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

Chapter 263 3000 million a month, wouldn't that be 3.6 ​​million a year?
East gate of Xuyuan, Shuangqing Restaurant.

"I didn't expect Meituan, Dianping, and Lashou to all be involved in the price war in Xucheng. Brother Sen, when will your Kuaipao delivery service be available in Xucheng?"

"Yes, I also want to experience what it's like to lie in my dorm room and have my meals delivered from outside before I graduate."

Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang exchanged a glance and chuckled.

"almost!"

Chen Yansen held his wine glass, took a sip, and replied.

After establishing a foothold in Luzhou, Kuaipao has already made plans to expand into Huian Province. It is estimated that within three months, Kuaipao delivery riders will be seen near Xuyuan.

"Brother Sen, my girlfriend is a senior next semester, majoring in fine arts. Could she do an internship at Pinbei or Orange Technology's design department?"

Song Yang turned to the side and asked in a low voice.

"I'll just go and report it when the time comes."

Chen Yansen agreed readily.

"Thank you, Brother Sen," Song Yang quickly said.

"Hey, Sen, you're right. If you can't find a partner in your freshman or sophomore year, the probability of being single for the rest of your college years is as high as 99.99%."

Tang Zhenzhe, standing to the side, looked at Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang with envy.

Of these two, one has a female senior pursuing him, and the other has a girlfriend from another city. Only he, Meng Xibo, and Zhu Xiaopeng are still single.

Chen Yansen smiled. He never expected that Tang Zhenzhe would fall for Su Meiling again. He had worked so hard for two years, but he hadn't even held her hand.

waste!

“A man should prioritize his career; establish himself before starting a family,” Meng Xibo interjected.

He works as the customer service manager at Pinbei, with a base salary of around 10,000 yuan. Including overtime pay, his income is among the highest in the entire virtual city.

"Alright, last month, under the guise of the hometown association, that guy who kept chasing after the junior girls, I wonder who he is? He looks exactly like you."

Tang Zhenzhe quipped.

"Hahaha..." Zhu Xiaopeng couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"What are you laughing at? You're a single dog too." Tang Zhenzhe passionately retorted, roasting both of them.

"You're talking nonsense! That's because the junior couldn't find her way home, what's wrong with me taking her?" Meng Xibo's face froze, and he forced an explanation.

"Tch—!" Tang Zhenzhe said with a look of disdain.

"In three months, another batch of fresh female students will be arriving. Zhe-ge, don't worry, if all else fails, I'll introduce my sister to you."

Song Yang stood up, filled everyone's glasses, and said with a smile, "I'm comforting you."

"Your sister? Do you have photos?" Tang Zhenzhe immediately became interested upon hearing this.

But when Song Yang showed Tang Zhenzhe a photo of his five-year-old sister, the room erupted in laughter again.

Are you about to be a junior in college?
Chen Yansen sighed inwardly, thinking how fast university life went by. He regretted that he had only tried female seniors and hadn't tried female juniors yet.

the other side.

Didi Chuxing headquarters.

Looking at the dwindling balance in the account, Cheng Wei said to the head of the marketing department, "Marketing expenses are being consumed too quickly, much faster than I expected. It seems we need to raise funds as soon as possible."

“This money has been well spent. We currently have 1600 drivers and a daily order volume of up to 8, which is seven or eight times higher than at the beginning of the month.”

The head of the marketing department adjusted his glasses and answered firmly.

Cheng Wei nodded, quite agreeing with the other party's statement.

Despite holding a 60% market share in Beijing's ride-hailing market, Kuaidi Dache's dominance is not significant in the face of Didi Chuxing's counterattack.

After the meeting, Cheng Wei called the contacts at Today Capital and Baidu respectively, and the core message was just five words: "I, Cheng Wei, send the money."

"3000 million, and you only used it for a month?" Liang Zhixiang, vice president of Baidu, asked in surprise.

“Mr. Liang, competing with Kuaidi Dache for the Yanjing market naturally leads to the subsidies being used up a bit faster,” Cheng Wei replied.

If it's 3000 million a month, wouldn't that be 3.6 ​​million a year?
Liang Zhixiang realized things were getting serious. He had only invested in a project because of Today Capital, and because of the explosive popularity of Kuaidi Dache and the potential demand for promoting Baidu's intelligent driving system, he allocated 3000 million yuan to Didi Dache.

But he never expected that the ride-hailing industry could burn through 3000 million yuan a month!
Thinking of this, he didn't rush to agree, but politely declined, saying, "I need to contact my boss first. Wait for my message."

In his view, Cheng Wei was an entrepreneur who was not good at managing funds, and it was necessary to send an accountant to keep an eye on him.

After much deliberation, Liang Zhixiang knocked on his boss's door when he arrived at Li Yanhong's office.

"Come in!" A deep, steady male voice came from inside the house.

"Boss, I have an investment project I'd like to report to you," Liang Zhixiang said nervously.

"Didi Chuxing? I've heard about it. They've been having a fierce price war with Kuaidi Dache lately. What's wrong? Running out of money again?"

Li Yanhong put down the documents in his hand and asked casually.

"Yes, Didi Chuxing burned through 30 million yuan in one month. Based on the current development trend, it will need at least 300 to 400 million yuan a year."

Liang Zhixiang replied.

“It’s only a few hundred million. Since Chen Yansen is so optimistic about the ride-hailing market, let’s play along. You can find a few more investment institutions. Baidu can lead the investment, but we also need to consider the high risk.”

Li Yanhong said calmly.

Little did he know that it was precisely this style of not giving his all and not daring to go all in that led to Qian Du's fate of always getting up early but arriving late.

Baidu Tieba, which could have been a trump card for Baidu, was ruined by a series of missteps, which caused it to miss out on a mobile internet gateway and became the turning point in Baidu's decline.

In the decade or so before and after the advent of intelligent driving, tens of billions of yuan were invested, only to be overtaken by new energy manufacturers such as Huawei, Li Auto, and Zhiji.

More than a decade later, Open AI became a hot topic, and Baidu was the first company to jump out and develop large AI models. However, a year later, its market share fell behind again.

Top-notch strategic vision coupled with questionable execution capabilities makes repeated defeats to be to be expected.

at the same time.

Capital Today, SIG Asia Investment, and Hillhouse Capital have also received the news.

Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital did not participate in Kuaidi Dache's Series A financing. He originally looked down on the ride-hailing industry, but after seeing that Kuaidi Dache had achieved a million daily orders and a turnover of over 2000 million yuan in just three cities, he regretted it.

Wang Qiong of Haina Asia had already taken notice of the two ride-hailing platforms, Didi Chuxing and Kuaidi Dache.

When Liang Zhixiang from Baidu asked, she agreed without hesitation. With the rise of mobile internet, ride-hailing, as a high-frequency and essential mode of transportation, may not have a high profit margin, but its market prospects are broad. Even if it only captures half of the national market, its annual revenue will not be less than 1000 billion yuan.

Worth the investment!

One day later, in the banquet hall of the Grand Hyatt Beijing.

Representatives from five parties—Didi Chuxing, Baidu, Today Capital, SIG Asia Investment, and Hillhouse Capital—signed a Series C financing agreement.

Cheng Wei secured another 2 million yuan in funding, causing Didi Chuxing's valuation to soar to 10 billion yuan.

In reality, Didi Chuxing's valuation is at most 7-8 million yuan.

However, Cheng Wei stuck to the price of 10 billion during the negotiations and refused to budge!

Therefore, after arguing for most of the day, the four investment institutions, including Qiandu, had no choice but to close their eyes and agree to the valuation offer of 10 billion.

Liang Zhixiang was instructed by Li Yanhong, and Qiandu was the lead investor. After the negotiations became deadlocked, he took the initiative to take on 60% of the financing share.

The voices of opposition from Capital Today, SIG Asia, and Hillhouse Capital gradually subsided.

Upon returning to the company, Cheng Wei immediately convened a meeting with the marketing and operations departments to prepare to further expand Didi Chuxing's coverage to Chaoyang, Dongcheng, Xicheng, and HD districts, bringing all core areas within the Fourth Ring Road into the business scope.

In addition, subsidies for drivers and passengers will be increased to continue competing with Kuaidi Dache for market share.

The next day, news that Didi Chuxing had secured another 2 million yuan in funding and was launching a subsidy war with Kuaidi Dache in Yanjing became a trending topic.

"I envy Master Jing! Every day when he wakes up, he first has a bowl of Old Yanjing Douzhi (a type of fermented mung bean juice), and then calls a free ride-hailing car."

"Who says otherwise! Oh my, that's what you call truly authentic!"

When will Didi Chuxing and Kuaidi Dache be available in Hong Kong? I also want to take a free taxi.

Netizens discussed the matter animatedly in the comments section.

Upon seeing this information, Cheng Weixing felt extremely annoyed, yet helpless.

Whose fault was it that their acquisition strategy failed?
Cheng Wei also got incredibly lucky, first connecting with Capital Today, and then being noticed by Baidu.

It's worth noting that in 2012, Baidu was an internet giant with a market value of over 500 billion US dollars.

Even a little spilled soup or water can allow Didi Chuxing to compete with Kuaidi Dache for several more months.

However, after finishing his business in Yanjing, Cheng Weixing handed over the remaining work to others.

Kuaidi Dache's plans to expand into cities in Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are complete, with the expansion starting from the provincial capitals and extending to surrounding urban areas.

The Yanjing market is important, but the layout of the East China region is even more important.

When Cheng Weixing left Yanjing, Cheng Wei, whose wallet was now bulging, started a crazy spree of using Didi Chuxing.

They expanded their service area more than tenfold in one go.

After competing on new customer subsidies, the two companies are now focusing on existing customer subsidies, with Didi Chuxing taking the lead by issuing 8 yuan no-minimum-spend ride coupons to existing customers.

Kuaidi Dache responded quickly by issuing a 10-yuan no-minimum-spend ride coupon to its existing users every day.

At this point, ride-hailing passengers in Yanjing can get a free ride almost every day.

For a time, the people of Yanjing were overjoyed, and they had to call a taxi every day just to go out and buy groceries.

Taxi drivers are equally happy, earning several hundred yuan more each day. They wish they could fight the subsidy war between Didi Chuxing and other ride-hailing services for the rest of their lives.

But a group of people who were even happier were huddled in a residential building on the outer ring road. Brother Hui, carrying a sack of cash, pushed open the door to his studio.

"Damn! So much money?"

"Brother Hui, let me carry it for you, don't tire yourself out!"

"Get out of here! Everyone stop! Pay our wages first!"

Hui grinned and shouted at the remaining four people.

Since Didi Chuxing started giving out coupons to its long-time users, they've been making money even faster.

They earned as much as 80,000 to 90,000 yuan a day, and in about 20 days, they made more than 1.3 million yuan.

"Six sons, eighty thousand."

"Chaozi, 130,000."

"Yaozi, ninety thousand."

"Ah Zhen, 120,000."

Hui Ge neatly stacked the money, one stack for each person, and pushed it in front of the four of them.

"This is the first time in my life I've ever seen so much money." Chaozi, a young man with a crew cut and a round face, held the money in his arms with a look of ecstasy on his face.

"Alright, let's hurry up and make money! Didi Chuxing has raised another 2 million yuan. Boss Cheng is eating meat, and we'll get a sip of soup too, haha."

Hui-ge, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, said smugly.

Didi Chuxing's risk control mechanism is riddled with loopholes, and it can even be said that it is completely unprotected.

There are actually quite a few people like Brother Hui, but his is the largest in scale.

Cheng Wei never expected that about 20% of the money he spent on marketing and promotion would be siphoned off by gray-market studios.

The punch was thrown, but before it even landed on the other person, it had already lost 20% of its power.

The subsidy war between Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache lasted from the beginning of May to June. There were no tricks involved; they just kept throwing money at each other.

However, as time went on, users with a strong need for ride-hailing gradually discovered that, in terms of service level, Kuaidi Dache was still better.

First, the location is accurate, unlike Didi Chuxing, where the system sets the departure point to be on the overpass even when the person is under the overpass.

Secondly, there is an abundant pool of drivers, fast order response, and short waiting times;
Third, the route planning is reasonable, reducing congestion and travel time.

For drivers, the more important point is that Didi Chuxing gets more orders and can earn more money.

After securing funding, Didi Chuxing is no longer short of capital, but its internal capabilities are far inferior to those of Kuaidi Dache.

Market share has decreased instead of increased!

Cheng Wei finally realized something was wrong. The subsidy war had to be fought, and Didi Chuxing's app also needed to be optimized and upgraded, otherwise it wouldn't be able to unleash its full potential.

With ample funding, Didi Chuxing began recruiting and accelerating the expansion of its technology department.

　Godfathers, please cast your votes! I'm begging for your support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)