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Meituan was founded in March 2010, the company can be said to follow the trend of the times, so the development path is very smooth. Since mainland science and technology have been in a state of continuous progress, the information age has also emerged. The birth of Meituan is based on this foundation, in line with the mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better", bringing great convenience to people's lives, and on June 29, 2023, it announced that it would use 2.065 billion yuan to acquire all the equity outside of Lightyear, which was used to open up the future development of Meituan.
Spend 2 billion to acquire light years away, in order to increase the layout of large models
The vast majority of people think that Meituan's function is limited to this, but Meituan is definitely not just a platform for ordering takeaway, its business has expanded to all aspects, such as hotel reservation, movie ticket booking and travel ticket booking, including the current shared bicycle.
Meituan not only brings great convenience to people's lives, but also saves us a lot of time, for example, when we order takeout, we can use the waiting time to do more things, and we can also let the hungry migrant workers who return home late at night eat a bowl of hot rice, and even eat food far away from themselves, which can be said to be the welfare of migrant workers and otaku and women, especially social terrorists.
Of course, everything has two sides, Meituan in the convenience of us, but also has certain disadvantages, at present more and more people are unwilling to go out of the house, unwilling to exercise, and the emergence of Meituan also makes these people more unwilling to move, so people's health problems are more serious, so we can not only see the good of Meituan, but also learn self-discipline.
The most important issue facing Meituan's development and growth is the future development path, and how to make itself stand out among many similar companies under the premise of continuing its current business is crucial.
At present, the development speed of artificial intelligence has changed with each passing day, artificial intelligence will definitely become the mainstream of market development one day in the future, Meituan is seizing this opportunity, on June 29, 2023 announced the acquisition of Beijing Lightyear Wai Technology Co., Ltd., through the acquisition of the company, Meituan's future layout has great convenience.
Talent has never been a scarce resource, scarce is those top talents, especially for the technology industry, there are fewer and fewer people who can do excellence, and Wang Xing's acquisition of light-year is to fancy talents outside light-year, this group of people can become a think tank for Meituan's future development path.
Of course, some people may ask how is it light years away? Companies of the same type abound, and those that were only registered in 2018 light-years away are not deep in terms of seniority. In fact, the reason is very simple, shallow qualifications do not mean that technology is not good, not to mention that the boss is Wang Huiwen outside the light year, it is the classmate of Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, they are all good brothers of Tsinghua University's bunk bunk, so it is normal for Wang Xing to choose light years away.
Meituan's 2 billion acquisition light-year has caused heated discussions, and Wang Xing's purpose is to increase his business and make his company bigger and stronger. Large model products are likely to become mainstream in the future, after all, human technology has never stopped advancing, and doing business with the trend of the times will not go wrong under normal circumstances. According to reports, the acquisition can almost be said to be a parity acquisition, Meituan has full control over Lightyear, and also pays Wang Huiwen one yuan plus a debt of up to 367 million yuan.
BTA launched a large model product, Meituan said that it must not be left behind, and found a good home outside of light years!
BTA refers to Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, these three companies have launched large-model products with a keen sense of smell, and the revenue is still rising year after year, which is undoubtedly a very good development opportunity for Meituan.
So what is a large model product? Large model products refer to machine learning models with a large number of parameters and computing resources, which is generally speaking, larger data capacity and faster computing speed. Large model products can make speech recognition, natural language processing, and computer visual effects better in our daily lives.
For example, the voice input function we use today, the error rate will be greatly reduced. Including the current rise of AI face changing and writing functions, etc., these are the benefits of large model products. Most of the services provided by Meituan come from network services, so promoting the process of this product will definitely bring opportunities for Meituan to expand its business.
Light-years away as a team of only 70 people, according to the latest round of financing reports in the market, the 230 million financing has attracted investment from Source Code Capital, Tencent, Wuyuan Capital and Kuaishou founder Su Hua, and has been valued at more than $1 billion. However, Wang Huiwen personally said that the market valuation and the actual amount did not match, but he did not say the specific situation.
But whether it's more or less, the fact that a team of 70 people can create such a huge amount is a testament to the importance of AGI technology in today's market. From another aspect, it also reflects the importance of AI.
In fact, there have long been a large number of film and television dramas related to artificial intelligence in the film and television industry, and these film and television dramas are based on the advanced perspective to narrate the impact and change of artificial intelligence on the future life of human beings.
For example, the popular TV series "Hello, Anyi" some time ago, this TV series tells that the artificial intelligence technology on the earth is very mature, so a large number of robots have been developed and produced, which can replace humans to complete more than 80% of the work, and even robots with autonomous consciousness appear.
Perhaps what human beings are afraid of is this day, afraid that when AI technology is very mature, a similar situation will occur, afraid that human beings will one day be forced to a dead end by what they have developed, but in any case, the development of artificial intelligence has become an irreversible situation.
The reason why Meituan's acquisition is a parity acquisition is because there is already $280 million in the account outside of light-year, plus the market valuation outside of light-years and the earnings that will be created in the future, this is a good deal from any point of view. What's more, this acquisition of Meituan has mastered 100% of light-years, and this is definitely a good thing for Meituan's future planning.
Light-years away, the legal representative Wang Huiwen once announced that he brought $50 million to the group, with only one wish: to recruit talents and inspire to create a Chinese version of OpenAI. But only four months ago, Wang Huiwen announced that he was ill and needed to recuperate, had left Lightyear, and stepped down from the directorship of Meituan and Waterdrop, and the outside world also rumored that this acquisition may just be to cover up the fact that Lightyear is about to disband, but in any case, this matter can be seen that the friendship between Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen is absolutely true.
Acquiring companies can not only generate income for themselves, but also save brothers!
Although AI will become the mainstream of future development, it may be very difficult to face strong competitors such as Baidu and Tencent. This acquisition also surprised many people, and some people even speculated that it may be light years away to disband, and the acquisition was only a process through the hands of Meituan, and Wang Xing was willing to do so, largely because of the friendship between the two people.
Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen studied at Tsinghua University at the same time, and are good brothers of the bunk bunk, they have founded the intranet and Meituan together, the two are very compatible in terms of personality and work, so they have been working for many years, and light-years away was also founded after Wang Huiwen announced his retirement from Meituan, and Wang Xing also said that he would invest in the first round of financing outside of light-years, which shows that the two have a deep friendship.
Wang Xing and Wang Huiwen have always been good stories within Meituan, and everyone praised them as the "double kings" of Meituan, they not only founded Meituan, but also made Meituan bigger and stronger, and had what it is today. When Wang Huiwen announced his retirement, Wang Xing publicly declared: "Lao Wang and I are classmates and roommates with common interests, partners in entrepreneurship and comrades fighting side by side, and lifelong friends who can collide ideas and dialogue souls."
It can be seen that Wang Xing is a person who attaches great importance to friendship, and from his words and his statement that he will invest in light-years away and this acquisition, it represents a deep friendship between the two. No matter what the purpose behind the acquisition is, Wang Xing's friendship with Wang Huiwen is absolutely real.
Of course, some people will say that doing business together will definitely fall out, otherwise how could Wang Huiwen announce his retirement early, perhaps as Wang Huiwen said that he only had to make such a decision because of physical reasons, but I don't know the full picture, I don't comment, we still have to believe in more beautiful things, not speculation.
The sea has a confidant, and the end of the world is like a neighbor. It is not easy for a person to meet a person who understands himself in his life, after all, the world is so big, to meet is to sign. Wang Xing's ability to accept Wang Huiwen's company at such a critical moment is a sign of the enduring friendship. What's more, this transaction also lays a solid foundation for Meituan's future development, and I believe that Meituan will one day have a place in large-model products.
epilogue
AI will definitely become the mainstream of the development of the times, but this road still has a long way to go, and more efforts are needed. Of course, we all fear that humans will one day be replaced by AI, but the only way is to keep learning, not to disengage ourselves from society, and those who have been improving will not be abandoned.
Wang Xing bought because of interests, of course, but also because of friendship, I hope that each of us can meet our own soulmate, can laugh with ourselves when happy, and can lend a helping hand when in danger.
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bibliography
"Meituan acquires light-year for 2.065 billion yuan · Tencent.com
《Beijing Lightyear Beyond Technology Co., Ltd. · Aiqicha"
"Meituan's acquisition of "killing two birds with one stone" light years away, but large-model entrepreneurship is no longer optimistic? ·Sina News"
"Chinese Entrepreneur"