Volume 3: Taking Roots 2016 Chapter 690: Undercurrent surges!
As Mobike bikes blossomed on the streets of Shenzhen, they began to enter the southern market at lightning speed, even though it was only the third city.
However, the market potential of the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is so huge, and their highly symbolic status makes them a battleground for strategists.
Even Ofo, which is obsessed with the university market, cannot ignore the importance of these four cities. In particular, the university market in these four cities also has an important strategic position in Ofo's strategy.
It can be said that both companies have already been secretly making efforts around these four cities, but there is still a wall separating them and they have not yet officially met.
However, after Xiaomi Investment’s last visit, they had a very pleasant conversation with Dai Wei and the two companies successfully reached an investment agreement of a considerable amount.
What Dai Wei didn't expect was that this wave of good news came in pairs. Not only did Xiaomi invest, but even hedge funds from the other side of the ocean followed closely behind.
To some extent, being favored by foreign capital is undoubtedly a recognition of the leading position of the Ofo bike industry. At the same time, with the support of foreign capital, it also provides unlimited imagination space for the future strategy of Ofo bike.
If the shared bikes can go abroad and open up overseas markets, wouldn't that be equivalent to a reverse cultural export? Rounding it off, that would also be glory for the country, right?
When thinking of this possibility, Dai Wei's ambition began to expand infinitely. His sights went beyond the domestic market and began to look at the international market.
Although China is large and rich in resources, it is just a small corner in the huge global market.
The favor of capital and the continuous increase in financing amount have undoubtedly become the nutrients that nourish Dai Wei's expanding ambitions. Looking back to a year ago, they were just living in a small office.
After much difficulty, they were able to raise an investment to have the funds to launch the shared yellow bike program on the Peking University campus. From hundreds of yellow bikes, the program gradually grew to thousands of bikes spread across the Peking University campus.
The sense of accomplishment of benefiting younger students and giving back to his alma mater made Dai Wei, the former student union president, very happy, and he gradually became determined to let the shared bikes go beyond the Peking University campus.
It was at this time that Zhou Dongsheng suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He lived up to his name, like a ray of light in the rising sun, bringing millions of US dollars in financing to Ofo.
It can be said that such a large amount of funds immediately solved the urgent needs of the Ofo bike and gave Dai Wei the capital to realize his ambition to leave the Peking University campus.
It was also from that time that the Ofo bike began its unstoppable snowball process, starting with a new round of financing in early 2016.
Now that only half of 2016 has passed, four rounds of financing have been completed. A million US dollars is already an astronomical figure for Dai Wei and others.
From the current US$130 million Series C financing to the current round, in just one year, not only has the financing amount expanded by hundreds of times, but also Dai Wei's ambition.
After all, as the founder of Ofo, as the amount of financing for Ofo continues to rise, his net worth also rises along with it.
At most I have been in business for only a year. Let alone my first million, I have already earned ten, a hundred, and even a thousand.
Not only Dai Wei, if the shares were evenly distributed to each member of the founding team, Ofo would be enough to create several billionaires.
Even considering Peking University, which has a long history and produced many talented people, it is definitely one of the best to have achieved such entrepreneurial results in a short period of time.
Of course, in terms of achievement, 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 unparalleled in their talent.
But if we talk about entrepreneurship alone, the popular shared bikes are enough to make Dai Wei and others prominent figures among Peking University alumni.
To describe it as gaining both fame and fortune is probably not an exaggeration.
In just one year, things have changed dramatically. While Dai Wei feels complacent and elated, he also feels a little confused about Zhou Dongsheng's favoritism.
Obviously I came here first...
However, as he watched Mobike grow rapidly through its accumulated strength, Dai Wei gradually came to understand the answer to this question and realized the technical shortcomings of the small yellow bike.
It is never too late to mend the fence after the sheep have been lost. As long as you have the market and scale, it is obviously not difficult to make up for the technical shortcomings.
Especially with US$130 million in financing in hand, this problem, which was not a problem at all, was naturally solved.
With money and market, and the popularity of shared bikes, it was easy for Dai Wei to find a technical partner. He found a high-quality partner like 700bike.
He also began to invest part of his funds and started to catch up in technological research and development. As long as the technological shortcomings were made up, Dai Wei believed that Mobike's advantages would naturally disappear.
After all, at the moment, the two sides are completely not on the same level in terms of market size, whether in terms of users or the number of bicycles.
Ofo not only announced in a high-profile manner that it had completed the industry's first C round of financing, but also set a record for the highest single financing in the shared bicycle industry.
At the same time, shortly afterwards, another industry first was announced, that is, the cumulative orders of Ofo have successfully exceeded the industry record of 10 million.
Even the daily order quantity has reached 400,000.
With solid data as support, it also proves that Ofo’s status as the industry leader is by no means self-boasting.
After all, looking across the country, among China’s many Internet platforms, the number of top-notch ones that can achieve one million orders per day can be counted on two hands.
The shared bike-sharing company has already achieved such a scale relying solely on the university market. Once it officially starts providing urban services, there is no doubt that it will be the next Internet platform to reach a million orders per day.
In terms of accumulation at this level, Mobike, as a competitor, is undoubtedly relatively weak.
After all, it takes time for a factory to produce bicycles, and the time Mobike has spent on technology research and development, coupled with the constraints of production costs, has greatly increased the difficulty of Mobike's expansion.
In contrast, the expansion speed of Ofo has not slowed down at all. Even if Mobike catches up, it will not be easy to surpass Ofo in the number of bicycles.
After all, this is a simple math problem. When the ofo bikes started first and walked for a while, the Mobikes started to move forward, and both maintained almost the same speed...
Question: How long will it take for Mobike to catch up with Ofo?
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 entering the market first and grabbing land.
This is also the reward that the first person who takes the risk to try something new deserves.
Fortunately, although it cannot compete in terms of quantity, Mobike’s advantage lies in quality, even though the small yellow bike is consciously trying to make up for this technical shortcoming.
In a short period of time, the technological advantages accumulated by Mobike will not be wiped out all at once.
In business competition, the best way is to use your own strengths to attack the opponent's weaknesses and to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses.
This is undoubtedly one of the main 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 relatively high costs, to adopt a strategy such as "surrounding the cities from the countryside". It can only establish itself in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen first, and then expand slowly.
Judging from the current development speed of Mobike, this direction is obviously the right choice.
The strategy of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen only needs the last word "Guang" to fully complete the four-character mantra.
As long as Mobike can gain a foothold in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it will naturally be a great success!
Seeing that Ofo has already sounded the clarion call for attack, Mobike is naturally also on high alert.
As the saying goes, you can lose the battle but not the momentum. Since Ofo has so loudly announced its position as the number one in the industry, Mobike must naturally follow suit.
Just after Ofo bike launched two "industry firsts" combined punches, Mobike also followed suit and disclosed to the outside world the news that it had completed its Series C financing.
I had been keeping it to myself before, just holding back my energy, hoping to make a big move at the critical moment. Now that the shared bikes have already taken the lead, there is naturally no need for me to hold back any longer.
Mobike said it has completed a Series C financing round totaling more than US$100 million, led by Tengda Capital and followed by a number of capital institutions, including early investors such as Dongsheng Investment.
It also stated that it has reached an in-depth cooperative relationship with WeChat, and Mobike has officially entered the travel field of WeChat's nine-square grid, with the support of WeChat's traffic port.
This also means that consumers and users can use Mobike directly through WeChat, and they can also pay the deposit directly through WeChat.
This wave of resource allocation led by Tenda is undoubtedly a direct vote of Tenda, the Internet giant, in the field of shared bicycles.
Although Tenda is also an investor in Didi Chuxing, its decision in the field of shared bicycles is completely opposite.
Obviously, between Ofo and Mobike, Tenda is more optimistic about the latter.
With Tenda making its decision, and Zhuchang Capital leading the B round of financing, Mobike has now unknowingly gained the favor of the two Internet giants, Zhuchang and Tencent.
The favor from the two Internet giants is not only financial support, but also the inclination of Internet resources, which is undoubtedly the biggest help for Mobike.
It was precisely because of the traffic support from Tenda that Mobike was able to expand rapidly after entering the Pengcheng market and gain a firm foothold in Pengcheng.
It can be said that it is easier to get things done if you have someone in the court.
The Guangzhou-Shenzhen area is one, and looking at the Guangzhou market is like coming to the pig farm's home turf. As a pig farm that started in Guangzhou, it also has deep-rooted roots in this city.
As an investor who got on board first with Tencent, Mobike will certainly not be stingy in allocating resources. With the support of Tencent, the Guangzhou 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 for a time have a common goal.
As an investor, in addition to wanting to get a piece of the pie, one naturally also wants to work together to make the pie bigger and stronger, so that the piece of pie in one's hands will naturally increase.
In addition to allocating traffic, the two Internet giants have naturally joined the "VR Treasure Hunt" event, providing some 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 in their hands that they can play.
After Mobike disclosed the news of its Series C financing, although the amount was slightly lower, it had the solid support of two Internet giants, which was enough for Mobike to have sufficient competitiveness.
At least from the outside world's perspective, Ofo and Mobike are, to some extent, competitors standing on the same starting line, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Even though there is still a certain gap, no one has an overwhelming advantage, which also means that the shared bicycle field has entered a stage of tit-for-tat.
As for the dozens of shared bicycle companies that have sprung up like mushrooms all over China, they can only be regarded as supporting roles for now and cannot be compared with these two companies.
As the shared bike industry has formed a situation where two major players are evenly matched, and have completed C rounds of financing worth hundreds of millions of US dollars...
It's hard for a key figure who plays two games at the same time not to attract attention.
After all, as the shared bicycle industry has become the new darling of capital, it is undoubtedly a simple multiple-choice question facing many capital institutions that want to enter the market.
You either have to choose one of the two: get an admission ticket in order to get a piece of the pie, or start all over again and choose to support a new object to follow the trend. Even if you can't get the meat, you will have a chance to taste the soup.
As capital rises, the threshold for the former has reached a level that is beyond the reach of most investors. It seems to be a multiple-choice question, but for them, there is no choice.
Therefore, Dongsheng Investment, which was the first to enter the market and lay dormant before the capital tide surged, naturally stood out.
It seems to be saying: Only children make choices, I want them all!
As an early investor in two major shared bicycle companies, this investment has generated hundreds of times of returns in just one year.
For a number of established capital institutions with outstanding achievements, such a remarkable performance may just be another achievement to add to their credit book and is not worth mentioning.
However, for a capital upstart that has only been established for two years, this is undoubtedly a very outstanding achievement. Moreover, this is not the only investment of Dongsheng Investment.
Anyone who is interested only needs to take a closer look at the projects in Dongsheng Investment's hands, and it is hard not to discover a terrible fact!
That is, Dongsheng Investment never misses a target. As long as it makes a move, it will reap rewards. Moreover, the scale of each project has brought considerable profits to Dongsheng Investment.
It can be said that Dongsheng Investment’s current investments still maintain a 100% winning rate!
Of course, for an investment institution that has been established for a short time and has adopted an investment strategy of quality over quantity, this performance 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!
