There have been rumors that Baidu Waimai will be acquired by Ele.me, but now the news is finally confirmed. According to China Business News, Ele.me will officially announce the acquisition of Baidu Waimai as soon as this week, and Baidu Waimai will maintain independent operations for one year. This means that although Baidu Waimai has been acquired by Ele.me, at least in the next year, Meituan, Baidu, and Ele.me, the former "big three" of food delivery, will still be seen in the food delivery market.
According to a person familiar with the matter: "The valuation discount this time is also large. Last year's quotation was still US$2 billion. The final transaction amount was about US$500 million. Ele.me paid part of the cash and shares, not all cash acquisitions."
A report released in May this year stated that in the field of food delivery, Meituan Food Delivery, Ele.me, and Baidu Food Delivery ranked among the top three in the industry with monthly coverage rates of 1.23%, 0.97%, and 0.20% respectively. The latest statistics released by Bida Consulting also show that in the food delivery market share in 2016, Ele.me accounted for 34.6%, Meituan Food Delivery accounted for 33.6%, Baidu Food Delivery accounted for 18.5%, and the "Big Three Food Delivery" accounted for 86.7% in total. market share. A simple calculation shows that after the merger of Ele.me and Baidu Waimai, it will surpass Meituan in market share.
In April last year, Alibaba and Ant Financial led a US$1.25 billion Series F investment in Ele.me, of which Alibaba invested US$900 million and Ant Financial invested US$350 million. In May this year, Alibaba invested another US$1 billion. US dollars, Ele.me's "wings" have hardened, and it has won Baidu Takeout in one fell swoop. At this moment, Meituan Takeout should be confused – from now on, two will "beat" one, can this still be fun?
Why did Baidu Waimai, one of the "Big Three" of food delivery, become an "abandoned child"?
O2O was booming two years ago, so Baidu has always wanted to transform into O2O, and made bold claims that it still has more than 50 billion in cash on its account, and will use 20 billion to make Nuomi better. But in fact, the combination of Ele.me’s offline O2O and Alibaba’s traditional business is quite perfect. After Alibaba entered Ele.me, Baidu was the first to feel a headache – Baidu was not the first mover in the O2O market, and its competitors were so strong, even if they were willing to take advantage of them You can't do O2O with money, but you can't compete with rivals who are also willing to spend money and have more money.
Retreat when faced with difficulties and escape at the right time. O2O competitors are too strong, and it seems that there is not much point in continuing to invest. Therefore, Baidu has focused on artificial intelligence with greater potential, and it has naturally become a natural thing to launch Baidu Takeout.
Without the previous "negotiation collapse", there would be no acquisition this time.
In September last year, rumors circulated in the market that Baidu Waimai and Baidu Nuomi were going to merge with Meituan-Dianping, and the rumors were well-founded and well-founded. For Meituan-Dianping, after the merger, it would have pricing power and more fully occupy the market. However, the news was later proven to be false news, and the hype was just to sell it at a good price.
After the scandal broke out, Meituan-Dianping has not responded, but Baidu Waimai is keen to "refute the rumors." However, Baidu's response has become more active, and the industry has become more convinced that Baidu wants to give up its O2O business. Baidu's stock price quickly rose by 6.34%. It seems that the capital market is not optimistic about Baidu's O2O business.
After a long-standing ambiguity with Meituan-Dianping, the news that the express delivery giant SF Express is about to take over Baidu Takeout has spread in the industry. The news has evolved from SF Express's acquisition of Baidu Takeout to the two companies' investment in a 5:5 ratio to establish a new joint venture. joint venture company. In the end, Baidu responded that it did have contact and cooperation with SF Express, but it was only at the business level and did not involve capital. From this point of view, the two sides probably broke down.
Baidu Waimai finally found Ele.me as its “next home” and resolutely stood on the opposite side of Meituan. Although Meituan is large in scale, it is difficult to make money, and its IPO has not yet been completed. It is no longer easy to find investors, not to mention the financing problems it faces after its market share is overtaken. Meituan must be the least happy about the current situation. But what the author is even more curious about is, faced with the strong alliance of competitors, what measures will Meituan take to deal with the second half of the game? The only thing that is certain is that if Meituan lets it go, it will probably only benefit Ele.me, a wolf that is always watching.