Baidu buys Kuaiqian for RMB 2 billion: a good deal for a man and a woman

After Double Eleven, Baidu also started the “buy, buy, buy” mode.

According to rumors, Baidu will acquire the third-party payment company 99Billion for RMB 2 billion. Judging from the fundamentals that the rumors are basically true, Baidu is serious about entering the field of Internet finance.

Among the BAT giants, only Baidu is still taking its first steps in the field of Internet finance.

As the pioneer of payment, mobile payment and Internet finance, Alipay, formerly Alibaba Small and Micro Financial Services, now Ant Financial, has a huge system. Yu'ebao has a scale of more than 500 billion yuan, and Zhaocaibao is aimed at the P2P field. Tencent's WeChat Pay Wealth Management is also making rapid progress. Wealth Management has a scale of nearly 100 billion yuan. WeChat card binding promoted through WeChat red envelopes and WeChat groups is second only to Alipay. Ant Financial and Tencent have applied for and started to build Zhejiang MyBank and Qianhai Weizhong Bank. In the field of mobile payment, one has the "Future Life" series and the other has the "Smart City" plan.

Xiaomi and JD.com, whose market capitalizations are close to those of BAT, have also had a good start in Internet finance.

JD Finance has become an independent parallel business unit like the mall. JD Baitiao, crowdfunding, micro loans and wealth management are doing well. Although its cooperating banks are very limited, this will inevitably be one of the main channels for JD to make big profits and monetize users in the future.

Even more frightening is Xiaomi, which has opened a payment system through hardware and MIUI users, and this payment system is a closed loop. Through Xiaomi accounts binding bank cards, they can use virtual currency such as Mi coins to purchase theme wallpapers, e-books and games. In the field of Internet finance, Xiaomi has invested in the P2P company JiMuBox. Xiaomi users are very receptive to Internet financial products. The activeness and young age of Xiaomi users have accumulated great potential for Xiaomi.

Baidu entered the Internet finance industry in 2013, and launched two products, "Bai Fa" and "Bai Zhuan", and vigorously promoted Baidu's third-party payment Baifubao, and upgraded it into Baidu Wallet.

Although the "Baifa" project was interviewed by the regulatory authorities and experienced some twists and turns due to its promise of high returns, Baidu's trial of Internet finance still achieved very good results. Both Baifa and Baizhuan projects were sold out quickly. Baidu, as the entrance to Internet traffic, can create waves in the field of Internet finance with just a little conversion. Even though Baifa and Baizhuan are just traditional funds sold on the Internet and there are no big data predictions, the channel update alone has amazing potential.

However, Baidu's attempts at Internet finance have been superficial, and there is no new business after making a lot of money. Although Baidu Wallet, a mobile payment platform, offers a 5-yuan gift for new users when binding a card, it does not have the e-commerce user base that Alipay has, nor can it create a craze through its popular product WeChat red envelopes like WeChat Pay has.

As a traffic portal, Baidu's business model only requires directing traffic to other merchants without requiring the traffic to circulate internally. Therefore, Baidu has not been able to establish its own account system. This is also a major shortcoming in Baidu's development of third-party payment and Internet finance.

It doesn't matter if you can't do it yourself. Baidu spent $1.9 billion to buy 91. For Internet finance and payment businesses, it is definitely worthwhile to spend the right price to buy a cost-effective company. So the question is, what is the status of 99bill, and is it worth 2 billion RMB?

In a ranking called "2014 First Half Year Third-Party Payment Company Comprehensive Strength Ranking", UnionPay, Tenpay and Alipay ranked in the top three, and 99Bill ranked fourth. This list is based on the comprehensive ranking of offline and online payment, and it is understandable that UnionPay ranked first.

According to iResearch Consulting, in the second quarter of 2014, Alipay accounted for half of the third-party Internet payment transaction volume with 48.8%, Tenpay ranked second with 19.8%, UnionPay ranked third with 11.4%, and 99Bill also ranked fourth with a share of about 6.8%.

As far as Uncle Chao knows, when it comes to ordinary consumer users, 99Bill cannot compete with Internet giants that have traffic and account systems, nor can it compare with UnionPay, which has a state-owned background. However, 99Bill is unique in supply chain finance, and this advantage is actually similar to that of JD Finance. This is why 99Bill has been able to survive and thrive in the crowded third-party payment field.

Kuaiqian CEO Guan Guoguang is also from NetEase and was once the vice president of NetEase. Kuaiqian, founded in 2004, has accumulated 10 years of experience. If there is any problem with Kuaiqian, it is that it has no mobile Internet entrance in the mobile Internet era and its mobile payment is weak. According to iResearch data, in Q2 2014, the first place in mobile payment was Alipay Wallet, followed by Tenpay, and Baidu Wallet even had a 0.1% share. Kuaiqian was not on the list.

Two friends who need each other's support will naturally come together.

Baidu needs the third-party payment market share and experience of 99bill to rapidly expand its Internet finance business, keep up with the development of AT and avoid being left in the second camp; 99bill needs to catch the express train of mobile Internet and a large amount of funds to develop new market businesses.

There is another point that must be mentioned. Zhang Yaqin, former president of Microsoft Research Asia, joined Baidu as vice president, mainly in charge of Baidu's PC client and financial business. As the PC business is on the decline, if Baidu wants to achieve results, it is necessary to make a radical change in the promising business of Internet finance.

With Baidu's financial resources, determination and Zhang Yaqin's efforts, I believe that spending 2 billion yuan to buy some quick cash will be a good deal.

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.