After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future-Chapter 318 - 317: DiDi in Trouble
"Go ahead and contact them in my name," Lu Liang said as he flipped through DiDi’s information, which had developed as quickly as a rocket in the past few years compared to the financing of OFO back then.
As of last month, they had completed 9 rounds of financing, totaling over 20 billion US dollars, with a valuation reaching 50 billion US dollars.
They had become the technology company with the highest total amount of financing and the most rounds, yet still unlisted worldwide.
Zhu Hu’s most famous achievement was leading the A-round investment in DiDi with 3 million US dollars, obtaining a 20% equity stake.
Even after eight rounds of equity dilution, he still held 5.58% of the shares, worth 2.79 billion US dollars.
Until now, he had made a 930-fold return.
"DiDi, Pinduoduo, Meituan, I missed out on each and every one."
Lu Liang sighed helplessly. His entry into the market had been too late; if he had started earlier, perhaps he wouldn’t have missed these three unicorn companies.
However, he thought of Douyin, which was somewhat consoling. Among the four unicorn enterprises of recent years, at least he had managed to get a hold of one.
He had just talked with Zhang Yiming, whose TK was surging in the international market, pushing forward irresistibly.
YouTube’s foray into the short video segment didn’t even qualify to compete directly with them, getting knocked down without a chance.
After all, the "King of Gu" trained by seven hundred million users and an almost demonic algorithm had gone international, a form of dimensionality reduction strike.
Especially abroad, where there were hardly any minors subject to addiction protection, and the scale of operations was particularly large following the acquisition of Musical.ly and the lifting of copyright quality control.
TK went into wild celebration mode, growing its market more and more, currently with about eighty million international users, directly hitting an average online duration of 4.3 hours per day.
Under the algorithm’s recommendations, it could be described as electronic opium, enjoyable momentarily with every swipe, continuously enjoyable with continuous swiping.
Without realizing it, the valuation had reached 12 billion US dollars, and Lu Liang owned a 9.25% equity stake, currently valued at 1.11 billion US dollars.
After a while, Hu Weiwei finished her call with Liu Qing and came over, saying, "Mr. Lu, Mr. Liu is very eager to meet with you and is very interested in our cooperation. However, Mr. Liu and Mr. Cheng are not in Beijing, and it looks like we’ll have to wait until next Tuesday for their availability."
"Mr. Liu also said if by then you’re not in Beijing, she would be willing to visit you in Modu."
"Understood."
Lu Liang nodded slightly. He had just seen it too, DiDi’s acquisition of Uber was under investigation by the Ministry of Commerce for antitrust reasons.
After five or six years of fierce competition in the ride-hailing market and as users gradually became accustomed to and accepted the existence of ride-hailing services,
DiDi was preparing to go public. The last step before the listing was to merge with Uber, achieving unification within the industry.
But that’s where they ran into serious trouble.
"Mr. Lu, are you going to wait for them?" Hu Weiwei asked.
"Hmm, let’s not wait for the time being."
Lu Liang pondered. The Liu family was so powerful, how come they couldn’t handle an antitrust law.
Back then, Ali Group was also investigated, also under the name of antitrust, but they resolved the issue quickly and went public in the US.
He always felt there was a story behind it, but no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t figure it out, so he decisively called up Hu to have dinner together that evening.
In the evening, Lu Liang went to Hot Mansion.
He had brought Douyin’s employees here once, and the experience was quite good. Recently he had been feeling a bit itchy, thinking it had been a long time since he had had a good scrub, so he arranged to meet Zhu Hu here.
Zhu Hu had something to deal with and would come later, so Lu Liang started soaking first, until his head was dizzy.
Suddenly, a zero-point splash woke Lu Liang up.
Zhu Hu dived into the water, holding his breath fiercely for a while before finally surfacing, wiping the water off his face, and smiling, "Old Lu, how come you’re in the mood to invite me for a bath tonight?"
"Night-time celestial observation told me you’ve been a bit stressed lately, so I invited you over to relieve some pressure, relax the mind and body."
Lu Liang walked to the edge, pulled out two bottles of cold beer, handed one to Zhu Hu, and clinked bottles.
Draining almost half a bottle in one go, the head befuddled from the hot spring instantly cleared up.
Zhu Hu took a big gulp, teasing, "So can you tell me, is this situation a blessing or a curse for brother Hu?"
"Sorry, my master hasn’t taught me that yet."
Lu Liang, in his damp shorts, sat on the edge, slightly adjusting the crotch to prevent Little Lu from being too conspicuous.
He sipped the cold beer while soaking his feet, propped on one hand behind him, and looked up at the starless night sky, "I’m hitting a bottleneck in the development of the intelligence driving system, and I plan to involve third-party forces."
"Who?" Zhu Hu’s eyebrows raised, immediately realizing that Lu Liang was ready to officially enter the new energy field.
He had shamelessly bargained for a 10% stake in Tianxing Technology at a cost of 230 million yuan, assuring them he wouldn’t rush them or interfere with day-to-day operations. Even if Lu Liang wanted to wait until the seas were dry and the rocks crumbled away, Golden Sand River would have no complaints.
But now that Lu Liang was looking to bring in a third party, not everyone might be as easygoing as Golden Sand River.
Lu Liang would have to be aware of this.
Zhu Hu reasonably guessed that Lu Liang was preparing to make a move and was currently getting ready for the final push.
"DiDi. To accelerate the research and development of intelligent driving, you need DiDi’s database."
Lu Liang smiled without concealment since Golden Sand River was the only shareholder besides himself.
"DiDi? That might be difficult."
Old Zhu furrowed his brows, shifted his seat to the edge, and decided not to soak in Lu Liang’s footbath anymore.
He sighed and said, "Lu, do you really think DiDi is just under antitrust investigation?"
"Could there be more to it?" asked Lu Liang, intrigued.
Zhu Hu glanced at Xu Jiawei not far away, and Lu Liang gestured for him to step out, comprehending the hint.
Zhu Hu spoke softly, "It’s under suspicion from National Security, hence the guise of an antitrust investigation."
"How did they provoke National Security?" Lu Liang’s frown deepened, his expression filled with even more confusion.
Zhu Hu looked troubled, "Apparently, they leaked sensitive information like maximum slope gradients and minimum curve radii. National Security suspects a secret deal with certain foreign forces."
"Are they insane? Isn’t that like selling out?" Lu Liang’s frown grew tighter.
The precision of high-resolution maps is generally at the sub-meter level. Taking Gaode as an example, the accuracy could go up to within 10 centimeters if they want. Last year, DiDi also obtained a license for high-resolution maps. Ten centimeters might not seem much, but even Little Lu’s length is more than ten centimeters.
Moreover, DiDi, as a national-level app, had a total of 5.423 billion rides last year, with more than 200 million users.
Out of these two hundred million people, some are surely on confidential duties. When they travel, where they pass by, and their destinations are all recorded.
If enemies get hold of this data, they will know exactly which places to target in case of a war.
They could even use the information to speculate about secret military fortresses and other restricted areas.
"I don’t know much more than this," Zhu Hu said, with a helpless sigh. He couldn’t care less about national land security or data leaks. His only concern was whether DiDi could go public smoothly and if he could cash in on the 930-fold return on his investment.
Zhu Hu paused and added, "Partnering with DiDi is indeed good, but don’t get involved in this mess."
Take Lenovo, for example, they can secure municipal orders year after year, almost becoming synonymous with government machinery.
The fact that even the Liu family couldn’t lend a hand with the DiDi fiasco shows just how serious the trouble was.
Lu Liang took a swig of beer, "Don’t worry, it’s just business. At most, we’ll accept investment from DiDi."
"Is the public fund in place?" Zhu Hu queried. freёwebnoѵel.com
"Pretty much. Just wait another two months to see how things go."
Zhu Hu heaved a melancholic sigh, "You’ve almost forgotten about private equity."
"Forgotten? Didn’t you get the notice? It’s at 1.85 this month."
Lu Liang squinted, having just heard the news the day before yesterday about a huge market move in mid-September.
Once he withdrew from the public fund, he would launch another private equity round to make a big profit and have the money to build cars.
Zhu Hu mockingly said, "The gains in recent months have been mostly from Tesla’s rise, with little else in terms of profit."
"Isn’t Tesla’s rise considered a profit? Don’t dismiss the village chief as an unofficial."
Lu Liang pulled Zhu Hu up from the pond, shoving him along, "Come on, come on, your feet are all soaked. Let’s go get some late-night food."
"Late-night food? Isn’t that too austere?"
"You’re getting older and need to take care of your health. Don’t be out partying every night; beware of impotence."
"I don’t know why, but I just can’t believe it when those words come from you."
Zhu Hu looked disgusted and made a direct call to summon his own mistress.
Two of them, he wanted to have some fun tonight.
