Luo Fan didn't know about Penguin's plan to use the traffic from the taxi-hailing industry to fight back against StarChat, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care.

Because from the beginning to the end, Xingyuan never thought about doing anything with taxi-hailing software, nor did he ever think about getting involved in this industry.

In fact, Cao Shuai had the idea of ​​investing in taxi-hailing software some time ago, but Luo Fan rejected it. Luo Fan felt that making taxi-hailing software was purely thankless and the initial investment was too high. Even if the taxi-hailing platform was unified later, he would not be able to contribute to the company.

Ecological construction provides much help.

Compared with taxi-hailing, Luo Fan is more optimistic about shared bicycles. This last mile is much more practical than taxi-hailing apps.

Moreover, Xingyuan has no time to study taxi-hailing software during this period, because recently Xingyuan is preparing to raise funds for a small broken station.

The current development bottleneck of Xiaopozhan is, to put it bluntly, lack of money.

Luo Fan also thought about directly using the money from the head office to help Xiaopo Station tide over the difficulties, but then he changed his mind. Xingyuan held 80% of the shares of Xiaopo Station. Even after a round of financing, others would also take

Less than one veto vote.

The future of the video website industry is too uncertain, and small websites are still quite niche, so Luo Fan thought it would be better to sell some shares of small websites to share the risks.

Luo Fan then held a meeting to communicate the matter with Xingyuan's senior executives.

Xingyuan's senior executives are very clear about the company's development ideas. Xingyuan's core industries, games, news, and short videos will not be used for financing. Others will not be easily monetized.

Small broken sites are the kind that are difficult to cash out, so everyone has already been prepared for Luo Fan’s financing of small broken sites.

Seeing that no one objected, Luo Fan decided on the matter.

After the meeting, Cao Shuai released the news that Xiaopo Station was going to receive financing, and he was preparing to start contacting venture capital investors.

The news that Xingyuan was going to raise funds for Xiao Po Station quickly spread throughout the industry.

Many people are discussing what Xingyuan wants to do by doing this.

In the view of most capital, Xiaopozhan is backed by Xingyuan, and Xingyuan does not need to finance Xiaopozhan with the funds on hand.

At the same time, Alibaba headquarters, Mr. Ma also received the news.

"Xiao Wang! What do you think of this matter?" Mr. Ma asked.

"I think Xingyuan is not confident in the development of Xiaopo Station and wants to find someone to share the risk." Xiao Wang replied after thinking for a moment.

"I don't think it's that simple. Previously, Xingyuan rejected our financing of StarChat, and also refused to connect our Alipay to Xingyuan's payment system. Combined with the recent mobile payment function launched by StarChat, this shows that they want to be their own

mobile payment.

Our mobile payment is centered around Alibaba’s ecosystem. StarChat’s mobile payment is obviously centered around their own ecosystem. This small website is also a part of the StarChat ecosystem. I don’t think they will destroy their own ecosystem.

Circle." Mr. Ma said.

"Then what do you think Xingchao wants to do by financing Xiaopozhan?"

“To be honest, I don’t care what StarChat wants to do, I just don’t want to see StarChat’s ecosystem expand further.

Ten years ago, we just wanted to do b2b. Now ten years have passed. With the expansion of scale, the birth of Taobao, the birth of Alipay, and the birth of Tmall, our ecosystem has been gradually improved.

It took us ten years to complete these layouts, and Xingyuan's current ecosystem has begun to take shape.

Today, they now control multiple entrances to mobile Internet traffic.

And like penguins, they urgently need a payment channel of their own to satisfy the cycle of their own ecosystem.

I think their financing of small broken sites is also expanding their own ecosystem, and even preparing for the cycle of the ecosystem."

After listening to Mr. Ma's words, Xiao Wang nodded and said: "Mr. Ma is wise, I didn't expect what you said at all. But Mr. Ma, I think the company is getting bigger and will definitely expand in all directions. A small station is just a star."

This aspect is far from insignificant. I still feel that Xingyuan internally just wants to find someone to share the risk. After all, Xiaopo Station is too niche."

After hearing this, Mr. Ma thought for a while and said: "Your opinion is not impossible. I am going to Shanghai in two days, so you can verify it."

Xiao Wang was stunned when he heard this and then asked in surprise: "Mr. Ma, do you want to go to Xingyuan in person?"

"Just passing by."

...

Two days later, when Cao Shuai was preparing to receive venture capital investors who were interested in Xiaopo Station, he suddenly received a phone call. The other person on the phone said that he was a staff member of Alibaba. He politely asked Mr. Luo if he was free, and said that they would be there soon.

I always want to see Mr. Luo.

Upon hearing this, Marshal Cao immediately went to ask Luo Fan for instructions. Luo Fan hesitated for a while and decided to go see the famous Mr. Ma.

That night, at a well-known private chef in Shanghai, Luo Fan met Mr. Ma, who said, "I'm not interested in money."

"Mr. Ma, I have long admired your name."

As the only entrepreneur in the history of the Internet who did not understand IT, he was able to build Alibaba into the top ten in the world. Luo Fan also admired and was curious about this person.

"Mr. Luo, I have been looking forward to this meeting for a long time! It's a pity that you never had time to go to Hangzhou, otherwise we would have met long ago." Mr. Ma said with a smile.

"I've been quite busy lately, Mr. Ma. You also know the recent situation in our company, and I can't get away!" Luo Fan said as he sat down.

Luo Fan didn't seem too restrained when facing Mr. Ma.

Alibaba's strength in the Internet industry is indeed very strong, but the fields involved do not have much overlap with Xingyuan's.

There are no projects for cooperation between the two parties, and the competition is not obvious. Xingyuan does make mobile payments, but it is currently limited to Xingyuan's ecosystem and will not affect Alibaba at all.

For Xingyuan and Ali, there is little cooperation, little confrontation, and the relationship is considered lukewarm. As the saying goes, no desire is strong, so Luo Fan naturally doesn't care whether he asks Mr. Ma to meet or not, and he won't show a low profile.

Mr. Ma also knew this, so he said directly to Luo Fan without beating around the bush: "Mr. Luo, your company's Star Chat has been developing very well recently!

As soon as Happy Farm came out, it is now almost on par with Penguin's wx, and even Star Chat seems to be a little higher in terms of daily activity.

But Mr. Luo, I don’t think Penguin will let Star Chat develop like this, and I think they will take countermeasures soon.”

"Thank you, Mr. Ma, for your concern. I think Penguin can beat the Immortal Star." Luo Fan said with a smile.

“I know this, but it’s probably not easy for Xingchao to defeat wx, right?

At present, Star Chat and wx have been in a stalemate stage. If there are no absolute new ideas to break this deadlock, if this continues, I think Penguin's advantage should be greater, Mr. Luo, are you right?"

"Indeed." Luo Fan did not deny it.

Star Chat can stabilize Star Chat's market share and even gradually absorb users by relying on strangers to socialize. However, Penguin's advantage is its 600 million QQ users. After using smartphones, 99% of these people will use QQ again.

As long as you use QQ, you have the opportunity to transfer to wx.

In comparison, Star Chat’s biggest means of attracting users is that college students have no choice but to use Star Chat after they join the workforce.

Other than that, there are games and daily headlines, but those who like to play games may not necessarily download Star Chat.

As for daily headlines, the conversion rate is even lower, and many people don’t like to read news at all.

Luo Fan also knows this very well, so Luo Fan is eager to develop connotation jokes and invest a lot of money in promoting the hospital to build momentum for Happy Xiaoxiaole.

"Mr. Luo, Penguin is our common enemy. Your Star Chat is the only product that can currently threaten its core business. But it is difficult for you alone to have a chance to win. You need to gather all your strength to win."

It’s possible.”

"Does Mr. Ma mean to join forces with me?"

"Yeah." Mr. Ma nodded and admitted.

"There is no free lunch in the world, what are Mr. Ma's conditions?" Luo Fan asked rhetorically.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Ma said with a serious face: "I hope that Xingyuan's mobile payment will only include Alipay."

"Mr. Ma, we at Xingyuan have our own payment software." Luo Fan replied expressionlessly.

"I know, this is just a choice. It depends on whether Luo always wants to be social or make payments. You can only choose one of the two.

If you don’t pay, I will do my best to help you start StarChat, and then we will deal with the penguins.”

"What if I refuse?" Luo Fan asked.

"Mr. Luo, as far as I know, Penguin has started to get involved in the taxi market. This is their first step, and there will be more actions in the future. Maybe they will also build a Happy Farm.

When the time comes, Xingyuan and Penguin will break out into a money-burning war similar to the group buying market. Is Mr. Luo really ready?"

"It seems that Ma is always sure of me! Then what cooperation agreement have you prepared?" Luo Fan asked.

“Alibaba will compensate Xingyuan for its losses in the mobile payment field with double Xingyuan’s current investment.

At the same time, I will acquire shares of Xiaopo Station to help Xingyuan build an ecosystem in the video field, but Xingyuan will also have to pay some shares of Xingyuan accordingly.

After listening to Mr. Ma's words, Luo Fan smiled. The conversation between the two seemed to be equal, but in fact Mr. Ma always had a sense of superiority, and the last condition made him think of him as a fool.

"Mr. Ma's conditions are quite good, but we already have a partner in Xingyuan, so I'm sorry that Mr. Ma's trip was in vain." Luo Fan directly chose to refuse.

After hearing this, the smile on Mr. Ma's face faded a little. He looked at Luo Fan and said: "Xingyuan's current ecology does not have anything to do with Alibaba, but Mr. Luo can guarantee that there will not be any areas where we need to cooperate in the future.

?”

"Mr. Ma, you should think about this for yourself, right?" After saying this, Luo Fan turned and left.

Early the next morning, after Luo Fan arrived at the company, he called in Xingyuan's senior management and held an impromptu meeting. The content of the meeting was the content of the conversation he had with Mr. Ma yesterday.

After everyone listened to Luo Fan's narration, Cao Shuai was the first to speak: "Mr. Luo, I think Mr. Ma's main purpose yesterday was to test our company's attitude towards making payments by itself.

If we are resolute, they will regard us as potential enemies. If we agree to Mr. Ma's request, I am afraid that subsequent star chats may not be under our control."

"I thought so too, so I rejected him directly." Luo Fan said.

"Boss, you are right. We must not give up our own payment software, otherwise, all the core data will be in the hands of Ali." Xu Jiale said.
To be continued...