After the National Day holiday, Yizhi issued the "Announcement on the Launch of the Yito Rights and Interests Protection Plan", showing the greatest sincerity to solve the problems left over from history. However, this historical legacy problem is "chasm", and in terms of the company's equity, the current controlling shareholder of Yizhi, Taoyun Capital, and the founder of Yizhi, Zhou Hang, the former controlling shareholder LeTV, and Jia Yueting, are still in chaos. In terms of the company's operation, yito's economic disputes with drivers, users, suppliers, departing employees and former CEO Gong Zhenbing have not been resolved.
Nowadays, the online ride-hailing industry has undergone profound adjustments, companies such as Didi Chuxing are being subject to network security review, and platforms such as Meituan and AutoNavi have increased the number of aggregation taxi models, which is easy to seem to see the opportunity and want to start a turnaround battle.
Wen Xiaodong, chairman of Taoyun Capital, the actual controller of Yi to, said bluntly that it is easy to "turn around with a small boat" and wants to make a comeback. But on the other hand, today's yidao platform has not transmitted data to the Ministry of Transport's online ride-hailing regulatory information exchange platform for more than 1 year.
Can easy to seize the opportunity to "make a comeback"?
Learn from ofo? Easy to "Equity Protection Plan" to solve the account balance problem
"I should still have 20,000 or 30,000 recharge quotas, when Gong Zhenbing took everyone to charge, he first personally charged 100,000, and we all charged." In October, Xiao Yue, a former employee of Yito, said that since leaving, he has not paid attention to the progress of Yito, and there are still 5 months of wages and reimbursements outstanding, in addition to tens of thousands of yuan of stored value unpaid.
At the same time, the "originator of online car-hailing" is easy to use the car's recent actions. After the National Day holiday, Yito issued the "Announcement on the Launch of the Yito Rights protection plan" and said that it strives to solve the problem of cashing in the rights and interests of the users of yito rights. At the same time, it also creates conditions for easy to reduce pressure, so that easy to resume normal operations as soon as possible and start again.
The relevant person in charge of Yito said that in order to further solve the account balance problems that the majority of Yito users (including but not limited to drivers, passengers, suppliers, partners, departing employees, etc.) and protect the rights and interests of users, Yito is actively launching a variety of solutions through the "Yito Rights protection plan" and is gradually implementing.
Previously, Yito once implemented the stored value consumption model, and many users still had balances in the accounts of the Yito platform that could not be withdrawn. The "Easy-to-Access Rights protection plan" mainly gradually cashes in all the rights and interests of users through mall consumption, self-operated deduction, debt-to-equity conversion and waiting for cash withdrawal.
Among them, "mall consumption" provides users with a certain cash ratio to consume, and all users can directly deduct the balance consumption in the mall through the relevant functions of "pending account". The "waiting for cash" method that users are most concerned about still needs to queue.
Internet observer Ding Daoshi believes that the strategy launched by Yito is similar to the idea of ofo dealing with the user deposit problem in that year, and it is easy to find a big capital to save the situation, but it does not have such an attraction, regardless of users, vehicles, or market influence, technical system and so on. As an easy-to-reach user with a mileage of 10,829 kilometers, Ding Daoshi still has nearly 500 yuan of stored value and has not been withdrawn, and there are 2,000 people in line to withdraw the cash ranking.
In addition to the account balance problem, the problems of easy to driver cash withdrawal and employee salary have not been solved.
After leaving Yi to two or three years, Yi to still owe Yang Yang tens of thousands of salaries, seeing the recent yi to the rights and interests protection plan, Yang Yang said, "After all, such a long empty period, there is no information, suddenly out of such an announcement, it is difficult to believe." ”
Lin Ling, a former employee of Yi to, introduced that he has tens of thousands of yuan of wages and compensation that have not yet been settled, and since Yi has opened this mouth, he must be trying to find a way to solve it, but it is difficult to say whether there is money to solve it. According to her understanding, at present, Easy to begin to slowly solve the debt problem, first to solve the supplier, and then to solve the old employee.
"I hope not to be in the form, to really use easy to operate as a service platform, not just a capital tool." Letting go without taking responsibility is related to the labor rights and interests of too many drivers. Janssen still has tens of thousands of yuan in salary has not arrived. Janssen stressed, "The premise of gaining trust is to complete the performance of duties, otherwise it is impossible to regain trust." ”
"I don't dare to use the account balance until I withdraw it." Mr. Chen, a user, said that after the problem of easy to withdraw cash, the number of vehicles on the easy platform was reduced, the success of the car was low, and the cost was doubled, which impressed him.
For the previous financial pressure, in October, a person close to easy to reach told the Beijing News shell financial reporter, "Now there is basically no problem, and finally eased up." "The person said that before Yi to most of the energy to solve the debt problem, now the debt problem is sorted out, the next is to re-energize in the market, you can give Yi to some time to see."
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, believes that the brand "easy to" has sunk into the market for many years, and everyone may not remember it clearly, in fact, the stored value problem of the driver, quite a lot of users and drivers may have forgotten, so this plan is more of an attitude, and itself will not consume too much money.
With Jia Yueting, Zhou Hang, gong Zhenbing staged several rounds of economic disputes
As an early player of online ride-hailing, Yi to the past was also unique. In May 2010, it was founded by Zhou Hang, Yang Yun and Tang Peng in Beijing. To this day, Yi has experienced three batches of actual controllers. In October 2015, LeEco bought 70% of the shares of Yizhi for $700 million and obtained a controlling position.
LeEco once hoped to improve the social operation link in the LeEco automobile ecology. Cola's "capital into the group" did not reverse the easy situation, but buried the "fuse" of the broken capital chain for it. After the LeTV crisis broke out, it was easy to change hands again. In June 2017, Yitou announced that there was a major change in the equity of Yito, and LeEco was no longer the controlling shareholder of Yitou, and then Taoyun Capital took over.
Taoyun Capital was once an ally of LeTV and Jia Yueting, and later turned against it. In December 2018, the debt processing team of LeEco Holdings said that after reaching a transaction agreement with Taoyun Capital to acquire Yidao, Taoyun Capital had not paid any transaction consideration to LeEco and completed its obligations under the agreement, resulting in an economic dispute involving billions of yuan.
Subsequently, Taoyun Capital responded that because this was a debt-bearing transaction, LeEco Holdings and Jia Yueting promised in the transaction documents that the scale of the debt was 2.3 billion yuan, and Taoyun Capital successively found that the debt scale was about 5 billion yuan after entering the ownership.
Yang Sen, a former employee of Yito, once told the Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter, "LeTV's legacy debts do have a certain degree of impact on the follow-up operation of Yito, but they will not become the main cause of the current situation." As far as I know, after LeEco withdrew, Yi to once ushered in a good development situation, and did not carry out large-scale subsidies, and at the end of last year, the company's account suddenly ran out of money, which was strange. ”
And this debt-bearing transaction has also involved Taoyun Capital in the LeTV whirlpool. In August 2021, Wen Xiaodong, chairman of Taoyun Capital, wrote, "The first 'explosion' I know of Yizhi occurred in March 2017, when Zhou Hang, the founder of Yito, issued a statement accusing Jia Yueting of using Yizhi to borrow 1.4 billion yuan, resulting in a rupture of Yito's capital flow. Then we took over and became 'pit fillers'. However, this mine planted in March 2017 actually detonated many years later! ”
It was easy to take over from LeTV that year, and Taoyun Capital was entangled in litigation. As of September this year, the economic dispute between Taoyun Capital, LeTV Holdings and Jia Yueting has not yet settled. According to the China Judgment Documents Network, in June 2021, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court rejected Taoyun Capital's request to stop auctioning the original LeTV Building. And this is exactly what Wen Xiaodong called "the thunder planted in March 2017".
On August 12, Wen Xiaodong of Taoyun Capital issued a document saying that in December 2017, in order to successfully obtain investors' shares in Yidao, Taoyun Capital reached an agreement with Zhongtai Chuangzhan on exchanging 20% of the equity of Yizhi for 1.4 billion yuan of debt, and completed the registration of the relevant share transfer in the same month. However, Zhongtai Chuangzhan terminated the equity transfer agreement on the grounds that Taoyun Capital "did not provide written proof that other shareholders waived their pre-emptive rights". Wen Xiaodong believes that the act is "a blatant breach of the contract, and the people who take advantage of loopholes in the legal process are still running a huge business." ”
Recently, the Beijing News Shell financial reporter learned from the Ali auction platform that on September 9, 2021, the Third Intermediate People's Court of Beijing Auctioned the former LeTV Building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, with a starting price of 573 million yuan. However, the auction has been suspended, and Ali's auction shows that the reason is "outsider objections".
Tao Yun Capital's economic disputes go far beyond that. According to the China Judgment Documents Network, in 2018, Zhou Hang, the founder of Yitou, and Taoyun Capital went to court about the dispute over the equity transfer of Yito Company. In August 2019, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled in the first instance that Taoyun Capital paid Zhou Hang RMB161 million for its equity transfer. However, Taoyun Capital was not satisfied with the first-instance judgment, but did not pay the second-instance litigation fees. To this end, in August 2020, the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court ruled that the first-instance judgment took legal effect.
In addition, Gong Zhenbing, who switched from Baidu takeaway to easy to fight, also had economic disputes with Taoyun Capital. In May 2018, Yito announced that Gong Zhenbing, former chairman of Baidu Takeaway, joined Yito as CEO, and was fully responsible for the operation and management affairs of Yitou. Since September of that year, the driver's withdrawal has gradually become unsmooth, and it was easy to use some limit withdrawal methods to solve the problem.
At the same time, Gong Zhenbing, who is easy to enter the job, pays the driver to withdraw cash out of his own pocket, but the problem of easy to get to the driver has not yet been solved. In March 2019, Gong Zhenbing stepped down to the CEO position, but Taoyun Capital delayed paying the loan. According to the China Judgment Documents Network, in January 2020, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled to freeze and transfer the corresponding bank deposits of 11.5269 million yuan in the principal amount of the loan that Taoyun Capital should pay to Gong Zhenbing, and double the corresponding bank deposits with interest on the debts during the period of delayed performance.
Online ride-hailing ushers in new opportunities, can it be easy to "turn over"?
"For today's easy arrival, the boat is small and good to turn around. Whether it is the change of information fees and the provision of social security services for drivers, it is a social obligation for us. The combination of O2O is not based on the squeeze of online onoffline, but on the combination of the two to give birth to new opportunities. At present, Yizhi is building in-scene marketing, car rental, commodity sales and other services around this point, hoping to find new market breakthroughs. Wen Xiaodong said recently.
Wen Xiaodong is still full of confidence in the ride-hailing industry. He believes that the online ride-hailing industry has not yet reached the moment of conclusion, as a confidence Internet industry, the O2O industry, including Meituan, will change itself in the requirements of the national collation specification.
The reason why Wen Xiaodong has this judgment is mainly due to the re-standardization of the online ride-hailing industry by relevant departments in the second half of this year. Including the launch of a network security review of Didi and other platforms, as well as the member units of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on the Coordinated Supervision of New Transportation Formats, the members of the T3 Travel, Meituan Travel, Cao Cao Chuxing, AutoNavi, Didi Chuxing and other 11 online ride-hailing platform companies conducted joint interviews.
In addition, on August 18 this year, the Ministry of Transport publicly stated that "to regulate the business behavior of platform enterprises, require online ride-hailing platform enterprises to standardize their own pricing behavior, reduce the excessively high percentage ratio, strengthen communication and consultation with drivers, set a maximum percentage limit, and announce it to the public." ”
The next day, Yi to ben posted a response, "September 6, 2021 will launch a new operating rule system, cancel the traditional commission model, change to the information service fee model, leasing company policy is more flexible; according to the ladder model to charge information service fees, the minimum 1 yuan, the maximum 5 yuan and so on."
Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of Ai Media Consulting, believes that the online car market has ushered in a huge entry opportunity, which should be said to be better than the market opportunity when it was easy to enter the online car entry war; easy to reorganize at this time, obviously prepared, for the capital, it should be prepared with sufficient resources and funds.
"Objectively speaking, in the face of the online ride-hailing market, there are still opportunities for easy to reach, but it mainly depends on the allocation of funds and resources prepared and the size of determination. In a way, tens of billions of dollars have been invested in the past, and if you don't seize the opportunity to revitalize this game of chess, you can't account for the investors before you. It is difficult to say how successful it is in the future, but if you want to do it, at least there should be a chance to gain a foothold in the market. Zhang Yi thought.
Lin Ling, a former employee of Yizhi, also believes that if you re-enter this market, there are opportunities, but there is a crisis of trust, first of all, many drivers have debt disputes, if not resolved, drivers in first-tier cities will not do it. As long as the user does not charge money, it is still possible to use the car easily, after all, multiple software is good to call a car. It is easy to see how to attract old users to download APP taxis this time.
"Capital is needed to enter, the question is easy enough to make capital believe? Without money everything is empty. Yang Yang thought. With enough funds, there will be opportunities to first solve the previous debt problem, especially the driver's debt, so that the driver can run again; second, solve the problem of employee wage arrears and minimize the negative impact; passengers are good to say, after all, the taxi mainly has to have a car to receive orders to serve.
The previous model of mutual selection between drivers and passengers has been well received. Internet observer Ding Daoshi said that the advantage of Easy to early years was the model of "driver and passenger mutual selection", but this model needs to be based on the premise that both drivers and passengers have a large scale to operate, and now basically all the advantages have collapsed. The entire brand level is a negative asset, after several waves of shareholder consumption, toss, today it is basically difficult to see room for maneuver.
In fact, during the period of easy to deal with economic disputes with all parties, the online ride-hailing industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes, and the Meituan taxi and AutoNavi taxi have vigorously increased the aggregation mode, attracting a lot of driver traffic, while Shouqi ride-hailing, T3 travel, Didi Chuxing and other platforms have encountered some operational difficulties, and the online ride-hailing industry has also undergone profound adjustments.
The relevant person in charge of the travel industry told the Beijing News Shell financial reporter that the "day time" of easy to reach has passed, and with the suspension of the driver service and the new changes in the online ride-hailing industry in the past two years, easy to be forgotten. "Users and car owners are used to using them in other places, and it is not easy to transfer." The traveler took a wait-and-see attitude towards the easy-to-regroup.
"Capital has lost interest in ride-hailing, there is no sufficient cash to enter, it is easy to not have the conditions for revitalization, and the credibility is seriously damaged, and it is difficult to rely on self-hematopoiesis." As a Janssen who has been in the travel industry for many years, he does not have much confidence in the future of Easy To. "The key is that Wen Xiaodong will be easy to position how to position, if you focus on a good service platform, the society will accept, will also give patience." If you use the platform as a capital gripper, it will not work. If Wen Xiaodong does not solve the problem of wage arrears, this attitude will be problematic. ”
After multiple rounds of cash withdrawal storms, there are only a few active drivers and users on the platform. For the current platform-related data, the easy-to-reach aspect has not been released to the public. The Beijing News Shell financial reporter noted that in September this year, the Ministry of Transport released the "Basic Situation of the Operation of the Online Ride-hailing Industry in August", showing that Yizhi has not transmitted data to the online ride-hailing regulatory information interaction platform for more than 180 days. As early as October 2020, EasyToe has not transmitted relevant data for more than 180 days.
(Lin Ling, Yang Yang, Yang Sen, and Xiao Yue are pseudonyms in this article)
Beijing News shell financial reporter Chen Weicheng Editor Xu Chao Proofreader Lu Qian