Didi employee stocks were postponed and the ban was lifted, and the wealth growth story of winning the lottery was gone

The story of wealth growth is gone.

Text | Wan Pei

Edit | Song Wei

Some employees who hold Shares of Didi, in anticipation, waited for the listing, followed by disappointment. Somewhat dramatic — the day after Didi's low-key landing on the NYSE, a cybersecurity review was ushered in, 25 of its apps were removed, and new users stopped registering. Market capitalization has also fallen, from a peak of $80 billion to $27 billion today.

Less than half a year after the listing, Didi announced that it would delist on the New York Stock Exchange and start preparations for listing in Hong Kong. This directly affects the option exchange of employees. "LatePost" exclusively learned that Didi recently extended the option lifting time, from the original listing half a year to the time to be determined by the company. Restrictions are for active employees and employees who have been absent for less than 180 days.

Many employees are not mentally prepared. Some employees logged into the option system and noticed that the time for unbanning options had changed; some did not notice at all, "the amount is really not worth mentioning", some interviewees said, "even the account password has been forgotten." ”

In the fastest growing decade of the Internet in China, stock option incentive schemes have led to many stories of "overnight riches". From Ali, Tencent, Meituan and other companies out of a number of multi-millionaires.

But when the story comes to Didi, the "myth" stops abruptly, and the employees and executives who hold options in their hands do not know whether this is a piece of waste paper until the day when the company finally opens the option to lift the ban. Even if the extension does not affect the final redemption of options, it will add some uncertainty to the wealth on the employees' books – can Hong Kong stocks be successfully listed? How much will the stock price fluctuate?

Some Didi employees want the company to initiate a buyback. After the merger of Didi Kuaidi, the employees of Didi exchanged the options of Didi for Didi, and Didi had initiated an option repurchase, which was the only option repurchase behavior of Didi.

Didi's past glory is in great contrast with today's situation. 2015 -2016 was Didi's most high-profile moment, the company, which was founded only 3 years ago, defeated the biggest domestic and foreign rivals Kuaidi and Uber respectively. It was once also the highest valuation among these small giants that rose up with the potential of the mobile Internet. Some employees who joined Didi in the early years came to visit and even abandoned the offers of companies such as Meituan and ByteDance.

Most of the 15,000-person company, with the exception of a few top executives, are not the beneficiaries of the listing feast. They still live the lives of ordinary people, crowding the subway in the morning and evening rush hours, often working overtime until midnight, carrying high mortgages and so on. This may be what reality really looks like.

There aren't many exciting stories

Among the many Internet companies, Didi is not generous to give options. This is related to the fact that Didi has introduced too much external investment – Didi is the most financing Chinese Internet company to date, with 9 years of financing and hundreds of billions of yuan.

Even the founders don't have much stake. According to Didi's prospectus, at the beginning of 2021, founder Cheng Wei only held 2.9% of Didi's shares, and President Liu Qing only 0.3%. After the additional issuance, Cheng Wei and Liu Qing only held 7.0% and 1.7% respectively. It can be referred to that Huang Zheng, founder of Pinduoduo, holds 28% of the shares, and Wang Xing, founder of Meituan, holds 9.7% of the shares.

Didi doesn't have many options to give its employees. An HR source close to Didi said that Didi's option cards are particularly strict, generally giving cash but not stocks. Generally, Didi D8 level or above is given options, and the number is particularly small, only two or three thousand shares. If the D8 level is particularly excellent, a special approval process is required.

Not only is the number of options small, but the multiple of returns is also low. Meituan is also very strict with stocks, usually L8 or above, but Meituan's stock price once rose 7 times, and today Meituan is already the third largest Internet company in China by market capitalization, and many multi-millionaires have been born.

In Didi, even an employee with an option worth one million yuan needs to have many elements such as not low level, early joining time, and key positions such as production and research.

A grassroots employee who joined Didi in 2016 said that the exercise cost of options for him and his colleagues around him was about $17-21 per share. In 2019, that number rose to nearly $37 per share. Didi is listed at $14/ADS in the U.S., corresponding to an internal share price of $56 per share. At the issue price, ordinary employees below the director level received options in 2016 with a return of about 3 times. Around 2018, you can only earn about 70%. Today's book returns will be even less optimistic, and Didi's market value has evaporated more than half compared with when it was listed. Those who joined Alibaba three years before listing can generate 8.6 times returns on the IPO date.

Most of the grassroots employees only have options worth tens of thousands of yuan, and their mentality is relatively relaxed. "It's a big deal to donate to Didi." A former Didi employee said that his grassroots colleagues around him are basically like this, and only middle and high-level talents may have greater benefits.

A Didi employee joked, "I originally thought that according to the house prices in Beijing, I could buy a toilet, but now I can't even afford to buy a toilet." His wife, an employee of another big Internet factory, jokingly called it a risk hedge.

From the grassroots to the top, they did not get the imagined excess returns, and they had to continue to be bound to the company before they realized. Investment institutions have chosen to vote faster with their feet, and in less than three months of listing, among The top 20 shareholders of Didi, GALILEO (PTC) LTD, Morgan Stanley, Davis, Temasek and other institutions have significantly reduced their holdings, of which 12 have withdrawn from the list of top 20 shareholders.

It's not just Didi and its employees who are affected

Hu Xuan (pseudonym) joined Didi at the end of 2015, and within two months, Didi Kuaidi unexpectedly merged. Due to his outstanding performance, he was granted a good option. This option is an additional gift, and he is also very indifferent to the gains and losses today. He witnessed Didi go to the peak and fall from the peak.

Not only Didi, but only two days before the IPO, ant group listing was suspended. 16,660 ant employees fell from joy.

There are no successful enterprises, only the enterprises of the times. The period of commercial dividends brought by Internet technology has gradually passed, and the story of the sharp increase in wealth of the lottery is no longer there.

With the boom of the mobile Internet, in the past six or seven years, the Internet has almost become the first choice for most talents to find a job, but today, these are also changing.

A person who recently got a Didi offer hesitated at the last moment of his employment, and he asked HR, "How much is Didi's stock worth?" ”

And a few years ago, such a scene almost did not happen, a former Didi HR said, at that time Didi was the strongest TMD (byte, Meituan, Didi abbreviation), HR will be tough when negotiating with candidates, "Meituan is so bitter, can not afford to give money, why compare with us?" Most of them didn't dispute that.

An employee who has worked at Didi for many years chose to leave in the turmoil and turned around to join a state-owned enterprise. In previous years, he hadn't bothered to do that. As he grew older, he wasn't the only one around him who tended to settle down, and the end of the universe was that the compilation was no longer a joke.

A small Internet giant HR said that the Didi and Ant Group incidents have had an impact on the recruitment of talent in the entire Internet industry, especially for some companies that are not listed. "Many candidates will take Didi as an example, as long as it is not listed, the company's promised option is a piece of waste paper."

It is also believed that regardless of the value of options, what is more valuable for personal growth is to go through a complete cycle in an industry, broaden horizons and exercise ability. "Every company has peaks and valleys, and you can't just see the trees and the forest."