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

Chapter 563 Have you ever thought about having Ele.me apply for a payment license?
Lunch was at a restaurant on Yinzhou Street. Wei Hang had arranged for the branch's general office staff to order the meal. In addition to the senior executives of Jinghai Bank, Bai Ou from Tuofang Technology and Xin Tiejun and Lu Hui from Zhiyun Technology also participated.

Although they were from different companies, they were now all part of the "Tuofang Group" and could be considered relatives. After dinner, they went to work separately, and Fang Qingye followed the others back to Nanxin.

Chen Danlu couldn't forget about the payment system. Two days later, as soon as he got to work in the morning, he called Fang Qingye: "Fang Xing, did you ask President Xin how their payment system development is going?"

"Hehe, I asked yesterday, and Mr. Xin said that the alpha version has been successfully developed and now needs to be tested. It needs to simulate a bank payment environment, and of course, it would be best to test it directly at a bank."

Upon hearing Fang Qingye's words, Chen Danlu immediately said, "Then let's test it at our bank? Our branch will provide the environment, sign a confidentiality agreement, and I will anonymize the customer data. This way, user information will not be leaked."

"That's what I think too. President Chen, you should represent Jinghai Bank to communicate with General Manager Xin and the others first, sign a draft agreement, and then discuss it at the president's meeting."

"OK!" Chen Danlu readily agreed.

"President Chen, why are you so interested in this? Do you want Jinghai Bank to use the new generation payment system as soon as possible?" Fang Qingye asked.

“Of course, the new payment system will improve efficiency and reduce costs, which is something everyone likes.” Chen Danlu laughed on the other end of the phone, “Of course, there are some other ideas as well.”

"what idea?"

"You're the chairman of Ele.me, right?" Chen Danlu suddenly asked.

"Yes what's the matter?"

"Fang Xing, have you considered having Ele.me apply for a payment license and use the next-generation payment system developed by Zhiyun Technology?"

"Huh? That's a good idea. But why are you suddenly concerned about whether you're hungry?"

"As you probably know, the 'Administrative Measures for Payment Services of Non-Financial Institutions' issued by the People's Bank of China 10 years ago clearly stipulates that: 'Payment institutions that accept customer reserve funds shall open a special deposit account for reserve funds in a commercial bank to deposit the reserve funds.' Furthermore, 'Payment institutions may only choose one commercial bank as their reserve fund custodian bank, and may only open one special deposit account for reserve funds at a branch of that commercial bank.'"

"What I mean is, if Ele.me applies for a payment license, customers' reserve funds can be deposited in our Pudong branch. Don't underestimate that; it's a huge amount of deposits!"

"Haha." Fang Qingye laughed:
"Chen Xing, you're really shrewd! In order to increase the deposits of the Pudong branch, you hope that Ele.me can have payment functions like Taobao and WeChat. To achieve this goal, you even need to apply for a payment license from the central bank. You're doing this for your own sake, but Ele.me will have to make a feast!"

"I'm doing this for Ele.me's development. For a company like Ele.me with such massive user data, it's such a waste not to get into finance!" Chen Danlu argued over the phone.

"Anyway, they're all companies under the Tuofang Group, so it's a win-win situation for everyone. I have a classmate who's a section chief at the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China. If you're interested, I can ask my classmate to find out some information for you."

"Thank you, Chen Xing. Actually, I've been thinking the same thing, but now's not the right time," Fang Qingye said.

"I guess you probably know a little bit about it. Ele.me and Meituan are currently fighting for market share and don't have time to pay attention to this area. After all, applying for a payment license requires a lot of manpower and resources, and companies also need to adjust their structure and meet the central bank's financial requirements. Ele.me doesn't have the energy for that right now."

"There's one more question," Fang Qingye said finally.

"what is the problem?"

"Don't you think it would be better if Jinghai Bank used Ele.me's massive amounts of data and personal information for online lending?!"

"what?!"

Chen Danlu immediately understood.

Based on Ele.me users' consumption records, differences in payment methods, and geographical location, users' income levels can be determined, thereby classifying them into credit ratings—and credit ratings are the foundation of all online lending!

"Fang Xing, you're making a brilliant move!" Chen Danlu exclaimed in surprise over the phone.

A grand strategy? This isn't enough.

With massive amounts of data, if we create large AI models in the future, won't we need to feed them properly?
Otherwise, why would I bother managing this company and worry about it so much?
After all, Tuofang Technology only owns less than 30% of the shares.

"Alright, that's enough about that. Don't tell anyone else. I'll do it when the time is right. Right now, besides our daily work, the most urgent task for the Pudong branch is to coordinate with Zhiyun Technology to ensure the smooth launch of the new online banking version and the 'Wenyingbao' APP," Fang Qingye concluded.

"Don't worry, I'll go to Zhiyun Technology in a bit to discuss the testing of their new generation payment system!" Chen Danlu said.

"Okay, I'll call Xin Tiejun and talk to him."

"OK!"

The phone call lasted a full half hour before Chen Danlu finally put it down, just as someone was knocking on the door.

The vice president who came in was Ren Yaling.

"Chen Xing, I was just about to come in when I noticed you were on the phone." Ren Yaling asked, "Were you talking to President Fang?"

"Yes, I'm increasingly impressed with our bank manager, Mr. Fang," Chen Danlu said with a smile. "Don't let his youth fool you; he's incredibly shrewd and calculating, and he's about to make a grand move."

"Oh, a grand scheme? You're not just making empty promises, are you?" Ren Yaling joked.

"You know what, it's really just empty promises, but once it comes true, our Pudong branch, or rather Jinghai Bank, will be no less successful than Alibaba or Tencent in the field of internet finance."

"Huh? Such a big chess piece, such a big pie?!" Ren Yaling exclaimed in surprise.

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore. President Ren, if you don't have anything urgent to attend to, come with me to Zhiyun Technology."

"Where are you going again? Didn't you just go there a few days ago?" Ren Yaling asked, puzzled.

“Take a look at their latest generation payment system. President Fang said that if it goes into use, it will first be used at Jinghai Bank! We are now cooperating with them to test it.” Chen Dan stood up after saying this.

"No wonder you specifically asked Xin Tiejun about the progress of their payment system development that day."

“Yes, and Ele.me too. President Fang has so many companies,” Chen Danlu said.

"That's right, I almost forgot something very important. Let's also go to Tuofang Technology and Tomorrow Cube and ask them to transfer all their company deposits to our branch! Hey, Branch Manager Chen, did you hear me?! And Ele.me's deposits too!"

Fang Qingye generally doesn't interfere with normal business dealings like those with his subsidiaries; everyone understands the principle of keeping the profits within the family.

It was early December, less than a month away from New Year's Day 2014.

The food delivery war between Ele.me and Meituan is raging. You offer "18 yuan off for orders over 18 yuan," and I'll offer "free pickup."

Open Weibo, forums, and WeChat's Moments, which has only been around for a short time, and you'll see posts boasting about "getting 8 cups of milk tea for free" and "my fridge is full of free takeout orders."

Another story goes like this: A guy, faced with all sorts of discounts and coupons on food delivery platforms, especially the tempting deals on milk tea, couldn't stop himself. He ordered five milk teas in one day!
Remember, while milk tea is delicious, you shouldn't overindulge!

As a result, this guy ended up drinking himself into the hospital because of a upset stomach.
Just as the battle between Ele.me and Meituan in the food delivery market was heating up, a thrilling life-or-death struggle was also taking place in the domestic futures market.

(End of this chapter)