Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

The next morning, the moment Chen Yansen got to the office, he called Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze in. He had one key objective: to complete the testing and acceptance process for the Qingcheng D2 SE edition this week.

Ni Cai was in a hurry to dig its own grave, and he was more than happy to oblige.

”Okay, Boss, no problem,” Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze replied in unison.

The original release date was set for June 18 to coincide with Pinbei’s 618 shopping festival. Launching ten days early was still manageable.

”How much longer will it take to finish adapting the network and communication standards for the overseas editions of the Qingcheng D2, Orange C3S, and Yaocheng X1?” Chen Yansen asked.

”I’ve spoken with President Zuo. MediaTek and Qualcomm will provide us with a batch of processors compatible with European frequency bands before the middle of the month.

However, due to the lengthy review periods for CE, RoHS, and WEEE certifications, it will be at least another two months before we can even begin carrier network access testing,” Zhang Cong replied immediately.

”You’ll be responsible for frequency band and network adaptation. Hardware compliance certification, carrier relations, and the after-sales market rollout will be handed over to President Zhou. Let’s speed things up,” Chen Yansen said with a slight nod.

Once he had given his instructions, Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze quickly acknowledged them, then left the office and returned to their desks to get back to work.

Chen Yansen picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup of cool tea, and took a small sip.

His mind, however, was occupied with Sanbao Group’s acquisition of Meituan.

’Wang Xin’s move hadn’t surprised him.’

’He had previously contacted Senlian Capital, Penguin, and Ah Li in succession; his intention to sell the company was perfectly clear.’

’With Sanbao Group willing to take over, Wang Xin was naturally pleased. Even Redwood Capital and Ali Baba seized the chance to cash out their stakes.’

’The only pity was that Ma Liyun still harbored ambitions in the O2O local services sector. He’d renamed Taobao Delivery to Taodian, and while he hadn’t continued to expand, he also hadn’t given up on the idea of running his own food delivery business.’

Chen Yansen was well aware that Senlian Capital and Qian Du Network were currently engaged in an all-out war, burning through a hundred million yuan in marketing costs alone each day. Since Ah Li had yet to go public, it was unwilling to get dragged into this slugfest to keep its financial statements looking pristine.

’If Ah Li goes public in the future, Lao Ma might just turn on us.’

’After all, in the Business Community, interests always came first; there was no room for personal feelings.’

At this thought, Chen Yansen’s eyes narrowed, his guard rising.

「Meanwhile.」

Li Yanhong sat in a conference room at Qian Du Mansion headquarters, his eyes glued to the May report from the LBS division. The first page detailed the operational and financial data.

Net loss: 1.94 billion yuan!

Qian Du Delivery’s market share was 17.9%, with 1.75 million daily orders and a transaction volume of 15.8 million yuan. The average order value was less than 10 yuan, and a staggering 61.5% of all orders were from first-time users or heavily subsidized.

In other words, the majority of their users were just bargain hunters.

The moment the discounts ended, their loyalty would vanish.

What was worse, the next-day retention rate for new customers was a mere 4.7%, and weekly retention was just 1.9%. As for the monthly retention figures, Li Yanhong couldn’t even bear to look.

Despite having ample delivery resources, the delivery delay rate was over 20%, indicating poor fulfillment quality and a low standard of service.

”We’ve spent a fortune, yet you can’t even capture twenty percent of the market. What in the world have you been doing?” Li Yanhong demanded, glaring at Wang Zhongpu.

Wang Zhongpu looked troubled and slowly began to explain, ”Boss, Kuai Pao’s business ecosystem is already well-established. It works in concert with their group-buying and grocery services, creating a powerful economy of scale.

We, on the other hand, have weaknesses in our merchant resources, delivery capacity, and dispatch systems. It’s an uphill battle trying to compete with them for market share.”

In theory, Qian Du Delivery lacked neither money nor user traffic. Even with Kuai Pao holding advantages on all fronts, they should have been able to secure a thirty-percent market share.

But reality was cruel; even reaching 20% was an immense struggle.

”Next month, I want to see Qian Du Delivery capture thirty percent of the market. The marketing budget is unlimited,” Li Yanhong said coldly, his tone carrying a clear warning.

As the Sect Leader of Qian Du, while he was full of ideas, he lacked patience and his follow-through was often weak.

In his eyes, he had given Wang Zhongpu more than enough resources and funding. The failure to meet targets was clearly a failure of leadership.

If Wang Zhongpu couldn’t deliver, he would have no choice but to find a replacement.

Standing by, Gong Zhenbing and Xiang Hailong felt their mouths twitch and their brows furrow. They knew their boss’s old flaw was showing again—his patience with these projects had worn thin.

If DiDi Dache and Qian Du Group Buy didn’t show improvement soon, they could expect, at best, a demotion and exile to a fringe department. At worst, they’d be fired on the spot.

”The same goes for the group-buying and ride-hailing projects,” Li Yanhong added.

”Yes, Boss,” Gong Zhenbing and Xiang Hailong replied in unison.

Although Qian Du Group Buy was number two in the industry, with a transaction volume of 1.16 billion yuan in May—a 34.9% month-over-month increase—Gong Zhenbing knew perfectly well that the extra 300 million in sales had been bought and paid for with a barrage of coupons and cash bonuses.

DiDi Dache’s performance remained lukewarm. In May, its daily order volume had peaked above two million, only to drop back to 1.8 million a few days later, making it the biggest cash incinerator in Qian Du’s O2O strategy.

Over the past thirty days, Li Yanhong had to personally approve fresh injections of capital six separate times, releasing an average of two hundred million yuan with each signature.

Once a war on this scale begins, no one is willing to admit defeat until a clear winner emerges.

Under a coordinated assault from Lingxi, 360, Penguin, and Sogou, Qian Du Search’s market share had already dropped below 45%. The user churn rate climbed even higher, especially after Lingxi launched its ”Moss” plugin and 360 rolled out its ”Conscientious Search” feature.

When other options were available, no one was going to tolerate a screen cluttered with ads.

While Qian Du’s advertising revenue was undeniably substantial, the company had also spent the last seven or eight years alienating countless users to achieve it.