Food, clothing, housing and transportation are the basic needs of ordinary people living in society, and one of the key basic conditions for travel is the map!


    In the mobile Internet era, whether it''s takeout, taxi or various o2o peripheral services, great preconditions depend on the location of users.


    Without maps, including takeout, taxi and various o2o services, they can''t operate normally. Therefore, with a stroke of pen, Fang zhe bought Gaode map, the most powerful map service provider in China.


    In the previous life, Alibaba wholly acquired Gaode map at the price of more than US $1 billion in 2014. There are still three years before 2014. The importance of map service in the mobile Internet era is not so obvious. Therefore, Huizhong seized the opportunity and took advantage of Gaode map in advance at less than half the price.


    Therefore, taking Gaode map is equivalent to Fang Zhe''s early layout of o2o field for Huizhong.


    Whether Huizhong has been hungry since 2009, or the taxi software kuaan taxi founded by Cheng Xiaodong, a graduate of Heima college funded by Zhongying capital last year, currently uses Gaode map. After Huizhong won Gaode map, it also has stronger control and influence over the two companies.


    Kuai''an taxi, the name implies a fast and safe taxi. Like previous taxi software such as Uber and Didi, Kuai''an taxi is a taxi platform for fast and safe taxi through mobile phone software. Its Kuai''an taxi company was founded in May last year. At the same time, it is also one of the most dazzling star start-ups in China last year.


    Cheng Xiaodong, the founder of Kuai''an taxi, graduated from China''s richest man and invested by Fang Zhe, the boss of Huizhong. At present, it has become the largest mobile Internet training and education platform in China.


    In addition, once established, Kuai''an taxi has been continuously invested by angel round and a round of win-win capital under Fang Zhe''s name. Therefore, it is widely rumored that Kuai''an taxi is actually a start-up company incubated and cultivated by president Fang or Huizhong of Huizhong!


    At present, the business scope of Kuai''an taxi mainly includes the express services provided by taxis and private cars registered on the platform. In addition, there are special cars, free rides, even bicycles and scooters on platforms such as didi and Uber, which Fang zhe knows. Although Fang zhe knows these, But I won''t call Cheng Xiaodong to chat with him and give him creative advice.


    Not to mention the identity gap between the two, if Kuai''an taxi wants to develop normally and healthily, its founder Cheng Xiaodong and the entrepreneurial team need to grow slowly. If Fang zhe has to worry about everything, it''s better to build a taxi platform by Huizhong himself!


    Now, Kuai''an taxi service has been opened in ten cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and several first tier cities. There are more than 50000 taxis and private cars registered on Kuai''an taxi, and the number of registered Kuai''an taxi users has also exceeded 1 million!


    The streets are full of buses and taxis. In this case, why do people use a special taxi software to take a taxi?


    This is a taxi for Kuai''an. When it was just founded, all Internet peers who paid attention to it were puzzled. Unlike the previous generation, when didi was founded, foreign Uber has developed for one or two years. No matter whether didi has a future or not, since foreign Uber has developed, it seems that domestic didi can develop without exception.


    When Kuai''an taxi was founded, it was the first in the world. Even Uber, the ancestor of taxi software in the previous life, was the same in this life as in the previous life. It was not launched in the United States until October last year.


    Therefore, not many people can understand why a young man who has just graduated from dark horse college would make a taxi software that seems to have no market demand, let alone why the win-win capital under the general name of huizhongfang, who has always been bright and discerning, would favor such a start-up company!


    Whether it is difficult or not to take a taxi is inconvenient. Only those who often take a taxi and have personal experience will understand whether there is a real demand. Cheng Xiaodong, who started designing taxi software before he graduated from dark horse college, obviously has a deep understanding.


    As one of the top ten star start-up companies in China in 2010, Cheng Xiaodong, founder of Kuai''an taxi, said in an exclusive media interview with Netease technology channel:


    "Before I went to study in dark horse college, I had an internship in a software company for half a year. At that time, our company worked overtime very seriously. It was almost 11:00 every night.


    At that time, the subway and bus basically stopped, and we could only take a taxi. Although the company had a taxi fare subsidy, our company was not in a good position. Every time we took a taxi, we had to walk ten minutes to the main road to wave and wait for a taxi.


    This work experience had a profound impact on me. Later, I went to dark horse college to learn mobile Internet development technology. I was thinking that mobile phones have become more and more popular. If each of us can install a taxi software on our mobile phones and directly tell the driver where we are, we just need to wait for the bus in place, instead of waving to places with large traffic Taxis don''t have to worry about being slaughtered when they encounter black cars with opaque prices.


    Moreover, I also feel that as our living conditions get better and better, most of our private car resources, that is, free time, are wasted.


    I was thinking that if such a platform can be established to make use of these resources, it can not only facilitate passengers to take a taxi, but also private car owners can earn some extra money to subsidize their families in such a way, which is the best of both worlds! "


    After Cheng Xiaodong''s interview was reported, many people who didn''t understand before and thought that taxi software had no future and prospects began to suddenly realize that they were optimistic about the industry.


    In particular, when the overseas media selected the top ten star startups of the year in Silicon Valley, including a taxi software company named Uber, which was founded only last October, all Internet peers seem to realize that the taxi software industry seems to be a promising industry.


    Otherwise, why did Uber become one of the top ten start-up companies in Silicon Valley? Otherwise, why did huizhongfang''s win-win capital, which is known to be far-sighted and has a return on investment of less than 200%, invest in Kuan taxi and Uber taxi software at home and abroad!


    Therefore, everyone thought that Huizhong spent a huge amount of US $450 million in cash to buy Gaode map in order to cultivate and control the takeout company invested by Huizhong. Are you hungry and take a taxi with the taxi software company? Although everyone expressed optimism and understanding about Huizhong''s investment, at the same time, many people thought that Huizhong spent so much money to buy a map is not worth it!


    After all, hungry and Kuai''an still belong to start-up companies. They not only burn money but also don''t make money. The combined valuation of the two companies in the capital market is less than $300 million.


    Is it really worth buying a map company for such two companies at a price more expensive than the two companies? Or is there a deeper purpose for president Fang, who gathered the crowd, that they can''t see?


    Yes, of course they can''t see it. If they want to see it, why do they want Fang Zhe, the reborn!


    O2o, location-based lbs, social networking and driverless, each of which is a huge industry and market derived from map services.


    Is $450 million too expensive? If you can buy the global business of Google Maps for $4.5 billion, Fang zhe will buy it even if he borrows money!