Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

By the time he secured the licenses, Meituan would be long dead!

This was another major reason he was scaling back his food delivery operations.

The plan was to pull back, defend his turf in the Group Buy business, and then figure out the next move.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! A series of urgent knocks at the door shattered Wang Xin’s train of thought.

Before he could react, Wang Huiwen burst through the door. ”Brother Xin,” he said, his face a mask of resignation, ”Juhuasuan wants to terminate our partnership.”

”Ah Li invested in Kuai Pao, but they’re one of our investors too!” Wang Xin shot to his feet, demanding furiously.

But Kuai Pao was valued at 5.8 billion US dollars, while Meituan was only worth four or five hundred million—less than a tenth of their rival. Of course, they weren’t valued the same.

’Obviously,’ Wang Huiwen thought to himself.

In truth, Wang Xin knew full well that Meituan didn’t have many chips to play. It was only natural that they were being underestimated.

But what Ma Liyun had done was just too much!

’Kuai Pao isn’t even a subsidiary of Ah Li. Was it really necessary to kick Meituan off Juhuasuan?’

”What about Dianping and Lashou Network?” Wang Xin pressed.

”They got the same treatment as us,” Wang Huiwen replied, his face blank.

Fuck!

Wang Xin cursed under his breath. He got it now. This was most likely part of a hidden clause between Kuai Pao and Ah Li.

Kuai Pao must have offered Ah Li some incredibly generous terms in this financing round to have won Ma Liyun over.

Wang Xin began pacing anxiously, his mind racing.

Meituan’s transaction volume in January had been 470 million, with 60 million of that coming from Juhuasuan.

Without that revenue stream, Meituan probably wouldn’t even hit a transaction volume of 300 million in February.

After all, February only had 28 days, and there was a seven-day holiday right in the middle of it.

Wang Xin took a few deep breaths. Utterly desperate, he once again dialed Lin Chenfeng of the Penguin Investment Department.

”Thinking of selling the company again, President Wang?” Lin Chenfeng teased with a chuckle.

He had flatly rejected Wang Xin the last time.

Otherwise, he would have ended up getting played by Wang Xin, just like Ma Liyun.

”No,” Wang Xin said, dropping a bombshell. ”I want to talk to Mr. Ma about a partnership. I want to merge Meituan with QQ Group Buy.”

He knew a conventional partnership wouldn’t be enough to sway Ma Wenteng. Only a drastic, all-or-nothing move would give him a fighting chance.

As he saw it, even though Penguin had participated in both Kuai Pao’s Series A and Series B funding rounds, they had kept QQ Group Buy running. This proved Ma Wenteng still coveted the offline consumer market.

Lin Chenfeng was taken aback and almost laughed out loud. Internally, the group had been grumbling about QQ Group Buy, Paipai Network, and Yixun Network for a while. They were trying to offload those burdens, not acquire another one like Meituan.

Even with a stock-for-stock deal, it was unlikely that Ma Wenteng, or Penguin as a whole, would be interested.

But then a new thought occurred to him. Perhaps merging Meituan into QQ Group Buy could increase the product’s valuation.

So, after a moment’s thought, Lin Chenfeng didn’t reject the idea outright. Instead, he said slowly, ”President Wang, I’ll pass your proposal on to Martin and Brother Pony.”

”Thank you, President Lin,” Wang Xin replied.

「At the same time.」

After hanging up, Lin Chenfeng went straight to Liu Zhiping’s office and knocked on the door.

”Come in,” Liu Zhiping’s voice called out.

Lin Chenfeng walked in. Once he was seated, he began his report in an unhurried tone. ”Brother Martin, I just got a call from Wang Xin of Meituan...”

”He wants to sell his company again?” Liu Zhiping cut him off. ”The man is too fickle. He can’t be trusted.”

”He wants to merge Meituan into QQ Group Buy as a stock-for-stock partnership. He’s most likely after access to WeChat and QQ’s user traffic,” Lin Chenfeng continued.

”No cash involved? That might be worth a try,” Liu Zhiping replied after a moment of thought.

Despite the good relationship between Penguin and Senlian Capital, when it came to their own core interests, both he and Ma Wenteng would stab Chen Yansen in the back without a second thought.

That was the true nature of a businessman!

There was no room for sentiment or loyalty in this world!

Anyone who could build a company to a scale of tens of billions couldn’t possibly be a saint.

And if they appeared to be, it was all an act.

”Come with me. Let’s hear what Pony thinks first,” Liu Zhiping said, leading the way out.

Lin Chenfeng followed behind him.

Five minutes later, the two of them walked into Ma Wenteng’s office.

”A merger with Meituan? It would certainly raise QQ Group Buy’s profile, but who would run the business? Wang Xin?” Ma Wenteng asked, his brow furrowed as he looked at Liu Zhiping.

The current head of QQ Group Buy was Luoxi, and the team had over a thousand members, including the remnants of the defeated Gaopeng Network and F Team.

This was because QQ Group Buy had absorbed both Gaopeng Network and F Team the previous year.

To put it bluntly, it was a league of losers from the Group Buy Wars.

Backed by Penguin, it couldn’t quite die, but it couldn’t thrive either. It was just limping along, half-dead.

Ma Wenteng had originally wanted to foist QQ Group Buy on Liu Qiangdong, but after securing financing from the OTPP and Saudi Kingdom Capital, Handsome Dong had immediately gone back on his word and torn up their letter of intent.

”Wang Xin isn’t one of our own,” Liu Zhiping replied coolly.

The implication was clear: they could take Meituan, but Wang Xin had to go.

”And you think Wang Xin would agree to that?” Ma Wenteng laughed.

He knew perfectly well that Wang Xin just wanted to leverage Penguin’s mobile traffic resources.

He could dress it up with pretty words, but it couldn’t hide the fact that he was just looking for a sugar daddy.

”Let Chenfeng give it a shot. It’s no loss for the group either way,” Liu Zhiping said nonchalantly.

If Wang Xin didn’t agree, then there was no reason for Penguin to merge with Meituan.

Meituan’s valuation was only around 500 million US dollars, while Kuai Pao was valued at 5.8 billion US dollars. Penguin’s 10.1% stake in Kuai Pao alone was worth nearly 600 million.

For Ma Wenteng and Liu Zhiping, the main strategic value in merging Meituan into QQ Group Buy was simply to inflate its valuation. That would give them more bargaining chips when they eventually tried to sell it off.

That afternoon, when Wang Xin received Lin Chenfeng’s reply, his heart sank into despair.

’Ma Wenteng wasn’t giving him a chance!’

He could easily tell from the tone of Lin Chenfeng’s voice that Penguin had no intention of seriously committing to the Group Buy industry.

’He wanted to use Penguin as a springboard, but Penguin wanted to use him as a stepping stone. They weren’t even willing to spend a single cent.’

’As for his dream of taking charge of QQ Group Buy? Not a chance in hell!’

Facing reality, Wang Xin gave a bitter smile. He had no choice but to brace himself and continue the fight against Kuai Pao, Lashou, and Dianping.

「At the same time.」

Tens of thousands of Kuai Pao Riders across the country slowly began to hear the news that the company had completed its Series B financing.

The first batch of over five thousand deliverymen who had joined Kuai Pao each held between 2,000 and 3,000 stock options.

Riders who had become permanent employees in Q3 and Q4 of the previous year only had about 500 shares each.

Calculated at the current price of 5.8 US dollars per share, the top performers among the first batch of Kuai Pao Riders—some of whom held as many as 6,000 shares—were looking at a profit of over 200,000 Hua Yuan from their options alone.

In just one short year, their value had grown by over a hundred thousand!

The turnover rate for riders at Meituan and Qian Du Delivery began to skyrocket.