Contrary to the lively ceremony of other companies beating drums, Didi's listing was particularly low-key, so that after Didi submitted its prospectus, it was learned that the company was about to go public through a joint letter from CEO Cheng Wei and President Liu Qing.
However, just two days later, an announcement by the National Network Information Office brought Didi back to reality from the dream created by capital.
On July 2, 20021year, the Network Security Review Office of the National Network Information Office issued an announcement:
It never rains but it pours. On July 4, the National Network Information Office issued the Notice on Removing the Didi Travel APP:
There is no doubt that Didi Travel Empire is experiencing the biggest Waterloo since its establishment.
According to the listing prospectus of Didi, from March 2020 to March 20021year, there were 377 million active users and active drivers130,000; The average daily transaction volume reached 465.438+0 million, the whole platform transaction volume was 346.5438+0 billion yuan, and the annual business income of Didi in China was 65.438+0.336 billion yuan.
As a unicorn in the domestic online car market, Didi has successively acquired Kuai and Uber China, almost monopolizing the domestic online car market. Behind today's scenery is Cheng Weichang, the founder who has been dormant for 7 years.
Hello and welcome to Shang Tang. Today we will review the story of Didi's formation.
In 2000, Cheng Wei, who has been doing very well, was only admitted to Beihua because he failed in the three major math questions in the college entrance examination.
Cheng Wei intended to choose information technology as his major, but he was transferred to the administrative management major because of insufficient marks. Many years later, Cheng Wei quipped: I have never understood why the University of Chemical Technology should set up an administrative management major.
When he graduated from college, Cheng Wei was cheated by an aunt to sell insurance. Cheng Weipin, who has no social experience, was rejected. In desperation, Cheng Wei found his teacher, hoping that the teacher could help him and buy an insurance from him.
Disembarking, the teacher said coldly, even our dog was insured. A series of setbacks made Cheng Wei begin to reflect that he might not be suitable for the insurance industry.
Later, Cheng Wei felt that he should do something similar to his major. After sending resumes everywhere, Cheng Wei was finally selected by a large medical group in Shanghai as the assistant to the general manager.
After receiving the employment notice, Cheng said goodbye to his classmates happily and went south alone. When he arrived in Shanghai, Cheng discovered that this so-called large medical group was actually a pedicure shop.
A year later, Cheng Wei of the pedicure shop was tired of simple work day after day. Like many young people, the future is full of unknowns and confusions, so he decided to leave.
After leaving the pedicure shop, Cheng Wei did seven or eight different jobs. These jobs didn't help the young man out of the predicament, but they made him understand the charm of the Internet. Cheng Wei is clearly aware that the Internet will be the future trend.
On reflection, Cheng Wei went to Alibaba Shanghai Branch with his resume. He chose the most efficient way to find a job: directly to the front desk of Alibaba. Fortunately, Cheng Wei is lucky. Successfully entered the B2B business of Alibaba through the interview, and worked as a basic salesman with a basic salary of 1500 yuan.
At that time, Alibaba had more than 9,000 salespeople in the country, and Cheng Wei's sales team had only four people, but it took Cheng Wei only one year to make the team's sales performance the third in the country.
Cheng Wei worked in Ali for six years. 20 12, Cheng Wei, who has been the vice president of Alipay B2C business, decided to resign and start a business.
After investigating six projects back and forth, Cheng Wei finally chose the tourism field.
On the second day of his resignation, Cheng Wei registered with Xiao Ju Science and Technology and rented a very cheap warehouse as an office for starting a business.
Together with Cheng Wei, his leader Wang Gang took out 700,000 yuan, and Cheng Wei took out 65,438+million yuan, which is the angel wheel of Didi.
After the establishment of the company, Cheng Wei immediately faced three major problems: developing software, recruiting drivers and developing users.
Cheng Wei is a salesman, so it is definitely unrealistic to form a team to develop software by himself. Therefore, after wandering around the Internet for a few days, Cheng Wei found an outsourcing company. Later, he learned that the so-called software development team was just a teacher with a group of technical secondary school students. Fortunately, software patching is almost unavailable.
When recruiting drivers, Cheng Wei's team encountered real difficulties. In order to develop drivers, they directly look for taxi companies and car rental companies, but neither the company nor the drivers are willing to join.
On the one hand, there were more people and fewer cars in Beijing at that time, and taxi drivers were not worried about customers at all; On the other hand, companies and drivers have to look at the red-headed documents of the traffic control department, fearing that they will violate the rules because of this small increment; Moreover, smartphones were not popular among drivers at that time.
Cheng Wei's team was turned away when recruiting drivers. On the other hand, in order to stabilize the existing drivers, Cheng Wei specially hired a driver to take a taxi and gave it to 400 yuan every day. This practice did make the driver temporarily stay in Didi, but it also quickly increased the cost. Cheng Wei and Wang Gang's 800,000 yuan soon bottomed out.
In fact, before Cheng Wei founded Xiao Ju Science and Technology, there were already online car companies in the market, and these competitors developed better than Didi at that time.
Easy-to-use car: After only three months' establishment, it obtained an investment of $6,543.8+0,000, and a financing of $/kloc-0,000,000 one year later; Shake the car: under the endorsement of Google CTO, it also received an investment of 3.5 million US dollars; Didi's later opponents were also established two months earlier than Didi.
As Didi struggled, Allen Zhu brought $3 million in Series A investment for Didi. Didi finally has the money to continue to explore the market, but $3 million is really a drop in the bucket for the taxi industry.
While investing in Didi La everywhere, Cheng Wei and Wang Gang confronted some users' rocking cars in Beijing.
At that time, Yao Yao spent money on advertising on the radio. Cheng Wei immediately added a Didi advertisement after Yao Yao's advertisement: immediately send a text message to * * * * to download Didi taxi. Drivers simply don't know the difference between shaking and dripping, thinking that they can download it in another way. More than 1000 drivers downloaded Didi that day.
At that time, in order to prevent the black car from being mixed into the network car camp with the help of the network car software, the traffic commission asked the taxi software to carefully verify the driver's identity. On most platforms, drivers need to register with the original ID card and service supervision card. Didi only needs the driver to enter his real name, taxi company, service supervision card number and license plate number to pass the verification, which greatly reduces the threshold for driver registration.
In addition, the traffic commission has repeatedly asked taxi software not to increase the fare increase function, but drivers are actually happy to run around for a while to get higher income. Didi secretly uses the fare increase function to improve the success rate of taxis.
In fact, there were not many orders for Didi at that time. In order to stabilize the driver, Didi quietly adjusted the order taking system, creating the illusion that the driver can't grab the order slowly, rather than the fact that the amount of Didi is too small.
Through various normal and abnormal means, Didi has gradually eroded the market share of Yaoyaozhao in Beijing.
The complete failure of the lottery is actually due to the entry of a large amount of capital.
March 20 13, Alibaba took the lead in investing in fast taxis, and its main battlefield was located in Hangzhou. After seeing Ali's action, Tencent realized the importance of taking a taxi.
Tencent's investment team immediately found Yaoyaozhaoche, which still occupies the first market share in Beijing, but Wei Wang, then CEO of Yaoyaozhaoche, decisively rejected Tencent's investment on the grounds that the company wanted to develop independently. Wei Wang may not know that the entry of Ali Tencent means that the taxi travel industry has evolved into a capital game, and his arrogance and determination have directly contributed to the defeat of shaking the car.
After being shaken, Tencent turned to visit Didi. Later, we learned that Cheng Wei got the series B financing of15 million USD led by Tencent.
Born in Ali, Cheng Wei and Wang Gang actually introduced Tencent's investment instead of Ali, which no one expected.
Ali, known as China Internet Whampoa Military Academy, likes to invest in employees who leave their jobs and start businesses. When Tencent Investment Department found Cheng Wei and Wang Gang, Allen Zhu greeted them in advance: they should refuse Tencent's investment.
After talking with Cheng Wei and Wang Gang for several hours, Tencent Investment Department realized that Cheng Wei and Wang Gang were very afraid of Ali, but Ali invested in Didi's competitors. Although they were born in Ali, they have long been dissatisfied with Ali.
Two weeks later, Ma took advantage of the opportunity to attend the two sessions in Beijing. I was very upset before I saw the horse. He thought that the horse club would swear and threaten: if Didi didn't accept Tencent's investment, it would change to another home.
Disembarking, as soon as the horse saw it, he lowered his posture and communicated. He also mentioned that even if the Didi project fails, Tencent will buy shares of Cheng Wei and Wang Gang at the lowest price.
Even in the face of unusually generous conditions, Cheng Wei and Wang Gang did not dare to agree immediately. Ali's meaning here is very clear: even if I don't vote for you, as long as you dare to take Tencent's money, you two will no longer be Ali's people.
But Ali has invested quickly. How can Tencent stand by in the field of travel? If Didi does not accept Tencent's investment, Tencent is bound to switch to other competitors. At that time, all the efforts made by Didi will be wasted. Finally, after careful consideration, Cheng Wei and Wang Gang stamped their feet and took Tencent's money.
After the problem of money was solved, Didi began to continue to expand the market. On the second day after receiving the B round of financing led by Tencent, Cheng Wei led the team to Shanghai.
In order to compete with fast, seizing the Shanghai market has become a battleground for Didi. Didi quickly tied the fast order transaction volume in Shanghai, and Cheng Wei wanted to take the opportunity to enter the Hangzhou market. But at this time, Shanghai was quietly occupied by another company called Bumblebee Taxi.
By the time Didi and Kuai came back, more than 20% of Shanghai's market share had fallen into the hands of Bumblebee.
The founder of Bumblebee taxi is the former CFO of Tudou, who is proficient in corporate financial management and cost control. He also led the listing of Tudou in the United States and the subsequent merger of Youku Tudou. In the first month of taking a taxi in Shanghai, Bumblebee realized the daily order volume of 10000.
In the face of fierce opponents, Didi is not to be outdone. Didi obtained 654.38 million iphone accounts through special channels, and promoted Didi taxis by sending MMS.
This method of Didi has a remarkable effect. At this time, the download volume and user activity of Didi app exceeded that of Bumblebee.
However, Didi has not had time to be happy, but the online car market has ushered in a heavy hammer.
20 13 May, Shenzhen Ji urgently stopped the taxi software and issued a document asking the driver to uninstall the taxi software. Then, Beijing also officially announced that taxi software has disrupted the market order of the traditional taxi industry, which is likely to lead to black cars entering the taxi industry. Fortunately, these two regulations only stop taxi software, not completely ban it.
At this point, the bumblebee between Scylla and Charybdis began to raise money quietly. At the same time, the founder of Bumblebee, who is proficient in finance, also thinks that the taxi business can't make money in the short term and has the idea of cashing in.
Didi and Kuai quickly received the news and joined the queue to buy bumblebees. Bumblebee also seized the opportunity here and desperately improved the acquisition conditions. In order to reduce the cost of expansion, Cheng Wei first found Ali and Kuai, hoping that competitors would not rush to acquire Bumblebee. After the death of Bumblebee, the two companies can divide the Shanghai market fairly.
Turning his head, Bumblebee found Cheng Wei and said he wanted to sell it to Didi. Cheng Wei soon began to negotiate with Bumblebee. Maybe Cheng Wei can play a good hand on himself, but then the news of the quick acquisition of Bumblebee released by the media made Cheng Wei realize that he had been cheated. The active communication between Bumblebee and Didi is only a means to raise the price, but the person who plays with the eagle is pecked by the eagle.
After this incident, the contradiction between Didi and Ali became more and more prominent. On October 20 13, 165438+ 10, Cheng Wei and Allen Zhu went to the United States to try to attract new investment for Didi.
At that time, every time Allen Zhu and Cheng Wei met an investor in the United States, Cai Chongxin, Ma Yun's deputy, would call each other and tell them: You can't invest in Didi. Many investors who have already made an appointment have avoided it.
After returning home, Allen Zhu helped Didi bring CITIC Industrial Fund. At the end of 20 13, Didi completed the C round of financing 1 100 million USD; At the same time, with the help of Ali, the C round of financing was quickly completed.
At this time, the two largest taxi companies in China have enough ammunition, and a crazy travel subsidy war is on the verge.
The grand occasion of taxi subsidy must have been missed by most people, so I won't go into details here. In this user subsidy war, Didi and Kuai provided users with subsidies of about 2 billion yuan. At its peak, Didi and Kuai's market share once reached 98%.
When Didi and Kuai were exhausted and heavily subsidized, another taxi giant quietly came to China. 2065438+In the middle of 2004, Uber entered the China market.
At the beginning, Uber mainly cooperated with car rental companies to promote high-end commercial vehicles, which did not pose enough threat to Didi and Kuai. 20 14, 10 In June, Uber announced the launch of the People's Uber Project, which was aimed at carpooling and express trains in the same city, and soon threatened Didi and Express's business.
However, these two companies are still lucky. They believe that Uber's carpooling and car service will seriously threaten the traditional taxi market, which will inevitably lead to government intervention. However, what Didi and Kuaidi didn't expect was that Uber strode into large and medium-sized cities such as Shanghai and Chengdu. The expected government intervention did not occur.
20 14 12, Baidu decisively invested $600 million in Uber China. By this time, the battle of travel has officially become the capital struggle of the three BAT companies.
After previous subsidies, Didi and Kuaidi were weakened and unable to compete. At this time, in order to win the market competition with Uber, the merger of the two companies is the best way.
2065438+June 2005, Didi quickly entered the substantive negotiations before the merger. After more than a dozen hard negotiations, Didi Kuai finally merged at a ratio of 6: 4, and Cheng Wei's team was responsible for the operation and management of the new company.
After Didi and Kuaidi announced the merger, almost everyone thought that there would be no more smoke in China's travel field, but everyone underestimated Uber's determination in the China market.
Uber announced that it would spend $654.38 billion to subsidize the China market, and the situation suddenly started to stir again. Uber's ability to make money soon brought results. In just three months, Uber's market share increased from 1% at the beginning of the year to 35%. Didi is under great pressure at this time. In a few months, Didi's market share is likely to be overtaken.
At this point, Cheng Wei thought: since it is impossible to form an effective offensive against Uber in the domestic market, then go to Uber's hometown to make trouble and let Uber take care of itself.
Didi's performance this time was unexpected, and it quickly invested in Uber's competitors in the United States. Obviously, this strategy is effective.
2065438+In July 2006, Uber's board of directors hoped to stop the subsidy struggle with Didi in China. After two negotiations, it was decided that Didi would acquire Uber China. It is precisely because of this merger that Didi has become a rare company controlled by three BAT companies at the same time.
The smoke dispersed, leaving only drops on the battlefield. Today, Didi still controls the domestic online car market, and its market share once exceeded 90%.
On June 30th, 20021year, Didi went public in the United States in a low-key manner, but it was only two days before the intervention of state supervision.
As the most influential company in the domestic travel field, the data accumulated by Didi for many years is unimaginable. To be sure, almost the whole road network information of China will be stored on Didi's server, and its importance is self-evident.
Behind Didi is more the expectation of capital, but as a company with great public influence, Didi may need patience and responsibility for national security, Didi drivers and passengers.