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

Chapter 247 6 million US dollars? Are you trying to fool me?

"What is supposed to come has come!"

Upon learning this news, Chen Yansen sighed slightly.

In this lifetime, the market landscape of the group-buying industry has undergone tremendous changes.

Meituan, which should have won the group-buying war, has stubbornly remained the runner-up for years. If it weren't for the money it received from Ali, Meituan would probably have gone out of business long ago, and Wang Xin might have started a brand new entrepreneurial project.

Lashou.com, which should have died out long ago, has been holding the top spot in the industry for a long time.

"This is either Meituan or Dianping's doing, or Nuomi or Wowo.com."

Chen Yansen was very certain.

Just as Lashou.com was about to launch its IPO, the timing was impeccable, almost severing Lashou's path to listing.

Even financing is out of the question for Lashou.

Giving investors false data is a lucky break if you don't get hacked to death!
The following morning, the news of Lashou.com's failed IPO attempt was widely reported by the vast majority of mainstream media in China, and CCTV even gave Lashou.com a 15-second feature on its midday news.

In an instant, Meituan, Dianping, Wowo, and Nuomi celebrated their success!

After all, in the face of increasingly fierce industry competition, losing investors' trust is no different from waiting to die.

How can Lashou.com, which has neither money nor supplies, compete with them?

Wu Bo tossed and turned all night. As soon as it was light, he called each investor, but the message he received was always the same: "Sell Lashou.com as soon as possible so that we can cash out and exit."

Everyone knew that Lashou.com was doomed.

Zhu Xiaohu of Jinsha Venture Capital was so angry that he couldn't sleep all night. He had long felt that Wu Bo was unreliable, and Ali had considered investing in Lashou.com last year.

But Wu Bo was too young and impetuous, insisting that Ali interrupt the launch plan of Juhuasuan and fully support Lashou.com.

Who is Ma Liyun?

They completely ignored him and immediately invested their money in Meituan.

It could even be said that if someone else were in the CEO position of Lashou.com, Meituan wouldn't even have a chance to stand up.

Sands Ventures, Meton Capital, and Renette Fund have invested a total of nearly 200 million US dollars. If Lashou.com goes under, their money will be wasted.

Zhu Xiaohu and his team acted swiftly, immediately convening a shareholders' meeting to remove Wu Bo from the CEO position and replace him with Qiu Junping, chairman of Maiton Investment.

At the same time, a statement was issued acknowledging that Lashou.com had lax review processes and that it would investigate and punish merchants who engaged in fraudulent order practices.

But anyone with a discerning eye can see that this statement, which avoids the main issue, is not a direct response at all.

In short: The operations team and merchants below colluded to inflate sales figures, and the company was unaware of, unaware of, and did not participate in the scheme.

The blame was successfully shifted, but it also angered the lower-level expansion staff in the East China region.

These people brave wind and rain all day long, braving all kinds of bad weather, to canvass the streets outdoors and expand merchant resources for Lashou.com.

But the company turned around and sold them off!

"I only make two or three thousand a month. I don't get commission for falsifying data. Unless the higher-ups give me permission, I'd rather not bother with inflating sales figures, falsifying business qualifications, or misrepresenting the number of buyers..."

A sales representative from Lashou.com opened up to reporters.

Low pay, lots of work, and you even have to take the blame – whoever wants this job can do it!
In just two days, more than 500 people in the East China region of Lashou.com resigned en masse. Before leaving, they also kicked Lashou.com, which completely confirmed that Lashou.com had fabricated data.

Of these people, 80% joined KuaiRun, put on new uniforms, and transformed into KuaiRun's on-the-ground business managers.

The remaining 20% ​​mostly went to Meituan and Dianping.

In 2012, with access to offline merchant resources, one could easily find a business job, whether through group-buying websites or food delivery websites.

Sands Ventures, Meton Capital, and Renette Fund are all leveraging their networks to find new buyers for Lashou.com.

Although there's a famous saying in the investment world: "When investing, don't try to scam people and expect fools to take the fall," when it's your turn to take the fall, you won't be smiling anymore.

When Zhu Xiaohu called, Chen Yansen asked, exasperated, "Mr. Zhu, do I look like an idiot?"

“If you are willing to take over, Sands Ventures, Metton Capital, and Renette Fund will invest an additional $5000 million.”

Zhu Xiaohu chuckled dryly.

They are investment firms, not professional managers. They are good at investing money, but they might not be as good at starting a business as Wu Bo.

After thinking it over and over, Zhu Xiaohu stared at his phone's contacts for a long time before finally calling Chen Yansen.

The shadow of a tree, the name of a person—Mr. Chen's reputation in the business circle is as solid as gold and stone.

FoxTao, Orange Technology, Pinbei Mall, Kuaipao, Kuaidi Dache, and Toutiao—the projects they've worked on, spanning from offline to online, from e-commerce to O2O local services, have never failed.

Zhu Xiaohu had no doubt whatsoever; this was the power of word of mouth!

"How much?"

Chen Yansen smiled and asked casually.

Lashou.com raised $11 million in its Series C funding round, valuing the company at $1.1 billion. A price exceeding $2 million is out of the question.

To be frank, Chen Yansen was somewhat interested in Lashou.com. With its service coverage of over 400 cities and nearly 6000 employees nationwide, acquiring it would not only allow Kuaipao to accumulate a large number of merchant resources, but also drag Meituan and Dianping into the quagmire of group-buying business.

Give Kuaipao another two or three years, and with the arrival of the 4G and mobile internet era, relying on Orange Technology, Today Technology, and Pinbei to drive traffic to it, even if Wang Xin has three heads and six arms, he still can't beat Pei Yi, who has already grown strong.

If Meituan is accidentally crushed, then in this lifetime, even Meituan Waimai (Meituan Takeout) will not exist.

"6 million US dollars," Zhu Xiaohu tentatively asked.

"President Zhu, I have a morning meeting, I don't have time to joke with you," Chen Yansen retorted without holding back.

$6 billion?
They're treating him like a fool!
Sands Ventures, Meton Capital, and Renette Fund want to find someone to take over, but they're unwilling to cut their losses. They're even trying to make a quick buck. What a ridiculous situation!

“At least 4 million. You should know that Lashou.com has raised 1.7 million US dollars in financing alone. I know that the current public opinion environment is unfavorable to Lashou.com, but its market share is still there.”

Zhu Xiaohu patiently persuaded him.

"President Zhu is right. I wish Lashou will become stronger and stronger under Qiu Junping's leadership."

After Chen Yansen finished speaking, he hung up the phone immediately.

Let's wait until Wang Xin of Meituan and Zhang Tao of Dianping really hurt Lashou.com before we talk about it. Clearly, Zhu Xiaohu and his ilk haven't grasped the reality yet.

"Damn it! That little bastard is such a show-off!" Zhu Xiaohu muttered under his breath as he listened to the busy tone on the phone.

Not long after, he contacted Liu Zhiping of Tencent again.

Liu Zhiping did not hesitate and decisively refused.

Gaopeng.com, a joint venture between Tencent and Groupon, has long since fallen out of the top ten in the market, and QQ Group Buying is also in a lukewarm state.

Ma Wenteng is considering whether to merge the two websites to reduce operating costs.

If you were to ask Pony Ma to spend money to buy another group-buying website at this point, the success rate would be almost zero.

Unable to find a buyer, Sands Ventures, Meton Capital, and Renette Fund had no choice but to reluctantly let Qiu Junping step in first.

In mid-April, the group-buying market was seething with activity.

On one hand, Qiu Junping intensified his promotional efforts to win over users and merchants; on the other hand, he leveraged the connections of the Renette Foundation in the United States to try to quell the accounting scandal surrounding Lashou.com.

The crisis will be resolved as long as Lashou.com can successfully IPO.

Meituan, Dianping, Wowo, and Nuomi gave Lashou no chance to breathe.

As Lashou.com intensifies its promotional efforts, other companies also promptly launch their own marketing campaigns.

Meituan abandoned its agent system and fully adopted a direct sales model to rapidly expand its merchant resources, launching discounted movie tickets for 19.9 yuan each.

Dianping has launched electronic coupons, online reservations, and membership card features.

Wowo Group is transforming into an online marketplace model, combining group buying and e-commerce, and focusing on differentiated competition.

Nuomi.com partnered with top merchants in over 50 cities across China to launch best-selling lists across multiple categories, including movies, restaurants, and KTV, and distributed 500 million yuan in cash coupons to users, further squeezing Lashou.com's survival space.

……

……

Early in the morning of April 13th.

As soon as Chen Yansen arrived at the office, he saw Wang Teng greeting him with a grin.

"Boss, about 10 Apple Macs have been infected with the Flashback virus today. Even at Apple headquarters, several hundred Macs have been infected, which has led to a slump in sales of the iPhone 4S."

Wang Teng explained with a smile.

"What's the connection between Macs and iPhones? How can a virus infiltrate a phone?" Chen Yansen pulled up a chair and sat down, asking curiously.

“Domestic users don’t care about these things. It’s a fact that Apple was infected with the virus. By selectively ignoring some key information, we can strike at our competitors. Why not?” Wang Teng replied.

Users will only think that Apple's claims about system security are utter nonsense.

After listening to Wang Teng's explanation of the whole story, Chen Yansen learned that last July, a Dutch engineer discovered a major vulnerability in Java and informed Oracle, the owner of the core Java patents.

Oracle and Microsoft quickly developed patches to address these security vulnerabilities.

But Apple insisted on taking a stand and developing its own Java patch, which made it a step behind and attracted the attention of hackers.

"Some of the facts are true, too. Have our sales changed?" Chen Yansen asked with a sly smile.

"Compared to the same period yesterday, sales increased by 12.7%. Excluding factors such as traffic fluctuations, the estimated growth is 10%."

Wang Teng answered immediately.

Chen Yansen pulled out his phone, and Weibo was filled with insults. Apple users were cursing Apple, Android users were mocking Apple users, and various mobile phone manufacturers couldn't help but join in, criticizing the security of the Apple system.

The next trending topic is the news report that 360 sued Tencent, demanding 1.5 million yuan in damages, while Tencent countersued 360, seeking 1.25 million yuan in compensation.

"Old Zhou has really lost his mind. He's suing Tencent in Shenzhen. It would be a miracle if he won."

Chen Yansen sneered.

If he remembers correctly, Zhou Hongyi not only didn't get a single penny, but also lost 500 million yuan to Tencent.

Only at this moment did the 3Q War come to a satisfactory conclusion.

"We will continue to optimize the Aurora OS 1.38 system. Once Zhou Chuangxi and Daniel's voice interaction engine is online, our autumn new product will be half completed."

Chen Yansen patted Wang Teng on the shoulder and encouraged him.

“Yes, boss, I understand,” Wang Teng nodded in response.

Chen Yansen waved his hand, signaling Wang Teng to go back to work, while he took the elevator to the floor where the Orange Technology Artificial Intelligence Laboratory was located.

"Boss, regarding your request last time to add natural language processing and speech synthesis technology to the speech analysis module, I've discussed it with Daniel, and it will probably take another month to develop."

Upon seeing his boss, Zhou Chuangxi took the initiative to step forward and report.

"From now on, it won't be appropriate to call it a speech recognition tool anymore. Let's change it to a speech analysis and interaction engine."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly.

At that time, Yuxi will have full-chain processing capabilities for speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis. By increasing the amount of training data for speech, it will be able to create an intelligent voice assistant for instant communication.

This thing might not be unusual five or six years from now, but in 2012, it was definitely a groundbreaking product.

Furthermore, Chen Yansen is developing development tools and building an ecosystem. This allows him to make money through technology patents and leverage the data acquisition channels of other mobile phone manufacturers.

"Okay." Zhou Chuangxi opened his mouth, then closed it again, readily agreeing.

He really wanted to suggest to his boss that they change the name of 'Yuxi', but after thinking about it, he gave up.

Yuxi is merely a development tool for an intelligent voice interaction engine; its name is not important.

If the boss were to give the future smart voice assistant such a terrible name, he would definitely stand up and object.

Immediately afterwards, Chen Yansen called Daniel over, and the three of them went into the office together for a technical seminar.

Privately, Daniel refers to the weekly 'technical seminars' as classes because he learns something new every time. Chen Yansen always provides him with fresh inspiration in terms of programming languages, development frameworks, and database structures.

Just before I was about to leave work, Zhou Hongyi, whom I hadn't contacted in a long time, called me.

(End of this chapter)