Who is most likely to become the fourth pole of China's Internet?

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BAT has already occupied an absolutely dominant position in the Chinese Internet world, but the competition for the fourth place has never been concluded. Many people are also looking forward to the emergence of a new company that can challenge or even stand on equal footing with BAT. Who will this company be?

According to the current popularity of the Internet, the most qualified companies to compete for the fourth place are Xiaomi, 360 and JD.com, and these three companies also have their own reasons to prove that they are the fourth place. For example, user base, market value or revenue, profit. Therefore, the saying "TABLES" is also quite popular.

Judging from the current market value of Internet companies, Alibaba and Tencent are already leading the pack. Even Baidu, which is able to compete with them, has fallen far behind in market value. Of course, Baidu's revenue and profit are still above the same level as Alibaba and Tencent, and its market value is underestimated. However, judging from the development trend in the past one or two years, Baidu is indeed more stable than passionate. Fortunately, Baidu has regained its aggressiveness in 2015.

Gradually, more and more people began to accept a new layout of the Chinese Internet. This structure is BATM, which can also be written more clearly as B-AT-M, which is the combination of BAT and ATM. So who is this M?

If we simply understand the literal meaning of M, it could be Xiaomi “MI”, it could be Meituan “MEITUAN”, or it could be Ant Financial “MAYI”. Who is most likely to occupy the position of M?

In terms of current social influence, Xiaomi is the obvious candidate. Xiaomi is very popular. Lei Jun (Weibo) is the Economic Figure of the Year selected by CCTV. Xiaomi mobile phones once dominated the top spot of Chinese domestic smart phones. Lei Jun has also made comprehensive layouts in social software, e-commerce, Internet finance, smart home, video new media, etc. Only BAT can achieve this level in China. Even JD.com is still blank in the fields of hardware and video. In terms of market value, although Xiaomi is not listed, it is said that its valuation last year reached more than 40 billion US dollars, which is fully qualified to be called the top four Chinese Internet companies.

However, Xiaomi also has shortcomings. Judging from Xiaomi's momentum, it seems that Xiaomi has passed its peak. Its mainstay mobile phone business has been surpassed by the latecomer Huawei. It has many smart furniture hardware products, but it is still losing money in this field. Other products such as Mi Chat are no longer hot, and Internet finance and video new media have no advantages over its competitors.

It can be said that Xiaomi’s valuation reached its peak last year, and it is difficult for Xiaomi to reproduce its past glory this year. In terms of growth, it is difficult for Xiaomi to maintain its fourth position in China’s Internet industry.

Meituan ranked second. It is said that the founder is an experienced Internet professional entrepreneur who has "failed nine times and won once". He has survived the cold winter of group buying and ushered in the second spring of business development with the help of O2O since 2014. According to industry insiders, the valuation of this company is also tens of billions, and it is fully capable of becoming the fourth pole of the Internet.

Meituan's biggest hidden danger is that it is not stable. It has just merged with Dianping, its rival after years of fierce battle, under the will of capital, and the entire industry is still in the process of development and change. If the O2O industry rises rapidly, as the industry leader, it has strong growth potential, but O2O is becoming more and more like a big bubble. Countless stories that sound romantic cannot become real businesses. Almost all O2O companies are just burning investors' money. These O2O companies are far more interested in financing than making the company profitable. What's more serious is that the O2O field is gradually controlled by Internet giants. Baidu has Nuomi and claims to have enough money to invest. Alibaba reorganized Koubei and pushed the legendary No. 2 figure of the group to the front for the first time. The future prospects of the merger of Meituan and Dianping are still unknown. There are BAT mountains blocking the way in front and Ele.me chasing behind. It is too early to talk about Meituan's future status at this time.

There is another candidate for the fourth place, that is Ant Financial. This company may not be familiar to the public, but its most important product is almost known to everyone, that is Alipay. In addition to Alipay, Ant Financial is already the financial institution with the most complete licenses in China, and its business covers almost all financial securities fields. Yu'ebao has set off a wave of Internet finance, Zhaocaibao has created a new financial management platform, and recently Ant Financial has been vigorously entering the fields of insurance and stocks. To see how strong the ant army is, just look at Alipay's transaction processing capacity of more than 800 million times per second during the peak of online shopping on Double 11. Foreign payment tools with less than one-tenth of Alipay's number of users and transaction volume are worth 50 billion US dollars when they go public. The market value of this current largest Internet unicorn company in China is thought-provoking. Many people predict that when Ant Financial goes public next year or the year after, its market value may directly exceed the 200 billion US dollar mark.

Of course, Ant Financial also has disadvantages. Many people can't even tell the difference between Ant Financial and Alibaba, thinking that Ant is just a subsidiary or branch of Alibaba. In fact, Ant Financial and Alibaba are two parallel companies. Especially after multiple share dilutions and future platform development, Ant Financial is likely to gradually become a completely independent financial platform company, and its relationship with Alibaba is only blood and corporate culture. Of course, Ant Financial and Alibaba are definitely in an alliance, and big data production and consumption will complement each other and serve as markets for each other, forming the two poles of China's Internet world.

To sum up, if China's Internet forms a B-AT-M pattern, the most likely to occupy the M position will be Ant Financial, which is the combination of the so-called old Internet players BAT (Baidu Alibaba Tencent) and the new Internet player ATM (Alibaba Tencent Ant Financial).