Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Where was he supposed to find the money now?

”Who the hell is doing this? What a scumbag!” Chang Wei cursed relentlessly.

But he knew that if he couldn’t resolve this user-deposit run within 24 hours, Little Yellow Bike would truly be finished.

After collecting his thoughts, Chang Wei took several deep breaths, forcing himself to remain calm. He then pulled out his phone and began calling Little Yellow Bike’s investors one by one.

”Hello, President Zhu. This is Chang Wei from Klock.” Chang Wei managed to force a smile as he spoke.

”Did you really embezzle the user deposits?” Zhu Xiaohu’s eyebrows furrowed together.

He had seen the news online, so he knew exactly why Chang Wei was calling.

”...Yes.” Chang Wei fell silent for a few seconds before answering truthfully.

”How much did you embezzle?” Zhu Xiaohu asked again.

”...” Chang Wei didn’t say a word.

”All of it?” Zhu Xiaohu almost laughed in anger as he pressed on.

”I left ten million,” Chang Wei said, over-reporting the actual amount by two million.

Zhu Xiaohu fought back the urge to curse. Remembering who Chang Wei was, he gave a bitter laugh and said, ”The biggest taboo in business is not leaving yourself any room to maneuver. Going all-in for one strike feels great, but the consequences are unpredictable.”

Jinsha Venture Capital had invested in Chang Wei twice in a row. If Little Yellow Bike went under, his losses would be substantial as well.

”President Zhu, I need money urgently,” Chang Wei said, getting straight to the point.

’Short on cash?’

’I’m not your damn father, do I owe you something?’

Zhu Xiaohu’s brow tightened. He cursed under his breath, but he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. He said in a low voice, ”Fifty million, for 5% equity.”

”President Zhu, based on Little Yellow Bike’s scale, a reasonable valuation is between 2.5 and 3 billion,” Chang Wei retorted.

”Then go ask your other investors.” Zhu Xiaohu couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath and simply hung up.

The pursuit of profit is a businessman’s nature!

He had already shown plenty of respect by investing in Little Yellow Bike. If Chang Wei couldn’t grasp the stakes, then he deserved to fail.

Listening to the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the disconnected line, Chang Wei’s face turned pale, then red.

But the finance department was hounding him, so he had no time for anger. He could only call his contacts at other venture capital firms like Wei Lie Capital and Zhen Fund.

The response was unanimous: they could provide the money, but their offer was based on a valuation of only one billion.

’What a bunch of vultures!’

Chang Wei cursed.

While he hesitated, time ticked by, and soon it was three in the afternoon.

Seven or eight hours had already passed since the first batch of users had requested their deposit refunds.

The Market Supervision Association phone lines in places like Yanjing, Jinmen, and Tang City were ringing off the hook. The number of complaints skyrocketed, accumulating to over one hundred thousand.

Weibo was flooded with posts denouncing Chang Wei and Little Yellow Bike!

The comment sections on Little Yellow Bike’s official account and Chang Wei’s personal account were a battlefield of insults. Customer service kept giving users the runaround, while Chang Wei played dead the entire time.

”Brothers, give up hope. Little Yellow Bike is probably done for. The name itself is unlucky. What kind of person names a product ’Little Yellow’? It hasn’t even been three months and it’s already toast!”

”Say no more. I’m heading out to grab a bike to recoup some of my losses.”

”You’re only thinking of that now? I already brought two home.”

”199 yuan. I’ll just consider it buying a bicycle!”

”Huh, bro upstairs, how come your Little Yellow Bike is green? Where’d the smart lock go?”

Spurred on by netizens, quite a few people actually went out to haul away shared bikes.

Little Yellow Bike’s staff couldn’t stop them.

Plus, it was a Saturday, so everyone had plenty of time.

Chang Wei won’t refund the deposits, huh?

Fine, they’d just take a few bikes home. They couldn’t just take the loss, so they considered the bikes collateral for their deposits.

「Elsewhere.」

The man who started it all, Wang Zihao, merely glanced at the trending topics on Weibo before taking the management team from the Hu City Branch to Caohejing to test out the new OFO shared e-bikes.

The bikes were compact and painted a striking orange. On a full charge, they had a range of up to 50 kilometers.

Users only needed to purchase a 299-yuan Yu’e Bao plan to enjoy the deposit-free benefit. New users received three two-yuan riding coupons and four 50%-off riding coupons upon signing up.

The fee was 2 yuan per half hour, with an additional 1 yuan for every 10 minutes over, capped at 30 yuan per day.

Compared to regular shared bikes, the e-bikes were much more comfortable to ride.

The product was an instant hit in Hu City the moment it launched.

For the vast majority of office workers, there was a last-mile problem of seven or eight hundred meters, or even two to three kilometers, from the subway or bus station to their homes.

Taking a taxi was too expensive.

Walking was too tiring.

Riding a regular shared bike was also hard work.

But switching to an electric-assist bike was a different story. It saved both time and energy.

In less than a day, the number of users of the e-bike service surpassed 6,000. The first batch of 1,000 e-bikes was nowhere near enough to meet the massive demand in Hu City.

’The business model works! It’s going more smoothly than I imagined!’

Wang Zihao clenched his fists, a look of delight on his face.

With his success in expanding into the Hu City market, he had made a name for himself in the industry.

On the first day of the OFO shared e-bike launch, Cheng Wei and Chang Wei both endured a day of terror.

It wasn’t until the early hours of March 3rd that, after receiving the first round of funding, Chang Wei finally resumed processing refunds.

”Holy crap! My Little Yellow Bike deposit came through!”

”I’m never using Little Yellow Bike again. I just wanted to ride a bike, but they wanted my deposit.”

”I recommend using OFO’s bikes and e-bikes. First, they’re reliable. Second, no deposit.”

Little Yellow Bike users had waited a whole day before finally receiving their deposit refunds.

The great weight was lifted from Chang Wei’s shoulders. Just as he was about to leave work, the head of the data department rushed in to report that over 7,000 shared bikes had been lost in the East China and North China Regions.

Although many users were just venting online, the ones who actually took action were spread across dozens of cities, amounting to only about 100 people per city.

Chang Wei’s face instantly turned green. But it was already 3:30 AM, and he wearily instructed, ”Have the bike recovery team find them tomorrow.”

’Those bastards!’

’It was just a few hours late with the refunds, that’s all!’

「Five hours later, at dawn.」

Several heads of the Yanjing Market Supervision Association, Transportation Association, and Bank Association met to discuss the previous day’s deposit refund crisis involving Little Yellow Bike and DiDi Bike.

DiDi Bike had collected deposits, but it hadn’t caused any negative impact.

Little Yellow Bike, on the other hand, had caused the Market Supervision Association’s phone lines to be blown up, with over a hundred thousand complaints. The impact was atrocious.

There had even been more than a dozen conflicts between users trying to take bikes home and the shared bike company’s staff.

Something had to be done.

Although the higher-ups were strongly promoting the sharing economy, they didn’t want to see this kind of chaos.

”OFO’s deposit-free policy is quite good!” remarked someone from the Transportation Association.

He suggested applying a one-size-fits-all solution, ordering all shared bike companies to stop collecting deposits from users.

But someone from the Market Supervision Association argued that without the constraint of a deposit, the companies’ maintenance and repair costs would skyrocket.

”Then let’s set up a supervised account and put the money in a bank.”

A representative from the Bank Association said with narrowed eyes, clearly eyeing the massive pool of deposit money from the bike-sharing companies.

「Meanwhile.」

Taobao users were surprised to find a new Kuai Pao entry point in the icon section of the Taobao app’s homepage. Clicking on it revealed that it was indeed Kuai Pao’s food delivery and Group Buy channel.

Furthermore, Kuai Pao’s Group Buy items also appeared in the Juhuasuan channel.

Wealth Treasure and Orange Pay were fiercely competing one moment, and the next they were acting like the sweetest of lovers.

Ah Li and Senlian Capital both cooperated and competed with each other—a common state of affairs among internet companies.

At 10 AM, the 360 N2 was released with a price of 1,699 yuan, its specs positioned against the Xiaomi MI2.

Clearly, Zhou Hongyi was targeting Xiaomi.

Lei Yijun felt helpless and signaled Li Wanqiang to promptly launch a subsidy campaign: anyone who purchased a Xiaomi MI2 would receive a 200-yuan accessories voucher, which could be used for products like data cables, chargers, and phone cases.

It was, in effect, a disguised price cut.

An hour later, the initial sales of the 360 N2 surpassed 24,000 units.

Zhou Hongyi taunted sarcastically, ”A certain *coarse grain* brand has high prices, low specs, and a trash OS. Even their price cuts are just schemes.”

Li Wanqiang quickly responded: ”Dumbass!”