After Meituan and Dianping announced new personnel appointments on November 13，Dianping CEO Zhang Tao bid farewell to the company in tears，The scene of Zhang Tao crying while holding several other founders is quite sad。This event is called "Tribute to the Old Boy，Youth never ends” activity，actually the break-up meal for the core team of Dianping。This "slow company" finally plans to invest in mergers and acquisitions、Organizational structure adjustment、Introducing a series of methods such as flash discounts to restore the decline，But in the end, there was no escape from being merged into the rival Meituan。
From 2005 to 2015，Zhang Tao’s listing plan has been talked about for 10 years；From the tendency to list in the United States to the plan to dismantle the VIE structure and return to China，In the end, Zhang Tao failed to fulfill his wish。Since 2003，Zhang Tao has been at the helm of Dianping for 12 years，What decisions he has made in these 12 years are worth revisiting？
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Dianping was established in 2003，Zhang Tao’s obsession with going public has been talked about since 2005 until 2015。At the end of 2005, Zhang Tao publicly stated: "If Dianping.com can achieve an annual revenue of US$40 to 50 million in the next three to five years，will choose to go public。”，Actually, there is another half to this sentence，"If you can only achieve an annual income of one or two million US dollars，I will consider merging with other large websites。”According to the news announced by 188bet Online Sports Betting and Casino Dianping at the time，By the end of 2005，Dianping.com has approximately 600,000 registered users，Branch stations have been established in 23 cities across the country，There are more than 30 cities、73314 catering companies included in reviews。Zhang Tao estimates，The number of registered users will reach 6 million by the end of next year，30 million in 2007，Cities will also expand to 50 within five years。
Received investment from Sequoia Capital in 2006，This is also its first financing
2006，Sequoia Capital invests USD 1 million in Series A of Dianping，This is the first time Dianping has received external investment in three years since its establishment。
Because of the joining of Sequoia Capital，The then unknown website Dianping began to attract widespread attention from the outside world。Qihoo, which was only established for more than 7 months at the time, received a US$20 million investment from Sequoia Capital not long ago when Dianping received financing。Some media put Dianping and Qihoo 360 together to compare what kind of companies would be favored by Sequoia，To show the development potential of this Shanghai startup。
This is how the friendship between Dianping and Sequoia was forged，After the C round、Sequoia Capital also participated in the D round。What deserves more attention is，After the establishment of Meituan in 2010，Sequoia Capital invests in Meituan for US$12 million，This also paved the way for the merger five years later。
We will discuss listing in 2008
January 2008，Zhang Tao mentioned in an interview that the company will achieve profitability in 2008，And complete the listing goal in three years。At that time，Internal company、The outside world assumes that Dianping will be listed on the market in 2011。
During this period，Meituan has not yet been established，Dianping has not been involved in the group buying business either。With almost no competitors，188bet app download Zhang Tao is still working intensively in the catering market: trying a profit plan in the second half of 2006，Income reached tens of millions in 2007，Income is expected to increase by 3 to 4 times in 2008，And expand into new cities。Dianping’s main income comes from merchant advertising，Dianping, which has been developed for 5 years，Although the number of cities is increasing，But obviously not much energy is spent on operations except Beijing and Shanghai，The main paying merchants still stay in these two cities。
Introduced group buying in 2010
The rise of group buying concept in 2010，Mobile Internet is gradually becoming a trend。The decision-makers of Dianping hope to formally introduce new business models into the company，And look forward to doubling the market value。
See this later，It became the company’s biggest failure。Group buying is the first time that the Chinese business world has witnessed the madness of capital，With the support of capital，The "Thousand Regiment War" is sweeping across，Dianping is not adapted to this market rhythm，So from April 2011 to August 2012，Dianping’s US$100 million in financing failed to win the first place in group buying，The US$60 million financing in August 2012 did not last long，Introducing Tencent’s strategic investment by February 2014。
Rejected Baidu acquisition in 2013
October 2013，There are media reports that Baidu plans to acquire Dianping for US$2 billion。Although Dianping and its investor Huaxing Capital later denied the news of "Baidu acquiring Dianping"，But it can be confirmed that Dianping and Baidu have indeed come to the negotiation table，Discussed the acquisition，Baidu offers $2 billion，But the negotiation was not concluded。
Compared with the eagerness to go public in the previous three and five years，Zhang Tao began to change his attitude and said he was not in a hurry to go public, "We are not short of money，Our investors are not 188bet Online Sports Betting and Casino in a hurry to cash out by listing Dianping.com。On the mobile Internet，We still have many new applications that are not yet mature，No rush to go public now。”But he still gave a time for IPO within five years，Tend to list in the United States，Valuation expected to exceed $10 billion。
Tencent became a shareholder in 2014
February 2014，Tencent and Dianping announce strategic cooperation，Tencent will invest in Dianping，20% of shares。
According to the official promotional materials at the time, the independence of Dianping was once again emphasized: through this strategic cooperation，Business information of Dianping、Consumer Comments、Group purchase、Local life services such as restaurant online reservations，Will communicate with QQ、Cooperation with Tencent products such as WeChat。After Tencent’s investment，The founding management team headed by Dianping founder and CEO Zhang Tao continues to have control of the company，Maintain the independent operation and development of Dianping。
In fact, there is a 5% option in the equity agreement，That is, Tencent has the right to increase its stake by 5% within one year based on the initial public offering (IPO) price of Dianping after its overseas listing，It can be seen that Zhang Tao still held the hope of going public at that time。He said at the time: I am most afraid that others will think that I have sold the company。He still believes that the merchant information and user reviews of the past ten years，Is the ultimate weapon against giants。Dianping will have the opportunity to be listed independently。
Invest in upstream and downstream in 2014, hoping to open up the catering industry chain
2014，Dianping frequently invests abroad，USD 80 million invested in food delivery company Ele.me，50 million yuan invested in food ordering website Big Mouth，In addition, it also invested in the catering software company Ishikawa Technology、Zhilong，WIFI service provider Maiwaidi。
For these investments and acquisitions，Zhang Tao’s interpretation is to open up the industrial chain: “We are now focusing our business，Make the core yourself，Other parts cooperate with outside parties。We have invested in seven or eight projects now，Basically it has something to do with the integration of the industrial chain。Mainly two parts: merchant side，If providing merchant services，Ru Zhilong、Are you hungry、Enterprise WIFI, etc.，They have merchants，But there are not many Internet users，Combined with Dianping to develop O2O；Client，Acquire more users through Tencent as a partner，In addition, we are also working with Xiaomi、Samsung cooperates in this area。”
VIE planned to be demolished in 2015
According to reports from Tencent Technology，Dianping before preparing to merge with Meituan，Distributed "Old Plan A" to shareholders。Follow the "Old Plan A"，Dianping has formulated a detailed plan to return to A-shares，And prepare to start sprinting for the strategic emerging board in 2016。
Dianping’s plans include: finalizing the restructuring plan by the end of August this year，Signed the Reorganization Framework Agreement；At the end of September to early October 2015, the main part Hantao completed the acquisition of WFOE、Overseas foreign investment；Complete pre-IPO restructuring in December 2015。
Dianping is also preparing to complete Series G financing in 2015，The total scale is close to 10 billion yuan，Among them，The cash flow used for return from restructuring is RMB 3.5 billion，The exit of old shares used in the restructuring process is estimated to be 1.5 billion yuan。
Conclusion:
None of these 8 decisions can be considered right or wrong，Maybe it was the best choice for reviews at that time。