Chapter 212

On January 28, Chen Yansen returned to Xucheng by car.

Before leaving, he bought Chen Guobin a standalone villa outside the city, over three hundred square meters, fully renovated with all appliances, ready to move in.

As Zhao Siyuan put it: the landlord was his friend, who had moved to Shencheng to develop his business; the villa had been vacant for two years, and Chen Yansen's purchase had greatly helped him.

Chen Yansen naturally didn't believe it—he suspected the house had probably been acquired from some developer.

But he didn't care; the purchase price matched market value, all paperwork was complete, and no one could find fault.

Whether Chen Guobin would live there or adapt to it was none of Chen Yansen's concern.

On the Banghuai Expressway, a Bentley Mulsanne and a BMW 750 drove one behind the other.

Chen Yansen sat in the back seat, pondering Kuaide Taxi's marketing and promotion strategy.

Cheng Wei wanted to invite a select group of drivers and passengers for a small-scale gray test, gather usage feedback, then optimize further to ensure stability in the order-matching algorithm and payment process upon launch.

Simultaneously, he would assemble an offline promotion team and provide comprehensive training to ensure every member understood the product features and promotional scripts.

At first, Cheng Wei planned to outsource the offline promotion to a third-party field marketing firm, but Chen Yansen rejected it.

First, he knew exactly how these firms operated—lazy, frequently falsifying data; money spent with no results. Second, if Kuaide Taxi's team didn't engage directly with drivers and passengers on the ground, they'd never uncover users' real pain points.

Additionally, leveraging his position as Executive Director of the Hangcheng University Student Entrepreneurship Alliance, Cheng Wei easily secured cooperation from the senior management of two local taxi companies, who agreed to promote the ride-hailing app to their drivers.

As for online promotion, Cheng Wei didn't need to worry—just the Orange App Store alone could generate over 20 million impressions for Kuaide Taxi.

Compared to his previous life, Kuaide Taxi's estimated launch date was pushed forward by half a year.

Meanwhile, DiDi's founder, Chen Wei, was still serving as Deputy General Manager of the B2C Division at Zhifubao, showing no signs of quitting to start his own business.

Last December, Chen Yansen had hired a headhunter to recruit Chen Wei, offering him a role leading the Orange Pay project team at Senlian Capital, but the offer was rejected.

Clearly, at this point, Chen Wei hadn't even considered changing jobs.

But Chen Yansen knew well: ride-hailing was an unstoppable trend; even if DiDi never emerged, competitors like Dada or Gugu would rise to challenge him.

"Ele. e has secured funding!"

Meng Jie, sitting beside him, suddenly spoke up.

Chen Yansen frowned and took the phone she handed him.

The news headline read: China's original food delivery platform, Ele. e, has completed its Series B funding, securing 50 million from Ali.

Original food delivery platform?

Did Zhang Xuhao buy this headline himself?

Who's the real pioneer?

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen called Pei Yi: "Give you six months. If you don't kill Ele. e, hand over your CEO position."

"Boss, I understand. Tomorrow I'll take Kou Zhen and the assigned team to Shanghai to seize the market."

Pei Yi sensed the hostility in Chen Yansen's tone and responded quickly.

Currently, only Ele. e and Kuai Pao were large-scale food delivery platforms; although Kuai Pao had funding and traffic advantages, Ele. e had dominated Shanghai for four to five years—Pei Yi couldn't easily wipe out Zhang Xuhao.

Fortunately, Pei Yi was also from Shanghai and understood the local catering industry and users' ordering habits.

"Good. Don't disappoint me."

Chen Yansen said sternly, then hung up.

"The domestic internet business landscape seems to have completely unraveled."

Chen Yansen thought to himself.

Or perhaps the major divergence began when Ali acquired Fox Taobao via equity swap.

Kuaide Taxi launched half a year early, Ele. e secured its Series B funding a year ahead of schedule, Meituan still couldn't win the Thousand Group Battle…

As Chen Yansen's capital and resources grew, every move he made was reshaping the future.

After a long pause, Chen Yansen snapped back to reality, unshaken by these changes.

After all, his greatest advantage was the Xinhuo System—not prescient information.

"With Ele. e securing funding, will it impact Kuai Pao 's financing and development?"

Meng Jie, seeing his prolonged silence, asked anxiously.

"In business competition, some conflicts are inevitable—just like the group-buying war; no matter how long it lasts, one winner will eventually emerge."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly, utterly unconcerned.

Meng Jie nodded; seeing his confidence, she relaxed.

Meanwhile,

Tencent, Sequoia Capital, and Hillhouse Capital all received the news—they hadn't expected that within just a few months, the investment world's view of food delivery had undergone a 180-degree reversal.

Now that Ali had entered, the battle between Ele. e and Kuai Pao would inevitably become a clash between Ali and Senlian Capital.

"Martin, contact Chen Yansen as soon as possible. Tell him Tencent is willing to offer a 1. billion valuation."

Ma Wenteng instructed Liu Zhiping.

This was a 200 million increase over their previous offer.

"Pony, based on my understanding of Chen Yansen, he won't accept. His psychological price is at least 30% above a reasonable offer."

Liu Zhiping shook his head, outright rejecting Ma Wenteng's proposal.

"In terms of greed, no one compares to this kid."

Ma Wenteng paused, unwilling to admit it but knowing Liu Zhiping was right.

Take Tencent's investment in Pinche: the world praised him for spotting talent, acquiring 15% of Pinche with just $300 million and QQ's primary traffic channel.

But who knew how much effort he'd expended to win over the board for this decision?

What pleased Ma Wenteng was that Chen Yansen's operational ability remained astonishingly strong.

In just over two months, he'd pushed Pinche's market share into the top three, nearing JD. om.

Investment firms, based on Pinche's current DAU, order volume, and revenue, had even assigned it a sky-high valuation of $6 billion.

The Tencent directors who had questioned Ma Wenteng's $2 billion valuation for Pinche now fell silent.

"So I think a 2 billion valuation is more reasonable. If Ele. e can't withstand Kuai Pao 's pressure and Kuai Pao swallows Shanghai's food delivery market, its valuation won't stop at 2 billion."

Liu Zhiping smiled lightly.

"You're that confident in Kuai Pao?" Ma Wenteng asked.

"No, no, no—I'm confident in Chen Yansen," Liu Zhiping said, adjusting his glasses.

"Alright, I get it. Go with your price," Ma Wenteng agreed, deciding not to delay the Kuai Pao investment over a few hundred million difference.

On the other side,

Chen Yansen had just arrived at Xuyuan when he received a call from Lin Chenfeng.

"Boss Chen, can we discuss Kuai Pao 's Series A funding?" Lin Chenfeng asked bluntly.

He knew only Chen Yansen could make the final decision.

Talking to Pei Yi or Kang Guodong was useless—it had to be Chen Yansen's approval.

"Of course we can discuss it. The more sincere Ma Zong's offer, the higher the chance of closing the deal."

Chen Yansen replied calmly.

"200 million in funding for 10% equity in Kuai Pao," Lin Chenfeng laid his cards on the table, handing the choice to Chen Yansen.

"Fine. But I have one condition: QQ and WeChat must provide Kuai Pao with additional traffic resources—daily exposure through entry points must not be less than 10 million. Contract term: minimum five years. In return, Tencent gains priority investment rights in Kuai Pao 's Series B and early exit rights."

Chen Yansen recited his prepared script, instructing Lin Chenfeng to relay it to Ma Wenteng.

"Boss Chen, your demand isn't simple at all—looks like Martin and Ma Zong are going to have headaches again."

Lin Chenfeng sighed, smiling.

As the investment liaison between Tencent and Chen Yansen, Chen Yansen's biggest impression on him was being difficult and demanding—but his returns were terrifyingly high.

This time, Chen Yansen hadn't asked for primary or secondary entry points, but a daily 10-million-exposure traffic slot was a fiercely contested resource even within Tencent.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Lin Zong. I'm waiting for your good news."

Chen Yansen smiled—he didn't care what Ma Wenteng or Liu Zhiping thought; DST Capital had no traffic resources, and he'd rejected them.

If Tencent only offered money, he'd reject them too.

Kuai Pao needed capital, but it didn't lack 200–300 million.

After hanging up, Chen Yansen looked out the window—Xiao Li had already driven to Zhuxianzhuang Technology Park.

Although tomorrow was a workday, in Buildings 6 and 8, besides a few remaining customer service and technical staff, many business development officers were already at their desks, contacting merchants to negotiate onboarding.

"Boss, Happy New Year!" Xu Xingxing rushed over as Chen Yansen stepped out, hands outstretched, clearly expecting a red envelope.

"No red envelopes this year."

Chen Yansen waved him off, telling him to scram.

"What?! Boss, seriously? I came a day early just to get a work-start red envelope—and you're canceling it this year?"

Xu Xingxing tilted his head, feigning utter devastation.

"At 10: 8 a. . tomorrow, log in to Orange Pay."

Chen Yansen said, then ignored her and walked into Building 6 with Meng Jie.

Xu Xingxing's eyes lit up—she instantly understood Chen Yansen's meaning.

Orange Tech and Pinche together had over a thousand employees; giving each one a red envelope individually would take forever.

Chen Yansen didn't care about such formalities, so he'd already pre-registered everyone's accounts on Orange Pay—red envelopes would pop up directly on the app's homepage, simple and efficient.

On the other side,

Zhang Xuhao, after securing funding, immediately increased new-user subsidies and delivery fees, and placed massive ads at over ten high-traffic subway entrances in Xujiahui, People's Square, Century Avenue—with the slogan: "Order food? Use Ele. e."

He also ran targeted ads on Baidu, Sina, Sohu, NetEase, specifically for users in Shanghai.

He'd spent tens of millions just on hard advertising.

Undeniably, Zhang Xuhao had a natural talent for spending money.

Mianduikuaipaodeweixie ， Zhangxuhaoxuanzefengkuangkuozhang ， Qituzaikuaipaojinruhuchengzhiqian ， Jinkenengtunxiagengduoshichangfene 。

What he didn't know was that at this moment, Pei Yi, Kou Zhen, and others were standing at Century Avenue Metro Station, staring at Ele. e's billboard ads.

" Tongzhishichangbu ， Kuaipaodeguanggaoweiyaobielemedeweizhigenghao ， Tongdao 、 Zhanting 、 Tidingheliecheshangdougeiwotieman 。"

Pei Yi squinted and instructed his assistant.

"Yes, boss," the assistant replied quickly.

"Kou Zong, the field sales team from Lu Zhou must quickly familiarize themselves with Shanghai's commercial centers and routes. We'll establish our base in Xuhui District and expand outward from Longcao Road, treating scattered office locations as extensions of our operational territory, and accelerate hiring local sales staff."

Pei Yi continued, addressing Kou Zhen.

"No problem," Kou Zhen readily agreed.

At the end of last year and beginning of this year, two local Shanghai group-buying websites shut down; we just need to pick out the most capable sales staff from those who left YiQiMai and G. uan.

Kuaipaodezhaoshangbu ， Bachengyuangongdouchushenyutuangouhangye ， Duiyushanghutuozhanzhezhonggongzuozaoyijiaqingjiushu 。

Pei Yi knew this, so he focused more on building Shanghai's rider team and stealing users from Ele. e.

Kuaipaodepeisongshixiao 、 Dingdandiaopeinenglihebutielidu ， Douyuanchaoeleme ， Yaoshidabuying ， Takemeilianjixudaizai CEO Deweizhishang 。

(End of Chapter)