Volume 4 Crazy Growth 2017 Chapter 831 Empty Pie
However, such an investment is just one of the many chips in Zhou Dongsheng's hand today.
Faced with the huge returns it can bring, Zhou Dongsheng has long been accustomed to it. After all, with the accumulation of time, Zhou Dongsheng is no longer just a simple "worldly-wise" person.
The experiences of these years have already subtly changed Zhou Dongsheng and also made him successful. Both his vision and confidence are no longer the same as before.
With Hu Weiwei setting the tone for the meeting and offering his own price, it was naturally time for other shareholders to bargain together.
"The shared bike industry is booming now. The scale and future trends of the entire market have become clear. A situation of competition between Chu and Han has basically taken shape. Not long ago, I heard that Ofo is seeking a new round of financing with a valuation of 3 billion US dollars..."
"I think, considering the size of Mobike, the price Mr. Hu offered is quite fair. I have no objection to it..."
However, before other shareholders could speak, Zhou Dongsheng casually mentioned it, trying to support Hu Weiwei, but of course he also intended to raise the price for himself.
What's more, there is a saying that goes "Even if the deal fails, the friendship remains."
Hu Weiwei smiled and nodded slightly towards Zhou Dongsheng. Obviously, there was no need to say anything else.
"Since Mr. Jay has no objection, then we at Tengda naturally have no objection either, and we at Tengda are willing to lead the investment in this E round of financing." Li Chaohui smiled slightly and spoke slowly, giving Zhou Dongsheng a favor.
After all, compared to Mobike, which has gradually taken shape, Dongsheng Group undoubtedly has greater room for growth. If they can establish a good relationship, there may be opportunities for cooperation in the future.
As for the shared bicycle industry, the upper limit of the growth of the market size has gradually begun to emerge. Unless one company can dominate the market, the market prospects will be stretched.
Although there is the possibility of further expanding the audience in overseas markets, the results achieved so far have been very lackluster despite the two leading companies’ high-profile announcements of their overseas strategies.
This idle move obviously did not achieve the effect expected by the market, and the potential of shared bicycles in overseas markets is far less popular than in the domestic market.
After all, the differences in national conditions are there, and it is obviously not easy to achieve "cultural invasion".
Therefore, with the overseas strategy frustrated and performance unsatisfactory, the main battlefield is still concentrated in . Even with the advantage of a population of 1.4 billion, it is impossible for all these 1.4 billion people to be the target audience of shared bicycles.
A conservative estimate is that it would be the best that shared bicycles can have half of the audience, and this half of the audience has to be divided among various companies.
After the frenzy in the first half, with the development of hundreds of shared bicycle companies, the boundaries of the entire market have already been explored.
Coupled with a brief analysis by the analysis teams of major investment institutions, the public will naturally have a more accurate estimate and reference for their views and potential on shared bicycles.
This is undoubtedly the inevitable process for any new thing. The public's perception changes from novelty to familiarity, and the market returns from enthusiasm to rationality...
For Tenda, the biggest purpose of entering the shared bicycle industry is naturally to further develop Tenda's ecosystem. Especially for improving the mobile payment ecosystem, shared bicycles, the darling of the era, undoubtedly play an extremely important role.
This was not only noticed by Tenda, but also by Alibaba, which took over Ofo with great fanfare. It was also because of this that there were still people in the Internet field who could restrain these two carriages.
However, in the field of mobile payment, a situation has basically been formed in which these two companies each occupy half of the market. For this reason, the two companies are naturally very picky and will not give in.
To this end, Tenda naturally invested a lot of resources to support Mobike to become bigger and stronger, and there is no need to suppress it by means of price cuts. If Mobike can become the only one in the shared bicycle industry...
It will undoubtedly better meet Tenda's needs, so Tenda, which is wealthy, does not mind paying a little more money. In addition, its industry status is there, so it is naturally qualified to lead the investment, including the previous round of financing.
As for the relatively young Dongsheng Investment, even with its advantage of being the first to enter the market and grabbing market share, it obviously does not have the scale to act as a lead investor in the increasingly large market, let alone the appeal.
There is no other way to achieve this except through accumulation over time. Even if Dongsheng Investment has demonstrated a development speed that surpasses time, it is impossible to surpass the foundation of such a veteran investment institution all at once.
After Tengda representative Li Chaohui spoke, it was basically the final word, and the other shareholders had no other objections. After all, someone had already taken the lead, and they just needed to follow behind and eat the meat and drink the soup.
After the financing intention is initially finalized, the remaining details will naturally need to be further discussed before they can be finalized, but there is obviously no rush.
Once this round of US$600 million financing is completed, Mobike's valuation will undoubtedly further exceed the US$3 billion mark.
If Zhou Dongsheng wants to cash out during this financing window, he will naturally have room to raise the price. As long as there is sufficient future expectation as support, the premium must be very reasonable...
Thinking of this, Zhou Dongsheng couldn't help but stretch himself and began to speak out, "Since the financing has been settled, I would like to take this opportunity to say something. Regarding the investment in Mobike, we at Dongsheng Investment have been the exclusive investor since the A round, and we are not going to continue to participate in the E round..."
"I wonder if Mr. Li, or everyone present here, is interested in taking over the 10% of shares I hold?"
When Li Chaohui heard this, a hint of surprise flashed across his face. He thought that what Zhou Dongsheng said before was just a joke, but he didn't expect that Zhou Dongsheng was serious?
“Oh? Could it be that Jay Chou is not optimistic about the future of Mobike, or thinks that Mobike has reached its limit?” Li Chaohui asked a question with a smile.
Just when the financing was about to be negotiated, Zhou Dongsheng unexpectedly turned against them halfway. Although Zhou Dongsheng's influence was not as deep as that of the old institutions, his rise was too fast.
It was so fast that it was difficult for others to ignore it, especially with a series of successful investments that were like textbooks. This was enough to make Zhou Dongsheng a person that people took seriously, and his opinions would naturally be used as a reference by others.
"Of course not. As the pioneer of the sharing economy, I am still very optimistic about the future of shared bikes. Especially after the market verification in this period, shared bikes have been confirmed to be a must-have in future travel life."
"As the general public gradually forms user habits, shared bikes will inevitably play a pivotal role in the travel ecosystem in the future, just like taxi-hailing apps."
Zhou Dongsheng explained his point of view in a few words. Today, this point of view is certainly not considered to be advanced. Instead, it is a widely recognized mainstream argument in the current market.
Otherwise, it would not be able to support such a huge market with a valuation of nearly 10 billion US dollars, right?
"If that's the case, why did Jay Chou choose to take action? Or is it that compared to Mobike, Jay Chou is more optimistic about the model of Ofo? " Li Zhaohui continued to ask.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present realized Zhou Dongsheng's identity as a "double agent". He was the only one who could hold shares in two industry leaders at the same time.
"If I have to choose between the two, I am naturally more optimistic about Mobike, but I have a habit of investing, which is to quit when I see a good profit. Relying on this habit, I was able to withdraw in advance before the 5178 market came that year..."
"This habit saved my life, so I plan to stick to it to the end. Besides, compared to investment, I will focus more on the development of the group in the future..."
Zhou Dongsheng gave a convincing reason in a few words, "I will sell not only Mobike, but also Ofo. If anyone here is interested, I can give you a discount if you buy them all together..."
If I didn't know, I would have thought it was a vegetable market. It was as casual as buying and selling cabbages, and they even played with bundling sales.
However, whether it is Mobike or Ofo, the value of the chips in Zhou Dongsheng's hands exceeds 200 million US dollars, which is more than 1 billion yuan in RMB. This is not a small amount.
But you know what, bundling the shares of these two companies together is really quite tempting!
At this time, Zhou Dongsheng also took the opportunity to add fuel to the fire, "Well, if it weren't for the acquisition of Jiedian, the development of shared power banks would also be extremely expensive, and I wouldn't have made a move so easily. I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Mr. Li..."
"In fact, I once thought about whether I could be a middleman and bring the two companies together for a merger, just like the competition in the taxi industry, when Didi and Kuaidi finally shook hands and completed a strategic merger, eventually creating a new giant in the travel industry..."
"In my opinion, if Mobike and Ofo can be merged, it will undoubtedly replicate this success story. However, I did not expect that the speed of their growth has completely exceeded my imagination, and the situation is beyond my control..."
"Now I have the will but not the strength. Anyway, I don't have the ability. But that doesn't mean others don't have the ability, such as Tengda..."
Zhou Dongsheng looked at Li Chaohui with a smile and opened up about the matter. After all, Tengda and Alibaba were involved in the giant ship of Didi Chuxing.
Not long ago, Didi Chuxing just completed a round of financing of 5.5 billion US dollars, and its valuation exceeded 50 billion US dollars, which completely established its position as a giant in the travel field!
It is precisely because there is such a vivid example that Zhou Dongsheng specifically mentioned this matter. Isn’t this the “sweetness”?
After all, Didi and Kuaidi back then, just like Mobike and Ofo today, were also led by Tencent and Alibaba.
That time and that moment are exactly like this moment, how can they be so similar!
And once they can "repeat the same mistake" and complete the merger again, even if the shared bicycle field is not as good as the taxi field, the valuation is expected to exceed 10 billion US dollars!
Compared with this future expectation, even if Zhou Dongsheng sells it at a premium based on the current market value, it is definitely a "fire sale"!
As for the possibility of "repeating the same mistakes", that depends on one's own opinion. At least in Zhou Dongsheng's memory, there were multiple reasons why the two families could not get together in the end.
There was no need to even resort to antitrust action before the two companies parted ways unhappily. Considering that Hangzhou Ma is aiming to win over the competition in the next few years, perhaps they had no intention of merging at all?
If there is no consensus, the resistance to accomplishing this can be imagined...
However, if Tengda is willing to take over, I wonder if this change will lead to a glimmer of hope?
After all, this 10% stake is not a lot, but it is definitely not a small amount either. It is enough to have enough say among all shareholders, and also to infiltrate the opponent...
As for the problem of conflict of competition among peers, it will only be solved when the company is able to go public and faces the supervision of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Before that, this problem is obviously not the key, not to mention that there are many ways to circumvent supervision...
Well, if due to the influence of this variable like me, the two families can finally get together, then... I can only accept the defeat.
And when Zhou Dongsheng put this matter out in the open, you can tell that the "sweetness" he offered was quite tempting. At least some people really listened to him and were tempted.
"Since Mr. Jay has said this, I have to go back and ask Pony for his opinion. I think the boss will definitely be interested in this deal..."
Li Chaohui said cheerfully that although he was the head of Tengda Investment Department, he obviously could not make the decision on a transaction of this scale, and it had to be Brother Ma who made the final decision.
"Of course, I just mentioned it casually. If you are interested, please contact me..." Zhou Dongsheng turned around and greeted the other shareholders.
When things have progressed to this point, as long as Zhou Dongsheng is sincere and willing to make a move, given the current popularity of shared bicycles, it is naturally impossible for him not to make a move.
The only possibility is that we can't agree on the price.
However, equity transactions at the shareholder level will obviously not have much impact or intervention on this round of financing. As the general direction is finalized, the advancement of this E-round of financing is only a matter of time.
The huge sum of US$600 million was enough for Hu Weiwei to make a big move. At a time when every second counts in this industry, Mobike finally seized the opportunity and successfully got ahead of the ofo.
Although Ofo is also seeking a new round of financing, it is clearly half a beat slower than Mobike.
After finalizing the relevant details, Mobike Technology couldn't wait to announce the good news to the public, adding fuel to the shared bicycle industry.
"Mobike Technology has officially announced that it has completed a new round of financing of US$600 million, which is also the highest single financing record since the birth of the shared bicycle industry. This undoubtedly declares that Mobike is ready to overtake others. How will the small yellow car respond? Let us wait and see..."
As many people were attracted by this news, a deal was also reached behind the scenes.
