In 2015, in a café on Chuangye Avenue in Zhongguancun, more than a dozen international students who had just returned from Stanford University gathered around the table to discuss financing and entrepreneurship. Although Chen Ou was not present, the topics of the students at the scene were all centered on this "legendary" figure, and "not accepting defeat" was the most evaluation of him by the students.
Throughout the ten years of Jumei Premium, Chen Ou really "did not accept defeat". After the listing of Jumei Premium, it was frequently frustrated, and Chen Ou not only did not stop there, but also further looked at the broader new market. He invested in the baby tree of the mother and baby community, tested the waters of the cultural and entertainment IP drama "Warm Strings", acquired a shared charging treasure... A series of diversification measures have blossomed in 2018, which also confirms Chen Ou's courageous exploration.
horizon
In only 4 years since its establishment, Chen Ou has led Jumei Premium to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and he himself has become the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.
In 2015, Chen Ouli defied the public opinion and invested 372 million yuan in BabyTree to enter the maternal and infant e-commerce market. Two years later, BabyTree was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and Chen Ou's investment received an excess return on funds. BabyTree CEO Wang Huainan said of Chen Ou: "He has worked incredibly hard and integrated all his business purposes very closely."
Time verified Chen Ou's judgment. He realized that in the era of mobile Internet, Jumei Youpin needs a broader track. He set his sights on the sharing economy. In various types of sharing economy bubbles, Chen Ou found that shared charging has long-term commercial value - just need, high frequency, convenience and speed, which is the core demand of consumers.
Like a quick cut into beauty, Chen Ou quickly decided to invest in street power after seeing the shared charging treasure market. Although this industry has been questioned, Chen Ou did not hesitate, and he still firmly believed in his judgment. With the advent of the 5G era, coupled with the increase in mobile phone dependence brought about by the wave of mobile Internet, in 2018, the market share of street power has become more and more stable, and the shared charging treasure industry has also entered a new climbing period.
However, the achievements of Street Power did not successfully pull the stock price of Jumei Youpin, and the company's market value continued to shrink. Some shareholders believe that Jumei Premium has difficulty in turning over in the US stock market, and at the same time has brought resistance to corporate transformation, privatization or the optimal solution after weighing.
transformation
As early as 2016, Chen Ou thought about the lack of flexibility and long-term vision of Jumei's transformation. He once regretted Jumei's embarrassing situation in an interview: so many profits in a year, but the stock price is very low, fundamentally speaking, Jumei Premium is still undervalued.
Behind this sigh, Chen Ou's helplessness was revealed, and too many problems had not yet been answered.
The first problem lies in the competitive pressure of sharing charging treasures. After three years of growth, the shared charging treasure has completed the market education and entered the profit stage, and the charging treasure cabinet machine is like a printing machine, attracting the peeps of giants and capital.
In August 2019, Meituan announced that it will restart the shared charging treasure project on a large scale across the country. After trials in Shijiazhuang, Qingdao and other places in August 2017, it has been shelved twice, and August is the third time to restart the shared charging treasure business, and will expand on a large scale. Four months later, Monster announced a $500 million Series C round of financing led by SoftBank.
The market competition is fierce, and shareholders are not optimistic about the shared charging treasure, which directly affects the stock price of Jumei Premium. This is also Chen Ou's second problem: how to get rid of the negative impact of stock prices?
On January 12, 2020, Jumei Premium received a privatization offer, and the buyer group intends to privatize Jumei at a price of US$20/ADS. At this time, Chen Ou has prepared sufficient "grain and grass" and is ready to buy back shares to completely solve this "stumbling block" restricting the development of Jumei Excellent Products. On April 15, Jumei Premium announced the completion of privatization, and Chen Ou got his wish.
Relevant industry insiders believe that privatization has brought more room for Jumei Premium, whether it is financing or developing new business, it can be more comfortable, which is also an important reason why Chen Ou insists on privatizing Jumei Youpin.
The end of privatization also means that Jumei Premium will usher in a new development node