Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next day, February 21st, Lashou Network was officially renamed Qian Du Group Buy. Together with Qian Du Delivery, it formed the protective moat for the Qian Du LBS Department.

iResearch Data followed shortly after, releasing its 2012 list of the top 100 internet companies, which were comprehensively evaluated based on active user count, revenue, and industry influence.

Penguin ranked first!

Qian Du second!

Ah Li third!

Pinbei fourth!

NetEase fifth!

Shanda sixth!

What came as a surprise was Orange Pay breaking into ninth place, with Today Technology ranking tenth.

Among the top ten on the list, three were holding subsidiaries under Senlian Capital.

Some netizens even commented that if you included Orange Technology, Senlian Capital would account for 40% of the spots.

Kuai Pao and Fast Taxi were ranked seventeenth and nineteenth, respectively, while Gaode Map was thirty-first, and Byte Technology was thirty-eighth.

As soon as the list was released, it shot to the top of the trending topics.

It couldn’t be helped. Senlian Capital had too many subsidiaries on the list; it was hard not to attract attention.

But in less than half an hour, the trending topic was pushed down.

This was because the paparazzi exposed a video of Dong Jie and Wang Dazhi’s secret meeting in Haikou, causing Weibo’s servers to lag almost instantly.

A scandal erupted between two people who seemed completely unrelated.

At first, netizens didn’t believe it. But then the paparazzi released a cringey photo of the two making out, which immediately crashed Weibo.

...

...

「Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Building 9.」

”Boss, the functional and timing verification for the Celestial Craft T100 is complete. Its power consumption is 0.4mW in standby mode and 500mW under a full load. It has 0.5 TOPS (500 billion operations per second) of local AI computing power, capable of handling lightweight AI tasks. I recommend using a 40nm process, which would effectively reduce tape-out costs.”

Mike, the chief engineer of the chip design department, began to explain slowly.

”For audio processing, it uses a 6-mic array and integrates a 24-bit audio codec that supports Dolby stereo decoding...” Wu Shengyu, who was sitting beside him, added.

”This is the company’s first chip product, and also the first AI chip to use the Orange Z1 instruction set. Excellent work, you two!”

Chen Yansen leaned against his desk and offered words of encouragement to Mike and Wu Shengyu.

’The AI chip is just the beginning,’ he thought. His next plan was to build the chip design department into another Hisilicon, or even the next MediaTek or Qualcomm.

’You have to eat your meal one bite at a time and walk your path one step at a time.’

”Boss, I’m actually more skilled in designing mobile phone processors,” Mike said, taking the opportunity.

”I know. That’s why the project proposal for the Celestial Craft A100 is already in both of your inboxes.”

Chen Yansen said with a smile.

”The Celestial Craft A100?” Wu Shengyu’s eyes lit up.

He and Mike had felt that the Celestial Craft T100 wasn’t technically challenging enough to truly showcase their talents.

Chen Yansen hadn’t spent a fortune just for a mere AI chip. Mobile phone chips were his real goal.

”OK,” Mike’s reply was simple and direct.

In his view, the Celestial Craft T100 was just a warm-up. The Celestial Craft A100 was the first real R&D project he’d tackle since joining Senlian Capital.

Next, they had to find a chip foundry.

While ensuring a good yield rate, the lower the price, the better.

After the meeting, Chen Yansen returned to his office.

Twenty-four hours had passed since Ma Liyun’s last call, but he wasn’t worried. ’Worst case, I’ll just go head-to-head with Ah Li,’ he thought.

If even Wang Xin could pull it off, there was no reason he couldn’t.

Besides, the Ali Baba of 2013 was far from its peak strength. Other than having more capital than Meituan and a slightly better ground promotion team than Qian Du, it held no significant advantages.

Meanwhile, Kuai Pao, boosted by traffic from Pinbei, Gaode, the Orange Application Mall, WeChat, and QQ, held a dominant, breakaway lead in the industry.

Even if Ah Li acquired Meituan and consolidated the group buy market’s resources, it would be difficult to stop Kuai Pao’s expansion.

「Meanwhile.」

At an electric vehicle factory in Xicheng, the owner, Wang Zhixiang, couldn’t help but break into a joyful expression after hanging up the phone.

’Someone’s finally taking over the factory!’

Over the past year, as competition in the electric vehicle market intensified and the Matthew effect became more pronounced, the survival conditions for small factories had gone from bad to worse.

Yadea, New Day, and Emma were thriving more and more. But mid-sized contract manufacturers like Zhixiang, with neither brand recognition nor sales channels, could only survive at the mercy of others.

When the industry became highly involuted and the top brands began establishing their own production bases, Zhixiang’s order volume shrank.

Production capacity plummeted from 50,000 units per month to 4,000—not even a tenth of what it was.

At its peak, the factory had 800 employees. Now, only a little over 100 remained; they couldn’t afford any more.

Fortunately, the land, equipment, and production lines were still worth something. Wang Zhixiang had started looking for a buyer six months ago.

But many electric vehicle factories had gone bankrupt due to broken capital chains, and buyers typically only purchased them at a depreciated asset value. The final prices were abysmal.

That was why Wang Zhixiang had gritted his teeth and held on.

A month ago, staff from Kuai Pao Technology had approached him. After repeatedly reviewing the factory’s asset and liability information, they gave him a ”we’ll get back to you” response.

He had thought it was a lost cause, but three minutes ago, the other party had called again to reconfirm their interest in a deal.

Kuai Pao Technology would fully acquire the Zhixiang Electric Vehicle factory for 270 million Hua Yuan.

Compared to his peers who had gone bankrupt, Wang Zhixiang was extremely fortunate.

In fact, Pei Yi had not only bought Zhixiang but also acquired a battery manufacturing plant called Shuangshi to build Kuai Pao’s battery-swapping network.

After all, in 2013, an electric vehicle’s range was only about sixty to seventy kilometers. They needed to be charged in less than half a day, or it would delay the afternoon’s food deliveries.

Once the acquisition process was complete, Kuai Pao would have very little liquid capital left on its books. Plus, with Dianping launching another subsidy war, a Series B funding round was imperative.

Penguin, Gao Ling, and Jinsha Venture Capital, who had all participated in Kuai Pao’s Series A round, were already eager to invest. Currently, only Ah Li was still considering it.

Over a dozen other companies, including DST, Goldman Sachs, and Huake, had also shown some interest in investing.

Chen Yansen instructed Old Gao to conduct preliminary communications and kick out the investment firms with the lowest offers.

Kuai Pao controlled 90% of the market share in the food delivery industry and 40% in the group buy market. It had also ventured into the grocery business, so of course it had the confidence to be picky.

While Ma Liyun was hesitating, Kuai Pao was busy integrating production resources in the electric vehicle industry. It also hired 1,400 family members of its Kuai Pao Riders in places like Sujiang, placing them in the electric vehicle and battery factories.

For Chen Yansen, this meant he could harvest several thousand more wisps of Human Dao Fire each year.

The next morning, Ma Liyun’s call came in.

”President Chen, Ah Li wants 10% equity in Kuai Pao,” Ma Liyun said, making an exorbitant demand.

”Mr. Ma, Penguin provided Kuai Pao with primary traffic entry points on WeChat and QQ, and I only gave them 5%,” Chen Yansen replied, shaking his head with a smile.

”Ah Li can also provide traffic support,” Ma Liyun countered.

’Hm?’

’Does Ah Li really want to treat Kuai Pao like an adopted son?’

”A primary traffic entry point?” Chen Yansen pressed.

”A secondary channel,” Ma Liyun replied instantly.

’There’s a difference between an adopted son and a biological one, after all.’

”6%. Ah Li can lead Kuai Pao’s Series B round, with Penguin as the secondary investor.” Chen Yansen thought for a moment, also showing a measure of sincerity.

”I hope President Chen can guarantee that in the next two funding rounds, Ah Li’s cumulative shareholding will be raised to 20%,” Ma Liyun added another demand.

In other words, Senlian Capital had to offer enough benefits to make Ah Li completely give up on the food delivery business.

”I can’t guarantee that,” Chen Yansen refused flatly.

Giving Ah Li 6% in the Series B round was already a significant concession, and he also had to consider Penguin’s feelings.

In his plan, the shareholding cap for Penguin and Ah Li was 15% each, with the remaining 15% reserved for state-owned and foreign capital.

”No room for negotiation?” Ma Liyun’s expression darkened.

”Alternatively, Mr. Ma could choose to expand Taobao Delivery’s business scope and have a little spar with Kuai Pao first,” Chen Yansen said with a slight, provocative smile.

”Fine, 6% it is.” Ma Liyun narrowed his eyes and sneered. ’In that case,’ he thought, ’I won’t guarantee that Ah Li won’t enter the group buy track in the future.’

The two men each had their own ulterior motives and didn’t take the partnership seriously at all.

Chen Yansen was deliberately stalling, hoping to make Ah Li miss the optimal window to enter the market.

Ma Liyun, on the other hand, planned to wait for an opportunity. He would let Kuai Pao cultivate the market first and then swoop in to take advantage.

Once user habits were formed and the market size was established, Ah Li could leverage its capital and traffic advantages to harvest market share at a lower cost.

His calculations were meticulous. He was just waiting for Chen Yansen to show a weakness, at which point he would turn Senlian Capital’s careful planning into a wedding dress for Ah Li.

But Ma Liyun had overestimated his own strength.

How could Chen Yansen possibly give him that chance?

’Ah Li doesn’t even have a navigation map app. How is it supposed to build a complete ecosystem? Rely entirely on driving traffic from the Taobao app?’

’In less than six months, internal strife will break out within Ah Li!’