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

Chapter 328, Zhang Wei: Do you think I'm a dog? Come and sue me if you disagree! My senior's new project!
"Don't they care about what's going on above?"

At the Ali headquarters in Hangzhou, Ma Liyun's expression was a mixture of joy and worry upon hearing the news.

The good news is that, although there are no explicit regulations, the China Banking Association has no intention of suppressing internet finance, so the Lingqiantong project has no worries about the future.

The worry is that it will be at least four or five months before Lingqiantong is officially launched. If Yu'ebao is allowed to develop freely, Ali will lose its first-mover advantage.

“Mr. Ma, Zhifubao has 6 million registered users. Even if we are a step behind, I am confident that once Lingqiantong is launched, it will surpass the scale of Yu'ebao in less than half a year.”

Seeing this, Lu Zhaoxi confidently assured him.

"Kezhifubao only has 100 million daily active users."

Ma Liyun sighed slightly, finally realizing a problem: Ali's development in the mobile wireless field was too lagging behind.

Orange Pay has less than 200 million registered users, but its daily active users are close to 18 million, which is more than ten times that of Zhifubao.

Simply put, registration is 'how many people know you', while daily active users are 'how many people need you every day'.

In 2012, Zhifubao relied on Taobao, Tmall, and 1688 for survival. It was merely an "auxiliary tool" of e-commerce and had not yet become a "necessity" for users. Users would only log in to Zhifubao's PC webpage or APP when placing an order.

However, since Zhifubao launched its quick payment service, the user login rate has dropped significantly, and the daily active user data has become even lower.

While the user experience and payment success rate of Taobao and Yaomao Mall have improved, the situation of Zhifubao is a complete mess.

“Zhifubao’s offline payment business is in a period of rapid growth. In the past week, its daily active users have increased by 4.1% compared to the previous week. If we simply replicate this model nationwide, we can boost the daily active users.”

Lu Zhaoxi answered immediately.

"Is WeChat also developing a payment tool?" Ma Liyun nodded slightly, then pondered for a moment before suddenly asking again.

"Yes, it is said that a new product was created based on Tenpay, which shows that the competition among the Penguin business units is also quite fierce."

Lu Zhaoxi hummed in agreement, then added.

Logically speaking, Tenpay has been online for over seven years and has extensive experience in handling high-concurrency transactions, reconciliation and settlement, data encryption, risk control and anti-fraud.

But WeChat insisted on developing its own payment tool, fearing that Tenpay would steal its mobile traffic.

"Okay, I understand." Ma Liyun rubbed his temples and said calmly.

After speaking, he rubbed his throbbing temples. Compared to Ma Wenteng and Chen Yansen, at forty-eight years old, his energy was clearly not as abundant as theirs.

He delegated most of Ali's daily operations to Lu Zhaoxi, Zhang Yong, and others, only responsible for controlling the overall direction of the group.

However, with the arrival of the mobile internet era, Ma Liyun had to become more vigilant.

Compared to 2011, there were more and more smartphone users in 2012, and smartphones were already ubiquitous, with people constantly looking down at their phones.

The percentage of wireless users for Taobao, Yaomao Mall, and Zhifubao is less than 10%.

At this moment, Ma Liyun sat in his office, looking down at the entire Ali headquarters through the glass window. The sun was shining brightly outside, but a chill ran through him.

Ahri must catch up with the mobile internet wave!

……

……

the other side.

Headquarters of Yanjing Qiandu.com

Li Yanhong opened Didi Chuxing's business report, and the word "-6.1%" in the order month-on-month growth rate column was extremely eye-catching.

How could Didi Chuxing's order volume still drop by 6.1% when it was subsidizing three rides per day?

How did Xiang Hailong manage to do that?
Li Yanhong snorted coldly, almost laughing out of anger.

"Kuaidi Dache launched a promotion offering 'free Yu'ebao trial funds' and recharge cards for rides, which affected Didi Dache's order fulfillment volume..."

After seeing Xiang Hailong's summary of reasons, Li Yanhong frowned slightly and couldn't help but curse inwardly: Didn't Baidu Cloud provide any storage space? Didn't Baidu Wenku provide any monthly membership card?
Thinking about this, Li Yanhong suddenly had the idea of ​​replacing Didi Chuxing's CEO.

But who should we replace them with?
Outsiders can't be trusted, and even our own people are unreliable!

He realized that although Xiang Hailong was excellent at business negotiations and reporting, he was clearly not a pragmatist and his strategic execution was weak.

It's unlikely that Didi Chuxing will achieve much under his leadership.

What is Cheng Wei busy with?
For some reason, Cheng Wei's name suddenly flashed through his mind.

Li Yanhong secretly pondered that if he could bring Cheng Wei back to serve as the COO and let Wang Jin manage the R&D department, combining Ali's market expansion capabilities with Baidu's technological accumulation, Didi might still have a glimmer of hope.

After more than ten days of fierce subsidy war, Didi Chuxing poured in 400 million yuan, but its market share remained unchanged.

Li Yanhong suddenly realized that Xiang Hailong was definitely not the best candidate for CEO of Didi Chuxing.

But he couldn't bring himself to call Cheng Wei.

Although the two have not completely fallen out, he was the one who kicked Cheng Wei out of the position of CEO of Didi Chuxing. Now he is letting someone else come back as COO. Isn't that an insult?

After agonizing for a long time, Li Yanhong still couldn't make up his mind. Finally, he sighed and called Liang Zhixiang over.

"Boss, are you looking for me?"

Three minutes later, Liang Zhixiang knocked on the door and came in.

"Are you still in contact with Cheng Wei?" Li Yanhong asked indirectly, unable to bring himself to ask directly.

"That's all," Liang Zhixiang replied truthfully.

He's the vice president of Qiandu.com, what's there to talk about with a ousted entrepreneur?

"Have you read Didi Chuxing's weekly business report?" Li Yanhong asked again.

Liang Zhixiang nodded, somewhat puzzled. He knew that Didi Chuxing's project was not progressing smoothly, but as the head of the investment department, he did not have the authority to interfere in the operations of other departments.

"Xiang Hailong's performance has disappointed me greatly," Li Yanhong said coldly, looking at Liang Zhixiang.

The boss wants to replace someone?
The candidate is still Cheng Wei?
Liang Zhixiang was shocked and felt his scalp tingle. He had just driven the person away and then invited him back. Wasn't this just making a fool of him?

Moreover, Xiang Hailong is a long-time employee of Baidu.com, having worked with Li Yanhong for seven or eight years. Surely they can't just replace him because of a temporary setback?

Liang Zhixiang remained silent, not quite understanding Li Yanhong's actions, but he knew in his heart that since the big boss had taken the initiative to speak, it meant that the other party had already made up his mind.

His own attempts to dissuade him were futile and would only risk being labeled as "not one of their own" by the boss. In just a few seconds, he realized this and asked with a smile, "Does the boss want Cheng Wei to come back and be the CEO?"

"No! I want him to be the COO of Didi Chuxing."

Li Yanhong waved his hand, directly denying it.

COO? Isn't that just the Operations Director?
Would Cheng Wei agree?

Liang Zhixiang was immediately overwhelmed with anxiety and confusion, but since his boss had spoken, he had to give it his all, whether it worked or not.

“I’ll go and make an appointment with Cheng Wei right away,” Liang Zhixiang immediately declared.

"Victor, you've worked hard." Li Yanhong stood up, patted Liang Zhixiang on the shoulder, and called him by his English name, offering his encouragement in a friendly manner.

He knew this was a difficult matter, but Didi's huge daily losses were leaving him mentally and physically exhausted.

While he was distressed about the money, what truly broke him was that Didi Chuxing's spending spree hadn't yielded the desired results.

After accepting the task, Liang Zhixiang immediately called Cheng Wei after leaving the office. Dozens of kilometers away at the Digital Valley Software Park, Cheng Wei was in a meeting with the R&D department, working on confirming the development plan for mid-to-late October.

At this time, the mobile phone in his pocket rang.

"You guys continue."

Cheng Wei took out his phone, and after seeing the caller's name, he thought for a moment and decided to answer.

Although he had a very unpleasant falling out with Qiandu two months ago, after thinking it over repeatedly, he put his unhappiness aside.

Baidu is, after all, one of the top BAT giants. Offending it will not do any good. It's always better to have one more friend than one more enemy.

Didi Bike adopted an AB share structure, so this time Didi is not afraid of losing control of the company due to equity dilution caused by financing.

Therefore, if Liang Zhixiang wants to invest in Didi Bike, he would welcome it with open arms.

Cheng Wei took his phone, walked to the conference room door, stood on the balcony, and pressed the answer button.

"Mr. Cheng, are you free? Want to grab a coffee?"

Liang Zhixiang laughed heartily, looking quite familiar with the situation.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Liang, the company is very busy, and I really can't get away," Cheng Wei replied with a smile, politely declining.

company?

Liang Zhixiang was taken aback and subconsciously asked, "President Cheng has a new project?"

"Yes, it's similar to Didi Chuxing; the business is still in the public transportation sector," Cheng Wei replied ambiguously.

"Ride-hailing service?" Liang Zhixiang's heart skipped a beat, and he asked in a panic.

"Shared bikes!" Cheng Wei didn't hide anything and simply told him frankly.

Didi Bikes has already deployed more than 600 bikes in the Yanjing market, and its business processes and business model have been successfully implemented. Didi plans to expand the number of bikes to 3000 by the end of October.

Even if he doesn't say anything, given the market size of Didi Bikes, it will still attract Liang Zhixiang's attention.

Cheng Wei paused for a moment, then continued, "In Beijing and even in first- and second-tier cities across the country, there is a 'last mile commuting problem' between buses and subways, between subways and residential areas, and between buses and residential areas. Walking is too tiring, and taking a taxi is too expensive. This is the value of Didi Bike."

Didi Bike?

Liang Zhixiang looked grim. The name sounded like it was trying to ride on Didi Chuxing's popularity, which could easily mislead users into thinking that the software was a product in the same series as Didi Chuxing.

"Mr. Cheng, is the product name Didi Bike?" Liang Zhixiang asked tentatively.

"The character '滴' (dī) has three dots of water, like '滴滴单车' (dī dī dān chē)," Cheng Wei said with a squinty eye and a smile.

He knew what Liang Zhixiang was thinking, but the trademark for 'Didi Bike' had already been registered. He did want to ride the coattails of Didi Chuxing's popularity, but so what?

If Li Yanhong is not satisfied, feel free to sue!

Didi Bike?

This is no different from Didi Bike!
Suppressing his anger, Liang Zhixiang patiently said, "How much money can shared bikes make? Mr. Cheng, why not go back to Didi Chuxing and continue your unfinished business? Mr. Li is willing to hand over the COO position to you."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Wei sneered. Did Li Yanhong really treat him like a dog, summoning him at will and dismissing him at will?
What's a COO? He doesn't care!
He finally understood that Li Yanhong was fickle and had extremely little patience. He wanted to replace Xiang Hailong after less than three months in charge of Didi Chuxing.

If he goes back eagerly, he might not last more than a few months before being kicked out again.

Cheng Wei is a human being, not Li Yanhong's dog!

"Sorry, I'm not interested in being Didi Chuxing's COO," Cheng Wei said again, without the slightest hesitation.

Although Didi Bike's project is small, it has taken a steady and pragmatic approach. It secured 5000 million yuan in angel investment from Innovation Works right from the start. While its market potential may not be as great as that of the ride-hailing sector, it has complete control over the business.

"Okay, that's it."

Liang Zhixiang's smile faded, his expression slowly darkening, before he hung up the phone.

Half an hour later, he walked straight into Li Yanhong's office with a project document for 'Didi Bike'.

"What did Cheng Wei say?" Li Yanhong asked impatiently.

"This is his new entrepreneurial project."

Liang Zhixiang pulled up a chair, sat down opposite Li Yanhong, and handed over the documents in his hand.

Li Yanhong immediately understood that since Cheng Wei had a new project, he naturally wouldn't accept the COO position at Didi Chuxing.

"Didi Bike?"

Li Yanhong's pupils contracted as he glanced at the text on the document cover, and he immediately understood Liang Zhixiang's meaning.

That bastard Cheng Wei, the product name of his new project is actually trying to ride on the coattails of Didi Chuxing's popularity.

Although Cheng Wei is the founder of Didi Chuxing, Li Yanhong had long considered him his own and planned to gradually eliminate him through financing.

"Notify the legal department to send him a lawyer's letter, forbidding him from using the name Didi."

Li Yanhong gave instructions to Liang Zhixiang.

The trademark for Didi Chuxing was registered by Cheng Wei. After taking over, Baidu immediately conducted defensive trademark registration, applying for a series of similar trademarks such as "Didi Zhuanche", "Didi Zuche", "Didi Zhuanche", "Didi Zuche", and "Dida Dache", just in case other companies forcibly tried to piggyback on its traffic.

In fact, every company does this, mainly because there are too many trademark trolls in China. For example, Gaopeng Group, a joint venture between Tencent and Groupon, would ideally use the Groupon domain name, but Tuanbao.com got there first, leaving Gaopeng with only the gaopeng domain.

For example, Orange Technology has also registered a bunch of defensive trademarks such as 'red orange', 'green orange', and 'lemon'.

But Li Yanhong never expected that Cheng Wei would turn around and go into the shared bicycle business, creating "Didi Bike", which was simply impossible to guard against.

“Okay, boss,” Liang Zhixiang replied.

That afternoon, Cheng Wei received a lawyer's letter from Qiandu.com. He scoffed and tossed it aside.

He dares to use this name, isn't he afraid of being sued by Li Yanhong?

Having learned from his mistakes, Cheng Wei's thinking on business operations has become more mature, and he has become much bolder.

at the same time.

Chen Yansen received a call from Cheng Weixing.

“Boss, I have a senior from my university who is the CEO of Geek Auto magazine. She recently landed a project and is looking for angel investment,” Cheng Weixing said bluntly.

"Why don't you just send him Lao Gao's contact information?" Chen Yansen retorted.

"She wants to talk to you in person," Cheng Weixing said shamelessly.

There was no way around it; back in school, this senior was a prominent figure who had provided him with a lot of help, and one should always know how to repay kindness.

"Okay, I'll give President Cheng some face, let her add me on WeChat." Chen Yansen agreed with a smile.

"Thank you, boss. This senior student is very capable, and she's in the same major as you," Cheng Weixing added.

Are you studying journalism?

Who in their right mind would study journalism?

Chen Yansen immediately lost interest and didn't take the matter to heart after hanging up the phone.

(End of this chapter)