Chapter 239: The Scammed Cheng Wei! 80 Million People Pass On the Torch, Shattered

"President Cheng, Didi Taxi version 1.0 has finished development; the testing team is debugging it now."

In a cramped office area at Yanjing Digital Valley, a subordinate reported to Cheng Wei.

"That fast?"

Cheng Wei was puzzled. He came from an administrative-management background and knew nothing about technology, but after working at Zhifubao for so many years, he understood perfectly well that the development cycle for a brand-new product should take at least two months.

Yet the outsourcing firm had done it in less than a month!

Thinking of this, he quickly stood up, walked over to the testing team's workstations, picked up a test phone, and immediately installed Didi Taxi.

"Why is the installation so slow?"

Cheng Wei sensed something was off and asked aloud.

"President Cheng, the installation package is a bit large—29.4 MB total. At our download speed here, it'll take several minutes."

The testing team member replied.

"How big is Kuaidi Taxi 's installation package?" Cheng Wei frowned, his face dark, and asked.

He didn't understand technology, but he understood comparison!

"7.9 MB." The testing team member shrugged.

At present, Didi Taxi's entire staff numbered barely a dozen people. Apart from the essential finance officer, the technical co-founder, and two testers, the rest were all sales staff Cheng Wei had sweet-talked out of Zhifubao's B2C business division.

Cheng Wei and his old colleague Wang Gang scraped together 800,000 yuan between them before they could barely get the project off the ground.

Hearing the testing team member say this, Cheng Wei's heart skipped a beat. An oversized installation package meant more download data and more running memory would be consumed.

In 2012, mobile data wasn't cheap. Cheng Wei himself used a China Unicom 46-yuan plan, with only 150 MB of data per month.

Asking passengers to spend 30 MB of data to download an app they'd never heard of would undoubtedly make the upcoming promotion work extremely difficult.

Taxi drivers definitely wouldn't be happy either!

"The data package being too big is definitely unacceptable. Even if we bring wireless network cards to do promotion, the efficiency is just too slow. Jianhui, talk to them—you must compress the installation package to under 15 MB."

Cheng Wei turned to his technical co-founder and instructed him.

"Got it. We'll first verify the bugs, then communicate with them all at once." Zhang Jianhui nodded in agreement.

"No way! This app not only drains the battery, it freaking burns through data. In the simulated environment, the ride-hailing success rate doesn't even hit thirty percent. Once it's live, I bet it won't even reach ten percent."

An hour later, the two testing team members shook their heads like rattle-drums. On this app, the two of them simply couldn't find a single merit.

Every single feature was riddled with bugs!

Cheng Wei was furious. Skipping over Zhang Jianhui, he dialed the outsourcing company's number.

Because of the tight budget, the outsourcing firm had quoted 150,000 yuan; he put his bargaining skills to work and slashed it to 90,000.

But 90,000 is still money!

Not to mention wasting a whole month of his time, he'd ended up with a pile of garbage!

"Hello, President Gu. We've tested the installation package—it's completely unusable. Return my deposit; I'll find another company."

Cheng Wei demanded aggressively.

"Boss Cheng, don't be angry. If it doesn't work, we'll just optimize it slowly. Isn't it perfectly normal for a new product to have bugs?"

The outsourcing company boss laughed it off, trying hard to smooth things over.

But inwardly he was cursing like mad: You only paid me 90,000 yuan, and you expect me to build you a Taobao?

Cheng Wei's earlier words had merely been a negotiation tactic. He knew perfectly well there was zero chance of getting a refund; stating the problem in strong terms was just to make the other party take it seriously.

"I'll give you one more month. Otherwise, either refund the money, or see you in court!"

Cheng Wei said bluntly.

"Yes, yes, yes, I guarantee I'll handle it. President Cheng, you've got to trust our company's reputation in Yanjing."

The outsourcing company boss agreed with a smile.

Cheng Wei took a deep breath, hung up helplessly, then had Zhang Jianhui organize all the bugs collected during testing and send them to the other party for fixing.

Meanwhile.

At a software outsourcing company in the Yanjing suburbs, Gu Zhijun put down his phone, disdainfully curled his lip, and muttered under his breath: "No money, yet putting on such big-tailed-wolf airs? A mere 90,000 yuan, and I only made sixty thousand on it—do you really want my life?"

After saying that, he called the outsourcing engineer in charge of this job: "Teacher Zhou, what the hell did you develop? Got me chewed out by the client till blood was pouring. The revision requirements are in your email. If there's a next time, I won't dare give you any more work."

"Boss Gu, you can't blame it all on me. After all, you only gave me one month. The fact that I could produce anything at all is already pretty good."

Teacher Zhou hurriedly explained.

"I don't care. I'll give you thirty more days. If the client isn't satisfied, your final payment is gone." Gu Zhijun threatened.

Damn it!

Teacher Zhou cursed under his breath, turned around and went back to the classroom, called a few students, and took them to his office to fix bugs.

At this moment, Cheng Wei had no idea that the Didi Taxi software he had pinned such high hopes on was actually written by a teacher at a technical secondary school in Qilu, together with a few half-baked students.

Just as Cheng Wei was still fretting over R&D and funding, Kuaidi Taxi 's daily order volume in Jin Ling had easily broken through thirty thousand.

Cheng Weixing, armed with the authorization document issued by the Transportation Association, went straight to the heads of Zhongbei, Dongfang, Dajian, and Ruijin taxi companies, slipped them a promotion fee, and easily netted over 4,000 dedicated ride-hailing drivers.

This was exactly why Chen Yansen had insisted on bringing in Huake Investment's merchant recruitment. Negotiating from the top down could solve the shortage of online drivers in a very short time.

Negotiating from the bottom up would be far harder!

First, do taxi drivers even have smartphones?

Second, are taxi drivers willing to download it?

Third, taxis are highly mobile, making ground promotion extremely difficult.

Just imagine—these 4,000-plus taxis are scattered across every major district of Jin Ling. How much manpower and money would it take to get every single one of them to install Kuaidi Taxi?

In reality, without the Transportation Association's authorization document and a generous promotion fee, taxi companies had little interest in pushing drivers to "go online."

Because no matter how much or how little the drivers earned, it didn't affect the fixed daily rake they collected from them.

This situation was especially evident in the Jin Ling market.

So Cheng Weixing noted in a work email that he planned to open driver-side registration to social vehicles, boosting order-taking capacity while forcing taxi drivers to actively download the Kuaidi Dache app.

After all, once passengers got used to hailing rides online, drivers who didn't use ride-hailing apps would inevitably see fewer orders and less income.

This was Chen Yansen's original plan all along!

But in February's Spark Fire values, he hadn't found any human-natured Spark Fire contributed by drivers under Kuaidi Dache.

This showed that the remuneration produced monthly by drivers whose labor relations were attached to taxi companies was not recognized by the system.

Unless Kuaidi signed labor contracts with the ride-hailing drivers!

But doing so would be no different from indirectly setting up an "Internet Taxi Company," which would inevitably come into direct conflict with traditional taxi companies — extremely unfavorable for Kuaidi Dache, which was still in its early stage of development.

During this period, he had discussed policy issues with Tao Jingwen and even Meng Yuanzhi; neither recommended he do it.

If so, the relationship between Kuaidi Dache and the taxi companies would shift from partner to competitor.

Take Luzhou as an example: many taxi companies had state-owned backgrounds and involved tens of thousands of ordinary families at the same time.

In Meng Yuanzhi's exact words: "I can support you, but think about the consequences."

When the time came, the license value of taxi companies would plummet, and the number of people wanting him dead would likely be counted in the tens of thousands.

More importantly, Kuaidi Dache's operating costs would also soar as a result, making profitability difficult.

First, it would be hard to answer to investors like Penguin, Mama Ali, dst, and Huake; second, with labor costs too high and expected returns reduced, later fundraising would also become harder.

Investors put up money to make money, not to do charity.

After an unknown length of time, Chen Yansen suddenly stood up, gazing at the boundless camellia flowers outside the window.

"Taxi companies live just fine off the capitation fees — could Kuaidi Dache actually go bankrupt just by taking commissions?"

Chen Yansen squinted and murmured softly.

This was a super industry that could provide over 8 million jobs!

It could bring him at least 80 million strands of human-natured Spark Fire every year!

If only one "Taxi Company" were left in this world, I hope it's Kuaidi Dache!

After thinking it through, Chen Yansen returned to his seat and replied to Cheng Weixing's work email.

"Sign labor contracts with ride-hailing drivers and pay the five social insurances and one housing fund?"

Upon learning the big boss's latest decision, Cheng Weixing's head buzzed for a moment.

He knew full well this would bring enormous challenges to future operations.

Kuaidi Dache currently had only three core profit models: order commissions, information service fees, and advertising revenue.

Having to both guarantee driver income and ensure shareholder interests, Cheng Weixing was immediately stumped.

He didn't dare refuse to carry out the boss's demands either.

The next morning, Kuaidi Dache announced in Hangcheng and Jin Ling that it would open up social vehicle franchises, pay the five social insurances and one housing fund for drivers, and provide a base-salary guarantee.

The moment the news broke, taxi drivers and taxi companies were immediately unhappy.

Wasn't this stealing their business?

As a result, after a full day passed, only a handful of drivers came to sign up.

In the eyes of social vehicles (i. e., unlicensed-car drivers), the wool comes from the sheep's back — if Kuaidi Dache dared to spend an extra one or two thousand yuan per driver per month, the commission rate had to be brutal.

Some taxi companies also paid social insurance for drivers, but the income from contract fees or capitation fees accounted for at least 30%, and could reach as high as 60%.

After Cheng Weixing discussed with Chen Yansen, he changed the labor contract to optional, and the number of franchise drivers instantly surged.

This left Chen Yansen speechless!

He had still underestimated how complicated human nature was, so he immediately stopped forcing it and handed the choice back to the drivers.

As social vehicles increased, Kuaidi Dache on one hand strictly vetted driver backgrounds and strengthened identity verification, and on the other used technical means to monitor trips for safety, providing users with a safety hotline, recording protection, one-tap emergency call, and driving-behavior feedback features.

On March 21, Kuaidi Dache connected to the Gao De map database.

On March 22, Kuaipao connected to the Gao De map database.

Only at this point did news break online: Senlian Capital was about to wholly acquire Gao De Maps, and the Lighthouse Country Securities Association had already approved its delisting application — Gao De Maps would be delisted by the end of March at the latest.

Seeing this news, Did Zhang Xuhao suddenly saw the light — no wonder Ele. me's delivery route planning and order matching and dispatch system had never been able to beat Kuaipao.

The other side had long since hooked up with Gao De Maps!

Getting first-hand, real-time intersection data!

As for the data-access time published online, it was most likely fake, meant only to ensure Senlian Capital smoothly completed the acquisition of Gao De Maps.

Once the dust settled, the news was selectively released, that's all.

Did Zhang Xuhao still had this basic level of business insight.

But at this point he no longer cared about these matters; instead, pushing his suitcase, he sat down on the plane bound for Yanjing.

Because he had accepted a job offer from Nuomi and was preparing to temporarily leave the food-delivery industry and enter the group-buying track.

……

……

On another ordinary weekend, on the Xuelin Road of Xu Yuan, a long interview queue was now lined up.

Sister Chengzi Tech, Sister Chengzi Pay, Pinbie Shangcheng, and Today Tech had all set up spring-recruitment venues on the empty lot right next to Pearl Lake.

Although the interviews at these four companies were difficult, the compensation was very high.

Starting salaries for operations, marketing, and sales were at least 5,000 yuan.

Starting salaries for computer programming, electronic information, and engineering design majors were at least 8,000 yuan.

It didn't look like much, but for 2012 graduates of Xu Yuan, it was an extremely respectable job.

Moreover, there were also a housing subsidy equal to 20% of monthly salary, meal allowance, transportation allowance, and quarterly bonuses, among others.

"Sen-ge, I didn't expect that after going round and round, Qiangzi and I still ended up as your subordinates."

Beside the stone bench by Liuxi, Song Yang looked wistful; Wang Zhengqiang nodded along in agreement.

The three major couriers were being beaten back step by step by Yun Speed, and Song Yang's courier station was naturally heavily affected. Without the slightest hesitation, he terminated his partnerships with the other courier companies and became the campus agent for Yun Speed Express.

Chen Yansen gave a faint smile. Others, when reborn, collect a dorm's worth of girls — but him? He'd turned all his roommates into his own employees.

"A courier agency gig can't last a lifetime. I'm not like you — you're a rich second generation, you'll go home in the future and inherit your dad's dozen-plus chain hotels." Chen Yansen said with a teasing smile.

The smile on Wang Zhengqiang's face vanished instantly at those words.

That's right!

Chen Yansen is rich first generation, Song Yang is rich second generation, and he himself is a worker's second generation!

"I won't be that useless. I'll rely on my own ability and become a chain hotel tycoon step by step!" Song Yang declared with ringing conviction.

"Does your girlfriend agree?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Why would she need to agree?" Song Yang said, baffled.

Chen Yansen just smiled without a word. He'd met Song Yang's girlfriend before — this girl's little scheming was all too obvious. Put plainly, she'd set her sights on Song Yang's position as the campus courier general agent.

After getting to know him better, she discovered this guy was also a little boss in the hotel industry — how could she possibly bear to let go now.

If Song Yang insisted on putting on some idiotic act of "I don't want my family's money, I'll make it on my own," this girl would most likely not wait for him.

Still, Chen Yansen didn't speak up either — the guy was in the honeymoon phase of his relationship, no need to throw cold water on it.

You can teach a person with words, but they won't learn; teach them with experience, and they'll remember it for life.

"You guys keep chatting, I'm heading back to the dorm. See you tonight."

Chen Yansen rose and took his leave.

Today was Tang Zhenzhe's birthday; the other party had booked a private room at the Shuangqing Restaurant and invited five fathers for dinner.

"See you tonight." Song Yang and Wang Zhengqiang waved.

Chen Yansen walked toward 0418 while controlling a willow leaf, making it float about three meters away from him.

To any onlooker, this willow leaf swayed left and right, drifting in the breeze, showing nothing out of the ordinary.

This was a training method Chen Yansen had figured out on his own. Although the spirit value on his panel hadn't increased, the things he could "pick up" with his spiritual power had noticeably grown heavier.

Before it was a single toothpick; now it was five or six toothpicks!

Just as he reached the intersection of Xuelin Road and Xuehai Road, a student with slightly dark skin and short hair suddenly stepped up and blocked Chen Yansen's path.

(End of Chapter)