Becoming Rich with Daily Scavenging APP-Chapter 626: The Former Leader of Navigation

However, the downside of Kaidi was that it developed too early.

Kaidi was established as early as 1997, a full five years before Gaode.

At that time, there were not even smartphones, and car navigation looked like very high-tech stuff.

But Kaidi foresaw the information trend of future travel.

With the development of highways and big cities, even experienced drivers found it difficult to find the right way in unfamiliar cities, and the paper city maps people used were completely outdated.

So Kaidi became one of the first companies in the country to collect navigation map data and drew national road maps.

Later, it also became the first private company in the country to obtain a Class A surveying qualification.

Under such circumstances, taxis, trucks, and even some law enforcement vehicles were equipped with Kaidi's in-car navigation.

This made Kaidi number one in the domestic navigation field, and for a long time, they had no competitors.

Without external competitive pressure, Kaidi began to build its own ecological closed loop.

From map surveying to terminal production and software installation, Kaidi directly controlled the entire navigation industry chain.

This ecosystem was extremely closed and allowed Kaidi to earn money at every step of the process.

Then, relying on the sales of usage fees and hardware costs, although they didn't make a fortune, they lived very well.

Then.

The era changed.

The smartphone era arrived with real-time connectivity, real-time updates, smart navigation, and even cameras that could provide alerts in the new navigation age.

In this era, navigation software was used as a tool to attract traffic, not a means to make money.

However, Kaidi still held on to the old ways.

It was unwilling to sell to big companies and still hoped to profit from its car device plus map card model.

So it was mercilessly abandoned by the times.

Its biggest asset from the old days, the offline navigation map, turned into its biggest drag.

Because the maps of the new era could be updated in real time, while Kaidi's maps were only updated once a year.

Later, Kaidi also attempted to transform and develop software.

But its business mindset never changed.

Although they developed software suitable for smartphones, the software was charged.

Each piece of software sold for more than a hundred units of currency.

Who's going to buy that?

Thus, this former car navigation leader's market value has now drastically plummeted.

It even managed to baffle Lei Jun, with the market's depreciation causing him to lose at least over fifty percent on his investment.

"How much is Kaidi's market value now?" Chen Yiyang asked curiously.

"I checked, it's around ten billion," Zhang Yuling said. "The reason it's still worth so much is that Kaidi still has some technology, and its offline map data is also quite valuable."

Ten billion isn't expensive.

But the problem is, what can you do with it after buying Kaidi?

Such a former car navigation giant actually has very few users in the smartphone era, and not many young internet users have even heard of it.

If you buy it to compete with Qian Du Maps or Gaode Maps, the cost of acquiring users will be terrifyingly high.

Nowadays, if an app relies purely on advertising to buy users, the cost per new user is around three to five units of currency.

Both Qian Du and Gaode have users numbering in the hundreds of millions, with daily active users estimated in the tens of millions.

Trying to snatch users from them would cost more than buying Kaidi itself.

"Your flash sale should be able to use this map, right?" Zhang Yuling suggested softly.

That's true.

Ugly Group and Taobao both have their own cooperative navigation systems.

Flash sale was previously using Tengxu Maps.

But Tengxu Maps has many issues.

Compared to Gaode and Qian Du, the route planning on Tengxu Maps is very unreasonable. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Moreover, Tengxu Maps' update speed is also not as good as Gaode Maps.

The root of the problem lies in the different strategic positions each map software holds within their parent companies.

Behind Gaode Maps is Ah Li.

Ah Li's main source of profit comes from Taobao, so they go to every length to direct traffic to Taobao.

Gaode Maps is positioned as a traffic-attracting software, and Ah Li's goal is for it to be a great map tool, attracting as many users as possible, and funneling them to other Ah Li suite software.

Qian Du is a company disguised as high-tech but essentially an advertising company.

So, although there are many complaints about Qian Du Maps, they've done a decent job on the maps themselves as they need to attract users to sell advertisements.

And what Tengxu lacks is not traffic, but companies that can convert traffic to profit, not traffic-attracting companies.

So even though Tengxu followed the trend by creating Tengxu Maps, strategically, the company didn't pay much attention to it. This led to fewer resources for Tengxu Maps, and the software kept getting worse.

Therefore, if you don't want to hold your nose and work with Ah Li or Qian Du in future, making your own map is also a good option.

"Alright then." Chen Yiyang thought for a moment and said, "I'll consult someone about how much Kaidi plans to sell for after I return to the country."

Zhang Yuling still needed to stay in Morocco for a while.

So, Chen Yiyang first flew back to the country and arrived in Lin'an.

The accountant couldn't pick him up at the airport due to work reasons.

But she made a table full of delicious food at home, waiting for Chen Yiyang.

"How did you enjoy your time abroad? Are the girls in Morocco good-looking?" The accountant asked with a smile, looking at Chen Yiyang.

"Don't really recall." Chen Yiyang answered honestly, "I was so busy over there, didn't have time to look at girls."

"By the way." Chen Yiyang quickly said before the accountant could say something else.

He took some things out of his bag.

"I bought you some special souvenirs from Morocco."

"What are they?" The accountant asked curiously, looking over.

"Moroccan handmade carpets, plates with Moroccan patterns, Moroccan colorful ceramics."

Chen Yiyang took them out one by one.

In Africa, these specialties are almost the same, mostly crafts.

But there are also great products.

Chen Yiyang took out a bottle.

"This is rose essential oil, a must-buy special product from Morocco, known as the 'queen of essential oils.'"

Extracting one kilogram of rose essential oil needs three thousand to five thousand kilograms of roses."

"Isn't this used for massage?"

"Right." Chen Yiyang said as he opened the cap.

"Come on, let me try it on you."

"Wait a minute." The accountant immediately realized what Chen Yiyang was about to do.

She just wanted to turn around and run away.

But it was too late already,

She was directly picked up by Chen Yiyang and thrown onto the sofa.

"This is a specialty I brought you with great effort. Come on, let me apply some on you so you can try its effect."