Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

On June 1st, Wang Xin reluctantly signed his name on the share transfer agreement, simultaneously declaring he had no further connection to Meituan.

Redwood Capital and Ah Li seized the opportunity to exit, selling their shares to Sanbao Group. Pan-Atlantic Capital, however, chose to continue holding its shares after some persuasion from Zhao Yafei.

After all, Sanbao Group’s business spanned multiple sectors—including department stores, e-commerce, property leasing, medical services, online matchmaking, real estate, and art financing—with total assets exceeding 50 billion Hua Yuan.

As a financially powerful company, it might be able to push Meituan’s market value to new heights.

It had to be said, Pan-Atlantic Capital was indeed taking a gamble.

As Shen Nanpeng left, he gave Wang Xin a deep look. He knew in his heart that he had lost the bet.

Wang Xin and Meituan hadn’t made it to the end. The winner of the ”Thousand-Group-Buy War” would perhaps be Qian Du, or perhaps Kuai Pao.

As for Sanbao Group, it seemed powerful, but its business was too diversified for it to exert its full strength online. It was destined to be the bag holder.

Ji Gang was even more blunt; he simply turned and walked away.

In his eyes, Wang Xin’s greatest contribution to Ali Baba was selling Meituan early, which made his own performance reports look a little better.

Investing in Meituan was one of Ah Li’s worst decisions in recent years.

’Wang Xin has no ability, and his character is rotten!’

Ji Gang hadn’t forgotten the time Wang Xin had played Ah Li for a fool.

”President Wang, it’s been a pleasure. We’ll have to trouble you with the project handover over the next month.”

Zhao Yafei extended his right hand and said with a gentle smile.

”Of course, President Zhao.” Wang Xin forced a smile and readily agreed.

The money hadn’t arrived yet, so naturally, he had to cooperate with the other party’s merger and integration process.

Sanbao Group acquired Meituan primarily to expand its online business, build an O2O e-commerce platform, and find new sources of profit growth.

To Zhao Yafei, a price of 180 million US Dollars wasn’t expensive.

Ten minutes later, after seeing Zhao Yafei off, Wang Xin returned to his office and collapsed into his chair, his face a mask of dejection.

”Old Wang, bring Shen Peng and the others in.”

Wang Xin mustered what was left of his strength and said in a heavy voice.

”Brother Xin, once we get the money, we can just switch to a new track and avoid competing with Senlian Capital. Next time, we’ll definitely win,” Wang Huiwen said encouragingly, seeing his leader’s dejected expression.

”Just go,” Wang Xin said, waving his hand.

Including Meituan, he had started nine businesses and failed nine times.

Frankly, he had lost all confidence in himself.

Wang Huiwen sighed, turned and left the room, gathered Meituan’s other three co-founders, and returned with them to Wang Xin’s office.

”I’m sorry. Meituan lost again. I’ve let everyone down,” Wang Xin said, bowing deeply.

He knew very well that Wang Huiwen, Shen Peng, and the others had fought alongside him in pursuit of financial freedom. In Wang Xin’s eyes, these four people were his own.

”Brother Xin, if worst comes to worst, we’ll just start over. I believe in you,” Wang Huiwen, a loyal follower of Wang Xin’s, immediately responded.

”Brother Xin, the Group Buy path was a dead end, so let’s just find another. There’s no reason we can’t ever win,” Shen Peng said with a shrug.

”I’ve settled things with Sanbao Group. The sale price is 180 million US Dollars, so the shares you’re holding can be cashed out for tens of millions of Hua Yuan each.”

Wang Xin smiled knowingly and spoke slowly.

His own stake was 46.1%, making his profit the largest; he was expected to pocket 83 million US Dollars.

Although Meituan had failed, he had still earned tens of millions more US Dollars than he did with Xiaonei Network back in the day.

Wang Huiwen, Shen Peng, and the others looked at each other in dismay. A profit of several million Hua Yuan was dozens of times less than what they had expected.

But they knew that if they hadn’t sold the company, they probably wouldn’t have even gotten those few million.

”Sigh.” Someone let out a sigh, though it wasn’t clear who.

Immediately after, as if a dam had broken, the room was filled with an uncontrollable sense of pessimism.

Wang Xin took out a cigarette and lit it, oblivious to everyone else in the room.

The others pulled up chairs, and while puffing out clouds of smoke, they began to brainstorm ideas for their next startup.

In no time, the office was so filled with swirling smoke it looked like a steam room.

”Why don’t we just get into e-commerce? Pinbei made it to number two in the industry in less than two years. The market potential is staggering.”

”Pinbei has top-level traffic funnels from WeChat and QQ. Do we? Acquiring customers by buying traffic is expensive and has low retention. How could we possibly compete with Tmall, Pinbei, and Jingdong?”

”What about car sharing?”

”Difficult to maintain, and a long payback period.”

”How about the mobile game industry? The mobile internet is developing faster and faster, and smartphone ownership has increased by several hundred million in the last two years. I think it’s a good blue ocean market.”

”We’d be better off doing P2P. We’d just need to build a platform. We could make a killing from platform service fees and interest rate spreads alone, not to mention revenue from advertising and data services.

I’ve looked into it. Lending rates are generally between 8% and 15% annualized, while investor returns are 4% to 8% annualized. We could make a gross margin of at least 4% to 10%. That’s way easier than Group Buy.”

The men discussed excitedly among themselves.

’A 4% to 10% gross margin?’

’If the platform’s annual loan volume was 100 billion, wouldn’t they be able to earn up to 10 billion?’

Wang Xin’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of interest on his face.

’It’s just lending money. Even Ah Li is doing it, so why can’t I?’

Wang Xin felt no moral qualms. ’Making money is nothing to be ashamed of.’

He thought for a moment, then looked at Wang Huiwen and said, ”Old Wang, what do you think?”

”I don’t know much about the P2P industry,” Wang Huiwen replied with extreme caution.

”Brother Xin, President Wang, I’ve done a deep dive into the P2P business model and how it operates. First, we get a few A-list celebrities for endorsements, then find some shopping guide websites to drive traffic. Selling billions in product shares a month would be a piece of cake.”