I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 181 Dragging the Penguin Down the Water (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)
After the investment promotion conference ended, Chen Yansen saw Zhang Jindong, Liu Qiangdong, Xu Peixin and others off before returning to the 11th floor of Building 6.

"Brother Sen!"

"boss!"

The heads of various departments were sitting in the office area waiting. When they saw Chen Yansen walk out of the elevator, they quickly stood up to greet him.

"Let's have a short meeting and everyone can briefly share the current situation of their respective departments."

After sitting down, Chen Yansen waved to everyone and gave instructions in a calm tone.

Everyone looked at each other, and finally turned their attention to Song Yuncheng. As Pinbei's first employee and the director of the major client recruitment department, everyone was used to her being the first to report.

"As of yesterday, Pinduoduo had a total of 2194 merchants and 1436 brands, including 3 S-level brands, 222 A-level brands, 419 B-level brands, and 792 C-level brands. The head effect is obvious, with 70% of the initial 6 billion yuan in sales coming from the top 91 stores..."

Seeing this, Song Yuncheng slowly spoke.

"Yifeng, Yuncheng, speed up the recruitment of merchants. While top merchants are important, the combined output of mid-tier and bottom merchants should not be underestimated."

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and turned his gaze to Zhang Yifeng and Song Yuncheng.

Due to Zhang Yifeng's outstanding performance, he has been officially promoted from investment promotion team leader to investment promotion director, a position equivalent to Song Yuncheng's.

"Brother Sen, no problem. Also, I've sent the recruitment plan for January to Manager Xiong. The main reason for the current slow progress is still the lack of manpower."

Zhang Yifeng quickly agreed.

Pinduoduo is developing too fast. One person is doing the work of three people, and each person is managing more than 100 merchants.

From signing contracts, paying deposits, prepaying the first year's technical service fees, activating store permissions, and introducing marketing tools, the entire recruitment process must be followed up, which is no easy task.

"Manager Xiong, did you hear that? General Manager Zhang is complaining to you!"

Chen Yansen turned to look at Xiong Li and joked with a smile.

I don't know what her parents were thinking. She's clearly a smart and beautiful girl, but they named her "Xiong Li" (meaning "bear strength").

"Brother Sen, I didn't mean that." Zhang Yifeng chuckled and gave Xiong Li an apologetic look.

"Boss, after New Year's Day, the HR department will begin preparing for next year's spring campus recruitment. The first stop will be Luzhou, mainly focusing on Emerald Lake University Town and USTC; the second stop will be Shanghai, mainly focusing on Tongji University, Jiaotong University, Fudan University, and East China Normal University; and the third stop will be Yanjing University, mainly focusing on Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Yanjing Institute of Technology."

"In addition, the interview rooms on the first floor are fully booked every working day. We expect to recruit another 180 people before the Spring Festival, at which time the total number of employees of Pinbei will exceed 500."

Xiong Li smiled faintly and reported in an orderly manner.

After listening to Xiong Li's words, Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Zhuang Rui, Hu Yun, and others felt immense pressure, as if a huge rock was pressing on their chests.

As Pinbei has grown, their virtual college diplomas have become insignificant in the technology department.

The fact that the front-end, back-end, product, and data departments had not yet finalized a candidate for director or general manager made them realize the situation.

Chen Yansen is giving them opportunities to grow. Once the time is up, they can either be promoted to director or step down and return to the position of team leader or ordinary engineer.

People recruited from the community have neither a lack of project experience nor a lack of programming skills, so you can imagine how much psychological pressure this puts on them.

Chen Yansen keenly noticed the changes in the expressions of the others, but he didn't say anything. He then asked Zhuang Rui, "What about the products?"

"Brother Sen, we've optimized the '0 Yuan Bargain' model by adding two new features: the Cash Spin Wheel and the Money Printing Machine."

Zhuang Rui took a deep breath and explained with a smile: "The cash prize wheel will set different bonus values ​​based on each person's consumption data. Users can earn bonuses by inviting new users, registering users who haven't placed an order, users who haven't logged in for 30 days, and active users."

"The money printing machine works similarly. After a user successfully helps someone, the money printing machine speeds up. In addition to inviting friends to help, there are also tasks such as placing orders, repeat purchases, and browsing products, thereby increasing user stickiness."

After Zhuang Rui finished speaking, he turned on his computer and gave a live demonstration.

Before completing the task, users are always just 0.01, 0.001, or even 0.0001 away from receiving the bonus. Under this temptation, users find it hard to give up the sunk costs they have invested and can only keep bringing in new users for Pinbei.

The methods were despicable, but the results were remarkable.

Yang Pinglun from the marketing department and Cai Qiming from the design department exchanged a glance, then looked at Zhuang Rui with disdain, thinking to themselves: You can't tell from this kid's usual behavior, but I didn't expect him to be such a master at manipulating people's hearts, so cunning and wicked.

Zhuang Rui chuckled dryly, inwardly protesting his innocence: This was all the boss's idea; I was just responsible for its implementation.

"Okay, remember to send me the report link after the feature goes live," Chen Yansen nodded in response.

This product design, which was overused more than a decade later, was an excellent way to attract new customers in 2011.

Chen Yansen also had a bunch of ideas in his head for attracting new customers, such as 0 yuan purchase, 1 yuan purchase, and new customer subsidies.

However, users acquired in this way have low conversion rates, low retention rates, and low value, which is not a good thing for the platform.

Therefore, Pinbei's current new customer acquisition mainly relies on primary entry points on QQ and WeChat, external advertising, and internal customer acquisition methods such as 0 yuan price slashing.

If it weren't for the shortage of R&D personnel, Chen Yansen would have liked to create a Pinbei Orchard to further enhance the motivation for attracting new users from existing ones.

However, once Xiong Li finishes his campus recruitment after the Spring Festival, this product design can enter the development schedule.

Wang Zihao then briefly explained the recent campaign plan, scale, and output. After the internal user acquisition was on track, Chen Yansen reduced the scale of external user acquisition and invested the money in the more effective zero-yuan price reduction campaign.

"Okay, let's stop here for now."

After listening, Chen Yansen stood up abruptly, signaling the end of the meeting.

come back to the office.

Chen Yansen had just sat down when he received a call from Liu Zhiping.

"Congratulations to Pinduoduo for ranking among the top three e-commerce platforms," ​​Liu Zhiping said with a smile.

"Martin, what's the point of being in the top three? You only feel anything when you're number one."

Chen Yansen replied with a smile.

In 2011, Alibaba's total sales reached 600 billion yuan, while JD.com's sales were just over 100 billion yuan. Even if Amazon, Yihaodian, Dangdang, Vancl, and Yixun were all bundled together, they wouldn't amount to a fraction of Alibaba's sales.

To put it bluntly, at this point in the e-commerce arena, Alibaba is the undisputed leader.

"Being number one is easier said than done." Liu Zhiping chuckled. Paipai.com, which he and Ma Wenteng had placed high hopes on, couldn't even crack the top ten e-commerce platforms now. Let alone challenging Ali, even Redbaby, which was planning to sell itself, far surpassed Paipai.com in terms of sales.

Chen Yansen smiled and remained silent. He had said long ago that Zheng Chunbin was a good-for-nothing who would only make Paipai.com's market share smaller and smaller.

"Gaopeng.com is preparing to shut down." Seeing that Chen Yansen didn't respond, Liu Zhiping took the initiative to bring up a new topic.

Backed by Groupon, the pioneer of group buying, and Tencent, Gaopeng managed to bankrupt its project in less than a year. It can only be said that Gaopeng's middle and senior management were all a bunch of slackers.

"Brother Martin, you wouldn't be suggesting I take over, would you?" Chen Yansen sensed the implied meaning and asked with a smile.

“Pony does have plans in this regard, but he feels you are too busy, so he asked me to ask you if you are interested in the O2O industry. Tencent can provide funds and resources to establish a new company based on Gaopeng.”

Liu Zhiping asked tentatively.

The successive failures of Paipai.com, Gaopeng, and QQ Group Buying made him and Ma Wenteng realize a problem: the decisive factor in whether a project can succeed lies in who manages it.

Chen Yansen, who has won many battles, is undoubtedly the best candidate for them.

“But I’m more optimistic about the food delivery sector,” Chen Yansen replied.

Before the battle of the thousand groups is decided, he has no interest in getting involved in the mess. It would be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive, not to mention that the business model might not be right.

In his view, group-buying websites at this time, apart from expanding the business area of ​​merchants and increasing the customer base, have not brought any additional growth, but instead have squeezed the profit margin of the catering industry.

It's hardly a good deal!

But food delivery is different. If he were to bring out the pre-warehouse model and combine it with food delivery practices, it would be enough to overturn the current e-commerce landscape.

"Takeout?" Liu Zhiping was taken aback. He had heard that Chen Yansen had invested in a takeout website called "Kuai Pao," but after learning about its business model, he lost interest.

"Takeout and group buying are actually the same type of product, but takeout has a better business model. For example, if Haidilao's hot pot set meal is placed on a group buying website, users still have to go to the offline store to consume it, while takeout can deliver it directly to their door."

Chen Yansen downplayed the issue, focusing instead on the food and beverage category, which currently has the highest business volume. He stated that group-buying coupons, product packages, and other similar offers can all be implemented within the ecosystem of food delivery platforms.

These seemingly simple tactics, if no one points them out, will likely take at least another five or six years before anyone thinks of them.

Liu Zhiping smiled. He understood that food delivery and group buying did have something in common, but for travel, entertainment, and some projects that require offline experience, food delivery still could not replace group buying.

"Does Mr. Chen want Tencent to abandon its localized operations and switch to KuaiRun?"

Liu Zhiping asked with a smile.

"That depends on what Mr. Ma and Mr. Liu think. All I can say is that I will devote more energy and funds to the food delivery industry," Chen Yansen said noncommittally.

If KuaiPu were paired with Tencent's traffic resources, its start would naturally be much faster.

If Ma Wenteng isn't interested, Chen Yansen doesn't care.

“I’ll talk to Pony first, and I’ll let you know the results later. Also, Chen Jiahai from Quanfeng Express would like to meet with you to discuss joining forces with Yunsu to compete with STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express.”

Liu Zhiping pondered for a moment, then spoke.

Chen Jia Hai?
Isn't he part of the Tongda faction?

Chen Yansen recalled that Liu Zhiping had mediated the situation before, and the other party had even tried to raise Yunsu's minimum order fee back to the original price. It seems that the rumors that Tencent had invested in Quanfeng Express are probably true.

“Let him find Liao Wei. I’ll give him a heads-up beforehand.” Chen Yansen was very lenient with Liu Zhiming on this issue.

After receiving a reply, Liu Zhiping hung up the phone.

Chen Yansen put down his phone and called Wang Teng again, asking him to arrange a new product launch as soon as possible and try to bring Orange C2 and Orange D1 to market before the Spring Festival.

“Okay, Brother Sen, I sent invitations to the suppliers and Mr. Zhou from DST last week. The date is set for January 6th, and the venue is still the rooftop banquet hall in the Sky Garden,” Wang Teng replied immediately.

"You'll be hosting this time," Chen Yansen instructed.

"Me?" Wang Teng was stunned.

"Don't forget, you're still getting paid as the marketing director," Chen Yansen joked with a smile.

“Okay, no problem!” Wang Teng gritted his teeth and agreed.

Orange Technology has already established itself in the industry, so there's no need for him to continue endorsing it. Tying the product and the boss together for marketing will either make him look like Lei Jun or Dong Mingzhu if he succeeds.

If the persona collapses, the product is doomed!

If we step back in time and delegate the work to Wang Teng, he can relax a lot. After all, the new product launch isn't something that absolutely needs him.

at the same time.

After a month of recruiting, Kuaipao has finally moved from the Emerald Lake University Town to the white-collar market, standing on the same starting line as Ele.me.

At the intersections of Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street, University Town, Sanxiaokou, and Yuanyi Times Square, many part-time college students stood in the cold wind, handing out flyers to passersby.

"Kuai Pao is treating you to a free feast!"

The copywriting is very attractive: new users get an instant discount of 12 yuan on their first order, and shipping is free. At the moment, the most popular Fangyan roasted pig's trotters and Kawanka milk tea in Luzhou can be enjoyed for free.

"Hey buddy, what's this 'Chopsticks Run' thing? Is it really free to eat?"

A young man who took the flyer asked curiously.

"Have you heard of Orange Mobile and Pinbei Mall? They're owned by the same person as Kuaipao, so they're very powerful and definitely not lying."

When the college student handing out flyers saw someone asking, he quickly assured them.

"Free Kawonka drink? Really?"

Seeing this, passersby gathered around, asked for a flyer, and immediately scanned the QR code to download the app.

the other side.

In the commercial area where office buildings are concentrated in Luzhou, there are also many on-the-ground promotion staff standing in front of the park gate, holding flyers and promoting the Chopsticks Run new customer activity to office workers coming in and out.

(End of this chapter)