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

Chapter 249 418 Six Kingdoms Kill, Losses Exceed 10 Billion! This Guy is Too Cunning!

The next morning, as dawn was breaking.

At the entrance of a Suning appliance store in Nanjing, two people were already waiting, holding a product list with densely packed product models, such as 'Sharp LCD-60LX540', 'Chigo FR-25GW', and 'Shanxing UA60EH6000R'.

All of these are overlapping products from JD.com and Suning!

"Boss Liu from Yanjing has spoken: as long as the offline price of the same product on Suning is lower than that on JD.com, register on the spot, and JD.com will be responsible for issuing a 10% discount coupon to the buyer."

A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair and a black leather bag in his hand repeatedly gave instructions.

"These idiots are really throwing money away. If I had money, wouldn't it be better to buy a few houses and collect rent?"

Another young man with a buzz cut and a round face sneered.

"You idiot, if they didn't compete, how would we find such a lucrative job?" The middle-aged man rolled his eyes and said irritably.

Three hundred yuan a day, including two meals, doesn't seem like much, but this was in 2012, when the minimum wage in Nanjing was less than 1400 yuan a month. So these two price intelligence agents from Dongguan were actually quite satisfied with their pay.

Suning opened for business at 9:00 AM.

Today is the 418 Home Appliance Festival, a major promotional day, and despite it being a weekday, customers are still coming in droves.

After all, incomes aren't high these days. If you can buy large appliances at a 10% or 20% discount, you can easily save a thousand or two thousand yuan, which is much better than going to work.

This is similar to how, more than a decade later, many white-collar workers would take time off work to participate in the Double Eleven shopping festival in order to save money.

Do you have a Nikon D800?

A young man carrying a laptop bag asked the sales clerk.

"There are only 16 units in stock, priced at 21999 yuan. This is the lowest price nationwide, so act fast or they'll be gone," the salesperson replied with a smile.

"Give me one," the young man hurriedly called out.

It's worth noting that the Nikon D800 had only been on the market for less than two months, and most channels were selling it at a premium. Suning could make a huge profit by reselling it to equipment dealers at this price.

"Brother, you can get this machine for 2200 yuan cheaper if you buy it on JD.com."

At that moment, the slick-haired, middle-aged man approached with a grin.

"Really? I checked on JD.com last night, and the price was 27999 yuan." The backpacker asked incredulously, looking puzzled.

"JD.com has coupons; I'll show you how to claim them."

The middle-aged man pulled the young man with the backpack aside, which angered the sales clerk so much that he started cursing.

Some buyers familiar with JD.com's subsidy policy had already targeted their desired products, sending the offline price from Suning to JD.com customer service and requesting a 10% discount coupon.

At this point, another price intelligence officer is responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information. If there are no problems, a targeted shopping coupon for the corresponding product will be issued to the user's JD account.

Liu Qiangdong's tactics are ruthless; he clearly doesn't want Suning to achieve any sales targets on the 418 Home Appliance Festival.

"Manager, let's kick these two bastards out," suggested a Suning employee.

"Never mind them. JD.com dares to be so arrogant because they want to provoke everyone. Once a fight breaks out and things get out of hand, it will only make things easier for their opponents." Suning's store manager squinted, seething with anger.

If the big boss hadn't spoken, those two bastards would never have been able to walk out the door with both their hands and feet intact.

He had never felt so frustrated, not even when he was fighting tooth and nail with Gome back then.

At 9:30 a.m., the stock market opened, and Suning's stock immediately fell by 1.5%.

Just half an hour earlier, a third-party data platform released a comparison of JD.com and Suning's operating data on April 17.

JD.com's sales reached 1.7 million yuan, while Suning's sales reached 1.5 million yuan.

How could a veteran in the home appliance industry be crushed by a rising star?

Seeing this, retail investors quickly placed sell orders, fearing that if they were too slow, they would become the ones left holding the bag.

"Shameless!"

Upon hearing the news, Zhang Jindong slammed his fist on the table. As a seasoned veteran, how could he not see that someone was maliciously selling off shares in an attempt to cause fluctuations in Suning's stock price?

What the hell!
This guy is too cunning; not only did he engage in a price war with him, but he also used underhanded tactics.

Zhang Jindong knew that if Suning's stock price hit the daily limit down, even if he won in terms of sales performance, the other party would take the opportunity to make a big fuss.

"Tell the investment department to buy up all the sell orders, as many as possible."

After pondering for a while, Zhang Jindong gave instructions to his secretary.

"Yes, boss." The secretary nodded slightly, her figure swaying as she walked out of the office in her slender high heels.

Liu Qiangdong wouldn't let this opportunity pass by. He posted a screenshot of Suning's stock price falling on Weibo. Although he didn't say a word, his intention was obvious.

Han Pengde, head of Suning's online business, immediately responded that the group's management would increase its shareholding.

As soon as the news broke, Suning's stock price immediately rebounded!

at the same time.

Gome and JD.com have begun to significantly reduce the prices of their overlapping products and have called out to Liu Qiangdong: "Gome's prices will definitely be 5% cheaper than JD.com's."

Dangdang.com, relying on Gome Electrical Appliances, stood on the same side as Gome and targeted JD.com.

Liu Qiangdong mocked Li Guoqing, saying that Dangdang.com doesn't have its own suppliers and logistics system, so it's not qualified to participate in the 418 home appliance battle at all. He added that Li Guoqing is just a shoe-shiner.

At 9:45, Li Guoqing responded on Weibo: "Old Liu said that Dangdang.com is like a shoe shiner. I don't think that shining shoes is inferior. The cooperation between Dangdang and Gome can perfectly leverage the advantages of both platforms and provide Dangdang users with large home appliances with price advantages. As long as the users are satisfied, I, Old Li, am willing to shine shoes for users."

These words deeply moved Dangdang.com users!

Regardless, Li Guoqing is a billionaire, and his claim to "shine shoes" for users naturally garnered some user support.

Within minutes, the keyword "Li Guoqing shining shoes" surged to the top of the trending search list.

"This works?" Liu Qiangdong was dumbfounded.

He originally didn't take Dangdang.com seriously, but as soon as the big promotion started, Li Guoqing made himself a trending topic.

the other side.

In Dougezhuang, Yanjing, a bald, middle-aged man in a striped shirt is watering the flowers around him with a watering can.

"Damn it! Zhang Jindong is already riding on Gome's head, but even Liu Qiangdong wants to bite me. Aren't they afraid of breaking their teeth?" The bald man's pupils shrank slightly, and a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

It seems they've been away from the scene for too long; these young people don't take Gome seriously.

He has already declared that even if it means losing three months' worth of Gome's profits, he will make JD.com pay the price.

The FoxTao members at the Ali headquarters in Hangzhou rubbed their sleepy eyes and got back into work mode.

"Brother Sen, you've really put us in a lot of trouble." Xu Kun sighed, inwardly complaining.

Pinduoduo's preemptive move caused all employees of FoxTao to work overtime; he didn't get off work until 2 a.m. last night.

"Brother Kun, do you regret it?" Du Yaoyao from the editorial team leaned over and asked in a low voice.

She, Xu Kun, Tang Qin from the design team, and Xu Dan from the human resources team gave up following Chen Yansen and joined Alibaba instead. Although the treatment was good, the working hours were longer than before.

Overtime pay? Not a single penny!
"Don't overthink it. With our education and project experience, it's good enough that we can join Ali."

Xu Kun forced a smile and tried to comfort him.

He also missed the days when Chen Yansen was the boss, with a six-hour workday and generous overtime pay. Who wouldn't like that?

"Cheer up! As a leading e-commerce platform, FoxTao must seize the opportunity and leverage content recommendations and brand group buying to strive for new sales records."

Wu Ming, the head of FoxTao's business, came over with his assistant and announced loudly to the office area.

The price war among the six major e-commerce platforms continues!
Just after 10 o'clock, JD.com's losses reached 20 million!
Suning and Gome aren't faring much better; they're grimacing with heartache. If this fight goes on until midnight, they'll lose at least 300 million yuan!

就是这时，拼呗的百亿补贴频道，向用户限量赠送2000减300、5000减500和10000减800的现金红包，瞬间吸引了全网目光。

Pinduoduo's home appliances, which are already very cost-effective, are now almost 10% cheaper than those on JD.com, Gome, and Suning after adding discount coupons.

Pinduoduo launched another surprise attack, throwing the three companies into chaos.

"Follow up! Increase the promotional efforts, add a link to claim large coupons on the event homepage, and drive the price down!"

Liu Qiangdong, sitting at the headquarters in Yanjing, spoke with great confidence.

We can't back down now!
……

……

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

In the lobby on the first floor of Building 8, there is an 80-inch display screen that scrolls through Pinduoduo's sales data for the day.

"Brother Sen, as of 11:00 AM, Pinduoduo's daily pageviews reached 63 million, with organic traffic accounting for 3.1%, and sales of large appliances reaching 140 million yuan..."

Hu Yun sat in front of Chen Yansen, holding a computer and constantly reporting.

With 3.1% organic traffic, we acquired nearly 200 million new customers without spending any money, and these were high-value users who were highly interested in digital home appliances.

Chen Yansen finally understood why Liangzai Dong was so keen on engaging in price wars. Although he lost money on paper, he could also gain a lot of free new customer traffic. In the long run, it was definitely worth it.

"Haier BCD-216SZ three-door refrigerator, 1.7 units sold; Daikin S-series wall-mounted air conditioner, 7000 units sold; Shanxing WF0702WKR drum washing machine, 4000 units sold..."

Hu Yun read out the top ten best-selling large home appliances one by one.

Chen Yansen glanced at the screen; the negative gross profit of 4300 million was still within his acceptable range.

But Dong is about to reach his limit!

As Liu Qiangdong watched the ever-increasing negative gross profit margin, he gradually became impatient. Until noon, he couldn't help but give a wink to the vice president of purchasing and sales who was on the phone.

The other party immediately understood, turned around and went to the operations department, and asked the category operations department to remove some products with excessive subsidies and put them out of stock.

As time went on, Suning and Gome also experienced stock shortages.

The number of similar products that users can compare prices with is decreasing, which is obviously because the losses are too great and everyone is starting to feel the pinch.

At 2:15 p.m., the China General Chamber of Commerce stated that this price war was not considered malicious competition.

The implication is clear: go ahead and fight!

Around 2:30 p.m., Suning's stock hit the daily limit, and the company announced that its business had grown by 637% month-on-month during the 418 Home Appliance Festival!

At 3 PM, a rumor circulated that Suning couldn't afford to play the game anymore, and several screenshots of Suning's product prices returning to normal were uploaded.

But ten minutes later, Han Pengde jumped out to deny the rumors: he was going to fight Dong to the end.

Liu Qiangdong immediately retorted: Bring it on! JD.com has prepared coupons worth 500 and 1000 yuan for users, which will be given away with every order!
"As expected of handsome Dong, he killed three birds with one stone, making Suning and Gome run around in circles."

Chen Yansen put down his phone and muttered to himself.

Last year, Liu Qiangdong received $15 billion from institutions such as DST Ventures and Tiger Global Management. Seeing that the funds were about to run out, Liu Qiangdong took the initiative to start this price war.

Firstly, to produce an impressive performance report to prepare for an IPO; secondly, to thwart Suning and Gome's plans to go online and solidify JD.com's leading position in the online digital home appliance category; and thirdly, to attract investors' attention and seek the next round of financing opportunities.

Unfortunately, JD.com's asset-heavy operating model dictates that it requires a large initial investment and makes it extremely difficult to achieve profitability.

After 3:30 p.m., JD.com, Gome, Suning, Dangdang, and YiXun.com experienced widespread stock shortages.

Forty minutes later, a user complained on Weibo that the e-commerce website was not honoring the coupons it had promised.

At 4:55, Suning's servers crashed, and users were unable to access the website homepage.

After the chaotic battle, everyone appeared furious, but privately they were all quite satisfied.

Today, the number of visitors to Dangdang and Yixun has doubled.

At 11:30 p.m., Pinbei's headquarters building was still brightly lit.

The question facing these six e-commerce platforms now is whether to continue tomorrow.
Chen Yansen glanced at the data and realized that, excluding the 17th, they had lost 2.3 million yuan today alone.

He estimated that the losses of JD.com, Suning, and Gome were at least 2 million yuan.

Including Dangdang and Yixun, everyone lost nearly a billion yuan in one day!

Suddenly, the cell phone on the table rang.

Chen Yansen glanced at the caller ID and smiled faintly.

(End of this chapter)