Chapter 311: Aren't We a Delivery Station

On the second day back in Xu City, which happened to be Saturday, the Technology Park was eerily quiet, with fewer than one-third of the staff working overtime.

Chen Yansen parked the car, took the elevator to the top floor, and then pushed open the office door.

A money tree sat on the desk, growing toward the sun, lush and green.

He turned on the computer and logged into the data backend.

Chen Yansen first checked the core data of Pinbei; leveraging the top-tier traffic entry points of QQ and WeChat, combined with traffic from Sister Chengzi's Shangcheng, Lingxi Browser, and Jinri Toutiao, both daily active users and daily sales output were steadily rising, with the previous week's average daily transaction volume reaching a staggering 900 million yuan.

That was more than double JD. com!

Food, home goods, women's clothing, and beauty products formed the first tier of categories; digital appliances, outdoor sports, mother-and-baby items, and underwear made up the second tier; while men's clothing, Footwear, entertainment and automotive products, and luggage accounted for the smallest share of performance.

From the category structure alone, it was not hard to see that Pinbei's user profile was still predominantly female.

In the domestic market, Orange Phone shipments had already surpassed Shanxing; according to estimates from the Analysys Data Network, if Shanxing failed to improve its sales speed in the fourth quarter, it would inevitably lose the top spot on the smartphone sales chart.

The Orange F1, priced at 99 USD, and the Orange F3, priced at 399 USD, were extremely popular in Nigeria and Abyssinia; the former served the low-end market, while the latter served the high-end market, specifically targeting customers of the Shanxing Galaxy series, Apple 4S, and Apple 5.

Adding the data for the Orange F2 and Lemon D1, the weekly sales volume could also reach 150,000 to 160,000 units.

Therefore, Cao Dahua had no choice but to expand the training scale for after-sales maintenance personnel, preparing not only for deployment to the East African market but also for the Eastern European market and domestic offline flagship stores.

Sales of the Alexa smart speaker in the European and American markets were gradually stabilizing, hovering around 20,000 units per day; while this didn't seem like much, the Mo Si smart speaker could only sell 6,000 units per day across the entire network in the domestic market.

The marketing department's annual sales forecast was: 8 million Alexa units, 2.4 million Mo Si units, totaling just over 10 million units.

Chen Yansen knew in his heart that the market capacity ceiling for smart speakers would continue to rise over the next few years, peaking at 200 million units annually before declining steadily.

However, limited by issues such as network infrastructure, the economy, the application ecosystem, and sales channels, selling 10 million units in 2012 was already an exceptionally outstanding achievement.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen closed the data backend and opened his email.

The first email was an industry research report from Forrester Research, detailing the traffic pricing of major operators in the Lighthouse Country and the development of the short-video sector.

Chen Yansen glanced at it and was slightly startled; the telecommunications operators in the Lighthouse Country were just as ruthless in setting mobile network charging standards as China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom.

They simultaneously implemented tiered pricing and unlimited plans; depending on network coverage, the pricing differences between operators were also quite significant.

The price per 1GB of data ranged from 7.5 USD to 20 USD; the higher the price, the faster the network, and vice versa.

Therefore, most mobile phone users in the Lighthouse Country chose unlimited data plans; although the price was high, they didn't have to worry about paying huge bills for exceeding their data limits.

Taking T-Mobile's Unlimited 4G plan as an example, the minimum was 70 USD per month, including unlimited voice, text, and data services.

The advantage was that it was cheap; the disadvantage was that the network speed was slightly slower and the coverage area was narrow.

Sprint's Everything Data plan was priced at 109.9 USD per month, also including unlimited voice, text, and data services, but for heavy mobile network users, they would secretly throttle the speed.

MetroPCS's 4G LTE for All plan included unlimited voice, text, and 4G data services for just 55 USD per month, but currently covered only 14 cities.

Overall, mobile network speeds in the Lighthouse Country were in a transitional period shifting from 3G to 4G LTE; 4G networks were just beginning to emerge, while 3G networks still accounted for over 70% of the market share, with average download speeds ranging from 5 to 20 MB per second.

"At least short-video apps have some room to survive."

Chen Yansen commented silently.

In fact, his judgment was correct; the penetration rate of smartphones in the Lighthouse Country was about 50%, and 4G networks were rapidly spreading, providing the hardware conditions for the creation and dissemination of short videos.

As early as January, Vine, the pioneer of short videos, had already launched.

Although Instagram had not yet built a video sharing function into its product, according to Forrester Research's analysis, existing information indicated that Instagram had definitely started R&D on short-video features.

This showed that internet practitioners in the Lighthouse Country had already set their sights on the short-video sector; they just hadn't yet clarified the recommendation algorithms and profit models.

Chen Yansen leaned back, mentally calculating plans to conquer the North American market.

There was no choice; to launch a short-video app domestically, they would have to wait at least two more years, so it was better to develop in overseas markets first, using user data from Europe and America to optimize recommendation engine technology in advance and accumulate user resources.

Once the timing was ripe, they would then launch into the domestic short-video sector.

Who would be responsible for the overseas market?

Liang Bo?

Was he capable?

Chen Yansen muttered softly.

Liang Bo's technical skills were good, but in terms of business expansion, he was merely adequate; he hadn't made any major mistakes, but he also lacked any operation plans that were truly eye-catching.

As for Zhou Shouzhi, he still had to help expand the smartphone markets in Europe and the Americas.

For a moment, Chen Yansen hesitated, wondering whether to have Zhou Shouzhi manage it concurrently or to find a new candidate.

Given his style of operation, hiring another person would naturally be better.

Thinking of this, Chen Yansen picked up the phone and dialed Liang Bo's mobile number: "Come to my office."

"Yes, boss," Liang Bo replied immediately.

A short while later, Liang Bo rushed over; as soon as he sat down, Chen Yansen said calmly, "I sent you an industry report; read it before we talk."

Having said that, Chen Yansen stood up to get tea leaves and leisurely brewed a pot of tea.

Standing by the window and looking down, luxury cars filled the park's open-air parking lot, mostly Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, with plenty of Porsche, Maserati, and Ferrari as well; these were all the vehicles of Pinbei product managers, directors, and general managers, as well as Orange Technology executives.

After an unknown amount of time, Liang Bo finally spoke: "Boss, I've finished reading."

This research report, excluding images, contained over 20,000 words of text alone, and it was all in English.

Afraid of misunderstanding, Liang Bo had read it extremely carefully.

"How about combining the recommendation engine algorithm with short videos to create a standalone product?"

Chen Yansen asked casually, holding his teacup.

"Focusing on the European and American markets?" Liang Bo asked tentatively.

He hadn't even considered the domestic market; after all, the domestic hardware and network conditions couldn't keep up, so attempting short videos there would be a dead end.

For instance, Jinri Toutiao actually had a video module, but less than 1% of users loaded videos using mobile data; the rest were all on Wi-Fi mode.

The core reason was: mobile data fees were too high!

"I'll leave the R&D work to you; I'll prepare a product development document for you," Chen Yansen did not reply directly but instead assigned the work to Liang Bo immediately.

Liang Bo did not hesitate and quickly agreed.

After receiving the new task, Liang Bo couldn't help but ask a few more questions; only after clarifying Chen Yansen's product requirements did he rise and leave.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, created a new document on his computer, listed his skill requirements for the short-video head one by one, and then sent it to the Human Resources Department.

It would be best if a satisfactory candidate could be recruited; if one couldn't be found for now, let Zhou Shouzhi take the post temporarily.

The morning passed quickly; Chen Yansen went to the cafeteria for lunch, then drove toward the direction of the Void Courtyard. At the same time.

After integrating the resources of Shentong and Yuantong Express, Yunsu Express began opening a large number of Yunsu Service Stations in rural towns and township centers in the East China region.

The main businesses were only two: parcel collection and express delivery pickup.

Due to the excessively high delivery costs in the rural market, when buyers previously purchased goods on Taobao, Jingdong, and Pinbei, the delivery would at most reach the county or city-level express points; to pick up a package, one had to run dozens of kilometers, or even over a hundred kilometers away.

After the Yunsu Service Stations appeared, they brought online shopping users at the township, town, and village levels into their scope of operations.

To ensure profitability, Liao Wei required that every Yunsu Service Station undergo strict market research before establishment, comprehensively evaluating the local population, transportation, and market potential; only those meeting the minimum revenue expectations would be allowed to set up.

Although the conditions were harsh, the rural market was too huge; the first batch of screened towns and townships numbered over 600, and finally 200 were selected as pilot sites.

……

……

Chunshen, Shaopei Town.

Opposite Shaopei Middle School, to the left of the Agricultural and Forestry Bank, a new Yunsu Express Service Station had opened.

Perhaps ten or more years later, in towns of similar scale, there would be at least a dozen such express delivery points.

But in 2012, Yunsu was the first express company to extend its business scope to the rural market.

E-commerce express parcels from two nearby communities and twelve administrative villages, after arriving in Shaopei Town, had their final destination at the Yunsu Express Service Station.

In other words, the mailing business of Shaopei's more than sixty thousand people was also within the operational scope of the Yunsu Express Service Station.

Wu Lei was the station manager and also a local; besides him, there was one staff member—this was the standard staffing for a service station.

"Brother Lei, the company opening a station in a township is probably a miscalculation; I just crouched at the door for a while, and out of ten passersby, only one was using a smartphone." Another employee named Hu Peng pulled up a chair and couldn't help but sigh.

"What are you afraid of! We have a base salary." Wu Lei brought out a stack of posters from the warehouse and said to Hu Peng, "Give me a hand and paste all of these up."

"The base salary is only 3,000 yuan; it won't starve you, but it won't fill you up either. Sigh, who made me originally a Yuantong Express person?"

Hu Peng complained while working.

The implication was that the express service station had no money-making potential; even old employees of Yunsu Express were unwilling to work there, so they sent someone like him, a newly recruited person.

"Little Hu, listen to my advice: work hard with the company, and you won't go wrong! This project was planned by the Big Boss; do you think it could lose money?" Wu Lei stopped his hands, his expression serious as he advised.

"Chen Yansen, President Chen?" Hu Peng asked urgently, then shook his head in disbelief: "How could you possibly know that?"

"Damn! Who do you think you're looking down on? I've worked at Yunsu for two and a half years, a proper old employee; last year I even had a meal with the Big Boss at a five-star hotel in Hucheng!"

Wu Lei scolded with a stern face.

"I thought you were just a unlucky guy from Shentong Express." Hu Peng chuckled, teasing without taking it seriously.

In his view, Wu Lei was most likely bragging; leaving the express business in Hucheng to run back to his hometown—wasn't that stupid?

Seeing that Wu Lei didn't believe him, he stopped explaining further and busied himself with his work, head down.

Hu Peng talked a lot but worked quickly; the two of them soon pasted the promotional posters on the glass door.

"Sister Chengzi D1 phone, 512MB + 1GB memory, price 799 yuan!"

"Qingcheng D1S phone, 1GB + 8GB memory, price 999 yuan!"

"Yunsu Express mailing, starting from just 6 yuan!"

"Don't fear shopping; fill in the delivery address as the Yunsu Express Service Station, free pickup!"

"Pinbei Shangcheng, new users get six eggs for free!"

In Liao Wei's vision, the Yunsu Express Service Station could not only collect express deliveries and earn a "delivery fee" from express companies like Baishi, Shunfeng, Tian Tian, and Guotong, but also use the parcel collection business to boost the station's profitability.

At the same time, it would sell Sister Chengzi Technology's smartphones and promote Pinbei Shangcheng.

At that moment, an old man going to the market stopped immediately upon seeing the poster about free eggs and asked Wu Lei, "Young man, where do I pick up the eggs?"

"Grandpa, do you have a smartphone? First download the Pinbei app; new users can not only get eggs but also free tissues, apples, and oranges." Seeing business coming, Wu Lei grinned and warmly stepped forward.

"Smartphone? Can this one work?" The old man said, pulling out his Nokia C102.

"This one won't work." Wu Lei waved his hand and said.

"Do you have a smartphone? Help me download one?" The old man turned the tables.

Hu Peng, standing behind, couldn't help but laugh out loud, so he explained, "Grandpa, you first have to buy a 799-yuan smartphone."

"Tsk! So you're two scammers." Hearing this, the old man frowned, looked utterly unlucky, and walked away.

"Hahaha..." After the old man left, Hu Peng burst into laughter.

Wu Lei's face darkened, and he sighed.

"Qingcheng D1S phone? Is this genuine?"

A moment later, another customer walked in; this person was only in his twenties.

Wu Lei smiled inwardly and stepped forward again to greet him: "Yunsu Express and Sister Chengzi Technology share the same boss; we are just responsible for agency sales. The products are definitely genuine, with official after-sales service; you can check online."

"No need! Give me one." After ten or so seconds of silence, the young man suddenly spoke.

Actually, he had wanted to buy a Qingcheng D1S phone for a long time, but before, express delivery could only reach Chunshen, and he still had to take over an hour's bus ride to the county, so he had delayed.

As for the issue of genuine or fake goods, he wasn't afraid.

If the other party dared to sell fakes, he could just call a few relatives, and they could make Wu Lei and Hu Peng kneel and beg for mercy.

Hu Peng was slightly stunned, then realized what was happening, ran behind the counter, and handed the customer a brand-new Qingcheng D1S phone.

"Want to download Pinbei? You can get free eggs." Wu Lei took the opportunity to promote.

"My phone plan only has 100MB of data per month, and I've used it all up this month." The young man refused.

"You don't even know how to use our store's Wi-Fi? I'll teach you." Recruiting a new Pinbei user earned the company 8 yuan, so Wu Lei expressed himself with natural, extreme enthusiasm.

Ten minutes later, Wu Lei helped the young man complete his first online shopping experience; before leaving, he didn't forget to instruct: "If you encounter any problems you don't understand, come find me anytime."

As a result, on the very first day of opening, not a single express package was picked up, yet they sold 13 Sister Chengzi d1 and 11 Green Orange d1s phones.

"Lei-ge, aren't we a courier station? How did it turn into a phone store?" Hu Peng asked, looking puzzled.

(End of chapter)