Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On April 28th, Little Yellow Bike’s ”Ride for Red Envelopes” promotion had been running for three days. The grand prize was as high as 4,999 yuan, and each individual red envelope from a designated bike contained about three to five yuan—far more than OFO’s two yuan.

DiDi Bike’s top red envelope prize was 888 yuan.

Faced with this situation, Wang Zihao also raised the upper limit for his red envelopes to 4,999 yuan. ’It’s just a gimmick, anyway,’ he thought. ’99.99% of users will only get two yuan.’

Free rides, and they give you money too?

The local residents of Yanjing had certainly seen their share of things, but this was new. By riding a bike three times a day, they could earn enough for breakfast.

Even elderly folks who previously had no interest in smartphones were now clamoring to buy a Qingcheng D2.

Suddenly, the streets and alleyways were filled with people riding shared bikes.

DiDi Bike had deployed the most, with 300,000 bikes in Yanjing. Little Yellow Bike had 200,000, while OFO had the fewest at just 100,000.

Cheng Wei stared at the financial report, his face grim. In just three days, revenue in the Yanjing Region had plummeted from 800,000 to 70,000—a ninety-percent drop.

The red envelope promotion was costing them three million a day. At this rate, they were looking at a net loss of ninety million for the month.

If they expanded the front and launched a nationwide subsidy war, DiDi Bike would be caught in the same vicious cycle: burn money, raise funds, and then go bankrupt.

’Does Chang Wei have dog shit for brains?’ A price war was a game of raw strength. OFO had the least to lose. ’If DiDi is suffering, you’re not getting off easy either.’

Cheng Wei snorted, unable to stop himself from cursing under his breath.

With that, he called over Zhang Haibo from the tech department and gave him a few quiet instructions.

”President Cheng, I’m not sure about this...” Zhang Haibo said timidly, his brow furrowed.

”What’s there to be afraid of? You’re just... accidentally discovering a few software bugs, and then accidentally sharing them.”

Cheng Wei said, his tone full of implication.

After a moment of thought, Zhang Haibo gritted his teeth and forced himself to agree.

An hour later, a post from a supposed ”good Samaritan” appeared on a domestic ”wool-gathering” forum. It shared a guide titled ”Little Yellow Bike Red Envelope Exploit & Tricks,” containing a complete walkthrough, from rooting a phone and faking its location to claiming the red envelopes.

Even a total newbie could follow the tutorial and make a killing.

”You’re a legend, man!”

”Anyone download the attachment? It’s not a virus, is it?”

”Don’t download it! My computer just crashed!”

”The guy above me is just trying to keep it all for himself, isn’t he?”

”Holy shit! I got lucky and just hit a 73.8-yuan red envelope. Scored big time!”

”Anyone got a link for an emulator?”

”Anyone got a link to a cheap, reliable site for receiving SMS verification codes?”

The ”wool-gatherers” were like sharks that had scented blood, swarming in for the kill.

In reality, the software wasn’t Zhang Haibo’s handiwork. It was created by someone on another forum who saw the vulnerability he’d posted. That person then combined it with location-spoofing software, ride simulators, and other tools to create a complete wool-gathering pipeline.

It had to be said that the internet in 2013 truly had more of a sharing spirit than it would a decade later.

When Brother Hui and his crew, far away in An Nan, found out, they were furious. ”Son of a bitch!” he roared. ”They’re stealing our business!”

”Brother Hui, I’ve looked into it,” Ah Zhen said, offering a calm analysis. ”That software requires manual input. Ours is fully automated and can handle seven or eight hundred accounts in batches. There’s definitely still a market for it.”

”I know, I’m just pissed,” Brother Hui said with a sneer. He then waved Yaozi over. ”Set the price at twenty thousand. Contact our old clients first. Let’s sell a few dozen units to start.”

”Got it, Brother Hui,” Yaozi nodded.

Before long, a piece of software called ”Little Golden Bull” began to circulate within the gray-market industry.

Brother Hui’s price was steep, but the software’s functionality was undeniable. From receiving verification codes and logging in to collecting red envelopes and cashing out, every step was fully automated. It could fleece the system for 3,000 yuan in just ten minutes.

The gray-market tycoons ran automated scripts, while the low-level wool-gatherers did it manually.

Soon after, tech-savvy college students with a knack for hands-on work also joined the wool-gathering craze.

It was slower to do it manually, but it was still no problem to earn two or three thousand yuan in a day.

Getting temporary numbers, using stolen info, and running location-spoofing and ride-simulation software—it was all against the terms of service and illegal, but no one seemed to care.

Chang Wei watched the number of new user registrations and orders skyrocket on his dashboard. He felt a surge of joy, but it vanished as soon as he glanced at the promotion’s subsidy costs. He fell silent.

’This subsidy war is a fucking money pit!’

But the arrow had already left the bow. All he could do was grit his teeth and push forward.

「Meanwhile.」

Chen Yansen posted a promotion for an app called Douyin on his Weibo and Toutiao accounts. The caption read: ”Let’s play a little game. The first 1,000 fans to follow me will each receive an 888-yuan red envelope.”

”Douyin? A short-video app?”

”There’s a super popular short-video app in North America called Mimo. I guess President Chen is getting into the localization game himself.”

”Forget that, the red envelope is what matters! Let’s go!”

While most users in the comments section were busy trying to be the first to post, their brains hadn’t even caught up. The smart ones had already opened their app stores and downloaded Douyin.

They registered, logged in, searched for ”Chen Yansen,” and hit the follow button immediately.

In less than ten minutes, Chen Yansen’s follower count on Douyin surpassed 170,000, bringing nearly 200,000 new users to the platform.

Liang Bo ran video ads on Penguin and Youku, and graphic ads on NetEase, Sina, and Sohu. Combined with exposure on Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, and Xiaohongshu, they easily pulled in over a million new users.

Having deep pockets and a powerful backing gave them a massive advantage when promoting new products. For example, to force the adoption of Penguin Weibo, Ma Wenteng directly funneled traffic from QQ, bringing in four hundred million users in a single year.

But whether a product was actually good or not would ultimately be decided by its user retention rate.