美团大众点评150亿美元合并案凸显中国风投困境

    中国两大在线服务公司宣布正式合并，预计合并后新公司市值150亿美元。这是中国初创公司市场由盛转衰的最新迹象。它也表明，那些最明智的企业正在未雨绸缪，因为风投注资规模创纪录的好日子将一去不返。

    美团网与大众点评网是中国颇有规模的O2O（线上线下）模式公司，这种全方位商业模式将线上应用提供的消费渠道和线下的购物活动联系在一起。此次两家公司合并吸引了国内外众多媒体报道，因为交易双方各自的主要投资者——投资美团的阿里巴巴集团和大众点评的投资方腾讯控股是竞争对手。不过，在市场行情骤变的情况下，两位对手选择携手合作，这也许是此次合并最没有话题性的部分。今年稍早，两大中国科技业巨头已经有过类似的合作案例：中国头号出租车打车应用滴滴打车与另一打车应用快的打车合并成立估值60亿美元的公司，前者的一大投资方是腾讯，后者是阿里巴巴参与投资的应用。此前，两家公司为争夺市场份额向顾客提供折扣，各自都蒙受了上亿美元损失。从这样的先例推测，美团与大众点评联姻可能也出于同样的考虑——要么抱团取暖、共度难关，要么面临无止境的亏损。

    此次合并的两家公司主营业务截然不同，却有一个核心的共同点：提供团购折扣。美团网创始人王兴赤裸裸地复制了团购鼻祖Groupon，在该网站问世前，他还在中国成立了效仿Twitter和Facebook的公司。而大众点评网虽然被称为“中国的Yelp”，实际上它比美国的评论网站Yelp诞生得要早。如果注册会员携友到被点评的餐馆用餐，网站都会给予折扣。

    过去两年，中国企业获得创纪录规模的风险投资，它们大部分集中在O2O领域。为对抗阿里巴巴在网络支付领域的霸主地位，腾讯自己也参与了价值数亿美元的交易，加强在O2O领域的力量。腾讯的用意是，投资的服务必须引导消费者使用本公司旗下类似Paypal的支付系统。

    问题在于，腾讯不是唯一看准O2O的企业。大众点评和美团网都遭遇大量同类公司的围攻，其竞争对手包括另一中国互联网巨头百度旗下团购平台糯米网。今年，此前一直资助众多中国O2O公司运营的风险投资开始缩水。去年，中国境内风投交易规模突破了130亿美元，远超前年的42亿美元。而今年第二季度，中国互联网公司得到的风投减少50%，规模降至37亿美元。据《华尔街日报》报道，美团网今年稍早试图募资，若募资成功，其公司估值将达到150亿美元。但直到此次与大众点评合并的谈判开始进行为止，美团网都没能实现期望的募资。

    美团网与大众点评都未能摆脱募资的压力。两家公司至今还没有扭亏为盈的表现。可如今，他们并没有陷入三强争霸的厮杀，为团购领域的市场份额打价格战，而是合二为一。其背后的“金主”阿里巴巴与腾讯两家选择联手，对付共同的敌人——百度。

    合并交易让中国的初创企业格局变得越来越合理，但之所以这样做只是因为他们迫不得已，别无选择。（财富中文网）

    译者：Pessy

    校对：詹妮

    An expected $15 billion tie-up between two of China’s biggest online services firms is the latest evidence that China’s startup market is turning sour and that the smartest companies are preparing for an end to the record venture capital injections.

    Meituan and Dianping are big in the ‘online-to-offline’ industry, a catch-all term for businesses that consumers access via apps (online) to buy stuff (offline). The merger is generating a lot of press coverage in China and elsewhere because the principle investors in each company are rivals Alibaba Group[Inc BABA 2.14% (Meituan) and Tencent Holdings Ltd TCEHY 1.25% (Dianping). But the fact that two rivals can come together in the face of turning market is probably the least interesting part of the deal. Earlier this year, they did the same thing: China’s biggest taxi-hailing apps, Tencent-backed Didi Dache and Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache, combined in a $6 billion merger in the face of hundreds of millions of dollars in losses each suffered offering discounts to gain market share. The same logic—tie-up or face endless losses—is likely being employed in the Meituan-Dianping deal.

    While the two companies are quite different, group-discounts are one of their core similarities. Meituan is an unabashed Groupon clone founded by Wang Xing, who previously copied Twitter and Facebook in China, while Dianping, called the Chinese Yelp, was actually founded before its American counterpart, and often gives members discounts if they buy meals at reviewed restaurants with their friends.

    Record venture capital investments over the past two years have been focused in large part on the O2O– industry. Tencent itself has joined deals worth billions to boost its presence in O2O in an attempt to counter Alibaba’s dominance of online payments. Their thinking has been: invest in a bunch of services that people must pay for using our Paypal-like payments system.

    The problem is–Tencent wasn’t alone. Dianping and Meituan are being encroached upon by a bevy of competitors including Baidu-backed BIDU -2.42% Nuomi. And this year the venture funding that has kept many companies afloat is beginning to turn. In 2014, total venture capital deals in China passed $13 billion, up from $4.2 billion the year before. However in the second quarter, venture capital financing for Internet companies in China fell 50%, to $3.7 billion. The WSJ reported that Meituan tried to raise money earlier this year at a $15 billion valuation but couldn’t by the time the merger talks started moving forward.

    Meituan and Dianping aren’t immune to fundraising pressures; they have never showed that they can turn a profit. But now instead of three heavyweights battling each other and discounting for market share in the group buying space, it’s two (Alibaba and Tencent) on one (Baidu).

    China’s startup scene is rationalizing through mergers, but only because they have to.