Chapter 310: 2.2 Billion U.S

September 11, Beijing International Convention Center, Conference Hall 1.

The indoor space, nearly two thousand square meters, was packed to capacity; the ten-meter-high dome glowed with lights, and directly ahead stood a circular LED screen, each seat equipped with a touch-screen tablet and simultaneous interpretation headphones.

At ten o’clock sharp, the chairmen of the Industrial and Information Technology Association, the China Engineering Association, and the Internet Association took the stage in turn to deliver speeches.

They awarded outstanding contribution awards and leading technology prizes to industry leaders in subfields such as PC internet, mobile internet, IoT, cloud computing, online marketing, and e-commerce.

In plain terms, it was all empty honors with not a single cent in benefits.

Companies like Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu all received awards; Yunsu Express won the Innovation Breakthrough Award for its electronic waybill technology.

Chen Yansen listened half-asleep; to him, it was nothing but empty rhetoric with not a shred of value.

The chairmen of China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom took turns sharing their views on the era of mobile internet.

Yet no matter how much they spoke, they never mentioned any price-reduction policies.

If not for the lifting of Wi-Fi restrictions two years ago, with mobile data priced at 30 to 50 yuan per gigabyte, users wouldn’t dare turn on mobile data—how could development even be discussed?

“Keep dawdling. I’m done waiting.”

Chen Yansen lifted his eyelids slightly, his gaze sweeping over the three giants; if a groundbreaking product couldn’t succeed domestically, he’d take it overseas.

For example, Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker sold three to four times more overseas than domestically.

Only when the host announced that Tencent’s CEO Ma Wenteng would speak did Chen Yansen stir slightly.

At that moment, Ma Wenteng looked refreshed, clearly well-rested, wearing a light blue suit as he stood at the microphone and spoke confidently: “Tencent takes mobile security extremely seriously and has invested heavily; in 2013, Tencent will allocate no less than one billion yuan to a security fund to safeguard users’ mobile security.

I personally strongly oppose certain companies, under the guise of user safety, recommending search results that are impossible to distinguish…”

Certain companies?

Zhou Hongyi’s face darkened instantly at those words.

Although the 3Q war had subsided, tensions between Tencent and 360 had never ceased.

A month ago, 360 launched the “3B Search Engine” war; Tencent, Baidu, and other security software firms formed a security alliance, publicly aiming to combat phishing sites, but secretly blacklisting 360’s software.

Ma Wenteng’s butt is crooked!

Zhou Hongyi stared fixedly at the little Ma on stage, eyes blazing with anger, lips downturned, face brimming with displeasure.

Though Ma Wenteng didn’t name names, everyone knew who he was targeting.

Li Yan smiled faintly; during the 3B war, Baidu and Tencent had been on the same side, and little Ma’s subtle praise of Baidu while mocking 360 left him secretly delighted.

After about ten minutes, Ma Wenteng concluded his speech and returned to his seat.

Immediately afterward, Zhou Hongyi took the stage.

Seeing this, many dozing entrepreneurs straightened their backs, eager for a show.

They knew well that with Zhou Hongyi’s temperament, he’d never back down—he’d likely tear into Tencent and Baidu until they were bloodied.

True to form, Zhou Hongyi opened with a sarcastic tone: “I know everyone wants to hear me spit venom, but the big bosses upstairs have criticized me several times, so I’ve been careful with my words lately—I won’t spit venom today.”

Implicitly, if not for the constraints, he’d drag Ma Wenteng and Li Yan out and scream at them both.

Chen Yansen smiled, thinking: Zhou Hongyi isn’t stupid.

This internet conference had invited overseas giants like Microsoft, Samsung, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, and Cisco; while venting felt good, it would embarrass the top officials.

“Also, I’d like to clarify one matter: 360 did not poach Feixin’s R&D engineers, nor do we plan to launch an instant messaging app—rest assured, little Ma.”

“Mobile internet is the inevitable trend; for instant messaging apps, I’m more interested in Lei Zong’s Xiaomi—rumor has it Lei Zong has poured huge resources into MiTalk.”

Zhou Hongyi said with a smile, steering the topic straight toward the rivalry between MiTalk and WeChat in three sentences.

At this, the audience below exchanged knowing smiles, silently cursing Zhou Hongyi for his cunning, openly sowing discord.

Lei Zong’s gaze toward Zhou Hongyi grew even more hostile.

“Actually, whether MiTalk or WeChat, both embody disruptive innovation; upon securing the entry point to mobile internet, they’ve dealt massive blows to operators’ SMS services.”

Zhou Hongyi continued, subtly stoking the fire, energetically fueling hatred between Lei Zong and Ma Wenteng.

In truth, he wasn’t wrong—WeChat and MiTalk had indeed stolen a significant share of operators’ SMS business.

After “insulting” for a full ten minutes, Zhou Hongyi stepped down, thoroughly satisfied.

Ma Wenteng and Zhou Hongyi’s speeches were nearly identical: elevate their own products’ industry influence, subtly attack competitors, and stir trouble for peers.

In outcome, Zhou Hongyi had the upper hand.

Next, Li Yan took the stage; having been berated for so long, he naturally sought revenge—when discussing the search engine industry, he subtly mocked 360 Search for lacking technology and relying solely on thuggish tactics.

Chen Yansen glanced around and saw the local Beijing bigwigs all wearing cold, expressionless faces.

Baidu, Tencent, and 360 were flagship enterprises of China’s internet, yet Li Yan, Ma Wenteng, and Zhou Hongyi’s speeches lacked even a shred of dignity.

After Li Yan stepped down, Ma Liyun followed immediately; Chen Yansen was fifth in line.

In age, he was the youngest.

In business achievements, Senlian Capital’s strength was no less than BAT’s—some media had even changed “BAT” to “BATS.”

After taking the stage, Chen Yansen did not launch into attacks on competitors; instead, he calmly described the R&D and manufacturing process of Orange Phone, and the original intent behind Yunsu Express setting up service points in rural markets.

First, extend e-commerce reach into remote townships.

Second, provide a channel for “agricultural and sideline products going online,” boosting income for rural residents.

He also emphasized how products like Kuai, KuaiPao, and Gaode Map had transformed ordinary people’s lives.

He spoke for only seven or eight minutes, yet his information density was two to three times that of Li Yan and the others.

After Chen Yansen, Li Guoqing of Dangdang, Deng Yaping of Jike, Liu Qiangdong of Jingdong, Pei Yi of KuaiPao, Liu Yun of Google, Gu Yongqiang of Youku, and Lu Qi of Microsoft took the stage in turn to share.

Near noon, the morning session barely concluded.

After a two-and-a-half-hour lunch break, Chen Yansen planned to return to his hotel, but as soon as he exited the conference hall, Ma Wenteng, Lei Zong, Yu Chendong, and others stopped him, inviting him to lunch at Yue Long Ju beside the center.

After a slight refusal, seeing Ma Wenteng’s firm insistence, Chen Yansen called Zhou Shouzhi, Pei Yi, Cheng Weixing, and Huang Zheng to join him.

Since the distance was only two hundred meters, they chose to walk.

Senlian Capital’s delegation marched behind Chen Yansen, Qishishizu .

Reporters, seeing this, immediately raised their cameras and snapped photos.

“What’s your view on the ride-hailing market?” Ma Wenteng asked casually on the way to the restaurant.

Though Tencent had participated in Kuai’s Series A and B funding, he couldn’t fathom Chen Yansen’s true intentions; DiDi’s monthly net loss was three hundred million yuan, and Kuai’s larger user base meant even greater losses.

Though Kuai had raised five hundred million U.S. dollars in Series B, at the current burn rate of subsidy wars, the funds would be exhausted in under a year.

Would Tencent continue investing in Kuai then?

Invest, and it felt like throwing money into a well; don’t invest, and it would inevitably strain relations with Senlian Capital.

“Does Li Yan want to give up?” Chen Yansen countered.

“He wants to pause the subsidy war and limit competition to product and service.”

Ma Wenteng nodded, admitting frankly.

Li Yan didn’t want to seize market share through burning cash; neither did he.

“Mr. Ma, it’s not that I refuse—I just can’t trust verbal agreements. I trust you, but I don’t trust Li Yan.”

Chen Yansen smiled and shook his head, refusing decisively.

Business is war; when it’s come to knives out, suddenly calling a halt—who can guarantee Li Yan won’t sneak behind your back?

“Let’s pause for a week first, see how it goes; otherwise, if the subsidy war continues, how can we even consider investing in Kuai’s Series C?”

Ma Wenteng looked at Chen Yansen with serious expression.

“Fine. Tell Li Yan: restore new-user discounts to ten yuan, cap daily subsidies for existing users at five yuan, reduce driver subsidies per ride to two yuan—implement tomorrow.”

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and said.

If he could lose less, he had no reason to refuse.

“No problem,” Ma Wenteng agreed readily.

In fact, this proposal wasn’t Li Yan’s original idea—the true backer was the collective of investors in Kuai and DiDi.

Chen Yansen smiled faintly; he didn’t know if Li Yan would keep his word, but he certainly wouldn’t honestly pause the subsidies.

If Kuai’s app couldn’t subsidize, then use KuaiPao, Pinbei, and Gaode Map to subsidize instead.

For example, offer a twelve-yuan food delivery coupon with a twelve-yuan Kuai ride voucher; after ordering on Pinbei Mall, pop up a link to claim a ride coupon on the payment page.

There were countless tricks!

Who in business is truly honest?

Five minutes later, the group entered Yue Long Ju and ascended to a lavish private room on the top floor.

As Chen Yansen sat down, he saw Liu Qiangdong and a middle-aged woman pass by the room’s entrance.

“That’s Xu Xin from Today Capital,” Ma Wenteng said softly, following his gaze.

“If not for Xu Xin’s interference, Mr. Ma, your QQ Group Buying, Yixun, and Paipai would have been sold off smoothly.”

Chen Yansen remarked.

After the August 15 price war between Jingdong, Suning, Dangdang, and Guomei ended, Li Guoqing exposed Liu Qiangdong’s secrets on Weibo, claiming Jingdong’s cash flow was about to break and it wouldn’t survive September.

This triggered chaos in Jingdong’s supplier system; merchants feared Liu Qiangdong would use their goods payments for advertising and then fail to settle their invoices.

At the critical moment, Xu Xin poured in money to bail Liu Qiangdong out.

Now, OTPP has invested four hundred million U.S. dollars in Jingdong, making its finances even healthier—it has even temporarily shelved cooperation with Tencent’s traffic portals.

Ma Wenteng gave a dry laugh but said nothing.

He wouldn’t interfere with Senlian Capital’s cooperation with 360; likewise, Chen Yansen couldn’t shake Tencent’s strategic layout in e-commerce.

After lunch, Chen Yansen returned to his hotel by car to rest.

At 2:30 p.m., the parallel forum sessions officially began; project managers from Senlian’s subsidiaries scattered to seek opportunities.

Chen Yansen, accompanied by Gao Weilin and Song Yuncheng, met with representatives from Tencent, Goldman Sachs, Huake, and Huaxin in a small conference room and signed the investment intent agreement for Pinbei’s Series B funding.

The funding amount: 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, led by Tencent, with Goldman Sachs, Huake, and Huaxin as co-investors; the post-investment valuation reached 22 billion U.S. dollars.

Whether it was daily active users, platform transaction volume, or company valuation, Pinbei E-commerce’s second-place ranking was undisputed.

After all, after Liu Qiangdong secured $400 million in funding from OTTP, JD’s valuation stood at only $8 billion—less than half of Pinbei’s.

The next morning.

As Chen Yansen and Pei Yi and others ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant, Pei Yi received a call, his expression darkening instantly; he glanced up at Chen Yansen without a word, then calmly instructed: “Have the admin and legal teams handle this—minimize the impact…”

Only after he hung up did Chen Yansen ask: “Something happened?”

“Our field staff in the northeast had a minor clash with Meituan, Dazhong Dianping, and Lashou’s business teams while negotiating with merchants.”

Pei Yi frowned, pausing for over ten seconds before choosing his words carefully.

“Did they get the worse of it?” Chen Yansen asked again.

“No.” Pei Yi replied quickly.

“Hmm.” Chen Yansen nodded, saying no more.

With his superior hearing, he had heard every word clearly—by 2012, it was common for field staff in the group-buying and food delivery markets to brawl over merchant resources.

This kind of incident had never happened before in Husheng, but it wouldn’t be the last.

Typically, admin staff visited injured employees in hospitals, while legal staff went to the Police Inspector’s office to retrieve them—Pei Yi’s handling of such matters had grown increasingly mature.

Over the next few days, they attended internet conferences by day and dinners with industry representatives by night.

After four straight days, even normally energetic figures like Zhou Shouzhi, Gao Wei, and Pei Yi began showing signs of fatigue.

Fortunately, the gains were substantial: they signed a stack of letters of intent regarding advertising, commercial monetization, co-branding partnerships, and information copyright.

For instance, Gao De and Ctrip reached agreements on ad placement and product recommendations—when users accessed navigation services, Gao De would recommend corresponding travel packages and attraction tickets on the destination interface.

JD and Suning’s in-house logistics teams, seeking to improve efficiency, also purchased Yunsu Express’s electronic waybill technology patent.

On the evening of September 14, Chen Yansen boarded a flight back to Xucheng.

Meanwhile, Li Yanhong had just returned to his office when Wang Hailong knocked and entered: “Boss, Kuai Di Taxi is breaking its word—they’ve canceled their app subsidies, but added a slew of new ones on Kuai Pao, Pinbei, and Gao De Maps.”

“Have Lashou and Baidu Maps move immediately,” Li Yanhong decided without hesitation.

(End of Chapter)