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

Chapter 624 Breaking the $100 Mark? The New King of E-commerce in China! The First Person in the Accompanying Delegation!
After triggering the circuit breaker mechanism several times, Pinduoduo finally closed at $84.29 per share, with a market value of $1871.2 billion.

In just over four months since its IPO, its market value has surged by $600 billion!
Investors across the ocean were so excited they couldn't sleep all night. Many who bought in at $50 a share were overjoyed, with paper profits as high as 60%.

"Pinbei's business growth rate is too fast! Wall Street has far underestimated its true value!"

"Short video shopping guides and live streaming sales models have increased Pinduoduo's transaction volume by 40%."

"Oh my God! I bet Pinduoduo's stock price will break the $100 mark before the first half of the year ends!"

Seeking Alpha is a well-known investment forum in the United States, where a large number of Pinduoduo shareholders are currently gathered, speculating about the next high point of Pinduoduo's stock price.

Is it $110 per share?
Or perhaps $120 per share?
Given China's market potential, the registered and daily active user base of Pinduoduo, Douyin, and Kuaishou will continue to grow. The business model of live-streaming e-commerce is still in its infancy, and some have even boldly speculated that Pinduoduo's stock price may double again.

It's worth noting that Pinduoduo has already established branches in Europe, South America, and North America and has partnered with local suppliers. In addition, it previously acquired the Lazada platform in Southeast Asia. Although its current size is still small, the market has high expectations for its future development.

Pinduoduo single-handedly drove a collective surge in Chinese e-commerce stocks, with JD.com performing particularly well, rising 10.3% that day.

Vipshop and Jumei also rode this wave of growth and were favored by the North American investment community.

In contrast, Ali, having just submitted its IPO application, has already lost its title as the top e-commerce platform.

Pinduoduo is coming on strong; can Ali hold onto its existing market share?

Not only Wall Street investment institutions have doubts about this, but even ordinary retail investors have big questions in their minds.

Pinbei is backed by two internet giants, Senlian Capital and Tencent, and boasts abundant traffic resources and a well-developed ecosystem.

What does Ahri have?
This skeptical mindset is reflected in reality, directly manifesting in the controversy surrounding the IPO offering price.

The floor price for Ali was $65 per share, but Wall Street brokers were only willing to accept a bid of $60.

Based on the initial offering price of $60, Ali's valuation is only $1478 billion, which is a fraction of the value of Pinduoduo.

How could Ma Liyun accept this?

As a result, Cai Xin, who was in charge of the listing process, spent every day in New York, meeting with wave after wave of investors.

However, at least 60% of investors did not approve of the offer of $65 per share.

In no time, news of Ali's lukewarm reception to its IPO spread like wildfire.

The following morning, Great Wall Motors officially launched the Haval Coupe D pure electric model at the Yanjing Auto Show.

Equipped with a Deep Blue 4890 battery pack, it boasts a range of up to 300 kilometers, just within the 6 yuan new energy vehicle subsidy range, and is priced at 23.9 yuan.

This makes the Haval Coupe D another mainstream pure electric vehicle to enter the market, following the BYD e6 Pioneer and the BAIC E150 EV.

According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, as of May 2014, sales of new energy vehicles nationwide had reached 50,000 units, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 410%.

At the same time, the number of charging piles has increased from 1.4 last year to 2.6, almost doubling.

Behind this, the new energy subsidy policy has played a crucial role.

Deep Blue Battery also played a significant role, effectively alleviating potential customers' range anxiety.

However, due to the high cost of battery packs, automakers such as BAIC, SAIC, JAC, and Great Wall have had to uniformly control the range of their pure electric vehicles to below 500 kilometers.

To put it simply, the main purpose is to control costs and lower the initial selling price of vehicles in order to enhance market competitiveness.

However, with a range of 300 to 500 kilometers, it offers no advantage over gasoline-powered vehicles.

Therefore, the development of new energy vehicles in 2014 remained in a stage where "policy-driven growth outweighed market-driven growth." Although subsidy policies stimulated automakers' production enthusiasm, and the year-on-year sales increase of 5 vehicles seemed impressive, compared to the total national vehicle sales of nearly 2400 million vehicles, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles was still less than 0.2%, and market acceptance was far from being realized.

Consumers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, with charging convenience remaining a key concern in addition to the short battery life.

Although the number of charging piles has doubled to 2.6 compared to last year, their distribution is extremely uneven. 80% are concentrated in business districts and residential areas of first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, while second- and third-tier cities and county markets are basically in a "charging vacuum".

The Tesla Model S LR boasts impressive range, but its price is prohibitive for many.

In the eyes of most people, it would be more practical to buy a Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or Audi than to spend a million on an electric car.

Tesla's "high price, high range" strategy stands in stark contrast to the "low price, low range" strategy of domestic automakers, yet both struggle to cover the mainstream consumer market.

The former is stuck on the "price threshold", the latter is trapped by the "shortcomings in experience", and the blank area in between has become a gap that the industry urgently needs to fill.

Some people hope that DeepBlue Technology's mass production will reduce battery supply prices; others hope that the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will increase subsidies for pure electric vehicles with a range of more than 800 kilometers.

Given the current level of motor technology, to achieve a range of 800 kilometers, a battery pack worth 24 yuan would be required.

In this case, the price of the whole vehicle would have to be set at over 40 yuan.

In 2014, it was difficult to convince customers to pay 40 yuan for a pure electric car.

The entire industry was waiting, so when Chen Yansen arrived in Yanjing, the first thing Li Qingsong asked him was, "When will the price of the first-generation Deep Blue Battery drop?"

DeepBlue Battery's initial production cost was US$140 per kilowatt-hour, but with the assistance of Shenzhen State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, DeepBlue Technology acquired several large lithium mines. With the maturity of its production process and the emergence of economies of scale, the cost has now dropped to US$110 per kilowatt-hour.

Its retail price is $400 per kilowatt-hour, with a gross profit margin as high as 72.5%, which can be described as exorbitant.

If DeepBlue Battery can lower its price, the new energy vehicle industry may experience explosive growth.

"Mr. Li, I am actually willing to lower the price, but the market demand is clearly not keeping up."

Lowering prices rashly would only harm DeepBlue Technology's profits; moreover, the R&D center needs continuous research funding to advance technological breakthroughs in its third-generation products.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and said.

It's not that prices won't drop, but rather that they will drop gradually, slowly, and preferentially, in an orderly manner.

We need to make sure Mr. Chen is comfortable making money first!

Li Qingsong nodded slightly, without saying anything more.

He knew that the widespread availability of charging infrastructure was a crucial guarantee for the development of new energy vehicles, and that it was clearly not in line with the common sense of industry development for DeepBlue Technology to rely solely on one company to push forward the project.

For now, we can only wait for the completion of the "ten vertical and ten horizontal" high-speed charging network to lay a solid foundation before seeking a real opportunity for the new energy vehicle industry to take off.

Inside the cabin, other business leaders in the accompanying trade delegation couldn't help but show envy upon seeing this.

When they were Chen Yansen's age, they were either just entering the business world or still working as assistants or at the grassroots level, with no real say whatsoever.

At the age of 22, Chen Yansen not only topped the global rich list but also became a key figure among the entourage, sitting opposite Li Qingsong.

the other side.

The news anchor at 7 p.m. briefly introduced the list of members of the business delegation in the evening news brief, and Chen Yansen's name was prominently listed first.

(End of this chapter)