With the popularization of 4G networks, smartphones are being updated faster and faster.

On January 9, 2007, the iPhone's ios system came out, marking the beginning of the smartphone era.

In China, smartphones began to really enter the public eye, and it only took about 6 years. (PS: This refers to 2009 to 2015. There were too few people with smartphones in 2008, so it cannot be considered as entering the public eye.)

But in just 6 years, the Internet field has undergone earth-shaking changes, and countless new Internet companies have emerged, challenging traditional Internet giants and traditional industries.

Food delivery has affected countless people’s eating habits, and online ride-hailing has affected people’s travel habits. After a fierce money-burning battle between these two industries, the final market situation has gradually become clear.

The takeout market is currently dominated by Baidu Takeout and Meituan, with a market share of about 46% and Baidu Takeout 6%.

There are only two companies left in the online ride-hailing market, namely Baidu Taxi, which occupies 40% of the market, and Kuaidi, which occupies 50% of the market. The remaining 10% of the market is occupied by various small taxi-hailing companies that are still struggling.

support.

Kuaidi is a company formed by the merger of Didi supported by Penguin and Kuaidi supported by Alibaba.

Just like Meituan merged with Are You Hungry to compete with Baidu Takeout?

Different from the food delivery industry and the online ride-hailing industry, Target Kuaidi does have a certain advantage, but Baidu has not given up, and the two companies are still providing subsidies.

However, subsidies are subsidies, but everyone knows that it is difficult to defeat the opponent by burning money. The only way is to continue to operate in depth.

The reason why we are still insisting on subsidies now is that we want to capture the 10% of the online ride-hailing market that is occupied by other small companies.

After that 10% of the market is divided, the two companies will then engage in a tug-of-war on improving user experience, reducing user costs, and increasing partners' income.

The food delivery and taxi-hailing markets are dominated by giants. Although investors are unwilling to do so, they can only retreat and look for new projects.

Just in the past few days, some investors have suddenly discovered that in many big cities, a large number of yellow bicycles have appeared, with a cute cartoon image on them, a QR code on the bicycle, and four large characters written next to it: "

Scan the QR code on Star Chat”.

Some people who do not believe in evil have also tried to use other apps to scan the code, but obviously other software cannot scan the code. If they scan, it will only prompt to jump to Star Chat. If there is no Star Chat, it will prompt to download.

After reading the general introduction, users can understand how to use this bicycle.

If you want to use a bicycle, you have to pay a deposit of 99 yuan. After paying the deposit, the bicycle can be unlocked for users to use. It charges one yuan per hour. After use is completed, click Finish on the phone and the bicycle will be locked simultaneously.

In the future, if the user wants to use shared bicycles again, he can open the ofo official account on Star Chat again, and there is also a search for nearby shared bicycles.

Of course, APP is also possible and more convenient. After all, APP’s carrier capability is much stronger than official accounts.

After ofo first received financing from Xingyuan, its first priority was to conquer first-tier cities and municipalities, because at this time in the market, venture capital has begun to pay attention to shared bicycles, and other companies may also rise. If they go too late, they may not be there.

The market is up.

As for ofo's push logic, it uses a big data algorithm to filter out those people who walk a lot every day, and also blocks some people who have been moving in a small area for a day. In this way, the obtained group

, the probability of demand for shared bicycles will be much higher.

Therefore, in a very short period of time, ofo has the trend of being number one in the industry. When the giants do not enter the market in person, it is very difficult for other similar entrepreneurs to surpass those who have already succeeded by relying on financing.

However, the blank market for bicycles is indeed huge, and ofo currently only occupies big cities.

Other brands have chosen to deploy in other quasi-first-tier or second-tier cities.

At this stage, ofo does not have the ability to compete and suppress these new companies.

Other companies that contributed bicycles, under this situation, began to make full efforts to develop their own markets.

If this trend continues, when the markets overlap in the future, a new money-burning war will break out like takeout and online ride-hailing.

If you want to have an advantage in the money-burning war, the most important thing must be strong funds.

In addition, the size of the market captured in the early stage is also important.

Because it occupies more markets, it can share operating costs and can more easily obtain massive investment from venture capital. After all, venture capital generally prefers to invest in leading companies in the industry.

As ofo expands into more than a dozen first- and second-tier cities, it will soon need new financing, because two-thirds of Xingyuan’s previous 15 million yuan has been used.

Bike sharing is an asset-heavy industry with an initial investment no less than that of the food delivery industry. The biggest expense is the purchase of bicycles.

Although David and other ofo executives have also tried leasing ordinary people's bicycles and then sharing them with them to reduce operational pressure.

But society is not a school, so this simply won’t work. In the end, we can only continue to buy customized bicycles.

The financing negotiations this time were also very fast. Ofo’s angel round financier Sequoia Capital, as the major shareholder, has connected several venture capital investors for ofo.

During the negotiation process, although David and other senior executives were not considered strong, they were not unworthy of investors. After some negotiations, ofo once again introduced US$25 million in funds.

In this investment, Xingyuan made another follow-up investment and obtained an additional 8% of shares while maintaining the previous 25% share ratio. Now Xingyuan holds a total of 33% of the shares.

This is actually one of the main reasons why the ofo team suffered tragedies in later generations. When it was unable to carry out AB shareholding, in order to develop rapidly, the investors introduced divided the equity, which ultimately resulted in a total of three parties on the ofo board of directors.

Hold a veto power.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In this case, when the development is going smoothly, the other two companies will not say anything and will basically fully support the initial team. But if a crisis occurs, then this

That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Now Xingyuan has joined the board of directors of ofo and has veto power.

David came to talk to Cao Shuai, hoping that Xingyuan would not use his veto power and always stand with him.

Of course, Cao Shuai would not give up this right foolishly. He did not forget what Luo Fan said.

After Luo Fan learned about Cao Shuai's operation, he didn't say much. Although Luo Fan didn't want to invest in ofo shared bicycles, it would be nice if he could have a veto power.

After Cao Shuai gets the veto power, if ofo develops in the same way as later generations, then this veto power will be a powerful weapon.

And if ofo can have another destiny with the help of Xingyuan, then there will be no harm in having a veto power even if it is not used.

Ofo received funding, but so did its peers.

Over the next month or so, various news about shared bicycles came out.

Worship Shared Bike has received Alibaba’s angel round financing of 50 million Huaxia coins, and Penguin has also begun to contact several small-scale shared bike companies.

In just one month, a new industry has emerged.

But now Luo Fan has no time to care about shared bicycles. It is already September 2015, and the competition for the naming rights of this year's Spring Festival Gala has begun.

Midea has won the naming rights for the previous Spring Festival Galas and looks like it is destined to win this time.

Luo Fan is not panic at all about this. To put it bluntly, the so-called naming rights are all about money.

Luo Fan took Su Qing to the Imperial Capital in person to participate in the public bidding event with Mr. Lei.

As soon as Luo Fan and the others entered the event hall, they saw many representatives from large companies.

"Hey! Are there so many big companies competing for the naming rights of the Spring Festival Gala?" Luo Fan said with some surprise.

"How is that possible! Most of these people are here to join in the fun, or to help support the Spring Festival Gala program, and there are not many who actually bid.

And even if they have to pay, most people focus on product sponsorship rather than naming rights. Your real competitors are only 2 or 3 at most." said Mr. Lei, who has participated several times.

"So that's it."

While Luo Fan and Mr. Lei were chatting, the bidding meeting officially began.

As Mr. Lei said, 90% of the people here are here to join in the fun, and most of the competition is just for product sponsorship. When it comes to the final naming rights, only Youli and Midea are competing.

Last year Midea spent 530 million yuan to sponsor the Spring Festival Gala, and this year Midea's budget should be similar.

Some forces may be higher.

Soon Midea's bid reached last year's 530 million, and Mouli's bid reached 550 million. Midea hesitated and shouted 560 million, and Mouli directly shouted 600 million.

Midea hesitated and chose to give up.

"Mr. Luo, why don't you bid yet?" Mr. Lei asked.

"Su Qing, just shout! Just shout 700 million."

Su Qing nodded, raised the sign and quoted a price of 700 million.

Mouli was shocked. Which company would just add 100 million? This is a bidding meeting for the Spring Festival Gala!

In a sense, this bidding meeting represents GJ's face to some extent, and no company dares to shout at such a meeting.

The representative of a certain force quickly turned his head and glanced at Su Qing, and then he was completely stunned. She didn't recognize this little girl!

"Xingyuan Technology Co., Ltd. bids 700 million, is there anyone else who bids higher?"

After hearing the words of the people on the rostrum, the representative of a certain force realized that it was Xingyuan who shouted out the price.

Faced with this upstart Internet company, Mouli weighed the pros and cons and did not increase the price.

Nowadays, Xingyuan's influence is not only in Internet companies, but also in other industries, which must be taken seriously.

Because Xingyuan has a large amount of publicity resources in its hands, these resources cannot be ignored no matter which industry it is.

In the end, Xingyuan paid 700 million yuan to win the naming rights of the Spring Festival Gala.

Luo Fan and Su Qing were invited to an office to discuss a specific agreement.

The person who came to meet Luo Fan was a Mediterranean man in his 50s.

"Hello, Mr. Luo, I've known you for a long time. My surname is Liu, and I'm the person in charge of the Spring Festival Gala project team."

"Hello, Team Leader Liu!"

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Team Leader Liu asked Luo Fan: "Mr. Luo, is the title of this Spring Festival Gala Co., Ltd. Xingyuan Co., Ltd.? Or is it a project under your company?"
To be continued...