Chapter 182

After the investment conference ended, Chen Yansen saw off Zhang Jindong, Liu Qiangdong, Xu Peixin, and others before returning to the 11th floor of Building 6.

"Sen-ge!"

"Boss!"

Department heads sat waiting in the office area; when they saw Chen Yansen step out of the elevator, they immediately stood up to greet him.

"Let's have a short meeting—everyone, give a quick update on your department's recent status."

After sitting down, Chen Yansen waved to the group and gave his instructions in a calm tone.

The others exchanged glances, then turned their eyes toward Song Yuncheng—the first employee of Pinbei and director of the Major Client Acquisition Department—who everyone was accustomed to hearing report first.

As of yesterday, Pinbei has 2, 94 merchant listings and 1, 36 branded listings; 3 S-tier brands, 222 A-tier, 419 B-tier, and 792 C-tier; the head effect is clear—the first 6 billion in sales revenue was generated by 91 top stores, accounting for 70 percent of total performance…

Song Yuncheng began speaking slowly.

"Yifeng, Yuncheng, speed up merchant acquisition. While top merchants are important, the combined output from mid-tier and tail merchants is no less significant."

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and turned his gaze toward Zhang Yifeng and Song Yuncheng.

Due to Zhang Yifeng's outstanding performance, he had been formally promoted from head of the Acquisition Team to director of the Acquisition Department, on par with Song Yuncheng's rank.

"Sen-ge, no problem. Also, I've sent the January hiring plan to Manager Xiong. The main reason for the slow progress is still insufficient staff."

Zhang Yifeng replied quickly.

Pinbei's growth was too fast—everyone was being used as if they were three people, each managing over a hundred merchants.

From signing contracts, collecting deposits, prepaying the first year's technical service fees, granting store permissions, to introducing marketing tools, acquisition required full-time follow-up—this workload was far from light.

"Manager Xiong, did you hear that? General Zhang is complaining to you!"

Chen Yansen turned to Xiong Li with a smile, teasing him.

He couldn't fathom how her parents thought—she was clearly smart and beautiful, yet had been given the name "Xiong Li."

"Boss, I didn't mean it that way," Zhang Yifeng chuckled, shooting Xiong Li an apologetic look.

"After New Year's Day, HR began preparing for next year's campus recruitment: first stop, Lucheng, focusing on Feicui Lake University City and the University of Science and Technology; second stop, Husheng, targeting Tongji, Jiaotong, Fudan, and East China Normal University; third stop, Yancheng, targeting Tsinghua, Peking, and Yancheng Institute of Technology."

"Additionally, interview slots on the first floor are fully booked every weekday—we estimate another 180 hires before the Spring Festival, bringing Pinbei's total staff to over 500."

Xiong Li smiled faintly and reported methodically.

Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Zhuang Rui, Hu Yun, and others felt immense pressure after hearing Xiong Li's report—their bachelor's degrees from Virtual Academy now seemed insignificant in the tech department.

With the front-end, back-end, product, and data departments still lacking confirmed directors or general managers, they understood clearly.

Chen Yansen was giving them a chance to grow—if time came and they didn't rise, they'd be promoted to director; if they failed, they'd be demoted back to team lead or ordinary engineer.

The recruits from social hiring had no shortage of project experience or programming skills—the psychological pressure they exerted was unimaginable.

Chen Yansen keenly noticed the shifts in their expressions but said nothing; instead, he turned to Zhuang Rui: "What about product?"

"Sen-ge, we've optimized two new mechanics based on the 0-yuan discount: the Cash Wheel and the Money Printer."

Zhuang Rui took a deep breath and explained with a smile: "The Cash Wheel assigns different bonus amounts based on each user's spending data. Users earn bonuses by inviting new users, registering inactive users, reactivating users who haven't logged in for 30 days, and engaging active users."

"The Money Printer works similarly—once users successfully assist, the printer speeds up. Besides inviting friends, tasks include placing orders, repurchasing, and browsing products, increasing user stickiness."

After speaking, Zhuang Rui opened his laptop and demonstrated live.

Before completing tasks, users always saw their bonus just shy by "0. 1," "0. 01," or even "0. 001"—under this temptation, they couldn't abandon their sunk costs and kept recruiting new users for Pinbei.

The tactics were ruthless, but the results were outstanding.

Yang Pinglun from Marketing and Cai Qiming from Design exchanged glances, then looked at Zhuang Rui with clear disdain, thinking: This kid never showed it, but he's a master of manipulating minds—sly as hell.

Zhuang Rui gave a forced laugh, silently protesting: This was all the boss's idea—I'm just executing it.

"Good. Once the features go live, send me the report links," Chen Yansen nodded.

These product designs, which would be overused a decade later, were still brilliant acquisition tools in 2011.

Chen Yansen had dozens of ideas for acquisition methods like 0-yuan purchases, 1-yuan purchases, and new-user subsidies.

But users acquired this way had low conversion, low retention, and low value—bad for the platform.

So Pinbei's new users still came mainly from QQ and WeChat's primary entry points, external ads, and internal acquisition methods like 0-yuan discounting.

If not for insufficient R&D staff, Chen Yansen would have launched a Pinbei Orchard to further boost existing users' referral motivation.

But after the Spring Festival, once Xiong Li completed campus recruitment, this product design could enter development scheduling.

Then Wang Zihao briefly outlined recent ad campaigns, scale, and output; once internal acquisition was on track, Chen Yansen cut external ad spending and redirected funds to the more effective 0-yuan discounting.

Afterwards, Wang Zihao briefly outlined the recent advertising plan, scale, and output; once internal user acquisition stabilized, Chen Yansen reduced external traffic buying and redirected funds toward the more effective zero-yuan discount campaigns.

Chen Yansen stood up abruptly, signaling the end of the meeting.

Back in his office.

Chen Yansen had just sat down when he received a call from Liu Zhiping.

"Congratulations, Pinbei has entered the top three e-commerce platforms," Liu Zhiping said with a smile.

"Martin-ge, top three? Only first place feels meaningful," Chen Yansen replied with a grin.

In 2011, Ali's annual sales reached 600 billion; JD. om stood at just over 100 billion; Amazon, 1Dian, Dangdang, Vancl, and Yixun combined couldn't match Ali's change.

In short, Ali dominated the e-commerce arena.

In 2011, the annual sales of the A Li ecosystem reached 600 billion, Jingdong exceeded 100 billion, and even when combined, Amazon, Yihaodian, Dangdang, Vancl, and Yixun fell short of A Li's change.

Paipai, which he and Ma Wenteng had pinned their hopes on, couldn't even break into the top ten—let alone challenge Ali. Even Hongzihai, which was trying to sell itself, had sales far exceeding Paipai's.

Chen Yansen smiled silently—he'd long said that Zheng Chunbin was useless and only shrinking Paipai's market share.

"Gaopeng is shutting down," Liu Zhiping said, sensing Chen Yansen's silence and changing the subject.

Backed by Groupon and Tencent, Gaopeng collapsed in less than a year—its mid-to-senior management was clearly a bunch of incompetents.

"Martin-ge, you're not trying to get me to take it over, are you?" Chen Yansen picked up the implication and asked with a smile.

"Pony has considered it, but thinks you're too busy, so he asked me to check if you're interested in the O2O industry. Tencent can provide funding and resources to launch a new company based on Gaopeng."

Liu Zhiping probed cautiously.

Paipai, Gaopeng, and QQ Group Buying had all failed, making him and Ma Wenteng realize one thing: success depended entirely on who ran the project.

Chen Yansen, who kept winning, was clearly their best candidate.

"But I'm more confident in the food delivery sector," Chen Yansen replied.

Before the group-buying war ended, he had no interest in wading into the chaos—it was time-consuming, labor-intensive, costly, and the business model was flawed.

In his view, group-buying sites merely expanded merchants' reach and increased customer flow—they brought no real incremental value and instead squeezed profit margins in the catering industry.

Before the thousand-group war decided its winner, he had no interest in jumping in—wasting time, effort, and money, and the business model hadn't even been properly figured out.

Food delivery was different—if he introduced the pre-storage model combined with delivery mechanics, he could disrupt the entire e-commerce landscape.

"Food delivery?" Liu Zhiping paused—he'd heard Chen Yansen invested in a food delivery site called Kuai Pao, but lost interest after learning its model.

"Food delivery and group buying are essentially the same type of product, but food delivery's model is superior. For example, a hotpot set from Hai Di Lao—on a group-buying site, users still have to go to the physical store; with delivery, it comes right to their door."

Chen Yansen avoided the core issue and focused on the highest-volume catering category, insisting that group-buying vouchers, meal bundles, and similar tactics could all be implemented within a food delivery ecosystem.

These seemingly simple strategies, if unexposed, wouldn't be thought of for another five to six years.

Liu Zhiping smiled—he understood food delivery and group buying had overlaps, but travel, entertainment, and experiences requiring physical presence couldn't be replaced by delivery.

"Are you trying to get Tencent to abandon local life services and shift entirely to Kuai Pao?" Liu Zhiping asked with a smile.

"That depends on what Ma Zong and Liu Zong decide. All I can say is, I'll invest more energy and capital into food delivery," Chen Yansen replied evasively.

If Kuai Pao got Tencent's traffic resources, its launch would be much faster.

If Ma Wenteng wasn't interested, Chen Yansen didn't care.

"I'll talk to Pony first and let you know when I have results. Also, Chen Jiahai from Quanfeng Express wants to meet you—he wants to team up with Yunsu to challenge the 'Three Passes and One Reach.'"

Liu Zhiping paused, then said.

Chen Jiahai?

"I'll communicate with Pony first and let you know once there's a result. Also, Chen Jiahai from Fengfeng Express wants to meet you to discuss a partnership with Yunsu to challenge the Big Three and One Reach."

Chen Yansen remembered Liu Zhiping had mediated before—Chen Jiahai had even tried to raise Yunsu's minimum order fee back to its original price. The rumor that Tencent had invested in Quanfeng Express was almost certainly true.

"Tell him to contact Liao Wei—I'll give him a heads-up," Chen Yansen said, giving Liu Zhiping face on this matter.

After receiving the reply, Liu Zhiping hung up.

Chen Yansen put down his phone and called Wang Teng, instructing him to arrange the new product launch as soon as possible, aiming to bring the Orange C2 and Orange D1 to market before the Spring Festival.

"Got it, Sen-ge. We sent invitations to suppliers and Zhou Zong at DST last week—the event is set for January 6th, same venue: the rooftop banquet hall of the Sky Garden." Wang Teng replied immediately.

"You'll host it this time," Chen Yansen assigned.

Chen Yansen put down his phone and called Wang Teng, instructing him to arrange the new product launch as soon as possible, aiming to bring the Orange C2 and Orange D1 to market before the Spring Festival.

"Don't forget—you're still drawing the salary of Marketing Director," Chen Yansen teased.

"Fine, no problem!" Wang Teng gritted his teeth and agreed.

Orange Tech had already secured its position in the industry—he no longer needed to be its face. Tying the product to the boss for marketing meant success made you Lei Jun, failure made you Dong Mingzhu.

Once the persona collapsed, the product was dead.

Pulling back now and delegating to Wang Teng gave him breathing room—after all, the launch didn't require him personally.

Orange Tech had already secured its footing in the industry; he no longer needed to personally endorse it—tying product and CEO together for marketing meant success made you Lei Jun, failure made you Dong Mingzhu.

After a month of recruiting, Kuai Pao had moved from Feicui Lake University City into the white-collar market, standing on equal footing with Ele. e.

On Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street, university districts, Sanxiaokou, and Yuan Yi Times Square, numerous part-time college students stood in the cold wind, handing out flyers.

"Kuai Pao: Free Meal for You!"

The copy was highly attractive—new users got 12 yuan off their first order, free delivery, and could get free food from Lucheng's hottest spots: Fang Yan's Roasted Pig Trotters and Kawa Kawa milk tea—all for 0 yuan.

At intersections along Huaihe Road Pedestrian Street, the university district, Sanxiaokou, and Yuan Yi Times Square, many part-time college students stood in the cold wind, handing out flyers to passersby.

"Kuai Pao invites you to eat for free!"

The copy was highly attractive: new users got 12 yuan off their first order, free delivery, and could now eat Lucheng's most popular Fang Yan Grilled Pig's Trotters and Kawan Kaa milk tea for free.

"Hey, buddy, what's this 'Kuai Pao' thing? Can you really eat for free?"

A young man who had taken a flyer asked curiously.

"Have you heard of Orange Phone and Pinbei Mall? They're run by the same boss as Kuai Pao—powerful and totally trustworthy."

The college student handing out flyers quickly assured him.

"Free drinks at Kawan Ka? Really?"

Nearby passersby, seeing this, gathered around, voluntarily took a flyer, and immediately scanned the code to download the app.

On the other side.

In the commercial district of Luzhou, where office buildings cluster, many ground promoters stood at the park's entrance, handing out flyers to commuting workers and promoting Kuai Pao's new-user campaign.

(End of Chapter)