Chapter 250: 418 Six Kingdoms Kill — Losses Exceed 1 Billion! This Guy Is Way Too Devious

The next morning, just before dawn.

Outside a Suning appliance store in Jin Ling, two people were already squatting on watch, holding a product list in their hands, densely covered with product model numbers, such as 'Xia Pu lcd-60lx540', 'Chigo fr-25gw', 'Shanxing ua60eh6000r', and so on.

All of them were overlapping products between Jingdong and Suning!

"Boss Liu of Yanjing has spoken — as long as Suning's in-store price for the same model is lower than Jingdong's, register on the spot, and Jingdong will issue the buyer a 10% off appliance coupon."

A middle-aged man with slicked-back hair and a powdered face, carrying a black leather briefcase in his hand, urged repeatedly.

"These idiots really have more money than sense. If I had money, wouldn't it be nicer to buy a few apartments and collect rent?"

Another young man with a buzz cut and a round face said dismissively, curling his lip.

"You blockhead, if they don't compete, where would we find such a cushy gig?" the middle-aged man retorted with an eye-roll, annoyed.

Three hundred yuan a day, with two meals included — doesn't sound like much, but this was 2012, and Jin Ling's monthly minimum wage standard was still less than 1,400 yuan. So these two Jingdong price intelligence agents were actually quite satisfied with the pay.

At nine in the morning, Suning opened for business.

Since today was the 418 Home Appliances Festival mega-sale, even though it was a workday, customers still kept streaming in.

After all, incomes weren't high these days. If you could snag big-ticket appliances at 10% or 20% off, you'd easily save a thousand or two — far better than going to work.

Much like a decade-plus later, when many white-collar workers would specifically take time off to attend the Double Eleven mega-sale just to save money.

"Do you have the Nikon d800?"

A young man carrying a laptop bag asked the sales clerk.

"Only 16 units in stock, priced at 21,999 yuan — the lowest price nationwide. Move slowly and they're gone." The sales clerk replied with a smile.

"Give me one." The young man shouted hurriedly.

You have to understand, the Nikon d800 had only been on the market for less than two months. Most channels were still selling at a premium. If he bought it at Suning's price and resold it to an equipment dealer, he could make a killing.

"Buddy, if you buy this camera on Jingdong, you can save another 2,200 yuan."

At that moment, the slick-haired, powdered-faced middle-aged man sidled over with a sleazy grin.

"For real? I checked Jingdong last night — the price was 27,999 yuan." The bag-carrying young man asked doubtfully, unable to believe it.

"Jingdong has coupons. Let me show you how to claim one."

The middle-aged man pulled the bag-carrying young man aside, infuriating the sales clerk into cursing up a storm.

Some buyers who understood Jingdong's subsidy policy had long since locked in their target products, sent Suning's in-store prices to Jingdong's customer service, and demanded the 10% off coupon.

At this point, the other price intelligence agent was responsible for verifying whether the information was accurate. If everything checked out, they would issue a targeted shopping coupon for the corresponding product to the user's Jingdong account.

Liu Qiangdong's tactic was downright thuggish — he had no intention of letting Suning post any sales numbers on the day of the 418 Home Appliances Festival.

"Manager, let's beat the hell out of these two bastards and throw them out." A Suning employee suggested.

"Leave them alone. Jingdong dares to be this arrogant because they want to provoke us. Once we lay hands on them and the matter blows up, it'll only play into the opponent's hands." Suning's store manager narrowed his eyes, seething with rage.

If not for the big boss's orders, those two bastards would absolutely not have walked out of the door with all their limbs intact.

Back in the day, when he was locked in a bloody battle with Gome, he had never been this humiliated.

At nine-thirty sharp, the stock market opened, and Suning's stock dropped 1.5% in response.

Because half an hour earlier, a third-party data platform had released a comparison of the April 17 sales figures between Jingdong and Suning.

Jingdong's sales: 170 million yuan. Suning's sales: 150 million yuan.

The old-timer of home appliances had actually been crushed by an upstart?

Retail investors, seeing this, scrambled to put in sell orders, terrified that one step slower would make them the bag-holders.

"Shameless!"

Upon learning the news, Zhang Jindong slammed the table with a series of thuds. As a seasoned veteran, how could he fail to see that someone was maliciously dumping shares to trigger volatility in Suning's stock price?

Damn it!

This guy is way too devious — not only waging a price war against him, but also pulling dirty tricks behind the scenes.

Zhang Jindong knew clearly: if Suning's stock hit the daily limit down, even if he won on sales performance, the other side would seize the chance to make a big fuss.

"Tell the investment department to eat up every single sell order — however many there are, eat them all."

After pondering for a while, Zhang Jindong instructed his secretary.

"Understood, boss." The secretary nodded slightly, clicked her slender high heels, and swayed out of the office.

Liu Qiangdong wasn't about to let this opportunity slip. He posted a screenshot of Suning's stock drop on Weibo — not a single word written, but the intent was crystal clear.

Han Pengde, head of Suning's online business, immediately responded that the group's management would increase their shareholding ratio.

The moment the news broke, Suning's stock bounced right back!

Meanwhile.

Gome began drastically cutting prices on products overlapping with Jingdong, and called out to Liu Qiangdong: "Gome's prices will definitely be 5% cheaper than Jingdong's."

Dangdang, relying on its Gome Electronics Mall card, stood on the same side as Gome, aiming its spear at Jingdong.

Liu Qiangdong mocked Li Guoqing, saying Dangdang had no suppliers or logistics system of its own, and was in no position to join the 418 Home Appliances War — that bastard was nothing but a shoe-shiner.

At nine forty-five, Li Guoqing posted a reply on Weibo: "Old Liu says Dangdang is a shoe-shiner. I don't think being a shoe-shiner makes you inferior. Dangdang's cooperation with Gome can perfectly leverage the respective strengths of both platforms, providing Dangdang users with competitively priced big-ticket appliances. As long as the users are satisfied, I'm willing to shine their shoes."

This passage deeply moved Dangdang's users!

No matter how you slice it, Li Guoqing was still a billionaire. Claiming he'd "shine shoes" for his users naturally won him a portion of user support.

Within minutes, the keyword "Li Guoqing shines shoes" shot up to the trending search list.

"This works too?" Liu Qiangdong was dumbfounded.

He hadn't even taken Dangdang seriously to begin with, but the mega-sale had barely started and Li Guoqing had already hyped himself onto the trending list.

Meanwhile.

In Dougezhuang, Yanjing, a bald middle-aged man in a striped outfit, carrying a watering can, was watering the flowers around him.

"Damn it all! Zhang Jindong riding on Gome's head is one thing, but now even Liu Qiangdong wants to take a bite out of me — doesn't he fear chipping his teeth?"

The bald man's pupils contracted slightly, and a cold, piercing glint flashed through his eyes.

It seems he's been away from the business world too long—these young people don't take Gome seriously at all.

He's already put the word out: even if it costs Gome three months of profit, he'll make JD pay the price.

Far away in Hangcheng, at Mama Ali's headquarters, a Fox Tao member rubbed their bleary eyes and dove back into work mode.

"Sen-ge, you've really done us in," Xu Kun sighed, unable to resist grumbling inwardly.

Given Pinbei's early-move forced the entire Fox Tao team into overtime—he'd worked until 2 a. m. last night before getting off.

"Kun-ge, do you regret it?" Du Yaoyao from the editorial team scooted over and asked in a low voice.

She and Xu Kun, along with Tang Qin from the design team and Xu Dan from HR, had once given up following Chen Yansen and joined Ali Baba instead. The pay was decent, but compared to before, the working hours had grown longer.

Overtime pay? Not a single cent!

"Don't overthink it. With our education and project experience, getting into Ali Baba is already pretty good."

Xu Kun forced a smile and offered in comfort.

In his heart he also missed the days when Chen Yansen was the boss—six-hour workday, full overtime pay. Who wouldn't like that?

"Buck up! As the leading figure-buyer e-commerce platform, Fox Tao must seize the moment, leverage content recommendations and brand-group formats, and strive to hit a new performance high!"

Fox Tao's business head Wu Ming, accompanied by his assistant, swept through on inspection and announced loudly to the office floor.

The price war among the six major e-commerce platforms continues!

By ten o'clock, JD's losses had already reached 20 million!

Suning and Gome weren't faring much better, grimacing in pain—at this rate, by midnight they'd lose 300 million!

Just then, Given Pinbei's billion-yuan subsidy channel began giving limited cash red packets to users—200 off 2000, 500 off 5000, and 800 off 10000—instantly drawing the attention of the entire web.

Given Pinbei's already highly cost-effective home-appliance products, stacked with the discount red packets, ended up nearly 10% cheaper than JD, Gome, and Suning.

Given Pinbei's surprise attack threw all three companies into disarray.

"Follow up! Crank up the campaign—set up a link on the main event page for claiming large-denomination JD coupons, and drive the prices down for me!"

Liu Qiangdong, stationed at the Yanjing headquarters, declared with heroic swagger.

This was no time to back down!

……

……

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Tech Park.

In the first-floor lobby of Building 8, an 80-inch display screen stood, scrolling Given Pinbei's real-time sales data for the day.

"Sen-ge, as of eleven o'clock, Given Pinbei's daily traffic is 63 million, with organic traffic at 3.1%; home-appliance sales are 140 million…"

Hu Yun sat in front of Chen Yansen, laptop in hand, reporting nonstop.

A 3.1% organic traffic share meant nearly 2 million new customers acquired for free—and high-value users at that, deeply interested in digital and home appliances.

Chen Yansen finally understood why Handsome Liu was so keen on price wars with others. On paper it was a loss, but it also brought in a flood of free new-customer traffic. In the long run, it was an absolute bargain.

"Haier bcd-216sz three-door refrigerator, 17,000 units sold; Daikin S-series wall-mounted air conditioner, 7,000 units; Samxing wf0702wkr drum washing machine, 4,000 units…"

Hu Yun read off the top ten home-appliance sellers one by one.

Chen Yansen glanced at the screen—negative gross profit of 43 million, still within his tolerance.

But JD was about to break!

Liu Qiangdong stared at the ever-rising negative gross profit and gradually lost his composure. By noon, he couldn't help but shoot a look at the home-appliance sales VP.

The other man got it instantly, turned and walked to the operations department, and had the category operators pull some of the over-subsidized products and mark them out of stock.

As time went on, Suning and Gome also went "out of stock."

With fewer and fewer comparable products for users to price-check, it was obvious they'd lost too much and were struggling to hold on.

At 2:15 p. m., the Commerce Federation Association weighed in, declaring this price war did not count as malicious competition.

The subtext: go ahead, fight it out!

Around 2:30, Suning's stock hit the daily limit up, and the company publicly claimed that during this 418 Home Appliance Festival, Suning's business had grown 637% month-over-month!

At three o'clock, rumors circulated that Suning couldn't keep up, accompanied by screenshots showing Suning's product prices having been raised back up.

But ten minutes later, Han Pengde jumped out to debunk it: he'd fight JD to the end.

Liu Qiangdong fired back immediately: Bring it on! JD has prepared JD coupons worth 500 and 1000 yuan for users—free with every order!

"True to form for Handsome Liu—kill three birds with one stone, spinning Suning and Gome around in circles."

Chen Yansen put down his phone and muttered softly.

Last year JD had raised 1.5 billion USD from DST Ventures, Tiger Fund, and other institutions. With funds about to run out, Liu Qiangdong had taken the initiative to start this price war.

First, to produce a beautiful report card in preparation for the IPO; second, to intercept Suning and Gome's "go online" plans and solidify JD's industry position in the online digital and home-appliance category; third, to attract investors' attention and seek the next funding round.

No way around it—JD's asset-heavy operating model was destined to require massive upfront investment and make profitability extremely difficult.

After 3:30 p. m., JD, Gome, Suning, Dangdang, and Yixun all suffered widespread stockouts.

Forty minutes later, users on Weibo began complaining that the e-commerce sites weren't honoring their previously promised coupons.

At 4:55 p. m., Suning's servers crashed; users couldn't open the website's homepage.

After this melee, everyone outwardly fumed, but privately they were all quite pleased.

Today's visitor numbers had doubled even for Dangdang and Yixun.

Late at night at 11:30, Given Pinbei's headquarters building was still ablaze with lights.

The question now facing all six e-commerce platforms: should they continue tomorrow?

Chen Yansen glanced at the data—excluding the 17th, today alone they'd lost 230 million.

He estimated JD, Suning, and Gome's losses at no less than 200 million each.

Add in Dangdang and Yixun, and the industry lost close to a billion in a single day!

Suddenly, the phone on the desk rang.

Chen Yansen glanced at the caller ID and smiled faintly.

(End of chapter)