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

Chapter 386 A slight move was enough to terrify the opponent! Sweet moments between Kuai Pao and Tao Bao!

As for whether Didi Bike misappropriated the deposits?
The answer is, of course, without a doubt.

What's wrong with using the money if it's in my own account?

Cheng Wei did not think there was anything wrong with doing so.

"Hu Weiyi, or Li Yanhong." Upon hearing the boss's question, Song Tianlu gave two names in a row.

"Why not Chang Wei?" Cheng Wei frowned and immediately pressed for an answer.

He and Chang Wei fought their way from Beijing to Tianjin, and then to Tangcheng, Anci, Changshan and other places. Ofo suffered huge losses, and he didn't gain any advantage at all.

Over a period of nearly three months, Didi Bike lost over 100 million yuan in profits as a result, and Ofo Bike experienced a similar situation.

Aside from Chang Wei, it would be difficult to find a third person in Yanjing who hated Cheng Wei the most.

Another case involves Li Yanhong, whose lawsuit against Didi Bike for trademark infringement by Qiandu.com was dismissed last week.

In short, Cheng Wei actually won the lawsuit.

Upon hearing this news, Li Yanhong turned ashen with anger.

Now, Baidu has not only lost the lawsuit, but also lost face, and its reputation in the venture capital circle has become somewhat unpleasant.

"The yellow bikes are trending under Didi Bikes," Song Tianlu said with a dry laugh.

Cheng Wei paused for a moment, then, after a brief thought, became certain that it was Hu Weiyi's doing.

After all, Li Yanhong had no need to regulate Ofo bikes as well. Putting aside Chang Wei's family background, there was no conflict of interest between the two.

"How much money is left in the account?" Cheng Wei asked the finance department.

“2.7 million,” the CFO replied.

"The total amount of user deposits is 2.3 million yuan, so there's no need to worry about a run on the bank," Cheng Wei said with a sigh of relief, appearing completely at ease.

"Boss, we still need to pay 4000 million for goods next week," the CFO reminded him.

"It's okay, we can just raise more money," Cheng Wei said nonchalantly.

As the concept of the sharing economy becomes increasingly popular, products such as shared bicycles, shared cars, and shared kitchens are highly favored by investors.

Does Didi Bike lack investors?
All he has to do is shout it out in the Wangjing business district, and he can attract more than a dozen venture capital firms.

Short of money?

nonexistent!

"Has the 'use and refund' feature been launched in the Shanghai market? What percentage of users applied for deposit refunds yesterday?"

Cheng Wei looked at Song Tianlu and asked.

"28.3% means that most users have a pretty good level of trust in Didi Bike. Once they get refunds a few times and realize that they don't need to worry about the safety of their funds, the amount in the deposit pool will accumulate more and more," Song Tianlu replied with a smile.

Currently, Didi Bike has only launched the "instant refund" deposit function for the East China market, including Shanghai.

Users are required to pay a deposit of 199 yuan before riding; after the ride, users can choose to have the deposit refunded immediately, thus eliminating any concerns they may have.

If Didi Bike didn't do this, it wouldn't be able to compete with OFO Bike at all, because OFO is implementing a deposit-free policy: you only need to recharge 199 yuan in Yu'ebao to avoid the deposit and earn extra income.

"First, have the operations team post an announcement in the app to calm users down as soon as possible. Then, communicate with Lao Hu and Hai Bo to make sure the refund channel is unobstructed."

Cheng Wei immediately made arrangements and gave instructions to Song Tianlu.

"Okay, Mr. Cheng, I'll take care of it right away." Song Tianlu didn't dare to delay and turned to walk out.

At this time, both Didi Bike and Ofo Bike became trending topics on Weibo.

"Brothers, hurry up and get your deposits back from Ofo bikes! They're running out of time, I heard the company's about to go bankrupt!"

"I was wondering before, how come these bike-sharing companies are always giving out coupons and they don't make any money? Well, it turns out they're after my deposit."

"Three minutes ago, my Didi bike deposit arrived safely. I got off safely. Good luck to the guys behind me."

"I only use OFO bikes, not yellow bikes or Didi bikes. I deposit 199 yuan in Yu'ebao and can earn 80 or 90 cents a month."

"Isn't OFO the original bike-sharing company? Backed by Senlian Capital, they have strong financial backing, unlike those shady bike-sharing brands!"

Most of the commenters were from North China and East China.

Netizens in Northeast China looked blank, and many of them were unaware for the first time that there was such a thing as shared bicycles.

"I applied for a refund of my deposit from Ofo bikes an hour ago, why hasn't it arrived yet?"

"The customer service representative said that the bank's payment channels were busy, but the payment had already been made, and asked me to wait a little longer."

"Could they have run away?"

"Damn it, give me my money back right now! @ofo @ofo CEO Chang Wei"

"Damn it, refund my money! It's been three hours, I called the bank and they said Ofo hasn't refunded me!"

Before long, the hype surrounding Didi Bikes quickly subsided, while Ofo Bikes surged to the top of the trending topics list.

Although Cheng Wei misappropriated some of the deposits, he had received two rounds of financing and still had a relatively ample amount of funds.

But Changwei was different. His company account only had a little over eight million yuan left, which couldn't even withstand the refund requests from 40,000 users, and it quickly ran out of money.

His original plan was to first use the deposits to scale up the Ofo bike business, then approach investment institutions to discuss financing, and finally obtain a higher valuation offer.

But he never expected that Wang Zihao would send Ofo bikes to the guillotine simply by contacting a few self-media outlets.

Short of money!
For a moment, Chang Wei was so anxious that he was at a loss.

The funding gap is as high as 1.4 million yuan, all of which has been transferred to suppliers to purchase shared bicycles for deployment in the East China market.

Where is he supposed to find the money now?

"Who the hell is this? What a despicable thing to do!" Chang Wei cursed repeatedly.

But he knew in his heart that if he couldn't resolve the user run crisis within 24 hours, Ofo bikes would really go out of business.

After clearing his mind, Chang Wei took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to remain calm. He then took out his phone and called each of Ofo's investors one by one.

"Hello, Mr. Zhu, I'm Chang Wei from Klock," Chang Wei forced a smile and greeted him.

"You really misappropriated user deposits?" Zhu Xiaohu's eyebrows furrowed tightly.

He had read all the news online, so he was fully aware of Chang Wei's intentions.

“…Yes.” Chang Wei paused for a few seconds before answering truthfully.

"How much was misappropriated?" Zhu Xiaohu asked again.

"..." Chang Wei remained silent.

"All of them?" Zhu Xiaohu almost laughed in anger, then asked.

"I left ten million." Chang Wei falsely reported two million.

Zhu Xiaohu suppressed the urge to curse, and thinking of the other party's identity, he smiled bitterly and said, "The worst thing in doing business is to leave no room for maneuver. It may feel good to strike with all your might, but the consequences are unpredictable."

Jinsha Venture Capital has invested in Chang Wei twice in a row. If Ofo goes bankrupt, his losses will be considerable.

"Mr. Zhu, I urgently need money right now," Chang Wei said directly.

Short of money?

I'm not your father, do I owe you anything?
Zhu Xiaohu frowned and cursed a couple of times from afar, but he couldn't really stand idly by, so he said in a deep voice, "Fifty million, 5% equity."

“Mr. Zhu, given the size of Ofo, a reasonable valuation is between 25 billion and 30 billion,” Chang Wei retorted. “Then go ask other investors,” Zhu Xiaohu said, too lazy to argue further, and simply hung up the phone.

Profit-seeking is in a businessman's nature!
He had already given Chang Wei plenty of face by investing in Ofo bikes. If Chang Wei couldn't understand the stakes, then he deserved to die.

Chang Wei's face turned pale and then flushed as he listened to the busy tone coming from the receiver.

But the finance department was pressing him hard, so he didn't have time to get angry and could only call the contacts at several venture capital firms, such as Weile Capital and ZhenFund.

Without exception, they were willing to pay, but their asking price was only 10 billion.

Taking advantage of someone's misfortune!
Chang Wei muttered curses.

As he hesitated, time ticked by, and before he knew it, it was three o'clock in the afternoon.

Seven or eight hours had already passed since the first batch of users applied for deposit refunds.

The phone lines of market supervision associations in Beijing, Tianjin, Tangcheng and other places have been overwhelmed with calls from users, with the number of complaints skyrocketing to more than 100,000.

Weibo is full of posts denouncing Chang Wei and Ofo bikes!
The comment sections of Ofo's official Weibo account and Chang Wei's personal account were filled with complaints, customer service kept delaying, and Chang Wei pretended to be dead throughout.

"Brothers, stop having any illusions. Ofo bikes are probably dead. The name itself is unlucky. What kind of good person would name a product 'Little Yellow'? It's already dead in less than three months!"

"I'm not going to say anything more. I'm going out to get a bicycle to recoup some of my losses."

"You're only remembering now? I already moved two cars home a long time ago."

"199 yuan, consider it as buying a bicycle!"

"Hey buddy upstairs, why is your Ofo bike green? Where's the smart lock?"

Encouraged by netizens, quite a few people actually went out to move shared bicycles.

The staff at Ofo couldn't stop them.

Plus, it was Saturday, so everyone had plenty of time.

Changwei won't refund the deposit, right?

Then let's take a few trucks home. We can't afford to lose out, so let's just consider it a deposit.

the other side.

The instigator of this incident, Wang Zihao, merely glanced at the trending topics on Weibo before leading a group of managers from the Shanghai branch to experience OFO shared electric bikes in Caohejing.

It has a compact design and is painted in a striking orange color. When fully charged, it has a range of up to 50 kilometers.

By purchasing a 299 yuan Yu'ebao account, users can enjoy deposit-free benefits. New users will receive three 2-yuan cycling coupons and four 50% off cycling coupons upon logging in.

The price is 2 yuan for half an hour, with an additional 1 yuan for every 10 minutes exceeding the limit, capped at 30 yuan per day.

Compared to shared bicycles, e-bikes are much more comfortable to ride.

The product became very popular in Shanghai as soon as it was launched.

For the vast majority of office workers, there is usually a commuting vacuum zone of 700-800 meters or even 2-3 kilometers between the subway station and their residential area, or between the bus station and their residential area.

Let's take a taxi, it's too expensive!

Walking is too tiring!
Riding a shared bike is just as tiring!
But switching to an electric scooter is different; it saves both time and energy.

In less than a day, the number of users of the e-bike service exceeded 6000. The first batch of 1000 e-bikes could not meet the huge market demand in Shanghai.

"The business is running smoothly! It went more smoothly than we expected!"

Wang Zihao clenched his fists, a look of joy appearing on his face.

Thanks to his success in developing the Shanghai market, he has made a name for himself in the industry.

On the first day of OFO's shared e-bike launch, Cheng Wei and Chang Wei spent a day filled with anxiety.

It wasn't until the early hours of March 3rd that Chang Wei finally restarted the refund process after receiving the first payment.

"Wow! My deposit for Ofo bikes has been credited to my account!"

"I'm never using Ofo bikes again. I just wanted to ride for free, but they wanted my deposit."

"I recommend using OFO bicycles and e-bikes. They are reliable and don't require a deposit."

Ofo bike users waited a whole day before receiving their deposit refunds.

Chang Wei felt relieved. Just as he was about to leave work, the head of the data department came to report that more than 7000 shared bicycles had been stolen in the East China and North China regions.

While many people talk a lot online, only a few dozen people in each of the dozens of cities actually take action.

Chang Wei's face turned green instantly, but it was already 3:30 a.m., so he weakly instructed, "Have the car lookout find it tomorrow."

These bastards!

It's just a few hours late with the refund, isn't it?

Five hours later, it was dawn.

Several officials from the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Association, the Beijing Transportation Association, and the Beijing Banking Association held talks regarding yesterday's deposit refund controversy involving Ofo and Didi Bikes.

Didi Bike collected deposits, but it did not cause any negative impact.

Ofo bikes have overwhelmed the city's market supervision association with calls, receiving over 100,000 complaints, which has had a very negative impact.

More than a dozen conflicts occurred between users and shared bike staff while they were carrying the bikes home.

We can't ignore this anymore!
While the government is vigorously promoting the sharing economy, it doesn't want to see such a chaotic scene.

OFO bikes' deposit-free policy is great!

"That's what a member of the transportation association commented."

According to him, a blanket ban should be imposed, ordering all bike-sharing companies to stop charging users deposits.

However, the market supervision association also said that without the constraint of deposits, the maintenance and repair costs for businesses would rise sharply.

Then set up an escrow account and put the money in a bank.

The person from the Banking Association squinted and said, clearly eyeing the deposit money from the bike-sharing company.

at the same time.

Taobao users were surprised to find that a new KuaiPao entry point had appeared in the homepage icon area of ​​the Taobao APP. Upon clicking on it, they found that it was indeed KuaiPao's food delivery and group-buying channels.

In addition, Kuaipao's group-buying products also appeared on the Juhuasuan channel.

Just moments before, Zhifubao and Orange Pay were fiercely competing, but now they're putting on a sweet and loving show.

Ali and Senlian Capital have both cooperation and competition, which is the norm among internet companies.

At 10:00 AM, the 360 ​​N2 was released, priced at 1699 yuan, with configurations compared to the Xiaomi MI2.

Clearly, Zhou Hongyi is targeting Xiaomi.

Helpless, Lei Yijun signaled to Li Wanqiang to promptly launch a subsidy campaign: anyone who purchases a Xiaomi MI2 will receive a 200 yuan accessory voucher, which can be used to purchase products such as data cables, chargers, and phone cases.

This can be considered a disguised price reduction measure!

An hour later, the initial sales of the 360 ​​N2 exceeded 2.4 units.

Zhou Hongyi sarcastically remarked, "A certain whole grain brand has high prices, low configuration, and a garbage system. Even when it comes to price reductions, it tries to use tricks."

Li Wanqiang quickly responded: "Idiot!"

(End of this chapter)