Chapter 261: Total Sales 14.7 Million Units! The Wool Being Fattened for Shearing

The next day, a group of Kuaidi Dache's marketing staff appeared at Yanjing Airport's Terminal 3.

"Driver, got a smartphone?"

Hong Jun seized the moment, walked up to a taxi driver to chat him up, and before he could even finish speaking, a Yuxi cigarette was already being handed over.

The driver had no intention of paying him any attention, but out of respect for the cigarette, he replied blandly, "Of course I do. What era do you think this is? Who doesn't have a smartphone these days?"

That said, in 2011, smartphone shipments were only a little over 80 million units; in reality, the number of smartphone users nationwide was less than 300 million, with a penetration rate under 22%.

Hong Jun secretly rolled his eyes, ignored the driver's posturing, and went on with his pitch: "I'm a staff member from Kuaidi Dache. Want to give our product a try, bro? Once you install it, tens of thousands of passengers at Yanjing Airport every day can hail rides through the app, you'll be swamped with orders, raking in cash till your legs go soft."

"Bullshit! You trying to fool who? It's just a ride-hailing app—I've used them before. Only a dozen orders a day, and the GPS is off. Total garbage."

The driver curled his lip, his face full of contempt.

"That's because you haven't tried Kuaidi Dache! Heard of Gao De? Same boss as Kuaidi Dache. It syncs the latest nationwide traffic info every day, and the GPS is super accurate."

Hong Jun, a cigarette dangling from his lips, bragged wildly with the driver.

"For real? Didn't Gao De get sold to the boss of Sister Chengzi Tech? Look at my phone—it's the latest Chengzi D1!"

The driver pulled out his phone, grinning as he spoke.

Ever since Gao De went free, this group of drivers had basically been using Gao De for navigation whenever they hit unfamiliar routes.

"Kuaidi Dache, Gao De, and Chengzi phones—all the same boss. New drivers get zero commission for 14 days, plus an extra 2 yuan subsidy per order. How about it, bro?"

Hong Jun explained glibly.

Zero commission for 14 days?

An extra 2 yuan per order on top?

Didi Dache never offered a deal like that.

Upon hearing these preferential policies, the driver cheerfully opened the Chengzi app store, downloaded and installed Kuaidi Dache.

Done!

Hong Jun's heart leaped with joy, and he moved on to find his next target.

Meanwhile.

Cheng Weixing, holding an authorization document from the Transportation Association obtained through Huake's investment promotion, walked into Yanjing's largest taxi company and knocked on the general manager's office door.

"Another ride-hailing app? Didn't I tell you? No documents, no talk."

Xinyue Taxi Company's general manager Wang Baofeng waved impatiently.

"Mr. Wang, this is the Transportation Association's authorization document. Please have a look."

Cheng Weixing sat down with an air of swagger, his assistant standing behind him.

That Fuzuo Sect manner of his made Wang Baofeng dare not take him lightly.

After all, anyone who could get their hands on an authorization document might not have much money, but in Yanjing, their connections were absolutely terrifying.

When he noticed a check tucked inside the document, Wang Baofeng barely suppressed a smile and deliberately kept a straight face as he asked, "Boss Cheng, what is the meaning of this?"

"I'm promoting my software at your company—paying a promotion fee isn't perfectly reasonable?" Cheng Weixing shrugged, looking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"No problem. Since the Transportation Association has approved it, our Xinyue will, of course, give full support."

Wang Baofeng agreed readily, and the check quietly, without a sound, slipped into his own pocket.

Cheng Weixing saw it all, but deliberately played dumb.

The proper paperwork, after all, the other party would handle themselves; on his end, this sum was simply a legitimate promotion fee.

Once the deal was settled, Cheng Weixing left a colleague from the marketing department behind to handle the subsequent software installation and driver training.

With the authorization document and the promotion fee working in tandem, in less than a day Cheng Weixing had locked down three taxi companies.

On Hong Jun's end, the name of Kuaidi Dache had also been thoroughly made famous at Yanjing Airport's Terminal 3.

Getting drivers to download Kuaidi Dache was actually simple—just make them believe that using Kuaidi Dache really could make them money.

The user side didn't need Cheng Weixing to worry at all. With the Chengzi app store, Today's Headlines, and Lingxi Browser driving traffic to Kuaidi Dache, there was naturally no shortage of passenger orders.

What's more, the first ride gets 12 yuan off, meaning free within four kilometers.

Most users on Yanjing IPs, upon seeing the promotional poster that read "Kuaidi Dache, first ride free," downloaded and installed it without hesitation.

Freebies—why not grab them?

Cheng Weixing used Hangcheng's classic playbook to successfully replicate it in the Yanjing market, relying on the "new user 12 yuan off" and "new driver 14-day zero commission" policies to quickly break the situation open.

At the same time.

Cheng Wei soon got the news. He hadn't expected Cheng Weixing to move so fast—in just a few short days, not only had he locked down over a dozen top taxi companies, he had also forcefully taken over Yanjing Airport's Terminal 3.

With Didi Dache's order volume plummeting and its 12% commission cut, drivers were flocking to defect to Kuaidi Dache.

Although the 14-day zero-commission period wasn't long, once passengers and drivers formed the habit of using it, if Didi wanted to win the market back, it would take ten times, a hundred times the effort.

"Boss, should we lower our commission rate, or follow Kuaidi Dache's lead and also offer a zero-commission period for new drivers?"

Zhong Yuan, head of the operations department, asked.

Drivers' loyalty was extremely low; there were even people running two apps at once, taking orders from both.

Kuaidi Dache's subsidies were hefty, its promotion effective, and its order volume higher than Didi Dache's.

One side losing, the other gaining—if they didn't respond, Didi's position would turn passive.

"Why choose? We can clearly do both! Starting tomorrow, new drivers on Didi Dache will also enjoy a 14-day zero-commission period; additionally, Didi Dache's commission rate will be cut to 10%."

Cheng Wei shook his head, first rejecting Zhong Yuan's proposal, then adding.

"Got it, boss. Then on the new-customer subsidy front, we'll just match Kuaidi Dache." Zhong Yuan nodded and hurriedly responded.

"Increase the per-order driver subsidy—3 yuan per order!"

Cheng Wei continued.

If you're going to fight, you have to hit hard!

He had carefully analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. Apart from the cash flow issue, Didi Dache's order matching and positioning system were both slightly inferior.

So he had to increase drivers' income and pull drivers over to the Didi Taxi camp.

Drivers were the foundation; without them, Kuaidi Taxi's traffic advantage would vanish into thin air.

The next morning, a pop-up announcement appeared on the Didi Taxi driver-side app.

Instantly retaining the drivers!

Seeing this, Cheng Weixing immediately lowered the commission rate, dropping it straight to 5%, and simultaneously raised the per-order subsidy for drivers to 3 yuan.

In addition, they issued activation coupons for passengers' second and third rides.

Internet business wars have no tricks to speak of — it's purely a price war.

……

……

Several hundred kilometers away in Xucheng, Chen Yansen opened Cheng Weixing's work email.

In just ten days, Kuaidi Taxi had burned nearly ten million in marketing costs in Yanjing — Xizhimen, Guomao, Xidan, Huilongguan, and other subway stations were all plastered with Kuaidi Taxi's massive posters.

Fortunately, the effect was obvious — Kuaidi Taxi charged ahead at full speed, with daily orders exceeding 70,000.

Didi Taxi was also burning cash like crazy; the discount policies both sides aimed at passengers and drivers were changing almost daily.

Currently, whether Didi Taxi or Kuaidi Taxi, drivers' commission rates had dropped to 3%, and the per-order subsidy was fixed at five yuan.

Daily subsidy costs reached a million; as orders grew, this number would keep climbing — perhaps in ten days it would hit three million, or even five million a day.

Chen Yansen paid it no mind; he hadn't expected that after he'd pulled Penguin and Ali Mama onto the bus, Baidu would jump out as well.

And Baidu in 2012, within the BAT ranks, was no weakling — its market cap peaked at over fifty billion US dollars, truly deserving the title of internet leviathan.

"Let's fight for another month first; if Baidu throws in more investment, we'll have to change our strategic direction."

Chen Yansen mulled it over to himself.

By now, a full week had passed since the official launch of the Xiaomi 1s and Xiaomi Mi 2.

Xiaomi 1s cumulative sales: 430,000 units; Xiaomi Mi 2 cumulative sales: 590,000 units — a combined 1.02 million units.

On paper it looked decent, but what Lei Yijun couldn't swallow was that, with identical specs and the same price, the Xiaomi 1s had actually lost to the 360 Phone in weekly sales.

Over the past few days, Zhou Hongyi had not missed a single chance to mock Xiaomi.

"Some coarse-grain brand is copying Sister Chengzi's phone with its benchmark scores. Today I picked two thousand-yuan phones — didn't expect the benchmark results to be so surprising. Looks like identical specs don't mean identical performance."

Zhou Hongyi personally stepped in, running benchmarks on the 360 G800 Pro Shine and the Xiaomi 1s — the 360 Phone scored 7,448, while the Xiaomi only managed 7,109.

Li Wanqiang fired back immediately, stating bluntly that Zhou Jiaozhu's stance was crooked, so naturally the test results were crooked too, and that it should be left to a third-party organization for review.

Zhou Hongyi, brimming with confidence, found three big-name tech and digital V's — among them Luo Yonghao.

He livestreamed it on the YY platform, but the results were unanimous: the 360 G800 Pro Shine posted the highest AnTuTu score.

Clearly, Zhou Hongyi had already made sure the 360 Phone would outperform the Xiaomi 1s in benchmarks before boldly going ahead with the livestream.

After the back-and-forth, you couldn't really call it a win or a loss — instead, both sides' sales ticked up.

For users, the gap between 7,100 and 7,400 points didn't really matter.

For a time, sales of the Xiaomi 1s and 360 G800 Pro Shine climbed steadily across the web, beating Lenovo, ZTE, and Ku Sect so badly they couldn't even lift their heads.

Seeing that this marketing approach helped boost 360 Phone sales, Zhou Hongyi took to provoking Li Wanqiang and Lei Yijun on Weibo every couple of days.

Netizens urged him to put his money where his mouth was and set a time to meet offline.

When Zhou Hongyi saw messages like that, he'd just smile faintly and ignore them completely.

After 360 and Xiaomi traded insults for a few days, netizens gradually caught on, realizing these two were still just hyping things up — all thunder, little rain.

The hype quickly died down.

Sister Chengzi phone sales, however, were unaffected — the Sister Chengzi D1's hardware specs were a tier below the Xiaomi 1s and 360 G800 Pro Shine, but its price was only 799 yuan.

The overlap with potential buyers was extremely low!

Meanwhile, the Sister Chengzi C2's specs were a full notch above the Xiaomi 1s and 360 G800 Pro Shine — they weren't even competing in the same price bracket.

Before clocking out, Chen Yansen glanced at the Sister Chengzi phone's nationwide sales tally: Sister Chengzi C1 at 2.9 million units, Sister Chengzi C2 at 3.6 million units, Sister Chengzi D1 at 8.2 million units.

Cumulative 2012 sales: 14.7 million units!

That number was roughly on par with Mountain Star's full-year shipments in 2011, but the Mountain Star Galaxy system had performed very strongly this year.

Whether Orange Tech could catch up to Mountain Star's domestic shipments was still an open question.

Just as Chen Yansen stepped into the elevator, heading back to the Xu Courtyard, in a residential building on Yanjing's outer ring road, five young men were huddled around computers, busy at work.

A row of densely packed cat-pool devices sat on the table.

"Bro Hui, this is freaking awesome! Fifty or sixty thousand a day — this thing's a money-printing machine!"

One of the young men exclaimed, eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Everyone keep it freaking tight! Scatter the pickup and drop-off locations — don't make it too obvious. If we get caught, we're all going in to work the sewing machine."

Bro Hui's face darkened as he warned coldly.

"Too bad Kuaidi Taxi's risk control is too tight — it picks up our virtual-location software in a snap." Another young man in the corner chimed in.

"Don't be too greedy. Stick it out for a month, and each of us can pocket a few hundred thousand."

Bro Hui finished, a hint of longing creeping onto his face.

(End of chapter)