Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Hang City. The lush front garden of Jinsha Hall, by the shore of West Lake.

Chen Yansen strode inside, followed closely by Gao Weilin, Cheng Weixing, and Song Yuncheng. In addition, six experienced finance and legal staff trailed behind them.

Regarding the valuation for Fast Taxi’s Series B financing, although every firm had submitted a bid, coordinating the equity allocation and aligning the long-term interests of all parties would still require a thorough and comprehensive negotiation process.

Just as he reached the entrance to the banquet hall, Chen Yansen saw Ma Liyun standing outside.

At the same time, Ma Liyun saw him too.

The two men’s expressions were tense, but they immediately broke into smiles upon making eye contact.

’Just as I expected,’ Chen Yansen thought. ’Ma Liyun is a pure businessman. As long as there are entangled interests between Senlian Capital and Ah Li, he won’t burn bridges with me.’

’Besides, I only refused to join Cainiao Logistics. It’s nowhere near enough to make E-commerce Ma hold a grudge against me.’

’Take Ding Lei, for example. The conflict between NetEase and Ah Li is far greater, yet when they ran into each other at a bar last time, Ma Liyun still took the initiative to greet him.’

Seven years later, Ah Li would fork over two billion US dollars to acquire NetEase Kaola.

’This just goes to show Ma Liyun’s guiding principle: friendships don’t matter, only interests do.’

”Congratulations, President Chen. Pinbei has surpassed Jingdong in daily active users and sales figures,” Ma Liyun said with a smile, taking a step forward after a brief hesitation.

”Thank you, Mr. Ma. Compared to Taobao, Pinbei still has a lot of room for improvement,” Chen Yansen replied softly with a faint smile.

’Ma Liyun’s statement is tantamount to saying: I’ve noticed the threat Pinbei poses to Taobao.’

’But I don’t care,’ Chen Yansen thought. ’In business, you always have rivals.’

’Every market segment is like the thousand-groupon war; there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of competitors large and small. Only by defeating the majority can you establish a foothold in the industry and earn the right to share in the spoils of victory.’

’Ah Li itself first battled Huicong and eBay, and then Jingdong, to become the hegemon of Hua Country’s e-commerce industry.’

’But even after excluding Pinbei, Jingdong, Sunning, Gome, Dangdang, and Yixun, the number of competing domestic e-commerce sites is still as plentiful as hairs on an ox, numbering in the thousands.’

’Every single moment, they’re all fighting Ah Li for market share.’

’Can Ma Liyun really fight them all?’

”This strategy of burning money to seize territory is too capital-intensive. It’s only been five months since the Series A round, and the ninety million US dollars is almost gone. President Chen, Fast Taxi needs to accelerate its expansion, or our rivals will easily catch up.”

Ma Liyun just smiled, not taking Chen Yansen’s words to heart. Instead, he shifted the topic to Fast Taxi’s marketing pace.

”Don’t worry, Mr. Ma. I have it under control,” Chen Yansen replied.

The current promotional spending of over ten million a day was indeed becoming unbearable for all the investors.

The first time, Li Yanhong had refused to negotiate. The second time, Chen Yansen had refused.

In fact, Ma Liyun had already discussed this with Zhu Xiaohu, Yu Heng, and the others. They could endure it for one more month at most. If Fast Taxi and DiDi hadn’t determined a winner by then, they would end the subsidy war, even if it meant forcing negotiations.

”Mr. Ma, President Chen, why are you both standing here at the entrance?”

Just then, Zhou Shouzhi walked over with a middle-aged man in a light gray twill suit.

”And this is?” Chen Yansen asked Zhou Shouzhi, turning to size up the newcomer.

”President Chen, a pleasure! I’m Cai Yongjin, the General Manager of Goldman Sachs Asia. I spoke with your company’s Mr. Gao Weilin on the phone previously.”

Cai Yongjin introduced himself with a smile as he shook Chen Yansen’s right hand.

”Mr. Cai, I’ve heard a great deal about you. Let’s go inside and talk.”

As he spoke, Chen Yansen was also covertly observing the man.

’Cai Yongjin is in his early fifties, wearing a pair of rimless glasses,’ he noted. ’His gaze is sharp and focused. To have served as the General Manager of Goldman Sachs Asia for over a decade as a Chinese person... that’s a clear testament to his abilities.’

”Of course.”

Cai Yongjin nodded in agreement, then exchanged brief pleasantries with Ma Liyun and Gao Weilin.

The group chatted as they walked, stepping into a lavish and exquisite banquet hall.

The moment Yu Heng of Huake Capital and Zhu Xiaohu of Jinsha Venture Capital saw Cai Yongjin, they couldn’t remain seated. They quickly stood up and hurried over to greet him.

”President Cai, what brings you here?” Zhu Xiaohu asked with a subservient, beaming smile.

After all, in the investment banking world, Cai Yongjin was his senior. Before Zhu Xiaohu had even started university, Cai Yongjin was already at Morgan Stanley, serving as a senior investment manager in the project finance department.

”I’m here for Fast Taxi’s Series B financing, of course. Your performance these past two years has been quite remarkable. You’ve made great progress.”

Cai Yongjin said, offering praise.

Normally, the investment projects he personally oversaw were mostly collaborations in the oil, power, and automotive sectors. While Goldman Sachs did dabble in internet companies like Fast Taxi, the person in charge was usually just a lower-level investment manager.

Watching Cai Yongjin, Yu Heng mentally raised his estimation of Fast Taxi’s value and potential by another level.

The party took their seats one by one. Chen Yansen glanced around and noticed that the representatives from Penguin had not yet arrived.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Liu Zhiping, Lin Chenfeng, and their group walked in briskly from outside.

”Apologies, we were held up for a few minutes on the way,” Liu Zhiping said, greeting everyone in turn.

”Now that everyone is here, why don’t you share your thoughts, President Chen? I presume you’ve already seen the bids from all the investment firms.”

Cai Yongjin leaned back and asked, getting straight to the point.

”Huake and Jinsha Venture Capital submitted the lowest bids. My bottom line is 3.2 billion US dollars. For any figure lower than that, I can only say I’m sorry.”