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On a piece of cardboard, with a heavy black ink pen, the words "professional car inspection", "high-priced recycling of used cars" and "vehicle transfer" are written, and a long list of telephone numbers are attached.

The roadside is littered with men and women who speak local dialects, holding such "billboards" in their hands. They tend to carry different satchels and different thermos bottles, but they have the same alertness. As soon as they see the meaning of stopping, they will immediately flock to surround the owners and promote the "one-stop" service from buying a car to selling a car.

This is the scene more than ten years ago, outside the old motor vehicle trading center of Nanjing Daming Road, a well-known automobile commercial street in China. These placards are the legendary "car bugs", that is, "second-hand dealers" in the used car trading chain.

The same grand occasion also appeared in Hu Axiang and the Asian Games Village. Behind the enthusiasm of car dealers like hungry wolves catching rabbits are the drawbacks of the used car market that have been precipitated for many years: one car at a price, forged mileage, forged car conditions and so on.

The opportunity of the internet is here.

When Yang Haoyong entered the field of used cars in 20 14, he was obviously full of confidence. At the end of the year, Jiji.com, which has not merged with 58 cities, released the first O2O project "Gathering Cars". C2C？ This model cuts into the used car market.

654.38 billion US dollars, which is the capital that Yang Haoyong will invest in 2065.438+05.

When Internet forces try to change traditional industries, opening the way with money is often the most direct and effective way. Three months later, the compound growth rate of good cars in the market exceeded 300%, and Yang Haoyong set a new goal: 20 15 years, with an average monthly transaction volume of 10,000 vehicles and an annual transaction volume exceeding10 billion yuan.

But he had no time to realize.

On April 20 15, 58 Tongcheng and Jiji.com merged under the matching of capital. Prior to this, the two companies were at war, and the marketing budget for 20 15 years was as high as 1500 million dollars. Yao Jinbo once joked that he missed Yang Haoyong more than his wife. In the end, the two embraced reconciliation at the press conference that announced the merger, ending this commercial war that lasted for ten years.

This is the tenth year of Yang Haoyong's pioneering work. High flyers, who graduated from the Computer Department of Yale University, founded the market after returning to China. When Yao Jinbo is joking, why don't we hug and cry? This will definitely make headlines. Yang Haoyong replied, I really can't cry.

I haven't lived for decades, especially the energetic golden decade.

Yang Haoyong chose to turn around. Seven months later, he quit the 58 Fair Group and started a new business. He took the good car out of the market-at this time, it was renamed as "melon seeds used car" and swaggered into this emerging market. He is still very optimistic about this industry. Compared with the maturity of the United States, the domestic used car market still has great potential and poor user experience. These are opportunities. Of course, 58 also gained a new identity through negotiations: melon seed major shareholder and first-round investor.

Yang Haoyong obviously intends to copy another golden decade. At the beginning of Guazi's independence, individuals contributed 60 million US dollars, accounting for more than 50% of the company's shares, and encouraged the core team with equity to increase the competitive advantage.

"These funds, what projects do you say are better than your own investment?" Yang Haoyong said.

02

20 15, 1 1 At the end of the year, a certain media awarded the "20 15 Top Ten Marketers in China" award to Yang Haoyong, CEO of melon seeds used car at that time.

The development of melon seeds is very fast, and it can rank first in the industry in just a few months.

Yang Haoyong's so-called success strategy is simple: throwing money at marketing. This is the experience he has summed up in the past ten years. In the battle with 58 cities, Jiji.com invested more than 4 billion yuan in advertising and marketing expenses, which burned up the achievements of the two giants. Naturally, this sweetness was grafted into his second entrepreneurial career.

So, when the melon seeds used car was just born, Yang Haoyong spent 200 million yuan on advertising-in fact, this figure is nothing to Yang Hao. As early as before, he could bid up to 200 million pounds and get 20 million pounds worth of advertising space with Yao Jinbo.

Of course, this 200 million also played a great role. For a time, the subways, elevators and main roads in the whole city were occupied by bright blue and yellow advertisements. "melon seeds used car direct sales network: individuals sell to individuals, and there is no middleman to earn the difference." This kind of bombing marketing has directly increased the UV of melon seed websites by nearly five times. At the end of 20 15, the number of platform vehicles on the shelves also soared from the daily average of 200 in September to more than 700/kloc-0.

What is the logic of this methodology? Is to occupy the user's mind.

Yang Haoyong explained that in the category of used cars, users' minds have not been occupied. "In this case, the more people I advertise, the more people I will establish contact and draw this equal sign. This value is priceless. " .

In fact, Yang Haoyong is not the first person in the used car industry to eat crabs. By the end of 20 14, the hot money of capital has entered the track.

2065438+July 2004, Red Dot Venture Capital China Fund invested US$ 5 million in everyone, becoming an A-round investor. Renren Car was founded by Li Jian, who was born in Baidu. Only five months later, Renren.com completed another $20 million Series B financing. In 20 14 and 20 15 years, Xinyou also completed the series B financing of $260 million and the series C financing of $1700,000 respectively.

When Renren was first introduced, nearly 70% of motor vehicles were sold in just two weeks. This is the strongest opponent of melon seeds used car at the beginning-Renren car is also C2C mode. As a second-hand car trading platform, it provides pre-sales and after-sales services and charges a fixed agency fee.

Yang Haoyong is ambitious. He once claimed to occupy it within a year? C2C？ Domain name? 80%? Market share, that means, to pull down the head of Renren's industry, marketing is undoubtedly his best means. He became a staunch supporter of the "positioning theory" of marketing, and he was proud of the slogan "No middleman makes a difference"-in 2065438+09, he estimated the value of this sentence to be 10 billion dollars.

Everyone's car was originally slowly moving forward by word of mouth. This was caught off guard by the marketing strategy of melon seeds, and there was no way to start the advertising war. Soon, everyone signed Bo Huang and began to fight with melon seeds. Meanwhile, B2B? The traditional second-hand car e-commerce platform has begun to transform to B2C and join the melee. In 20 15, 30 million gold 60-second advertising space was invested in the most popular variety shows "The Voice of China" and "Night of Champions", and several stars such as Du Haitao, Wang and Sun were invited to record advertisements for ghost animals.

For a time, advertisements for used car platforms can be seen everywhere in the country. At the busiest time, someone booked a slightly high-quality advertising space with Jiang Nanchun. Jiang Nanchun could only wave his hand: "Sorry, it was occupied by three used cars." Of course, these advertisements are also very annoying, no less than the works directly hired by boss and taken before the Earl's trip.

It can be said that the advertising money-burning war initiated by Yang Haoyong, with the deepening of the Internet, swept the used car market. This is a familiar game for capital. Previously, the capital with heavy money has set off several rounds of tragic Internet business wars, such as Didi Kuaidi, Meituan, and public comments, and 58 and Jiji.com have also been affected to some extent. And this battle of used cars is also the residual temperature of capital burning money.

On August 20 16, Renren.com completed the $85 million Series C financing, and Tencent became the lead investor. After Yang Haoyong invested US$ 60 million, the second-hand car of Guazi ushered in Series A financing exceeding US$ 250 million in September of the same year, and eight investment institutions including Sequoia Capital, Jingwei China and Lanchi Venture Capital jointly settled in. At this time, Xinyou used car has also completed the D-round financing of up to $500 million at the beginning of 20 16.

Photo: Yang Haoyong, founder of melon seeds used car

However, different from other Internet platforms' bloody expansion to seize market share and gradually reform the industry, the Internet advertising war brought by Yang Haoyong to the used car market has not really changed the core pain point of this market: the unclear profit model. In addition, in the big market environment with imperfect credit system, the dream of Internet platform trying to solve information asymmetry with technology has not really come true.

Is melon seed used car 20 18 online? AI？ Pricing, but the system pricing is not accurate. A front-line employee revealed that when selling and collecting cars, even if the price is considered too high, there is no right to modify it. High pricing can help sales to better complete the task of collecting cars. Therefore, even if they know that these cars can't be sold after they go online, the sales will be collected. When the system pricing is too low, the seller will turn to the traditional offline channel.

Obviously, this is a "trap" in the name of intelligence. But in terms of financing, this story really works.

In 20 19, Yang Hao appeared at the shareholders' meeting of Softbank group to share the story of transforming traditional industries with artificial intelligence technology, which was affirmed by Sun Zhengyi: "The melon seed used car is the only one in the world that can transform AI? Effectively applied to enterprises in the used car industry. "

In March of that year, the used car of melon seeds received an investment of $65.438+RMB 50 million from Softbank.

03

What is money to Yang Hao? It is something that can help the company develop rapidly.

He believes in "too? Big? Where to? Die "rule, the typical enterprises are Didi and Meituan. When the volume is large enough, even if it loses money year after year and makes a living by financing, it has firmly established itself in the world.

Obviously, for him, marketing is the key means for startups to establish themselves and become giants. He once said that even if he keeps burning money, he should do a good job in the market. "Ensure that each stage has enough funds to support the development at this stage. In the process of financing, make a good market model and don't make the first mistake. "

20 16 On the melon seed platform featuring C2C mode, it was exposed that second-hand car dealers were fishing in troubled waters and pretending to be individual car sellers to trade. Melon seeds have taken a series of measures, such as identifying telephones, blacklisting and erecting high-voltage lines, but they have been repeatedly banned. On 20 17, Guazi launched a guaranteed sales service, paying users 50%-80% of the car money in advance to sell the car-which means that it has changed from a light platform model that only deals with transactions to a large-scale offline model with warehousing and inventory.

Yang Haoyong, which made its fortune by traffic competition, also took traffic competition as its thinking, seized territory and expanded the market. Therefore, for a long time, even if the platform trading model is not perfect, offline expansion will enter a period of rapid expansion early. He described, "Our speed is like changing the engine when flying a plane, so we have to change it."

Every step of melon seeds is carried out with great fanfare.

On the one hand, melon seeds have expanded diversified businesses such as soybean new car network on the basis of used car business. 2065438+September 2007, Maodou New Car Network was established, mainly engaged in new car rental and sales services. At the beginning of the brand launch, Yang Haoyong plans to open 300 offline direct stores in 200 cities across the country in 20 18.

On the other hand, melon seeds began to transform, telling a new story of "online and offline integration", that is, opening offline yeast shops on a large scale in the country, providing one-stop services for second-hand car transactions such as car collection, car sales, finance and testing. In 20 18, YEATION stores entered a period of crazy expansion. Only in February of that year, 1 1 selected stores opened.

For Yang Hao, speed is not a problem. Based on his judgment, the business model of more than ten years ago will be subverted in only three or four years.

The used car industry needed such a rapid subversion, but it finally got out of control.

Melon seeds have been established for just four years, from used cars and new cars to car maintenance and financial services. This table was originally a small dining table that changed the trading mode of personal used cars, and the dishes kept piling up, which made the diners at the table feel pain.

Since the second half of last year, melon seeds used cars have frequently fallen into layoffs. Yang Haoyong explained that personnel optimization is only an act of reducing costs and increasing efficiency in the cold winter background. "Enterprises are ultimately profitable. As head enterprises, they need to reserve some winter food. "

How can this entrepreneur who has been in the shopping mall for more than ten years not know that mass layoffs are a sign that a company is in a life-and-death dilemma?

In 20 12 years, the high traffic in Jiji.com caused by huge advertising investment failed to turn into real sales revenue, and the newly developed group buying business failed. The company began to lay off employees, from a few thousand at the peak to less than 900 now, and VP also left one after another. Its account funds were once embarrassed to support only six months of operation.

It seems to have entered a reincarnation. At the end of last year, CEO of Cheduo Group and Lei of Cheduo Group resigned one after another, and the latter was in charge of group marketing strategy formulation and post-market business.

In addition, YEATION store, once regarded as a new story, has also become a burden. July 20 19, the melon seed center was transferred to the whole country. Since June, 1 1, many YEATION stores have been downgraded-once flagship stores in Northeast China such as Shenyang Store, Handan Store and Qingdao Store, and offices and used cars have all moved into the cold underground parking lot. Some customers went to see the car and once thought that they would call the police when they met fraudsters. Since the beginning of 2020, more stores, including Tianya Store in Wu Fang, Beijing, have been closed.

Yang Haoyong has his own version. He sent an internal letter on the eve of Mid-Autumn Festival last year, saying that in the extremely cold automobile market in 20 19, the income of melon seeds increased by 207% year-on-year, and the income of edamame increased by 238% year-on-year. This seems to be somewhat contrary to mass layoffs.

Some analysts say that Yang Haoyong just staged an "accounting scam". In the dual business of melon seeds used car and edamame new car, user loan has become the mainstream trading method. If the accounts receivable that have not been recovered in the next few years are counted as current income, it is easy to "make money".

It seems that the desire of the Internet to transform the outdated traditional used car industry has been gradually dispelled in the melee of several platforms. However, no one ever thought that while the simple ideal passed away, it also added another kind of chaos related to money.

04

At the end of last year, the melon seed yeast shop in Tongxing Pioneer Park, Yinfu Street, Nanjing did not move due to the expiration of the lease, and nearly 100 motor vehicles were seized by the property.

However, half a year ago, this shop with an area of nearly 1.7 million square meters opened, which also attracted countless consumers to experience it. The in-store design is designed by the Royal Design Team of Apple Experience Store, presenting a simple and fashionable texture. The annual rent of 654.38+million yuan is naturally more textured.

The spacious and bright lobby, with more than 300 professionally tested high-quality used cars parked neatly, has exhibition area, re-inspection area, photo area, experience area and trading area, and is equipped with one-stop services such as consultation, transaction finance and insurance.

Just like this YEATION store, it makes people feel that it was a sensation when it landed, but after it faded, it was just a chicken feather.

20 17 is the year with the largest influx of hot money. According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of the year alone, there were at least 8 financing cases in the field of used car e-commerce, with a cumulative amount of10 billion yuan. However, according to the statistics of automobile dealers association, the transaction volume of used car e-commerce in 20 16 years only accounts for 1.49% of the total transaction volume of used cars. Last year, iResearch released an industry research report, and the data showed that the penetration rate of used car e-commerce reached 19% in 20 19 years.

Obviously, the change that really goes deep into the industry has not happened yet.

Yang Haoyong is short of ammunition. Once, he didn't worry about changing money. Cheduo has received a huge amount of financing every few months since it received a $400 million Series B financing in June, 20 17. 20 18, 10, Cheduo completed the C+ round financing of 65,438+62 million USD. In February of the following year, Softbank invested $65.438+0.5 billion in exchange for 58 shares in the same city.

Since then, the financing story seems to have been suddenly pressed the pause button. Many cars have no new financing records. Last July, it was even reported that Yang Haoyong was entrusting Credit Suisse Bank with a new round of debt financing. Yang Haoyong was noncommittal: "Winter grain storage is what all enterprises should do."

His old rival Yao Jinbo is gaining momentum.

In 20 19, 58 announced the sale of most shares of melon seeds used car group, with a profit of 7 10/00000 dollars, and then turned to lead the investment; On March 12, 2020, 58 revealed in the financial report that a small number of shares of Cheduo Group were sold again; On March 24, 58 announced that it has a B-side business and a faction-there are indications that 58 will enter the battlefield of used car trading.

This also means that the agreement between Yao Jinbo and Yang Haoyong when they broke up: In the used car market, 58 is for information and melon seeds are for trading, which is completely out of date. If so, Yang Haoyong needs to fight Yao Jinbo again, and its "same city" and "same town" have become the king of traffic in the segmentation field.

Figure: President and CEO of 58 Company? Michael Yao

This war may not be easier than that decade.

In the video program interviewed by the media, Yang Haoyong once admitted that there is no law of immortality in starting a business. I prefer to pursue the uncertainty of starting a business,' he said. "Well, I'm not sure."

Five years ago, employees who had been following the company since the era of melon seeds did not like this uncertainty, and the wave of layoffs surged. This early spring is not warmer than last winter. There are still many young people who feel the collapse of faith. When they first joined the internet company, they were given the mission of reforming the used car market and inspired more vitality. Even in the cold months of June 5438+February, the melon seed employees in Shenyang will clean up hundreds of used cars and put them in order.

Now, everything is in the past. The glory of Daming Road in Nanjing, an automobile commercial street, has long since disappeared.

Before the rise of internet e-commerce, the city began to transform on a large scale, and the automobile industry moved out of the main city and entered the sub-urban areas such as Jiangning. At present, the second-hand car trading centers are scattered around the sub-city, several trading centers are separated, and second-hand car dealers are scattered outside the market to re-flow.

It seems that the internet revolution has never happened in the future.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.