Chapter 196: Capture the Fast, Enter the 1-Yuan Express Era! (Request Monthly >)

January 9th, the winter break arrived, and the Virtual Academy was eerily quiet.

Chen Yansen wore a high-neck black sweater and casually draped a light gray suit jacket over his shoulders as he left Room 0418 and headed downstairs.

In the depths of winter, small puddles on the ground had frozen solid, and the withered yellow grass was dusted with a fine layer of frost.

Click.

Chen Yansen opened the car door, slid into the driver's seat of the Bentley, and drove toward the Technology Park.

Along the way, pedestrians and vehicles were scarce; only company shuttles continuously shuttled between the east gate of the Virtual Academy and the Technology Park.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen parked on the first floor and walked straight into Building 8.

"Morning, boss!" Gao Weilin sat in the lounge, sipping coffee; upon seeing Chen Yansen enter, he immediately stood up to greet him.

"Gao, I've told you countless times—this is mainland China, not Hong Kong."

Chen Yansen smiled and walked over to tease him.

"Then why do you insist on calling me 'Old Gao'?"

Everyone calls me Dylan!

Gao Weilin chuckled awkwardly but dared not argue—he had no choice; Chen Yansen paid too well.

His December salary plus quarterly bonus totaled over three hundred thousand yuan.

Working for a boss like Chen Yansen, who spent money so freely, Gao didn't even mind overtime.

Besides, wasn't there overtime pay?

"How's the development progress of KuaiDi Taxi?" Chen Yansen pulled over a chair and sat down to ask.

"Expected to enter testing in March. Cheng Weixing isn't overly concerned about equity; after negotiations, Senlian Capital invested 21 million yuan for a 65% stake, while Cheng Weixing invested 9 million yuan for a 35% stake…"

Gao Weilin pulled a draft equity agreement from the file bag beside him and handed it to Chen Yansen.

"65%?"

Chen Yansen furrowed his brow slightly—he hadn't expected this outcome.

"That's right. Senlian's capital stake dominates, but we conceded another 5% to account for Cheng Weixing's human capital contribution."

Gao Weilin, assuming Chen Yansen was dissatisfied, quickly explained.

In his view, Cheng Weixing was merely a minor project lead; since Fan Cheng Tech's founding, only one game had turned a profit.

And due to Fan Cheng Tech's fragmented equity structure, Cheng Weixing hadn't made much money either.

In short, Senlian Capital's willingness to partner with Cheng Weixing on KuaiDi Taxi was a tremendous opportunity granted to him.

It was like Ma Wenteng in 2000 approaching Guangdong Telecom, trying to sell QQ for one million yuan.

At the early stage of any product's development, who could predict its future potential?

Chen Yansen smiled and shook his head, thinking: "No wonder I'd never heard of Cheng Weixing—given his understanding of equity allocation, being kicked out of management was entirely normal."

"Boss, are you dissatisfied? Should I talk to Cheng Weixing again and raise Senlian's stake to 70%? It's just a draft contract anyway—nothing binding."

Seeing Chen Yansen's expression, Gao Weilin added hastily, assuming he was unhappy with the equity split.

"Leave it as is."

Chen Yansen spoke calmly.

With Cheng Weixing's current capital, he couldn't withstand two rounds of financing—his equity would be diluted below 20%.

No need to rush; pushing too hard might backfire.

In fact, entrepreneurs like Cheng Weixing weren't rare in the industry.

Take Liu Qiangdong: when Xu Xin of Jintai Capital asked him how much Jingdong was worth, she was probing his valuation floor.

Instead, the handsome Liu had his finance team calculate total assets, excluding liabilities, then reported only the sum of book balance and fixed assets.

He had zero concept of premium or valuation.

"Boss, I think Cheng Weixing's management is fine—he just lacks financial knowledge. We should find him a reliable CFO."

Gao Weilin nodded and added.

After all, he'd given Cheng Weixing 5% human equity—if Cheng's growth fell short of the boss's expectations, it would reflect poorly on his own judgment.

"Any recommendations?"

Chen Yansen smiled faintly—he saw right through Gao Weilin's subtle motive.

"I have a classmate who's a finance manager at a subsidiary of Cheung Kong Holdings. He graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and holds both CPA and ACCA certifications."

Gao Weilin chuckled nervously and gave a serious introduction.

"If it's a recommendation from Director Gao, I'll meet him." Chen Yansen nodded slightly.

Someone who could survive under Li Ka-shing couldn't be incompetent.

"Thank you, boss," Gao Weilin said gratefully.

"At two this afternoon, come with me to Lucheng. I've already settled the equity swap issue with Meng Yuanzhi."

Chen Yansen rose slowly and added casually.

"Understood. I'll head back immediately and pull staff from finance and legal."

Gao Weilin wiped the smile off his face, adopting a serious, alert posture.

Dealing with the Central Bureau, especially with a local venture capital firm in Lucheng, demanded heightened caution.

"Bring Meng Jie along." Chen Yansen tossed out the remark and strolled toward the elevator.

"Yes, boss."

Gao Weilin called out loudly.

Song Yuncheng was at Pinbei, Meng Jie at Orange Tech—and both girls were quite capable.

Gao Weilin couldn't help but admire Chen Yansen's tactics, though similar practices weren't unusual in Hong Kong.

He didn't dwell on it; back in finance, he immediately assembled the negotiation team for Lucheng.

Chen Yansen entered his office, logged into Pinbei's backend data, and checked the new-user conversion rates for the newly launched "Cash Wheel" and "Money Printer."

Surprisingly, the "Money Printer" outperformed the "Cash Wheel" by ten percentage points; after a 20% traffic split test, "Cash Wheel" now accounted for 40% of new-user exposure, while "Money Printer" held 60%.

Together, they brought over one million new users daily; combined with traffic from QQ and WeChat portals and external ad buys, daily new-user growth remained steady at 3 to 3. million.

The proportion of new users from QQ and WeChat's primary entry points was steadily declining.

It wasn't that Ma Wenteng was secretly throttling Pinbei—he simply couldn't; the internet and e-commerce user base in 2012 had its natural ceiling.

Pinbei's cumulative registered users stood at 190 million, daily active users at 34 million, daily orders at 10 million, and sales exceeding 700 million yuan.

Excluding digital and appliance orders, the average order value was just over 30 yuan—clearly, Pinbei's low-price products still dominated.

Pinbei's staggering sales volume hit the express delivery industry hardest.

Although only 60–70% of Pinbei's merchants used YunSu Express, YunSu's daily pickup volume exceeded 7 million parcels.

Nationwide, daily express deliveries totaled roughly 22 million.

In other words, YunSu's market share had reached 31. %.

Chen Yansen knew this market share had been bought with a 1. -yuan minimum order price.

YunSu Express lost a hundred million yuan per month, but the impact was undeniable—now, at least half of Taobao C-store, Taobao Mall, and Jingdong POP merchants had switched their delivery partner to YunSu.

Though the "Three Passes and One Reach" also offered 1. -yuan rates, their delivery speed was poor and they didn't provide door-to-door service, leading to frequent negative reviews.

YunSu Express was different: its pricing matched the "Three Passes and One Reach," but its service rivaled SF Express.

Although Chen Dejun and others required franchise outlets to enforce door-to-door delivery, many frontline couriers earned only half of what YunSu employees made.

Pay what you get.

Headquarters sets rules; local outlets find workarounds.

Once complaints piled up, couriers simply took off their uniforms and walked out.

Franchise owners dared not force them to deliver door-to-door.

In just two weeks, the "Three Passes and One Reach" lost a third of their market share.

Meanwhile,

In Shanghai, Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao of Yuantong Express sat in their office sipping tea.

"Zheng Shengyu at the Postal Association does nothing, letting YunSu run wild. I say we slash prices to 0. yuan per parcel—Liao Wei doesn't want us to live, then we won't let him live either."

Yu Weijiao took a sip of tea, slammed the cup down hard on the tray, eyes blazing with fury as he suggested.

"0. yuan is ridiculous. Dropping to one yuan is worth considering."

Chen Dejun was anxious inside, but he maintained a calm facade before Yu Weijiao.

"Wait—you're serious?"

Yu Weijiao froze—he hadn't expected Chen Dejun to actually consider further price cuts.

His 0. -yuan suggestion had been pure rage talk.

"Zheng Shengyu wants to sit back and watch us fight—how easy does he think it is? If he won't step in, we'll force him to."

Chen Dejun snorted, speaking with hidden intent.

Yu Weijiao frowned—he couldn't grasp it yet; one yuan per parcel wouldn't even cover courier wages, let alone make franchise owners happy.

That afternoon,

The headquarters of Shentong and Yuantong announced nationwide: for parcels under 1 kg, the price per parcel would drop from 1. yuan to 1 yuan.

"One yuan? How the hell are we supposed to operate?"

Terminal station owners protested; previously, when prices dropped to 1. yuan, delivery fees for e-commerce parcels had been cut to 0. yuan, and they paid couriers 0. yuan per parcel.

A single phone call cost 0. yuan—this price barely covered dropping parcels at the community gate, let alone door-to-door delivery.

Now headquarters slashed delivery fees to 0. yuan per parcel; owners still needed profit, so they could only offer couriers 0. –0. yuan per parcel as commission.

After a full day's work, excluding pickups, delivery earnings amounted to only 50–60 yuan.

This little money isn't even worth begging for.

The market has been preserved, but service quality has shrunk drastically, and package loss and damage cases have become increasingly severe.

As Chen Yansen was on his way to Lucheng.

Liao Wei, just discharged from the hospital, called: "Boss, Shentong and Yuantong have dropped their price to one yuan per parcel—should we follow?"

"What about Yunda and Zhongtong?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Still one point five," Liao Wei replied.

"Don't lower the price for now. As long as the decline in business volume doesn't exceed ten percent, maintain the price at 1. yuan."

Chen Yansen instructed.

One point five yuan is nearly the cost price; dropping to one yuan would not only fail to cover equipment and transportation costs but also fail to ensure stable income for the couriers below.

The essence of express delivery is to quickly and accurately deliver items from sender to recipient, not to engage in extreme price wars.

If service cannot be guaranteed, no matter how cheap the price, merchants and customers won't dare use it.

"Understood, Boss. I'll keep you updated if anything new comes up."

Liao Wei nodded in agreement.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and didn't give much thought to the Tongda group's price adjustments, then hung up.

Express delivery isn't his main business; he can still bear the loss of one hundred million yuan per month.

It's unknown whether the Three Passes and One Reach can hold out.

(End of Chapter)