During the rare short holiday, there's always someone stirring things up.
On May 2nd, Zhou Hongyi, the founder, chairman, and CEO of 360, responded to Sina Technology, saying that Chu Zhenliang, the founder of Tianan Second-hand Car who goes by the nickname "Chu Huizhang," needed some time to raise the funds for buying his second-hand Maybach. Zhou asked everyone to "stay calm and patient."
Later that evening around 10 p.m., Chu Huizhang went live claiming that he had already completed the final payment. Subsequently, Zhou Hongyi also released a short video stating that he had received the payment.
Just a few days ago on April 28th, at an auction jointly organized by 360 and the used car platform DCD, a 9-year-old, 130,000-kilometer Mercedes-Maybach S600 sedan owned by Zhou Hongyi was sold for a staggering 9.9 million yuan. However, shortly after, the buyer Chu Zhenliang was revealed to have "urgently" resigned from his positions as the legal representative and executive director of Beijing Tian'an Old Motor Vehicle Brokerage Co., Ltd., and exited the shareholder sequence. Speculations arose whether Chu, the buyer, was planning to default on the final payment.
Rumors of this incident spread among the onlookers, providing a spectacle of sorts. Even Weibo's influential auto blogger @Chen Zhen commented on the situation:
"So, it seems like Mr. Zhou got played..."
But regardless of whether the 9.9 million yuan was received, Zhou Hongyi actually didn't lose out. In the author's view, Mr. Zhou's actions regarding traffic have long been beyond specific business goals. While the Red-Clothed Uncle may bring you joy, what truly commands respect is his high-altitude perspective.
Zhou Hongyi won't let his guard down.
Apart from Zhou Hongyi seemingly being "toyed with" by Chairman Chu, what has been the talk of the town these days is his breach of defense within the group of used car dealers participating in this auction. Clearly, helplessness and grievance have become the dominant themes in this group.
As the auction concluded and Chairman Chu delayed payment, the car dealers who participated in the bidding but returned empty-handed first chose to confront Zhou Hongyi. The focus is solely on one question: why could Chairman Chu disregard the rule that was already declared before the auction: "Payment for the purchased vehicle must be made to the designated account of the auctioneer within 2 hours after the transaction"?
The rumored auction rules for Zhou Hongyi's second-hand Maybach
The chat records of the second-hand Maybach buyers circulating on the internet
Through my communication with a well-known employee named Lao Hu (pseudonym) from a domestic auction house, I found that the request for payment within 2 hours after the transaction is indeed not common.
"Generally, once the transaction amount reaches several million or even tens of millions, the buyer's payment period can be as long as several weeks, after all, who would keep so much 'idle money' in their bank account. Therefore, to encourage buyers to pay as soon as possible, our auction house has specially introduced a discount activity of 'pay the balance within two weeks and get a 10% commission discount,'" Lao Hu said.
However, this auction also sets an entry threshold. Second-hand car dealers who want to participate in the bidding need to pay a deposit of 100,000 yuan. If a buyer wins the bid for the Maybach but refuses to pay the balance, that 100,000 yuan deposit will be forfeited.
As the seller and organizer of the auction, Zhou Hongyi himself has the responsibility to urge the buyer to fulfill the contract terms.
However, it seems that neither Chairman Chu nor Zhou Hongyi took the payment deadline clause in the auction rules too seriously. Faced with the inquiries from many second-hand car dealers, Zhou Hongyi even unusually responded with a lengthy text.
After reading this passage, many people thought Zhou Hongyi had broken through the defenses...
With Chu's statement that he has already completed the final payment, it seems that the controversy surrounding this auction has come to an end. What remains to be seen is the transfer of ownership of the Maybach and how the auction proceeds will be paid to the charity foundation as agreed.
However, many may still be curious: why has Zhou Hongyi recently been hyping new energy vehicles one after another and organizing auctions in a high-profile manner? What value does traffic have for him and 360 company?
Who is the traffic for, Zhou Hongyi has a clear idea
Looking at the timeline, Zhou Hongyi's recent surge in popularity on the Chinese internet regarding the automotive industry seems to have started on March 26th. On that day, he and Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Auto, in which he invested, along with Cheng Li, founder of Cheyun.com, held a large-scale live broadcast that could be described as a "car crash scene."
During that event, Zhou Hongyi, with a straightforward spirit of "going crazy, even hitting his own people," repeatedly challenged Zhang Yong and Nezha Auto, bluntly stating, "The pronunciation of Nezha L is very strange, you guys are always self-indulgent from marketing to product planning, this is unacceptable."
Even when visiting the expansion site of Nezha Auto's Tongxiang factory, Zhou Hongyi, still "unrestrained," complained that he didn't know why Zhang Yong brought him to this large construction site, what he wanted to show everyone, "Look at Xiaomi's presentation, you guys don't understand anything!"
Although it has been over a month, I can still feel the awkwardness of Teacher Cheng through the screen.
Clearly, when it comes to his "own son," Zhou Hongyi can be seen as a strict father who "teaches his son face to face." However, for a series of "other people's children" such as Jiuke, Li Xiang, Wang Wang, and NIO, he is full of praise. Especially at the Beijing Auto Show, he even told Li Bin at the NIO booth that their company is the true "In the future."
Li Bin, facing the praise from the man in red, smiled broadly (Photo by Hu Chushi from Huxiu).
At the auto show, Zhou Hongyi visited various booths to check in. Although he hasn't appeared much in movies or TV shows, Zhou Hongyi exuded a star quality in his every move, knowing how to create moments for the camera. At the Dongfeng Motor booth, he even climbed onto the roof of an off-road vehicle, creating the biggest highlight of the media day at the auto show, momentarily overshadowing Lei Jun, who was also at the exhibition hall.
Despite speaking ill of his own invested car company, Zhou Hongyi had nothing but good words for other car brands. What exactly is Zhou Hongyi aiming for?
One thing that can be ruled out is that he is obviously not doing it for sales. On February 6th, Zhou Hongyi specifically denied rumors on Weibo regarding media reports that "360 has confirmed live streaming sales as one of its annual plans," stating that his goal in generating traffic is to promote 360 and save the company advertising costs.
The author feels somewhat uncertain about this statement. From the financial reports, it is evident that 360's main revenue still comes from internet business, primarily relying on internet traffic to sell advertisements, internet products, and game distribution. However, it is well known that the traffic on the PC side, which is the main commercial area of 360's internet business, has been declining year by year among the entire user base. Moreover, information security products are no longer essential for users in the era of mobile internet.
These combined factors have led to the company's market value plummeting from over 450 billion yuan at its peak to the latest 60.95 billion yuan.
Nevertheless, other AI-enabled concepts leaning towards the B-end communication, digital security business, and Zhou Hongyi's influence may indeed enhance the visibility and prestige of these businesses. Some business tycoons have personally told Hu Xiu editors that they learn about AI and study AI by watching Zhou Hongyi's videos. Zhou has seemingly become the spokesperson for AI and large models in the eyes of certain individuals, including non-ordinary onlookers.
What's more, sometimes even the A-share market in China falls for this.
According to reports from Red Star Capital, in September 2023, 360's subsidiary, Lu Da Master, first announced a special dividend, stating that they would convene a board meeting to review the proposal of distributing special dividends. This news attracted a large number of investors, causing Lu Da Master's stock price to surge by 73% in six trading days.
Subsequently, Zhou Hongyi's controlled company, Chengsheng Limited, took the opportunity to reduce its stake by 12% and cash out at a high price. Following this, Lu Da Master swiftly announced the cancellation of the special dividend meeting, leading to a cliff-like drop in the stock price. The funds that had followed suit earlier suffered heavy losses, sparking significant controversy.
Even earlier, the news of Zhou Hongyi's divorce had an impact on the capital market. In early April 2023, 360's stock price reached a high of 20.85 yuan, setting a new high since July 2020. However, on the evening of April 4, 2023, 360 officially announced Zhou Hongyi's divorce and, according to the agreement, divided the 446,585,200 shares directly held by himself (approximately 6.25% of the total shares of the company) to Ms. Hu Huan's name, with a total value of about 9 billion yuan.
In response, Zhao Luming, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of 360 Group, refuted the accusations of Zhou Hongyi's "fake divorce" in his circle of friends, stating, "If anyone says I came up with this cash-out strategy for the boss, I will fight them to the end. You are insulting my professional ability."
However, following this incident, several major shareholders of AI concept stock companies successively announced their divorces and used this as an opportunity to transfer substantial assets.
In this regard, Benjamin Graham, the father of security analysis in the United States, once made a classic statement: in the short term, the capital market is a voting machine; but in the long term, it is a weighing machine.
In other words, the evaluation of a company's value should naturally be based on its actual business level and revenue-generating ability over a longer time period. However, in the short term, emotional guidance and hot speculation often have a profound impact on its performance in the capital market. Such operations are not uncommon in our land.
From this perspective, Zhou Hongyi's way of maintaining or even boosting his popularity by simply getting on the roof and auctioning second-hand cars in the flow pool of the Chinese automobile industry can be considered a truly effective strategy.
After all, compared to figures like Lei Jun and Li Bin, who livestream to sell cars, surrounded by traffic and not having to worry about sales figures, Zhou Hongyi is indeed living a truly carefree life.
