Chapter 99: 097 Meeting Xu Xin

"Qunar" is an online travel website born in 2005.

At that time, it received its first financing of 2 million US dollars, while Ctrip's market value had already reached several billion US dollars.

Four years later, it wanted to get more shares in the niche battlefield and wanted to conduct its third round of financing.

The financing negotiation Xu Xin attended this time was led by Zhu Xiaohu of GSR Ventures, and GSR Ventures was a participant in "Qunar's" first round of investment.

It is worth mentioning, or rather quite humorous, that today's meeting also had a common topic of conversation: Lehman Brothers.

The financial crisis is an unavoidable topic in the circle. As the fatal fuse, Lehman Brothers happened to be "Qunar's" second-round investment institution.

Such a roundabout connection inevitably made everyone eating lunch feel emotional.

The connection that made Xu Xin feel even more like a lingering ghost came from the topic Zhu Xiaohu talked about.

"Xu Zong, have you noticed a new website called Bai Xiaosheng?" Zhu Xiaohu mentioned the name that made Xu Xin frown slightly.

Xu Xin nodded: "I've heard of it."

"NetEase held a press conference this morning. They upgraded a business unit, and the market in the internet matchmaking industry might be reshuffled," Zhu Xiaohu briefly described the industry situation over the past half month. "The fuse for this is Bai Xiaosheng's bombardment."

Xu Xin smiled and didn't speak, thinking Zhu Xiaohu brought this up because of her husband.

Zhu Xiaohu continued: "I think NetEase is playing for real this time. Does Xu Zong have any news in this regard? We previously invested in Baihe. com. I received news this morning and was still on the phone with them before lunch, discussing whether to follow up on the market's new moves."

GSR Ventures was a participant in Baihe. com's second round of financing.

Xu Xin was startled, remembering that there was such a thing. GSR Ventures had invested in Baihe. com, that was probably two or three years ago.

She shook her head: "I haven't heard any news about NetEase in this regard. I passed by NetEase last month and went in to sit for a while. As for this, I think it might also be their assessment of the market situation."

Before Xu Xin founded Capital Today, she invested in NetEase in 1999. At that time, she was the Managing Director of the China region for Baring Private Equity Asia, and therefore had a good relationship with Ding Lei.

Zhu Xiaohu laughed: "A small website really stirred up the situation in the industry."

Xu Xin said "Hmm," but her attention was still on the company "Qunar."

The fields she had focused on investing in for many years were consumer, retail, internet, and other industries. Although the economic situation this year was not good, the concept of "online travel" still had a certain appeal.

After lunch and a short rest, Xu Xin, Zhu Xiaohu, and others accepted the presentation from "Qunar's" senior management, listening to them explain the company's current situation and plans for the next period of time.

Xu Xin listened very carefully, but her expression didn't change much, and she almost didn't ask any questions.

During the "halftime break," Zhu Xiaohu asked jokingly: "Xu Zong, what do you think of 'Qunar's' future?"

"I listened to a bunch from Boss Zhuang, but the core seems to be just two sentences," Xu Xin deliberated. "One is that Ctrip's profits are too high, and the other is that they want to attack Ctrip's weak mid-to-low-end hotel market."

Zhu Xiaohu nodded repeatedly; Xu Zong's summary was very on point.

Actually, that was what was said earlier.

Ctrip's profits being too high meant that latecomers had a price war interval, and the weak mid-to-low-end hotel market was indeed a good breakthrough point in his view.

"So..." Xu Xin said with some worry, "If a price war starts, it will be very tragic."

A price war means the consumption of funds.

Moreover, "Qunar's" opponent was already the industry leader and a listed company. Ctrip would definitely not sit by and watch a chaser easily occupy the market and would inevitably use various methods to counterattack.

Xu Xin was not very willing to participate in such a battle in her heart. It wasn't that there was no chance of winning, but the risk was higher than imagined.

In addition, she still hoped to invest money in a more cost-effective position; "Qunar's" third round wasn't particularly cost-effective.

Zhu Xiaohu shook his head, disagreeing with Xu Zong's view, and laughed: "A price war can effectively drive the market. If the market develops steadily, there will definitely be no opportunity. 'Qunar' needs to pursue its position more fiercely."

Xu Xin was noncommittal.

GSR Ventures already had invested money and shares, so its position was naturally different from Capital Today, which hadn't entered the market yet.

At 2:30 PM, before the second half of "Qunar's" meeting began, President Zhuang Chenchao, who had already said a lot, suddenly received two consecutive calls. His expression became a bit excited, and he couldn't help but share the latest news with the investors.

"Ctrip has news!"

"It doesn't want to give old employees the opportunity to convert options into stocks and laid them off directly!"

"Also, the flight accident insurance policies sold by Ctrip have been forged!"

"Many of its employees are reflecting relevant issues online now!"

Zhuang Chenchao didn't hide his happiness and finally said: "The healthy development of any industry must have sufficient competition. Once monopolized, various situations unfavorable to consumers will emerge!"

The four venture capital firms in the conference room—GGV Capital, Tenaya Capital, GSR Ventures, and Capital Today—were all surprised to hear Ctrip's unfavorable news at this time.

This seemed a bit coincidental, coming out specifically when "Qunar" was negotiating financing.

Zhu Xiaohu asked with a smile: "How did it suddenly get exposed? Which media?"

Zhuang Chenchao replied: "It's a repost report from NetEase."

He reached out to take his assistant's laptop, opened NetEase's report interface, and added: "It was exposed by Ctrip's own employees on a website. Oh, on a website called 'Bai Xiaosheng.' This website name is interesting."

Bai Xiaosheng?

Bai Xiaosheng!

Xu Xin couldn't help but frown. It was it again.

She felt that the number of times she had heard this name recently was a bit dense.

"Is it true or not?" Zhu Xiaohu laughed.

Zhuang Chenchao replied cautiously at this time: "I don't know, but..."

He quickly clicked into "Bai Xiaosheng," which he had heard of for the first time, noticed the conspicuous information on it, and said: "This is a real-name certified website. I'm afraid it's not groundless."

As the target "Qunar" wanted to challenge, the news suddenly exposed by Ctrip was still worthy of investors' attention.

Soon, several laptops were placed in front of everyone, and they saw NetEase's report and Bai Xiaosheng's exposure.

It wasn't the first time Xu Xin had heard of Bai Xiaosheng, but it was indeed the first time she browsed the Bai Xiaosheng website.

She flipped through it and asked puzzledly: "Didn't it say real-name authentication? How come this user's name is 'Erlang Shen'?"

A moment later, this question was answered.

"It seems to be the new anonymous function of this website. Only a part of the people are in internal testing. I saw the function description. These anonymous accounts are all dual-certified for real-name and work."

After a while, Zhu Xiaohu commented on the small website Bai Xiaosheng for the first time: "This anonymous function... is a bit evil. It feels like it's easy to have problems."

But before anyone else could speak, he added: "This website previously bombarded the internet matchmaking industry. If it can cause a stir in a company like Ctrip this time, this small website is actually a bit interesting."

Xu Xin didn't spare her evaluation, closed the webpage, and said slowly: "Projects all need people to execute them. The team behind this project is not very good."

Everyone cast their eyes over. Does Xu Zong know something?

"Behind this project is a college student team. Their thinking is too short-term. Their previous project was a few months ago, and it was the kind of approach of making a quick buck and leaving," Xu Xin evaluated. "Young people who have tasted sweetness find it hard to settle down."

Zhu Xiaohu remembered chatting with Xu Zong a couple of times before and laughed: "Xu Zong, your sense of smell is sharp. You even know about such a small website and the team behind it. Indeed, no matter what project, it won't work without a good team."

Everyone agreed with the exchange between these two.

The people in the conference room all came from their youth and dealt with money all year round, so they knew very well what state young people who make quick money and do short-term work are in, and they would definitely not invest in such projects.

Zhu Xiaohu changed the subject: "Therefore, 'Qunar's' team is very trustworthy. Boss Zhuang's work over the past few years has been commendable. If Ctrip has a disturbance, this is indeed a good opportunity to catch up."

The matter of the small website was just a casual chat; the main thing was "Qunar's" financing matter.

People in the conference room continued to exchange views on the latest situation in the industry.

At 5:00 PM, the meeting ended.

Xu Xin declined the dinner invitation from Zhu Xiaohu and others. She was still inclined not to participate in this round of financing, but she wasn't in a hurry to make a final decision at this moment.

This trip back to Shencheng from Pengcheng was her last work trip before the new year. She could wait until after the new year to give a final answer regarding "Qunar."

It just so happened that she could also see if there were any new industry changes.

Oh, that movement from Bai Xiaosheng.

Just this afternoon, Bai Xiaosheng saw a dense appearance of Ctrip employees bombarding the company.

Although they were anonymous with aliases, the users who spoke out had the "Ctrip Employee" label, proving that they were Ctrip employees verified by the website. Therefore, the relevant exposure was quite authentic.

The first "Erlang Shen" to speak out was Deputy Director Jiao Shiqian. After reflecting on his pain, he asked other colleagues who had encountered similar situations and discovered that it wasn't just about stock options, but also oppressive resignation.

That is, if they were unwilling to resign, the company might engage in cross-regional transfers and demotions.

As a large company, Ctrip has positions in many regions across the country, but individual employees are different. Many have families to support. Once transferred to other cities, life becomes very troublesome.

Therefore, Jiao Shiqian anonymously bombarded three things.

—Options about to be converted into stocks were recovered without compensation, and the relevant contract signed at the time was in English and did not provide a Chinese version!

—Employees were oppressed into resignation, involving malicious transfers and demotions!

—A customer had a flight ticket booked from the company on November 14th, and the insurance policy was forged!

If the first two problems still belonged to Ctrip's internal affairs, the third problem was connected to customers, and the nature was different.

Therefore, NetEase's repost report, being familiar with the process, made it to the page after simple confirmation.

Of course, unlike the treatment when there were interests involved before, NetEase's report position this time wasn't that prominent.

Even so, Bai Xiaosheng's users were still eating the leftover melon of the internet matchmaking industry in the morning, and in the afternoon, they started eating the new melon of Ctrip's layoffs and fake insurance policies!

A new melon, on the first day of 2009!

Although the website was still very new, many users had already familiarly shared the website and posts with friends and colleagues.

The mess of internet matchmaking is boring. Do you want to see the excitement of this kind of layoff?

Let's come and see!

The impact of the global financial crisis is still there, and who knows where it will roll to...

Come and listen to the reflections and experiences of those involved in the layoffs.

—"I'm really stupid, really. I only knew that I would encounter dirty things when other companies laid people off, but I didn't know I would encounter them too."

—"I clearly heard the HR's key words favorable to my arbitration, but I didn't record it in advance. I'm so regretful!"

—"I'm really stupid, really. I will regret it for the rest of my life!"

Obviously, imitating Xianglin Sao's words and placing them in the scene experienced by "Erlang Shen" was extremely appropriate.

Being fellow workplace people, they had extreme empathy and also participated in perfecting the construction of the work. 【100】 "This isn't like Xianglin Sao; this is the Xianglin Sao of the workplace!" 【101】 "Hey, hey, can the alias of this anonymous function be chosen? Who chose Xianglin Sao!" 【102】 The request from the onlookers was answered: the alias is random and cannot be chosen. 【103】 However, small websites always pay attention to user experience, and soon the backend operated one—Xianglin Sao from Ctrip appeared. 【104】 Unlike "Erlang Shen," "Xianglin Sao" shared the process of her arguing with HR. 【105】 Such sharing made others couldn't help but remind: "Don't say this. If you say this, HR will definitely know who you are." 【106】 Xianglin Sao wasn't "Xianglin" enough and said directly: "What am I afraid of? I've already become Xianglin Sao. What am I afraid of? Come on, wolf, come over. I have A Mao here for you to eat!" 【107】 Accompanied by the anger of Ctrip employees, the user involved in the fake insurance policy also appeared in the thread. He didn't use anonymity, stated the relevant matters directly, and accused Ctrip of shirking responsibility. 【108】 For a time, Bai Xiaosheng was bustling with noise and excitement, which continued to bring new traffic and registered users. 【109】 Yu Xing didn't expect the fake insurance policy matter and felt that there might be new movements, but he could expect continuous user registration. 【110】 Bai Xiaosheng is a new website, and the effect of the previous round of bombardment was also very good. However, no matter how good the effect was, the number of users was only tens of thousands, while the workplace people in the entire internet were tens of millions or hundreds of millions—a huge market waiting to be excavated. 【111】 Dig tens of thousands from one melon, then another melon, then dig tens of thousands more... 【112】 Bai Xiaosheng can't just rely on word of mouth; it needs more money to let more people come to eat melons. 【113】 On January 2, 2009, Yu Xing took his second-in-command, Lu Haiying, to do ground promotion personally, and they pushed it to Capital Today's office in Shencheng. 【114】 Xu Xin doesn't reply to texts, right? Then I'll come to find your employees. 【115】 Yu Xing planned to persist in rubbing against venture capital institutions before the new year. 【116】 It's just that, this morning, he didn't expect to run directly into the BOSS of Capital Today. 【117】 At 10:00, Xu Xin arrived at the office with her secretary and saw two sneaky young people as soon as she got out of the elevator. 【118】 She frowned, not knowing why. 【119】 Yu Xing was just about to ring the bell when he suddenly turned his head and saw Xu Xin herself. 【120】 He was both surprised and happy, and hurriedly stepped forward to introduce himself: "Xu Zong, Xu Zong, hello, I am Yu Xing from the Bai Xiaosheng website. I want to introduce our project to you." 【121】 Xu Xin was expressionless and walked into the company: "Blast them out, blast them out." 【122】 Yu Xing was astonished: "Hey, hey, Xu Zong..." 【123】 Seeing that someone really came over to blast him out, he hardened his heart and shouted at Xu Xin, whose figure was about to disappear: "Xu Zong, I was introduced by Liu Qiangdong!" 【124】 Xu Xin stopped, looked back at Yu Xing, and asked strangely: "How dare you come to find me? Do you know Zhen Ai Wang?" 【125】 Yu Xing smiled at the two employees who stopped, straightened his clothes, and said calmly: "Why wouldn't I dare? I'm here to find Xu Xin of Capital Today, not to find the wife of the boss of Zhen Ai Wang." ===== CHAPTER 100 =====

"This isn't like Xianglin Sao; this is a workplace Xianglin Sao!"

"Hey, hey, can the alias for this anonymous function be chosen? Who would choose Xianglin Sao!"

The request from the onlookers was answered: the alias is random and cannot be chosen.

However, small websites always pay attention to user experience, and soon the backend operated one—Xianglin Sao from Xiecheng appeared.

Unlike "Erlang Shen," "Xianglin Sao" shared the process of her arguing with HR.

Such sharing made others unable to help but remind: "Don't say this. If you say it like this, HR will definitely know who you are."

Xianglin Sao wasn't Xianglin enough and said directly: "What am I afraid of? I've already become Xianglin Sao, what am I afraid of? Come on, wolf, come over quickly, I have A-Mao here for you to eat!"

Along with the anger of Xiecheng employees, the user involved in the fake insurance policy also appeared in the post. He didn't use anonymity and directly stated the relevant matters, accusing Xiecheng of shirking responsibility.

For a time, Bai Xiaosheng was exceptionally lively, which continued to bring new traffic and registered users.

Yu Xing didn't expect the fake insurance policy matter and felt that there might be new developments, but he could expect continuous user registration.

Bai Xiaosheng is a new website, and the effect of the previous round of shelling was very good. However, no matter how good the effect was, the user volume was only tens of thousands, while the workplace people in the entire internet are in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions—a vast market waiting to be tapped.

Dig tens of thousands from one melon, then another melon, then dig tens of thousands more...

Bai Xiaosheng cannot rely solely on word-of-mouth; it needs more money to let more people come to eat melons.

On January 2, 2009, Yu Xing took his second-in-command, Lu Haiying, to do ground promotion personally, pushing all the way to the office of Capital Today in Shencheng.

Xu Xin won't return messages, right? Then I'll come to find your employees.

Yu Xing planned to persistently come to sponge off venture capital institutions before the New Year.

Only, this morning, he didn't expect to run directly into the BOSS of Capital Today.

At ten o'clock, Xu Xin arrived at the office with her secretary. Just as she stepped out of the elevator, she saw two sneaky young men.

She frowned deeply, not knowing what was going on.

Yu Xing was just about to ring the bell when he suddenly turned his head and saw Xu Xin herself.

He was both surprised and happy, and hurriedly stepped forward to introduce himself: "Ms. Xu, Ms. Xu, hello, I am Yu Xing from the Bai Xiaosheng website. I would like to introduce our project to you."

Xu Xin was expressionless and walked into the company: "Throw them out, throw them out."

Yu Xing was astonished: "Hey, hey, Ms. Xu..."

Seeing that someone was really coming to throw him out, he hardened his heart and shouted at Xu Xin, whose figure was about to disappear: "Ms. Xu, I was introduced by Liu Qiangdong!"

Xu Xin stopped her steps, turned back to look at Yu Xing, and asked strangely: "How dare you come to find me? Do you know Zhenai. com?"

Yu Xing smiled at the two employees who had stopped, straightened his clothes, and said calmly: "Why wouldn't I dare? I came to find Xu Xin of Capital Today, not the wife of the boss of Zhenai. com."