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

Chapter 429 The Peak Tournament Begins, Net Loss Reaches 19.4 Billion Yuan! Pei Yi: Making Baidu Takeout Unavailable for Orders!
The next morning, as soon as Chen Yansen arrived at the company, he called Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze over. The core idea was the same: to complete the testing and acceptance of the Qingcheng D2 SE version within this week.

Since Nie was practically begging for death, he naturally had to grant her wish.

“Yes, boss, no problem,” Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze replied in unison.

Originally scheduled for release on June 18, it has been moved up ten days to coincide with Pinduoduo's 618 promotion, which is still within budget.

"How long will it take to get the network and communication standard compatibility of the Qingcheng D2, Chengzi C3S, and Yaocheng X1 overseas versions sorted out?" Chen Yansen asked again.

"I have communicated with Mr. Zuo, and MediaTek and Qualcomm will provide us with a batch of processors that meet European frequency bands before the end of this month."

However, due to the long review cycles for CE, RoHS, and WEEE certifications, it will take at least two more months before the network access testing phase for operators. Zhang Cong replied immediately.

"You are responsible for frequency band and network adaptation, while hardware compliance certification, operator maintenance, and market after-sales layout will be handled by General Manager Zhou. Speed ​​things up," Chen Yansen nodded slightly.

After he finished explaining, Zhang Cong and Zhou Ze quickly responded and then left the office to return to their work area.

Chen Yansen picked up the teapot, poured himself a cup of chilled tea, and took a small sip.

Meanwhile, he was thinking about Sanpower Group's acquisition of Meituan.

Wang Xin's actions were not unexpected.

Previously, the other party had contacted Senlian Capital, Tencent, and Ali, making their intention to sell the project extremely clear.

Wang Xin was naturally happy that Sanpower Group was willing to be the "white knight," and even Sequoia Capital and Alibaba took the opportunity to cash out their shares.

Unfortunately, Ma Liyun still harbored ambitions in the O2O local life sector, renaming Taobao Takeaway to Tao Diandian. Although he did not continue to expand, he did not give up the idea of ​​operating his own takeaway business.

Chen Yansen knew that Senlian Capital and Qiandu.com were currently engaged in a full-scale war, burning through 100 million yuan a day on marketing expenses alone. Ali was not yet listed and, in order to ensure that its financial data looked good, it was naturally unwilling to get involved in this fierce battle.

If Ali goes public in the future, Old Ma might turn against him.

After all, in the business world, profit comes first, and there's no room for personal relationships.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes and secretly became wary.

the other side.

Li Yanhong sat in the conference room of the headquarters of Baidu Building, his eyes fixed on the May report of the LBS business unit. The first page was marked with detailed business and financial data.

Net loss of 19.4 billion yuan!

Among them, Qiandu Waimai had a market share of 17.9%, with 175 million orders and a transaction amount of 1580 million yuan in a single day. The average order value was less than 10 yuan, and first orders and subsidized orders accounted for as much as 61.5%.

In other words, the majority of users are those who take advantage of promotional offers.

Once the discounts stop, the relationship is over.

Even worse, the day-two retention rate for new customers was only 4.7%, the weekly retention rate was 1.9%, and as for the monthly retention rate, Li Yanhong couldn't even bear to look at it.

Although there is no shortage of transportation resources, the delivery delay rate is as high as 20% or more, indicating poor fulfillment quality and low service level.

"You've spent a lot of money, but you can't even get 20% market share. What are you doing?"

Li Yanhong looked at Wang Zhongpu and questioned him in an unfriendly tone.

Wang Zhongpu looked troubled and slowly explained, "Boss, Kuaipao's business ecosystem has already taken shape. It works in conjunction with group buying and grocery delivery businesses, resulting in significant economies of scale."

However, we have weaknesses in merchant resources, transportation capacity, and dispatching systems, making it very difficult to compete with our rivals for market share.

Logically speaking, Baidu Waimai has neither a shortage of money nor a shortage of traffic. Even if Kuaipao has an advantage in every aspect, it should still be able to capture 30% of the market.

But the reality is cruel; even 20% is extremely difficult to achieve.

"Next month, I want to see Baidu Takeaway capture 30% of the market, and there's no upper limit to marketing expenses," Li Yanhong said coldly, his warning clear.

As the head of Baidu, he has many ideas, but lacks patience and is weak in execution.

In his view, Wang Zhongpu had been provided with sufficient resources and funds, but the expected goals were not achieved, which was clearly a problem with the person in charge's ability.

If Wang Zhongpu is unable to complete the task, he will have to consider replacing the person in charge.

Gong Zhenbing and Xiang Hailong, who were standing to the side, twitched their lips and frowned. They knew that their boss had fallen into his old habits again and that his tolerance for the project had reached its limit.

If Didi Chuxing and Qiandu Group Buying do not improve, they will be demoted or relegated to peripheral departments at best, and dismissed at worst.

“The same applies to group buying and ride-hailing projects,” Li Yanhong continued.

"Yes, boss," Gong Zhenbing and Xiang Hailong replied in unison.

Although Qiandu Group Buying ranks second in the industry, with a transaction volume of 11.6 billion yuan in May, a month-on-month increase of 34.9%, Gong Zhenbing knows very well that the extra 3 million yuan in sales was entirely achieved through red envelopes and coupons.

Didi Chuxing's business remains lukewarm. In May, its daily order volume once exceeded 2 million, but it fell back to 200 million a few days later, making it the most expensive project in the company's O180O strategy.

Over the past thirty days, Li Yanhong has signed documents for an average of one transaction for every 200 million yuan, totaling six transactions.

Once the battle begins, neither side is willing to easily admit defeat before the outcome is decided.

Under the siege of Lingxi, 360, Tencent and Sogou, Baidu's search business market share has fallen below 45%. Especially after Lingxi launched the 'Moss' plugin and 360 launched the 'Conscience Search' function, Baidu's user churn rate has further increased.

No one would accept a screen full of ads if given other options.

While Baidu's advertising revenue is considerable, it has also offended too many users over the past seven or eight years.

Lingxi Search focuses on artificial intelligence, while 360 ​​emphasizes the absence of medical advertisements; each move is aimed at Baidu's Achilles' heel.

Within just one month, Li Yanhong lost 20% of the search market share, and the stock price evaporated by more than five billion US dollars. He wished he could kill Chen Yansen.

Therefore, admitting defeat is impossible.

He decided to increase his investment, determined to make Chen Yansen taste the bitterness of heartbreak.

After the meeting, at 11:00 a.m. that day, Qiandu Waimai pushed out a red envelope claiming portal to all users.

Both new and existing users can receive a 18 yuan no-threshold red envelope.

You can enjoy free purchases of milk tea, bread, fast food boxes, and other items using this coupon.

Despite the slow delivery speed and poor service attitude of the riders, users do not refuse because it is free.

Milk tea shops like CoCo, Happy Lemon, Hucheng Auntie, and Yi Dian Dian have been experiencing a surge in orders. Chefs specializing in braised chicken rice, Yunnan crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, Shaxian snacks, and Lanzhou ramen are also working overtime, with dozens of orders pouring in every minute.

The milk tea never runs out, the fried rice never runs out, and the beef noodles never run out.

The merchants have gone mad, and the delivery riders have gone mad too.

In just half an hour, Qiandu Waimai's orders increased by 30!
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Kuaipao is ready to take on the challenge. Click the link to receive a 20 yuan no-threshold red envelope, and there's also a 40-20 yuan discount red envelope."

"Everyone gets a milk tea for just one cent! Log in to KuaiPao and get a free drink!"

"Who can help me out? Refer three new users and I'll give you a free KFC family bucket."

suddenly!

A large number of bloggers offering discount information have emerged on Weibo and Toutiao, posting links to claim Kuaipao's red envelopes on their personal homepages.

QQ groups, WeChat groups, Douban groups, and Renren comment sections are also filled with numerous price-cutting links.

It's all about marketing tactics!

Pei Yi was not intimidated at all. After receiving instructions from the big boss, he immediately launched a counterattack targeting the most active cities of Qiandu Waimai.

"Awesome! This is the feeling! Please keep this promotion going!" "I got two cups of milk tea and a cream puff for free! Things that don't cost money taste especially good!"

"Why isn't Taodian issuing coupons? @Taobao, please stop playing dead, okay?"

Netizens were discussing it intensely in the comments section, their words filled with excitement.

Tang Yongbo, who was at the Ali headquarters in Hangzhou, received a reply from Ma Liyun that he would not participate after consulting with her.

Taodian's operations are mainly concentrated in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, with only over 30,000 orders per day. There's no need to spend money to join the fray.

“Businesses like Chen Yansen and Li Yanhong, even with 10 billion yuan, can’t withstand the drain.”

In the Peach Blossom Island office, Ma Liyun spread his hands, looking helpless.

He had considered joining the "food delivery war," but the thought of the huge marketing costs immediately made him calm down.

"Li Yanhong has stepped into Senlian Capital's territory, and Senlian Capital, together with 360, Sogou, and Tencent, has taken away 20% of Baidu's search business. In my opinion, Li Yanhong has been driven to desperation."

Zhang Yong said with a light laugh.

"Roughly estimated, Qiandu Waimai's marketing expenses today will exceed 6000 million yuan, and Kuaipao's will be even higher."

Lu Zhaoxi frowned slightly and couldn't help but sigh.

Even though Ali is considered to be quite wealthy, he didn't dare to spend this much money during the 618 and Double Eleven shopping festivals.

"Food delivery is indeed a good business. Since the Kuaipao entrance was added to the Taobao homepage, the number of daily active users has increased by 11.7%," Ma Liyun said quietly.

He coveted the high-frequency consumption attributes of food delivery and group buying businesses, but he could never bring himself to fully enter the O2O market.

Currently, the competition between Ali and Senlian Capital is relatively mild. Based on his understanding of Chen Yansen, if he angers Chen, Pinbei and JD.com will join forces, and Ali will suffer heavy losses.

It's easy to see from the dire situation of Baidu that Chen Yansen not only has excellent project management skills, but also ruthless methods to suppress his peers.

Lu Zhaoxi and Zhang Yong exchanged a glance and instantly understood Ma Liyun's little scheme.

“Mr. Ma, Tao Diandian’s business scale should not be expanded, the market is not mature enough.” Lu Zhaoxi thought for a moment and advised softly.

"I know." Seeing this, Ma Liyun temporarily suppressed the suggestion in her heart.

He paused, then looked at Zhang Yong and said, "With 618 just around the corner, let's focus on our core business first. Didn't Liu Qiangdong issue a 'red challenge'? Cripple JD.com's 618 promotion!"

An hour ago, JD.com, who had just returned from his studies, personally oversaw operations at the headquarters and posted a preview of the 618 promotion on Weibo, with the caption: "Don't be silly, the only place for the June promotion is JD.com! Shop on JD.com for guaranteed cheap prices."

Suning, Dangdang, and Yi Xun immediately responded with copywriting in the style of "Don't brag, don't argue, don't pretend," clearly indicating that they did not want JD.com's 618 promotion to generate brand effect.

“Yes, Mr. Ma,” Zhang Yong nodded in response.

at the same time.

The aggressive distribution of red envelopes by Kuaipao and Qiandu Waimai led to a surge in orders for hundreds of thousands of merchants across the country, with delivery riders working non-stop from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. without rest.

But the results were also quite amazing!

The daily income of delivery riders at Qiandu Waimai generally exceeds 600 yuan, with some outstanding individuals even reaching 1000 yuan.

The same goes for the Kuaipao delivery riders. Despite being physically exhausted, they are secretly excited and wish the company would give them red envelopes every day.

Yishan Road Station.

Inside a Shaxian snack shop, Li Zhou and several colleagues sat around a table, wolfing down their food.

After a long day of work, his hands and feet were shaking. He couldn't remember how many stairs he had climbed or how many orders he had delivered. He only remembered that the app showed an estimated income of 1137.5 yuan.

"Brother Zhou, the station manager told us to rest until 11 o'clock tomorrow, and let the part-time brothers cover for the morning rush hour."

"I'm talking to a Kuaipao delivery rider while holding my phone," he said.

"The company has spent a lot of money on this, it really hurts," another Kuaipao delivery rider said as he stuffed two steamed dumplings into his mouth.

"Xiao Wang, what are you worried about? We're not asking you to pay anything," someone retorted.

"Old Zhang, you don't know anything! We all have shares. If we keep giving out red envelopes to users every day, the company's valuation will plummet, and the losses will be huge," someone quickly retorted.

"Brother Zhou, is that really true?" the rider asked, holding his phone.

"I didn't even have much schooling, and you're asking me? Just do your job well. The boss will take care of the important things; there's no use in us thinking too much. Deliver every order well, don't be late, and no matter how busy you are, don't forget to smile and use polite language."

Li Zhou felt weak all over and ate the fried rice in big mouthfuls.

He's going to collapse if he doesn't eat soon.

Last year, when we were competing with Ele.me for market share, we weren't this exhausted.

“Brother Zhou is right. The better our service, the more orders the company will receive, and the more valuable everyone’s shares will be.”

Everyone laughed and echoed.

"Cheers! I'll drink this so I can go home and sleep. Damn it, my whole body aches." Li Zhou put down the plate, picked up the beer, and said.

More than ten kilometers away, at Lane 200, Longcao Road, lies the Yiyuan Office Building.

In an office on the top floor, Pei Yi rubbed his eyes, picked up his coffee which had long since gone cold, and drank it all in one gulp.

From early May to early June, the battle between KuaiPu and QianDu never stopped, and it reached its peak today.

The daily subsidy for group buying and food delivery businesses has exceeded 8000 million yuan.

If it weren't for the $8.7 million Series B funding, Kuaipao would probably have struggled to withstand such immense financial pressure.

Pei Yi turned to look out the window, then glanced back at the bottom right corner of the computer desktop; it was already 11:54.

He forced himself to revise tomorrow's marketing activities and response strategies, and then sent the documents to the corresponding communication group.

"Still at get off work?"

At this moment, a message popped up in the chat window.

“Boss, I was just about to leave,” Pei Yi replied immediately. He knew Chen Yansen’s temperament and didn’t like his subordinates working overtime.

"Temporarily relax the registration restrictions on the Kuaipao delivery rider app for part-time workers, increase the unit price, and disable the Qiandu Waimai delivery system tomorrow," Chen Yansen instructed.

"Boss, how can we guarantee the order volume and income of the official riders?" Pei Yi asked with a frown.

“Prioritize full-time riders, and give any extra orders to part-time riders,” Chen Yansen replied.

His plan was simple: lure the riders from Qiandu Waimai into joining the Kuaipao team with incentives.

Instead of wasting money on those who exploit loopholes for profit, it's better to invest in delivery riders, which can also help them create a humanitarian cause.

Pei Yi quickly understood Chen Yansen's intention and replied with a smile, "No problem."

"Go back early, there's no way to finish the work." After saying that, Chen Yansen logged off.

Pei Yi felt a warmth in his heart, but he did not comply. Instead, he called Kang Jia from the delivery department and asked him to notify station managers across the country to spread the poaching plan.

Tomorrow morning, he's going to make sure no one accepts any of the orders on Qiandu Waimai!

(End of this chapter)