Renren, abandoned by the post-90s generation, may only be able to invest

Before we knew it, Renren has been shouting "return to campus" for more than a year, and the only major move it made was to shut down the internal messaging function. Now the main force of campus users are those born in the 1990s and even 1995s. Will these young people still buy into Renren? The situation is not optimistic.

According to the latest ranking of Chinese websites, Renren has fallen to outside the top 60. This social networking site, once known as the "Facebook of China", has been left far behind by its peers and has become an "antique" in the eyes of the post-90s generation. To make matters worse, their stock price has now fallen to a historical low of around $2.5, with a market value of less than $1 billion.

Over the past year, Renren has sold off its “bad assets” such as Nuomi and 56, while investing in overseas companies, but has not made any achievements in “returning to campus”. So can we understand it this way - "stock god" Chen Yizhou doesn't want to play SNS anymore, and wants to be an "investment godfather"?

After the big sale, there are few left

Long before the decision to "return to school" was made, Nuomi.com had already become an asset for sale in Chen Yizhou's mind. Since Nuomi.com went online in 2010 and became the vanguard of Renren's "Thousands of Group Wars", it has been playing the role of burning money - millions of dollars a month has always been a commonplace, but Renren could still afford Nuomi at that time. After Renren accelerated its mobile Internet development in 2012, monthly expenses increased dramatically, and Nuomi became a burden that urgently needed to be thrown away.

Baidu, which was interested in expanding in the field of life services, reached out in time and acquired 59% of the shares for US$120 million in August 2013. In January of the following year, Baidu announced that it had reached a full acquisition agreement with Renren, and the two parties officially completed the handover. Selling Nuomi, the "money-burning goblin", for more than 200 million yuan was a brilliant move, after all, Renren could no longer afford the continuous losses. Facts also proved this point. The sale of Nuomi in two installments allowed Renren to achieve net profits in its financial reports for three consecutive quarters.

However, the good times did not last long. In the third quarter of last year, the company was unable to generate revenue and was once again reduced to its original state, with a net loss of nearly 40 million US dollars. At the same time, the strategies of mobile Internet and returning to school did not see any results. Renren could not solve any problems with the slogan of "a mobile entertainment community used by 200 million people". What to do? The answer is to continue selling. After selling Nuomi, Chen Yizhou still has 56.com. The impoverished 56 married Renren because of her rich family background, but she did not expect that the rich family would also fall into poverty and they would be kicked out.

Although companies such as iQiyi, Tencent, and Mango TV came to ask for the price, Chen Yizhou did not immediately agree to sell 56.com for a good price. However, the half-dead 56.com was worthless, and there was no benefit in delaying it for another day. At the end of October, Renren finally reached an agreement with Sohu, and Chen Yizhou's old company acquired 56.com at a preferential price of nearly 20 million US dollars. As the "stock god", Chen Yizhou has always been good at investment, but 56.com has depreciated by more than 60 million in his hands. Although "his reputation was ruined in an instant", Lao Chen could not care so much for the sake of the company's operation.

In addition to Nuomi and 56.com, Renren Games, which was once highly anticipated and even expected to be listed independently, has also been stagnant in the past two years. In the world of the Internet, not moving forward means a significant step backward. We have seen that Renren Games has been forced to continuously cut back, and even CEO He Chuan has suffered from depression. In addition to social networking, Renren.com once had a four-sided matrix of group buying, video, games, and recruitment, but now two of the four corners are gone, and games and recruitment are almost crippled. Renren.com, which has already gone, has what capital to talk about "returning to campus"?

The king and his subjects were at odds, and people's hearts were scattered

It is said that the success or failure of a company does not depend on the profit or loss at a certain moment, but on the morale of the team. In the Internet industry, there are many examples of companies that have succeeded by relying on a strong team, and there are countless companies that have collapsed because of a lack of morale. Although Renren's performance has not improved, it has at least gotten rid of the burden. With a light load, they could have boosted their morale, but a mass resignation letter completely shattered this possibility.

Vice President Du Yue said in the letter that the reason for his resignation was that "Chen Yizhou is a terrible leader and a terrible person." This resignation letter written in English can be regarded as the most sharply worded in the history of the domestic Internet circle, and it even copied all executives, directors, well-known people in the investment circle and partners. Chen Yizhou was on a business trip at the time. After learning about the situation, he said, "This is the most unexpected email I have received since I started working." He believed that Du Yue was acting impulsively because he had no hope of becoming CEO.

But the ice is not formed in a day. Renren has been stagnant in recent years and morale has hit rock bottom. Du Yue was not the only one who launched the attack. Two days before the attack, another senior executive of Renren, Yang Muhan, also clashed with Chen Yizhou. Because her husband Xu Chaojun left the company to start a business with multiple projects that competed with his old employer, Yang Muhan was accused of "not being loyal to the company and being sweet-mouthed but treacherous." But in fact, Renren had a high evaluation of her, and Yang Muhan herself had already resigned two months before the conflict, but Chen Yizhou hoped that she would stay and kept trying to retain her.

Seeing Chen Yizhou's "split personality" behavior, Xiao Nei couldn't help but feel worried for his colleagues at Renren. During the turbulent six months, many senior executives were "scared away" by him, and 7 of them left the company one after another. When these Renren veterans talked about Chen Yizhou, although they were not as extreme as Du Yue, they also said that he had major problems in employing people, and they all believed that this was the key reason for Renren's decline.

Speaking of Chen Yizhou's improper use of people, Xiao Nei thinks that he made a mistake in thinking too well. In order to introduce fresh blood to enhance the vitality of the team, Renren vigorously recruited a number of external executives. In order to promote internal competition, Chen Yizhou also placed new and old employees in similar positions. But the reality is always harsh. This arrangement actually caused internal friction, resulting in the continuous loss of old employees of Renren and a significant drop in team morale. How can a team with scattered people be invincible?

Carry out stock speculation to the end

Seeing this, you may think that the conclusion of this article is that Renren.com is doomed. Xiao Nei thinks this is not necessarily the case. Although Chen Yizhou has deviations in management and lacks sufficient strategic vision, he can still gain a foothold in the Internet world with his unique skill of investing in stocks. In addition to the previous investment in 56.com, which caused him a huge loss, Lao Chen has frequently come up with good ideas in this regard. He has seized opportunities again and again, and through investing in companies such as eLong and Vipshop, he has achieved more than 4 times the return to stabilize Renren's financial situation. Chen Yizhou uses his own strength to make money from stock trading to maintain the company's operations. He is truly a "good boss in China."

During the period when Renren was selling and its executives were leaving, Chen Yizhou made frequent investments, even extending his investment to overseas: in early 2014, Renren invested US$70 million in the American P2P student loan website SoFi; in May, Renren led the investment in the real estate crowdfunding website Fundrise, with a total of 31 million; in September, Chen Yizhou turned to China and led the C round of investment in Xueqiu.com, with a total of 40 million; in November, he acquired a 10% stake in Hong Kong company GoGoVan through an investment of 10 million. If we count the 40 million investment in Motif Investing at the beginning of this year, Renren has invested nearly 200 million in projects around the world in the past year.

In addition, Chen Yizhou also said that Renren will focus on investing about $500 million in Internet financial startups. In fact, they have already started to test the waters of Internet finance through Renren Installment, but they have not achieved much success as the popularity of the website has declined. Xiao Nei thinks that our "stock god" Joe Chen probably has no interest in playing SNS anymore, and the capital market is his real stage. If he can be as "ruthless" as Chen Tianqiao, it is not impossible that he will sell Renren and turn to capital operation.

Looking back at Renren.com's rise and fall after Chen Yizhou took over, I can't help but think of a famous historical figure - Li Cunxu, the Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang Dynasty. This "Zhu Yazi" had conquered most of the country and almost revived the Tang Dynasty. After his great cause was established, Li Cunxu became obsessed with his beloved music and opera, and even appointed actors to govern the country, which eventually ruined his own country.

Without the recognition of young people, Renren has no chance of revival. No matter what new actions they will take after deactivating the internal message service, it is probably important to continue investing. As Chen Yizhou allocates funds to more projects, Renren will gradually move away from the capital market. As for "returning to school"? Forget it.

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.