Volume 4 Crazy Growth 2017 Chapter 792 Unprecedented Breakthrough
Once ofo's overseas strategy was made public, it caused a huge uproar and dropped another heavy bomb on the already booming shared bicycle industry.
Especially the large scale of the move, which immediately covered cities in three mainstream developed countries as the starting point of its overseas strategy, undoubtedly fully demonstrated the expansion ambitions of Ofo.
And with the support of overseas capital, Ofo’s first overseas stop is the legendary Silicon Valley!
To some extent, this is a preliminary realization of Dai Wei's ambition. After all, his entrepreneurial goal is to benchmark against Google, a great company, and he has lofty ambitions to be on par with it.
The arrival of Ofo across the ocean in Silicon Valley has narrowed the distance between it and Google, well... physically (funny).
Even so, this is undoubtedly a good one, and it has given a strong boost to the shared bicycle industry, which is already at the center of controversy.
Especially on a certain level, shared bicycles are an innovation in the domestic Internet field, and the fact that the shared bikes can take this opportunity to go abroad is undoubtedly a potential cultural export.
Although from the perspective of technical content alone, it does not seem to be a significant breakthrough or innovation, and it is also a direction that the overseas market has never imagined.
But the same thing goes, no matter whether the cat is black or white, a cat that can catch mice is a good cat.
No matter what it is, as long as it can be exported, for some people, it is already a rare breakthrough.
How can such a "breakthrough" result not be publicized?
Especially in the increasingly competitive shared bicycle industry, Ofo is naturally eager to come up with such a killer move, hoping to take this opportunity to completely establish its position as the number one in the industry.
It would be great if we could turn our advantages into victory step by step.
To this end, Dai Weite approved a considerable amount of publicity expenses, and did his best to use various channels to spread the news that Ofo represented shared bicycles going abroad, and tried his best to exaggerate the epoch-making significance of this feat.
All of a sudden, a large number of press releases spread across the entire Internet. In many of the press releases that praised the product, shared bicycles were even elevated to the level of "one of China's new four great inventions."
It has to be said that this simple and crude propaganda approach naturally produced immediate results.
After all, as the country's national strength has grown in recent years and it has gradually become the world's second largest economy, the general public who have been working hard for many years urgently need an outlet to vent their emotions.
News such as winning glory for the country always makes the public feel proud, and the shared bikes that accurately hit the public's pain points will naturally benefit from it imperceptibly.
The various investment institutions that are also on the profitable boat of Ofo are naturally doing their respective duties and sparing no efforts to cheer and promote it.
After all, as long as Ofo can take advantage of the opportunity to expand and continue to cover its business territory, this investment will be able to bring them a steady stream of profits.
Among them, Zhou Dongsheng, who was one of the earliest to enter the market, was naturally no exception. He was a little surprised when he heard the news that Ofo had announced its overseas strategy.
After all, in his previous life, he just watched the small yellow car building up and entertaining guests. He was just one of the many spectators when his building collapsed. Naturally, it was impossible for him to know its development clearly.
I just vaguely remember that shared bicycles were indeed popular overseas for a period of time, but other than that I don’t know any more details.
Now, as a vested interest, Zhou Dongsheng is naturally happy to hear this news.
At the same time, Zhou Dongsheng has been secretly figuring out the timing of the window period. After all, for the two shared bicycle companies on hand, Zhou Dongsheng's goal from beginning to end has been to cash in.
Although there was a bit of unrealistic fantasy, even top bosses like Tencent and Alibaba have not been able to successfully merge the two companies together. It would undoubtedly be as difficult as climbing to the sky to do it with my own meager strength.
Not to mention the anti-monopoly that is like the sword of Damocles, under the AB equity structure, Zhou Dongsheng, as an investor, occupies a considerable investment share.
But from beginning to end, Zhou Dongsheng had no intention of fighting for the right to speak, and the two founders always maintained absolute control over the development of the company.
Under the current mainstream equity structure, most investors only have the power of advice. Even in voting, the founders generally have the veto power.
Although it is an unrealistic fantasy, it has to be said that this is indeed a very challenging thing. The chance of success is very small, but once successful, you will undoubtedly get a great sense of accomplishment... and benefits.
As for benefits, they are just incidental. The main purpose is to achieve a sense of accomplishment, ahem.
Seeing that the ofo bike is gaining momentum, Zhou Dongsheng, as one of the earliest major shareholders, naturally cannot sit idly by.
Zhou Dongsheng also doesn't mind allocating all his publicity resources to the shared bike, adding fuel to the already raging fire .
Of course, this kind of thing naturally cannot follow the spirit of "brush off the clothes and leave when the work is done, hiding the body and name", after all, only the crying child gets the milk.
The most important thing is not how much you have paid, but to let others know how much you have paid.
For this reason, Zhou Dongsheng went straight to the point and called Dai Wei directly.
Dai Wei on the other end of the phone was in high spirits at the moment. When he saw the caller ID, he couldn't help laughing and spoke first as soon as the call was connected.
"What a rare guest, Mr. Jay. I was wondering how come there are magpies visiting the capital city even on a snowy day..."
This somewhat sarcastic tone made Zhou Dongsheng smile knowingly. After all, as a joint investor of Mobike and Ofo, Zhou Dongsheng was more or less "biased".
Dai Wei had long been dissatisfied with the unfairness of the treatment. Now that he has finally gotten his revenge, it is understandable that he would take this opportunity to be sarcastic.
Zhou Dongsheng naturally didn't need to get upset about this, after all, he was giving the gift with genuine feelings this time.
"The magpie that came to my door on this snowy day has nothing to do with me. It is probably to announce the good news to President Dai. After all, everyone knows that President Dai has won glory for the country. To have such a natural phenomenon, it can be seen that President Dai is really the chosen one..."
Zhou Dongsheng congratulated him sincerely, but his words sounded even more sarcastic than Dai Wei's. It was obvious that Zhou Dongsheng was also a fellow practitioner who was well versed in the Yin-Yang School.
Before he could react, Zhou Dongsheng changed the subject and said with a smile, "So I came here specially to congratulate President Dai, and by the way, I want to give you a small gift."
"After all, such a good thing must be publicized. Especially if President Dai wants to carry out the overseas strategy to the end, I can also be a matchmaker for President Dai..."
Zhou Dongsheng said this calmly, but the implication was clear. Although the development of shared bicycles is booming, the development of short videos is equally impressive.
Dai Wei was naturally well aware of Zhou Dongsheng's identity as a strategic investor of Douyin, and he had also heard about Douyin's unique influence in the overseas market .
When it comes to going abroad and winning glory for the country, short videos are clearly ahead of shared bicycles. Since shared bicycles can rise to the level of "the new four great inventions"...
Then short videos can at least get a spot.
Thinking of this, Dai Wei was delighted. After all, this was a scarce publicity resource, and it was exactly what the Ofo bike needed.
In the face of interests, Dai Wei naturally chose to laugh it off. "That's great, of course. After all, the development of the small yellow car is good, and it is a great thing for Jay Chou with only benefits and no harm..."
"Of course, for President Dai, it is a double happiness..." Zhou Dongsheng said with a smile without denying it.
At this point, both parties laughed in tacit understanding, then continued to brag about business for a few more words before hanging up the phone.
Zhou Dongsheng's purpose has been achieved, and he has already notified Dai Wei to take the credit in advance. Naturally, there is no need for Zhou Dongsheng to do anything else.
He just needs to instruct his subordinates to take care of this matter, and then show up to communicate with Yang Luyu, acting as a matchmaker so that the two sides can complete a wave of resource exchange.
For the now wealthy and powerful Ofo, it is naturally urgent to convert the large amount of funds in its hands into resources for the rapid development of Ofo.
The production of bicycles alone takes up most of the funds, so the remaining funds must naturally be spent on the most effective things.
Traffic is undoubtedly one of them. Of course, domestic traffic is not scarce for Ofo, but overseas traffic is definitely hard currency that can solve urgent problems.
The same is true for Yang Luyu when it comes to role reversal. Nowadays, both musical.ly overseas and TikTok in China are developing very rapidly.
Its considerable platform traffic is enough to show that this business model has been fully verified by the market. What needs to be done next is naturally to find a monetization possibility for this business model.
After all, "The world is bustling with people all for the sake of profit, and the world is bustling with people all for the sake of profit" is an eternal truth, and whether it is entrepreneurs or investors, the common goal of both parties is undoubtedly to make a profit.
If it's not for making money, then what's the difference between that and charity, not to mention that even charity...
With common interests as the driving force, all actions will naturally be reasonable, no matter whether it is Yang Luyu, Dai Wei, or Zhou Dongsheng, the investor who acted as a matchmaker.
All three parties can gain benefits from this cooperation, so this matter will naturally come to fruition.
With the arrival of 2017, the New Year is approaching. Although the weather is cold, there seems to be a hint of the New Year atmosphere in the air.
The most obvious change is that the arrangement of most work content has become "let's talk about it after the New Year."
No matter what, going home to celebrate the New Year is of great significance to the general public.
After all, for many people, the only time of the year when they can enjoy the reunion of the whole family is during the Chinese New Year.
For Zhou Dongsheng, after living a carefree life outside for so long, it is time for him to go home. After all, his old mother is still alive, and recently she has been calling him every few days to urge him to go home.
As a hands-off boss, there was nothing important that required Zhou Dongsheng to come over, so he simply asked Li Jiana to book a plane ticket and prepare to go home for the New Year immediately.
As an assistant, Li Jiana naturally drove Zhou Dongsheng to the airport.
"You should go home this year and don't let the elderly at home worry about them..." Zhou Dongsheng said with a smile.
"Okay, Chairman. By the way, I have prepared a gift for my aunt. You can bring it along..." Li Jiana smiled gently, and then took out a gift box from the trunk. No one knew when it was prepared.
"Okay, you're thoughtful. Go back. Don't bother me unless there's something important at the company. Let's talk about it after the New Year." Zhou Dongsheng waved his hand, turned around and walked towards the airport.
He couldn't help but mutter in his heart that it seemed that he was owing more and more romantic debts, and then he shook his head and stopped thinking about it.
…
Although the end of the year is approaching, a scene that overseas media love to see is about to come: factories stop production, stores close, stock markets cannot trade, the economy is in a large-scale shutdown, and a full-scale depression is ushering in.
However, capital never sleeps, and there is no such thing as New Year's Day for the capital market, especially for the virtual currency market that trades 24 hours a day.
It is worth mentioning that as we crossed over from 2016 to 2017, the Bitcoin market also achieved an unprecedented breakthrough.
On an insignificant morning, the market value of Bitcoin reached US$1,000 for the first time, breaking the curse that the market value could not exceed US$1,000. The market's differences seemed to have reached a consensus at this moment, and the market value of Bitcoin rose accordingly.
However, before investors could cheer, several major virtual currency trading institutions released a blockbuster news.
In order to further curb speculation and prevent drastic price fluctuations, each platform will begin charging transaction service fees from 12:00 noon on January 24. The service fee will be charged at a fixed rate of 0.2% of the transaction amount, and the fee rates for active and passive transactions will be the same.
There is no doubt that for Bitcoin, which has always claimed to be decentralized and based its existence on this, this wave of joint intervention from several major institutions is undoubtedly a major negative news.
After all, charging handling fees may just be the beginning. Who knows if it will get worse in the future?
For a time, panic spread throughout the market in an instant. Virtual currencies that are traded 24 hours a day and have no price limits not only have no upper limit on their increase, but also have no lower limit on their decrease!
Three years ago, Bitcoin’s highest market value record of US$955.85 was also reached at the end of 2013. Then, after entering 2014, it began to plummet, falling to US$771.4 in January!
Although it once rose to US$832.58 in February, it was obviously intentional, just to increase shipments. After the liquidation, the market value of Bitcoin plummeted and could never rise again.
Although the three-year period has expired and investors in the market may have already changed wave after wave, the fact that almost the same script is being played out again has undoubtedly greatly fueled the panic sentiment in the market.
The ability to break through the threshold of US$1,000 may have met the psychological expectations of some investors, and they took this opportunity to start selling.
In a pitch-black decentralized trading market, a gunshot was heard and all parties started running in unison, and for a moment it looked like a stampede to escape.
The market value of 1,000 U.S. dollars seemed to be just a flash in the pan. The market curve was falling like a column, and there was a sign of diving towards the 9-digit figure. Many investors were frightened and hurried to sell their stocks to stop losses.
Far away on the other side of the ocean, Lu Sifang was still indulging in the pleasure of flirting with a foreign girl in a nightclub, when an untimely vibration in his pocket disturbed his interest.
After taking out his phone and casually glancing at the message, Lu Sifang suddenly shuddered, sobering up a bit from the alcohol instantly, and almost fainted. How could he care about the things that were so difficult to extricate himself from...
