Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

East Gate of Xuyuan, Shuangqing Restaurant.

”I can’t believe Meituan, Dianping, and Lashou Network have all brought their price wars to Xucheng. Brother Sen, when is your Kuai Pao Delivery going to launch service at Xuyuan?”

”Yeah, I want to experience lying in my dorm while my food gets delivered before I graduate.”

Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang exchanged a glance, chuckling.

”Soon!”

Chen Yansen replied, taking a sip from his glass.

After Kuai Pao established a firm foothold in Luzhou, they had already prepared a city expansion plan for Huian Province. In less than three months, Kuai Pao delivery riders would probably be seen around Xuyuan.

”Brother Sen, my girlfriend is going to be a senior next semester. She’s a fine arts major. Is it possible for her to intern at Pinbei or Orange Technology’s design department?”

Song Yang leaned over and asked in a low voice.

”Just have her show up then.”

Chen Yansen readily agreed.

”Thanks, Brother Sen,” Song Yang said gratefully.

”Sigh. Brother Sen, you were right. If you don’t get a girlfriend by your freshman or sophomore year, the probability of being single for all four years of college is as high as 99.99%.”

Tang Zhenzhe, who was sitting to the side, looked at Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang with envy.

These two guys... one was being pursued by an upperclassman, and the other had a long-distance girlfriend. In dorm 8302, only he, Meng Xibo, and Zhu Xiaopeng were still single.

Chen Yansen chuckled. He hadn’t expected Tang Zhenzhe to fall into Su Meiling’s hands again in this life. After two years of painstaking simping, he hadn’t even held her hand.

’Useless!’

”A man should prioritize his career. Establish yourself first, then start a family,” Meng Xibo chimed in.

He was a supervisor in Pinbei’s customer service department with a base salary of around 10,000. Including overtime, his income was top-tier in all of Xucheng.

”Oh, give me a break. Last month, using the hometown association meeting as an excuse, some guy was relentlessly pestering a younger female student. I wonder who that was? I could’ve sworn he looked exactly like you.”

Tang Zhenzhe retorted teasingly, curling his lip.

”HAHAHA...” Zhu Xiaopeng couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

”What the hell are you laughing at? You’re a single loser too.” Tang Zhenzhe went on the offensive, roasting both of them.

”Bullshit! The girl couldn’t find her way home, so what’s wrong with me walking her?” Meng Xibo’s expression froze, and he forced an explanation through gritted teeth.

”Tch—!” Tang Zhenzhe’s face was full of contempt.

”In another three months, a new batch of fresh young female students will arrive. Brother Zhe, don’t be anxious. If all else fails, I can introduce you to my sister.”

Song Yang stood up, refilled everyone’s glasses, and said consolingly with a smile.

”Your sister? You got a picture?” The moment Tang Zhenzhe heard this, his interest was piqued.

But when Song Yang showed Tang Zhenzhe a photo of his five-year-old sister, the room instantly erupted in another round of laughter.

’Almost a junior already?’

Chen Yansen mused to himself. College life passed by so quickly. Regrettably, he had only been with an upperclassman, never a younger student.

「Meanwhile.」

DiDi Dache headquarters.

Cheng Wei looked at the dwindling balance in their account and said to the head of the Market Department, ”The marketing expenses are being burned through too quickly, much faster than I expected. It looks like we need to raise funds as soon as possible.”

”This money was burned for a good reason. We currently have 1,600 drivers and daily orders as high as 80,000. Compared to the beginning of the month, that’s a seven- to eight-fold increase.”

The head of the Market Department pushed up his glasses and replied in a firm tone.

Cheng Wei nodded, quite in agreement with what he said.

Under DiDi Dache’s counterattack, although Fast Taxi held sixty percent of Yanjing’s ride-hailing market, its advantage wasn’t significant.

After the meeting, Cheng Wei called his contacts at Today Capital and Qian Du. The core message boiled down to five words: ”This is Cheng Wei. Send money.”

”Thirty million, and you spent it in just one month?” Qian Du’s Vice President, Liang Zhixiang, asked back in astonishment.

”President Liang, competing with Fast Taxi for the Yanjing market, the subsidies naturally get used up a bit faster,” Cheng Wei replied.

’Thirty million a month... wouldn’t that be 360 million a year?’

Liang Zhixiang felt that things were getting serious. He had initially thought he was just casually investing in a project as a favor to Today Capital. That, combined with Fast Taxi’s explosive popularity and the potential need to promote Qian Du’s smart driving technology, was why he had allocated 30 million to DiDi Dache.

But he had never imagined that the ride-hailing industry could burn through 30 million in a single month!

Thinking of this, he didn’t agree right away, but instead politely demurred, ”I need to sync up with my boss first. Wait for my call.”

In his view, Cheng Wei was an entrepreneur who was not good at managing funds. It was necessary to send a finance person over to keep an eye on things.

Arriving at Li Yanhong’s office, Liang Zhixiang hesitated for a long moment before finally knocking on his boss’s door.

”Come in!” a steady male voice called from inside the room.

”Boss, there’s an investment project I’d like to report to you about,” Liang Zhixiang said nervously.

”DiDi Dache? I’ve heard about it. They’ve been fighting a fierce price war with Fast Taxi recently. What’s wrong? Out of money again?”

Li Yanhong put down the document in his hand and asked nonchalantly.

”Yes, DiDi Dache burned through 30 million in one month. Based on the current trend, they’ll need at least three to four hundred million a year.”

Liang Zhixiang replied.

”It’s just a few hundred million. Since Chen Yansen is so optimistic about the ride-hailing market, let’s play along with him. You go find a few more investment firms. Qian Du can lead the round, but we also need to consider the high risk.”

Li Yanhong said lightly.

Little did he know, it was precisely this style of not giving his all, of not daring to go ”all in,” that led to Qian Du’s fate of always getting an early start but finishing late.

Qian Du’s Tieba, which could have been a trump card in his hand, was instead bungled through a series of operations, causing them to miss the gateway to the mobile internet and marking a turning point in Qian Du’s decline.

In the ten years surrounding smart driving, they invested tens of billions, only to be overtaken by new energy vehicle manufacturers like Huawei, Li Auto, and IM Motors.

More than a decade later, when OpenAI exploded in popularity, Qian Du was again the first company to jump in and create a large AI model. But in the blink of an eye, a year passed, and its market share fell behind once more.

With top-tier strategic vision paired with an execution that was hard to describe, it was only natural that they repeatedly fought and lost.

「At the same time.」

Today Capital, Haina Asia, and Gao Ling Capital all received the news as well.

Zhang Lei of Gao Ling Capital hadn’t participated in Fast Taxi’s Series A financing round. He had initially looked down on the ride-hailing track, but after seeing Fast Taxi achieve a million daily orders and over 20 million in daily revenue by occupying just three cities, he regretted it.

Meanwhile, Wang Qiong of Haina Asia had long been paying attention to the two ride-hailing platforms, DiDi Dache and Fast Taxi.

The moment Liang Zhixiang of Qian Du made the proposal, she agreed without hesitation.

With the rise of the mobile internet, ride-hailing, as a high-frequency, essential transportation tool, might not have high profit margins, but its market prospects were vast. Even capturing just half of the national market would result in an annual revenue of no less than 100 billion.

It was worth investing in!

A day later, in the banquet hall of the Yanjing Junyue Hotel.

Representatives from the five parties—DiDi Dache, Qian Du, Today Capital, Haina Asia, and Gao Ling Capital—signed the Series C financing agreement.

Cheng Wei secured another 200 million in funding, and DiDi Dache’s valuation soared directly to 1 billion.

In reality, DiDi Dache’s valuation was at most in the 700-800 million range.

But during the negotiations, Cheng Wei stubbornly held to the 1 billion price and refused to budge!

Therefore, after arguing for half a day, the four investment firms, including Qian Du, had no choice but to close their eyes and agree to the 1 billion valuation.

Liang Zhixiang had received instructions from Li Yanhong, and with Qian Du as the lead investor, he took the initiative to claim 60% of the financing share when negotiations reached a stalemate.

Only then did the voices of opposition from Today Capital, Haina Asia, and Gao Ling Capital gradually fade away.

After returning to the company, Cheng Wei immediately called a meeting with the Market and Operations Departments. He planned to further expand DiDi Dache’s coverage to the Chaoyang, Dongcheng, West City, and Haidian Districts, bringing the entire core area within the Fourth Ring Road into their operational territory.

In addition, he would increase subsidies for both drivers and passengers to continue fighting with Fast Taxi for market share.

The next day, the news that DiDi Dache had secured another 200 million in financing and was waging a subsidy war with Fast Taxi in Yanjing shot to the top of the trending topics.

”I’m so jealous of Master Jing! Waking up every day, first a bowl of old Yanjing douzhi, then a free ride-share.”

”Tell me about it! Aiyo, now that’s what I call authentic!”

”When are DiDi Dache and Fast Taxi coming to Hong Kong? I want to ride in a free taxi too.”

Netizens chattered away in the comments section.

Seeing this information, Cheng Weixing felt extremely frustrated, but there was nothing he could do.

’Who could he blame but himself for his failed acquisition strategy!’

Cheng Wei had some serious dumb luck, first getting in with Today Capital and then getting noticed by Qian Du.

One had to remember that in 2012, Qian Du Network was an internet behemoth with a market capitalization of over 50 billion US dollars.

Even the scraps leaking from their hands would be enough for DiDi Dache to fight with Fast Taxi for several more months.

However, after handling matters in Yanjing, Cheng Weixing handed off the subsequent work.

Fast Taxi’s city expansion plans for Huian, Su, and Jiangzhe Provinces were already prepared, expanding from the provincial capitals to the surrounding cities.

The Yanjing market was important, but the layout of the East China Region was even more so.

When Cheng Weixing left Yanjing, Cheng Wei, his wallet now full, kicked DiDi Dache into a frenzy.

He expanded the service area more than tenfold in one go.

After battling over new customer subsidies, the two companies started scheming with repeat customer subsidies. DiDi Dache took the lead by issuing 8-yuan unconditional ride vouchers to its existing users.

Fast Taxi responded quickly, giving out a 10-yuan unconditional ride voucher to its existing users every day.

At this point, local ride-hailing passengers in Yanjing could get an almost free ride every day.

For a while, the people of Yanjing were overjoyed. They would even call a taxi just to go out and buy groceries.

The taxi drivers were just as happy. They were earning several hundred extra yuan a day and wished the subsidy war between Fast Taxi and DiDi Dache would last a lifetime.

But an even happier group of people was currently holed up in a residential building on the outer ring road. Brother Hui, carrying a sack full of cash, pushed open the door to their studio.

”Fuck! So much money?”

”Brother Hui, let me carry that for you! Don’t strain yourself!”

”Get lost! Everyone, stop what you’re doing! Time to pay out salaries!”

Brother Hui grinned and shouted to the other four.

Ever since DiDi Dache started giving out vouchers to existing users, their speed of milking cash had gotten even faster.

On their best day, they made eighty to ninety thousand. In about twenty days, they had earned over 1.3 million.

”Liu Zi, eighty thousand.”

”Chaozi, one hundred and thirty thousand.”

”Yaozi, ninety thousand.”

”Ah Zhen, one hundred and twenty thousand.”

A stack for each person. Brother Hui neatly piled the cash and pushed it in front of the four of them.

”This is the first time in my life I’ve seen this much money.” Chaozi, a young man with a crew cut and a round face, hugged the cash to his chest, his expression one of pure bliss.

”Alright, let’s hurry up and make more money! DiDi Dache just raised another 200 million. Boss Cheng gets to eat the meat, and we’ll follow along and drink the soup, haha.”

Brother Hui said smugly, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

DiDi Dache’s risk control system was full of holes. You could even say it was completely defenseless.

People like Brother Hui were actually not uncommon; his operation was just the largest.

Cheng Wei had no idea that around 20% of the money he was smashing into marketing and promotions was being siphoned off by Gray Studios.

He threw a punch, but before it could even land on his opponent, it had already lost twenty percent of its force.

The subsidy war between Fast Taxi and DiDi Dache continued from early May into June. There were no tricks, just a relentless smashing of money.

But as time went on, users with an essential need for ride-hailing gradually discovered that when it came to service quality, Fast Taxi was still better.

First, its location tracking was accurate, unlike DiDi Dache, where a person could be under an overpass, but the system would set the pickup location on the overpass itself;

Second, it had abundant driver resources, fast order responses, and short wait times;

Third, its route planning was logical, reducing congestion and travel time.

For drivers, what was more important was that Fast Taxi had more orders, which meant they could earn more money.

After its financing round, DiDi Dache no longer lacked funds, but its ”internal skills” were far inferior to Fast Taxi’s.

Its market share, instead of growing, actually shrank!

Cheng Wei finally realized something was wrong. The subsidy war had to be fought, but DiDi Dache’s app also needed to be optimized and upgraded. Otherwise, they would never be able to unleash their full potential.

Flush with cash, DiDi Dache began to recruit talent and accelerate the expansion of its tech department.