Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Yesterday, Ah Li announced that its businesses, including Tmall Mall, Taobao C Stores, and 1688, reached a combined one trillion in GMV. Ah Li’s dominance is not a good thing for Pinbei or Jingdong.”

Liu Qiangdong spoke slowly.

”Being number two isn’t so bad,” Chen Yansen said with a smile, refusing to play by the book.

’Number two sounds so awful!’

Pinbei would naturally have to take on Ah Li. But how to do it, from what angle, with what force, and at what speed—that required careful planning.

’Let Jingdong lead the charge and draw Ah Li’s fire first.’

After all, Liu Qiangdong had repeatedly vowed at the last Yanjing Internet Conference to surpass Ah Li in three years. If he didn’t go for it, who would?

The main reason Liu Qiangdong wanted to team up with Pinbei was likely to use Senlian Capital’s resources to crush Ah Li first, then turn around and take on Pinbei.

But Chen Yansen wasn’t about to fall for that!

He had lived through the golden decade of e-commerce and knew the future industry trends like the back of his hand. He understood perfectly well that the potential of the e-commerce track was staggering; Ah Li, Pinbei, and Jingdong were still a long way from being fully satisfied.

’Starting a war now would be a complete waste of money and energy.’

Seeing that Chen Yansen was unmoved, Liu Qiangdong had no choice but to drop the subject. He refocused and shifted the conversation from e-commerce to logistics, then to other industries like group buying, food delivery, and ride-hailing.

”President Chen, I noticed that the logistics information on Pinbei’s order page has a new real-time route tracking feature. Did you integrate with Gaode Map’s data API?”

Liu Qiangdong asked suddenly.

To be honest, he was a little envious.

”Something like that, but it mainly uses electronic waybill technology. You just need to upload the transit path of each package to a server to enable the feature.”

Chen Yansen understood immediately, instantly grasping the subtext in Liu Qiangdong’s words.

There weren’t many domestic courier companies left that hadn’t joined the Cloud Speed Express Alliance, and Jingdong Express was one of them.

However, Jingdong didn’t need the two biggest advantages of being a member of the Cloud Speed Express Alliance.

First, the ”last 100 meters” terminal delivery solution, namely smart lockers. Second, a solution for the high cost of delivery in rural towns and villages.

Because the core of Jingdong Express’s service was door-to-door delivery, Liu Qiangdong had no use for either smart lockers or Cloud Speed Express Service Stations.

But electronic waybill technology was something Jingdong Express couldn’t avoid!

That son of a bitch Liao Wei had applied for a series of related improvement and derivative patents surrounding the electronic waybill’s structure, format design, algorithms, and data processing methods, creating a comprehensive patent pool for defense.

If Jingdong wanted to use electronic waybills, its only option was to join the Cloud Speed Express Alliance and pay a technology royalty of one cent per waybill.

The price wasn’t steep, but Jingdong would have to open its data API, which was something Liu Qiangdong found hard to accept.

”President Chen, to be honest, Jingdong also wants to acquire the patent license for the electronic waybill technology,” Liu Qiangdong said frankly.

He had originally planned to develop his own brand-new electronic waybill system, but Cloud Speed Express had blocked all the paths forward. He had no choice but to pay up!

”All you have to do is join the Cloud Speed Express Alliance,” Chen Yansen replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

’Liu Qiangdong wants the patent license but doesn’t want to open his data API. How could life be so easy?’

’Cloud Speed Express didn’t develop the electronic waybill system as a charity project.’

”What if we just pay the patent licensing fee?” Liu Qiangdong pressed.

”No,” Chen Yansen said, shaking his head and refusing flatly.

Currently, only China Post received that kind of treatment. Jingdong didn’t have that much clout.

Liu Qiangdong’s expression stiffened. The feeling of being rejected was not pleasant.

Had it been anyone else, he would have stormed off long ago. But he couldn’t afford to offend Chen Yansen, so he could only force a smile and proactively change the subject. He needed time to think before he could decide whether or not to join the Cloud Speed Express Alliance.