Chapter 251 Baidu’s first move

The two years 2013 and 2014 are, in a sense, the years when the mobile terminal took off.

In 2013, the number of smartphones exceeded 700 million units and the construction of 4G networks began. In 2014, 4G networks were basically popularized.

To say that 4g is definitely inseparable from a company, but even a company did not expect that 4g network can be popularized in 2014.

According to a certain idea at that time, the popularization of 4g network will almost arrive in 2017 and 2018.

But with the support of the state, the popularization of 4g network was basically completed in 2014. Except for some small villages, more than 80% of the country can use 4g network.

Although the traffic fee of 4g network is still very expensive at this stage, this does not prevent the huge impact of 4g network on smartphones.

2G can only watch news without pictures, 3G can watch news with pictures, and 4G can watch videos directly.

With the completion of the construction of 4G network, smartphones can be used without wifi, and the Internet can be accessed anytime, anywhere, which is a huge opportunity for major application manufacturers.

In the previous life, Byte seized this opportunity, launched Douyin, and formed a series of ecological chains with short videos. It successfully stepped on Baidu, which failed to transform, and became one of the new three Internet giants.

The same opportunity is now in front of Luo Fan, and in a sense, Luo Fan has a stronger background than the previous Byte, and he has more cards than Byte.

For example, Xingchao and Xingyuan Payment.

Speaking of Xingchao, Luo Fan remembered some of wx’s recent actions.

In order to improve the competitiveness of wx, Penguin supported Meituan.

In the short period of the Chinese New Year, the imperial capital and some cities in Hebei have been occupied by Meituan, and the daily order volume is gradually increasing.

And there are no competitors here. Meituan only provides high subsidies to new users alone, and others are subsidized with small profits to ensure sufficient funds for the future battlefield.

With the steady development of Meituan, the most urgent thing must be hungry.

But are you hungry? It did not act rashly, because although Meituan now occupies a large market in the imperial capital and Hebei, this market share is actually relatively false.

Because the operation time of Meituan is too short, users have not developed the habit of using food delivery software. In fact, any food delivery company can attack at this time.

As long as they are hungry and willing, they can go directly to Meituan’s headquarters in the imperial capital to have a price war at any time. As long as they are willing to spend money, they can still gain a certain market.

Of course, the initial investment of Meituan is not completely useless. Comparatively speaking, Meituan is still the easiest to occupy the northern market.

Not because it has money, but because of the group buying experience and data in the hands of Meituan.

In a sense, the field of group buying and the field of food delivery are interconnected, and the experience and data in the field of group buying can quickly help the field of food delivery.

Ali, who is hungry for investment, has also done group purchases, but the losses have been utterly ruined.

In the view of some of Alibaba’s top executives, takeout is a deep hole that will never be filled, just like the group buying that caused Alibaba’s troubles before.

It is for this reason that Ali ordered you to be hungry not to start a price war with Meituan now.

This coming and going has instead given Meituan a chance to stabilize the situation.

After Luo Fan got the news, he didn’t know what to say for a while.

Ali was bitten by a snake for ten years and was afraid of the rope. If he was afraid, he would still be hungry. This operation is too top-notch.

Of course, it’s not a mistake to go to the north to open up the market, are you hungry?

The consideration of Alibaba’s executives should be related to Groupon.

This company once triggered a domestic group buying crisis, but it successfully logged on to Nasdaq in November 2011, with a market value of 18 billion yuan, much higher than its pre-IPO valuation.

Although Groupon’s road to listing was not smooth, it was successful in the end.

This wave has allowed capital to regain some confidence in the group buying field.

However, when these capitals reviewed Huaxia’s group buying field, they found that many of the group buying giants they had been optimistic about had all gone bankrupt, and Meituan seemed to be the easiest to succeed among the remaining ones.

So Meituan succeeded. With the capital injection, Meituan picked peaches.

Now, as the winner of the group buying war, Meituan has detonated the food delivery industry, attracting the attention of countless venture capitalists, and the excess capital has once again discovered a new world.

Ali should be very clear that few of these VCs will support the end of the money-burning war, but they are enough to consume a lot of funds in the early stage.

Therefore, Alibaba’s executives judge that it is unwise to go to the north to open up the market now. Instead, it may fall into a quagmire similar to the original group buying war.

Luo Fan doesn’t care about the actions of Meituan and Are You Hungry? He cares more about what Baidu wants to do next.

Before Xingyuan Payment was connected to Baidu’s payment system, although the two parties did not reach a cooperation agreement on the map, but for this payment agreement, everyone is already an inseparable strategic partner.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Luo Fan received a call from Baidu’s President Li. He said on the phone that Baidu would make new moves. On the morning of the seventh day of the first lunar month, Baidu’s second-in-command would come to Xingyuan to negotiate with Luo Fan.

That’s why Luo Fan started from home on the sixth day of the first year.

Luo Fan waited in the office until 10 o’clock, and Baidu’s general manager finally came.

Luo Fan immediately asked Su Qing to take him over.

After a while, Mr. Xiang came to Luo Fan’s office.

“Mr. Luo, I’ve admired the name for a long time!”

“Me too, I’ve heard of Mr. Xiang before.”

Saying that, the two shook hands with each other.

“Mr. Xiang, Mr. Li told me on the phone that Baidu is going to have a new move?” After the greeting, Luo Fan went straight to the topic.

“Well! Does Mr. Luo know Uber?”

“Baidu wants to rent a car?” Luo Fan asked in surprise.

“Yes or not? We can’t replicate Uber’s business model, because this is China, and the legal aspects are completely different from the United States.”

“What does Baidu want to do?” Luo Fan asked.

Mr. Xiang took out a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Luo Fan and said, “Mr. Luo, according to our judgment, although Uber’s business model is not suitable for China, it is a very perfect Internet thinking. .

The core of their operation is to use the mobile Internet in the mobile phone to connect users, and then absorb the surplus transportation capacity that is wasted every day, which belongs to the full use of the Internet to save resources.

However, this model works well in the United States because the US traffic law allows private cars to participate in commercial operations, while in my country, this is currently not allowed by the law.

I have investigated several online car-hailing platforms on the market, and some direct Uber business models, but because of this, I am often punished by the traffic control department.

For the same reason, even though the United States already has a mature business model and a giant with a market value of billions, there are not many capitals in the country who dare to invest, just because they are afraid that a policy will make the startup company go bankrupt. .

I think Mr. Luo, you should also know that Penguin wanted to invest in the online car-hailing platform from the beginning, but after a round of investigation, he chose to give up, which is why Penguin gave up.

It was precisely because the online car-hailing was temporarily unavailable that Penguin turned to invest in Meituan. ”

Luo Fan flipped through the folder while listening to Mr. Xiang’s analysis.

After reading the contents of the folder, Luo Fan said with a smile: “You Baidu’s market research is really good! Where do you Baidu plan to start?”

“Mr. Luo, your question is boring. You should have seen it. Our only option at present is the official taxi industry.” Mr. Xiang said.

“It’s really the only option. Currently, in the urban transport industry, only taxis are legal.

Although these people are not many, and they all have local capital behind them, as long as they can convince taxi drivers and give them visible benefits, they will definitely join. “Luo Fan analyzed.

“Yes, that’s what we thought.” Mr. Xiang said.

Baidu’s current thinking is actually similar to that of Didi’s expansion in the previous life. They also chose taxis at the beginning.

“Then how does Baidu plan to attract users?” Luo Fan asked.

Mr. Xiang said: “This depends on the combat ability of the ground push team. At present, the number one online car-hailing company in the imperial capital is called Baimi, and they advertise and distribute flyers at the Capital Airport to attract users.

In the area of ​​the Capital Airport, the demand for taxis is very high, and the flow of people is also large. If it were me, I would do the same.

As for other cities, Mr. Luo should be able to accurately push a wave with your Xingyuan technology, right?

For example, to those who just got off the plane and the people who just got off the train, push the relevant information of the online car-hailing. ”

“Mr. Xiang, the ideas you said are really good, but the problem is that what you can think of can also be thought of by others.

Take the airport as an example. If you attract people here, other companies will naturally do the same. With so much competition, how can you win? this is the key of the problem.

Burning money to grab the market, in fact, everyone understands this truth, but how to spend this money, how to obtain users and drivers at the lowest cost, only by doing this can we win in the end.

After all, users and drivers will not treat you differently because you are one of the three BAT giants. Only real interests can impress them. ”

Luo Fan’s words, Mr. Xiang or Baidu’s side had already expected it, and Baidu’s executives are not fools, it is impossible to think of this thing.

Baidu has also participated in the group purchase subsidy war, and they have made a big mistake on it.

Later, Baidu’s think tank analyzed that this failure, in the final analysis, was due to blind subsidies, which caused losses for almost all companies. Only Meituan, which is good at offline promotion, is now the best.

So Baidu’s plan this time is to learn from Meituan, focusing on offline, instead of spending money to subsidize it all the time.

And there is another question that Luo Fan did not understand, that is, why did Baidu start with the online car-hailing business?

Do you want to face off against Penguin, Ali? Or because it involves offline, is it a brand new attempt to accumulate experience for subsequent takeaways? Or is it because of Baidu Maps?

Thinking of this, Luo Fan looked at Mr. Xiang and asked: “Mr. Xiang, I have a question. Since Google Maps quit Huaxia, Baidu Maps has become the largest map app in China. Baidu Maps has gathered a large number of users. Your company Is the launch of the taxi business to be directly installed on the APP of Baidu Maps?”

“Yes, Mr. Luo, you should also know that it is very difficult to convince taxi drivers to join a new company, but with the coverage rate of Baidu Maps among taxi drivers, it should not be too difficult for them to join.

And in this way, our car-hailing business can instantly gain millions of users from the very beginning, reducing initial competition, so why not do it? ”

After listening to Mr. Xiang’s words, Luo Fan sighed and thought: “It seems that Baidu has made all the preparations and plans to enter the car-hailing network. It is indeed possible for them to make achievements by relying on the advantages of Baidu Maps. It is far from being directly involved in it, after all, the laws and regulations in the early stage of this industry are too imperfect.”

Thinking of this, Luo Fan said to President Xiang, “Mr. Xiang, I already understand what you think of Baidu.

However, the car-hailing industry involves many places that are not regulated by the law. Before these problems are resolved, Xingyuan will not enter the industry on a large scale. ”

Mr. Xiang expressed his understanding. This is not simply Baidu’s cooperation with taxi companies to improve the efficiency of drivers. There are too many interests involved.

“Mr. Luo can rest assured that we also understand that the taxi industry is an industry directly managed by ZF. When any changes occur, even if it is good for most people, it will affect the interests of a small number of people.

And this small group of people’s interests are often the most core interests.

Several major business directions of your company now have strong competitors. If your company enters the online car-hailing industry with us, this business is too closely linked to zf. Once it is used, it will have a very big impact on Xingyuan. The negative impact is not worth the loss. ”

Luo Fan didn’t expect that Mr. Xiang would put the matter on the bright side, so he took this attitude and Luo Fan had a more favorable impression of Baidu.

“How do you always want us to cooperate with Xingyuan?”

“It’s very simple, we hope that Xingyuan will provide us with some technical, operational, and online publicity support.

At the same time, according to our agreement, Xingyuan needs to provide some funds in the subsidy of online car-hailing. ”

“Just these?”

“Just these!”

“What about the proportion of Xingyuan?” Luo Fan asked.

“40%.”

Luo Fan thought about it and nodded and agreed, because at this stage, the online car-hailing subsidy doesn’t actually cost much.

In the late stage of online car-hailing, subsidies are the crucial factor that determines life and death.

But that time is often the moment that decides the life and death of two apps of the same type.

Before that, the operation method and promotion are the most important.

The better the promotion, the more users, more drivers, greater fame, and less equity dilution can be obtained with limited funds.

And if the operation is good in the early stage, then even when it is the most desperate to burn money, it will have certain advantages, at least not need to spend more money to attract more users to download their own software.

In addition, Baidu itself has the basic board of Baidu Map. As long as it is not stupid, the advantage should be quite large.