Hangzhou, Alibaba headquarters, Mr. Ma, who had just finished a work meeting, received a report from his secretary as soon as he returned to the office: "Mr. Ma, Cao Shuai from Xingyuan just called you."

"Shuai Cao from Xingyuan? Why is he looking for me?"

"He said he wanted to talk to you about ofo's shared bicycles."

"Bike sharing? Does Xingyuan want to stop me from buying shares of ofo? Interesting, please take his phone call!"

"Okay Mr. Ma."

After a while, Cao Shuai's voice rang from the phone on Mr. Ma's desk.

"Mr. Cao, I've known you for a long time. This should be our first phone call, right?" Mr. Ma asked first.

"Yes! I have wanted to learn from you for a long time, but unfortunately I never had the chance."

"You shouldn't take your studies seriously. You young people are getting better and better."

...

After the two were polite, Mr. Ma brought the topic back: "Mr. Cao, you came to me just to chat, right?"

"Of course not."

"Then let's stop talking in circles and say what we have to say!"

"Okay, then I won't hide it. Mr. Ma, your company wants to invest in ofo, right?" Cao Shuai asked.

"That's right, if Mr. Cao wants to stop me, then don't open your mouth."

"No, no, no, Mr. Ma, you have misunderstood. We at Xingyuan do not intend to have any dispute with you on this matter. On the contrary, we are willing to withdraw from ofo."

"Quit ofo? What do you mean?" Mr. Ma asked, stunned.

"Literally, we can sell our shares to Alibaba, and we can even immediately cancel the StarChat scan code on Ofo to make way for your company's Alipay."

Mr. Ma was silent after hearing this. He never expected that Cao Shuai came to him to talk about this.

Is Xingyuan going to give up on shared bikes?

From Mr. Ma’s perspective, it is natural to see that the bike sharing industry has various flaws, but at this stage these flaws are not a problem and the bike sharing market is still very stable.

Not to mention that ofo currently has 100 million users. It is impossible for Xingyuan not to know how much convenience these 100 million users can bring to the promotion of payment.

Mr. Ma has been in the shopping mall for many years, and he knows very well that there is no free lunch in the world. Even if Xingyuan wants to quit the shared bicycle, he will not be so free.

Thinking of this, Mr. Ma said: "Tell me your conditions!"

"Mr. Ma is quick to speak quickly, so let me tell you straight. We have two conditions. First, you will share all the animation copyrights of Ku with Xiaopo Station, and then both of us must sign a contract and not block each other's links."

Cao Shuai's first step was directly ignored by Mr. Ma. He didn't care about animation copyrights at all.

The key is the second condition. In Mr. Ma’s opinion, Cao Shuai proposed this condition to take the opportunity to win over Alipay users.

And the method of wooing is most likely the old method of getting rid of Penguin - Shuidichi.

Mr. Ma really doesn’t have a good solution to this move, but Mr. Ma doesn’t want to give up ofo’s 100 million users.

Besides, since links are not blocked from each other, Taobao product links can also appear directly on Star Chat in the future. Even if some Alipay users are attracted to them, Alibaba will not lose money.

Thinking of this, Mr. Ma decided to agree to Cao Shuai's request.

"Mr. Cao, I agree to your conditions, but I also have a condition." Mr. Ma said.

"What are the conditions? Mr. Ma, tell me."

"You must ensure that we fully withdraw from ofo within one week of the completion of our share transaction."

After calculating the workload, Cao Shuai said: "Mr. Ma, will this week be a bit tight?"

"Then how long do you say?"

"One month."

"I don't believe Xingyuan's work efficiency is so low, 10 days at most."

"Ten days is too little, let's go twenty days!"

"Half a month, this is my bottom line."

Cao Shuai agreed after thinking for a moment.

Cao Shuai hung up the phone with a smile on his face. Mr. Ma agreed to these two conditions, and the sale of Ofo would not be a loss at all.

In the future, when Pinduoduo's scale increases, Xingyuan will definitely attract traffic on a large scale. Is there any other way to attract traffic that is more direct than attracting traffic from Taobao?

As long as both parties sign a contract that does not block each other's links, Pinduoduo can directly divert traffic from Taobao, which is very beneficial to Pinduoduo's development.

The next day, Alibaba’s CEO led the legal team to Xingyuan headquarters.

The two parties formally signed the contract after two full days of negotiation.

The content of the contract is very simple. First Xingyuan sells all shares of ofo shared bicycles to Alibaba for 9.032 billion yuan.

Second Star will completely withdraw from ofo within half a month, including but not limited to the management and the Star Chat code scanning on ofo's shared bicycles.

The third parties will not block each other's links from the day the contract is signed.

Fourth, all animation video resources of Youku, a subsidiary of Alibaba, must be shared with small websites.

After the contract was signed, both Xingyuan and Ali were very satisfied, and Luo Fan even treated Ali's CEO to a meal.

When bidding farewell to Ariceo, Luo Fan whispered to him: "Help me tell you, Mr. Ma, that David is not easy to deal with. He is very ambitious and I'm afraid he won't be obedient."

After Ali's CEO returned to the headquarters, he told Mr. Ma what Luo Fan said.

After hearing this, Mr. Ma shook his head: "You are young after all! No matter how big your business is, the lack of experience cannot be made up for in a short time.

Luo Fan only saw David leading Ali to fight against Xingyuan, but he did not see that David wanted to deal with one capital, and he could only rely on another capital."

"Mr. Ma, you are right. I also feel that Xingyuan is a bit too conservative."

"Okay! This matter is over. In the days to come, keep an eye on the news from Xingyuan. I always feel that they will not give up on the bicycle sharing industry.

I think they are most likely to withdraw from ofo now because they want to develop their own shared bicycles."

...

His eyes returned to Luo Fan. After seeing off Ali's people, Luo Fan called Cao Shuai to his office.

"Brother did a good job this time. I tricked Mr. Ma by inviting you to the urn. I'm very satisfied." Luo Fan said.

"I actually didn't do anything. In the final analysis, it is still the shared bicycle industry, which has been cultivated by capital. Although its commercial attributes make users not very sticky, it is not easy for latecomers to replace them. In addition, ofo's proportion in payment

Also very big.

That’s why Alibaba bought our shares so easily,” said Cao Shuai.

"Now that the shares of shared bicycles are in the hands of Alibaba, we should take action. Brother, please help me contact Mr. Li and ask us to pay for a wave of subsidies for Baidu Taxi."

"Give Baidu a taxi subsidy? Boss, do you want to crack down on Ofo across banks?"

"Yes, removing the ofo link on Star Chat can suppress opponents to a certain extent.

But now that Alibaba is also a major shareholder of ofo, they will definitely support ofo more vigorously. This will have a certain impact, but the effect will not be decisive."

"So boss, if you want Baidu Taxi to give users discounts, you can further reduce the number of shared bike users, right?"

Luo Fan nodded in agreement with Cao Shuai's statement.

"Is the cost too high for the boss to do this? Moreover, in the past year, the online car-hailing market has basically calmed down. If we first provoke subsidies, I am afraid it will also cause a series of money burns."

By 2016, both the food delivery market and the online ride-hailing market had almost reached a balance when multiple parties jointly burned money and did not give in. The food delivery market is now evenly divided between Meituan and Baidu Waimai.

In the online ride-hailing market, Baidu Taxi and Kuaidi compete, with a market share of about 4.5 to 5.5.

If Baidu Taxi now subsidizes it again, it may touch everyone's nerves.

"It doesn't matter. The subsidies haven't stopped anyway. It's just that everyone is subsidizing less. If we suddenly attack, maybe we can increase Baidu's taxi-hailing market share."

It would also be a good thing for us if other taxi-hailing platforms follow suit with subsidies."

Cao Shuai was stunned when he heard this, and then smiled and said: "If they follow suit, it will indeed be a good thing to suppress ofo against us."

“Also, since our purpose is to target the shared bicycle industry.

The subsidies will be concentrated on short distances, especially in urban areas, and the frequency will be set once a day first, and we will see the actual situation in the future.

But now we are just making preparations, and we still have to wait for the handover from Ali to be completed before taking action."

Cao Shuai nodded and said, "Don't worry, boss, I know what to do."

At the same time, at the ofo headquarters, David looked at the notice from the Xingyuan headquarters in front of him, with an uncertain expression.

Afterwards, Mr. Dai handed the document to the people below and said: "I didn't expect that Xingyuan would sell our stocks at this time. Do they not want to share the bicycle market anymore?"

Logically speaking, there is no need for a major shareholder to notify the board of directors when transferring equity.

However, because it involved the transfer of veto power and voting rights, Xingyuan informed Ofo out of courtesy.

Of course, Xingyuan is not doing good deeds. They also spread the announcement that Xingyuan may adjust its bike-sharing strategy.

However, because the current shared bicycle market is still a blue ocean, there are still many people interested in it.

Therefore, Xingyuan's equity transfer will not have any economic impact on ofo itself.
To be continued...