Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

In places like Yanjing, Jinmen, Hu City, Jinling, and Lucheng, taxi drivers couldn’t get any fares at all if they didn’t have a ride-hailing app installed.

Ever since ride-hailing apps appeared, who would still stand miserably on the roadside in the cold, sticking out their hand to hail a cab?

Nowadays, passengers often hadn’t even walked out of their apartment building before they’ve already called a taxi. By the time they reached the entrance of their residential complex, the driver had just arrived.

”October 28th, DiDi Dache’s average daily order volume: 1.34 million!”

”October 29th, DiDi Dache’s average daily order volume: 1.07 million!”

”October 30th, DiDi Dache’s average daily order volume: 856,000!”

Once the subsidies stopped, so did the love.

Li Yanhong took a deep breath, forcing down his frustration. At this rate, in less than half a month, DiDi Dache’s daily completed orders would drop to 600,000, or even below 500,000.

Although Qian Du Map had boosted their ride-hailing orders, it only added about a hundred thousand orders per day.

If DiDi Dache’s orders really did fall below 500,000 in half a month, their daily gross profit would most likely not even cover labor costs.

What’s more, with Fast Taxi watching like a tiger stalking its prey, it was nearly impossible for DiDi Dache to turn a profit.

”It’s time to talk.”

Li Yanhong rubbed his dry eyes, tilted his head back, and muttered to himself.

In his view, Chen Yansen was probably reaching his limit as well.

Thinking of this, he picked up the phone on his desk and called Liu Zhiping, the vice president of Penguin.

At the last internet conference, he had asked Ma Wenteng to mediate, but then he had been the one to break their verbal agreement not to wage a subsidy war. Consequently, Li Yanhong felt too embarrassed to reach out himself. He decided to use Liu Zhiping to convey his desire for a truce to Ma Wenteng and Chen Yansen.

Although Chen Yansen’s tactic of using a third-party app for his subsidy campaign was underhanded, it was Li Yanhong who had restarted the subsidy war on the ride-hailing apps in the first place.

To some extent, it was indeed Li Yanhong who had broken the rules first.

In Ma Wenteng’s eyes, however, neither of them was up to any good. They had shown him absolutely no respect.

They talked a good game, saying they were willing to accept mediation, but then they immediately turned around and pulled all sorts of tricks, treating his words like hot air.

But he didn’t feel the slightest bit of resentment toward Chen Yansen. In fact, he appreciated him even more. ’He’s a businessman, after all. To hell with integrity.’

Especially between Fast Taxi and DiDi Dache, they had already burned through over a billion yuan. Burning through another billion or so wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Winner takes all!

A nationwide business of 10 million daily orders—who wouldn’t want to monopolize that?

「Meanwhile.」

Liu Zhiping was sitting in Ma Wenteng’s office, chatting about the recent bike-sharing project.

”Cheng Wei is quite a talent. He has a sharp business sense. First he was in ride-hailing, and now he’s moved on to bike-sharing,” Liu Zhiping said, taking a sip from his teacup.

”It’s a shame we couldn’t secure DiDi Bike’s angel round. Li Fukei from Innovation Workshop got a steal.”

Ma Wenteng commented with a light chuckle.

WeChat’s cumulative registered users had surpassed 280 million, with daily active users exceeding 100 million. This undoubtedly signaled that Penguin had made the right bet and successfully secured a gateway to the mobile internet.

Plus, investments in projects like Pinbei, Kuai Pao, and Fast Taxi had brought him substantial profits, so he was naturally in high spirits.

”We may have missed out on DiDi Bike, but there’s still OFO, isn’t there? Instead of investing in Cheng Wei, we should keep betting on Chen Yansen.”

Liu Zhiping said firmly, putting down his teacup.

”That kid is on another level. What other twenty-year-old has a net worth of 50 billion US dollars? I heard the media in Europe and America are hyping him up to the heavens, calling Zuckerberg the American version of Chen Yansen.”

Ma Wenteng picked up the teapot, refilled Liu Zhiping’s cup, and continued with a smile.

Zuckerberg? The American version of Chen Yansen!

Liu Zhiping suddenly choked. He quickly covered his mouth and nose, turned to the side, and coughed a few times. His face turned beet red, and it took him a moment to recover before saying, ”Isn’t Zuckerberg eight years older than Chen Yansen?”

”Well, Chen Yansen’s net worth is higher than his.”

Ma Wenteng shrugged. His mind drifted to Song Yuncheng, who was always by Chen Yansen’s side, and he sighed inwardly. ’That kid would make a fine son-in-law, but it seems he already has a girlfriend.’

BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ—!

Just as Liu Zhiping was about to speak, the phone in his pocket started vibrating. He pulled it out and was surprised by what he saw.

He wasn’t surprised that Li Yanhong was calling, but rather that the call had taken this long.

According to his and Ma Wenteng’s predictions, Li Yanhong should have caved sometime after mid-October.

Anyone else might have gone a few more rounds with Chen Yansen and burned through several billion more. But Li Yanhong was different. He had an extremely low tolerance for new projects. If one didn’t turn a profit within six months, the project—and its director—would be eliminated.

This was the main reason Liu Zhiping was so sure Li Yanhong would admit defeat.

”It’s Li Yanhong,” Liu Zhiping explained to Ma Wenteng, placing his phone flat on the desk.

”Robin couldn’t take it anymore. Answer it. Let’s see what he has to say,” Ma Wenteng replied without hesitation, adjusting his glasses by pushing them up.

Liu Zhiping grunted in acknowledgment, tapped the answer button, and then pressed the speakerphone icon.

”Martin, there’s something I need to trouble you with,” Li Yanhong said, getting straight to the point.

In his mind, since Penguin was Fast Taxi’s third-largest shareholder, they would naturally want to end the subsidy war as soon as possible. It would be a good thing for everyone involved.

”Robin, why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind,” Liu Zhiping said, feigning ignorance.

”I’d like Mr. Ma to act as a mediator so I can sign a formal agreement with Chen Yansen to end the subsidy war,” Li Yanhong replied.