Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

A man’s name carries weight, like a tree’s shadow.

Kuai Pao rose to prominence in just half a year, first defeating Eleme and then aggressively expanding into Huian, Sujiang, and Hu City. Its iron-clad ground promotion team was equally renowned.

On one hand, they were formidable in business development and professional competence. On the other hand, their employees were incredibly unified, and also formidable in a physical fight.

A business promoter from Kuai Pao could stand on a street corner, give a shout, and instantly summon more than a dozen deliverymen, Cloud Speed Couriers, and offline promoters from Fast Taxi.

Walking the streets, not even Meituan’s promoters dared to provoke them.

Back when Meituan was battling Dianping, Lashou Network, WoWo Group, and Nuomi Network for merchant resources, they were known for getting into fistfights every other day.

Within the Group Buy industry, Meituan’s promotion army was notorious for its aggressive, take-no-prisoners attitude.

Yanjing, 18 Suzhou Street, Haidian District.

”Perhaps Kuai Pao is even tougher to deal with than Lashou and Dianping,” Wang Xin muttered, his brow deeply furrowed.

He had studied Chen Yansen’s business track record, and it was no exaggeration to call him a ’genius’.

Others only saw Chen Yansen’s knack for seizing opportunities with precision, but Wang Xin saw things differently. He knew deep down that Chen Yansen’s profound understanding of business models was what made him truly terrifying.

Take the food delivery industry, for instance. Its core lay in merchant and user resources, as well as order fulfillment capabilities.

Initially, Eleme had focused on building its merchant and user base, only to be defeated by Kuai Pao’s superior fulfillment capabilities.

Delivery efficiency and order fulfillment capabilities—that was a food delivery platform’s strongest moat.

It was precisely because he understood Chen Yansen and his strategic prowess that Wang Xin grew even more concerned.

”What’s the difference between Senlian Capital and Penguin? E-commerce, smartphones, couriers, food delivery, ride-hailing—they have to get a piece of every single industry.”

Wang Huiwen cursed under his breath, his face long with frustration.

Meituan had gone through hell and back to stand out from nearly 6,000 other Group Buy websites. They had just claimed the industry’s top spot and thought they were invincible, but then Kuai Pao came out of nowhere, crossing from its own industry to invade the Group Buy market.

An enemy from out of the blue!

”So, Chen Yansen and Penguin are on very good terms. Birds of a feather, I suppose,” Wang Xin sneered, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards.

”It’s just competition. Meituan survived the War of a Thousand Groupons. Are we really supposed to be afraid of one little Kuai Pao?”

Wang Huiwen took a deep breath and said, his voice brimming with confidence.

”That’s right! When it comes to competition, Meituan fears no one!” Wang Xin’s eyes narrowed, his gaze turning sharp and cold.

’You try to take my food, I’ll flip your table.’

The next morning, Wang Xin posted on Weibo, announcing that Meituan would soon be entering the food delivery industry.

Since Kuai Pao dared to invade the Group Buy space to steal their business, Meituan would go and take a piece of the food delivery pie.

Dianping quickly followed suit, announcing its own food delivery plans.

Lashou Network, WoWo Group, and Nuomi Network, however, had neither the spare energy and capital nor the courage to challenge Kuai Pao. They all played dumb and remained silent.

”They haven’t even figured out Group Buy, and now they want to do food delivery?”

Chen Yansen scoffed when he saw the news, not taking Wang Xin seriously in the slightest.

’The food delivery business model is much harder than Group Buy’s!’

The core of the Group Buy business is being a ”traffic intermediary,” while the core of food delivery is ”fulfillment service.” The former is a light-asset model with a simple profit logic. The latter is a heavy-asset model that requires building out a full-chain management process—from online orders to merchant preparation, rider delivery, and finally user receipt. The operational costs are high, and the technical difficulty is immense.

It wasn’t that he looked down on Wang Xin. It was just that Meituan had yet to fully extricate itself from the quagmire of the War of a Thousand Groupons.

Lashou Network, Dianping, WoWo Group, and Nuomi Network were all watching Meituan like hawks. The moment Wang Xin dared to bet big on food delivery, a portion of his capital and traffic would inevitably be diverted from the Group Buy sector.

At that point, forget competing with Kuai Pao; they’d be lucky to hold on to their existing market share.

But, to everyone’s surprise, Meituan filed the company and trademark applications for ”Meituan Takeout” that very same day, posturing as if they were preparing for all-out war.

Meanwhile, also in Yanjing, Zhang Xuhao had just finished his Q2 work report when he was summoned to the big boss’s office.

”You must be aware of the industry’s recent developments. You have experience in food delivery, so I want to hear your opinion. Should Nuomi Network take this opportunity to expand its business scope?”

Shen Boyang stared intently at Zhang Xuhao and asked in a grave voice.

He knew Zhang Xuhao was the founder of Eleme. When it came to the food delivery industry, no one in the entire company had more experience.

”President Shen, I don’t recommend Nuomi Network enter the food delivery space. Group Buy and food delivery may seem to have a lot of overlap in their business models, but their essences are different. Food delivery requires massive capital investment in a delivery team. The monthly cost per rider is between 6,000 and 8,000 yuan, and on top of that, you have to solve the problem of insufficient capacity during peak hours...”

Zhang Xuhao sat across from Shen Boyang, speaking fluently and with confidence.

”Six to eight thousand yuan?” Shen Boyang exclaimed in surprise, cutting him off.

”Kuai Pao’s full-time deliverymen all get a base salary, quarterly bonuses, and various subsidies. When you factor in the commission per delivery, the top earner at every station makes over 15,000 a month.”

Zhang Xuhao shrugged, stating it as if it were a simple fact.

In fact, back when Eleme was at its peak, the best deliverymen at some stations could earn about the same.

”This Chen Yansen... He fundamentally doesn’t want anyone else competing with him for the food delivery market!”

Shen Boyang suddenly understood.

Kuai Pao Delivery’s true moat wasn’t its economies of scale, its powerful fulfillment capabilities, or its sophisticated order-dispatch and route-planning systems. It was the deceptively simple compensation and benefits package for its deliverymen.

’Who would fight him over an unprofitable business?’

”I imagine Wang Xin and Zhang Tao will soon realize just how foolish it was to announce their entry into food delivery,” Zhang Xuhao said with a mocking smile.

Shen Boyang grinned. Convinced by Zhang Xuhao’s words, he immediately abandoned the idea of getting into food delivery.

’The cost is too high, and the potential reward isn’t worth the risk.’

Kuai Pao had internet giants like Senlian Capital, Penguin, and Ah Li backing it. Nuomi Network’s parent company was Renren Network, a far weaker player. Where would they find the money to burn on such a venture?

After more than a dozen consecutive months of losses, the higher-ups were already complaining. They had even considered packaging up Nuomi Network to be sold.

Ten minutes later, Zhang Xuhao left Shen Boyang’s office. The thought that he was once again a competitor to Pei Yi made him shake his head.

’It wasn’t that he was scared. Rather, his few months at Nuomi Network had made one thing crystal clear: Shen Boyang was no match for Pei Yi.’

In the days that followed, whenever the promotion teams from Meituan and Kuai Pao encountered each other on the street, there was an unmistakable air of hostility between them.

Before, they had stayed in their own lanes, but now they were fighting for food from the same pot. With their personal incomes at stake, tempers began to flare.

Meituan’s commission rate was 8%. The moment Kuai Pao entered the Group Buy industry, it announced a three-month, commission-free policy. Furthermore, after the promotional period ended, the commission charged to merchants would only be 5%.

As a result, without any exclusivity rules forcing them to ”pick one of two,” merchants—whether they were on Meituan, Lashou, Dianping, or Nuomi Network—all happily signed cooperation agreements with Kuai Pao.

’Another sales channel just meant more revenue.’

Most brick-and-mortar merchants understood this simple logic.

The merchant resources others had spent two long years painstakingly cultivating, Kuai Pao’s business development team secured with almost no effort.

The income of Meituan’s promotion staff was tied directly to sales performance. For instance, the more a hot pot restaurant’s Group Buy package sold on Meituan, the higher their commission.

Kuai Pao’s team didn’t even have to think. They just copied Meituan’s Group Buy packages, changed a few dishes at most, and started selling them on Kuai Pao for the exact same price.

In Luzhou, Jinling, Hu City, and other areas, the arrival of Kuai Pao caused the income of Meituan’s promoters to plummet.

The promotion teams from the two platforms frequently got into arguments in shopping malls, food streets, and other commercial areas.

On July 13th, on Luzhou Pedestrian Street, three of Meituan’s promotion managers were ganged up on by two Kuai Pao promoters, six Kuai Pao Deliverymen, and eight Cloud Speed Couriers. They were beaten so badly they fled for their lives, one of them even losing a shoe in the process.

Online, Kuai Pao launched promotions like ”1 Yuan Group Buys,” ”9.9 Yuan Flash Sales,” and ”Check-in to Get 5 or 10 Yuan Vouchers with No Minimum Spend.” Offline, they were chasing down and pummeling Meituan’s promoters.

It couldn’t be helped. Cloud Speed Express had over 100,000 employees nationwide. Add in the support from Fast Taxi and the Kuai Pao Deliverymen, and Meituan was simply too outnumbered to be a match for Kuai Pao.

The moment Meituan’s teams saw Kuai Pao’s promoters approaching, their first instinct was to run.

When Wang Xin found out, his face turned ashen with rage. It used to be Meituan’s promoters who were wiping the floor with other platforms’ teams. Since when was it Meituan’s turn to take a beating?

But with such a disadvantage in numbers, Wang Xin was powerless.

Fortunately, the authorities couldn’t stand by and watch any longer. They promptly summoned Pei Yi and Wang Xin for a meeting and ordered them to get their employees under control.

”Business competition cannot be allowed to degenerate into street brawls!”

Kuai Pao’s expansion was so fast and fierce that Meituan, Lashou, and Dianping found themselves in a thorny situation.

It was only then that Zhu Xiaohu of Jinsha Venture Capital understood why Chen Yansen had refused to take over Lashou Network.

After a moment of thought, Zhu Xiaohu called Chen Yansen. Under the pretext of inquiring about Fast Taxi’s Series B funding round, he started a conversation about the development trends in the Group Buy industry.

”I’m still interested in Lashou Network, but the asking price is too high,” Chen Yansen said, proactively signaling to Zhu Xiaohu that a deal was negotiable.

”If President Chen is willing to take it over, I can step in and help you negotiate with Maitun Investment and Renite Fund.”

Zhu Xiaohu’s interest was immediately piqued.

Qiu Junping of Maitun Investment was an outstanding investor, but when it came to the daily operations of Lashou Network, he made one mistake after another. The company’s market share was bleeding away, and it was on the verge of being surpassed by Nuomi Network.

Zhu Xiaohu and the other investors had long wanted to replace Qiu Junping but had been unable to find a suitable candidate.

”Then I’ll leave it in your capable hands, President Zhu,” Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

’If I can stabilize Lashou first, it’ll remove a lot of the resistance to Kuai Pao’s growth.’

After hanging up, Zhu Xiaohu immediately found Qiu Junping and also brought in the representative from Renite Fund. They needed to discuss what price it would take to entice Chen Yansen.