I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 555 Everyone is burning money to grab market share, so we must prepare enough ammunition!

After Bai Ou changed her clothes and came out, she saw Fang Qingye still staring at her phone and said, "Yezi, hurry up and go, my mom has been urging us to leave several times."

"Okay." Fang Qingye put his phone back in his pocket and went out with his wife.

They drove to the mother-in-law's house and brought over the fish they had caught. After dinner, they chatted for a while before returning to their lakeside home.

Bai Ou sat cross-legged on the sofa, nestled next to Fang Qingye, watching TV, while Fang Qingye looked down and scrolled through her phone.

Seeing Fang Qingye constantly scrolling through her phone, Bai Ou couldn't help but ask, "Yezi, what are you looking at? Why are you so focused?"

"Take a look at this." Fang Qingye handed over her phone, and Bai Ou glanced at it.

"Meituan has completed its Series C funding? Meituan? That's the well-known group-buying website in China. I remember you said that a couple of years ago when you went to Yanjing to invest in ByteDance, Meituan's CEO, Wang Xing, even approached you, asking you to invest?"

"Yes, that's him."

“Now that Meituan has grown so much and raised 3 million US dollars, that’s pretty impressive. Yezi, are you regretting it? Shouldn’t you have invested in Meituan back then?” Bai Ou said with a smile.

"Regret what? I don't like betting on both sides. Once I invested in Ele.me, I can't possibly invest in Meituan," Fang Qingye said calmly.

"Why?" Bai Ou asked, puzzled.

These two businesses don't overlap.

"What do you think he's going to do with the $3 million he raised?"

Bai Ou took a closer look and was immediately taken aback: "Hotel reservations and food delivery services? Isn't this going head-to-head with Ele.me?"

"Yes, don't underestimate him. To have survived the bloody battles of the past two years, Wang Xing must be quite capable."

"Then we need to plan ahead." Bai Ou's expression also turned serious.

"Well, I'll go to Shanghai after the holiday to discuss this with Zhang Xuhao and the others. Bai Ou, how much money does Tuofang Technology have in its accounts right now?" Fang Qingye asked.

"There is approximately 12.6 billion, and the Hong Kong branch has 15.3 billion Hong Kong dollars. However, half of it was invested in foreign exchange, gold and other projects as you requested, and 20% of it was directly converted into Japanese yen and invested in the Japanese stock market."

"What about Tomorrow's Cube?"

“The total funds in the account are approximately 32.8 billion, of which 50% are invested in quantitative trading in the US stock market,” Bai Ou immediately said.

“Oh, so it’s about 35 billion available,” Fang Qingye said after a moment’s thought.

"Yes, Yezi, is Ele.me raising funds again?" Bai Ou immediately understood Fang Qingye's meaning.

"Yes, Meituan has $3 million, or about 20 billion RMB, to enter the food delivery market. We must invest more funds! To put it bluntly, everyone is burning money to grab market share this time, so we must prepare enough ammunition!"

Upon hearing Fang Qingye's words, Bai Ou's expression also turned serious.

How much funding are you planning to raise?

"Let's raise 3 billion first, and then see what happens. Meituan might raise more funds, so we need to be fully prepared. Alibaba is the biggest contributor to Meituan's $30 million funding round this time; they're really deep and powerful," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"Ha, it's Alibaba again. Why are they always going against us?" Bai Ou laughed.

"Alibaba has always wanted to penetrate the food delivery industry, but I refused. This time, Meituan is going to enter this field, which is of course an excellent opportunity for them."

"That's true. And then there's Sequoia Capital. Shen Nanpeng invested in Ele.me on one hand, and now he's investing in Meituan on the other. He's betting on both sides."

“Yes, that way he won’t lose out no matter who wins,” Fang Qingye said calmly. “In his eyes, there is no right or wrong, only interests.”

After the National Day holiday, Bai Ou drove to Shanghai early in the morning. Fang Qingye first went to Jinghai Bank for a meeting and arranged some work, and then Yue Kai drove straight to Shanghai. In the car, Fang Qingye looked out the window at the fields along the highway and fell into deep thought.

In line with the general trend of history, Meituan has finally arrived.

Fortunately, Meituan is still the same Meituan, but Eleme is no longer the same Eleme.

Thanks to Fang Qingye's constant encouragement and push, Ele.me is no longer the slow-moving company that expanded to just over ten cities in three years.

After arriving in Shanghai, Fang Qingye had lunch and rested at the villa for a while before immediately taking a car to Eleme.com.

The Ele.me headquarters, located in Kintetsu City Plaza, was bustling with activity today.

Today is the first day after the National Day holiday. After a short rest, everyone is in a good mood when they come back to work.

However, observant people noticed that some executives who are rarely seen usually come to the company.

In particular, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Deng Ye has been expanding the market outside for the past two years and is rarely seen at headquarters, except when the company holds its annual meeting. But today, he appeared in his office early.

Chairman Fang Qingye is here too!
This most mysterious bigwig at Ele.me, who is rarely seen, has surprisingly appeared at Ele.me headquarters today.

Is something big about to happen?
Everyone was speculating.

Fang Qingye had just arrived at her chairman's office when Zhang Xuhao walked in.

"Is everyone here?" Fang Qingye asked.

"Ah."

"Let's start the meeting," Fang Qingye said, standing up.

In the conference room were Fang Qingye, Zhang Xuhao, Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, and Wang Chenyang, who are members of Ele.me's board of directors and the company's core team.

The person taking notes was Yang Qian, the board secretary and Zhang Xuhao's secretary.

"Everyone, on the last day of the National Day holiday, I sent you all an email, did you all see it?"

Everyone nodded.

In fact, Fang Qingye's email was very simple. Besides calling for today's meeting, it also sent a link to the news about Meituan's financing.

"Let's share our thoughts first."

Fang Qingye took a sip of tea, looking very relaxed.

"Chairman Fang, I remember two years ago at a board meeting, you showed us a Meituan financing report—Meituan was just starting out then, and they approached you for funding, but you refused." Wang Chenyang said.
“You said back then that Meituan would get involved in the food delivery industry, and I didn’t expect it to actually happen.”

"Yes, and it was a high-profile announcement."

Several people discussed among themselves, secretly admiring Fang Qingye's foresight.

Meituan is no longer the small company that used to attract investment everywhere. It has become the number one group-buying website with a valuation of 100 billion RMB. Now that its Series C funding round is over, it has 20 billion RMB in hand and is eyeing the food delivery industry with great interest.

While Ele.me was far ahead in the food delivery market, laughing at its competitors like Fantong.com, Lashou.com, and Taodian.com, its real rival was quietly arriving.

The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly became somewhat somber.

Just then, someone suddenly stood up and shouted, "What are you afraid of? Let's fight!" It was Kang Jia who spoke.

(End of this chapter)