Internet Giants Frequently Hand In Hand, The Market Is Not Clear.

The news of merger and cooperation that has been exposed has made the economic circles call this year -

The year of holding hands.

In October 26th, Ctrip announced an equity swap deal with Baidu.

After the completion of the paction, Baidu will own Ctrip's general voting rights representing about 25% of Ctrip shares, and Ctrip will have about 45% of the total voting rights.

This means that the two giants of domestic online travel, Ctrip and where to go, have finally completed the "merger" to a certain extent.

Before that, the merger of the Internet giant also includes dripping, 58 city Ganji network, Volkswagen Group...

What kind of business logic is behind these merger events? If they merge, will they be suspected of "monopolization" in the industry? Where will the next big merger be? What will these trends bring to more Internet start-ups?

Before Ctrip and where to merge, there are three more.

The merger of giants in the vertical field is remarkable.

In February 14th, on the annual Western Valentine's day, a joint announcement was made between drop taxi and fast taxi to announce the merger of the two strategies.

The two companies remain unchanged in terms of personnel structure, business continues to develop in parallel, and retain their brand and business independence.

The rapid merger has also led to the merger of this year's giant.

In April 17th, the 58 city announced a strategic stake in Ganji network.

According to the agreement, the 58 city acquired 43.2% of the market share by cash plus stock.

In October 8th, the public comment and the US mission jointly issued a statement announcing the conclusion of a strategic cooperation and the two sides have jointly established a new company.

The two companies remain unchanged in their personnel structure and will retain their respective brands and businesses independently, including high-frequency business.

"These four incidents are actually different."

Wei Wuhui, a new media observer, told reporters that in addition to the rapid integration of the real sense, the 58 city Ganji network and the Volkswagen group were more of a party who ate the other side's meaning, while Ctrip did not have absolute control over where to go, which led to the speculation that "Baidu is enjoying the cake of online travel".

In the view of Internet veteran observer Li Donglou, these four events have a common character, that is, they happen on the Internet platform, they connect users and merchants, but they do not have the core resources (such as Ctrip and where they do not have the core resources of air tickets, hotels, etc.). They burn money every year, and compete with each other, resulting in both sides being defeated.

Take this year's quick merger event, in February 16th, competitors were easy to declare that they had officially reported to the Anti Monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, the national development and Reform Commission, the price supervision and Inspection Bureau and the antitrust bureau, and the merger with the fast track violated the monopoly law of China. They requested the investigation and prohibition of the merger of the two companies. Then, for example, where the Ctrip, which was now in love with each other, was killed in the same year, for example, in May 22nd, where Ctrip joined the platinum group and Tencent acquired all the shares of eLong 62.4% held by Expedia, where did they report the Ctrip monopoly?

The big companies are merged. What do startups do? Reporters found that there are many entrepreneurial enterprises related to the four merger events in Hangzhou.

Li Xianwen, a partner in Zhejiang venture capital, is not bad for Internet start-ups. Instead, start-ups should learn to embrace giants like BAT.

The merger of giants is often motivated by strong alliances and industrial chain complementarity. If start-ups can become a link in the giant industry chain, the success rate of entrepreneurship will be even higher.

"

It is not a dishonorable thing, but a good ending.

In the United States, 60%-70% projects exit through mergers and acquisitions instead of IPO. "

Li Xianwen said that many young people can also accept mergers and acquisitions.

In addition, the integration of start-ups into the giants is not necessarily M & A, or investment and equity participation.

Li Xianwen said.

A person who does not want to reveal the name of the Internet start-ups reveals that compared with giants, small businesses can do "deep", because giants tend to seek diversified development, that is, focusing on the main business, spreading their coverage as far as possible, reaching the so-called "breadth", and small companies often have only one or two businesses.

Then, does the merger involve monopoly? The reporter consulted Ye Shuirong, director of Zhejiang Ze Ding law firm.

He told reporters: "it's hard to say."

"Internet antitrust cases are relatively few, of which the most representative is the 360 litigation Tencent, which resulted in 360 losing the lawsuit and being dismissed by the court.

At that time, the reason for the 360 litigation Tencent was abusing the dominant position of the market, and the focus of the case was to define the relevant market. The relevant market defined by the court is the global market, not limited to the mainland market, because it involves the Internet, the entry threshold is relatively low, and belongs to the platform competition. As a result, some social software abroad should also be in the scope of competition in the industry, and Tencent will not have the dominant position in the market. "

Ye Shuirong said, referring to the case at that time, it is hard to say whether the merger of these giants involves monopoly, because they all involve the definition of "related market definition".