Chapter 177: Old Ma: Qiangdong Is Bringing the Wolf Right Into His House! (Thanks to Nuan

"President, here are the social security payment records for Yun Su Express—14,735 active employees. Beyond the standard five insurances and one housing fund, there's also commercial health insurance."

At the headquarters of the Postal Association, the secretary handed the document to the president.

"Yun Su's monthly labor cost alone exceeds 100 million yuan. How long do you think it can hold out?"

Zheng Shengyu looked at the secretary and asked with a smile.

"Yun Su has Senlian Capital backing it, so holding on for a few years is no problem. Besides, its expansion speed is so fast that once it builds a scale advantage, even if the unit price drops another 0.5 yuan, it can still keep operations running normally."

The secretary replied with a smile.

"Let them fight it out. The private express delivery sector doesn't need too many players—especially not companies that refuse to pay social insurance for their employees."

Zheng Shengyu smiled, squinting as he spoke.

Previously, when he tried to talk with the heads of the Three Tong and One Da, they always used high costs and intense competitive pressure as excuses, claiming that paying social insurance for their couriers would bankrupt the company.

Since their profitability is already this poor, it might as well let Yun Su weed them out.

Meanwhile.

Upon receiving the news, Wang Wei of Shunfeng couldn't help but furrow his brow.

Though they belonged to the same express delivery industry, Shunfeng leveraged advantages like high timeliness, broad coverage, and door-to-door delivery to pull far ahead of the Three Tong and One Da in service quality, building its own competitive moat.

But Yun Su had also rolled out door-to-door delivery, and some users who didn't demand high timeliness abandoned Shunfeng and chose Yun Su instead.

Even though such users made up a small share, it gave Wang Wei a sense of crisis.

"Notify the marketing department—cut the standard pricing of Shunfeng's special-discount single tickets by 10%. Get it adjusted within the week."

Wang Wei instructed his assistant.

The competition between Yun Su and the Three Tong and One Da had already spilled over to Shunfeng. If they didn't cut prices soon, Yun Su would likely bite off a chunk of Shunfeng's business too.

At the same time.

At Mama Ali's headquarters in Hangcheng.

Ma Liyun, Zhang Yong, Cai Xin, and several other founders were in a conference room, eating breakfast while discussing the Double Twelve sales reports of the various e-commerce platforms.

"Pinduoduo helped Jingdong sell 190 million yuan in merchandise? Liu Qiangdong is bringing the wolf into the house."

Ma Liyun commented with a smile.

Logically, the partnership between Pinduoduo and Jingdong was bound to impact Taobao.

But Pinduoduo was growing too fast, and this dazzling report card was bound to make Liu Qiangdong suspicious.

Moreover, after seeing Pinduoduo's sales capability in the high-ticket segment, Jingdong's self-operated suppliers would likely ditch Jingdong and set up shop on Pinduoduo directly.

After all, when the goods are in their own hands, why let Jingdong pocket the price difference?

"Pinduoduo is growing too fast. Chen Yansen—this man's ability and tactics far surpass Zheng Chunbin of Paipai. We have to be on guard."

At this moment, Zhang Yong set down his chopsticks and reminded them with a serious expression.

It was precisely because he recognized Chen Yansen that he understood the threat this man posed to Taobao.

Both backed by the Penguin, Paipai kept getting worse, yet Pinduoduo, in less than a month, broke into the top three e-commerce platforms at the critical Double Twelve juncture. Chen Yansen's operational skill was plain to see.

"He wants to copy Taobao from three years ago—drive traffic with low-priced goods—yet doesn't want to give up brand merchants. How can he have it both ways?"

Ma Liyun shook his head with a smile, seeing through Pinduoduo's platform positioning at a glance, and scoffed coldly.

Low prices often meant low quality and counterfeit goods. Mama Ali had gone to great lengths to build Taobao Mall precisely to break away from small sellers and steer traffic toward mid- and top-tier big sellers.

First, through tools like deposits, technical service fees, category commissions, Zhitongche, Zuanzhan, and Super Recommendations, the group could boost its profitability and cash flow;

second, it could also clean up the rampant counterfeits and low-quality goods on the platform.

After all, if Mama Ali wanted to list on NASDAQ, it had to first resolve the trust crisis that counterfeit issues might trigger.

Paipai had never been able to take off precisely because its C2C business share was too high—too many counterfeits and low-quality goods, seriously hurting the user experience.

As major comprehensive e-commerce and vertical e-commerce players rose, it was gradually abandoned by users.

"But for now, Pinduoduo seems to be holding up okay in this regard."

Zhang Yong replied.

"That's because Pinduoduo's order volume was small before, and the problems hadn't surfaced yet. Once Double Twelve passes, if Pinduoduo doesn't handle it well, it will definitely get called in for a talk by the Market Supervision Association."

Ma Liyun said with conviction—Mama Ali had gone through all these stages itself.

"Sister Chengzi Tech's Taobao flagship store hit 230 million yuan in sales yesterday." Zhang Yong said slowly.

"Tell the marketing department to speed up bringing in other phone brands. I refuse to believe they won't be tempted after seeing Sister Chengzi Phone's results."

Ma Liyun said calmly.

He wouldn't suppress Sister Chengzi Tech just because of Pinduoduo, but bringing in other brands to divert traffic from Sister Chengzi Phone was something that had to be done.

Sure enough, Xiaomi's Li Wanqiang showed up at Mama Ali's marketing department that afternoon to discuss the opening of a Xiaomi flagship store on the platform.

After learning that Sister Chengzi Phone had sold 600 million yuan across three online channels—Pinduoduo, Taobao, and Jingdong—in a single day, with a stunning volume of nearly 300,000 units, Huawei, HTC, and Ku Sect and others all held meetings to explore the feasibility of expanding third-party sales channels.

Song Yuncheng, who was in Xucheng, also received a call from Li Wanqiang.

"Right, exactly! Xiaomi wants to set up shop on Pinduoduo, and we can drop the price to 1,919 yuan. For the resource slot configuration on launch day, we'll have to count on President Song's help."

Li Wanqiang said with a smile.

Due to poor sales, Xiaomi Phone's official price had already dropped from the original 1,999 yuan to 1,969 yuan, and during promotions it cost as little as 1,949 yuan.

But the 1,919-yuan price was still a first.

Previously on Fox Tao, Xiaomi had sold at an ultra-low 1,899 yuan, but with conditions: first, only Fox Tao F5 diamond-tier users qualified to buy; second, Fox Tao subsidized 10 yuan per unit through advertising fees.

Now, openly selling at 1,919 yuan shows just how much pressure Lei Yi is under.

"President Li, rest assured—within my authority, I'll definitely secure the most on-platform resources for Xiaomi."

Song Yuncheng agreed readily.

But to Li Wanqiang's ears, the words were maddeningly vague. He wanted to know the specific resource slot data and configuration—was it pop-ups, focus banners, or floating windows? Yet Song Yuncheng deliberately avoided answering.

Li Wanqiang thought for a moment, then suddenly caught on, and tentatively said he'd offer 10 million yuan in marketing fees.

Song Yuncheng stopped beating around the bush immediately; the two of them had a preliminary phone discussion and nailed down the store-opening time and the resource package configuration.

Li Wanqiang couldn't help a sheepish laugh: "This Song Yuncheng really is someone Chen Yansen trained — he truly won't cast his net until he sees the rabbit."

After the call, Song Yuncheng hung up and sent the template contract the legal team had prepared to Li Wanqiang.

Both sides' legal teams confirmed everything was in order, and they signed the onboarding contract.

Afterwards, Song Yuncheng left his workstation, stepped into the elevator, and headed to the 11th floor.

"Boss, Xiaomi phones want to join PinBei, and on top of the deposit they're adding another 10 million yuan in ad spend, to be used as marketing funds for buying resource slots for the New Year's Day store opening."

Song Yuncheng stood at the open office door, knocked first, and only entered to make his report after Chen Yansen nodded.

"Looks like President Lei's pressure is no small matter — Xiaomi's been live nearly four months and has only 1.3 million units in sales, so they have no choice but to expand into new channels."

Chen Yansen leaned back and gestured for Song Yuncheng to close the door.

"More than that! Li Wanqiang said that on opening day, Xiaomi phones will be sold at 1,919 yuan — does Sister Chengzi's phone price need to be adjusted?"

Song Yuncheng pulled over a chair, sat down, and asked.

"No need. Xiaomi cutting prices won't affect Sister Chengzi phone sales."

Chen Yansen was quite confident.

The engineering test versions of Chengzi c2 and Chengzi d1 have already been shipped to the tech park; the test group's engineers are running hardware tests, and once confirmed, they'll go on limited sale at Chengzi Shangcheng.

When the time comes, based on the usage feedback from the first batch of seed users, they'll draw up the first-phase production plan.

The official sale date is estimated to collide with the launch of the Apple 4s China-version.

It'll be Chengzi Tech's first clash with Apple — after all, when the Chengzi c1 was released, the Apple 4 had already been on the market for nearly a year.

"Then I'll head back to work." Seeing that Chen Yansen wasn't worried in the slightest, Song Yuncheng prepared to get up and leave.

"Come out with me." Chen Yansen said.

"Something work-related?" Song Yuncheng asked back.

"If it's not work, do you still dare not go?" Chen Yansen lightly furrowed his brow, smiling as he looked at Song Yuncheng.

"..." Faced with the blatant threat, Song Yuncheng put on an apologetic smile, while inwardly cursing Chen Yansen up one side and down the other.

"Zhao Maolin of China Telecom is about to be promoted and leave Xucheng, and right on schedule the Chengzi c2 and Chengzi d1 are nearing their sale date — get it?"

Chen Yansen saw her looking like she dared to be angry but not speak out, and explained with a smile.

Put simply, he wanted to leverage Zhao Maolin and the influence of the boss behind him to add sales channels for Chengzi Tech.

Take Lenovo as an example — they barely have a few popular models, yet they rank among the top in smartphone shipments, all thanks to the powerful connections of the three major carriers.

Just selling contract phones alone earns them a fortune!

Moreover, the three major carriers' own and partner business halls across the country number over a hundred thousand — every one of them is a prime 'sales floor.'

Chen Yansen naturally didn't want to pass that up!

Who wouldn't want to lie back and earn money comfortably?

"Got it, so what time do we leave?" Song Yuncheng, hearing it was proper business, hurriedly agreed.

"Half an hour from now, the Sky Garden — here's the key."

Chen Yansen tossed the Bentley car key to Song Yuncheng, clearly intending to use her as both driver and secretary.

Song Yuncheng caught the key, stood up, and walked out.

……

……

In the JD supplier mega-group, Xiaoer posted the Double 12 leaderboard compiled by the data department into the group.

"Gree, 37 million!"

"HP, 21 million!"

"Lenovo, 43 million!"

"Dell, 19 million!"

These sales figures in the tens of millions were stimulating the small and mid-sized sellers in the group; just as they were heatedly discussing, a small home-appliance brand from Foshan suddenly chimed in: "Gree and Aux's sales are about the same."

That line made Xiaoer frown hard — Aux had only sold 8.3 million on JD, far short of Gree.

But Aux's air conditioners had racked up a terrifying 23.2 million in performance on PinBei's 10,000-person group-buy event!

Xiaoer understood, and the brand reps lurking in the group understood too.

A dozen seconds later, that brand's operations person hurriedly recalled the message, then added: "Sorry, sent it by mistake, ignore!"

It was obvious these suppliers were privately discussing PinBei's Double 12 output.

"What is Aux even worth in the air-conditioning industry?"

Seeing this, Gree's e-commerce head Zheng Zhou gave a cold snort, muttered something under his breath, then began pulling strings to proactively reach out to PinBei's key-account recruitment department, with plans to join.

(End of chapter)