Chapter 285: Baidu Severely Wounded, Google Lightly Injured, Lingxi Slight Victory

At 10: 0 a. ., Baidu lifted its ban on 360 products.

Ten minutes later, 360 mirrored Baidu's actions.

The 3B war entered a lull; their technical battles and public relations mudslinging finally ended, but they immediately moved into legal combat.

Baidu sued 360 for bypassing the robots. xt protocol to illegally scrape data for rapid content acquisition, demanding one hundred million yuan in economic damages.

Zhou Hongyi was no one to take losses—he actively defended himself while blasting on Weibo: "Monopoly is the greatest evil on earth, because it robs users of choice! Baidu's problems aren't just monopoly—they include malicious software bundling, hard-to-uninstall products, and incomplete removals. Isn't that Liumang software?"

Netizens in the comments joked: "It's like a monk cursing a rogue monk, a thug beating a hoodlum—in short, no war in the Spring and Autumn period was just."

The implication: neither 360 nor Baidu were good guys.

But Zhou Hongyi didn't care—360 Search had already won big.

Before the war, 360 Search's market share was zero; after, it surged to 8. 9%, becoming the second-largest search engine in China.

On the other side.

In Xucheng, Zhuxianzhu Technology Park, Building 9.

Chen Yansen sat in his office and opened the work email sent by Zhang Yiming.

Lingxi Browser had 61 million cumulative users and 37 million active users, with a market share of 10. %, ranking fourth behind UC, QQ, and Opera browsers, ahead of Baidu and Dolphin browsers.

Lingxi Search's market share was 4. 7%, behind only Baidu, 360, and Sogou; Google's market share in Greater China dropped to 3. 9%, falling to fifth place.

Sogou Search's user adoption remained stable, but Baidu Search's market share plummeted from 75. 4% in early August to 64. 8%, shrinking by 14. 6%.

Baidu severely wounded, Google lightly injured, Sogou holding steady.

Lingxi and 360 Search both won!

"Zhou Hongyi looks dumb, but he's sharper than anyone—no wonder he'll still be riding the influencer wave ten years from now!"

Chen Yansen lifted his teacup, took a sip, and smiled faintly.

Zhou Hongyi graduated with a master's at twenty-five, started as a state-owned enterprise programmer, became department manager a year later, and five years after that, founded the 3721 project. Five years after that, he sold 3721 to Yahoo for $120 million, pocketing $80 million himself.

It was 2003; Shanghai's per capita income was still under 20, 00 yuan.

But in Chen Yansen's view, Zhou Hongyi's strategic planning was terrible—perhaps a bad habit from his early days as an investor: he chased whatever was trending, yet never dared to go all-in.

Resources scattered, failure inevitable.

His style was like a two-stage firecracker—light a fuse and it explodes!

In truth, Chen Yansen held no personal feelings toward Zhou Hongyi, Lei Yi, Ma Wenteng, Li Yanhong, or Ma Liyun.

They were businessmen—profit was all that mattered.

Of course, if they crossed his line, he'd strike without mercy.

Li Yanhong's investment in Didi Chuxing had caused him serious trouble, so Chen Yansen immediately launched Lingxi Search, forcibly carving out 4. 7% market share from Baidu's plate.

As he pondered, his desk phone rang.

Chen Yansen snapped back to attention, extended his hand, and the phone flew automatically into his palm; he glanced at the caller ID and pressed answer.

"Boss, Baidu acquired LaShou. om and added an 'Eat, Drink, Play' section to Baidu Maps. Li Yanhong is shameless—he copied GaoDe's O2O strategy line for line."

Xiao Jun cut straight to the point, furious.

"The same plan, executed by different people, yields opposite results. Let him copy—whoever fails looks foolish."

Chen Yansen dismissed it, speaking slowly.

After all, the internet had no real copyright—especially not in 2012.

"Understood, Boss," Xiao Jun replied through gritted teeth, planning a business-level counterstrike against Baidu.

In the field of electronic maps and navigation software, GaoDe was the undisputed leader.

Xiao Jun was confident he wouldn't lose in project execution to Baidu Maps.

Chen Yansen didn't hang up immediately; he asked about GaoDe Maps' progress in local life services.

They spoke for over twenty minutes before Chen Yansen slowly put the phone down.

Two weeks ago, Zhu Xiaohu had called him, probing his price floor.

Chen Yansen had quoted $240 million—a valuation calculated by Gao Weilin based on LaShou's business and financial data, market share, and industry prospects, not a random guess.

Since Jinsha Capital, Maidun Investment, and Rennet Fund had sold LaShou to Baidu, Li Yanhong must have offered more.

But he wasn't overly concerned—there were several other group-buying sites similar to LaShou: Nuomi, Dazhong Dianping, WoWoTuan, even Meituan.

Would Wang Xin sell Meituan?

Chen Yansen had no hesitation on this question.

If KuaiPao and LaShou pushed Meituan into desperation—with cash shortages and no funding—Wang Xin had only two choices: die, or sell.

Baidu's acquisition of LaShou would first target Wang Xin, second Dazhong Dianping, and only third possibly KuaiPao.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen opened his computer and quickly found the news on Baidu's homepage.

"Baidu Acquires LaShou. om for $420 Million, Sets Record for Largest Group-Buying Acquisition!"

"Group-Buying + Travel! Baidu Spends Big to Fully Expand Local Life Services!"

$420 million?

Chen Yansen furrowed his brow—he wasn't sure how much of that was inflated, but he estimated the real price was around $400 million.

Two weeks ago, Zhu Xiaohu had quoted $320 million; now it had jumped $100 million.

Li Yanhong was truly a sucker.

Chen Yansen cursed inwardly—if Baidu hadn't interfered, Senlian Capital's influence in the ride-hailing and group-buying markets would far exceed its current state.

But he paused, and his mindset instantly calmed.

Without Baidu, another big capital would emerge.

He knew Zhu Nanli of Junlian Capital had privately discussed with Xu Xin of Jinxin Capital, Wang Qiong of Hillhouse Capital, and Zhang Lei of GGV, trying to install Liu Yiqing as CEO of Didi Chuxing.

He failed only because Baidu's equity stake was too high.

With Liu Yiqing's network, even without leveraging Lenovo or the Liu family's influence, she could easily raise funds from Australia and Europe.

She had spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs—she must have deep, rich connections.

Compared to Liu Yiqing, indecisive Li Yanhong was far easier to handle.

When the losses from subsidy wars reached Li Yanhong's psychological limit, that would be the start of negotiations.

That afternoon, KuaiPao launched a meal card recharge campaign, identical to Kuaide's; with no competition, it generated 590 million yuan in revenue within six hours.

After firmly establishing itself in Hui'an, Sujiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu-Zhejiang, Pei Yi immediately "marched north," expanding rapidly from Beijing, Tianjin, Changshan, and Tangcheng toward surrounding prefecture-level cities, aiming to seize the North China market.

GaoDe, KuaiPao, and Kuaide's services complemented each other; their three products achieved ecological synergy in traffic and monetization, significantly boosting daily active users and user retention.

Before leaving work, Chen Yansen received a call from Ma Wenteng, and frowned in confusion: Why is he in Xucheng?

Without time to ponder, he stepped out the door and called for Zhou Shouzhi, Ye Qiuping, and Gao Weilin to accompany him.

Three minutes later, a panda-colored Rolls-Royce Ghost and a Bentley Mulsanne drove out of the tech park, speeding toward the city center.

Meanwhile.

Chen Yizhou of Renren, upon seeing Baidu's acquisition news, realized he'd been played by Li Yanhong.

"Fucking hell! You dragged me for a month!"

Emotionally charged, Chen Yizhou blurted out his long-dormant dialect, then immediately dialed Chen Yansen.

"Duuu… duuu… duuu…"

Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds—no one answered.

Had Chen Yansen given up on acquiring group-buying sites?

Chen Yizhou panicked—Nuomi lost two to three million dollars monthly; delaying the sale by a month meant losing a Shanghai villa.

Outside Chen Yansen, he truly couldn't find another credible buyer in China.

Remember, venture capital firms confident in group-buying had already entered the market in early 2011.

Now it was the final round of "five to four"—how could any investor suddenly switch from a group-buying product to a brand-new one?

On the other side, Chen Yansen stepped out of the car and walked into the sky garden, where he saw Ma Wenteng approaching.

(End of Chapter)