Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

It turned out Pinbei didn’t just sell groceries, apparel, and general merchandise. They also had their own central warehouses and partnered with Cloud Speed Express. In terms of delivery speed, they were even faster than Gome and Sunning.

When Zhang Jindong found out, he quickly ordered the branding department to publicly release Sunning’s results from the 418 promotion.

Yesterday was a fight for users; today is a fight for traffic.

”Boss, Jingdong and Pinbei’s 418 promotions are still up on their homepages,” Han Pengde reported, walking into the office with a grim expression.

”Yes, I know,” Zhang Jindong replied with a nod.

E-commerce competition was very different from brick-and-mortar retail. There weren’t as many dirty tricks or underhanded tactics. It was a world where money talked.

The War of a Thousand Groupons was a prime example. The competitors who lasted until the end either had deep pockets or brilliant operational skills. Those who had both had a seventy to eighty percent chance of victory.

Zhang Jindong had no intention of letting this end so quickly. Until Liu Qiangdong admitted defeat, Sunning had to keep relentlessly hammering Jingdong.

He wanted to show them that even in the online space, Jingdong shouldn’t even think about messing with Sunning.

Seeing that no one was willing to back down, Dangdang and Yixun Network had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue the fight.

Around noon, Liu Qiangdong hung up the phone with a terrible look on his face. Both Digital Sky Technology and Redwood Capital had refused his request for additional funding.

Fortunately, Xu Xin of Today Capital promised to raise another one hundred million in funding for him, willing to give Jingdong a helping hand.

This filled Liu Qiangdong with gratitude, and he couldn’t stop calling her ”Sister Xu.”

’If we can just get through today, we can count this 418 Home Appliance Festival as a win for Jingdong.’

Liu Qiangdong clenched his fists, thinking to himself.

From a financial perspective, this battle had no victors. Everyone lost a significant amount of money.

But in another sense, every one of them was a winner.

According to a third-party data platform, Pinbei’s traffic saw a massive 57% increase, putting them in first place. Jingdong was second with 31%, and Sunning was third with 22.7%.

Gome, Dangdang, and Yixun Network followed closely behind.

They had all gained a massive amount of traffic. As for their public image, that would depend on the follow-up marketing strategies of their respective branding departments.

It wasn’t until the early morning of the 19th that Pinbei proactively took its promotion page offline. Jingdong, Sunning, and Gome then followed suit.

This three-day e-commerce war, with total losses amounting to two billion, had finally come to a close.

Pinbei’s outstanding performance naturally attracted the attention of venture capital firms.

Suddenly, Gao Weilin’s phone was ringing off the hook.

The calls came from domestic venture capital firms like Huake, Dacheng, and Nine Tripods, as well as from overseas investors like IDG, Digital Sky Technology, GGV Capital, and Morgan Stanley Asia.

”President Zhou, it looks like Digital Sky Technology wants to invest in every e-commerce platform in Hua Country!”

Chen Yansen joked with a laugh after taking the call from Zhou Shouzhi.

”I only invest in projects with potential,” Zhou Shouzhi replied.

As a seasoned investor, he knew full well that in any given market sector, it was never a winner-take-all game.

While the return on investment for the number one player was certainly astonishing, investing in the second and third could also yield handsome profits. Zhou Shouzhi wasn’t one to pass up such an opportunity.

”What is the valuation for Pinbei that Digital Sky Technology—or should I say, Mr. Yuri—is offering?”

Chen Yansen asked, getting straight to the point.

Given Pinbei’s current market size, the amount of investment involved was clearly not something Zhou Shouzhi could decide on his own.

He was certain that before calling, Zhou Shouzhi had already reported to Yuri and received authorization to negotiate.

”Six billion US dollars.” Zhou Shouzhi fell silent for a few seconds before slowly quoting the figure.

”Pinbei’s daily sales are comparable to Jingdong’s. I heard that when Liu Qiangdong was on his roadshow in Hong Kong Island last month, the publicly stated valuation was twelve billion US dollars. Digital Sky Technology is only offering six billion. Does that mean you lack confidence in Pinbei?”

Chen Yansen wasn’t angry; he asked the question in a calm tone.

”That’s true, but the investment banks on Hong Kong Island only gave it a valuation of less than six billion,” Zhou Shouzhi explained.

”And that’s why Liu Qiangdong gave up on listing on Hong Kong Island,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

The implication was clear: Digital Sky Technology’s offer was too low.

”President Chen, I’ll be in touch.” Zhou Shouzhi needed to discuss this further with his boss.

Pinbei had grown too fast to prove its long-term performance stability. The risk was too high, so investment firms were unwilling to offer a high valuation.

After a moment of thought, Chen Yansen decided against opening a new round of financing.

The only exceptions would be Penguin Investment or a state-backed venture capital firm. The former could provide Pinbei with free traffic, while the latter could offer policy support and help with regulatory compliance.

The reason Chen Yansen hadn’t moved Pinbei’s headquarters to Hang City, Hu City, or Jinling was because by staying in Xucheng or Luzhou, he had connections in high places who could look out for them.

Otherwise, with Pinbei’s aggressive user acquisition tactics, if they were in a city where they had no connections, the fines from the Market Supervision Association would be enough to fill an entire building.

Features like ”Bargain to Zero,” the ”Cash Prize Wheel,” and the ”Money Printer” were incredibly effective for user acquisition. In fact, any day that didn’t bring in at least a few hundred complaints was a sign that new user growth was flagging.

Before the end of the workday, Liu Zhiping called. After confirming that Chen Yansen had no plans to raise funds, they exchanged a few pleasantries and hung up.

Penguin wasn’t in a hurry, anyway. Holding a 15% stake in Pinbei, they had already made a killing on their investment.

「Meanwhile.」

The phone lines at Market Supervision Association offices across the country were ringing off the hook. Complaints accusing Jingdong, Sunning, and Gome of deceptive marketing were flooding in.

Many customers who had been unable to purchase the low-priced products felt the entire 418 Home Appliance Festival was nothing more than a publicity stunt by the e-commerce platforms.

Screenshots of products whose prices were raised right before being ”lowered” for the sale also began to go viral on social media.

At 5:00 p.m., the National Commerce Association announced it was launching an investigation, vowing to punish any instances of price fraud without leniency.

However, the official in charge of the investigation was left dumbfounded after a preliminary review. From his perspective, not a single one of these bastards was innocent.

If they were to actually enforce the penalties, no one would escape unscathed.

After all, the higher-ups had held a meeting at the start of the year and set an ambitious target of ten trillion for the e-commerce market in 2012.

He feared that news of the penalties would have an overly negative impact on the e-commerce market.

As a result, the whole affair generated a lot of noise. Every day, some well-known lawyer would offer analysis, suggesting the platforms involved in the 418 promotion could face fines ranging from 50,000 to 500,000.

But it was all thunder and no rain. Aside from being summoned for a ”discussion,” the impact on Jingdong, Sunning, and Gome was practically zero.

Pinbei also came out of this battle as the industry’s number two, its sales volume in the home appliance sector second only to Jingdong.

That evening, Chen Yansen announced that all Pinbei Technology employees, including part-time customer service staff, would receive a 1.3x multiplier on their Q2 bonuses. Instantly, cheers erupted throughout Building 8.

「Meanwhile.」

Far away in Yanjing, at 11:00 p.m. on the night of April 20th, Cheng Wei’s outsourced development team finished their work ahead of schedule. After a round of testing, DiDi Dache 1.0 was finally ready for market.