Chapter 312: The Market Landscape of 28, DiDi Bike Launches—Getting Involved Isn

Three days later.

Liao Wei had just called Cao Dahua to urge faster delivery, then immediately reported to Chen Yansen.

"Boss, it's sold out!" Liao Wei blurted out.

"Mm, I already heard from Cao Dahua—217 service stations sold 20,183 Sister Chengzi phones in three days. The courier station didn't take off, but the phone agency service blew up."

Chen Yansen smiled faintly and nodded in satisfaction.

For Yunsu Courier Service Stations, his original concept was parcel pickup and delivery; later, he added phone agency sales and app promotion services, mainly to address profitability challenges.

The boss knows already?

Liao Wei froze for a moment, then silently cursed: Cao Dahua's mouth has wings? No wonder he's surnamed Cao!

"Boss, I think Yunsu Courier Service Stations can shoulder part of the responsibility of Sister Chengzi Tech exclusive stores—saving on rental costs and enabling unified management."

Liao Wei said seriously.

"Phone repurchase frequency is very low. The core value of Yunsu Courier Service Stations remains parcel pickup and delivery."

Chen Yansen emphasized again.

"Boss, I understand." Liao Wei knew the subtext in Chen Yansen's words and hurriedly replied, then paused and added: "First increase smart phone penetration in rural markets, then grow Pinnbei's user base—only then will Yunsu gain volume; only when all three are combined can a business cycle form."

"Your MBA didn't go to waste—you've improved a lot," Chen Yansen teased with a smile.

As Liao Wei said, only after completing hardware and system deployment in the lower-tier markets can Yunsu Courier increase its pickup volume.

The prices of the Sister Chengzi D1 and Qingcheng D1S are not expensive in township markets.

Consider this: some digital shop owners dare sell knockoff phones with flashing lights for 1,000 yuan—799 yuan for the Sister Chengzi D1 is downright conscientious.

"Thank you for the praise, Boss. Since the service station model has proven viable, I'd like to wait for September's business data, and if everything looks good, roll out the remaining 400+ candidate townships in two phases."

Liao Wei continued.

"Fine. I suggest you revisit the cooperation details with General Zhou and General Cao to ensure full utilization of Yunsu and Sister Chengzi Tech's resources."

Chen Yansen instructed.

"Understood, Boss." Liao Wei nodded.

Then Chen Yansen hung up and tossed his phone aside.

At that moment, the computer screen displayed Sohu's PC homepage—the headline read: Baidu Invests 800 Million Billion Huayuan in DiDi, Post-Investment Valuation Reaches 8 Billion Billion Huayuan!

With no other funding options, Li Yanhong had no choice but to double down and invest another 800 million Billion Huayuan in DiDi.

The subsidy war between KuaiDi and DiDi had raged for five months; initially, their service scopes overlapped little, and each lost only 20–30 million per month.

But as their business expanded, competition in North China and Huadong intensified—each month, new user acquisition, hard ads, returning customer subsidies, and driver subsidies consumed 300–400 million.

Thus, Baidu's 800 million looked large, but it would barely last three months.

KuaiDi, by contrast, with nearly 80% market share, secured 500 million USD in funding first and still had ample cash on hand.

DiDi had just exited North China, but KuaiDi's service area already covered most of North China, Huadong, Central China, Northeast China, and Huanan—their city expansion speeds were on entirely different levels.

Xiang Hailong, now managing the DiDi project, was performing even worse than the original Cheng Wei.

Chen Yansen glanced at the news and didn't take Baidu's investment in DiDi seriously.

He didn't believe Li Yanhong, given his personality, would dare keep fighting him indefinitely—once losses hit his psychological threshold, Li Yanhong might just quit on his own.

In fact, Li Yanhong's mood was conflicted—he wanted to expand further but feared rising subsidy costs; yet standing still meant no growth in DiDi's market share.

After reporting his work, Xiang Hailong secretly observed Li Yanhong's expression, anxious and uneasy, terrified the boss would vent his anger on him.

After a moment of silence, Li Yanhong picked up the documents on his desk and stared intently.

"North China daily ride orders: 763,000; active drivers: 66,000; order completion rate: 73%; average response time: 42 seconds;

Huadong daily ride orders: 287,000; active drivers: 38,000; order completion rate: 76%; average response time: 38 seconds…"

Clearly, DiDi's order completion rate was low, indicating problems in fleet dispatch efficiency—chaotic order allocation led to drivers rejecting rides or taking detours, reducing completion rates.

Thinking this, Li Yanhong looked up and said: "Hold off on expanding Huadong for now. First fix DiDi's dispatch system, driver and passenger cancellation penalties, location errors, and navigation glitches."

This revealed his true intent: retreat, consolidate North and Huadong first.

"Understood," Xiang Hailong replied.

Meanwhile.

Cheng Weixing, sitting at KuaiDi's Hangcheng headquarters, was reviewing KuaiDi's Q1–Q3 business data.

"Huadong region daily orders: 1,703,000; active drivers: 127,000; order completion rate: 86.3%; average response time: 37 seconds;

North China region daily orders: 1,425,000; active drivers: 102,000; order completion rate: 84.7%; average response time: 39 seconds;

Central China region daily orders: 1,127,000; active drivers: 81,000; order completion rate: 89.2%; average response time: 41 seconds;

Northeast China region…"

Huadong, North China, and Central China had operated longest, with the highest order volume and user penetration; Northeast and Huanan had only launched a week ago, totaling just over 600,000 orders combined.

But limited by 2012's smartphone penetration, even if KuaiDi captured the entire national ride-hailing market, daily order volume would cap at 8 to 10 million.

The ceiling was within reach!

A few minutes later, Cheng Weixing set down the mouse, stretched, then asked the marketing director: "By the way, what's Cheng Wei up to since Li Yanhong kicked him out of DiDi?"

Compared to Cheng Wei, Xiang Hailong's pressure on him had dropped sharply. Though Cheng Wei was terrible at technical control, he was a former Huagong Iron Army man with solid marketing foundations.

In his view, if not for the boss securing Gao De map data, providing the smart dispatch system, and offering Tencent's traffic entrance, the outcome between KuaiDi and DiDi would still be uncertain.

"I heard from my investment banker friends in Beijing that Cheng Wei started another project—DiDi Bike—and deployed 300 bicycles at Wang Fujing, Xizhimen, and Chaoyangmen subway stations."

Chen Hao, KuaiDi's marketing director, replied with a smile.

Bicycles?

Cheng Weixing paused, thinking Cheng Wei's new project sounded almost surreal.

But then he reconsidered—in a megacity like Beijing, rent near subway stations is high; many fresh graduates work in CBDs by day and sleep in urban villages by night.

Shared bicycles could seamlessly bridge the short-distance gap between bus stops and subway stations.

A company's value, in the final analysis, depends on how many people you serve and how much value you create for them.

Clearly, Cheng Wei's Didi Bikes effectively solved the last-mile problem at the tail end of public transportation.

"Did you get the funding?" Cheng Weixing asked again.

"They say Li Fukai of Innovation Works put fifty million into him." Chen Hao shrugged, his face speechless.

"This project just might actually take off!" Cheng Weixing said with conviction.

Meanwhile.

Cheng Wei, along with the management staff of Didi Bikes, rode shared bicycles through the streets of Yanjing, field-testing the product usage flow.

The first-generation Didi Bikes were painted entirely in a layer of orange-red lacquer, extremely eye-catching when placed in the parking spots at subway stations; the four characters "Didi Bikes" were printed on the frame, and the bike's serial number was affixed both at the joint of the handlebar and on the mechanical lock at the rear.

The user opens the app, enters the serial number, and obtains the password for the mechanical lock.

Cheng Wei had originally wanted to use a smart lock, sending an SMS to unlock the bike, but doing so involved cost and the smart lock's power supply system; after weighing the options, he still chose the economical and practical mechanical lock.

After the user finishes riding and slides the latch to lock the bike, the mechanical lock's password would be scrambled anew.

But the problem was that every bike's preset password was fixed.

In other words, as long as a user memorized a particular bike's password, they could ride it for free forever.

But Cheng Wei couldn't worry about all that; learn from a setback, get wiser—first get the product online, grab the market, and talk later.

The early losses would naturally be covered by the later rounds of capital.

And what he had to do now was first hype up the concept and inflate the valuation.

"President Cheng, the supply quality from Fushida is very stable; the riding experience of these bikes is in no way inferior to bicycles costing four or five hundred."

A supervisor from the product department said with a smile.

The manufacturing cost of one Didi Bike, not counting the mechanical lock, was a supply price of 190 yuan per bike, but Didi Bikes had large order volumes, and the settlement terms negotiated with Fushida were a 15% deposit up front, with the balance settled per batch afterward.

"You can't tell much from a new bike—run a trial operation for a while first, see how the durability and corrosion resistance hold up; also, the maintenance team needs to be assembled."

Cheng Wei rode his bike, instructing the assistant beside him.

The assistant hurriedly noted it down.

But when they turned into an alley, the smiles on their faces froze.

A man in his sixties, gripping a pair of hydraulic bolt cutters, was sizing up the mechanical lock of a Didi Bike, seemingly searching for the best point of leverage.

The Didi Bikes staff were instantly furious and crowded around him.

……

……

"Didi Bikes?"

Upon learning of Cheng Wei's new entrepreneurial project, Chen Yansen's brow furrowed slightly; in his eyes, a shared-bike project in 2012 had no potential whatsoever.

Just like the takeout and ride-hailing tracks, it required massive resources and capital investment to cultivate user habits.

He had no interest in this project, but if he could make some money on the side, Chen Yansen wouldn't mind.

Li Fukai had invested fifty million, pushing Didi Bikes' valuation to five hundred million; investing at this point was not a good deal.

Chen Yansen thought for a moment, called Gao Weilin over, and briefly walked him through Didi Bikes' business model.

"In the future, when you see similar products, secure the angel investment first."

Chen Yansen instructed Gao Weilin.

ofo, Yong'an Xing, and Mobike had not yet launched; Senlian Capital still had plenty of chances to get involved.

(End of chapter)