Chapter 213: Ele.me Rider: Big Bro, I Want to Join Kuai Pao Too

10:08 AM the next day.

Employees of Yun Speed Express, Kuai Pao, Sister Chengzi Tech, Kuaidi Dache, Pinbei Tech, Sister Chengzi Pay, and the Sister Chengzi phone factory, after logging into their Sister Chengzi Pay accounts, all received red envelope bonuses ranging from 88 to 888 yuan.

Afterwards, all employees of Sister Chengzi Tech's headquarters moved from Building 8 to Building 9 in the park, while the original Building 8 was left for Sister Chengzi Pay.

"From today on, Sister Chengzi Pay officially enters the stage of independent operation. The service fees from Pinbei, Yun Speed, Sister Chengzi Mall, and Kuai Pao will from now on be counted directly into the project's revenue."

In the fifth-floor office, Chen Yansen said this, looking at Zhang Yinjia across from him.

Last year, he had originally wanted to poach Chen Wei from Zhifubao, and incidentally remove one competitor from Kuaidi Dache, but Chen Wei was unmoved by the high salary and the position of project general manager.

Chen Yansen could only settle for the next best thing, having a headhunter pry Zhang Yinjia over.

This man was formerly the general manager of Zhifubao's Business Intelligence Department, and during his tenure, he developed the barcode payment patent, considered the earliest prototype of scan-code payment in the country.

But Zhang Yinjia's rank at Mama Ali was only p9, with a monthly salary just over 80,000 yuan, the rest being Zhifubao stock options, which in 2012 were essentially worthless.

Chen Yansen only offered him a base salary of 100,000 yuan, plus 100,000 stock options in Sister Chengzi Pay and 50,000 shares in Sister Chengzi Tech.

Without a second word, Zhang Yinjia jumped ship from Mama Ali to Sister Chengzi Pay.

"Understood, boss."

Zhang Yinjia smiled and nodded, clearly quite satisfied with both his new position and his new compensation.

At Zhifubao, he had appeared to be riding high, but p9 was only considered middle management, whereas the position Chen Yansen gave him was project head of Sister Chengzi Pay.

Reporting directly to the big boss!

Although at this point Sister Chengzi Pay had just been spun off from Sister Chengzi Tech and Pinbei Mall, with all employees combined numbering barely over 200, nowhere near Zhifubao's scale of over 2,000, Zhang Yinjia didn't care.

In his view, the value of Sister Chengzi Pay's stock options would far exceed those of Zhifubao.

When spinning off Sister Chengzi Pay, Chen Yansen did not notify Penguin or DST, because before accepting investment from the two, he had already set Sister Chengzi Pay aside separately.

Labor contracts and salary disbursements all went through Sister Chengzi Pay's company accounts.

These 200-plus people were merely occupying some office space in Sister Chengzi Tech and Pinbei.

After all, in the beginning, Sister Chengzi Pay's R&D engineers and operations staff totaled only thirty-something people; there was no need to lease a separate office building for them.

Chen Yansen and Zhang Yinjia chatted for a while longer, mainly discussing the direction of Sister Chengzi Pay's profit-generating business for 2012.

Zhang Yinjia was experienced in this area; even without thinking, he could just transplant Zhifubao's playbook.

The core profit points were, after all, only two types: payment transaction fees and commissions from the sale of wealth-management products.

An hour later, Chen Yansen waved his hand, signaling Zhang Yinjia that he could go out and get to work.

Not long after Zhang Yinjia left, Lin Chenfeng's call came in: "President Chen, the request you raised yesterday—President Ma has agreed."

"Alright, I know. I'll have Gao Weilin coordinate with you on the signing."

Chen Yansen replied briefly, exchanged a couple more pleasantries, then hung up.

Penguin's 200 million yuan in funding was of little consequence; he valued their traffic resources more.

The three days that followed.

Pei Yi led his team, quickly secured the office building, and set up 13 ground-promotion offices in the vicinity centered on Longcao Road, covering service range across most of Xuhui District.

On this day, February 1st.

Kuai Pao Takeout officially launched in Shanghai. The marketing department not only placed ads on TV, newspapers, streaming media, and portal websites, but also arranged for some riders without orders to hand out flyers at commercial centers.

At the same time, employees of Yun Speed Express, when delivering packages, would also casually hand out a Kuai Pao promotional flyer.

"Kuai Pao Takeout—12 yuan off your first order!"

For a time, Kuai Pao's ads blanketed the entirety of Xuhui District.

"Boom—"

Did Zhang Xuhao sat in his office, holding a Kuai Pao promotional flyer, and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

He hadn't expected Kuai Pao to come so fast!

On the very first day of February, they had struck Shanghai.

The first wave of announcements was this massive—ads online and offline were everywhere, and even QQ pop-ups pushed the news of Kuai Pao Takeout's launch to Shanghai users.

With the boost in traffic, Kuai Pao's first step into Shanghai went extremely smoothly.

At noon, orders exploded.

Liao Wei temporarily reassigned 100 couriers, who changed into Kuai Pao Takeout uniforms, to help Pei Yi ease the delivery pressure.

In a single morning, total orders broke 10,000, exhausting the 200-plus riders to the bone.

Ele. me riders in Xuhui District simply couldn't get orders—not because the system wasn't dispatching, but because the takeout orders in this area had all been snatched away by Kuai Pao.

After the lunch peak, as orders dwindled, riders from both Ele. me and Kuai Pao gathered on the open ground of the commercial street to rest.

"Bro, how's the per-order pay at Kuai Pao Takeout?"

At this moment, an Ele. me rider took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

"Counting the order surge bonus, seven or eight yuan per order. What about you guys?" Li Zhou said, smiling as he asked back.

One should know that Luzhou's usual per-order pay was only a little over five yuan.

When he heard the company was reassigning a batch of experienced riders to Shanghai, and that the per-order pay would be two or three yuan higher, he didn't hesitate at all and followed Pei Yi to Shanghai.

"Damn! Ele. me only pays six over here!"

Hearing this, the rider immediately felt a sense of letdown in his heart.

"Do you guys have the five social insurances and housing fund? Accident insurance? A base salary? Quarterly bonuses?"

Li Zhou meant no harm, just asked curiously.

Base salary?

Five social insurances and housing fund?

Several questions in a row left this Ele. me rider brother completely dumbfounded, his brain lagging for a few seconds, before he came to his senses and asked in disbelief: "You guys have all of these?"

"Of course. Even our e-bikes, delivery boxes, and uniforms are all distributed free by the company. You guys don't even have a base salary, do you?"

This time it was Li Zhou's turn to be shocked.

He figured that since Kuaipao had them, Ele. me, as a competing platform, should have them too.

You guys don't even have a base salary, do you?

Li Zhou's words hit too close to home. This Ele. me rider almost cursed out loud, but then his mind turned, and he suddenly asked, "Big bro, are you guys still hiring?"

"Of course we're hiring, damn it, I almost worked myself to death this morning."

Li Zhou bared his teeth, first letting out a laugh, then cursing.

"Where do I go for the interview? Big bro, point me the way." The Ele. me rider hurriedly pressed on.

"Hold on, buddy, you're switching jobs?" Li Zhou was stunned for a moment, then laughed helplessly.

"Big bro, I want to join Kuaipao too." The Ele. me rider gave a bitter laugh and confessed frankly to Li Zhou that Ele. me had no benefits at all, and even the electric scooters were bought out of their own pockets.

Only then did Li Zhou realize that Kuaipao's treatment was this lethal a blow to Ele. me riders.

As a result, a few hours later, more than half of Ele. me's riders in Xuhui District had changed into new uniforms and, in a flash, become Kuaipao delivery riders.

Only when delivering meals, their sales pitch wasn't slick enough yet, and every now and then one would blurt out, "Ele. me wishes you a pleasant meal."

It left users completely baffled, thinking Kuaipao and Ele. me were the same company.

As the number of riders going offline kept growing, Zhang Xuhao quickly noticed something was off. Upon learning that all of them had defected to Kuaipao delivery, he nearly coughed up blood from rage.

(End of chapter)