2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 758 New Energy Vehicles

According to statistics from the China Passenger Car Association, the domestic passenger car market saw a year-on-year decline of 2.9% in November 2011.

Sedans, MPVs, and microvans all failed to avoid a year-on-year decline.

"See? SUVs are still very strong. Let's speed up the development of new SUV models, including both gasoline and new energy series."

The SUV market is thriving, achieving a 10.9% year-on-year growth in November, with the Yuechi A1 ranking first with 18965 units sold.

What made everyone at Weilai happiest was that CRV sales reached 16020 units in November.

With a difference of 2945 vehicles, this is the first time that the Yuechi A1 has widened the gap with the CRV to such a large extent. In the past, the difference between the two was no more than 500 vehicles per month at most.

This is a very good sign.

After nearly two years of close competition with the CRV, this is the first time the gap between the two has been so large. The era of the CRV's dominance is over.

"Domestic consumers do indeed have a particular fondness for SUVs. With the overall car market being so mediocre this year, it's truly remarkable that the SUV market can still thrive with such a diverse range of products."

Last year it was like a two-horse race between the CRV and the Yuechi A1, but this year the ix35, Tiguan, Qashqai, Highlander, and the BYD S6 which suddenly exploded in the second half of the year, and even the Audi Q5 are all selling better and better.

The BYD S6 sold over 1.2 units in November, surpassing the RAV4 and ranking fourth.

For consumers, a single outstanding product is certainly not as good as a variety of products, as there are more choices available. However, what makes Tan Jincheng happy is that the sales of the Yuechi A1 have remained very good.

The rise of domestically produced SUV brands is largely a continuation of last year's strategy of seizing market share from Japanese brands.

Since the last large-scale attack based on misinterpretation, Weilai has also strengthened its security publicity. Tan Jincheng even filmed several promotional videos in conjunction with the criminalization of drunk driving, which are currently being broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV.

However, safety shouldn't be exaggerated. With so many production bases, Weilai Auto can't guarantee that every car leaving the factory will be problem-free. If a major accident occurs, it would be a slap in the face to their own claims.

2011 is coming to an end. For car companies, this year has been quite difficult. Having gotten used to good times, they suddenly have to cut back on expenses. Who can stand that?

The withdrawal of a series of stimulus policies, the reduction of car purchase subsidies, the implementation of purchase restrictions, and the addition of more cities to the lottery system for car license plates have brought about significant changes in the car market.

The policy will remain the same next year, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, another batch of car companies will be unable to survive and will be on the verge of bankruptcy in two years.

The overall car market has come to a sudden halt, but there are still bright spots. SUVs, mid-to-high-end sedans, and new energy vehicles have all performed well this year.

The SUV market needs no introduction. In the era before subsidies, Chinese consumers demonstrated their preference for SUVs through their actions.

The situation is understandable for mid-to-high-end sedans. Since it is no longer possible to boost sales through subsidies, the only option is to maintain profits. Various models are targeting the mid-to-high-end market in order to seek transformation.

To a certain extent, the pricing of the BYD S6 was also one of the keys to its success.

If BYD continues to sell models priced below 10 yuan, given its current reputation, it's uncertain whether they will sell well.

BYD's biggest crisis this year is not the drop in stock price, nor layoffs or the departure of senior executives, but rather the multiple quality problems with their best-selling models, coupled with poor after-sales service, which has led to a comprehensive deterioration in their reputation.

Once a car company's reputation collapses, it's a very serious matter, and there's no other way for Dizi to downsize.

Well, the main problem is the poor after-sales service. Whether it's the Flash Electric Vehicle or the Weilai Car, Tan Jincheng insists that quality issues should not be avoided, and the important thing is to do a good job in after-sales service.

No car manufacturer can guarantee that every car leaving the factory will be absolutely problem-free, but if a problem does occur, we will solve it.

Unless it's a large-scale accident, there shouldn't be any major problems as long as you reassure the car owners.

If you can't solve the problem, then solve the person who raised it; but how to solve it is also a skill.

December is almost over. On the 17th of this month, the strongest post-12s generation in history will take over at the age of 27. The Beidou system will also start operating this month. The world's landscape is developing in the direction that Tan Jincheng is familiar with.

Has Mr. Huang reported on the progress of the negotiations with Gaode?

Map services are crucial for both car navigation and Orange Technology's express delivery and logistics order system.

Since its inception, Weilai Auto has been cooperating with AutoNavi and NavInfo, both of which have Class A surveying and mapping qualifications and went public last year.

NavInfo has too strong a backing; it was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. Tan Jincheng had no intention of taking it over. If you actually got your hands on such a company, it would only cause more trouble.

Gaode is different. It is a private enterprise, and its founder has a similar background to Li Bin. Moreover, Gaode is driven by capital.

Founded in 2002, Gaode has very advanced technology. By 2003, it had data acquisition tools and editing platforms with complete independent intellectual property rights, and in 04, it obtained its Class A surveying and mapping qualification.

Unfortunately, prior to their IPO last year, they had only raised $4000 million in funding once, in 2006.

In 06, Tan Jincheng hadn't even started building cars yet, and he was desperately poor at the time, so there was no way he could have caught up with Gaode's financing opportunity. However, he was lucky, as Gaode's financing in 06 was led by Sequoia Capital.

Through Shen Nanpeng's connections, Tan Jincheng, who had gained supernatural insight, managed to participate in Gaode's IPO process before Lao Ma did, acquiring a 10% stake for 1.5 million yuan.

However, Tan Jincheng wanted to get even more.

Currently, Careland remains the king of the map market, holding over 70% of the market share in car navigation, while AutoNavi only holds 8.1%.

However, this company has little future because its in-car navigation is paid. Once Gaode Maps becomes free, the market will be like 360 ​​taking over Kingsoft Antivirus and other paid antivirus software – a complete market disruption.

Paid games can never beat free ones. This was true for companies like Kingsoft against 360, and it was also true for Journey Online defeating Legend of Mir.

Gaode went public on NASDAQ last year, and the funds it raised have been almost spent. In addition, Baidu has also entered the fray. Baidu was riding high in 2010.

These days, among BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), Alibaba is a bit weaker, but what BT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) wants to do can really cause panic among its peers in the market.

The fate of Baidu Maps has brought a considerable sense of crisis to the founder and management of AutoNavi. Tan Jincheng wants to take this opportunity to acquire more shares of AutoNavi.

Having control over Gaode in your own hands is a completely different matter from having it in Ma Huateng's hands.

If Lao Ma really manages to snatch it away, then Wei Lai will have to rebuild his navigation system from scratch. He knows all too well what kind of companies Ali acquires in the end; all of them are acquired just to drive traffic to Taobao.

"General Manager Huang hasn't reported yet, but General Manager Cheng has communicated with me, saying that you've asked for too much, and that a little less would be acceptable."

The acquisition of AutoNavi shares began in September, and Zeng Jixiang has been following up on the progress. He is very familiar with both negotiating teams and can also directly contact Cheng Wu, the founder of AutoNavi.

AutoNavi, which went public on NASDAQ on July 20, 2010, opened at $13 and currently has a market capitalization of around $900 million. Tan Jincheng wants to acquire 41% of the shares in one go to gain complete control of the company.

With Baidu's entry, Gaode was short of money, but it didn't want to give up so many shares at once. Giving up the title of the largest shareholder wouldn't be a big deal for the founders and team, but this was too much.

"Haha, I wanted to give him 30 billion, but he didn't want it; never mind, you can ask him what his bottom line is, but I hope our shareholding exceeds 33%, you need to be clear about that."

Due to the VIE structure, ByteDance's advertising platform is not suitable as the controlling shareholder of AutoNavi. Therefore, the entity investing in AutoNavi was changed to Cheng Yue (BVI) Limited, which is 100% owned by Tan Jincheng.

This company is an offshore company.

To be honest, a 10% stake is useless. If he can't completely control Gaode, he'll just sell off those shares. Anyway, there are plenty of map companies he can cooperate with in the future. At worst, he can just create a new shell company, use a second- or third-tier company to obtain a Class A surveying and mapping qualification, and run it himself.

Surveying and mapping qualifications have been strictly controlled in recent years, but in a few more years, it won't be such an issue.

Speaking of which, after so many years in business, what Tan Jincheng finds most annoying is all these qualifications and licenses. It's not that he can't get these things, but there are just too many twists and turns behind them.

Having lived two lives, he never considered problems that could be solved with money to be problems; rather, the most troublesome issues were those that required using connections.

"Okay, then I'll give Mr. Huang a hint."

Zeng Jixiang's eyes darted around. The boss's words meant he wasn't satisfied with the progress of the acquisition. It seemed he would have to urge General Manager Huang and the others.

The fact that Gaode was ultimately acquired shows that the founder's demand for control over the company was not actually that strong. Now, during the development phase, he needed to control the company, and Cheng Wu did not avoid the requirement to relinquish the position of the largest shareholder.

If he could acquire more, Tan Jincheng would definitely want to take advantage of the current relatively low prices to acquire more shares, every little bit helps, because once Ali officially enters the market, the cost will be driven up.

“Okay, tell him that you want at least 33% of the shares, try to negotiate higher. If you can’t get that number, we’ll have to consider selling our shares.”

Sigh, actually it would have been better to cooperate with Siwei, but unfortunately this company basically has no say in the matter.

Furthermore, Gaode's team is also exceptionally talented. Of all the companies Alibaba acquired, most eventually failed, but Gaode survived despite Alibaba's various attempts to infiltrate the market. By acquiring Gaode, providing financial support, and not interfering with its operations, Tan Jincheng doesn't believe that Gaode under his control will be much worse than it was under Alibaba.

The most crucial point is that it's almost 2012, and ride-hailing services are coming.

The ride-hailing market is a highly controversial industry. The competition between Kuaidi and Didi to seize market share sparked the largest-scale battle in the internet age, with hundreds of capital and investment institutions entering the market and pushing it to a very high level.

Capital can stop at nothing for profit, but during the early stages of the ride-hailing war, it did indeed benefit many ordinary people.

Back in the early days of ride-hailing, drivers earned a considerable income. Some daring drivers didn't even need to drive much; they could make a fortune by exploiting loopholes to generate fake orders.

With coupons, passengers can also take taxis at extremely low prices.

Tan Jincheng may not care about the interests of ordinary people, but the ride-hailing market has promoted the development of new energy vehicles to a certain extent, and Tan Jincheng cannot avoid this point.

Electric new energy vehicles are cheaper than gasoline vehicles in some aspects, and with the addition of substantial subsidies, they are very suitable for the ride-hailing market.

As for the range anxiety that ordinary families worry about, this is simply not an issue for ride-hailing vehicles.

To a certain extent, 2012, the year ride-hailing services emerged, should be considered the starting point for new energy vehicles; the gears of fate had already begun to turn.

The capital market for ride-hailing services is too complex and controversial. Almost all internet giants and investment institutions of all sizes have entered the fray, and Tan Jincheng has no intention of getting too deeply involved in this process.

However, ByteDance's advertising platform is now a giant in the investment industry, and even if you don't want to get involved, you will still be drawn into it.

In that case, the earlier you get in, the better your chances of getting out.

Sell ​​cars properly, withdraw in time, and make some profit if possible. Starting with maps, then moving to ride-hailing platforms, and finally selling Aion cars to ride-hailing companies and ordinary drivers—that's Tan Jincheng's current plan.

During his last trip to Hangzhou for a meeting, Tan Jincheng chatted with Chen Weixin for quite a while.

As another young entrepreneurial leader in Zhejiang Province, Chen Weixin, born in 1983, achieved many outstanding results during his university years. In Chen Weixin's words, his entrepreneurial ideas were greatly influenced by Orange Technology.

After graduation, Chen Weixin founded a company that mainly focused on developing small games. Through continuous game development, Chen Weixin generated a large amount of cash flow.

You only know how profitable games can be once you've played and experienced them, provided the game becomes a huge hit.

Especially since the competition in the gaming industry these days is much less than in later generations.

Chen Weixin, who achieved fame at a young age and became financially independent in a short period of time, like Mr. Chen of Shengda, also had his own big dream: to do something more meaningful.

After a bad experience taking a taxi, Chen Weixin had the idea of ​​creating a ride-hailing app.

In Chen Weixin's vision, opening the software on a mobile phone and tapping a few times will provide a quick response, and the car will arrive in just a few minutes. Payment can also be made on the phone, and neither party needs to worry about payment security.

Without hesitation, Chen Weixin began market research after having this idea. At that time, Aion S was promoting its new energy vehicles to taxi companies all over the world.

The selling point of the promotion is simply that for taxi companies and taxi drivers, the procurement costs are lower, and the electricity is also cheaper.

Chen Weixin, who knew Tan Jincheng, thought that he would never buy the Aion S if he were to buy it himself, but if he were to use it as a taxi, it would be excellent in terms of both cost and riding experience.

Taxi companies reduced costs, drivers lowered operating costs, and passengers had a better riding experience. Chen Weixin immediately realized the business opportunity in this.

He knew Tan Jincheng. When Tan Jincheng went to Hangzhou, the two of them would have dinner together. Not to mention, they would be sent by Zhejiang Province to participate in all youth-related conferences.

More than a decade later, when ride-hailing services are mentioned, many people only know Didi, but in fact, Didi had nothing to do with ride-hailing services at the very beginning.

When Chen Wei founded Didi in a warehouse in Beijing, there were already several ride-hailing apps in the capital market.

To a certain extent, Didi's rise to prominence was fueled by the capital market, and this support came after the ride-hailing war, when Didi merged with Kuaidi and was spearheaded by a certain entity.

As a leading figure in the investment circle and a well-known domestic investment institution, it is simply impossible to completely avoid cooperation with a certain company, such as Lakala when it came to obtaining licenses.

Of the 27 licensed companies, many were of dubious quality and were originally intended to be sold. But why choose Lakala? Besides Lei Jun's introduction, the main reason was that Lakala's business was a perfect fit for the current Orange Products Club.

WX has not yet implemented payment. In addition to Alipay, Orange Products currently offers payment options mainly through bank credit cards, debit cards, its own recharge service, and cash on delivery.

Cash on delivery is even more convenient. The salesperson carries a POS machine, and swiping the card is much more convenient than receiving cash.

Dong Ge now uses roughly the same payment method, as do other small e-commerce websites. Partnering with Lakala is much more convenient than buying from some shady companies that have no business and only a license.

He had no intention of getting involved in Didi's capital game, but he could invest in Kuaidi. Chen Weixin's phone call piqued Tan Jincheng's interest.

To be honest, he knew everything about the ride-hailing wars in his previous life, and had even taken advantage of some of them. He also knew about Didi's founder and team, but he didn't really know much about Kuaidi's team.

After a long discussion about ride-hailing models, Chen Weixin was deeply impressed and became even more determined to pursue a career in ride-hailing.

Tan Jincheng even joked that he would invest in him and the two of them would work together to develop a ride-hailing app.

Until this month, Chen Weixin called again. He had registered a company called Hangzhou Kuaizhi Technology Co., Ltd., and was currently building a team to develop an O2O ride-hailing application based on LBS.

The app is called Kuaidi Dache (快的打车).

Chen Weixin jokingly asked Tan Jincheng if the investment they mentioned last time still counted.

Good heavens, Tan Jincheng was stunned at the time. Tan Jincheng was not surprised that Chen Weixin had the idea of ​​making a ride-hailing app. In fact, with the popularity of smartphones, there are quite a few people with all kinds of entrepreneurial ideas.

Some might just be an idea that flashes through your mind, while others might be put into practice and possibly succeed.

When Tan Jincheng said he would invest in him, he wasn't just saying it casually. The ride-hailing market is huge, and there were a lot of companies that did it in the early days. Companies like Bumblebee were once very popular. Even though they were eventually acquired, investors would never lose money.

Once a software truly achieves its goal of conquering a city or territory, it can be considered a success.

He knew that Kuaidi was founded in Hangzhou, but he never expected that it would be founded by Chen Weixin.

Not everyone who invests quickly will invest, but now that it's a fast investment, there's no question about it. Tan Jincheng easily agreed to Chen Weixin's financing request, and he will go to Hangzhou to sign the agreement after New Year's Day.

This is also one of the reasons why he wants to acquire Gaode as soon as possible. Kuaidi is a location-based ride-hailing app. If he can acquire Gaode, Kuaidi will not only need investment from venture capital firms before the Series A funding round and the software is launched on the market, but also before the investment from other venture capital firms.

Before the Series A funding round, his biggest advantage was having both insider knowledge and money. He aimed to secure the largest possible share before the Series A round, and once all the investors had entered the market, it would be time to reap the rewards.

Similar to his shareholding in Gaode, Tan Jincheng will also use Cheng Yue as a shell company for this investment in Kuaidi Dache. On the one hand, offshore companies are more convenient, and on the other hand, the shell company ByteDance Engine is too well-known now.

Zhang's ByteDance and Liu's 36Kr have seen a rapid increase in attention since receiving investment from Tan Jincheng. At the alumni reunion held by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in November, Wang Xiao from Baidu, Liu's senior, even considered giving Liu some venture capital.

When she heard that Tan Jincheng had snatched the prize from her, she was heartbroken.

Similarly, there were also a number of investment institutions that had previously rejected ByteDance.

Having too many flashy disguises isn't good either, because every move you make will attract attention. The capital circle is big, but it's also small; there are only a few companies that can make big investments right now.

If Tan Jincheng promotes the launch of a new app, they can then promote another one.

Another advantage of using an offshore company is that it allows you to allocate assets abroad as much as possible, hiding some of your assets, which provides protection for both yourself and your family.

Tan Jincheng plans to place these assets in Hong Kong, which is a buffer zone and relatively safer.

In addition, Hong Kong is a free financial market where you can allocate some high-quality stocks, gold, real estate, and even certain cryptocurrencies. In 2012, some cryptocurrencies also emerged.

He only has 11 years left in his "out-of-service" period. When it ends, he will be less than 40 years old, and his son will be less than 14 years old, far from being able to take over.

He doesn't know how the group will develop without the cheat codes, but he can't just shut it down. This isn't something he can decide on his own. If a decision is seriously flawed, the consequences would be unimaginable.

But no matter what, as long as you have money in your hands, even if you make the wrong decision, you will have a chance to make amends.

In the real capital market, there is nothing that money cannot solve. If there is, it means there is not enough money. Take the ridiculously popular "Belt Brother" this year, for example. If he had just paid off all his debts in a flash, he would have been fine.

(End of this chapter)