Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

After getting beaten up a few times, Qian Du’s business managers gradually learned their lesson. The moment they saw anyone from Kuai Pao, they would turn tail and run.

For users, the cheaper the price, the better.

But Pei Yi pulled a slick move behind the scenes. He had his ground promotion team proactively contact new merchants on Qian Du Group Buy. They didn’t even demand exclusivity; right off the bat, they offered traffic and support.

The only condition was this: when customers of Qian Du Delivery came to the store to redeem their Group Buy vouchers, the merchants were to tell them that they had ended their partnership with Qian Du.

To redeem these vouchers in person, customers had to walk at least seven or eight hundred meters. Some who were farther away even had to ride a shared bike, take a taxi, or use the subway.

After getting burned once or twice, users would definitely demand a refund on the spot and uninstall the app.

As for the delivery side of the business, Kuai Pao’s HR department took the lead, specifically poaching experienced deliverymen.

If they could get a job as a deliveryman for Kuai Pao, who would want to stay at Qian Du?

Was it for the lack of social security, insurance, and bonuses?

This resulted in terrible delivery times for Qian Du Delivery. The proportion of rookie deliverymen was too high, and it often took them an hour to deliver a single order.

The total time from the restaurant preparing the food to the customer receiving it could be as long as an hour and a half.

Noodle and vermicelli dishes would turn into a soggy mess, while rice bowls and clay pot rice would arrive cold. Even with the discounts, users couldn’t tolerate it.

The ride-hailing, digital mapping, and search engine businesses were also crushing Qian Du.

Of course, the amount of money being burned every day was also astronomical.

Chen Yansen didn’t mind. It was like killing two birds with one stone; he could also crush Meituan and Dianping, the other two survivors of the ”Thousand-Group-Buy War,” in the process.

Half an hour later, the meeting ended.

He opened his email and unhurriedly began processing his work messages.

Cao Dahua had finished coordinating with Yuan Ruli. They planned to build a comprehensive factory complex covering over 300,000 square meters near Zhongsha Software Park.

With Yuan Ruli’s help, the approvals for the land and loan processes went through extremely quickly. The ground was currently being leveled, and the construction was expected to take about a year and a half.

By then, the total number of employees would increase by another seventy to eighty thousand, generating over a million Human Dao Fire annually.

In other news, construction of the Luzhou Headquarters was more than halfway done. The first phase of the project was 80% complete and expected to be finished in Q3, after which would come the decoration, landscaping, and formaldehyde removal work.

As for the second phase, it probably wouldn’t be initially completed until Q2 of next year, with move-in delayed until the year’s end.

’After all, every employee was a Human Dao Fire generator for him; he couldn’t bear to let his subordinates act as human-shaped formaldehyde purifiers.’

Over at Orange Intelligent Life Co., Ltd, they had also begun production of a new product after receiving the brushless DC motor blueprints he had provided.

The first batch consisted of three models: the Orange E1 (AC Motor Edition), the Orange E1 (DC Inverter Edition), and the Orange E1 (Voice-Activated Smart Edition).

They all featured a uniform white exterior and included an anti-touch safety grille, a tip-over power-off function, and anti-direct-airflow technology.

The first model targeted the low-end market, priced at only 79 Hua Yuan.

The second model was aimed at the mid-to-high-end market, priced at 279 Hua Yuan.

The third model targeted the high-end market, priced at 379 Hua Yuan.

This strategy both guaranteed sales volume and ensured a healthy gross profit margin.

Chen Yansen used high-quality parts for the motor, fan blades, control mechanism, linkage, base, protective cover, power cord, and plug. There was no need to engage in a death spiral of price competition.

The higher the profit, the more justification he had to pay his employees higher wages.

Otherwise, if they relied solely on subsidies from headquarters, no amount of funding could withstand the burn rate.

For any project, achieving profitability is the most basic requirement!

A business that doesn’t make money has no reason to exist.

This was also why he had quickly pushed into the mid-to-high-end smartphone market after the Orange C1.

For example, the Yaocheng X1, which ran on the Aurora Future OS, used top-tier components for everything from the screen and processor to the camera and battery. At 3,999 Hua Yuan, it was an absolute steal.

In other words, President Chen wanted to make money, but he also needed the Human Dao Fire.

Dai Zhanhong mentioned in an email that they expected to complete the production task of 150,000 units within the week.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, then casually created a work group chat. He told Dai Zhanhong to send over some samples and had Orange Technology’s e-commerce department take charge of shooting product photos and designing the product detail page.

May was almost half over, and the weather was about to heat up. It was the peak season for electric fan demand.

Naturally, they had to rush to get the product to market!

A moment later, Song Yuncheng and Zhang Yifeng were also pulled into the group.

Both were top business managers at Pinbei with a wealth of practical experience in new product marketing and sales. In no time at all, they had finalized the launch and promotion plan for the Orange E1 fan.

A simultaneous online and offline launch!

「Time flew by.」 On May 18th, the Orange E1 was launched on channels like Orange Mall, Pinbei, Tmall, and Jingdong. At the same time, it also became available for purchase in the ”Orange Intelligent Life Hall” on Kuai Pao and at offline direct-sales stores.

It was the peak sales season for electric fans. Although many people thought Orange Technology was straying from its core business by making fans, they still trusted Chen Yansen and the company.

On the launch day, total online sales of the Orange E1 (AC Motor Edition) easily surpassed 67,000 units.

The Orange E1 (DC Inverter Edition) sold 23,000 units.

The Orange E1 (Voice-Activated Smart Edition) sold 14,000 units.

That was a total of 104,000 units, with a sales revenue of 17.003 million Hua Yuan.

Compared to the revenue from their mobile phone, e-commerce, and express delivery businesses, this amount was pitifully small.

But Chen Yansen knew that behind the Orange Fan Factory, there were over 1,000 people who relied on these few products to put food on the table.

And among these 1,000-plus people, about eighty percent of the employees were immediate family members of Kuai Pao and Cloud Speed staff.

The news of Orange Technology crossing over into the fan industry quickly started trending. Though netizens didn’t understand the move, many chose to place an order to show their support, especially when faced with a fan priced as low as 79 Hua Yuan.

At eight o’clock that evening, Chen Yansen posted a set of photos showing the environment of the Orange Fan Factory and some of the employees busy at work.

”I’m very happy to introduce a new member of the Orange Technology family. I hope everyone will pay as much attention to Orange fans as you do to our Orange Mobile Phones.”

Chen Yansen’s caption was concise.

”President Chen, as a Hai Zhou native, I want to thank you for providing over 1,000 jobs to our county.”

”President Chen, what’s the hourly wage at the Orange Fan Factory? Does it include room and board?”

”Dude above, don’t even think about it. The Orange Fan Factory only hires locally, and all the people who get in are immediate family members of Cloud Speed Couriers and Kuai Pao Deliverymen.”

”Damn! They don’t even have open recruitment?”

”The compensation and benefits at the Orange Fan Factory are exactly the same as at the Orange Phone Factory. I’m a local. This company used to be the Jiahaojia Fan Factory. There were still over 100 people protesting for severance pay, but I heard that after Senlian Capital took over, not a single one of them resigned.”

In just ten minutes, several thousand new comments flooded the comment section.

It couldn’t be helped. Chen Yansen’s follower count was too high, and Ye Qiuping now considered his social media account a corporate asset.

It was constantly posting product promotions and occasional photos of his daily life, so active it didn’t seem like it was actually him.

And in fact, the content really wasn’t being posted by him personally.

The single-day sales volume of Orange’s electric fans immediately made brands like Midea, Gree, and Airmate feel the pressure.

The next day, another 156,000 Orange E1 units were sold, bringing the cumulative total to 260,000 units and the total transaction value to a staggering 42.5 million Hua Yuan.

Now, the competitors could no longer sit still. One after another, they adjusted their online and offline sales strategies and actively signed up for promotional events like Juhuasuan, the 618 Grand Promotion, and FoxTao Brand Group events, attempting to fight for potential customers in 2013.

Seeing this, Li Yanhong had a smear piece against Orange Technology posted on the homepage of Qian Du News.

”Senlian Capital—The Biggest Shit-Stirrer in the Country!”

The headline alone made people want to click. The article detailed how Chen Yansen had entered the mobile phone, food delivery, express delivery, and group-buying sectors, using tactics like low-price dumping and price wars to crush a large number of competitors, causing over a hundred thousand people to lose their jobs.

After reading the entire article, one was left with a distinct impression: Senlian Capital was the paraquat of the industry. Wherever it went, a swath of competitors was left dead and dying.

With Qian Du fanning the flames, the report shot to the top of the trending list at light speed.

”But is it wrong for Orange Mobile Phones to be cheap? Back in the day, even knockoff phones dared to sell for seven or eight hundred, but now you can buy a Qingcheng D2 for that price.”

”You think it’s too cheap? Then buy the Orange C3S or the Yaocheng X1!”

”The factories under Senlian Capital pay 25 Hua Yuan an hour. How much do the competitors pay? Any fellas here from other companies?”

”When is President Chen going to enter the clothing industry and drive up our hourly wages too!”

What Li Yanhong hadn’t expected was that 99% of netizens were staunchly supporting Chen Yansen and Senlian Capital.

This was completely different from the trend he had envisioned!

The smear piece he had painstakingly crafted had instead brought a massive wave of traffic and hype to Senlian Capital.

Li Yanhong was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

Even he had to admit that when it came to employee compensation and benefits, Chen Yansen was far ahead of many of the major internet giants.