Chapter 170: 160,000 Employees, 12,292 Threads of Human-Civilization Flame!

The next morning, the autumn breeze grew cooler.

Chen Yansen had just arrived at the company and walked into the office when Yan Peng, head of the e-commerce division at Sister Chengzi Tech, knocked and came in.

"Boss, the Sister Chengzi phone flagship store went live on JD today. JD's marketing team gave us a launch screen, a homepage focus image, and even set up a pop-up reminder on the PC side. As of 9 o'clock, store traffic was 3.7 million, and Sister Chengzi phone sales reached 116,000 units."

Yan Peng sat across from him and reported item by item.

"116,000? JD subsidized it?" Chen Yansen caught on immediately and asked with a smile.

One had to remember that Sister Chengzi phones also had decent resources on Pinduoduo Mall, yet they could only sell 80,000 to 100,000 units a day.

Although JD's daily active users outnumbered Pinduoduo's, it was only by a few million. In terms of single-product exposure, it might not even match Pinduoduo.

"Yes, our price to JD is 1,989 yuan, the same as Pinduoduo, but JD also set up 200,000 no-threshold East Coupons worth 30 yuan each, which is why we sold over a hundred thousand units."

Yan Peng explained with a smile.

He knew the boss had been watching whether Sister Chengzi phone's monthly sales could catch up with the Shencheng factory's production capacity, so as soon as the JD flagship store went live, he hurried over to report.

Chen Yansen smiled. Since Liu Qiangdong was dipping into his own pocket to help with sales, there was no need for him to pursue the matter of JD breaking the price.

Yan Peng had been poached from Mama Ali by Wang Xueting. He used to be the operations director for Huaguo suppliers under Ali Baba, at the P8 level.

To win him over, Chen Yansen offered an annual salary of 1.2 million yuan, plus 100,000 stock options, vested over four years.

Sister Chengzi Tech's current option valuation is 9 US dollars per share, which works out to an annual salary of over 2.6 million Huayuan for Yan Peng.

Once Sister Chengzi Tech's valuation rises, Yan Peng's income will rise with it.

This is the magic of equity incentives!

Two and a half years later, when Mama Ali went public, Hangcheng saw over a thousand new millionaires and more than three hundred multimillionaires overnight.

Chen Yansen also planned to roll out an employee stock ownership plan similar to Fox Taobao in subsequent fundraising rounds, but the timing wasn't right yet.

"What were Sister Chengzi phone's total online sales yesterday?" Chen Yansen asked.

"74,000 units," Yan Peng answered.

"Alright, I got it," Chen Yansen said evenly.

Yan Peng understood, stood up, took his leave, and walked toward the door.

Afterward, Chen Yansen called Liu Qiangdong to thank him.

After all, the resource slots Yan Peng mentioned, apart from the webpage pop-up, were all freely given by Pretty Boy Dong.

Even though Liu Qiangdong was doing it for his own interests, judging by results rather than intent, Sister Chengzi Tech had genuinely reaped the benefits.

Unexpectedly, before Chen Yansen could speak, Liu Qiangdong laughed and said proactively: "Thank you, President Chen, for your support of JD. Next time there's a chance, I'll definitely visit Xucheng."

His words carried two layers of meaning: first, gratitude for Sister Chengzi's phone brand launching on JD, and second, a response to JD's entry into Pinduoduo.

Any other platform would certainly not have done this.

After all, this way, Pinduoduo benefits, but JD benefits even more.

Liu Qiangdong's thanks carried a measure of sincerity.

"President Liu, you're too kind. Since it's cooperation, it's meant to be mutually beneficial. I heard you've been in a foul mood lately?"

Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

"Isn't Ma Liyun just bullying people? Fox Taobao used to treat Taobao, JD, Suning, Yihaodian, and Amazon equally under your hand, but in Mama Ali's hands it's become a tool to suppress competitors. I don't think this new Fox Taobao will last!"

Liu Qiangdong got angry the moment this came up.

As the leading guide e-commerce platform, the new Fox Taobao absorbed Yitao and surpassed 10 million daily active users.

JD alone, through this single channel, did nearly 500 million in sales in October.

Who would have thought that after he merely complained a couple of times on Weibo, that bastard Wu Ming removed the JD system from the new Fox Taobao.

A few hundred million in sales, Liu Qiangdong hadn't taken it to heart, but the feeling of being looked down on was truly infuriating.

"Then fight back on Double Twelve," Chen Yansen said with a smile, stoking the fire.

"Acquiring new users is too hard. In terms of user scale, JD isn't even one-fifth of Taobao. To be honest with you, I've been thinking of copying the 0-yuan bargaining model for the new customer section."

Liu Qiangdong said this verbally, but he had long since had the product managers copy it. It was already in the testing phase and about to launch.

Mentioning it was just to save face.

"If President Liu finds it useful, feel free to use it."

Chen Yansen agreed readily.

This thing couldn't be patented. Besides the time and manpower spent on R&D, platforms like JD and Taobao could easily replicate it, and he couldn't stop them.

Yihaodian and Yixun's 0-yuan bargaining modules had already gone live.

But this thing, anyone can do it, yet not everyone can play it well.

What he had previously set up on Fox Taobao was only the 1.0 version; the 2.0 version that plays with people's hearts hadn't launched yet.

The idea itself isn't worth much; what matters is who executes it better.

"Haha, then I have to thank President Chen again. So generous! Come to Yanjing sometime, I'll set it up."

Liu Qiangdong nodded with satisfaction and extended an invitation to Chen Yansen.

"Sure, we'll talk about it then," Chen Yansen said with a smile.

As their cooperation deepened, the two chatted more and more congenially, and the call lasted over an hour before they hung up.

"Damn! Pretty Boy Dong sure talks a lot of nonsense."

Chen Yansen put down his phone and couldn't help but grumble.

……

……

Yanjing, Xiaomi headquarters.

"President Lei, I think Xiaomi should also expand third-party sales channels. Relying solely on Xiaomi Mall limits traffic."

Seeing Sister Chengzi phone's astonishing sales on Taobao and JD, Li Wanqiang was tempted and, setting aside the previously set sales strategy, made the suggestion to Lei Yijun.

The Xiaomi phone hit the market one month later than Sister Chengzi's phone.

But Sister Chengzi's phone has already sold over 8 million units online, and breaking 10 million before 2012 is a sure thing.

Meanwhile, the Xiaomi phone is still struggling toward 1 million units in sales.

"You think Sister Chengzi's phone sales rely on new sales channels?" Lei Jun suppressed his emotions and asked helplessly.

By all rights, selling over 900,000 units in two months is no small feat for the Xiaomi phone.

But compared with Sister Chengzi's phone, his heart felt terribly stifled.

"Mr. Lei, I understand, but one more channel—even if it only sells 1,000 more units a day—still benefits the company."

Li Wanqiang said with a bitter smile, speaking slowly.

He understood the business logic behind it, and he also knew Lei Yi wanted to build the Xiaomi Mall into something big and strong, but the immediate priority right now was boosting the Xiaomi phone's online sales.

"You handle it as you see fit." After a long while, Lei Yi dropped this deliberately ambiguous line.

But Li Wanqiang knew him well enough to know that meant he agreed.

Li Wanqiang walked out of the office and immediately dialed Song Yuncheng's number.

Influenced by Chen Yansen, Xiaomi actually began laying out sales channels on third-party e-commerce platforms four years ahead of schedule.

And right out of the gate, it was three of them—flagship stores on Given Pinbei, Tao Bao, and Jingdong were all going to be opened.

With Oppo and Meizu also successively launching on Given Pinbei, this almost meant that domestic emerging phone makers were gradually abandoning the traditional retail model and shifting their sales focus online.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Upon learning the news that Jingdong was about to open a store on Given Pinbei, Ma Liyun was stunned for a moment, and only recovered after a long pause.

"They're both B2C platforms—how could Chen Yansen agree to that?"

Ma Yun asked, full of doubt, turning to Zhang Yong.

Letting a competitor's website open a store on your own platform was still the first such move in 2011.

"The more abnormal something seems, the more it looks like something he'd do. After all, he's the kind of guy who sells his company during the Growth phase—what wouldn't he do?"

Zhang Yong shook his head and said.

Ma Liyun hadn't expected that, after acquiring Fox Tao, he'd gained yet another rival.

Now that Given Pinbei and Jingdong were cooperating, he sensed a certain trend—presumably driven by venture capital firms behind the scenes.

""When Wu Ming reported work yesterday, he asked whether we should block Given Pinbei's merchants on Fox Tao—what do you think?" Ma Liyun asked again.

"Don't rush to decide. I'll have a chat with Chen Yansen."

Clearly, Zhang Yong didn't approve of suppressing Given Pinbei, but leaned toward finding opportunities to cooperate.

After all, he wasn't really one of Mama Ali's founders—though he seemed high-ranking and powerful, he was essentially just a senior employee.

From a business standpoint, he believed that leveraging the good relationship built during the earlier acquisition, cooperation should be the main approach.

Ma Yun frowned slightly, then quickly smoothed it out and said with a smile: "Then I'll leave it to you to handle.

Besides Jingdong, Mama Ali also has rivals like Suning, No. 1 Store, Yi Xun, and Pai Pai Net—one more Given Pinbei isn't a big deal.

After all, beyond comprehensive e-commerce, there are many Vertical category products e-commerce platforms competing with Mama Ali for market share.

So although Ma Liyun felt Given Pinbei's development speed—backed by Penguin and allied with Jingdong—was beyond imagination, he didn't pay it much mind.

His current focus was still on buying back the 40% stake in Mama Ali held by Yahoo, especially since Yang Zhiyuan had already softened his stance and they were now in the negotiation and pricing stage.

What Ma Liyun needed to do now was simply keep raising funds to complete the buyback, so that Mama Ali could go public according to his plan.

……

……

Chen Yansen didn't care what Ma Liyun thought—from the day he founded Given Pinbei, competition with Mama Ali was inevitable.

From a business standpoint, Mama Ali's tactics were nothing more than these:

First, market segmentation: increase the number of branded merchants launching on the Tao Bao Mall, while cutting traffic and merchant resources for other B2C platforms.

Second, trademark warfare and public opinion suppression: take this year's Double Eleven for example—Mama Ali had previously filed trademark registration applications for "Double Eleven" and "Double Eleven Carnival."

Jingdong squared off against Tao Bao on Double Eleven, and the very next day received a lawyer's letter from Mama Ali.

Simply put, Jingdong couldn't promote the "Double Eleven" big sale concept on its own site, or it would count as infringement.

Third, the "choose one of two" merchant recruitment tactic, forcing merchants into a multiple-choice question.

But Chen Yansen wasn't worried—for all three points, he had countermeasures.

Moreover, his goals differed from those of Ma Liyun and Liu Qiangdong.

Their core aim was to make money; Chen Yansen only wanted to scale up the profit model and increase headcount.

Right now, Chen Zong's top priority was hiring! Hiring! Hiring!

On the afternoon of the 30th, he received payroll confirmation reports from Sister Chengzi Tech, Given Pinbei, Yun Su, and the Sister Chengzi phone factory.

Sister Chengzi Tech had 347 employees, with labor costs of 9.39 million yuan—nearly 30,000 yuan per capita;

Given Pinbei Tech had 269 employees, with labor costs of 5.74 million yuan—just over 20,000 yuan per capita;

Yun Su had 9,478 employees, with labor costs of 63.18 million yuan—about 7,000 yuan per capita;

The Sister Chengzi phone factory had 6,241 employees, with labor costs of 44.61 million yuan—about 7,000 yuan per capita.

At this point, the total number of employees at companies under Chen Yansen's name was roughly 16,000, of which Yun Su Express and the Sister Chengzi phone factory accounted for over ninety percent.

Next month, there would be one more—Kuai Pao.

The Human Dao Torch for November totaled 12,292 wisps!

Converted into Divine Dao Torch, that was 1,228 wisps—Chen Yansen finally felt a hint of anticipation.

(End of this chapter)