Meituan's Make-or-Break Battle: Wang Xing's 10 Survival Secrets from 10 Years of Entrepreneurship

Introduction: In August 2014, the monthly transaction volume of Meituan. com exceeded 4.5 billion yuan. As one of the best product managers in China and a geek entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, how did Wang Xing mature step by step and complete the transformation from product manager to entrepreneur?

China e-cigarette information: In August 2014, the monthly transaction volume of Meituan. com exceeded 4.5 billion yuan. As one of the best product managers in China and a geek entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, how did Wang Xing mature step by step and complete the transformation from product manager to entrepreneur? The following is an absolute summary of Wang Xing's ten years of entrepreneurship.

1. Entrepreneurship alone is not enough

At that time, Xiaonei was forced to sell because Wang Xing had not completed the financing and the capital chain broke.

When Xiaonei was financing, Sequoia investors asked Wang Xing and others how Xiaonei made money. They didn't think clearly and answered vaguely: websites are related to geographical location and can be advertised. At that time, who would have thought that SNS websites would make money from games? Wang Xing and the others didn't expect it, so their answers weren't even satisfied with them, let alone the investors.

Regarding this issue, Wang Huiwen, co-founder of Xiaonei Network and vice president of Meituan, was disdainful. With rapid growth and a large number of users, there will definitely be ways to make money in the future. There is no need to discuss this issue. Investors asked how you planned to promote it? Their answer is that students are about to have a holiday, so prepare to do some activities. The investor replied, OK, then you can go back and do it. When it came to prices, they offered millions of dollars. The investor said that your price is not low. They replied, wait a little longer and we will be higher.

Wang Xing later reflected on his mistake: the most precise description of entrepreneurship is that the essence of entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunities and temporarily ignores how much resources he currently controls. But entrepreneurship alone is not enough. You also have to communicate. Tolerance is important. rdquo;

2. Playing only with feelings is going astray

The Internet era is an era when product is king, and it is an era where perfectionists have systematic advantages. Only people with very strong perfectionism can polish products so well. If the products are excellent, the whole company will win.

Wang Xing is one of the top product managers in China. However, achieving this level of product managers is not a question of whether the user experience is good or not, or whether something is done to the extreme. Regarding product managers, Wang Xing's point of view is:

“If you feel that a product should meet the needs of users, you must understand what kind of people and what needs you have to meet. This is the core thing. Just like during the development of WeChat, this team was very literary, right? Having more literary and artistic feelings is of course the icing on the cake, but I don't think it's the key. If a product does not have a solid foundation, does not clearly distinguish what core needs are, does not understand which needs of users to meet, and learns those literary and artistic feelings, it is completely misguided. rdquo;

3. The secret weapon of the US group”

In Wang Xing's eyes, Meituan.com will continue to improve its IT system, train employees, strive to achieve higher efficiency, lower costs, and provide consumers with lower prices. In layman's terms, it means giving consumers more, better and cheaper food, drink and play. This is not easy to do. Low prices every day, you understand it, but it is very difficult to achieve. This tests the company's IT capabilities and supply chain management capabilities. Supply chain management relies on excellent IT technology to support it.

Wang Xing said: The IT system should be used as much as possible in all aspects of the company, in all departments, positions, and links. Generally, the value of technology in this industry cannot be reflected in the short term, but in the long run, most people underestimate the value of technology in this industry. Meituan. com is leading the industry. Running faster is directly related to information. The simplest example is that in June 2011, we knew how many people there were in Meituan. It took us a year and a half to always know how many people we have and whether these people are really working. When the city expanded to 100, people joined and left every day, and there were also people who left their jobs every day. There were also people who were paid without pay. Many of our opponents are even later than us and can't figure out how many people the company has.& rdquo;

In July 2011, Meituan completed the second round of financing, including Alibaba. At that time, Wang Xing was troubled by how to manage the BD (Business Development) department, and he was annoyed by the poaching of talents from competitors. The investor suggested that he consult Gan Jiawei. He is 10 years older than Wang Xing, an employee of Alibaba No. 67 and a vice president in charge of B2B sales.

After five months of talks, Wang Xing persuaded Gan Jiawei to serve as the COO of Meituan, responsible for the supply chain management of Meituan. com. The sales department, quality control department, editorial department, sales support department, customer service department, and commodity group buying department were all under his management. He chatted with people from various departments and felt that it was not easy for Meituan to survive until today. It wasn't even a mistake, but it was because it didn't know what a mistake was." rdquo;#p#pagination title #e#

Gan Jiawei's three axes laid the foundation for performance growth in 2012: in terms of hardware, the organizational structure was changed and the regional system was launched; in terms of software, the sales management system was established; and the business strategy of crazy visits and crazy orders was implemented.

In the past, it was unclear whether the main line of sales management was market-oriented or management and efficiency-oriented. After Qian Jiawei made it clear that increasing effective supply can drive performance, it is cost leadership and efficiency leadership. In 2012, the sales direction of Meituan. com was clarified, with frantic visits and orders to increase effective supply.

Meituan Online's SKUs have exploded, and its transaction volume has also exploded. It began to surge in March 2012. Quality control and technical foundation are better than others, the direction is clear, supply is increased, sales team management is implemented, and efficiency is improved, which opens the gap. As of August 2014, Meituan. com's market share exceeded 58%.

5. What mistakes cannot be made in entrepreneurship

Not blindly advertising offline in the first half of 2011 was one of the most correct things Meituan did. Entrepreneurship sometimes competes on who makes fewer mistakes and lives longer with less money. On campus, Wang Xing learned a lesson and must leave sufficient funds and pay enough attention to cash flow. Group buying websites that rely on capital power to fatten up expose the foundation of puffiness when capital suddenly encounters cold. In 2011, the number of employees in a group buying company once climbed to more than 5000, which was a huge expense. In July 2011, the capital market cooled and no money could be raised. The funds in hand could not support the scale of expansion, so we quickly stepped on the brakes and laid off employees, from more than 5000 to more than 2000 people. The company is busy laying off employees, and everyone is in the mood to work. Meituan, on the other hand, quickly attacked because it carefully controlled operating costs and became the group buying website with the largest market share by the end of 2011.

6. Put aside disputes and innovate the team

In 2012, Wang Xing considered making movie tickets independent and letting Xu Wu be responsible for making cat's eye movies. Cat's Eye Movies is preparing to select seats online, which involves a very dirty, tiring and heavy task: ticket issuing machines need to be installed offline. The cost of a machine is more than 10,000 yuan. If it is laid across the country, the cost will be at least several million yuan.

Internally, the debate on why a ticket issuing machine was too loud and no one persuaded anyone, and there was a deadlock. According to Meituan.com's decision-making logic, we must think clearly before we can do it on a large scale. Xu Wu said: OK, wait until the first quarter is over before continuing to discuss what to do, and put aside the dispute first." rdquo; He led his team to continue negotiations with the ticketing system.

In October, Xu Wu combined the experience and lessons he learned over the past six months to focus issues on internal communication: Online seat selection is the future trend. Although group buying is the mainstream now, Shanghai has proved that the future of this industry lies in online seat selection. We must do it. Ticket issuing machines and ticketing systems are painful to do, but they are an indispensable part of completing the user experience. Although it is dirty and tiring, you must do it.

Now, Meituan Cat's Eye Movies has become the largest movie ticket distribution platform in China, accounting for one-fifth of the country's movie tickets. One out of every five movie tickets in the country is sold by Meituan Cat's Eye.

7. Wang Xing says there is something, I believe him“”

From campus, Fanfou to Meituan. com, Wang Xing's early entrepreneurial partners are all there, and now they are all the backbone of Meituan. com. Meituan. com is a happy story. The original entrepreneurs came together because of their entrepreneurial passion, ignorant and stumbling to explore the road to entrepreneurship, and then separated due to different interests, and finally reunited on Meituan. com. I asked Wang Xing: What are the reasons why you can reunite on Meituan.com? Wang Xing said four words: spirit of contract!& rdquo;

After Xiaonei was sold, Yang Jun (now the vice president of sales at Meituan) continued to follow Wang Xing to start a business. He was one of the shareholders of Fanfou. He left Fanfou for family reasons. When Wang Xing invited him to join Meituan. com again, Meituan. com had been in operation for some time, but his shares were transferred from Fanfou. com to Meituan. com and retained.

Wang Huiwen joined Meituan.com at the end of 2010, and Wang Xing promised his shares. In 2011, Meituan.com did financing, Alibaba's investors did due diligence, and the following dialogue had occurred with Wang Huiwen:

Investor: Do you know your shares in Meituan?

Wang Huiwen: I probably know it.

Investor: Have you signed the agreement?

Wang Huiwen: No.

Investor: Aren't you worried?

Wang Huiwen said: Don't worry, Wang Xing told me this (my shares) himself. He says there is, and I believe him.

8. Do entrepreneurs have foresight, heaven and earth?

The gap between far-sighted and far-sighted entrepreneurs is heaven and earth. The former can see what the picture will be for a long time in the future, and only by adhering to the right direction and moving forward can we reach our destination. Having foresight, strategic insight, and insisting on making the right choices, the company takes fewer detours and runs at the same speed. If you don't take detours, you will be faster than others.# p#pagination title #e#

Vision stems from insight into the nature of products and from insistence on independent thinking. Many people create group buying websites because group buying websites are popular. But Wang Xing is not. He is really studying the nature of group buying. He even deviates from the path of Groupon, a teacher at Meituan. com and the originator of group buying.

Groupon believes that merchants come first and consumers come second, and gain value from merchants, with a gross profit margin of as high as 40%; Meituan believes that consumers come first and merchants come second, and gain value from consumers, with low gross profit and must rely on a large number of consumers to maintain this model. In 2012, Wang Xing proposed the theory of three highs and three lows in group buying: low price, high quality, high efficiency, low cost, high technology, and low gross profit.

Wang Xing's understanding of group buying is the fundamental reason why Meituan. com is different from other group buying websites. Wang Xing's understanding of group buying is a yardstick used to measure various problems encountered in the company's operations and how to deal with them, and to correct them. Each nuance of correction ultimately allows Meituan. com to accumulate a gap between itself and other competitors.

9. This is the only criterion for Wang Xing to select senior executives

On Wang Xing's desk, there is a magazine with Lenovo Group as its cover. He said that Liu Chuanzhi's three management elements are very powerful, putting team building before deciding strategy.

An executive from a group buying website believes that Wang Xing is a product manager type and that there should be some strong people behind him. I don't think his strategy is very strong. Fortunately, the people who perform their duties in each business line of Meituan are very excellent." rdquo; Wang Huiwen said: This has something to do with Wang Xing's characteristics, which makes us very cautious in introducing talents. Some of our competitors have never introduced effective professional managers, while others have introduced them indiscriminately. Introducing an outstanding executive will definitely bring the company to a higher level. If the introduction is wrong, it will bring it to the next level. As we advance and retreat, the gap will widen.& rdquo;

Wang Huiwen took over the marketing department. Advertising was a troublesome matter. He felt that he couldn't get involved in this matter every day. He needed to find someone who could control this business, so he came to Chen Minming. When he was at Taofang.com, he also dealt with Chen Minming. Since April 2011, Wang Huiwen has been lobbying Chen Minming until August when the other party joined Meituan. com.

Chen Minming can calculate clearly what should be bought and what channels should not be bought. Many competitors just can't figure out this account.

In 2011, Meituan also successively introduced Guo Qiang, chief financial officer, Chen Liang, who is in charge of mobile, Yang Tao, director of customer service, and Gan Jiawei, COO. People originally at Meituan. com strongly feel that every time someone comes, Meituan. com will rise to a higher level.

In the book "Nine Losses and One Victory: Wang Xing, Founder of Meituan, Ten Years of Entrepreneurship", I spent a lot of ink and ink describing how the people around Wang Xing did things and what role they played in the entrepreneurial process. Wang Xing's ten years of entrepreneurship are closely related to the efforts of these people. It is also because of their efforts that Wang Xing is what he is today.

Wang Xing said: Thank you to the team for fighting side by side with me. Many people persevered during the stormy times.

10. The original intention of entrepreneurship cannot be mired in success or failure

Wang Xing has always believed that technology changes the world. rdquo; Wang Xing's hometown is in Longyan, Fujian Province, and he has loved science since he was a child. He skipped class to climb a train. The teacher criticized him for being naughty. He said, I am studying steam engines." rdquo; In the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school, he and his partners came into contact with radio, making tape recorders and power amplifiers; in middle school, they read books by Iacocca, Gates, and Dell together, tried to start a business and sell modems, and discussed the informatization described in "The Road to the Future". The future.

"Digital Survival" is Wang Xing's enlightenment on the Internet. The book says that the essence of the Internet is that moving bits is faster and cheaper than moving atoms. Wang Xing's father is in the cement business and was the first to buy computers in Longyan. In 1995, Wang Xing logged into the BBS in Guangzhou by dialing up and browsed other people's messages. The wonderful world of the Internet opened before his eyes. In 1997, Wang Xing went to Beijing to study. Tsinghua BBS made him feel that the whole world was at his fingertips.“”

“Jobs gave a speech at Stanford and said that many things can only be connected by looking back. From my earliest interest in computers and learning programming to later going abroad, these experiences have jointly influenced my entrepreneurship.& rdquo; Wang Xing said.

“I think most people will fail in starting a business and have to prepare for the worst. However, whether you start a business or not does not depend on whether it will fail, but whether you are interested in the process and whether you believe in your goal enough. Even if you fail, you feel that the journey is worth it. Your efforts are worth it, so do it.& rdquo;