Chapter 236: Chen Yansen: You

After the pleasantries ended, Duan Yongping turned his gaze to Chen Yansen and asked curiously, "When does Sister Chengzi Tech plan to go public?"

Chen Yansen paused, surprised by the business magnate's directness, and replied with a faint smile, "Director Duan, Sister Chengzi Tech has been operating for less than a year—we'll consider going public only after the business matures and stabilizes."

"IDC's annual forecast for Sister Chengzi Phone's global sales is 30 million units, second only to Shanxing domestically—it seems Chairman Chen intends to secure the top spot in smartphone shipment rankings before launching the IPO."

Duan Yongping raised his wine glass, clinked it against Chen Yansen's, and praised him with a smile.

IDC is an international data firm that annually tracks and analyzes the global and Chinese smartphone markets, producing paid research reports.

These reports cover shipment volumes, market share, and brand competition dynamics—essential reading for every smartphone industry professional and investor.

"The gap in global market share with Shanxing and Apple is still too wide—let's talk about going public once shipments break a hundred million."

Chen Yansen replied calmly.

A hundred million in shipments?

Duan Yongping froze, then burst out laughing, turning to Huang Zheng: "Pour more wine for Chairman Chen and me—if Sister Chengzi Phone's global shipments ever break a hundred million, I guarantee I'll invest at least fifty million U. S. dollars in stock."

Hearing this, Huang Zheng stood, took the wine bottle, and refilled both Duan Yongping's and Chen Yansen's glasses.

He stared fixedly at Chen Yansen, his eyes filled with envy.

Beside them, Sun Tongyu glanced at him, then at Chen Yansen, and silently compared them: Huang Zheng, once seen as exceptionally capable, was now left far behind—by dozens of lengths.

"Thank you for your support, Director Duan."

Chen Yansen smiled; the man's attitude was genuinely pleasant.

No wonder Chen Yongming of OPPO and Shen Wei of vivo regarded him as their business father and life mentor, constantly buying more shares with real money—no one could remain unmoved.

Ding Lei adjusted his glasses.

Ten years ago, NetEase faced a survival crisis; its stock price plummeted from $15 to under $1, and Nasdaq issued a delisting warning.

At that moment, Duan Yongping decisively invested $2 million, lifting the stock price from $0.5 to $1.6 per share and successfully rescuing NetEase from delisting.

That was why Ding Lei regarded Duan Yongping as his elder brother!

Zhou Shouzhi heard Chen Yansen say he'd go public only after Sister Chengzi Phone's shipments hit a hundred million; his pupils contracted slightly—he began seriously considering whether to switch bosses.

Next, Chen Yansen discussed Hangcheng's purpose, no longer hiding anything—he openly revealed that Kuai Di Taxi was about to begin its Series A funding round.

"Can this project make money?" Duan Yongping asked.

"I don't know—it might make money, or it might not—but user growth is rapid, and everyone in Hangcheng uses it."

Chen Yansen answered casually.

Duan Yongping nodded; his investment principle was "never touch what you don't understand"—better to buy shares in listed companies than invest in startups, since their business models were already mature and the risk of loss extremely low.

Yet facing Kuai Di Taxi, Duan Yongping hesitated—he couldn't believe someone like Chen Yansen would gamble everything on a money-losing venture.

"I've used this app—the driver and passenger demand is rigid, but the policy risk is extremely high, Chairman Chen—does Kuai Di Taxi accept individual investors?"

Sun Tongyu, who had barely spoken until now, suddenly asked.

Chen Yansen turned toward Sun Tongyu and refused without hesitation: "Sorry, Director Sun—we're only accepting institutional investors."

He brought on Mama Ali and Tencent to reduce competition, DST for overseas market access, and Huake Investment to secure the transportation association's authorization documents.

If he only cared about capital, he wouldn't need funding at all.

As for Sun Tongyu's identity—he'd recognized him immediately: one of Mama Ali's founders, ousted years ago by Ma Liyun from the Taobao presidency, now independently founding his own company.

A flicker of embarrassment crossed Duan Yongping's face—he'd been considering investing in Kuai Di Taxi, only for this kid to reject him so bluntly.

He secretly exhaled in relief, grateful he hadn't brought it up himself.

"That's a shame," Sun Tongyu forced a weak smile, sounding disappointed.

"Director Duan, let's end here for today—I've got friends waiting in the next room; if I don't go back, they might call the police."

Chen Yansen stood up, joking.

"Alright, I won't keep you," Duan Yongping rose to see him off.

"Chairman Chen, when Kuai Di Taxi's funding closes, come visit me at NetEase for tea," Ding Lei smiled.

Huang Zheng and Sun Tongyu also bowed politely, accompanying Duan Yongping as they saw Chen Yansen and Zhou Shouzhi out of the private room.

As the group opened the door, they saw Ma Liyun and Cai Xin standing outside, speaking with the marketing manager.

Ma Liyun spotted Chen Yansen and waved the manager away: "That's all."

Upon seeing Ma Liyun, Sun Tongyu's expression turned cold, his emotions turbulent.

Four years ago, Ma Liyun expelled him from Mama Ali; to launch Bokasi Education, he sold all his Mama Ali shares.

But to his shock, Mama Ali's growth exploded after 2008—annual sales surged from 40 billion to over 600 billion.

Its valuation multiplied dozens of times!

Having liquidated his shares early, he became the laughingstock of former colleagues—the "fool" who didn't need to struggle as an entrepreneur; had he waited a few more years, Mama Ali's IPO would've made him hundreds of millions.

In his past life, Sun Tongyu used his angel investor status in Pinduoduo to strike back at those who mocked him.

But now, Pinbei launched four years early, copying Pinduoduo's marketing tactics and merchant strategies clean.

Even if Huang Zheng later built an e-commerce platform, it would be nearly impossible to succeed.

The bottom-tier users and merchants had all been stripped by Pinbei—what could Huang Zheng possibly do?

With JD. com ahead, Pinbei behind, and Taobao in the middle, there was zero room left for Pinduoduo.

At that moment, Ma Liyun also spotted Sun Tongyu, sizing him up with a look of disdain.

Old friends reunited—no greetings, only silent contempt.

Ma Liyun couldn't help smiling at the thought of Sun Tongyu liquidating his Mama Ali shares.

So stupid!

But after greeting Duan Yongping, Ding Lei, and others, he feigned warmth and invited Sun Tongyu for a drink.

After all, Sun Tongyu's wife was still a senior executive at Mama Ali—he had to maintain appearances.

Sun Tongyu politely declined and returned to the private room with Duan Yongping and the others.

"President Ding, how many years do you think it will take for Chengzi Technology to achieve a shipment volume exceeding one hundred million units?"

Duan Yongping sat on the sofa, holding a wine glass as he asked.

"360's Zhou Hongyi and Haier's exclusive phones have only sold 2,000 units. This industry looks simple, but doing it well is very difficult." Ding Lei thought for a moment and said, pausing briefly before adding:

"However, Chengzi Technology is different; perhaps in five years, there really will be a chance to reach one hundred million shipments."

He mentioned five years not because he looked down on Chen Yansen, but because NetEase also had plans to manufacture mobile phones and had communicated in detail with Bird and OPPO, adopting a cooperative model for exclusive phones, even confirming the screen size and processor.

But after seeing the dismal sales of 360, Ding Lei chose to give up.

Therefore, he was very clear about the annual consumption of smartphones in the country; the upper limit for buyers was only one or two hundred million units. How could Chengzi Technology possibly capture sixty percent of the market?

"Within three years, Chengzi Technology's annual shipment volume will absolutely break one hundred million."

Huang Zheng said with conviction.

He did not understand the mobile phone industry, but he understood the e-commerce industry. Pinbai's internal user acquisition methods, such as zero-yuan bargaining, the cash big wheel, and the money-printing machine function, all tested the very edge of human nature; ordinary people found it hard to restrain their inner greed.

In his view, combined with the first-tier traffic entrances of QQ and WeChat, as well as the exposure from the Chengzi App Store, Pinbai was in no shortage of new customers.

Perhaps in the short term, Pinbai would find it difficult to surpass Taobao in sales figures, but in terms of daily active user data, the possibility of Pinbai overtaking Taobao was extremely high.

An e-commerce platform with over one hundred million daily active users would bring a steady stream of buyers to Chengzi phones.

"Then let's make a bet! Three years as the limit; whoever loses treats the other to drinks," Duan Yongping said.

"No problem." Ding Lei also became interested.

"If President Ding loses, that bottle of Heidsieck in your office will belong to me," Huang Zheng joked with a smile.

On the other side.

Chen Yansen, along with Ma Liyun, Liu Zhiping, Yu Heng, and others, drank until one in the morning before the drinking session ended.

Gao Weilin supported the stumbling Cheng Weixing as they both boarded the Ghost parked at the bar entrance.

"Back to the hotel."

Chen Yansen calmly instructed Xiao Li.

Gao Weilin noticed that his boss showed no signs of drunkenness and couldn't help but silently marvel; he had never seen Chen Yansen drunk before.

"Old Gao, this is the business card of Leqi's chairman. After handling the financing matters for Kuaidi Dache, go back and ask me later whether the other party is willing to join Pinbai."

Chen Yansen took a card out of his pocket and handed it to Gao Weilin.

"Boss, I have checked the other party's information. This person latched onto Duan Yongping back in 2006 and even had dinner with Warren Buffett. They lack neither money nor connections; is it really possible they would join Pinbai?" Gao Linwei took the business card and whispered a reminder.

"So what? Duan Yongping is not his biological father. If he has ability, Duan Yongping might at most give him a push; if he lacks ability, do you think Duan Yongping would throw money at him unconditionally?"

Chen Yansen sneered with disdain.

After resigning from Google, Huang Zheng first founded a B2C e-commerce platform. Duan Yongping only gave him some distributor resources from BBK and OPPO; after three years with no results, he turned around and sold it.

If Duan Yongping truly regarded Huang Zheng as his own son, this B2C platform would not have failed to even make a splash.

"Okay, I understand." Gao Weilin nodded in agreement.

Chen Yansen smiled slightly; if he wanted to recruit Zhou Shouzhi into his ranks, recruiting Huang Zheng as well was not excessive.

In 2012, Huang Zheng was just a small boss of an e-commerce operation agency; without the connection to Duan Yongping, the other party would have struggled even to meet Gao Weilin once.

The next morning, at the headquarters of Kuaidi Dache.

Penguin, Mama Ali, DST, Huake Merchants, and Jin Sha Ventures, a total of five investment institutions, negotiated the final valuation for Kuaidi Dache.

In this round of financing, Senlian Capital would not intervene.

After two rounds of capital injection, the equity ratio in Cheng Weixing's hands had dropped to only 15%; if Senlian Capital continued to follow up with investment, Cheng Weixing would have to exit early.

Due to the groundwork laid the previous night, the negotiations proceeded extremely smoothly.

Penguin, Mama Ali, DST, and Jin Sha Ventures quickly reached an agreement, setting the offer price at 600 million US dollars.

Yu Heng from Huake Merchants was only willing to offer 400 million US dollars, but Ma Liyun, Liu Zhiping, Zhou Shouzhi, and Zhu Xiaohu all knew clearly in their hearts that Kuaidi Dache's upcoming market expansion could not do without the assistance of Huake Merchants.

Otherwise, Kuaidi Dache would have to promote from the bottom up, using ground promotion methods, employing a tactic of overwhelming numbers, and having drivers download the app one by one.

But this method was far too inefficient!

After some discussion, everyone helplessly agreed to Huake Merchants' "technology for equity" proposal, raising their offer to 600 million US dollars.

And it was written in the contract that Huake must secure traffic authorization documents for ten cities with populations over five million; otherwise, they would have to pay the difference.

The five investment institutions contributed a total of 90 million US dollars to purchase 15% of the equity in Kuaidi Dache.

Based on an assessment of market potential, growth expectations, profit models, and cash flow status, the offer of 600 million US dollars carried a premium rate of over 40%.

Kuaidi Dache, which had only been online for one month, had already stepped with one foot into the ranks of the unicorns.

That afternoon, the news of Kuaidi Dache's financing spread throughout the entire Hangcheng.

A valuation of 600 million US dollars exceeded everyone's imagination limits!

Three days later, Yu Heng from Huake Merchants obtained the traffic authorization documents for Jin Ling.

Cheng Weixing received the notice and immediately began preparing technical, operational, and business personnel to make preparations for opening the Jin Ling station!

(End of this chapter)