Chapter 261: Total Sales of 14.7 Million Units! The Fattened Wool Work

The next day, at Beijing Capital International Airport's Terminal 3, a group of Kuaide Taxi marketing staff appeared.

"Master, do you have a smartphone?"

Hong Jun seized the moment and approached a taxi driver, but before he could finish speaking, a Yuxi cigarette was handed to him.

The driver originally didn't want to engage, but out of respect for the cigarette, he replied indifferently: "Of course I do—what era are we in? Who doesn't have a smartphone?"

Even so, in 2011, smartphone shipments totaled only 80 million units; nationwide, smartphone users numbered under 300 million, with a penetration rate below 22%.

Hong Jun silently rolled his eyes, ignored the driver's showiness, and continued: "I'm with Kuaide Taxi. Brother, why not try our app? After installation, tens of thousands of passengers at Beijing Airport daily can book rides online—you'll get so many orders your hands will ache, and you'll earn so much your feet will hurt."

"Bullshit! You think I'm stupid? I've used ride-hailing apps before—only ten or so orders a day, and the location's always off. Total garbage."

The driver sneered, clearly dismissive.

"You've never used Kuaide Taxi! Have you heard of AutoNavi? Same boss as Kuaide Taxi—daily syncs nationwide traffic updates, ultra-precise positioning."

Hong Jun himself had a cigarette dangling from his lips as he chatted casually with the driver.

"Really? Didn't AutoNavi get sold to Orange Tech's boss? Look at my phone—it's the latest Orange D1!"

The driver pulled out his phone and grinned.

Since AutoNavi went free, drivers like him almost always used it for navigation when facing unfamiliar routes.

"Kuaide Taxi, AutoNavi, and Orange phones all share the same boss. New drivers get zero commission for 14 days, plus a 2-yuan bonus per order. Brother, next?"

Hong Jun explained smoothly.

Zero commission for 14 days?

2 yuan bonus per order?

Didi Taxi doesn't offer anything like that.

Hearing these incentives, the driver cheerfully opened the Orange App Store, downloaded, and installed Kuaide Taxi.

Done!

Hong Jun smiled inwardly and moved on to find his next target.

Meanwhile.

Cheng Weixing walked into Beijing's largest taxi company with the transportation association authorization documents obtained from Huake's business development team and knocked on the general manager's office door.

"Another ride-hailing app? Didn't I say? No paperwork, no talk."

Wang Baofeng, general manager of Xinyue Taxi, waved his hand impatiently.

"Manager Wang, here's the transportation association's authorization document—please review."

Cheng Weixing sat down confidently, his assistant standing behind him.

This demeanor made Wang Baofeng take him seriously.

After all, someone who could obtain official authorization might not be rich, but in Beijing, their connections were undoubtedly terrifying.

When he spotted a check tucked inside the documents, Wang Baofeng forced back a smile and feigned seriousness: "Mr. Cheng, what's the meaning of this?"

"I'm promoting your software—I paying promotion fees is perfectly reasonable," Cheng Weixing shrugged, as if it were obvious.

"No problem. Since the transportation association approved it, Xinyue will fully support it."

Wang Baofeng agreed readily, and the check slipped silently into his pocket.

Cheng Weixing saw it all but pretended not to notice.

After all, the compliance paperwork would be handled by the company themselves—his side, this was legitimate promotion funding.

After finalizing the deal, Cheng Weixing left a colleague from marketing to handle subsequent app installations and driver training.

With both authorization documents and promotion fees applied, within less than a day, Cheng Weixing secured three taxi companies.

Meanwhile, Hong Jun had fully established Kuaide Taxi's reputation at Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport.

Getting drivers to download Kuaide Taxi was simple: just make them believe it would genuinely earn them money.

The user side needed no concern from Cheng Weixing—Orange App Store, Toutiao, and Lingxi Browser drove traffic to Kuaide Taxi, ensuring no shortage of passenger orders.

Moreover, the first ride was discounted by 12 yuan—effectively free for trips under four kilometers.

Most Beijing-based users, upon seeing the promotional poster reading "Kuaide Taxi: First Ride Free," downloaded and installed the app without hesitation.

Free wool? Don't leave it unshorn!

Cheng Weixing replicated Hangzhou's classic strategy in Beijing, rapidly breaking the market with "New Users Get 12 Yuan Off" and "New Drivers Get 14 Days Free Commission."

Meanwhile.

Cheng Wei quickly learned the news—he hadn't expected Cheng Weixing to move so fast. In just a few days, he'd secured over a dozen top taxi companies and forcefully seized Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport.

Due to Didi Taxi's plummeting order volume and its 12% commission rate, drivers were flocking to Kuaide Taxi.

Although the 14-day commission-free period was short, once passengers and drivers formed usage habits, Didi would need to expend ten or a hundred times more effort to reclaim the market.

"Boss, should we lower our commission rate or copy Kuaide Taxi and launch a new-driver commission-free period?"

Zhong Yuan, head of operations, asked.

Driver loyalty was extremely low—even some operated both apps simultaneously to take orders.

Kuaide Taxi offered larger subsidies, better promotion, and more orders than Didi Taxi.

As Kuaide rose, Didi fell—unless they acted now, Didi's position would become dire.

"Why choose one? We can do both! Starting tomorrow, Didi Taxi's new drivers also get 14 days of zero commission; additionally, Didi's commission rate drops to 10%."

Cheng Wei shook his head, rejecting Zhong Yuan's suggestion, then added:

"Understood, Boss. We'll match Kuaide Taxi's new-user subsidies," Zhong Yuan nodded quickly.

"Increase driver order subsidies to 3 yuan per order!"

Cheng Wei continued.

If you're going to fight, go all out!

He had carefully analyzed Didi Taxi and Kuaide Taxi's strengths and weaknesses—aside from cash flow issues, Didi's order matching and positioning systems were slightly inferior.

So he needed to boost driver income and pull them into Didi's camp.

Drivers were the foundation—without them, Kuaide Taxi's traffic advantage vanished.

The next morning, Didi Taxi's driver app displayed an announcement.

It instantly retained the drivers!

Seeing this, Cheng Weixing immediately lowered his commission rate to 5% and raised driver subsidies per order to 3 yuan.

He also issued promotional coupons for passengers' second and third rides.

Internet warfare had no tricks—it was all about price.

…

…

Hundreds of kilometers away in Xu City, Chen Yansen opened Cheng Weixing's work email.

In just ten days, Kuaide Taxi had spent nearly ten million yuan on marketing in Beijing—giant posters for Kuaide Taxi blanketed subway stations like Xizhimen, Guomao, Xidan, and Huilongguan.

Fortunately, the results were clear: Kuaide Taxi surged forward, averaging over 70, 00 daily orders.

Didi Taxi was also burning cash furiously; both sides' passenger and driver incentives changed almost daily.

Currently, both Didi Taxi and Kuaide Taxi had reduced driver commissions to 3%, with fixed subsidies of 5 yuan per order.

Daily subsidy expenses reached millions; as orders increased, this number would keep rising—perhaps within ten days, it would climb to 3 million or even 5 million yuan per day.

Chen Yansen wasn't concerned—he hadn't anticipated that after bringing Tencent and Alibaba on board, Baidu would jump in too.

In 2012, Baidu was no weak player among BAT; its peak market cap exceeded $50 billion, truly deserving its status as a giant of the internet.

"Let's fight for a month first—if Baidu increases investment, we'll adjust our strategy."

Chen Yansen mused silently.

At this point, one week had passed since the official launch of the Xiaomi 1S and Xiaomi Mi2.

Cumulative sales: Xiaomi 1S at 430, 00 units, Xiaomi Mi2 at 590, 00 units, totaling 1, 20, 00 units.

It looked good, but Lei Yi Army was dissatisfied: under identical specs and price, the Xiaomi 1S had lost weekly sales to the 360 Phone.

Over recent days, Zhou Hongyi hadn't stopped mocking Xiaomi.

A certain grain brand has copied Orange Phone's benchmarking—today I tested two-thousand-yuan phones. The results were surprising: identical specs don't mean identical performance.

Zhou Hongyi personally ran benchmarks on the 360 G800 Pro Shine and Xiaomi 1S—the 360 Phone scored 7448, Xiaomi only 7109.

Li Wanqiang immediately responded, accusing Zhou the Pope of bias and claiming the test results were rigged; they should be evaluated by a third-party institution.

Zhou Hongyi confidently recruited three major tech influencers from the digital and tech circles, including Luo Yonghao.

He livestreamed the tests on YY platform—and without exception, the 360 G800 Pro Shine scored highest on AnTuTu.

Clearly, Zhou Hongyi had already confirmed that the 360 Phone outperformed the Xiaomi 1S in benchmarking, so he boldly launched the livestream.

After a heated exchange, neither side truly won or lost—but both sides' sales rose.

For users, the difference between 7100 and 7400 points was negligible.

Suddenly, Xiaomi 1S and 360 G800 Pro Shine sales surged nationwide, leaving Lenovo, ZTE, and Coolpad struggling to keep up.

Seeing this marketing tactic boosted 360 Phone sales, Zhou Hongyi began taunting Li Wanqiang and Lei Yi Army on Weibo every few days.

Netizens advised him: don't just talk—schedule an offline showdown.

When Zhou Hongyi saw such messages, he smiled faintly and ignored them outright.

After several days of mutual insults, netizens gradually realized: these two were just staging a publicity stunt—loud noise, little substance.

The hype quickly faded.

Orange Phone sales remained unaffected—the Orange D1's hardware specs were one tier lower than Xiaomi 1S and 360 G800 Pro Shine, yet it sold for only 799 yuan.

Their potential buyer pools overlapped minimally!

Meanwhile, the Orange C2's specs far surpassed both Xiaomi 1S and 360 G800 Pro Shine—they weren't even competitors in the same price segment.

Before leaving work, Chen Yansen glanced at the total online sales statistics on his Orange phone: 2. million units of the Orange C1, 3. million units of the Orange C2, and 8. million units of the Orange D1.

Total sales for 2012 reached 14. million units!

This figure roughly matched Shanxing's full-year shipment volume in 2011, but Shanxing's Galaxy system had shown strong sales performance this year.

Whether Orange Tech could match Shanxing's domestic shipment volume remained uncertain.

As Chen Yansen stepped into the elevator, preparing to return to Xu Yuan, five young men in a residence on Beijing's outer ring were huddled together, busy with their laptops.

A row of densely packed Cat devices sat on the table.

"Hui Ge, this is insane! Fifty to sixty thousand a day—this thing is a money printer!"

One of the young men exclaimed with excitement.

"Stay sharp! Scatter the pickup and drop-off locations—don't make it too obvious. If we get caught, we'll all be stuck sewing machines."

Hui Ge's face was grim as he warned coldly.

"Too bad Didi's risk control is too tight—it easily detects our virtual location software," said another young man in the corner.

"Don't be greedy. Stick to it for a month, and everyone can walk away with hundreds of thousands."

As Hui Ge spoke, a hint of longing crept onto his face.

(End of Chapter)