Chapter 267: Sales Fall Short of Expectations? Total Reaches 27.9 Billion! Liu Qiangdong

At 1 a. ., Chen Yansen posted a group photo of Pinaibei's 618 promotion on Weibo.

The image showed open-air barbecue, hot pot, beer, and everything else.

In addition to 1. times overtime pay, everyone received a lucky red envelope ranging from 1, 00 to 10, 00 yuan.

In the final photo, Chen Yansen stood among over thirty employees who won ten-thousand-yuan prizes, beaming with a brilliant smile—the atmosphere was electric.

Meanwhile,

in Hangcheng, Ali's headquarters.

Xu Kun, Li Bin, Du Yaoyao, Tang Qin, and others stared at the photo, a pang of regret rising in them.

They knew Pinaibei's compensation system and benefits were identical to the old FoxTaobao—just overtime pay alone was a substantial income.

Ali's benefits were decent too, but overtime pay?

Not a single cent.

After all, everyone volunteered for overtime—talking about money would be inappropriate.

…

…

At 8: 0 a. ., Zhu Xianzhuang Technology Park.

More than an hour remained before the Mos Smart Speaker's launch; even Chen Yansen believed pricing it at 799 yuan in the domestic market would inevitably yield unsatisfactory sales.

But from the company's strategic perspective, the Mos Smart Speaker was ultimately a flagship product of OrangeTech.

So after parking his car, he walked straight into Building Nine.

In his office, he checked data as usual, handled work emails, finished his tasks, then leaned against the window with a straw in his mouth, gazing down at the street below.

Employees from Pinaibei, OrangeTech, OrangePay, and Toutiao gradually entered the building.

Before launch, Mos Smart Speaker enlisted over a hundred digital and tech influencers to promote it via Tuwen and video content on Weibo, Toutiao, Youku, and Sohu Video.

Wang Teng didn't even spare "What's Worth Buying" or FoxTaobao—he placed soft promotional articles in their product recommendation sections.

Exactly how many units would sell? The answer was coming soon.

For overseas markets, Wang Teng leveraged Zhou Shouzhi's connections and the gimmick of being the world's first smart speaker to easily secure licensing rights from Amazon Music, Pandora, Siri, and WolframAlpha.

Recently, Wang Teng had been busy expanding overseas sales channels—online, he partnered with Amazon and eBay; offline, he contacted Best Buy and Lowe's.

Ye Qiuping's negotiations with Paramount were ongoing; Paramount demanded a 15% royalty share to grant OrangeTech access to its Star Trek merchandise channels.

But Ye Qiuping was only willing to offer 7%—a wide gap, and no agreement had been reached.

Typically, 5% to 20% was reasonable, but the key issue was that Alexa was not a core character in Star Trek.

Offering only 7% was actually acceptable.

Chen Yansen wasn't in a hurry—he let Ye Qiuping slowly negotiate with Paramount's liaison.

After all, he already held the lifetime license for Alexa's character; whether Paramount agreed or not, the overseas launch date wouldn't change—he'd ride the Star Trek hype regardless.

At exactly 10 a. ., seven channels—Orange Mall, Taobao, Gome, Suning, Dangdang, Yixun, and Amazon—launched simultaneously.

Chen Yansen glanced at his watch but didn't rush back to his seat to check real-time data.

On the other side,

JD headquarters, Liu Qiangdong finished the morning meeting with category procurement managers and returned to his office.

This 618 promotion was critical for him.

Hong Kong and U. . investment banks had set JD's valuation at a pitiful $6 billion.

This infuriated Liangzai Dong—he rejected the Hong Kong stock exchange, then rejected Nasdaq, publicly declaring JD would not go public unless valued at $12 billion.

It sounded tough, but only he knew the inner suffering.

Investors like IDG, Sequoia, iResearch, DST, and Tiger Global had long grown resentful.

"Liu Zong, I don't ask you to profit, but you can't keep losing money forever. JD should go public first."

Sequoia's Shen Nanpeng urged him to initiate the IPO plan—early listing would let these investors cash out sooner.

But a $6 billion valuation? Was that a joke?

Domestic investment firms had valued Pinaibei at $10 billion—by comparison, JD's decades of effort seemed absurd.

To boost sales, Liu Qiangdong ordered operations to launch promotions: computers and electronics from 50% off, home appliances slashed to 48% off.

Headphones at 10% off, computers at 50% off.

$1 USB drives, $99 printers.

Large appliances: spend 1, 00 yuan, get 618 yuan back; small appliances: spend 100 yuan, get 61. yuan back.

There was even a flash sale for the Apple 4S, as low as 2, 99 yuan.

"Huh? OrangeTech's Mos Smart Speaker just launched!"

Liu Qiangdong suddenly remembered, sitting at his desk.

He skillfully opened his browser, found the Orange Mall link in his "Little Brother" bookmark folder, and clicked in.

Sales: 1, 94?

That's a flop, right?

Liu Qiangdong wanted to laugh—and he did, thinking: I thought you always succeeded!

Looking at Chen Yansen's career, whether in e-commerce or manufacturing, he'd never failed a project.

Constant wins, verifiable track record.

Liu Qiangdong knew investors backed Chen Yansen and gave Pinaibei over 20% valuation premium simply because his operational skills were terrifying.

FoxTaobao, OrangeTech, Pinaibei, KuaiPao, and KuaiDi Taxi—all thrived under Chen Yansen's management. To every investor, Chen Yansen was a god of wealth.

Who knew the god of wealth could stumble?

But when his gaze fell on the words "Little Brother," he sighed faintly—JD and Pinaibei had once had a honeymoon phase.

He and Chen Yansen had once called each other "Big Brother" and "Little Brother."

Last time during 418, he'd been too impulsive—he shouldn't have provoked Chen Yansen and Pinaibei.

Thinking of this, he pulled out his phone and called Zhou Shouzhi. After the call connected, they exchanged pleasantries.

Zhou Shouzhi politely asked about JD's 618 sales figures; Liu Qiangdong added a little embellishment and gave the real-time numbers.

"Zhou Zong, you're close to Chen Yansen—when he comes to Yancheng next time, can you invite me too?" Liu Qiangdong circled around for a while before revealing his true intent.

"Want to mend ties with Pinaibei? No problem—I'll arrange it." Zhou Shouzhi agreed readily.

"Thank you, Zhou Zong. When you're free, I'll treat you to drinks." Liu Qiangdong sighed in relief and replied warmly.

Zhou Shouzhi replied "ok" and hung up.

Prompted by Liu Qiangdong, he also opened the Orange Mall website.

Sales: 1, 47 units?

With Mos Smart Speaker launching simultaneously on seven channels, total sales likely exceeded ten thousand units.

But over four hours had passed since launch.

Clearly, Mos Smart Speaker's sales performance paled compared to OrangeTech's other products.

Self-media outlets, chasing traffic, rushed to post opinions on Weibo and Toutiao—even before daily sales totals were released.

"Why is OrangeTech's new product losing favor? Three real reasons you must ponder."

"Mos Smart Speaker priced at 799 yuan sells under 2, 00 units—has Chen Yansen lost his marketing touch?"

"World's first smart speaker sales slump—this could become OrangeTech's biggest failure!"

Most content was negative.

But these posts angered industry influencers—they'd been paid by OrangeTech for promotion, and in their view, Mos Smart Speaker was undeniably a groundbreaking product.

For the sake of the money and their conscience, they refused to let self-media label it "trash."

Wang Zixia, founder of Zealer, stormed in: "You bunch of garbage self-media! Do you even understand voice interaction engines? Do you know the industrial design aesthetics of Mos Smart Speaker? I'll say this: ten years from now, Mos will be seen as a legendary product!"

Gao Fei of Fengchao Review posted his review video again, adding: "I don't believe anyone can watch this video fully and remain indifferent to Mos Smart Speaker."

Luo Yonghao, whom Chen Yansen had rejected, shared his trial experience on Weibo, praising the Mos voice assistant's responsiveness.

By 3 p. ., total online sales barely crossed 20, 00 units.

"Boss, should I go live and demonstrate Mos Smart Speaker's features for users?"

Wang Teng knocked on Chen Yansen's office door, proposing seriously.

No one knew better than him how much effort Chen Yansen had poured into Mos Smart Speaker.

From system development to ecosystem apps, to exterior and hardware design—Chen Yansen oversaw every detail.

"No." Chen Yansen waved him off, refusing outright.

Ten days before launch, marketing and branding teams had already done massive promotion—hundreds of digital and tech influencers were invited; buyers already knew Mos Smart Speaker's features inside out.

Even if Wang Teng praised Mos Smart Speaker to the heavens in a livestream, users still wouldn't believe him.

Word-of-mouth needed time to ferment; the market needed time to accept this new product.

Two years later, Amazon's Echo sold 600, 00 units over two months.

So Chen Yansen didn't think Mos Smart Speaker's sales were low—he simply believed the domestic smart speaker market was too small and needed cultivation to reach a capacity of 40 to 50 million units annually.

Meanwhile, the domestic broadband user base also capped Mos Smart Speaker's sales potential.

Wang Teng froze—he hadn't expected the boss to refuse.

"Anything else?" Chen Yansen asked, glancing at him still standing at the door.

"No, I'll get back to work." Wang Teng shook his head and turned to leave.

In contrast to Mos Smart Speaker's sluggish sales, Pinaibei's revenue skyrocketed.

Compared to last year's Double Twelve, Pinaibei's merchant count surged from two to three thousand to over twenty thousand.

The long tail effect is intensifying!

Before eight p. ., Pinbei's daily sales had already surpassed 1. billion yuan; combined with yesterday's 1. 6 billion, the total reached 2. 6 billion.

With four hours left, we'll see if Pinbei can break the 3-billion sales record.

Midway through, Zhou Shouzhi called Chen Yansen and briefly mentioned Liu Qiangdong.

Chen Yansen did not refuse; since Liu Qiangdong wanted to host a banquet to apologize, there was no need to embarrass him.

On the business battlefield, it's better to have one more ally than one more rival.

Moreover, both shared a common adversary: Ma Liyun of Hangcheng.

Ali is the greatest obstacle blocking Pinbei and Jingdong's progress.

China's e-commerce market can accommodate Ali, Pinbei, and Jingdong, as well as Suning, Gome, and Dangdang; with over a billion consumers, creating several trillion-yuan-valued e-commerce giants is no challenge.

But everyone wants to be number one, so conflicts naturally arise.

Clearly, after weighing pros and cons, Liu Qiangdong decided to direct his spear first at Ali.

At ten-thirty p. ., Chen Yansen sat in Pinbei's first-floor lobby, holding a skewer, watching the large screen wall ahead, waiting for the final promotional sales figures.

"The sales growth rate has slowed; it seems unlikely we'll reach three billion," said Song Yuncheng beside him, slightly disappointed.

"Then let's break it on Double Eleven! So what if we hit three billion? They won't give us an award."

Chen Yansen spoke casually.

Zhang Yifeng, Cai Qiming, Yang Pinglun, and others knew well that their boss also wanted to hit three billion in promotional sales.

First, to demonstrate economies of scale and set an industry benchmark;

Second, to attract capital attention and reduce fundraising difficulties;

Third, to guide merchants' resource allocation.

Every time an e-commerce platform releases a promotional sales report, there are deep strategic intentions behind it—far more than mere showmanship.

The higher the sales figures, the greater the traffic, allowing simultaneous transmission of different underlying messages to users, merchants, and investors.

Time ticked away, and before they knew it, midnight arrived.

June 18's sales figure stabilized at 1. 3 billion, bringing the cumulative total with yesterday's sales to 2. 9 billion.

Mos Smart Speaker's first-day sales were locked at 31, 00 units.

Chen Yansen stood up, walked straight out, got into the Bentley's driver's seat, and sped toward Xuyuan.

Hundreds of kilometers away in Yanjing, Liu Qiangdong took a deep breath, staring fixedly at the number on the big screen—1. 4 billion.

"Write tomorrow's report as if we hit two billion!" Liu Qiangdong snapped back to attention and ordered Xu Lei from marketing.

"Then make it 2. 7 billion," Xu Lei replied with a smile, generously adding 70 million—this way, the numbers would seem more credible.

"I wonder how much Pinbei made?"

Liu Qiangdong murmured, squinting.

He knew Jingdong couldn't match Ali, but as a rising star in e-commerce, he didn't want to lose to Chen Yansen.

"We'll know tomorrow. Discount Pinbei's report by twenty percent—I bet it's not far off," Xu Lei replied with a chuckle, projecting his own thinking onto others.

What about Ali?

Liu Qiangdong asked himself silently.

(End of Chapter)