Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 456: The Kind One Is Invincible

Cheng Wei’s main energy is now focused on stabilizing the morale and the team. Only by stabilizing the team first can the current problems be rectified. Only after the current storm has passed will he be able to develop rapidly again.

To this end, Cheng Wei chose to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and submitted a version of the plan to Xiao Ma Ge for review, which received his approval.

The wind blew so hard, which was not common in the past, and it made Xiao Ma a little scared.

Even if Didi completes its rectification and is allowed to operate according to the latest regulations, its size will be reduced by at least half, and the situation is not optimistic.

A few days later, Cheng Wei sent a letter to all employees in the name of Didi CEO:

“It has been nearly a year since Didi was founded. Looking back, we have experienced many difficulties, but none of them have defeated us. We have been tenacious and have stood firm in the fierce market competition. We currently have more than a dozen branch offices, cooperate with hundreds of taxi companies, and recruit tens of thousands of private car drivers.

It turns out that we are an excellent team!
But today, the industry is experiencing unprecedented changes. As a member of the online car-hailing company, we increasingly feel our responsibility, so we have to take the following measures:

1. Adhere to long-term sustainable technology investment;
2. Temporarily stop all cooperation with taxi companies.
3. Further strengthen the capabilities of sales and service personnel to cope with subsequent fierce market competition;

4. Merge departments with duplicate functions to improve labor efficiency;

5. Employees in departments that are unable to conduct business due to policies can choose to transfer to other positions through internal competition or be unemployed, and will be paid according to the local minimum per capita wage.
Finally, the entire Didi management will stand with you all, let's get through this together, blah blah
A journey of a hundred miles begins with a single step. Entrepreneurship is like a marathon. It is not about how fast you run at a certain moment, but about who can finish the entire race. Let us fight side by side and embrace a broader future.

In the business world, it is all about survival of the fittest, and the same is true for employees in entrepreneurial companies. You may feel very stable on weekdays, but you may face the risk of being laid off at any time.

Didi is beginning to enter its growth spurt. Cheng Wei doesn't have much resentment towards Didi now, but he has more resentment towards those people in the taxi industry. Without them making trouble, there wouldn't be so many troubles!

You are a bunch of money-grubbing bastards, keep on making trouble, this "prosperous age" is what you wish for!
But this "prosperous era" also left countless taxi drivers and company bosses dumbfounded.

They just thought of some ways to express their demands and increase their income. What's wrong with them?

We finally got together and had the meal, but now you say we can’t eat it?

It's like a good award ceremony. Everyone thinks that the winner will be among a few popular candidates, but in the end the grand prize is announced to be won by a little Karami. Who could have expected such a result?

Damn it, the cripples are fighting each other, why do they come here to join in the fun? Aren’t they just bored?

This made these people even more unhappy. Previously, they had shared a common hatred towards the online ride-hailing companies, but now they are united in speaking out and saying good things about them online.

And it's not just the drivers, many users who have experienced the convenient services of online ride-hailing have also protested online.

In the past, people had to wait by the roadside for a long time to get a taxi. However, since the emergence of taxi apps, these consumers have gone from being passive to active. They can just tap on their phones and a car will stop downstairs. It is very convenient.

As for the private enterprises, these people dared to make a real fuss offline, but this time they dared not to do anything even if they had eight hundred guts, so they could only make a fuss online.
"I will make the rectification, but please don't stop the business. My whole family is waiting for me to do business and make money."

"That's right. It's finally convenient to take a taxi now, but now the taxi market is monopolized again."

"With this new thing called internet taxi-hailing, it's an opportunity for us drivers to increase our income. Why did it stop?"

"Damn it, the butt is deciding the head again. If they keep doing this, the people will not be able to survive~"

"Ten thousand people signed a petition in blood to liberalize online ride-hailing operations."

The Ministry of Transport is the main administrative department responsible for the taxi industry's supervision.

The taxi industry has existed for a long time, and its interests are intertwined and complicated, so it will not be easily touched. Therefore, the rectification of online ride-hailing services is like a warning to scare the tiger. As a result, the mountain is almost shattered, but the tiger is still jumping up and down and won't stop.

After the offline commotion, the online commotion,

It’s like a game doesn’t have a map, and some people complain about it. Then you launch the map function according to their request, and guess what?

There are still people who criticize me. No matter whether I do the work or not, I am not pleasing to anyone.

This is how the ministry leaders felt at the moment, and they were extremely angry. They had originally planned to raise the muzzle of the gun an inch, but now they lowered it by three points.

You don't even want my face. Do you really think I'm Hello Kitty?
The result of the nine days of anger is that the efficiency of the relevant departments has been unprecedentedly high, and they are working overtime to advance the progress of the recent instructions!

In just three days, on August 8, the Ministry of Transport issued another document, launching a nationwide special rectification campaign for the taxi industry from that day on, and violators will be severely punished!
Subsequently, a vigorous campaign to crack down on illegal and irregular taxi behavior was launched across the country, with heavy blows being taken.

The local transportation committees, together with the market supervision bureaus, the traffic police detachments of the public security bureaus and other relevant departments and units, have set up special working groups according to the rectification plan, established a "regulation + law enforcement coordination" governance mechanism, carried out joint law enforcement special rectification actions, and carried out joint law enforcement irregularly every week.
The media then helped report the significance of this move, and subsequently interviewed some “passers-by” about their experiences.

"Before, there were cases of illegal parking and soliciting passengers here every day, but now it has obviously decreased, and the travel experience has improved a lot!"

"Before, the drivers here didn't use the meter and negotiated the price privately. Now, they all take the initiative to provide invoices!"

"Now the drivers are much nicer than before. They used to be indifferent."

"Refusal to pick up passengers? That didn't happen. There are no more detours. I like this special operation. It's a good thing for the general public!"

After a set of smooth little combos, the whole world becomes peaceful.
The taxi industry as a whole has finally been hammered down, which has pleased many people. This industry should have been hammered down long ago; it is full of corruption and chaos.

However, recently, heavy bombs have been released one after another, with both development and rectification. The entire Internet circle is trembling with fear, with one hand holding sweet dates and the other hand holding a big stick. Is this possible to develop or not?
The industry has pressed the pause button, but the development of taxi travel cannot stop.

Taxi trips are now being carried out in an orderly manner according to Chen Mo's previous deployment, and are spreading everywhere.

Chen Mo could finally divert his energy from this side and focus on the battlefield on the other side.

Although his previous focus was on the travel industry, he would pay attention to the situation on the Ele.me side every week.

After all, Zhang Xuhao of Ele.me is a fierce general who once fought with Wang Xing of Meituan for several years.

During this period of time, Zhang Xuhao and his team showed a strong desire to fight, and they fought back and forth with Baidu Takeout in the first-tier provincial capital cities, winning more games than losing.

Currently, the first-tier and second-tier markets account for 70% and 30% respectively, with Ele.me accounting for 70%. However, Baidu is very determined. Relying on the resources of Nuomi.com and Baidu's investment, it is slightly larger than Ele.me in terms of size.

According to the weekly report submitted by Ele.me, it seems that Meituan strategically gave up the first- and second-tier markets due to the fierce competition in these cities. Instead, it quietly laid out in the third- and fourth-tier cities, using the sinking market to open up the food delivery process, and then launched a counter-attack to defeat the strong from below.

On August 8, Chen Mo led Tianji Pavilion to hold a remote video conference with Zhang Xuhao's team in Shanghai at the headquarters.

After listening to the recent situation, Chen Mo first affirmed the other party's performance during this period, and then said: ".Well, the overall performance is still good.

We now have only two competitors, Meituan and Baidu, and we don’t need to worry about the others.

Meituan is stronger than its suppliers and its field sales team that came from Alibaba’s former iron army. It is said to be very tough, but our full-scale attack is not at all in vain. Moreover, the first batch of students in the Ivy League class will graduate in half a month and will bring a group of extremely outstanding new forces to the other side. By then, I will give half of the field sales students to Ele.me!
Meituan wants to surround the cities from the countryside, so let's see if it has the ability to do so. We will give it a head-on fight.

By the end of October, we will achieve full coverage of all provincial capital cities across the country. As long as we build the city walls high, Meituan will be defeated if it dares to come.

Baidu Takeout is like a wealthy man with a lot of cash. Apart from spending money, all it can do is follow others closely.

Looking back at the past, Baidu is good at one-shot attacks, but lacks resilience. As long as we can withstand the opponent's three-pronged attack, they will lose. As long as we are not swept away by one-shot attacks, the opponent will definitely lose, so there is nothing to be afraid of! "The reason why Chen Mo is so bold in his final conclusion is that Baidu has experienced countless mobile Internet booms, but has never been blown up, and is heavier than a pig.

It’s not that Baidu’s vision is bad. On the contrary, Baidu’s investment vision is very forward-looking, from mobile social networking, finance, group buying, food delivery to big data, cloud computing, shared travel, short videos, live streaming, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence. Every time it gets up early and arrives late, and finally nothing comes of it?
It’s not that Baidu’s technology is not good. It can launch comparable competing products in a short period of time. Moreover, Baidu’s sponsorship of the Spring Festival Gala and its ability to withstand the impact of network-wide traffic have proven that its technical capabilities are not a problem. Later, countless technical talents who have shined in various fields have the mark of Baidu.

The fundamental reason is that Baidu has been doing too smoothly in the traditional Internet era over the past decade or so, earning too much money too quickly, and has been resting on its laurels, losing patience with slow money.

When the group buying war started, I didn’t want to get involved and just wanted to pick up something ready-made. Later, after much deliberation, I set my sights on Nuomi. However, how could Baidu, which took over Nuomi and started out halfway through, beat Meituan, which had emerged from the bloody battles? It was overwhelmed and couldn’t breathe.

Later, they would try out whichever product was hot. At first, there would be loud drums and firecrackers. Baidu would go all in on this and that at every technical conference. Every time people thought Baidu was determined to do something good, after a few months or a year, they would find that the product did not meet their expectations, and then they would let it die on its own and continue going all in. This cycle continued.
Take the bet on artificial intelligence for example. At the beginning, Robin Li used emotion and benefits to attract Lu Qi to serve as the president and chief operating officer of Baidu Group. He was even full of enthusiasm at the time and boasted to the media about the importance of Lu Qi to Baidu: "When Qin loses its deer, the whole world will chase it."

It is no wonder that Robin Li made such an evaluation. At that time, Lu Qi was the ceiling of world-class workers. To what extent? First he was the executive vice president of Yahoo and then the executive vice president of Microsoft. He was one of the heads of Microsoft's four major business departments and could report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. He was in charge of a team of more than 10,000 technicians worldwide. He was the highest-level position held by Chinese in the headquarters of global technology companies.

Putting aside the technology, in terms of job level, the likes of Kai-Fu Lee, Ya-Qin Zhang, and Bin Lin are all a little inferior. Even Harry Shum is only the executive vice president of Microsoft.

At that time, Lu Qi had some health problems due to a small project and resigned to recuperate. Subsequently, dozens of well-known companies around the world extended olive branches to him, and he finally chose Li Yanhong, with whom he had a close personal relationship.

After poaching Lu Qi, it can be said that Robin Li was tough for the first time and completely delegated his power. Lu Qi was responsible for Baidu's products, technology, sales and marketing operations, and held all power of life and death except personnel and finance. He was second only to Lu Qi and above everyone else.

The first thing Lu Qi did after joining Baidu was to announce that Baidu was all in on artificial intelligence (AI). That was in 17, and there were still five years before ChatGPT was launched.
Afterwards, Li Yanhong took Lu Qi with him wherever he went, and they acted like a harmonious couple. Everyone thought this was the Baidu revival drama of King Wu meeting Jiang Shang and the emperor's uncle getting Sleeping Dragon.

When Lu Qi took up his new post, he was ambitious and powerful. He began to reform and innovate Baidu, from steering the strategic direction to adjusting the business and optimizing the organizational structure. It is no exaggeration to say that his changes were drastic.

The first year went smoothly and I won great favor from everyone, including Baidu employees, and my internal reputation was quite high.

However, as the reform went deeper and really touched the interests of some people, some of Baidu's core veterans retreated to advance and threatened to resign, which eventually forced Li Yanhong to make a choice. The result is obvious.
Lu Qi is not Shang Yang, but Wang Anshi
Just one year later, when the news of Lu Qi's resignation was exposed, the market was shocked and Baidu's stock price shrank by 14%. Tens of billions of US dollars evaporated in just a few days. The media called it "the most expensive resignation in history."

As for the reason for his resignation, some said that the leader was forced out by the elders, some said that Lu Qi was disappointed with Baidu and someone, and some suspected that Lu Qi and Mrs. Ma did not get along. In short, there was a strong conspiracy theory.

Or maybe Lu Qi was accustomed to Western management methods and values, and the conflict between the two was irreconcilable, so he couldn't stand it and voluntarily resigned. In short, there are many different opinions and the truth is unknown.

Later, AI became popular, and Baidu hastily developed Wenxin Yiyan, becoming one of the most popular people.
This is the reason why Chen Mo dared to make a judgment. This is just a makeshift team. As long as they can withstand Baidu's wave, the other party will disband on their own.
Obviously, Zhang Xuhao didn't get this information, but out of trust in his boss and what he saw, he agreed with his boss's statement.
“.Baidu Waimai is now spending a lot of money on subsidies. Although it has a certain market share, it has an impact on us, but it is much lower than expected.

After our analysis, we found that the business service concept that Ele.me has always implemented has played a crucial role.

The first is standardized service, a unified blue and white system with a simple and elegant application page, standard uniforms for riders, reasonable performance appraisals, electric vehicles with uniform paint, and strict entry barriers for merchant cooperation.

Especially the last one, we adhere to the requirements of continuous improvement in screening cooperation and strictly implement the "three no's" cooperation access standards, no cooperation without qualifications, no cooperation if the goods do not match the instructions, and no cooperation if the sanitary environment does not meet the standards!

Secondly, the takeaway-related systems are constantly being iterated and improved. After the unremitting efforts of Dai Gong’s team over the past six months, the Ele.me application, whether it is map accuracy or smart store recommendations, has been continuously iterated and optimized, and has achieved significant improvements.

Moreover, the optimization of delivery routes, order grabbing principles, and delivery times has effectively avoided the situation in which riders violated rules and regulations in order to save time, greatly reducing the delivery risks for riders.

Special thanks to Mr. Dai and his technical team for their efforts.”

The Dai Gong mentioned by Zhang Xuhao is Dai Wenyuan, a former T10 technical expert of Baidu and an absolute doer. He was admitted as an exception with the fourth place in the Qingyun list in the Ivy League assessment at the beginning of the year.

At first, he was scheduled to work as the technical director for Didi Chuxing. Later, Dai Wenyuan found out that the technical director of Didi Chuxing was his junior colleague with whom he had a good personal relationship at Baidu. So he did not steal his love away and took the initiative to ask for a job transfer. He went to work for his current position as CTO at Ele.me.

So this person left a deep impression on Chen Mo.

Zhang Xuhao continued, "The last and most important thing is the welfare mechanism guarantee.

I won’t go into details about the headquarters, the point is that we work with riders on an employment basis, sign formal labor contracts, provide five social insurances and one housing fund and commercial insurance, and the performance evaluation is in line with the standard of more work, more pay on the other side.”

Chen Mo nodded when he heard this, "How much can these riders earn per hour?"

"The price per order for a rider varies from 3 to 7 yuan, depending on factors such as distance and amount. We take the middle value of 5 yuan for calculation. After big data analysis and summary, the hourly wage can reach about 30 yuan. If the rider runs 8 hours a day and does not rest for 30 days, including five insurances and one housing fund, the monthly salary before tax is 7200 yuan.

Moreover, if riders drive more than 8 hours a day and take orders on weekends, they will receive additional "overtime subsidies". If the monthly order volume exceeds 90%, there will also be performance subsidies. If the riders work harder, it is not difficult to earn more than yuan a month.

Currently, 32% of riders earn over yuan a month. "

In first- and second-tier cities, 7000 yuan a month is not a lot, but this has to be considered in light of the background of the majority of riders. This is not like the recent graduates and 35+ IT practitioners who later came to compete in the rider track.

Nowadays, most people who choose to be riders are migrant workers with low education levels. Making money by selling their physical labor is already a very satisfying job for them.

Chen Mo is quite concerned about the five social insurances and one housing fund that the dispatching platform provides to riders. "Does paying insurance for riders have a big impact on our operating costs?"

The reason for this question is that Meituan later recruited a large number of riders through crowdsourcing (part-time), without five social insurances and one housing fund, and commercial insurance was deducted from the riders' commission.

The advantage of this form of crowdsourcing is that riders are like self-employed individuals, and they have a public-to-public cooperative relationship with the platform and are responsible for their own profits and losses. When riders encounter risks, the platform can cut them off at the speed of light without getting any dust on them. Riders are consumables for some platforms, and if there is a problem, they can just replace them with a new batch, since there are so many people anyway.

Later, the news that "a director in Beijing tried delivering food and earned only 12 yuan in 41 hours" went viral on the Internet. The bitterness of the food delivery riders' job touched the sensitive nerves of the general public and also pushed the issue of riders' rights protection to the forefront of public opinion.

However, the platform will bear the social security and insurance of the riders, which will increase the cost. The investors behind it can’t sit still. Then some media began to complain about the platform. The platform was not profitable in the first place. If it really did this, the platform would be even worse.
Later, there were even some inspirational stories about earning tens of thousands per month, making millions in three years, and buying a house in the Shanghai stock market.
But Zhang Xuhao's next answer broke the platform's lie, "We have calculated this before. After paying the five social insurances and one housing fund, the cost increased by 3%. If it is spread evenly on each takeaway order, it only increased by 0.08 yuan, less than a dime.

From another perspective, in terms of profits, the overall level is 5% lower than before.

From the above calculations, we can see that, in general, the increase in costs for Ele.me caused by paying five insurances and one housing fund for full-time riders is generally controllable. In other words, you and the shareholders can get it by paying less."

Such a rebellious statement actually caused Chen Mo to laugh heartily, "Haha~ You kid! Not bad!"

".The above are the reasons why Ele.me currently has a high rate of positive reviews from users. This is also the 'barrier' we have compared to other food delivery platforms, and it is also the biggest difference and similarity with Baidu Waimai. They welcome all comers and develop for the sake of development.

Therefore, instead of worrying about Baidu, I am a little wary of Meituan’s efforts to expand into third- and fourth-tier cities.”

Chen Mo didn't respond, but directly asked the question he was concerned about, "How is the preparation for the group purchase business going?"

"We have discussed with some cooperative merchants in various cities and regions, and Ele.me group buying will be launched in first-tier cities in early September."

"Okay! Let's do it at our own pace. There are a few things you need to pay attention to next!"

After Chen Mo said this, Zhang Xuhao's men immediately focused and picked up their notebooks.

“1. As of now, Ele.me has completed the first phase of technology development and launched a new slogan, ‘delicious, clean and hygienic’, which is our future business philosophy.

2. We will set up a quality inspection team to conduct random inspections of the merchants we cooperate with from time to time. If any problems such as hygiene are found, we will terminate the contract and never cooperate again, and will not tolerate any leniency, so as to achieve the goal of good money eliminating bad money.

3. Since Meituan is secretly making moves, then we will openly build our defenses. Ele.me will enter the group purchasing business. After it goes online in September, we will give you one month to prepare. In October, we will start a subsidy war to seize Meituan’s original market. I want to see rivers of blood!
4. Being a rider is a high-risk profession. In addition to insurance, we also need humanitarian care for riders who get into accidents. For riders whose families are in difficulty, the company will provide a safety net based on the circumstances.

If a rider does good deeds and acts bravely during the delivery, we will guide him/her positively and increase his/her bonus. And spread the message. If he/she gets into trouble for doing good deeds, the company will cover the loss.

Under normal circumstances, we don’t fight price wars, but service wars and quality wars!
If we enter the stage of burning money, we will accept all comers and burn as much as we can!
If we do the above four things well, I believe no one can defeat us."

In Shanghai, everyone at the Ele.me meeting responded in unison
(End of this chapter)