The executive Amazon sent to China this time to be responsible for the entire Chinese business is named William Young. He is an American with one-quarter Chinese descent. In fact, his surname is not Yang, but because his real name is William.Young. So I gave myself the Chinese name Yang William.
Before William Yang came to China, he was appointed at a critical moment. Amazon has been struggling in the quagmire since the bursting of the Internet bubble until this year. Only this year has it finally begun to escape the shadow of the bursting of the Internet bubble. The entire Amazon has gradually begun to turn losses into profits. Under this situation, Amazon was only thinking about how to optimize its industrial model and consolidate the domestic market, and never thought about expanding overseas markets at this critical moment.
However, the Chinese government's sudden "Internet into Homes" policy has caused American Internet giants to focus their attention on China, a huge market with a population of 1.3 billion.
For American capital and enterprises, they understand very well the execution and driving force of the Chinese government. This kind of execution and driving force is so powerful that the West cannot match it. For example, with the reform and opening up, a single policy made the whole world aware of China. The government has strong execution power, so in their eyes, as long as it is a favorable policy promoted by the Chinese government, it must be the biggest benefit to this industry.
It was also because of this policy that Amazon focused its attention on the Chinese market. When they discovered that China already had a clear model and large-scale enterprise like Taobao, they almost immediately made a decision: they must get involved in the Chinese market immediately, otherwise Once you miss this opportunity, it will be much more difficult to enter the Chinese market in the future.
William Yang is of Chinese descent, can speak Chinese, and has a certain understanding of China. It is for these reasons that he was appointed as the CEO of Amazon China.
At this time, Yang William looked at the red-faced Boss Ma and the silent Boss Li, feeling particularly unhappy and secretly said: "If there was not such a big enemy like Taobao, how could Amazon compete with you two unknown Chinese people?" Enterprise cooperation? Of these two people, one has no structure at all, and the other has a small structure which is annoying."
Boss Ma was speaking to William Yang in proficient English at this time: "We cannot invest too high publicity costs in the early stage. Ten million yuan is the highest limit within a reasonable range in my opinion. The maximum can be increased to two million U.S. dollars. It cannot be No more!"
William Yang knocked on the table and said to Boss Ma with a hint of disdain: "Mr. Ma, Taobao is backed by Makino Technology, and its online publicity capabilities are extremely powerful. If we don't increase investment in publicity and promotion, how can we succeed on Taobao?" To gain the upper hand under the threat of others?”
Boss Ma said: "What we have to do is compete with Taobao in a differentiated manner. They rely on brand days to strengthen Taobao's advantages in electronic product sales in front of consumers across the country. Then we will use our promotional activities to lay the foundation for our future." Take advantage of department stores.”
After saying that, Boss Ma added: "It is important to carry out certain publicity and promotion on this basis, but it must be within a certain limit. At the moment, our Letao account has a total of more than 30 million US dollars. We must do a good job in fighting Taobao." Prepare for a protracted war, instead of starting an asset-heavy operation model right from the start, otherwise everything will be in vain once our funds cannot keep up."
Letao, which has not yet been launched, is valued at 500 million. It is not because the shell is really valuable, but because SoftBank and Amazon need to set a tone from the beginning: We are going to do something big together, so order this The keynote is that everyone pools money together to do it.
Amazon invested 30% of the shares at a valuation of RMB 500 million. This RMB 150 million was not given to Boss Ma, but invested in the company's account in Letao, Hangzhou.
Boss Ma also relies on SoftBank to come up with money to make up for the funds that belong to himself and SoftBank.
It stands to reason that Alibaba accounts for 51% and needs to invest 255 million yuan. However, because the entire Letao package is made by Alibaba, the team is Alibaba's, the framework is built by Alibaba, and the products used are also Alibaba's. Resources, so Alibaba enjoys a certain discount on resources, and actually invested 153 million at a valuation of 300 million.
As for Li Guoqing of Dangdang.com, the Dangdang.com he brought in had a certain value, so he directly used Dangdang.com as his investment part.
Dangdang was originally valued at at least 50 million U.S. dollars, but was hit by Taobao. Although the losses were huge, it was still slightly better than Joyo. It is currently worth about 178 million to 20 million U.S. dollars. Almost 150 million yuan.
If Li Guoqing were to invest entirely in Dangdang, a valuation of 500 million would have to give Li Guoqing at least about 30% of the shares. However, Boss Ma was not very optimistic about Li Guoqing, so he did not want his shareholding to be too high. He had originally set a share of 19 %, and then supplemented his M&A plan with an additional 50 million yuan in cash. Li Guoqing knew that he was in the greatest risk at the moment, so he agreed to Boss Ma's proposal without hesitation in order to share his risk equally with other partners.
As a result, Letao currently has almost 250 million in funds, which seems to be a lot, but this money is needed to maintain the operation of an e-commerce platform after it is launched, to fight a protracted battle with a large platform like Taobao, and to maintain a With an ever-expanding team and continuous investment in promotion, from a comprehensive perspective, 250 million yuan is not too much, and it is just over 30 million yuan in US dollars.
Boss Ma also knows that with Li Mu here, after Letao is launched, there is no possibility of making a profit within one or two years. If the money is burned out, everyone will either increase capital or raise funds externally.
Amazon is definitely capable of increasing capital at any time, but SoftBank is now a little disappointed in itself and has lost confidence, otherwise they would not have brought Amazon into Letao's project to work together. Based on this situation, they have to Calculate carefully, act cautiously, and never burn out all the money too early, otherwise SoftBank may lose confidence once it feels that this is a bottomless pit.
SoftBank is a capital company. Once they lose confidence in a project, they will definitely find a way to cash out so that they can take out the money and invest in other projects.
Amazon is an e-commerce company that understands the industry better and has plenty of money. The most likely situation is that SoftBank will directly sell its shares to Amazon and walk away with the money. Regardless of whether the project is successful or not, SoftBank's The investment can be recovered, and there may be profits.
At that time, I was in a miserable situation. Amazon used its own shell to gain a foothold in China, but I lost the support of SoftBank. By then, Amazon would definitely occupy the shares, and both myself and Li Guoqing were likely to be purged. In the end, the real winner would be It's Amazon and SoftBank, and they have nothing to do.
In Boss Ma's view, Sun Zhengyi probably wanted to leave a way out and let Amazon take over for Letao in the future, so he brought Amazon in. Therefore, Boss Ma must do his best to avoid this situation from happening.
Regarding this point, Boss Ma guessed it right.
The reason why Yang William wants Boss Ma to increase investment in publicity and promotion is because he has a bigger plan. He hopes that Letao will start a money-burning strategy as soon as it comes up and burn money quickly. The faster it burns, the harder it will be for its opponents to keep up. Keep up the pace. As long as you open up the pace, you won't have to catch up, but you will be able to quickly gain a foothold.
What William Yang calls a firm foothold means a firm foothold in market share. In order to achieve this goal, Letao must continue to invest heavily.
It is inherently difficult for e-commerce platforms to make profits, not to mention that in such a situation with strong opponents, they must be prepared to be unprofitable for a long time. On this basis, if Letao’s money burning speed can be accelerated, SoftBank will definitely be affected by this The pace is scary. If the money is burned out soon and the capital increase is initiated, SoftBank may have to reconsider whether to continue to follow up. If they want to quit, Amazon will directly invest to buy SoftBank’s shares and will definitely control Letao by then. Letao also has a certain foundation in China. Amazon will find ways to force Alibaba and Li Guoqing to sell more shares through capital increases, acquisitions, etc. By then, it will be able to occupy the magpie's nest and completely take Letao into its pocket.
Amazon's idea is to first find two local Chinese companies to build fortifications and dig trenches together, and then find a way to drive these two companies out after the fortifications and trenches are dug.
Once Amazon achieves this goal, it can directly introduce more funds from the U.S. capital market, allowing a large amount of U.S. dollars to continuously flow into their bridgehead in the Chinese market, and then use an unstoppable offensive to occupy the entire market in one fell swoop.
Precisely because they had their own agendas, Boss Ma and William Yang were at odds with each other from the beginning, and they disliked each other. Before that, they just kept their dislike of each other in their hearts, but in today's meeting, the two of them The contradiction is revealed for the first time.
William Yang was extremely resolute and asked Boss Ma to invest more.
Boss Ma's attitude was even more resolute. He even slapped the table and said loudly to William Yang: "The maximum is two million US dollars. This is already a big concession! I won't pay even a penny more!"
William Yang was so angry that he also shouted: "Mr. Ma, our cooperation has just begun. Please don't create cracks and gaps in everyone's hearts at the beginning of our cooperation!"
Boss Ma said coldly: "If Mr. Yang feels dissatisfied, you can withdraw from this meeting. Don't forget that Amazon only holds 30% of the shares. Even if Mr. Li supports your strategy, I will not agree!"
As he spoke, Boss Ma pointed at himself and said every word with extreme force: "Here, I have the final say!"
Boss Ma is a very territorial person with extremely strong management skills. In his previous life, Sun Zhengyi and Yahoo combined were no match for him. Otherwise, how could Alipay have severed the agreement and control relationship with Alibaba and withdrawn from the Alibaba system? Separate
William Yang really didn't realize that Boss Ma, who was short, thin, and seemingly weak, could be so strong. He originally wanted to put pressure on him, but he didn't expect that he would directly use the controlling stake to pressure him, leaving no room for himself, so he just Able to temporarily cease all activities in anger.
Although he no longer insists on the surface, in Yang William's heart, he has secretly made up his mind. If people like Boss Ma stay in Letao, the possibility of Amazon trying to backdoor China will be greatly threatened, so he accepts it. The most important thing now is how to get him out of Letao!
Chapter 2 is here, and there will be a third chapter later~~~ Please vote for me! The rankings keep falling and falling...
(End of chapter)