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

Chapter 317, Section 28: Market Landscape, Didi Bike Launches, Getting Involved Isn't Unavoidable!

three days later.

Liao Wei called Cao Dahua to urge him to ship the goods as soon as possible, and then immediately went to report to Chen Yansen.

"Boss, it's selling like hotcakes!" Liao Wei said out of the blue.

"Yes, I heard Cao Dahua mention it. With 217 service stations, they sold 20183 Orange phones in three days. The courier stations didn't take off, but the phone resale service became a hit."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and nodded in satisfaction.

His initial positioning for Yunsu Express service stations was to provide parcel collection and pickup services. Later, he added mobile phone sales and APP promotion services, mainly due to concerns about profitability.

The boss found out?
Liao Wei was stunned for a moment, then cursed inwardly: Has Cao Dahua's mouth grown wings? No wonder he's surnamed Cao!

"Boss, I think the Yunsu Express service station can take on some of the responsibilities of the Orange Technology franchise store, which can save on store rental costs and facilitate unified management."

Liao Wei said seriously.

"The repurchase frequency of mobile phones is very low. The core value of Yunsu Express Service Station is still the parcel collection and pickup business."

Chen Yansen emphasized it again.

"Boss, I understand." Liao Wei knew the subtext in Chen Yansen's words and hurriedly replied. He paused and then said, "First, increase the number of smartphones in the rural market, then increase the number of Pinbei users, and then Yunsu will have business volume. Only by combining the three can a business cycle be formed."

"Your MBA course was worthwhile; you've made great progress," Chen Yansen joked with a smile after hearing this.

As Liao Wei said, only by completing the hardware and system layout in the lower-tier markets can Yunsu Express increase its parcel collection volume.

The prices of Orange D1 and Green Orange D1S are not considered expensive in rural markets.

It's worth noting that some digital store owners dare to sell even counterfeit phones with flashing lights for 1000 yuan, making the Orange D1 at 799 yuan a truly conscientious product.

"Thank you for the praise, boss. Now that the service station model has proven to be viable, for the remaining 400-plus candidate townships, I plan to wait for the business data in September. If there are no problems, we will proceed with the project in two batches."

Liao Wei continued.

"Yes, I suggest you have another in-depth discussion with President Zhou and President Cao about the specific details of the cooperation to ensure that the resources of Cloud Speed ​​and Orange Technology are fully utilized."

Chen Yansen warned.

"Yes, boss," Liao Wei nodded in response.

Then, Chen Yansen hung up the phone and tossed it aside.

At this moment, the computer screen is on the PC homepage of Sohu.com, and the headline news is: Qiandu.com invests an additional 80 million yuan, and Didi Chuxing's post-investment valuation reaches 8 billion yuan!
Unable to find financing institutions, Li Yanhong had no choice but to bite the bullet and invest an additional 8 million yuan in Didi Chuxing.

The subsidy war between Kuaidi and Didi Chuxing has been going on for five months. Initially, the two apps had little overlap in their business scope, and each month they only lost 20 to 30 million yuan.

However, as the business scope expands, the competition between Kuaidi and Didi in the North China and East China markets becomes increasingly fierce. Every month, the cost of acquiring new customers, advertising, subsidies for existing customers, and subsidies for drivers alone is three to four hundred million yuan.

Therefore, although 800 million yuan seems like a lot, it is actually only enough to last for three months.

On the contrary, Kuaidi Dache, with its nearly 80% market share, took the lead in raising $500 million and still has ample funds in its account.

Didi Chuxing has just expanded beyond the North China market, while Kuaidi Dache has already successfully covered most of the markets in North China, East China, Central China, Northeast China, and South China. The two companies are on completely different wavelengths in terms of expansion speed.

Xiang Hailong, who has taken over the Didi Chuxing project, is not performing as well as Cheng Wei in terms of operational strategy.

Chen Yansen glanced at the news content but didn't take the matter of Baidu's investment in Didi Chuxing to heart.

He didn't believe that Li Yanhong, with his personality, would dare to keep fighting him. He thought that once he crossed Li Yanhong's bottom line, Li Yanhong might give up on his own.

In fact, Li Yanhong was also conflicted at the moment. He wanted to continue to expand the business scope, but he was afraid of facing the ever-increasing subsidy costs. However, if he stagnated, he would not be able to increase Didi Chuxing's market share.

After reporting his work, Xiang Hailong secretly observed Li Yanhong's expression, feeling uneasy and afraid that the big boss would take his anger out on him.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Yanhong picked up the documents on the table and stared at them intently.

"The average daily number of ride-hailing orders in the North China market is 76.3, the number of active drivers is 6.6, the order completion rate is 73%, and the average response time is 42 seconds."
The East China market has an average daily order volume of 28.7, 38 active drivers, an order completion rate of 76%, and an average response time of 3.8 seconds…

It is clear that Didi Chuxing's order completion rate is not high, indicating that there are problems with the platform's capacity scheduling efficiency and the order dispatch logic is chaotic, which leads to drivers refusing orders or taking detours to accept orders, thus affecting the completion efficiency.

Thinking of this, Li Yanhong looked up and said, "Let's put the expansion plan in the East China market on hold for now and first solve the problems of Didi Chuxing's capacity scheduling, order cancellation penalty mechanism on the driver and passenger sides, location errors, and navigation failures."

These words essentially revealed Li Yanhong's true intentions: to shrink the defensive lines and focus on developing the North China and East China markets first.

“Okay, I understand,” Xiang Hailong replied.

at the same time.

Cheng Weixing, sitting at the Hangzhou headquarters, was also reviewing Kuaidi Dache's business data from Q1 to Q3.

"The East China region has an average daily order volume of 170.3 million, 12.7 active drivers, an order completion rate of 86.3%, and an average response time of 37 seconds."
The North China region has an average daily order volume of 142.5 million, 10.2 active drivers, an order completion rate of 84.7%, and an average response time of 39 seconds.
The Central China region has an average daily order volume of 112.7 million, 8.1 active drivers, an order completion rate of 89.2%, and an average response time of 41 seconds.
Northeast Region…

Among them, East China, North China and Central China have been operating for the longest time, and have the highest order volume and user penetration rate. Northeast China and South China have only been open for a week, and together they have only received more than 60 orders.

However, given the number of smartphones in use in 2012, even if the entire national ride-hailing market were captured, the daily order volume would only be capped at 800 to 1000 million.

The ceiling is within reach!
A dozen minutes later, Cheng Weixing put down his mouse, stood up, stretched, and then looked at the head of the marketing department and asked, "By the way, what has Cheng Wei been up to lately since Li Yanhong kicked him out of Didi?"

Compared to Cheng Wei, the pressure on him from Xiang Hailong decreased dramatically. Although Cheng Wei's control over the technology field was terrible, Xiang Hailong was at least a product of the Huagong Iron Army and had extremely solid skills in marketing and promotion.

In his view, if it weren't for the big boss helping him secure data resources from Gaode Maps, providing an intelligent order dispatch system, and accessing Tencent's traffic, the outcome between Kuaidi and Didi would still be uncertain.

“I heard from an investment banking friend in Yanjing that Cheng Wei has launched another Didi Bike service, deploying 300 bicycles at the Wangfujing, Xizhimen, and Chaoyangmen subway stations.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Hao, the head of the marketing department of Kuaidi Dache, replied with a smile.

bike?
Cheng Weixing was taken aback, thinking that Cheng Wei's new project seemed somewhat magical.

But then he thought about it again. In a huge market like Yanjing, the rent near the subway station is high. Many recent college graduates work in the CBD during the day and sleep in the urban villages at night.

Shared bikes can indeed seamlessly connect the short-distance travel needs from bus stops to subway stations.

Ultimately, a company's value depends on how many people it serves and how much value it creates for those people.

Clearly, Cheng Wei's Didi Bike has effectively solved the "last mile" problem in public transportation.

"Have you secured funding?" Cheng Weixing asked again.

"It's said that Li Fukai from Innovation Works invested 5000 million yuan in him," Chen Hao said with a shrug, looking speechless.

"This project might actually succeed!" Cheng Weixing said confidently.

the other side.

Cheng Wei, along with Didi Bike's management team, rode shared bikes on the streets of Yanjing to test the product's usage process in real time.

The first-generation Didi Bikes were painted a bright orange-red, making them very eye-catching when placed in subway station parking spaces. The words "Didi Bike" were printed on the bike, and the bike's serial number was affixed to the handlebar connection and the mechanical lock at the rear.

Users can open the app, enter the lock number, and obtain the password for the mechanical lock.

Cheng Wei initially wanted to use a smart lock to unlock the device by sending a text message, but this involved costs and the power supply system of the smart lock. After weighing the options, he chose the more economical mechanical lock.

When a user finishes riding and slides the latch to lock the bike, the mechanical lock combination will be scrambled again.

The problem is that each bicycle has a fixed preset password.

In other words, as long as a user remembers a bike's password, they can ride it for free forever.

But Cheng Wei didn't care about all that. He learned from his mistakes and decided to launch the product first and seize the market.

The initial losses will naturally be covered by the later investment institutions.

What he needs to do now is to hype up the concept and inflate the valuation.

"Mr. Cheng, Fuji's supply quality is very stable. The riding experience of this bicycle is no worse than that of a bicycle costing four or five hundred yuan."

A manager from the product department said with a smile.

The cost of manufacturing a Didi bike, excluding the mechanical lock, is 190 yuan per bike. However, due to the large volume of Didi bike orders, the settlement terms agreed upon with Fuji-ta are a 15% deposit paid upfront, with subsequent payments made in batches.

"We can't see any problems with the new vehicles. We'll put them into trial operation for a while to see how durable and corrosion-resistant they are. In addition, we also need to set up a maintenance team."

Cheng Wei rode his bicycle and gave instructions to his assistant beside him.

The assistant quickly wrote it down.

But when they turned into an alley, the smiles on their faces vanished abruptly.

An elderly man in his sixties was holding a pair of hydraulic pliers and gesturing at the mechanical lock of a Didi bike, seemingly searching for the best point of leverage.

The Didi Bike staff immediately became furious and surrounded the vehicle.

……

……

"Didi Bike?"

When Chen Yansen learned about Cheng Wei's new entrepreneurial project, he frowned slightly. In his eyes, the shared bicycle project in 2012 had no potential whatsoever.

Like the food delivery and ride-hailing sectors, it requires massive investment of resources and capital to cultivate users' usage habits.

He wasn't particularly interested in the project, but Chen Yansen wouldn't mind making a quick buck.

Li Fukai invested 50 million yuan, bringing the valuation of Didi Bike to 500 million yuan. At this point, the investment was not worthwhile.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yansen called Gao Weilin over and gave a brief introduction to Didi Bike's business model.

"If we see a similar product in the future, we'll try to secure angel investment first."

Chen Yansen gave Gao Weilin some instructions.

OFO, Yong'anxing, and Mobike haven't even launched yet, so Senlian Capital still has plenty of opportunities to get involved.

　Godfathers, wishing you all a happy and healthy Dragon Boat Festival. Thank you for your support, and thank you to all the bosses!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)