Amazon had sent an executive to China to take charge of the China business. His name was William Yang, and he was a quarter Chinese American. Actually, his surname was not Yang, but because his real name was William, he gave himself the Chinese name William Yang.
William Yang was assigned to Hua Xia at a critical time. Amazon had been struggling since the dot-com bubble burst. This year, Amazon had finally gotten rid of the shadow of the dot-com bubble, and Amazon had started to turn its losses into profits. Under such circumstances, Amazon had been thinking about how to optimize its business model and strengthen its domestic market. It had never thought about expanding its overseas market.
But the Hua Xia Government had suddenly introduced the "Internet into the home" policy, and the US Internet giants had focused on Hua Xia, which had a population of 1.3 billion.
For American investors and companies, they understood the Chinese government's execution and driving force. The Chinese government's execution and driving force were so strong that the West could not compare to them. For example, the reform and opening up policy made the whole world aware of the Chinese government's strong execution. So, in their eyes, as long as the Chinese government promoted a good policy, it would be the best for the industry.
Amazon had also focused on the Hua Xia market because of this policy. When they found out that Hua Xia had Taobao, a large-scale company, they immediately made a decision to enter the Hua Xia market. If they missed this opportunity, it would be hard for them to enter the Hua Xia market in the future.
William Yang was Chinese, and he could speak Mandarin. He also knew about Hua Xia, and it was because of these reasons that he was appointed as the CEO of Hua Xia.
William Yang looked at the red-faced Boss Ma and the silent Boss Li. He was unhappy and thought to himself. "If it wasn't for Taobao, why would Amazon cooperate with these two unknown companies in Hua Xia? Out of these two people, one has no vision, and the other is annoying. "
Boss Ma was speaking to Yang Weilian in fluent English, "We can't invest too much in publicity in the beginning. 10 million RMB is the upper limit that I think is reasonable. At most, we can increase it to 2 million USD, no more!"
Weilian Yang knocked on the table and said to Boss Ma with slight disdain, "Boss Ma, Taobao has the backing of Muye Technology. Their online advertising ability is extremely powerful. If we don't invest more in advertising, how can we gain the upper hand under the threat of Taobao?"
Boss Ma said, "What we need to do is to differentiate our competition with Taobao. They used their Brand Day to strengthen Taobao's advantage in the sales of electronic products in front of the national consumers. Then we will use our promotional activities to establish our advantage in daily necessities."
Then, Boss Ma continued, "It's important to do some marketing on this basis, but there must be a limit. Currently, Le Tao only has about 30 million USD in its account, and we must be prepared to fight a protracted war with Taobao. We can't start a heavy asset operation right from the start. Otherwise, if our funds can't keep up, everything will go down the drain."
Why is Le Tao worth 500 million RMB when it is not online? It's not because it is valuable. It's because SoftBank and Amazon want to set the tone. "We are going to do something big together, and after setting the tone, we will pool money together to do it."
Amazon invested 500 million RMB in Le Tao, and this 150 million RMB will not be given to Boss Ma. It will be invested into Le Tao's account.
Boss Ma also had to rely on Softbank to take out the money to make up for the funds that belonged to him and Softbank.
Logically speaking, since Ali owned 51% of the shares, it would have to invest 255 million RMB. But because Le Tao was set up by Ali, the team was Ali, the framework was built by Ali, and the resources used were also from Ali, Ali enjoyed a certain discount on its resources. In actual fact, it was valued at 300 million RMB and invested 153 million RMB.
As for Dangdang's Li Guoqing, the Dangdang that he brought in had a certain value. Hence, he directly used Dangdang as his investment.
Dangdang was originally worth at least 50 million USD. But after Taobao's attack, although Dangdang suffered a huge loss, it was still slightly better than Zhuoyue. Dangdang was worth about 17 to 20 million USD, which was about 150 million RMB.
If Li Guoqing invested in Dangdang, it would be reasonable to give Li Guoqing at least 30% of the shares with a valuation of 500 million yuan. However, Boss Ma was not very optimistic about Li Guoqing, so he didn't want Li Guoqing to take too much of the shares. Back then, he set a merger plan where Li Guoqing would take 19% of the shares and provide him with an additional 50 million yuan in cash. Li Guoqing knew that he was in the greatest danger at the moment, so he agreed to Boss Ma's proposal without hesitation to share his risk with other partners.
As a result, Le Tao currently had about 250 million yuan in funds. It might seem like a lot, but this amount of money was needed to maintain the operation of an e-commerce platform after it went online, to fight a protracted war with a big platform like Taobao, to maintain a constantly expanding team, and to continue the investment in promotion. So, in summary, 250 million yuan was not a lot. If converted to US dollars, it was only slightly more than 30 million yuan.
Boss Ma also knows that with Li Mu around, Le Tao will not be able to make a profit within one to two years. If they run out of money, they will have to increase their capital or raise funds from other sources.
Amazon definitely has the ability to increase its investment anytime, but Softbank is disappointed with Feng Yu and had lost confidence in him. If not, they will not bring Amazon into Le Tao's project. Based on this situation, Feng Yu must be careful and not burn all his money. If not, Softbank will lose confidence when they realize this is a bottomless pit.
Softbank is a capital company. Once they lose confidence in the project, they will definitely think of ways to cash out and take out the money to invest in other projects.
Amazon is an e-commerce company, and they know the industry better. They also have money, and the most likely scenario is: SoftBank will sell their shares to Amazon, and Boss Ma can walk away with the money. No matter if the project is successful or not, SoftBank will get back their investment, and they might even get some profits.
At that time, Feng Yu will be in deep trouble. Amazon will use him to gain a foothold in China, and he will lose SoftBank. Amazon will have the majority of the shares, and Feng Yu and Li Guoqing will be purged. The real winners will be Amazon and SoftBank, and he will have nothing to do with it.
To Boss Ma, Sun Zhengyi might be trying to leave a backup plan for Amazon to take over Le Tao in the future. That's why Sun Zhengyi dragged Amazon into this project. That's why Boss Ma must prevent this from happening.
Boss Ma's guess was right on this point.
The reason why William Yang asked Boss Ma to invest more in marketing was because he had a bigger plan. He hoped that Le Tao would start burning money as soon as he appeared. The faster he burned money, the harder it would be for his opponents to catch up. As long as he could open up the pace, he would be able to gain a firm foothold in no time.
What William Yang meant was to gain a firm foothold in the market. In order to achieve this goal, Le Tao had to continue to invest heavily.
It's hard for an e-commerce platform to make profits, and with such a strong competitor, they must be prepared not to make profits in the long run. If Le Tao can burn money faster, SoftBank will be scared. If Le Tao runs out of money quickly, SoftBank will have to reconsider if they want to continue. If they want to retreat, Amazon can buy out SoftBank's shares and control Le Tao. Le Tao will also have a strong foundation in China, and Amazon can think of ways to force Ali and Li Guoqing to give up more shares. At that time, Amazon can take over Le Tao and take over the company.
Amazon's plan is to look for two Hua Xia companies to build fortifications and dig trenches. After the fortifications and trenches are completed, they will think of ways to chase these two companies out of Hua Xia.
Once Amazon achieves this goal, they can bring in more funds from the US capital market, and a large amount of USD will be transferred to their bridgehead in the Chinese market. After that, they will be unstoppable and take over the entire Chinese market.
Boss Ma and William Yang didn't get along with each other from the very beginning because they had their own ulterior motives. They didn't like each other at all. Before this, they only hid their dislike for each other in their hearts. However, today's meeting was the first time their conflict had been exposed.
William Yang was firm and asked Boss Ma to increase his investment.
Boss Ma was even more determined. He even slammed the table and said to Yang Weilian loudly, "Two million USD at most is already a big concession! I will not pay more than that! "
William Yang was so angry that he slammed the table and stood up as well. "Boss Ma, our cooperation has just begun. Please don't create cracks and gaps in our hearts at the beginning of our cooperation!"
Boss Ma replied coldly. "If Mr. Yang is not satisfied, you can walk out of this meeting. Don't forget that Amazon only owns 30% of the shares. Even if Li Zong supports your strategy, I will not agree!"
Then, Boss Ma pointed at himself and said word by word in an extremely domineering manner, "I have the final say here!"
Boss Ma was a very territorial person, and his management skills were extremely strong. In his previous life, even Sun Zhengyi and Yahoo were no match for him. Otherwise, why would Alipay break its contractual control relationship with Alibaba and separate from Alibaba's system?
William Yang didn't expect that the short, skinny, and weak-looking Boss Ma could be so domineering. He wanted to pressure Boss Ma, but he didn't expect that Boss Ma would use the controlling stake to pressure him. He didn't give him any leeway, so he had to give up for now.
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