Global monopoly of technology

When Alibaba and Zhifubao’s operation team held a meeting to discuss how to deal with the powerful competitor of Bluestar Technology, Luo Sheng, who was far away in Suzhou City, was almost at the same time as Zhang Bowen, Xu Yong and other core managers around WeChat. The future of the mobile Internet is at a meeting.

"... From a strategic point of view, the greatest significance of mobile payment business is to absorb a large number of users and funds. It can lay a good foundation for high value-added businesses such as consumer credit, financial product distribution, and credit investigation. Therefore, whether it is Whether I am Bluestar Technology, or a competitor, Ali, an Internet giant of our size will not care too much about the profitability of payment itself."

Luo Sheng’s voice resounded in the conference room. Today is the third day of the Lunar New Year, but none of the core executives of the group company went home for the New Year. They have to deal with the mess left over from last year and take into account the future development. , Time is the most precious.

The biggest difference between entrepreneurs and capitalists is that the former is to strive for the realization of ideals and missions through business operations, while the latter is to constantly suck blood through business operations, regardless of the life or death of the company itself.

Luo Sheng, who was in the first seat of the conference, sat with his back leaned on a chair, and pointed out in a few words: "We don't care how Ali plays. I only care about whether payment users can be converted into high-profit financial business users. From this perspective, WeChat Although payment smashed Zhifubao in the number of transactions, it failed to fully open the situation in the vital high-profit business."

Upon hearing this, the core managers at the meeting were a little surprised. This was a bit beyond their expectations. In their past impressions, the big bosses did not pay much attention to profit. Although Bluestar Technology is the world The most profitable company, but the company's senior management has always told the story that it does not take profit as the primary purpose. Unexpectedly, Luo Sheng emphasized the keywords of high profit and finance at this meeting.

There is no way, the time node has changed, and the situation has undergone tremendous changes. Bluestar Technology’s research funding strategy of 150 billion US dollars within five years, a huge debt burden, business development in emerging market economies, and the layout of the inland market, Independently reduce corporate profits, coupled with the massive loss of market shares in developed international markets, how can the company maintain its operations if it does not pursue high profits?

There is no conflict between self-reduction of corporate profits and the pursuit of high profits, because the starting point is not to squeeze profits on the original customer base, but to explore new businesses to find new profit growth points.

Zhang Bowen, who was present at the meeting, said: "The relationship between Bluestar Technology and Ali is officially opened in the new year. The WeChat red envelope is equivalent to an undeclared battle, but Ali is not a little brother. Having grown to a giant with a valuation of more than US$200 billion, coupled with a decade of intensive cultivation in the payment business market, I don’t think this mobile payment war will be short-lived."

Luo Sheng nodded in agreement. These words also prove that Lao Zhang is also very clear about the real form of competition. The emergence of WeChat payment has indeed surprised the entire mobile payment market. In addition, it is backed by Bluestar Technology. The behemoth has caused practitioners to exclaim that the mobile payment ecosystem is about to collapse, and there are endless remarks such as Zhifubao is going to die, and the media tracking industry reports have also increased their exaggeration.

If Ali and Zhifubao were able to get down so easily, they would not be valued at more than US$200 billion. They are also the second largest cloud computing service giant in China and the dominant player in the payment market for ten years. They still have to give enough Respectful.

Of course, Bluestar Technology also has its own unique advantage, that is, the strong social relationship chain attribute of its Family Bucket products. It is precisely because of this that WeChat's debut in the mobile payment market has become a blockbuster.

After a while, Luo Sheng took a sip of water and put down the cup to speak again, and the attending managers also prepared to record the key points of the meeting.

"This year, the core four words that Bluestar Technology will do can be highly summarized."

Everyone looked up and looked at Luo Sheng curiously, who said concisely: "These four words are-scene penetration."

Scene penetration?

After Luo Sheng asked the question, he deconstructed these four words: “Transfer from online to offline, and expand offline from retail catering to life entertainment and other more application scenarios. Electronic payment has a certain scene penetration sequence because of different Depending on the degree of onlineization, standardization, and user habits of industry scenarios, the acceptance threshold for electronic payments will also vary."

"From the perspective of the development history of mobile payment, there is a sequence of scene development. The earliest developments were mainly life needs and traditionally troublesome scenes, such as mobile phone recharge and life payment; secondly, the e-commerce category is easy to accept, because It is a purely online scenario, and the threshold for using electronic payment is relatively low. Under the leadership of Di Bao and Zhi Fu Bao, the mainland e-commerce can be regarded as the first batch of scenarios to accept electronic payments."

Speaking of this, everyone saw that Luo Sheng’s attitude has changed a little and he has become more important, and saw him earnestly say: "From this year on, the next is O2O, online shopping and offline consumption mode is the focus. , And payment is the last link of online activities. Foreign travel software Uber, and mainland startups such as Meituan, Dianping, and Ele.me are all prominent and typical representatives in this regard."

At this time, Luo Sheng looked around and added: "Who talks about Meituan and Ele.me?"

Since Luo Sheng suddenly asked about the problems outside the business boundary of Bluestar Technology in the past few years, and the senior management could not speak up, it has now been changed. Almost all the highlights of the Internet industry will be paid attention to by the company's senior management, including Companies outside the Internet will also pay attention.

After all, even though Luo Sheng didn't say anything that time, he felt the dissatisfaction of BOSS.

Following Luo Sheng's question, an executive named Pang Lei soon answered him.

“These domestic companies are indeed the highlights of the Internet industry in the Mainland. Let’s first talk about Ele.me. This company was founded by four students from Jiaotong University in 2008. It has long been centered on the university takeaway market and its birthplace is Jiaotong University. Starting point, it has now grown to 12 cities, and the momentum is very good."

When Pang Lei was talking about this, Zhang Bowen forcibly interrupted and turned his head to look at Luo Sheng with a smile: "Are you hungry, I have paid attention to the development route of this company. It is very interesting. Its development route is quite similar to that of the past. Star Technology developed from Fuda to a national university. Its founder was also born in the same year as Mr. Luo, and was also in 1985. It is now regarded as a rising star in the entrepreneurial circle.

Luo Sheng couldn't help laughing.

A moment later, Pang Lei, who had spoken before, continued: "At the beginning of the second half of last year, the domestic online ordering platform Ele.me announced that it had completed a US$25 million Series C financing. The lead investor was Sequoia Capital, and its Series A financing investor Jin Jin Shajiang and the Series B financing investment Jingwei Ventures followed up. In the Series C financing, Ele.me was valued at close to US$100 million."

Luo Sheng took the opportunity to ask: "Why is a takeaway with a unit price of less than a dozen yuan? The merchants who settle in are still small restaurants in the form of traditional mom-and-pop shops, and the profit model is still unclear, and there is no top creative website. Its valuation Can you approach the high figure of 100 million US dollars?"

Pang Lei smiled and said: "On this issue... Mr. Luo, I noticed that this startup company’s Series C financing funds last year has almost burned. I think the Series E financing will begin soon. Maybe we can listen to it. Listen to the words of its founder Zhang Xuhao, let him tell us this story."

Hearing this, Luo Sheng immediately pointed his finger at him and said directly: "Okay, Pang Lei will listen to the founder's story on my behalf. If the story he tells is very beautiful, Bluestar Technology will lead E Round of financing, or even direct investment alone."

Pang Lei was stunned for a while, then nodded: "Okay."

Luo Sheng continued to ask: "Where is Meituan.com?"

Pang Lei was fortunate to have done his homework secretly, and saw his methodical answer: "The company was established in March 2010, the founder Wang Xin, and Meituan.com received the lead investment from Ali, Sequoia Capital and Arctic in July 2011. Optical Venture Capital and other institutions followed up with a total of US$50 million in Series B financing with a valuation of US$220 million. In the same year, they were awarded the titles of "Best Group Buying Website of the Year", "Top Ten Online Shopping Brands", and "Group Buying Star". 11 Monthly sales exceed 250 million yuan and rank first in the group buying industry."

Luo Sheng is very satisfied. It seems that after the last time, the people under his hand have made a lot of progress. He put his thoughts away and gave a brief and concise command: "We should also listen to the story of group buying, including Dianping. Don't think about controlling it. Enterprises, we don’t care about their fights. If the story can move us, we can invest money. We can invest a little bit more if anyone can tell the story better. Let them fight."

Pang Lei nodded silently, and memorized what Luo Sheng had ordered.

With this kind of gu-raising layout, no matter which side wins, Bluestar Technology will never lose.

If you have money, you can do whatever you want. Bluestar Technology has shifted its strategic focus to the mainland market. It has prepared tens of billions of dollars in capital for deployment.

The managers present all know that after entering the new year, BOSS has determined from the determination of the strategic policy to the specific tactical layout.

...