Just like life must go on despite any disaster, American companies have had a difficult time in recent months, but they are not without bright spots.
For example, the company airbnb, which provides accommodation in the air, has been the brightest star in the past month or so!
The airbnb website, which was officially launched in early March, has quickly won the favor of countless people with its most novel "person-to-person" short-term rental travel market concept from the beginning.
After all, most Europeans and Americans actually don’t have much money, and their burdens are no lighter than those of the Chinese. It’s just because most of their countries have very good welfare measures that give them no worries, so they dare to spend all their salary.
Even taking out a loan for consumption is the most normal thing.
For example, foreigners are keen on using credit cards to get loans for travel. In China, even the youngest and most fashionable people would never accept such a thing. It can even be exaggerated to say that basically 10,000 people would not accept it.
Only one in 100 people can do this.
Although it is very common in foreign countries to swipe a credit card and talk about it after playing, but when they go out for fun, if they can save a little, they will still try to save as much as possible.
After all, borrowing money to spend in advance is one thing, but borrowing money always has to be repaid.
Under this circumstance, airbnb, an intermediary service that provides short-term rental of personal houses, meals and accommodation, has naturally received a lot of praise.
Everyone knows that those hotels have to pay business tax, hire personnel, advertise, etc. These are a lot of value-added expenses.
However, personal houses do not have this kind of trouble at all, the price is easier to negotiate, and the location of the scenic spot you want to go can be more convenient. If the negotiation is good, you can eat authentic local delicacies at the owner's house. Or even
Now that you have had a good time chatting, the host can treat you to dinner.
Moreover, Western developed countries are generally of good quality and have guaranteed safety issues. Xiao Qi, after combining some of the problems that occurred in Airbnb in his previous life, has a very complete system for credit screening and qualification verification. Although this has caused
The opening time was delayed, but once I tried it, I felt that the effect was very good, and it was easily accepted by everyone.
Comparing this, the price is at least half cheaper, the convenience it brings is immeasurable, and safety is guaranteed. Many young people immediately defected to airbnb.
In this life, the two electronic companies with the best user experience are Apple and Fairy Company. Apple is no longer the only one in the past life.
Xiao Qi has transplanted all the user experiences he values most to his other companies, and airbnb is certainly no exception.
In addition to its functions that are very popular, the experience of all users on the airbnb website is also very good: website login and browsing are very fast, the page is very friendly, the information is abundant but not complicated, and the interactive information is very fast and accurate.
The payment system is very convenient, and the customer service time to deal with the problem is very fast... etc., it is completely comparable to the service of the world's first-class hotels.
Coupled with Xiao Qi's various promotions that started half a month in advance, and after preparing hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising expenses, airbnb's popularity has become very high.
Of course. Such large-scale publicity, various preparations, etc. all cost a lot of money. Most of the 1 billion US dollars invested by Xiao Qi have been spent.
Because of this, airbnb has gained a lot of attention and popularity from the very beginning.
In more than a month, airbnb has more than 4 million registered users, more than 800,000 personal house rental information, and more than 300,000 successful records. Considering that the region is currently limited to North America and Western Europe, then
This number is quite astonishing.
Merrill Lynch on Wall Street gave Airbnb a valuation of US$5 billion and believed that if it continues to develop at this rate, Airbnb will build the world's largest online personal short-term rental network. In the future, it will surpass the Hilton Hotel Chain Group and become the largest hotel industry.
Even the giants might not know.
Although Merrill Lynch has been having a hard time recently due to many subprime debt problems, their professionalism is still trustworthy in the entire industry.
It's not just Merrill Lynch that is exaggerating. There are also many investment banks and funds who all hope to get a share of Airbnb. However, due to Xiao Qi's "Oriental stinginess" and his illustrious reputation, they have not joined.
Come here, just contact through other channels to see if there are any opportunities.
To say that Xiao Qi is stingy does not actually refer to his conduct as a person, but because Wall Street believes that Xiao Qi has no interest in sharing wealth and working together in large companies.
Almost all of Xiao Qi's companies are controlled by him absolutely, and he has never thought of going public. This way, people on Wall Street will naturally not be able to make a lot of money from going public.
The same is true for airbnb. According to published data, Mingxiang Holdings and Qicai Investment, two companies owned by Xiao Qi, each hold 45% of airbnb's shares. The remaining 7% is owned by the management and founding team, and 3% is owned by
Hoffman holds.
With such a disparity in ratio, even if you want to acquire it, you can only find a way in Xiao Qi's hands.
Others were just thinking about whether to buy shares and how much to buy, but the president of a giant company came to Chengdu in person and asked to see Xiao Qi.
Stephen Schwartzman, Executive Chairman of Blackstone Group, is also the most trusted student, partner and friend of Peter Peterson, Chairman of Blackstone Group.
Compared to his 82-year-old teacher Peterson, the 61-year-old Swartzman is still very young and powerful, so he is usually the one who does this kind of overseas travel.
But as long as Swartzman takes action personally, it won't be simple.
It was only after Schwartzman arrived in Chengdu that he requested a meeting with Xiao Qi through his old friend Larry Ellison, the chairman of Oracle.
Ellison is Xiao Qi's friend, and he has a good relationship with him. He often calls and doesn't tell where Ellison went on vacation, so there must be a gift for Xiao Qi - he is a person who respects friends he respects.
, has always been generous and forthright, similar to Branson in the UK.
Therefore, Xiao Qi wanted to give Ellison this face.
Arriving at the high-end conference room of the Hilton Hotel across Laoba Road, Swartzman, with a thick smile, shook hands with Xiao Qi and sat on both sides.
Chengdu is Xiao Qi's home court, but Hilton Hotel is Swartzman's home court.
In July last year, Blackstone Group invested US$26 billion to fully acquire Hilton Hotel Group, and combined with its previous hotel industry to form a new hotel group, thus becoming the world's largest Blackstone Hotel Group with market value
More than 40 billion US dollars.
Xiao Qi thought that Schwarzman came here for the acquisition of coolgame, but he didn't expect that when he opened his mouth, he said something else.
"Mr. Xiao, our Blackstone Group is willing to form a deep alliance with you." After a few pleasantries, Schwarzman said, "Do you think you can invest 50% of Airbnb's shares in our hotel group and own a total of 10% of Blackstone Hotels?"
What is the replacement ratio for the group’s shares?”
Xiao Qi pondered for a while and said nothing.
Based on the Blackstone Hotel Group's market value of 40 billion, Airbnb's share price is estimated to be 8 billion US dollars, which is a whopping 60% increase from Merrill Lynch's valuation of 5 billion US dollars!
Although Airbnb will continue to develop in the future and its value will continue to rise, the Blackstone Hotel Group will also continue to make money and its market value will continue to rise.
If a share exchange is really carried out, it will be a good investment for both parties, at least for now.
Xiao Qi's plan for Airbnb is between US$10 billion and US$15 billion. If it goes public, it may be a little more, but going public is not among Xiao Qi's considerations.
However, a valuation of 10-15 billion US dollars will take two or three years to develop. Now that it has obtained 8 billion US dollars, Xiao Qi must have taken advantage.
But think about it again, although Blackstone Group paid 10% of the shares of Blackstone Hotel Group, they have become a real online and offline giant by integrating airbnb, the largest online short-term rental personal accommodation platform now and in the future.
, it will definitely be of great help to the development in the next twenty or thirty years.
In comparison, in the long run, Blackstone Group is more cost-effective.
"I don't have much interest in the traditional hotel industry." After a moment, Xiao Qi gave his answer: "Besides, I have always had an idea to see how far Airbnb can go. Look at the online
Or the offline tourist hotel market, which one will be more prosperous in the future? So if Mr. Schwarzman wants to talk about share swap, he might as well wait ten years before we can talk."
Swartzman sighed, recalling his previous failed acquisition of coolgame. Swartzman thought that Xiao Qi was indeed as stubborn as the legend said.
However, from this, Swartzman also heard Xiao Qi's ambition. He actually wanted to compete with the hundreds of years of tradition in the hotel industry with a short-term rental accommodation website.
Although Swartzman is very optimistic about Airbnb, he only regards it as a supplement to the traditional hotel industry and is not the kind of partner who can sit on an equal footing.
Then all we have to do is wait and see, and see which of us has a better vision!
The president of Blackstone Group, who has always been unfavorable, made a decision with a little regret. (To be continued...)