Chapter 252 Baidu taxi

After the two parties reached a preliminary cooperation intention, Luo Fan invited Mr. Xiang to have a meal.

At the dinner table, Luo Fan said that the specific details of the follow-up will be sent to Baidu to negotiate in person.

Mr. Xiang also knew that it was impossible for the two parties to sign a contract directly this time. Nine times out of ten, Xingyuan would set up a company that had nothing to do with Xingyuan on the surface to cooperate with Baidu.

Because the current car-hailing industry is indeed very troublesome, let alone Xingyuan, Baidu Ding is also under great pressure.

Therefore, Xingyuan’s operation items are always very understandable. It is better to say that this is something that everyone tacitly understands.

After drinking and eating, the two sides dispersed.

Rovan sat on his Rolls-Royce and thought about some details of the conversation between the two parties just now.

To be honest, the cost of entry in the online car-hailing industry is actually lower than that of group buying. The only trouble is that it is too close to the zf department, which is a great risk.

Luo Fan remembers that in his previous life, starting from mid-2011, in the imperial capital, the online car-hailing industry was actually born, but at that time there was no concept of online car-hailing.

By 2012, the scale of the online car-hailing industry has expanded a little, but the overall development is still very slow.

In addition to the fact that the capital of all parties does not dare to invest excessively due to the reasons of ZF, when the car-hailing platform is developing, it always conflicts with some local people.

Needless to say, the first batch of people who directly tested the water for civilian cars basically failed after a year. The finances of such companies are either paying the ticket at the traffic control bureau, or on the way to pay the ticket, and each time the fine is very high. Heavy.

Because the domestic commercial control of civilian vehicles is very strict, and insurance is also a problem. If there is no problem, it is good. If there is a car accident, it will be a mess.

And even the “taxi online platform” that seems to be abiding by the rules has been restrained too much when it develops.

The simplest point is to move the cake of the traditional taxi-hailing business, and the beneficiaries of this business generally belong to people with some influence in the local area.

This is a slow game process. Only when the zg department accepts this new business model will the online car-hailing usher in a big explosion.

But now the development is slow, it does not mean that there is no need to develop, in fact, this time is the most important time.

Throughout the year of 2012, many small companies have found the way for Baidu in a sense through constant trial and error.

They cross the river by feeling the stones, and Baidu has been able to cross the river by feeling them.

As one of the three giants, Baidu’s entry is likely to allow the online car-hailing industry to quickly accept funds as it develops and move toward a path of rapid expansion.

However, there are actually some drawbacks to Baidu’s entry now. Baidu’s reputation is too great. Once it enters the field of online car-hailing, it will immediately put the entire industry in front of capital.

In addition, Penguin had a similar idea last year, and now Baidu will definitely attract the attention of all capitals when it enters the market.

Maybe some capital will enter the online car-hailing field earlier than the previous life, which will cause too much butterfly effect.

Luo Fan feels that the best way is to support a team, let it develop slowly without the attention of all parties, form a certain scale, and form a team with practical experience. Introduce strong capital to develop.

But the advantages of Baidu Maps can’t be brought into play.

All in all, you can’t have both.

On the other hand, Mr. Xiang also contacted Mr. Li and told him the conversation with Luo Fan just now.

After listening, Mr. Li said with a smile: “At present, Luo Fan’s reaction is still within our expectations.”

“There should be no problem with Xingyuan’s online promotion.”

“In the early stage, Xingyuan will not help us with publicity. The risks in this business are so great, and Xingyuan will not make jokes about its corporate image, so we still have to make some things ourselves in the early stage.” Mr. Li said.

“When will our Baidu taxi, Mr. Li, start business?”

“Next month! I’ve already rented an office building near the Capital Airport, so it’s easier for you to start work.”

“Then how much money do we need to invest in the initial push?”

“I will give you 20 million yuan first. This money is mainly used to explore the business model of online car-hailing. You don’t need to think about profitability, but don’t spend too much money to grab the market. Just explore the operation of online car-hailing first. model.

I will give you a time, one month later, look at your market research report, and then decide our next move. ”

“Mr. Li is relieved, I understand.” As Baidu’s second-in-command, Mr. Xiang knows Mr. Li very well.

Mr. Li’s remarks are actually emphasizing the issue of balance.

At this stage, if Baidu Taxi directly expands and expands on a large scale, it will definitely face all kinds of acute problems, and these problems cannot be solved with money.

It takes time to clear up the relationship slowly. Mr. Li said that it will start next month, and then gave a month of research time.

That is to say, Li is always sure to clear up some relationships in these 40-odd days.

Thinking of this, Mr. Xiang said, “Mr. Li, have you seen the local push companies I selected before?”

“I’ve seen it. The companies you recommended are all good. I asked them to feel their bottom line, and finally decided to cooperate with Haiyan Company.”

“I am also more inclined towards Haiyan. They have helped Meituan make offline maps before, and they are very experienced in this area.”

“Well, the next person is the person in charge of operations and decision-making. Before this person is selected, you should pay more attention to the old project. I don’t worry about other people.”

“Okay! Then leave it to me! I will personally go into battle in the initial stage. No matter what you do in the future, I will find a way to understand the market first.”

“Then leave it to you.” Mr. Li said with a smile.

Back at the company, Luo Fan called Cao Shuai.

Luo Fan told Cao Shuai about Baidu’s taxi, and Cao Shuai immediately understood what Luo Fan meant after listening to it: “Boss, do you want me to start a company and negotiate with Baidu?”

“That’s right, it’s not very easy for our company to directly intervene in the car-hailing industry right now. This is the safest way.”

“Boss, I always feel that this online car-hailing is not very reliable. Last year, Uber made a big deal in France. I don’t know what the online car-hailing in our country will look like. Will it be too risky for Baidu to enter the market at this time? already?”

The big event Cao Shuai mentioned is related to Uber’s own development trajectory.

After Uber was established in the United States in 2009, it was also miserable, because the laws of many states in the United States were different, and just facing these legal issues made Uber’s founding team exhausted.

After hitting a lot of nails, the Uber team decided to change their minds.

They gave up the rest of the U.S. states that they had not yet won, and instead chose to conquer parts of Europe that were receptive to new things first.

When it comes to accepting new things, France is definitely one of them.

France was also among the first countries the Uber team chose to enter.

At first, Uber developed very smoothly, users felt it was very convenient, and private car owners could also earn some pocket money, but the result was that the taxi community suffered heavy losses. Therefore, a taxi driver strike almost paralyzed the traffic in Paris. In addition, conflicts broke out between taxi drivers and online car-hailing drivers.

The impact of this incident is too great.

The traffic paralysis in a city directly makes the global capital not optimistic about the online car-hailing market. Obviously, Cao Shuai also thinks that the online car-hailing has no future because of this incident.

Hearing this, Luo Fan shook his head and said, “Brother, you think too much, but I don’t think you need to worry too much.

Uber will roll over because their ambitions are too big, and they want to go to Europe before the United States has developed well.

In the final analysis, they are actually worried that there will also be local car-hailing companies in Europe, limiting their market.

Too big a step is easy to pull eggs, Uber doesn’t understand, but we or Baidu must understand, after all, Baidu just fell a big somersault on group buying.

And aside from the fact that the ambition is too big, the environment here is much better on our side.

Of course, there will definitely be a lot of trouble in the early stage of the promotion of online car-hailing, but as long as it is solved gradually, the method can be replicated in other cities across the country.

Because our country’s laws, language and way of dealing with people are basically the same, unlike the United States and Europe. ”

“Then see if Baidu can grow up.” Cao Shuai said.

“It doesn’t really matter if Baidu Taxi does it or not. The key is Baidu Takeout. In my opinion, Baidu Taxi is actually an accumulation of experience or an attempt. Nine times out of ten, Baidu also thinks the same way. , it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work.”

Luo Fan actually didn’t know much about taxi software. At most, he knew that the market would explode a year or two in advance.

He couldn’t provide any creative help to Baidu, and Baidu hadn’t been involved in the taxi-hailing industry at all in his previous life. There were too many factors to change in this life, and Luo Fan was even more afraid to speak.

In comparison, Luo Fan is most familiar with shared bicycles, because his 99 deposit has not been returned before his rebirth.

For the 99 yuan, Luo Fan has continued to pay attention to the development of shared bicycles for many years.

It can be said that apart from the Internet, the industry that Luo Fan is most familiar with is sharing bicycles.

Luo Fan has already thought about it. Next year, Xingyuan will start to deploy on shared bicycles. This time, he will first invest in the small yellow car, and then withdraw when the bubble expands to the maximum, sell the shares to make a big profit, and then set up his own Shared bike team.

Of course, this is all next year, and now the focus is still on Baidu taxis.

If Baidu Taxi can make certain achievements, Xingyuan will fully support its development. If not, Xingyuan will not foolishly throw money into it.

To put it bluntly, Baidu Taxi is a double insurance set by Baidu for itself. Using Baidu’s funds and Baidu Maps to try to find Baidu Taxi, everyone is happy.

At that time, there is the failed experience of Baidu taxi-hailing.

And Xingyuan’s role in it is to publicize and get money.

Because Xingyuan’s purpose is to cultivate its own payment user habits.

It is impossible not to burn money and time, and now there is still Baidu to accompany it to burn money, and pay for Xingyuan to attract people, why not do it?

Cao Shuai looked at Luo Fan’s expression and said, “Boss, are you looking forward to a money-burning war in the car-hailing industry like group buying?”

“Of course, how can we make our payment without burning money? And this time burning money is not without benefits. If Baidu Taxi can do it, we will occupy 40% of the shares, even if it is time to cash out and get out, it will not be Losing money.” Luo Fan said with a smile.

“I thought boss, you followed Baidu to take a taxi to expand our ecological chain!”

“There is part of the reason for this! Car-hailing is indeed the most important link in the mobile Internet payment ecological chain, and it complements the take-out platform that Baidu will do later.

Because the use frequency of online car-hailing may not be as high as that of take-out, but the coverage is the widest. Many people will refuse to use take-out for various reasons. all need.

Establishing its own ecological chain is the most important layout of Xingyuan at present.

But now Xingyuan, like penguins, cannot form its own ecological chain by investing in major platforms.

Therefore, we can only find another way, and cooperate with Baidu for taxi and takeaway, which is the best choice. ”

“Yeah! Penguins are much bigger than us. They can monopolize the traffic of the mobile Internet. With their own funds and resources, they can easily control these subsidiaries. It’s a fact that we can’t do it.” Cao Shuai exclaimed.

“Funds + resources are actually good. If Penguin withdraws its capital from a hot company, other capital will come in. The key is that Penguin monopolizes traffic. This is the foundation of everything. In the mobile Internet era, traffic is king.”

From this point, in 2014, when Meituan turned to Penguin for traffic, Ali could only be furious, but there was nothing he could do.

After listening to Luo Fan’s words, Cao Shuai nodded and said, “Yeah! Traffic is king, but then again, is the boss Baidu really reliable? Their taxi-hailing software and food delivery have failed, so how can our ecological chain be? Isn’t there two missing links? Payment promotion will also be hindered.”

“Brother, you underestimate Baidu. Although they have suffered setbacks one after another due to the transformation of the mobile Internet, Baidu’s management is not a fool and has its own risk assessment ability.

Coupled with the publicity channels we have in our hands, our cooperation with Baidu is definitely 1+1>2. I don’t know if Baidu taxis can be successful, but takeaways can definitely be done. The water is empty. ”

Seeing that Luo Fan was so confident, Cao Shuai didn’t say much.

The key decisions that Luo Fan has made over the years have not been missed. Without Luo Fan Xingyuan, it is impossible to have today. Therefore, the company’s executives all trust Luo Fan very much.

Especially when it comes to such a major decision, even if everyone has other ideas in their hearts, they will eventually choose to listen to Luo Fan’s opinions.