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

Chapter 315 22 Billion US Dollars! The Three Ambiguous Giants! Chen Yansen: What is Credit?
September 11, Yanjing International Conference Center, Conference Room 1.

The nearly 2,000-square-meter indoor space was packed to capacity. The 10-meter-high dome was brightly lit, and a giant circular LED screen was directly in front of the room. Each seat was equipped with a touch screen and simultaneous interpretation headsets.

At 10 o'clock, the chairmen of the China Industrial Information Technology Association, the China Engineering Association, and the Internet Society took turns to deliver speeches.

Awards such as the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Leading Technology Award will be presented to leading companies in sub-sectors such as PC Internet, mobile Internet, Internet of Things, cloud computing, online marketing, and e-commerce.

To put it bluntly, it's all honor; there's no financial benefit whatsoever.

Companies such as Tencent, Ali, and Baidu have won awards, while Yunsu Express won the Innovation Breakthrough Award for its electronic waybill technology.

Chen Yansen was getting drowsy listening to it; in his opinion, it was all just empty rhetoric and clichés, utterly worthless.

The chairmen of China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom, the three major telecom operators, shared their views on the mobile internet era.

However, no mention was ever made of any preferential policies.

If the restrictions on WIFI usage had not been lifted two years ago, with mobile data costing 30 to 50 yuan per GB, users would not have dared to turn on mobile data, let alone develop it.
"Take your time, I'm not going to wait any longer anyway."

Chen Yansen raised his eyelids slightly, his gaze sweeping over the three giants. Some groundbreaking products couldn't succeed domestically, so they went overseas.

For example, the sales volume of Alexa smart speakers in overseas markets is three to four times that in the domestic market.

Chen Yansen only showed a little interest when the host announced that Tencent CEO Ma Wenteng would be speaking.

At this moment, Ma Wenteng looked radiant, clearly having had a good night's sleep. Dressed in a light blue suit, he stood in front of the microphone and spoke eloquently: "Tencent attaches great importance to mobile phone security and has invested heavily in it. In 2013, Tencent will invest no less than 10 billion yuan in a security fund to safeguard users' mobile phone security."

I personally strongly oppose certain companies using the guise of user safety to recommend unreliable search results to users…

Certain companies?

Upon hearing this, Zhou Hongyi's face immediately darkened.

Although the 3Q War has come to an end, the conflict between Tencent and 360 has never subsided.

A month ago, 360 took the initiative to provoke the "3B search engine war". Tencent, Baidu and Kingsoft and other security software companies formed a security alliance, ostensibly to crack down on phishing websites, but secretly to block 360's software.

His ass is crooked, Ma Wenteng's!
Zhou Hongyi stared intently at Little Ma on the stage, his eyes blazing with anger, his lips turned down, and his face etched with displeasure.

Although Ma Wenteng did not name names, it was obvious to everyone who he was criticizing.

Li Yanhong smiled faintly. In the 3B battle, Baidu and Tencent were on the same side. While mocking 360, Pony Ma also casually praised Baidu, which made him secretly pleased.

A dozen minutes later, Ma Wenteng casually ended his speech and returned to his seat.

Following that, Zhou Hongyi took the stage to speak.

Seeing this, many of the dozing entrepreneurs straightened up and showed expressions of watching the spectacle.

They knew in their hearts that, given Zhou Dapao's personality, he would never back down and would most likely give Tencent and Baidu a thorough dressing down.

As expected, Zhou Hongyi spoke in a sarcastic tone: "I know everyone wants to hear me spit, but the big shots above have criticized me by name several times, so I've been careful with my words lately. I won't spit today."

The implication was that if he hadn't been restrained, he would have loved to drag Ma Wenteng and Li Yanhong out and give them a good scolding.

Chen Yansen smiled and thought to himself: Zhou Hongyi isn't stupid after all.

In addition to domestic internet companies, this year's Internet Conference also invited overseas giants such as Microsoft, Sinstar, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, and Cisco. While it may feel good to hurl insults, it will embarrass the bigwigs at the top.

"In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify one thing: 360 has not poached any of Fetion's R&D engineers, nor does it plan to launch any instant messaging software. Please rest assured, Xiao Ma."

"Mobile internet is an inevitable trend. Regarding instant messaging software, I have more faith in Lei Yijun's Xiaomi. It is said that Mr. Lei has invested a lot in MiTalk."

Zhou Hongyi smiled and, in just a few words, steered the conversation to the competition between MiTalk and WeChat.

Upon hearing this, the audience members couldn't help but smile knowingly, secretly cursing Zhou Hongyi for his wickedness and blatant attempt to sow discord.

Lei Yijun's gaze toward Zhou Hongyi grew increasingly hostile.

"In fact, both MiTalk and WeChat possess a disruptive spirit of innovation. When they gained access to the mobile internet, they also had a huge impact on the SMS business of telecom operators."

Zhou Hongyi continued to stir up trouble subtly, working hard to arouse hatred between Lei Yijun and Ma Wenteng.

In fact, he wasn't wrong. The existence of WeChat and MiTalk has indeed taken away a significant portion of the SMS business from telecom operators.

After 'scolding' for a full ten minutes, Zhou Hongyi finally stepped off the stage, satisfied.

Ma Wenteng and Zhou Hongyi's statements were highly consistent, both elevating the industry influence of their own products, attacking competitors, and causing trouble for their peers.

Judging from the results, Zhou Hongyi had a slight advantage.

Next, Li Yanhong took the stage. He had just been scolded by Zhou Hongyi for a long time, so naturally he wanted to get revenge. When talking about the development of the search engine industry, he subtly mocked 360 Search for lacking technology and relying entirely on rogue tactics.

Chen Yansen looked around and saw that all the local bigwigs in Yanjing had cold faces.

Baidu, Tencent, and 360 are iconic Chinese internet companies, yet the speeches by Li Yanhong, Ma Wenteng, and Zhou Hongyi were utterly lacking in decorum.

After Li Yanhong came down, Ma Liyun followed closely behind, and Chen Yansen ranked fifth.

In terms of age, he is the youngest.

In terms of business achievements, Senlian Capital is in no way inferior to BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), and some media have even changed 'BAT' to 'BATS'.

After taking the stage, Chen Yansen did not launch a scathing attack on competitors. Instead, he calmly introduced the research and development and manufacturing process of Orange Mobile and the original intention of Yunsu Express in setting up service points in rural markets.

Firstly, it extends the reach of e-commerce business to even the smallest towns and villages.

Secondly, it provides channels for agricultural and sideline products to be sold online, thereby increasing the income of people in townships.

In addition, the article highlighted products such as Kuaidi, Kuaipao, and Gaode Maps, and the changes they have brought to the lives of ordinary people.

It only took seven or eight minutes, but it contained two or three times the amount of information that Li Yanhong and others had.

Following Chen Yansen, Li Guoqing of Dangdang, Deng Yaping of Jike, Liu Qiangdong of JD.com, Pei Yi of Kuaipao, Liu Yun of Google, Gu Yongqiang of Youku, Lu Qi of Microsoft, and others took the stage to share their experiences.

The morning's conference proceedings barely ended close to noon.

After a two-and-a-half-hour lunch break, Chen Yansen intended to return to his hotel first. However, as soon as he stepped out of the conference hall, he was stopped by Ma Wenteng, Lei Yijun, Yu Chendong, and others, who invited him to have lunch at Yuelongju Restaurant next to the conference center.

Chen Yansen declined briefly, but seeing that Ma Wenteng was adamant, he called Zhou Shouzhi, Pei Yi, Cheng Weixing, Huang Zheng, and others to join him at the meeting.

Since it was only a 200-meter distance, the group chose to walk there.

The attendees from Senlian Capital followed Chen Yansen in a large and imposing manner.

Upon seeing this, the reporters quickly raised their cameras and pressed the shutter.

"What are your thoughts on the ride-hailing market?" Ma Wenteng asked casually on the way to the restaurant.

Although Tencent participated in Kuaidi Dache's Series A and Series B funding rounds, it couldn't quite grasp Chen Yansen's true intentions. Didi Dache was losing 300 million yuan in net profit every month; Kuaidi Dache, with its larger user base, would only be losing more.

Despite Kuaidi Dache raising $5 million in its Series B funding round, at the current rate of cash burn in the subsidy war, it will run out of money in less than a year.

Will Tencent continue to invest in Kuaidi Dache at that time?

Investing feels like throwing money down the drain; not investing, on the other hand, would undoubtedly affect the partnership with Senlian Capital.

"Does Li Yanhong want to admit defeat?" Chen Yansen asked rhetorically.

"He wants to pause the subsidy war and limit competition to products and services."

Ma Wenteng nodded and readily admitted it.

Li Yanhong doesn't want to seize market share by burning money, and neither does he.

“Mr. Ma, it’s not that I don’t want to agree, but this kind of verbal agreement is not binding at all. I trust you, but I don’t trust Li Yanhong.”

Chen Yansen smiled and shook his head, decisively refusing.

The business world is like a battlefield. When it comes to the point of fighting with knives, if you suddenly call a halt, who can guarantee that Li Yanhong won't resort to underhanded tactics behind the scenes?

"We can pause for a week and see how it goes. Otherwise, if we keep fighting a subsidy war, how can we continue to invest in Kuaidi Dache's Series C funding?"

Ma Wenteng looked at Chen Yansen with a solemn expression and said.

“Okay, tell Li Yanhong that the discount for new customers will be adjusted back to 10 yuan, the maximum subsidy for existing customers will be 5 yuan per day, and the subsidy for drivers per order will be reduced to 2 yuan. This will be implemented tomorrow.”

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and said.

Since he could lose less money, he certainly wouldn't refuse.

“No problem,” Ma Wenteng readily agreed.

In fact, this proposal was not Li Yanhong's original intention; the real driving force behind it was all the investment institutions of Kuaidi and Didi Chuxing.

Chen Yansen smiled slightly. He didn't know if Li Yanhong would keep his promise, but he definitely wouldn't obediently suspend the subsidy program.

If Kuaidi Dache (a ride-hailing app) can't provide subsidies, then Kuaidi Dache, Pinbei (another ride-hailing app), and Gaode Map (another ride-hailing app) can.

For example, ordering a 12 yuan takeout meal will give you a 12 yuan ride-hailing coupon. After placing the order on the Pinduoduo Mall, a link to claim the ride-hailing coupon will pop up on the payment page.

There are so many outrageous things they've done!

Where in the business world are there honest people?
Five minutes later, the group entered Yuelongju and arrived at a magnificent private room on the top floor.

As soon as Chen Yansen sat down, he saw Liu Qiangdong and a middle-aged woman pass by the door of the private room.

“It’s Xu Xin from Capital Today,” Ma Wenteng explained softly, following his gaze.

"If it weren't for Xu Xin's interference, Mr. Ma's QQ Group Buying, Yi Xun, and Paipai would probably have been successfully sold off by now."

Chen Yansen couldn't help but sigh.

As soon as the price war between JD.com, Suning, Dangdang, and Gome ended on August 815th, Li Guoqing exposed Liu Qiangdong's true colors on Weibo, stating bluntly that JD.com's cash flow was about to break and it wouldn't last until September.

This caused chaos in JD.com's supplier system, with merchants fearing that Liu Qiangdong would use their payments to fund advertising, leaving them unable to settle accounts later.

At a critical moment, Xu Xin took out a sum of money to help Liu Qiangdong get through it.

Now that OTPP has invested $4 million in JD.com, it has more funds and has even temporarily put its cooperation with Tencent's traffic entry point on hold.

Ma Wenteng gave a dry laugh but didn't reply.

He will not interfere with the cooperation between Senlian Capital and 360; conversely, Chen Yansen cannot shake Tencent's strategic layout in the e-commerce industry.

After lunch, Chen Yansen took a car back to the hotel to rest.

At 2:30 p.m., the sub-forum exchange meeting officially started, and the project leaders of various subsidiaries under Senlian immediately dispersed to look for business opportunities.

Chen Yansen, along with Gao Weilin and Song Yuncheng, met with the heads of Tencent, Goldman Sachs, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Huaxin Securities in a small conference room to sign the investment intention agreement for Pinbei's Series B financing.

The company raised $22 billion, led by Tencent, with Goldman Sachs, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Huaxin Securities participating. The post-investment valuation reached $220 billion.

Whether it's daily active users, platform transaction volume, or project valuation, Pinduoduo's second-place ranking in e-commerce is indisputable.

After all, after Liu Qiangdong received 4 million yuan in funding from OTPP, JD.com's valuation was only 80 billion US dollars, less than half of Pinduoduo's.

The next morning.

While Chen Yansen and Pei Yi were having breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Pei Yi received a phone call. His expression instantly darkened, and he subconsciously glanced at Chen Yansen before methodically instructing, "Have colleagues from the administration and legal departments handle this to minimize its impact..."

After he hung up the phone, Chen Yansen asked, "Did something happen?"

"When the sales staff in the Northeast market were communicating with merchants, they had a minor disagreement with the business departments of Meituan, Dianping, and Lashou.com."

Pei Yi frowned, hesitated for a dozen seconds, and then spoke tactfully.

"You didn't suffer a loss, did you?" Chen Yansen asked again.

"No," Pei Yi quickly replied.

"Hmm," Chen Yansen responded, and didn't ask any more questions.

With his extraordinary hearing, he could hear everything clearly. In the group-buying and food delivery market of 2012, it was common for sales staff to fight each other in order to compete for merchant resources.

This is the first time something like this has happened in Shanghai, but it won't be the last.

Generally speaking, colleagues from the administration department are responsible for visiting injured employees in the hospital, while colleagues from the legal department are responsible for rescuing people from the patrol station. Pei Yi's experience in handling this matter has become increasingly mature.

Over the next few days, I attended the Internet Conference during the day and dealt with various drinking parties from different industries in the evening.

After four days, Zhou Shouzhi, Gao Weilin, Pei Yi, and others, who were usually full of energy, couldn't help but show signs of fatigue.

Fortunately, the results were quite fruitful, with a stack of letters of intent signed in areas such as advertising, commercial monetization, co-branding, and information copyright.

For example, Gaode and Ctrip have reached an agreement on advertising resources and product recommendations. When users use the navigation service, Gaode will recommend relevant travel packages and attraction tickets on the destination interface.

JD.com and Suning, in order to improve work efficiency, also purchased Yunsu Express's electronic waybill technology patent for their self-built logistics.

On the evening of September 14, Chen Yansen took a plane back to Xucheng.

On the other side, Li Yanhong had just returned to his office when Xiang Hailong knocked on the door and came in: "Boss, Kuaidi Dache is not keeping its word. They did cancel the subsidies on their app, but they added a bunch of subsidy activities on Kuaipao, Pinbei, and Gaode Maps."

"Have Lashou and Baidu Maps follow up immediately," Li Yanhong decided without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)