Chapter 196: Take Down Kuaidi, Plunge Into the One-Yuan Express Era

On January 9th, winter break arrived, and the virtual campus was utterly quiet.

Chen Yansen wore a black turtleneck sweater with a light-gray suit jacket tossed casually over it, left 0418, and headed downstairs.

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

Click!

Chen Yansen pulled open the car door, settled into the Bentley's driver's seat, and drove toward the tech park.

Along the way, pedestrians and vehicles were few; only company shuttles kept running back and forth between the virtual campus's east gate and the tech park.

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

"Morning, boss!" Gao Weilin was sitting in the lounge area, drinking coffee. Spotting Chen Yansen coming in, he hurriedly stood up and greeted him.

"Old Gao, how many times have I told you—this is the mainland, that Hong Kong routine doesn't fly here."

Chen Yansen smiled and walked over, teasing him.

Then why do you insist on calling me Old Gao?

Everyone calls me Dylan!

Gao Weilin laughed sheepishly, but he didn't dare argue back—there was nothing he could do about it; Chen Yansen paid far too well.

With December's salary plus the quarterly bonus, he had taken home over three hundred thousand.

Working under a boss as generous as Chen Yansen, Old Gao didn't have a single complaint even about overtime.

Besides, wasn't there still overtime pay?

"How's the R&D progress on Kuaidi Dache?" Chen Yansen pulled over a chair, sat down, and asked.

"It's expected to enter the testing phase in March. Cheng Weixing doesn't place that much weight on equity. After discussions, Senlian Capital put in 21 million for a 65% stake, and Cheng Weixing put in 9 million for 35%…"

Gao Weilin pulled an equity agreement from the document bag beside him and handed it to Chen Yansen.

"65%?"

Chen Yansen's brow furrowed slightly—he hadn't expected this situation.

"That's right. Senlian's capital share takes the lion's portion, but considering Cheng Weixing's human-capital factor, we gave up another 5% to the other side."

Gao Weilin, thinking Chen Yansen was dissatisfied, hurriedly explained.

From his perspective, Cheng Weixing was nothing more than a small project lead; after Fancheng Technology was founded, only one game had turned a profit.

And because Fancheng Technology's equity was spread thin, Cheng Weixing hadn't made much money either.

Put plainly, Senlian Capital's willingness to cooperate with Cheng Weixing on the Kuaidi Dache project was giving him a tremendous opportunity.

This was just like Ma Wenteng in 2000 finding Guangdong Telecom and trying to sell QQ for one million.

When a product is in its early project initiation stage, who can predict its future prospects?

Chen Yansen smiled and shook his head, thinking: "No wonder I've never heard of Cheng Weixing. With his grasp of equity distribution, getting kicked out of management would be perfectly normal."

"Boss, are you not satisfied? How about I talk to Cheng Weixing again and bump 65% up to 70%? It's only a draft contract anyway, it doesn't count."

Gao Weilin, seeing this, assumed Chen Yansen was unhappy with the equity split ratio and immediately added.

"Let's leave it as is."

Chen Yansen said flatly.

With the funds Cheng Weixing has on hand, he can't withstand two rounds of financing—his equity share will get diluted to under 20%.

There's no need to rush; pressing too hard will only backfire.

In reality, entrepreneurs like Cheng Weixing aren't rare in the industry.

Take Liu Qiangdong as an example; back then, when Xu Xin of Today's Capital asked him how much JD. com was worth, the subtext was that she wanted to probe Liu Qiangdong's valuation floor.

But Pretty Boy Dong turned around and had finance start tallying the company's total assets, even stripping out the negative assets, and finally reported a sum of the account balance plus fixed assets.

He had absolutely no concept of premium or valuation.

"Boss, I think Cheng Weixing's management level is fine—he just lacks finance-related knowledge. We need to find him a reliable steward."

Gao Weilin acknowledged, then continued.

After all, he had granted Cheng Weixing a 5% human capital share; if Cheng Weixing's ability to expand fell short of the boss's expectations, wouldn't that reflect poorly on his own judgment?

"Do you have a candidate to recommend?"

Chen Yansen chuckled lightly, seeing right through Gao Weilin's little scheme at a glance.

"I have a classmate who serves as a finance manager at a subsidiary under Cheung Kong Holdings. He graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic and holds both a CPA and an ACCA certification."

Gao Weilin gave a dry laugh and introduced him earnestly.

"Since it's recommended by Mr. Gao, I'll meet him." Chen Yansen nodded slightly.

Anyone who can make a living under Li Chaoren's hand can't be lacking in ability.

"Thank you, boss." Gao Weilin said gratefully upon hearing this.

"At two this afternoon, come with me to Luzhou. The equity swap issue with Jingdongfang, I've already wrapped up with Meng Yuanzhi."

Chen Yansen rose slowly and casually instructed.

"Understood. I'll head back right now and pull people from the finance and legal departments."

Gao Weilin wiped the smile off his face, looking every bit the part of someone bracing for battle.

Dealing with the Central Authority, and the partner being a local Luzhou venture capital firm—he had no choice but to stay on high alert.

"Bring Meng Jie along." After dropping that line, Chen Yansen strolled leisurely toward the elevator.

"Got it, boss."

Gao Weilin called out loudly.

Song Yuncheng is at Pinbei, Meng Jie is at Sister Chengzi's tech company—and the key thing is both young ladies are quite capable.

Gao Weilin couldn't help but admire Chen Yansen's way of playing the game, though similar situations were nothing new in Hong Kong either.

He didn't overthink it. Back at the finance department, he immediately assembled the negotiation team headed for Luzhou.

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

Unexpectedly, the Money Printer's new-user acquisition effect was ten percentage points higher than the Cash Wheel's; after a 20% traffic split test, the Cash Wheel's new-user display share was currently 40%, while the Money Printer's was 60%.

Each day, it brought over one million new users to the platform; combined with traffic entrances from QQ and WeChat, plus external ad buys, daily new-user growth remained steady at 3 to 3.5 million.

The proportion of new users provided by QQ and WeChat's primary entrances was steadily decreasing.

It wasn't that Ma Wenteng was secretly sabotaging Pianbei by limiting traffic—it was simply that the number of internet and e-commerce users in 2012 had its own upper limit.

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

Excluding digital appliance orders, the average order value was only slightly over 30 yuan, showing that Pianbei's low-priced products still dominated the market.

Pianbei's terrifying sales volume affected the express delivery industry the most.

Although only sixty to seventy percent of Pianbei's merchants used Yunsu Express, Yunsu's daily pickup volume still exceeded seven million parcels.

The nation's total daily express delivery volume was approximately twenty-two million parcels.

In other words, Yunsu's market share had reached 31.8%.

Chen Yansen knew this market share had been bought with a 1.5-yuan minimum order price.

Yunsu Express lost one hundred million yuan per month, but the effect was striking: at least half of the merchants on Taobao C-stores, Taobao Shangcheng, and JD POP Shangcheng had switched their partnered express carriers to Yunsu.

Although the "Three Passes and One Reach" had a minimum price of 1.5 yuan, their delivery speed was poor and they offered no door-to-door service, easily triggering negative user reviews.

Yunsu Express was different: its price matched the "Three Passes and One Reach," while its service rivaled SF Express.

Although Chen Dejun and others required couriers at franchise outlets to deliver door-to-door, many frontline couriers earned only half of what Yunsu employees made.

Get paid what you're worth, do the work you're paid for.

Headquarters sets requirements; local branches find workarounds.

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

This made franchise outlet owners dare not force couriers to deliver door-to-door.

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

Meanwhile,

at ShenTong's headquarters in Shanghai, Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao of YuanTong Express sat in the office drinking tea.

"Zheng Shengyu from the Postal Association doesn't do a damn thing, letting Yunsu Express run wild. I say we slash prices to 0.5 yuan per order—Liao Wei doesn't want us to live, then we won't let him live either."

Yu Weijiao lifted his teacup, took a sip, then slammed it hard onto the tray, his eyes burning with fury as he suggested this viciously.

"0.5 yuan is too extreme; dropping to one yuan might be worth considering."

Chen Dejun was anxious inside, but in front of Yu Weijiao, he still maintained a calm, detached demeanor.

"Wait, Boss Chen—you're serious?"

Yu Weijiao froze, surprised the other man actually intended to cut prices further.

He'd just said 0.5 yuan out of anger, nothing more.

"Zheng Shengyu wants to sit back and watch the tigers fight—how easy do you think that is? If he won't step down, we'll force him to."

Chen Dejun snorted coldly, speaking with deep implication.

Yu Weijiao frowned, unable to grasp it; he could only think that a one-yuan price wouldn't even cover courier wages, and franchise outlet owners would surely curse.

That afternoon,

ShenTong and YuanTong headquarters announced nationwide that for parcel customers under one kilogram, the price per order would drop from 1.5 yuan to one yuan.

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

Terminal station owners were furious: previously, when prices dropped to 1.5 yuan, delivery fees for these e-commerce small parcels had been adjusted to 0.8 yuan, and they paid couriers 0.6 yuan per order.

A single phone call cost 0.1 yuan—this price couldn't even guarantee delivery to the community gate; dropping it off there was already five-star service.

Now headquarters had cut delivery fees to 0.6 yuan per order; since owners needed to profit too, they could only offer couriers 0.4 to 0.5 yuan per parcel as commission.

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

That little money wasn't even worth begging for.

The market was preserved, but service quality plummeted, and lost or damaged packages became increasingly common.

As Chen Yansen traveled toward Luzhou,

Liao Wei, just discharged from the hospital, called: "Boss, ShenTong and YuanTong slashed prices to one yuan per order—should we follow?"

"What about YunDa and ZhongTong?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Still 1.5 yuan," Liao Wei replied.

"Don't cut prices yet. As long as the drop in order volume doesn't exceed 10%, keep the price at 1.5 yuan."

Chen Yansen instructed.

1.5 yuan was nearly the cost price; dropping to one yuan wouldn't even cover equipment and transportation costs, nor guarantee stable income for couriers below.

The essence of express delivery is to quickly and accurately deliver items from sender to recipient—not extreme price-cutting.

If service can't 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 changes."

Liao Wei nodded in agreement.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, not giving the "Three Passes and One Reach"'s price adjustments any thought, then hung up.

Express delivery wasn't his main business; he could still absorb a hundred million yuan loss per month.

Whether the "Three Passes and One Reach" could withstand it was another question.

(End of Chapter)