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

Chapter 229 Ele.me Abandoned! The CEO Candidate for Toutiao!
On February 18th, KuaiRun launched a limited-time flash sale and free order promotion.

at the same time.

Kou Zhen led the ground sales team to expand the business to the HK area. Ele.me charges merchants a 10% commission, while Kuai Pao only charges 8%.

In addition, KuaiPao delivery riders are clean-cut, deliver promptly, and speak with enthusiasm and politeness. Merchants who were originally on Ele.me switched to KuaiPao delivery almost without hesitation.

Kou Zhen easily acquired the food delivery merchant resources that Ele.me had painstakingly cultivated over three years.

Sometimes, the pioneers of a business model are the ones who fail to make it to the end.

The plan itself may be fine, but there were problems with its implementation.

At this point, Zhang Xuhao also became anxious, as Kuaipao was about to approach the Yangpu headquarters, and Ele.me's market share was also declining.

He quickly gathered a group of senior executives and spent the night in the technology department developing a store discount feature. For merchants with different sales volumes, Ele.me would provide a 50% discount subsidy of '10 off for purchases over 20, 15 off for purchases over 30, and 25 off for purchases over 50'.

This cost the merchants nothing, instantly winning back a wave of users.

However, due to inadequate risk control, some Ele.me merchants began registering user accounts in large numbers and exploiting loopholes in merchant delivery to engage in rampant order fraud.

By the time Zhang Xuhao discovered this, some merchants had even inflated their monthly sales from 300 to 5000, swindling 100,000 yuan in marketing expenses in one go.

It made him dizzy and confused!
After hastily gulping down a few mouthfuls of coffee, they immediately tightened risk control measures and launched an account suspension campaign against merchants and users suspected of fraudulently obtaining platform subsidies.

Inevitably, some users will be wrongly judged!
These people not only failed to receive their takeout orders but also had their accounts suspended, so you can imagine how angry they were.

With nowhere to vent in real life, they can only gather on Weibo and rant and rave about Ele.me's official account.

And so, Ele.me's subsidy campaign went live at 8 a.m., and by 8 p.m. it was trending on social media for all the wrong reasons.

"If you can't afford to organize an event, you don't have to! We haven't even had a bite to eat, and the registration slots are all gone!"

"Are you hungry? I'm so angry I'm full."

"I ordered takeout at noon, but by 2 PM, my lunch still hadn't arrived, and then I got a notification that my account was suspended!"

"I suggest renaming it: 'Are you starving?' I got banned by the platform the first time I used this app, and I'm starving!"

The comment section was filled with insults.

The Shanghai Market Supervision Association receives eight or nine out of ten calls from morning till night, all of which are complaints about Ele.me.

Zhang Xuhao panicked at this point, knowing that with Ele.me's current technology, it would be difficult to handle the issue of fake orders.

So they hastily took the subsidy program offline and then proactively contacted Ali (Ali) for technical support.

Upon hearing this news, Ji Gang frowned, thinking: Zhang Xuhao's management style is too chaotic. It seems that the group's 5000 million yuan investment is going to go down the drain.

After some thought, he reported the matter to Cai Xin, the general manager of the strategic investment department.

After hearing Ji Gang's description, Cai Xin also felt dissatisfied with Zhang Xuhao. In less than a month, Ele.me was about to lose its market share in Shanghai.

He brought the documents that Ji Gang had prepared and knocked on Ma Liyun's office door.

"Come in!"

Ma Liyun has been in a very good mood lately.

First, he has reached an agreement with Temasek, DST and Silver Lake to inject $7 million into Ali through equity increases. Combined with Ali's own cash reserves, he can access at least $30 billion.

Secondly, China Investment plans to invest $20 billion in Alibaba as a strategic investment.

Next, private equity firms such as Huaxin Capital and China Development Bank will also buy out all of Ali's $20 billion worth of common stock.

By then, Ma Liyun will have raised a total of US$70 billion, enough to allow him to successfully complete the Ali share buyback plan and clear the final obstacles to the listing.

Cai Xin pushed open the door and walked to the opposite side of Ma Liyun, saying, "Kuaipao is rising very fast in Shanghai. Zhang Xuhao can't hold on any longer and has filed a second round of financing, asking Ali to provide technical support in the fields of algorithms, data, and security."

"If I remember correctly, Kuaipao's CEO is also a graduate student, and he's only been in the Shanghai market for less than a month, right?"

Ma Liyun did not answer directly, but instead raised her own questions.

“Mr. Ma, if you remember correctly, I think Zhang Xuhao, as the project leader, may not be able to fulfill his responsibilities well.”

Cai Xin said tactfully.

In reality, he spends most of his time working in Hong Kong Island. His trip to Hangzhou was simply to promote Ali's share buyback plan.

Although he didn't know much about Ele.me, based on the information Ji Gang had gathered, Zhang Xuhao clearly did not possess the qualities and abilities of a qualified CEO.

“I met Zhang Xuhao at Jiaotong University and heard him introduce Ele.me’s business model. At the time, I thought he was a very insightful young man. It seems I misjudged him.”

Ma Liyun shook her head and commented with a sneer.

Faced with his wrong decision, Ma Liyun was frank, and his words undoubtedly admitted that he had made a mistake in his decision-making.

"Should I decline?" Cai Xin asked tentatively.

"The model is good, but the people implementing it are the problem. Let Ji Gang talk to him. If he's willing to sell the project to Ali, then we can discuss cooperation. Otherwise, we don't need to worry about it."

Ma Liyun thought for a moment and then said.

In his view, Ele.me's scale was too small, with daily orders not even reaching 10. Instead of spending money and effort to support Zhang Xuhao, it would be better to buy it.

If Zhang Xuhao doesn't agree, then let him fend for himself. Once Ali completes its share buyback and listing plan, then he can either support a new platform or start his own.

Cai Xin nodded, quickly putting the Ele.me matter out of his mind, and started talking to Ma Liyun about the details of issuing shares.

As for whether Ele.me lives or dies, nobody cares.

When Zhang Xuhao received Ji Gang's reply, he immediately froze on the spot and plopped back down in his chair.

In a daze, he recalled a conversation he had with Gao Weilin, the CFO of Senlian Capital, six months ago.

"If I had accepted Senlian Capital's investment, the situation between Ele.me and Kuaipao would probably have been reversed, and Pei Yi would have been the one suffering a crushing defeat!" Zhang Xuhao thought to himself.

He was filled with remorse at that moment!
Ali is only willing to offer 8000 million to acquire all the equity of the founding team.

For a time, Zhang Xuhao was caught in a dilemma. Ele.me was a company he founded, and selling it was no easy task!

More importantly, the price Ahri offered was too low!
He thought about it for a long time but couldn't make up his mind. Then he called Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye and others to discuss it together.

“I think as long as we can get through this wave of difficulties, Ele.me may well win! There is nothing wrong with our business model. The reason why we are restricted in many ways is that we have not grasped the priorities. I suggest strengthening the construction of the delivery team, increasing investment, and improving delivery time first.”

Wang Yuan lit a cigarette and said firmly.

When Zhang Xuhao panicked, he took the initiative to speak up and suggested that they continue to fight with Kuai Pao.

Ahri abandoned them; if Ele.me doesn't express that it has lost.

"Merchant resources, rider resources, and user resources—if we focus on these three points, we won't lose!" Kang Jia stood up and clenched his fist.

He survived the initial stage of building something from scratch. How can he think of selling the company just because Ele.me only lost a little market share?

"There's still 3000 million in the account," Deng Ye said casually.

Zhang Xuhao took a deep breath and finally calmed down. He looked at his three partners who had come all this way and rallied his spirits.

To their surprise, Kuai Pao quickly expanded its rider team to 2000 people after absorbing a large number of former employees from STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express.

The day after the free food promotion ended, they promised users in Shanghai and Luzhou that if their food delivery was more than 20 minutes late, it would be free without any conditions.

This expense will be fully borne by the platform.

This move caught Ele.me completely off guard!
Zhang Xuhao originally wanted to proceed cautiously, but his newly formulated plan was quickly disrupted by Pei Yi's tactics.

"Making a good food delivery service is actually very simple: it's cheap and the delivery speed is fast!"

Pei Yi stood in the Yiyuan conference room on Longcao Road and addressed the department heads, ground promotion managers, and rider station managers.

Chen Yansen told him this, and now he has shared it with the core members of Kuaipao in Shanghai.

The low price is a fatal attraction for both merchants and users.

Fast delivery and high customer satisfaction are the keys to repeat purchases and customer retention!

……

……

the other side.

After getting off at Xucheng High-speed Railway Station, Liang Bo took a taxi to Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

Even if he were stupid, he would understand now.

There are no Hong Kong Island technology companies!

The person who really wanted to poach him was Chen Yansen!
A week ago, he received a call from a Hong Kong technology company inviting him to work in Hong Kong with a starting monthly salary of HK$6, a guaranteed minimum of 20 months' salary per year, and additional stock options.

What is his income at ByteDance?
Aside from the monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, the remaining bonuses, overtime pay, and stock options are all empty promises.

Zhang Yiming has failed in his business ventures four times already!

Liang Bo didn't think the other side would succeed this time!
After careful consideration, Liang Bo agreed to the request and accepted the offer.

But after he told Zhang Yiming that he was leaving, the Hong Kong-based tech company moved his work location to Virtual City.

After seeing the specific address information, Liang Bo instantly understood everything.

The taxi drove forward, with endless rapeseed seedlings on both sides of the road, a lush green expanse.

"It's hard to imagine how Chen Yansen managed to develop Pinbei and Orange Technology under such circumstances."

Liang Bo asked himself honestly, even if he had the same resources as Chen Yansen, it would be difficult for him to do so.

The two had met briefly in Yanjing last time, and he had a very good impression of Chen Yansen: he was not arrogant, technically skilled, and generous.

Now he can't turn back; he can only go down this dark path.

Moreover, being noticed by Chen Yansen is not a bad thing.

"We've arrived. Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park is just ahead. It costs eighty yuan in total."

The driver pointed to a row of buildings ahead and said.

How many?

eighty?

It's only 15 kilometers from the high-speed rail station!

Liang Bo said with a dark face, "Master, this distance only costs 40 yuan in Yanjing. Are you sure you want to charge me 80?"

"Oh, sorry, I misread it. I'll charge you 40 then." The driver said this, but there was no trace of embarrassment on his face.

Liang Bo suppressed the urge to curse, threw down forty yuan, and pulled his suitcase toward the science park.

Just then, Chen Yansen finished reading Pei Yi's work report, walked to the window, and saw Liang Bo walking towards him with his head down.

He took out his phone and called the front desk, asking them to bring Liang Bo to his office.

　One chapter left, I'll finish it during the day! Sorry, godfathers.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)