Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chen Yansen gave a faint smile. He didn’t know if Li Yanhong would keep his promise, but he himself had absolutely no intention of obediently halting all subsidy activities.

’If the Fast Taxi app can’t offer subsidies, then I’ll just offer them through Kuai Pao, Pinbei, and Gaode Map.’

’For example, order twelve yuan worth of food delivery and get a twelve-yuan Fast Taxi coupon. Or have a link to claim a ride coupon pop up on the payment page after placing an order on Pinbei Mall.’

’There were plenty of tricks like that!’

’Who in the business world plays fair?’

Five minutes later, the group entered Yue Long Residence and was led to an opulent private room on the top floor.

Chen Yansen had just taken a seat when he spotted Liu Qiangdong and a middle-aged woman walking past the doorway of their room.

”That’s Xu Xin from Today Capital,” Ma Wenteng explained in a low voice, following his gaze.

”If Xu Xin hadn’t thrown a wrench in the works, Mr. Ma’s QQ Group Buy, Yixun Network, and Paipai Network would have likely been sold off by now,” Chen Yansen remarked.

As soon as the ”August 15th” price war between Jingdong, Sunning, Dangdang, and Gome ended, Li Guoqing went on Weibo and aired all of Liu Qiangdong’s dirty laundry. He stated bluntly that Jingdong’s cash flow was about to dry up and that the company wouldn’t make it past September.

This threw Jingdong’s supplier network into chaos. Merchants were afraid Liu Qiangdong would take their payments and blow it all on advertising, leaving him unable to settle his accounts with them later.

At the critical moment, Xu Xin stepped in with a sum of money that helped Liu Qiangdong pull through.

Now, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan had invested 400 million US dollars in Jingdong, leaving it flush with cash. They’d even shelved the talks about a traffic-sharing partnership with Penguin.

Ma Wenteng gave a dry laugh but didn’t comment.

’He wouldn’t interfere with Senlian Capital’s partnership with 360, and in return, Chen Yansen couldn’t undermine Penguin’s strategic positioning in the e-commerce sector.’

After lunch, Chen Yansen was driven back to his hotel to rest.

At two-thirty that afternoon, the breakout sessions officially began. The project managers from Senlian’s various subsidiaries immediately fanned out in search of business opportunities.

Chen Yansen, however, took Gao Weilin and Song Yuncheng to meet with representatives from Penguin, Goldman Sachs, Huake, and Huaxin. They found a small conference room and signed a letter of intent for Pinbei’s Series B funding round.

The funding round totaled 2.2 billion US dollars, with Penguin as the lead investor and Goldman Sachs, Huake, and Huaxin following. This brought Pinbei’s post-money valuation to a staggering 22 billion US dollars.

Whether in terms of daily active users, gross merchandise volume, or overall valuation, Pinbei’s position as the number two e-commerce platform was indisputable.

After all, even after receiving 400 million US dollars in funding from the OTPP, Jingdong was only valued at 8 billion US dollars—less than half of Pinbei’s.

「The next morning.」

As Chen Yansen, Pei Yi, and the others were having breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Pei Yi’s expression suddenly darkened after he took a call. He instinctively glanced at Chen Yansen before giving a series of calm instructions into the phone, ”Have people from administration and legal step in to mitigate the impact of this...”

Only after he hung up did Chen Yansen ask, ”Trouble?”

”Our ground team in the Northeast had a... minor scuffle with the sales reps from Meituan, Dianping, and Lashou Network while talking to a merchant.”

Pei Yi said, frowning. He had clearly chosen his words carefully.

”Did our guys get the worst of it?” Chen Yansen asked.

”No,” Pei Yi replied quickly.

”Good,” Chen Yansen grunted, asking no more questions.

With his abnormally sharp hearing, he had of course heard everything clearly. In the group-buy and food delivery markets of 2012, it was common for street teams to get into physical fights over merchant contracts.

It was the first time an incident like this had occurred, but it wouldn’t be the last.

Typically, the administration department was responsible for visiting injured employees in the hospital, while the legal department handled bailing people out of the local police station. Pei Yi was becoming increasingly seasoned at managing these situations.