The mysterious buyer of Yidao has finally surfaced, but calling him a buyer seems a little inappropriate. According to reports, LeEco has recently registered the mortgage of Yidao’s equity at the Chaoyang Branch of the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, and mortgaged all of its Yidao equity to Shanghai Zheyun Business Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership). The investment chain behind this Shanghai company is still inextricably linked to LeEco. Is this considered a transfer from the left hand to the right hand? One of the shareholders of this Shanghai company is Beijing Blue Giant Asset Management Co., Ltd. (Blue Giant Asset); the other shareholder is Tao Yun Capital Group Co., Ltd. (Tao Yun Capital). The shareholder of Blue Giant Asset is Blue Giant Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. (100% holding), which has many investment companies under its umbrella and can be called the Blue Giant system; and the major shareholder (legal person) of Tao Yun Capital is Wen Xiaodong, who holds 90% of the shares. He is also the founding partner and president of Blue Giant Investment. Currently, Tao Yun Capital accounts for 75% of the subscribed capital of Blue Giant Investment. Putting aside the complicated capital chain, in short, all the shares of Yidao held by LeTV are in the hands of Wen Xiaodong, who is only 34 years old. His Blue Giant Capital and Taoyun Capital are also important investors in many of LeTV's ecological enterprises. In this way, for Yidao, the future new shareholders are just shareholders of the original major shareholders; and for LeTV, the burden (Yidao) that is thrown away is just handed over to its own investors. This can also be called a disguised "debt-to-equity swap". Wen Xiaodong, the head of Taoyun Capital, was a supporter of Jia Yueting three years ago and praised Jia Yueting's foresight and innovative spirit many times in public. In an interview with the media, he expressed support for LeTV's ecological counterattack and car-making dream, saying, "If it really succeeds, how would you value it?" Wen Xiaodong not only supports it spiritually, but also has paid real money in the past few years to fulfill his recognition of Jia Yueting. Through data and information analysis, Dongdong Notes found that Taoyun Capital, through its funds and investment companies, has invested in LeTV Sports (holding 1.5978%), LeTV Pictures (holding 0.1434%), LeTV Investment Management, LeTV Holdings and other companies, and indirectly invested in LeTV.com, LeTV Games and LeTV Interactive Entertainment. His Blue Giant Investment also invested in LeTV Mobile and LeTV Auto, and the investment method was convertible bonds (a natural opportunity for Yidao to change hands). Now that the truth has come out, Wen Xiaodong, who has been frequently "harassed" by the media, has become more low-key and declined all media interviews, only saying that "there is no news to be announced for the time being." So, for the faltering Yidao, can it make a comeback with the help of this "recharge"? This may be the core of more people's concern. (Note: Some LeTV businesses displayed on the official website of Blue Giant Investment) What other high-quality resources are there? Wen Xiaodong's move brought good news to Yidao, which was in dire straits, and Yidao, which received capital injection, also reduced the investment losses of "shareholders of shareholders" from a certain perspective. Today, Yidao still has some excellent assets, and the management team and business operations have been re-equipped, which is beneficial to Wen Xiaodong. First of all, Yidao has won the "Online Taxi Booking Business License" in five cities, including Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Jinhua, and Fuzhou. The value of these license resources seems to be worthy of LeTV's investment of US$700 million that year, and the price Wen Xiaodong took over must be much lower than the US$700 million. The timing of this deal is just right. Secondly, after Zhou Hang, the original founder of Yidao, left, several of the original entrepreneurial veterans (including Yang Yun and Tang Peng) have left. Although these three hold a small amount of Yidao shares, it will not affect Wen Xiaodong's control over the company. The new team built by LeTV has just started to operate Yidao, and there is no barrier in the future communication and running-in between the parties (it is considered half a family). Finally, in addition to the high-quality asset of the license, the vehicle resources and user data accumulated by Yidao in its long-term operation are also very attractive. The once huge user data and related resources are the most valuable wealth of the online car-hailing industry, and are also important elements for other industries to supplement the lack of big data dimensions. These factors have provided the new Yidao with the right time, right place and right people. However, Dongdong Notes, based on Yidao's current market reputation and operation, is still pessimistic about Yidao's future development prospects. The main reason is that the pit that Yidao has dug in the past two years is too deep, and it is difficult to turn back. I believe that Wen Xiaodong, as a new shareholder, is more aware of the difficulties on the road ahead, but facing the almost hopeless investment return of LeEco's ecological sector, Yidao's pit, even if it is deeper, is better than "no harvest". What other pits does Yidao have to overcome? In the seven years since its establishment, Yidao's biggest decline (in reputation and market) came from the past period of time, that is, when Yidao changed its slogan from "private car anytime, anywhere" to "shared car ecology". Before the former CEO Zhou Hang and LeEco publicly tore their faces, problems such as drivers being unable to withdraw cash and users being unable to call cars had already appeared. With the wave effect of the public opinion agitation caused by Zhou Hang's "public statement", Yidao's once "small and beautiful" corporate image has disappeared. People who run businesses know that it doesn't matter if you lose money. The most terrible thing is that people's hearts are scattered and the team is difficult to lead. The hearts of people here not only come from the internal team, but also from the platform drivers and consumer groups. The management is constantly turbulent, and the new team has just taken over. From the internal structure, Yidao can make up for it as soon as possible after the arrival of the new shareholder. However, what is more serious is that the platform drivers and old users have lost their trust in Yidao, and the loss is very serious. This feeling is like a fish out of water, which seriously damages Yidao's vitality. According to the monitoring data of iResearch Qianfan, Dongdong Notes found that the user activity of Yidao's client has been declining for 6 consecutive months since November 2016. Among them, the number of monthly active users has dropped from 6 million in November last year to 3.25 million today. At the same time, the external market environment is not optimistic. With the continuous implementation of new policies for online car-hailing in various places, the entire domestic online car-hailing market has been forced to shrink further. Drivers who find it increasingly difficult to make money are gradually choosing to change careers or change jobs. This problem not only happens to Yidao, but is also a problem faced by platforms such as Didi and Shenzhou. In such an environment, platform drivers have become another resource to be fought over. The gap in salary and income between platforms may also trigger a large number of job-hopping. According to the monitoring data of Analysys Qianfan, Dongdong Notes found that the number of active users on Yidao driver side has also declined for 8 consecutive months since September 2016, and the decline rate is very alarming. The activity level has plummeted from 2.91 million in September 2016 to 390,000 today. Today, more Yidao drivers are most concerned about when they can withdraw the money in their accounts. As early as two months ago, facing the continuous flow of drivers coming to collect debts, Yidao had promised that the withdrawal problem would be completely solved by the end of May. However, it was not until June 30 that Yidao officially announced on its official WeChat public account, "From 14:00 today, all Yidao platform car owners can complete the withdrawal through the car owner APP!" From the press release issued by Yidao, we can see that Yidao has the same comfort for drivers and passengers: please feel free to accept orders; please feel free to take taxis; single orders are at least 36% off. Although the source of the funds was not explained, Yidao finally recovered and seemed to see a glimmer of hope. After all, facing the more brutal competition in the online car-hailing market, Yidao's only remaining advantage is the license in hand and the old users who are still sticking to it. Only by keeping the existing users and solving the problem of drivers withdrawing cash as soon as possible can the unfavorable trend of continuous decline be gradually reversed. However, the new shareholder Wen Xiaodong is not in the business after all. He is an investment institution that wants to make profits in the capital market. If Yidao wants to really grow, it may have to wait for the next time to throw itself into a bigger and more solid embrace. Now, Yidao, which has freed itself from the constraints of LeTV, has finally ushered in what Jia Yueting called a "historical turning point". But in the future, if Yidao wants to continue to survive in the online car-hailing market, it will have to face stronger competitors and strive to survive until the next round of financing. The difficulties are imaginable. Cherish it while you go. After all, we have had a "fate" with Yidao, and we also hope to see this once "small and beautiful" innovative platform return to the state of "private car anytime, anywhere" as soon as possible from the "shared car ecosystem". As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
<<: BASF and Nornickel sign MoU to invest 400 million to build a plant in Europe
>>: All robots men want can satisfy artificial intelligence or have entered a legal blind spot
Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer buttons on mo...
Recently, the "fission" gameplay has be...
The number of new industrial robots installed in ...
Getting rid of work completely, lying down every ...
Affected by the epidemic, many companies have tra...
Audit expert: Luo Huiqian Associate Researcher, I...
Zhang Xiaolong once mentioned in a WeChat open cl...
Audit expert: Shi Jun Doctor of Botany, well-know...
The era of Internet big data is striding into a n...
Recently, I often hear information flow advertise...
Audit expert: Yin Tielun Deputy Chief Physician, ...
What kind of content can attract users' atten...
We have shared content on the characteristics of ...
Recently, the news that a 2-year-old child died a...
In fact, websites that are not indexed are genera...