, wouldn’t it be even more powerful? Whether it is the return or the conversion rate, it will definitely be much higher than Mobike...
Thinking of this, Dai Wei became more and more confused, and even had an idea in his mind: It turned out that due to his limited education and short-sightedness, he could not see the real future of the sharing economy at all.
Grassroots are always grassroots. Even if they are lucky enough to start from scratch , it is difficult for them to achieve anything... Why do they want to be actors? Aren't they just clowns seeking attention?
After tasting the sweetness of success, Dai Wei has become a little carried away. Of course, these thoughts are just hidden deep in his heart. Dai Wei is not so cunning.
Once this round B financing of more than 10 million US dollars was secured, it was natural that Dongsheng Investment, which was on the same boat, would not be unaware of it.
Lu Sifang immediately asked Zhou Dongsheng, who was filming in northern Hebei, whether he should reduce his holdings or continue to invest.
Zhou Dongsheng’s answer to this is naturally to follow the investment without hesitation, even though every round of crazy rising carnival is a window period for escape, and every wave of financing is a precious opportunity to cash out...
But for Zhou Dongsheng, the consensus of the capital market has just been formed, and it is far from time to leave. No one knows better than him that in this carnival feast of the sharing economy, the main course has not even been served.
What's more, Zhou Dongsheng now has a phenomenal cash cow in his hands that produces money continuously, and the cash flow is sufficient, which is more than enough to keep his share.
Before the listing, it was not easy to get Zhou Dongsheng out. After all, Zhou Dongsheng was the largest shareholder after Dai Wei...
However, the growth rate of Ofo far exceeded Zhou Dongsheng's imagination. This running speed, like a wild horse running out of control, once again made Zhou Dongsheng witness the frenzy of the capital market.
Moreover, Zhou Dongsheng didn't know whether it was because he was the first to enter the field that became the fuse, the fire seemed to burn more vigorously than he had imagined!
In comparison, Mobike's progress is tepid. In addition to making Shanghai its base, Hu Weiwei did not use all his money to produce bicycles for the market...
We still adhere to the technical concept of "sharpening the knife before chopping wood" and invest the bulk of the funds into .
Hu Weiwei was anxious as she saw the small yellow bikes quickly taking over the market with their cost advantage . The top priority for Mobike is undoubtedly to continue to leverage its technological advantages while further reducing costs!
After learning about the progress of Ofo, Zhou Dongsheng naturally paid equal attention to it and also paid attention to the progress of Mobike.
In response to this, Hu Weiwei naturally reported the R&D progress of the iterative products as soon as possible to stabilize investors' confidence.
After all, Hu Weiwei also knows that Zhou Dongsheng, as a major shareholder of Mobike, is also a major shareholder of Ofo…
Thunder, lightning, rain and dew are all grace from the Lord. For two identical investment projects, investors will definitely have a scale in their hearts to measure them. The influence of any subtle factor may become a reason to exit and cash out...
"Mr. Zhou, the lightweight version developed based on Mobike's original model is expected to reduce the cost to less than 1,000 yuan when it is mass-produced. Only by reducing costs can Mobike go beyond Shanghai and expand across cities... For the next expansion plan, we will focus on the four major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen..."
Hu Weiwei knew the situation but did not say anything. She reported the situation truthfully and tried to comfort the investors anxiously.
Zhou Dongsheng didn't care about her cautiousness. After giving her some verbal encouragement, he hung up the phone and stretched himself.
At this time, Zhou Dongsheng had gone through a period of high-intensity filming, and his skin had become visibly darker, but he was still as handsome as ever, and had added a bit of masculinity.
Especially consulting with Director Wu and training with the action team, Zhou Dongsheng immersed himself in it day and night, relying on the foundation he had learned in the gym. Not only did his body become more solid, but he also learned some fancy moves.
And today, he is about to complete his last action scene in the climax of the movie, and then will celebrate the finale of his screen debut!
