Top of the big era

As for the third thing, it was actually a bit unexpected for Zhou Buqi.

It’s about the rental market.

Last year, Zhou Buqi paid attention to this market, but the situation was complicated, so he put it on hold and planned to look for opportunities in the future.

Unexpectedly, these little secretaries were so attentive that they continued to follow up.

Finally, a surprising choice was given - Lianjia.

The reason why we chose Lianjia among the vast number of rental platforms is that, in addition to the company’s strong strength, rapid development, and good reputation, the most important reason is that these little secretaries have thoroughly studied and implemented Boss Zhou’s platform economy. guiding ideology.

To build a platform, it must be "self-operated + third party".

Self-operation can improve service quality and brand influence, which is small but refined; third party can expand the company's scale and increase overall revenue, which is large and comprehensive.

There are a few companies that have achieved success by relying on third-party services, such as Tianya, Taobao, and Wanda Mall.

A small project like Tianya is relatively easy to do.

If mega-projects like Taobao and Wanda Plaza, which are targeting the whole country, rely on the support of "third parties" to develop, they must have genius product design and highly imaginative business model innovation.

This happens too rarely.

Most of the time, we start with self-operation and build the platform first through self-operation. After it develops, third parties will be introduced to join the platform to expand its scale.

Such as Dangdang, Amazon, JD.com.

Including the three major portals Sohu, Sina, and NetEase, the news on the website is written by the website's own editors and reporters, and then posted on the Internet. It is a self-operated model.

Another example is KFC.

At the beginning, I opened a number of self-operated stores, established the business model, service process, and supply chain system, and formed a certain brand before opening them to third parties. Others can spend money to apply to join KFC and open a KFC store, and the scale effect will appear.

Even at the beginning of QQ, several founders acted as "self-operated users". They had to disguise themselves as girls and chat with other users in order to attract more people to the product.

Especially when it comes to asset-heavy businesses, self-operation is even more important.

The rental industry is obviously an asset-heavy industry.

However, the current rental websites on the Internet are all asset-light models. They build a platform-style website and then advertise to attract homeowners and real estate agents to list their properties on the platform for those who have rental needs. User.

The website receives a commission from this.

This model is simple to operate, but it faces too many problems later. In order to attract users, many websites will engage in fraud and create a lot of fake housing listings on the platform to create the illusion of abundant resources.

The current chaos in the rental market is not caused by any one aspect, but is also closely related to the chaos on those rental websites.

Zhou Buqi doesn't like any of these broken companies.

These girls in the secretarial office who have little work experience may not be able to make good business judgments and market analyses, but one good thing is that they are obedient.

Since you don't understand, don't think about it, just follow the person who understands and listen to his instructions.

They have unconditional trust in Boss Zhou.

Not self-operated?

Then, they really found such a family.

It’s Lianjia Online.

This is currently the only website in China that only provides self-operated rental properties. Because it is only self-operated, its business scale and popularity are definitely not as good as those third-party service platforms such as 58, Anjuke, and Ganji.com.

However, Lianjia has the best reputation, has no mess at all, and has better after-sales service. Because their properties are all self-operated, they are either bought or rented, and are then managed by Lianjia’s system.

It’s a bit like JD Logistics.

JD.com's logistics centers are either built by themselves or rented. They are all managed and deployed by JD Logistics and have nothing to do with third parties.

If you are self-employed, you must serve yourself, and of course you must do your best and work as a team; as a third party, others serve others, and even if you want to do your best, you will often be unable to do so.

The Lian Family was first discovered by Zhao Li Muge, and she took the initiative to explain, "The listings of the Lian Family are all real, and they have even established a listing dictionary!"

Zhou Buqi asked: "What is a property dictionary?"

Zhao Li Muge said: "The Lian family is not willing to just do its own business, but also wants to promote the progress of the entire industry. We have the same idea. We all want to help young people solve some difficulties in renting houses. Housing Dictionary... For example For the capital’s housing dictionary, Lianjia will send people to conduct on-the-spot inspections to collect the housing room numbers, standard floor plans, property information, supporting facility information, historical business data and other information of all properties in the capital, and transform it into a database . In this way, if any property does not match the property in the dictionary, it must be a fake. This can ensure that the property is 100% authentic."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "It sounds pretty good, the layout is quite big."

Zhao Li Muge nodded repeatedly, "Well, there are not many houses in Lianjia now, but they are all real and effective, and the service is good."

Yan Qiqi, who was standing next to her, added: "Lianjia Online is an online business, and they also have offline businesses. It feels like the transformation of traditional real estate agencies to online. However, they do it more formally."

Zhuo Wensi said softly: "I have a classmate who rents a house in Dongzhimen, so I took time to go with her and found the Lian family. I also deliberately found fault with them. Their services are very good and all the problems are the same. Once it was resolved, we also provided a very formal rental contract.”

"Yes, the rental contract." Gu Zanli also thought of something and rushed to speak, "I have also asked about it. Many of my college classmates, some of the places they rent now, do not have contracts at all. Some do. The contract is just a few words written on a piece of paper. I don’t know whether it has legal effect. If the rental price increases, the landlord may unilaterally evict them. This will not happen with Lianjia.”

Zhuo Wensi said: "There are also safety risks. Many houses are old-style houses with wires stretched everywhere, which poses a great fire risk. Many rental websites, for the sake of momentum, have this type of houses. Lianjia There is no need to worry about this, they are all self-operated and have their own security department.”

Then, the girls Guan Nanqing, Yao Yao, Liang Lexin, and Li Shuruo also spoke one after another.

The basic intention is very consistent.

Judging from Big Boss Zhou’s platform economic thinking, Lianjia is the best choice in the current rental market. In some aspects, it is even very similar to Big Boss’ thinking.

Should invest!

Zhou Buqi made a downward gesture and said with a smile: "It's great. Everyone deserves praise. Your opinions are the same as mine. I am also paying attention to the Lian family."

"Ah?" Yan Qiqi, who was sitting next to her, had the advantage of being close to the water. She was a little surprised, "Senior, have you also paid attention to the Lian family?"

"Yeah, I'm paying attention."

Zhou Buqi is a little funny.

More than just paying attention?

He had already targeted it.

It’s just that I feel it’s still too early and I’m not in a hurry to make plans. In the future, Lianjia will create a more well-known sub-brand called Beikezhaofang.

In fact, it is exactly the same as the development idea of ​​his platform economy.

In the early years, Lianjia started with self-operation. Once self-operation started and a brand and industry status were established, Lianjia began to attract third parties.

After completing a dictionary of housing listings in major cities across the country and building a big data center for housing listings, we launched Beike Housing Search. Originally, Lianjia's properties were all self-operated; once other third parties were attracted to join the platform, the entire rental platform would be established.

Once it appears, it can instantly kill all rental platforms on the market.

After listing, the market value once approached US$100 billion.

However, now is not the right time.

Zhou Buqi didn't want to dampen their enthusiasm. He first gave them affirmation and praise, and then explained with a smile: "This is indeed a good rental project, and everyone has done a good job. Well... let's have dinner tonight!" "

The girls were very happy.

"Boss, do you want to invest in Lianjia?"

"No, now is not the right time. Have you seen the financial report? There is a lot of loss, Pastoral, can you tell me?"

"I……"

Zhao Li Muge was very embarrassed.

Sun Wanran smiled and said: "She is not of a high level and has never read the financial report. Maizi, can you tell me?"

Mai Feixue held her head high and blurted out without hesitation, "Last year, Ziweixing's losses exceeded 1 billion yuan, mainly due to excessive investment in four aspects."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Which four aspects?"

Mai Feixue said: "The first is investment in technology. In the past year, R\u0026D investment reached 3.26 billion yuan, accounting for 12% of total revenue. The second is investment in cloud computing, which reached 5.2 billion. Yuan. Third, a new round of tens of billions of subsidies has been launched, with 10 billion yuan invested; it is an investment on the mobile side, it seems to be Weibo and WeChat, and it seems to have bought the advertising resources of the Spring Festival Gala..."

I spoke confidently at first, but then became confused.

Can't remember clearly.

Anyway, I only know that it lost 1 billion yuan last year.

This surprised everyone.

Ziweixing’s revenue last year seemed to exceed 30 billion yuan, right?

After making so much money, you still lost money?

This is more complicated.

It has to do with accounting methods.

To put it bluntly, it means that all future investments are listed in this year’s expenses.

For example, the new round of "10 billion subsidy" plan based on the gold coin wallet system is expected to last 5 years. Normally, an investment of 10 billion should be spread evenly over 5 years, which is 2 billion per year.

As long as it is shared evenly, Ziweixing's investment in "tens of billions of subsidies" in 2011 will be reduced from 10 billion to 2 billion. This step alone can turn Ziweixing's financial report from a loss of 1 billion to a profit of 7 billion.

Making money or losing money depends only on the line in the book.

This is capital operation.

Because according to the plan, Ziweixing will be listed on NASDAQ next summer!

Therefore, Ziweixing should produce continuous and eye-catching financial reports in 2012 and the first half of 2013, so that Ziweixing's IPO will have enough appeal and attention, and be successful.

Even Zhou Buqi can't understand the complicated operations here, let alone these little secretaries.