Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

「November 12, 10:00 AM.」

Huang Zheng, representing Pinbei, was the first to announce their Singles’ Day Grand Promotion sales figures on Weibo and Toutiao.

The staggering output of 7.03 billion truly shocked everyone in the e-commerce industry.

After all, in most people’s eyes, Pinbei was an e-commerce platform that was less than two years old. To be precise, it had been in operation for only one year and two months, at most.

On the battle report, the font for ”7.03 billion” was designed to be incredibly flashy and cool.

In addition, there was also a poster ranking the top 50 stores on Pinbei by sales.

”Midea Flagship Store: 48,000 orders, 2,680 Yuan average order value, 130 million in sales!”

”Meiters Flagship Store: 1.291 million orders, 93 Yuan average order value, 120 million in sales!”

”Luolai Flagship Store: 178,000 orders, 617 Yuan average order value, 97 million in sales!”

”Aux Flagship Store: 62,000 orders, 1,460 Yuan average order value, 91 million in sales!”

”...”

There were 2 brands with single-store sales exceeding 100 million, 17 brands with sales over 50 million, and 86 brands with sales over 10 million!

The core purpose of a grand promotion battle report was to attract merchants to the platform and draw the attention of venture capitalists.

The implication was clear: Come to Pinbei, and you’ll make money!

...

...

”7.03 billion? Just how much of that is fucking padded!”

In the Jingdong Headquarters Building, Liu Qiangdong had a look of utter disbelief.

For this grand promotion, Jingdong’s final sales on Singles’ Day were 2.36 billion.

He had Xu Lei embellish it slightly, turning it into 2.97 billion. The intention was obvious: to tell users and investors that Jingdong was about to reach the level of 3 billion Hua Yuan in daily sales.

But he never expected Chen Yansen to be an even bigger braggart than him!

By his estimates, Pinbei’s actual transaction volume should be somewhere between 4 and 5 billion.

”I asked a few merchants. Their actual sales figures were not much different from the numbers on the poster,” Xu Lei said weakly.

”Pinbei most likely coordinated with their top brands about the sales figures they announced. Why would those merchants tell the truth? Sure, maybe those numbers aren’t padded, but what about the mid-tier and low-tier merchants?”

Liu Qiangdong smiled and shook his head, looking as if he had seen through it all.

’It’s just brushing sales. Is it that hard?’

The platform managers turn a blind eye, the platform itself looks the other way, so of course the merchants below are brushing sales like crazy.

For example, you could create a ”lucky bag” product listing with ten pairs of socks, set the price at 9,999 Yuan and the stock at 1,000. After the ’user’ receives the item, they apply for a refund of the shipping fee difference, and the seller just gives them a full refund. Just like that, you’ve brushed 10 million in sales.

And don’t think for a second that users would turn up their noses at a few pairs of socks. These kinds of lucky bag items are often snatched up and sold out the instant they’re listed.

Furthermore, underwear, thermal mugs, men’s shoes, women’s shoes, and even garbage bags—all of these were hot commodities in the eyes of these ”users.”

Xu Lei nodded, not arguing further. Instead, he asked cautiously, ”Boss, for the battle report numbers, should we change them to start with a 3?”

”3.97 billion? That’s too fake! Adding a few hundred million is fine, but adding over a billion will easily be exposed by third-party data agencies.”

Liu Qiangdong shook his head repeatedly, decisively rejecting Xu Lei’s suggestion.

”I meant change it to 3.07 billion. It’s a nicer-looking number,” Xu Lei quickly explained.

”Hmm... You handle it.” Liu Qiangdong mulled it over for a few seconds, then waved his hand.

Adding a few hundred million each time wasn’t really a problem.

At least it was better than Tmall Mall and the Taobao C Stores, who would use lucky bags worth tens of thousands to boost their performance at the drop of a hat. As if anyone couldn’t do that!

Before Jingdong could release its grand promotion battle report, Ah Li followed right after, putting out a dazzling report card of its own. A total sales volume of 19.7 billion Yuan (13.9 billion from Tmall Mall, 5.8 billion from Taobao), a year-over-year increase of 208.2%.

Sunning, which had originally sold 500 million, had wanted to use the opportunity to release its own battle report and promote its platform. Seeing this, they hastily retracted the report they were editing, erased all the specific data, and replaced it all with vague, conceptual buzzwords.

After reading Sunning’s report, you couldn’t remember any numbers. The whole thing left you with an impression of words like ’surge,’ ’skyrocketing,’ ’soaring,’ ’bucking the trend with high growth,’ ’dazzling first-hour results,’ and ’new peaks constantly being set.’

But if you were to ask what Sunning’s Singles’ Day sales figures were?

Sorry, no comment!

”19.7 billion Yuan?”

Seeing Ah Li’s battle report, Liu Qiangdong’s mood worsened. He had assumed that based on last year’s growth trend, Ah Li would hit 8 billion at most.

”Boss, should we...” Xu Lei started to ask.

”No need. Let’s just stick with 3.07 billion,” Liu Qiangdong said, resigned and listless.

It was one thing not being able to beat Ah Li, but the gap with Pinbei was also becoming more and more obvious.

If it weren’t for the undiminished enthusiasm of investors from the OTPP, Jingdong’s situation would be even more difficult.

’If I were to abandon the asset-heavy warehousing and logistics model and avoid a direct confrontation with Ah Li and Pinbei, maybe things wouldn’t be so exhausting?’

Liu Qiangdong mused to himself.

But then he had another thought and extinguished the foolish idea in his mind.

’The viciousness of the marketplace is no less than the peril of the battlefield!’

’If Jingdong willingly concedes defeat, will Ma Liyun let him off the hook?’

’Even if Ma Liyun stopped ruthlessly pursuing Jingdong, Chen Yansen wouldn’t show any mercy.’

When it came to being vengeful over the smallest grievance, no one in the internet business world could hold a candle to Chen Yansen.

The brutal competition in the courier industry had shown all the domestic tycoons a glimpse of Chen Yansen’s ferocious side.

Speed Peak, Yafeng, Su’er, and Aneng died silent deaths; the Three Passes and One Reach and Quanfeng were acquired.

Liu Qiangdong knew in his heart that for Jingdong, not advancing meant falling behind. They had to face the difficulties head-on!

Otherwise, the best-case scenario would be an acquisition, and the worst-case scenario would be ending up like Paipai Network or Yixun Network—either waiting to die, or waiting for some kind soul to come and take out the trash.