Volume 4 Crazy Growth 2017 Chapter 800 Three Stages
If the development of the localized sharing economy in China is divided into several stages, then the first stage may have started with the taxi-hailing software.
At that time, the most respected taxi-hailing app was Uber, which was thriving in overseas markets. It was not until it entered the domestic market that it changed its name to "Uber" in order to better implement its localization strategy.
When it first entered the domestic market, Uber almost continued its dominance in overseas markets and occupied the domestic market at an extremely fast speed.
In less than two years, the service scope has expanded to more than 60 cities across the country, and to more than 70 countries and more than 400 cities worldwide.
This amazing achievement is unparalleled in the world. Looking at the entire Internet taxi-hailing industry, there is no one who can beat it.
But precisely because of this, Uber is almost like other international Internet giants, focusing only on the implementation of its globalization strategy and not caring about the gains and losses of a single city or a single pond.
Therefore, it is just like the scripts of other international Internet giants in China, such as Amazon and Yahoo encountering Alibaba, Google encountering Baidu...
After all, a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. In this small piece of land in China, the Chinese people understand the needs of the Chinese people better.
Although Uber is a latecomer, it also could not escape the fate of repeating the same mistakes. Despite spending a lot of effort on its localization strategy, it ultimately lost in the fierce battle with Didi Chuxing.
Facts have proved that foreign monks are not necessarily good at chanting.
Ultimately, the first stage of the development of the sharing economy in China came to an end with the victory of Didi Chuxing, which also incorporated and merged Uber's domestic businesses one by one, and its market value soared to US$35 billion.
With the popularity of shared bicycles, the second stage of the sharing economy has begun...
It is not difficult to see that the localized development of the sharing economy can be simply and roughly viewed from the perspective of: imitation - innovation - transcendence.
In fact, not only the Internet industry, but most industries that are in line with international standards seem to follow this stage, but some are still in the first stage, and a few outstanding ones can reach the second stage...
Those who can surpass their teachers are undoubtedly rare.
If we say that the sharing economy develops in stages, and taxi-hailing apps are in the first stage, then shared bicycles should have reached the threshold of the second stage.
This has also inspired some entrepreneurs who want to start a business in the sharing economy, and they have begun various attempts in this direction.
Previously, Cai Guangyuan, who worked for Uber, left Uber after Uber's failure, but he always felt that the future of the sharing economy in China was more than that.
However, before Cai Guangyuan could take a moment to calm down, the sudden rise of shared bicycles just one year later made him deeply realize what "planting flower speed" meant!
Cai Guangyuan is naturally familiar with this speed. In his opinion, the real reason for Uber's failure in localization is precisely because of its inability to adapt to this speed.
You should know that Uber has been established for six years and has only just achieved 1 billion orders based on the global market, and this achievement is already "second to none" in the overseas market.
But what about Didi Taxi?
It took only one year to surpass Uber's six years of accumulation, and the total number of orders accumulated in 2015 reached 1.43 billion.
Not only did it take less time, but the funds used were less than a quarter of that of the opponent!
I don’t know whether it should be said that those who plant trees will enjoy the shade, or that current events create heroes?
It was precisely this disproportionate development speed that led Uber to choose to abandon its own car to save its driver in order to avoid being controlled by Didi, and to continue to focus on developing its own overseas markets.
From Uber’s failure, Cai Guangyuan undoubtedly learned what “speed is of the essence” means. If a company fails to keep up with the development trend of the industry, even a giant like Uber in the overseas market will inevitably fail.
Cai Guangyuan, who had always been determined to expand his territory in the sharing economy, only realized what he had missed after watching the rise of shared bicycles.
Therefore, when the shared power bank industry just began to emerge, Cai Guangyuan did not hesitate this time and immediately formed a startup team.
Although he failed to catch up with the trend of shared bicycles, Cai Guangyuan did not do nothing during the period after leaving Uber.
Being able to put together an entrepreneurial team in a short period of time is undoubtedly the most powerful proof, and this team is not just a random group of people.
They are a group of like-minded people he gathered during this period of time, and all of them come from mainstream domestic Internet companies and can be regarded as industry elites.
Being able to put together such a team is undoubtedly a reflection of Cai Guangyuan's personal ability.
Having learned from Uber's failure and witnessed the sudden rise of shared bikes, Cai Guangyuan realized that there was no time to lose. If he wanted to get a piece of the sharing economy, he had to do it quickly!
On the second day after forming the team, Cai Guangyuan called together all the partners and technical personnel, finalized the entrepreneurial direction of shared power banks, and established the company and product name.
"Monster Charging" came into being.
In front of this group of technical backbones from major Internet companies, the unremarkable technical difficulties of shared power banks are naturally not a problem for them.
Not only did it solve the technical pain points in a short period of time, it also learned from it and created technical features that support fast charging of multiple devices, using the solution to the pain points of charging in a single device mode on the market as a selling point.
From now on, everything is ready, except for the east wind.
The initial investment has already invested all of the limited funds of the entrepreneurial team. If they want to distribute the products in the market of Shanghai, they will undoubtedly need a lot of funds.
If a product only stays on paper and has not been tempered in the melting pot of the market, it is definitely not a mature product.
Seeing that his subordinates solved all the problems with products and business models one by one without any ambiguity, there was undoubtedly only one difficult problem left for Cai Guangyuan, the leader.
That's money!
No matter how things change, funding is always the essential issue that restricts the development of most companies. Every startup company has dreamed of traveling the world, but ultimately failed in the drudgery of life.
As the saying goes, those who are close to water get the moon first. In order to prevent his dream from dying prematurely, Cai Guangyuan set his sights on the investment institutions in Shanghai and visited them one by one.
However, investment institutions are already accustomed to such people with dreams. How can they not receive hundreds or eighty of them in a day?
Although the shared power bank industry has begun to gain momentum, not all investment institutions are optimistic about the industry's future prospects.
Ever since the "bet of the century" between Zhou Dongsheng and Principal Wang became known, there have been many supporters of the argument that shared power banks are "pseudo-demand or real demand", regardless of whether it is the former or the latter.
After all, this is a multiple-choice question with two options. No matter which one you choose, the chances of success and failure are 50-50. Therefore, the arguments in the market are generally divided into two camps, which are clearly divided.
Among them, investment institutions that believe that shared power banks have great potential have already begun to act secretly, while those who are still sitting on the sidelines are obviously not interested in this.
As luck would have it, the institution that Cai Guangyuan was turned away from was undoubtedly the latter.
Facts have proved that no matter how hot the sharing economy is, not all institutions will choose to rush into this field to get a piece of the pie.
For this reason, Cai Guangyuan was not discouraged. This is just the norm for entrepreneurs. If this one doesn’t work out, he will move on to the next one.
When he saw the name of the next institution he was going to visit, his heart couldn't help but move slightly.
Dongsheng Group!
The reason why it was put at the end is because Cai Guangyuan subconsciously felt that since Dongsheng Investment has already acquired Jiedian, it is obviously determined to create a shared power bank brand on its own.
Under such circumstances, the possibility of supporting another competitor is almost negligible.
However, Dongsheng Investment's two successful investments in the shared bicycle field made Cai Guangyuan feel that there was a glimmer of possibility.
If other investment institutions don’t respond, what’s the harm in being rejected again?
just in case……
Thinking of this, Cai Guangyuan regrouped, sorted himself out, and came to Dongsheng Group.
When he arrived at the front desk, Cai Guangyuan greeted the receptionist with a smile, "Hello, I'm Cai Guangyuan. I've already made an appointment . I don't know..."
Before Cai Guangyuan finished speaking, the girl at the front desk showed a surprised expression, "You are Mr. Cai! Welcome to Dongsheng Investment. Mr. Zhang has specifically told you to notify him if you come and he will receive you personally..."
"I will take you to the VIP reception room to wait for a while now!"
Cai Guangyuan couldn't help but feel a little flattered. He had been rejected by other investment institutions, but he didn't expect that Dongsheng Group, which he had no expectations of, would give him a warm reception...
This made Cai Guangyuan sigh. Just with this attitude, he deserves to be successful. It can be said that the truth is revealed in the details.
After all, even a small fry like me can receive such treatment...
"Okay, thank you for your help." Cai Guangyuan nodded with a smile, then followed the girl at the front desk to the VIP reception room to wait.
However, what Cai Guangyuan didn't know was that Zhou Dongsheng had already learned about this matter from Zhang Xiaoguang when he made an appointment to visit him.
When he heard the words "Monster Charging", Zhou Dongsheng immediately thought of this company that was the leader in the shared power bank market.
As expected, a person's reputation is like a tree's shadow. Zhou Dongsheng did not expect that such an unexpected surprise would come to his door.
If Cai Guangyuan had not taken the initiative to come to him, Zhou Dongsheng might not have thought of becoming the first stock in the industry for a while.
Now that he remembered it, he would not let this piece of meat slip away, so he solemnly instructed Zhang Xiaoguang to receive it seriously and find a way to obtain the angel round investment for this company.
Zhou Dongsheng gave a very simple reason for this. "If you are optimistic about an industry, it is definitely not safe to invest in only one company. After all, good things come in pairs. You need to have more than two companies to share the risk..."
"Moreover, Cai Guangyuan used to work for Uber and has a certain understanding of the sharing economy. However, he did not choose shared bicycles when starting his own business, but chose power banks instead. Perhaps he has his own opinions..."
"Lao Zhang, go meet him. If possible, get the angel round investment. It's not much money anyway, and we can afford to lose it now."
To this day, even if Zhou Dongsheng's words are nonsense and illogical, it does not affect the execution of the people below.
Especially the last speech, it was just short of having the words "rich and willful" printed on his face.
Therefore, Cai Guangyuan didn't have to wait long before Zhang Xiaoguang arrived at the VIP reception room in a hurry.
"I've long admired Mr. Cai," Zhang Xiaoguang said politely.
"No, no, I have long heard of Mr. Zhang's name, especially the name of Dongsheng Investment. Now everyone in the industry knows it..."
Cai Guangyuan stood up quickly, and after exchanging some business praises with each other, they sat down opposite each other. After a few polite words, Zhang Xiaoguang changed the subject and went straight to the point.
"Mr. Cai should know that we at Dongsheng Investment have always been very optimistic about the future development of the sharing economy. Not only have we invested in shared bicycles, but we recently acquired Jiedian and are preparing to enter the shared power bank industry..."
"Under such circumstances, why would Mr. Cai think of looking for financing from us?"
Zhang Xiaoguang asked such a question right at the beginning, which really made Cai Guangyuan a little overwhelmed. After thinking for a while, Cai Guangyuan gave his answer.
"It is precisely because your company is optimistic about the sharing economy that I came to you. When your company was not yet successful, you chose to invest in two companies in the field of shared bicycles..."
"Your company has already achieved success and has acquired a shared power bank company, which is unprecedented. It is not difficult to see your determination. Therefore, I have reason to believe that your company's optimism will not stop here..."
"Of course, even if I guessed wrong, it doesn't matter. It's just another rejection, which is normal for entrepreneurs."
Cai Guangyuan said neither humbly nor arrogantly.
"That's a good idea. I wonder how much financing Mr. Cai hopes to get? We at Dongsheng Investment are very happy to support entrepreneurs like Mr. Cai, especially our Mr. Jay..."
"This meeting with Mr. Cai was actually arranged by Mr. Jay. He personally admires Mr. Cai very much and asked me to ask Mr. Cai a question."
"That's why Mr. Cai didn't choose shared bicycles to start his business, but shared power banks instead?" Zhang Xiaoguang asked with a smile.
Cai Guangyuan was slightly surprised. He had never thought that a small fry like him could attract the attention of such a big shot. However, regarding this question...
Cai Guangyuan touched his nose and smiled awkwardly, "I don't know whether to tell a lie or the truth..."
"The lie is that I was waiting for a better opportunity. The truth is that the development of shared bicycles is too fast. I just waited and watched, and I missed the best time to enter the market..."
"In other words, even eating shit can't keep up with the heat!"
