Chapter 313: With a Mole Inside, Naturally Things Go Smoother

On September 19, WeChat added a ride-hailing function to its first-level entry point.

On the day it launched, it brought Kuaidi Dache over twenty million exposures, with a click-through rate of 11.4%, an activity page conversion rate of 37.2%, and an order increase of 890,000.

The order completion rate was 87.4%, with 778,000 orders actually fulfilled.

With Penguin's traffic boost, the market gap between Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache widened rapidly. The original 80-20 market pattern saw Didi Dache lose another half-tenth of market share in just one day.

Li Yanhong immediately panicked and urgently pulled in Shen Li from the LBS division, Gong Zhenbing, head of Lashou Wang, Wang Zhongpu of Qiandu Waimai, and Xiang Hailong, CEO of Didi Dache, to discuss countermeasures together.

In the slightly cool autumn of Yanjing, inside the top-floor conference room of the Qiandu Building.

Li Yanhong sat upright, face taut, tossed a data report onto the table, and said in a low voice: "15% to 85%, Didi Dache is being ground into the dirt by Kuaidi Dache. When Cheng Wei was Didi's CEO, he at least kept the market share between 20% and 25%."

The moment Xiang Hailong heard this, his heart skipped a beat. He knew the boss's words were aimed at him, and playing deaf wouldn't get him through it, so he gritted his teeth and braced himself to reply:

"Boss, Kuaidi Dache has Penguin and Senlian Capital backing it. Setting aside third-party traffic-buying channels, the traffic alone from WeChat, QQ, Jinri Toutiao, Pinbei, Lingxi Browser, and Sister Chengzi's app store can create tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, of exposures for it. Our app downloads are only one-fifth of theirs."

Hearing this, Li Yanhong's brow slowly furrowed, and the atmosphere in the room grew even more oppressive.

Gong Zhenbing and Wang Zhongpu exchanged a glance, neither saying a word.

Shen Li of the LBS division pushed her glasses, sneering inwardly. She had set up ride-hailing entry points for Didi Dache within Qiandu Maps, including prominent slots on the search results page and route planning page, making it convenient for users to hail a ride with one click.

Yet Xiang Hailong still ran Didi Dache's business into a complete mess!

In her view, Xiang Hailong was all show, only knowing how to curry favor upward and monetize Qiandu's traffic resources, with zero ability to coordinate projects.

"Maps, Search, Browser, Hao123, and Tieba—didn't they drive traffic to Didi Dache?"

Li Yanhong asked, displeasure plain on his face.

When users searched keywords like "ride-hailing," "ride-booking," and "chauffeur service" on Qiandu, Didi Dache's image-text ads always ranked first, with equally staggering exposure.

Moreover, it could reach potential customers with greater precision.

This question left Xiang Hailong speechless—he couldn't very well admit he was worse than Cheng Wei, could he?

But when the boss asked, would he dare play dead?

After a few seconds of silence, Xiang Hailong's mind turned, and he tossed the blame onto Shen Li: "The marketing department researched the user experience for passengers and drivers. Qiandu Maps' real-time traffic data has transmission delays, and the LBS positioning technology isn't precise enough…"

"Director Xiang, there's not much technical gap between Qiandu Maps and Gao De Maps. In my view, the problem lies more with Didi Dache's intelligent order dispatch system."

Shen Li smiled faintly and kicked the ball back.

"What I need is a practical, workable solution, not excuses to shirk responsibility."

Li Yanhong glared at the two of them and rebuked them curtly.

"Kuaidi Dache knocks 10 yuan off, we subsidize 12 yuan; Kuaidi Dache offers one daily discount, we change it to two. Let's win the users back first!"

"Boss, Director Xiang, I suggest we follow Kuaipao and Didi Dache's cross-platform operation strategy—users who order takeout get ride-hailing coupons."

Wang Zhongpu said with a smile.

Anyway, the marketing cost was borne by Didi Dache, and Qiandu Waimai could use this to boost its order volume.

"When users buy group-buy products, we can also give out ride-hailing coupons. They'll definitely have to redeem them offline—travel is a rigid demand, and it can form a business loop."

Gong Zhenbing added in turn.

"Kuaidi Dache has three major advantages: first, the convenience of Sister Chengzi Pay; second, more traffic and subsidies than us; third, an efficient order dispatch system. We can completely learn from these strengths—traffic entry points, red packet viral marketing, driver subsidies, joint app marketing—we can do all of these too."

Shen Li picked up the thread and analyzed with clear logic.

It sounded like a lot, but the core meaning was: stop thinking, just copy Kuaidi Dache's operation model directly.

"Technical problems must be solved, shortcomings in marketing and promotion must be patched up, and we must follow up with subsidies! Kuaidi subsidizes 10 yuan per order, we subsidize 12 yuan! Let's win the users back first!"

Li Yanhong sat up abruptly and said.

At this moment, to hold onto Didi Dache's market share, he couldn't be bothered with the previous verbal agreement anymore and planned to tear off the mask openly.

"Yes, boss." The three replied in unison.

Under Li Yanhong's push, Qiandu Net instantly went into action, forcibly recommending Didi Dache on the homepages of products like Search, Tieba, Browser, and Site Navigation through pop-ups, floating windows, and interstitial ads.

Hail a ride and get 1TB of storage space on Qiandu Netdisk!

Buy a group-buy meal over 10 yuan, and once successfully redeemed, get a 10-yuan no-threshold ride-hailing coupon!

Order takeout and get a 10-yuan coupon!

On Hao123's PC homepage, a 12-yuan no-threshold new-customer ride-hailing coupon and an 8-to-10-yuan old-customer random red packet would pop up every day, pulling the subsidy intensity back to where it was a week ago.

Ma Wenteng's mediation—Chen Yansen hadn't taken it seriously, and Li Yanhong hadn't either. Just like that, they turned hostile.

When Little Ma learned of this, he couldn't help but curse a few times, unsure whether he was cursing Chen Yansen or Li Yanhong, or perhaps both.

But Kuaidi Dache's market performance truly delighted him.

Daily average orders exceeded 5 million, with transaction volume reaching 140 million yuan; the platform's annual throughput could reach 50 billion yuan.

By then, Kuaidi Dache's valuation would soar to 8 to 12 billion US dollars. If it could defeat Didi Dache, optimistically speaking, breaking through 12 billion US dollars wouldn't be difficult.

In other words, the equity value held by Penguin would soar from the initial 130 million US dollars to 900 million US dollars, an investment return rate of 592.3%.

What Ma Wenteng could think of, Ma Liyun, Zhu Xiaohu, Yu Heng, and others could of course think of too.

In no time, investment institutions like Mama Ali, Penguin, DST, Jin Sha Ventures, Huake, Gao Sheng, and Huaxin all called one after another, asking whether Chen Yansen needed funds.

Kuaidi Dache's account funds remained ample. Chen Yansen didn't agree, but didn't refuse either—just using the opportunity to probe each side's quotes, preparing in advance for the next funding round.

Didi Dache's counterattack was fierce, with daily average order growth extremely rapid. In just three days, it pushed order numbers from just over 1 million to over 1.3 million.

But what frustrated Li Yanhong was that after Kuaidi Dache entered the Northeast and South China markets, its expansion speed was also very fast, still holding 85% of the market share.

Didi's market share didn't budge, and even dropped another 0.2%.

The ride-hailing war between Kuaidi and Didi Dache not only stunned those in the industry, but left users staring in disbelief.

From May to mid-September, a full five months, the two sides had burned through a combined 3 billion yuan in subsidies. Judging by the current trend, by the end of the year, this number would soar to 5 billion!

Privately, plenty of practitioners wanted to enter the ride-hailing track, but almost none dared to actually jump in. After all, without 1 billion yuan in cash on hand, they couldn't last even three months before being jointly strangled by the subsidy war between Kuaidi and Didi Dache.

Competitors like Yaoyao Zhache, Yidao Yongche, and 365 Yueche didn't even manage to splash a ripple before being smashed dead on the beach by the waves.

At this point, who would still dare to enter the arena?

Now that BAT, state-owned capital, and foreign capital have all entered the field, even if a product is developed, it will be hard to find investors.

At the same time.

In Shangcheng, FX District, before the gate of the Business School.

Logically, since the Business School is located in the suburbs, there shouldn't be many taxis around the school.

However, after the subsidy war between Kuaidi and Didi resumed, the per-order discount for returning customers returned to the 12-yuan era, and the driver's order subsidy rose to 4 yuan per order.

Without deducting the commission, a driver earns at least 16 yuan for one order.

Especially near the Business School, students, adhering to the principle of "if it's free, why not take it," would take a taxi even to the snack street two kilometers away, going there and coming back by taxi.

If the passenger pays nothing, the driver can earn 32 yuan for a round trip!

The situation in the city center was much the same; uncles and aunties would take a taxi just to go downstairs and buy groceries.

If you can get free rides, who would still walk!

Although the daily loss amounted to over ten million, Chen Yansen felt it was worthwhile: the capacity of the ride-hailing market was increasing, and users were subconsciously forming the habit of ordering cars online.

In the long run, this would force all taxi drivers to actively install ride-hailing apps, because fewer and fewer passengers would hail cabs on the roadside, and without using Kuaidi, there would be no customers.

But what Li Yanhong didn't know was that after the special operation by the Yanjing Inspection Office, although the gray-market studios had become much more cautious and the Xiao Nai Niu app had been banned, after twenty days of silence, an empty-order software named "Da Jin Niu" suddenly appeared, seemingly having precisely found a system vulnerability in Didi Chuxing.

It could provide a one-stop service including code reception for registration, automatic IP and device ID switching, virtual positioning, and trip simulation, priced at 150,000 yuan per set, consistent with the pricing of Xiao Nai Niu.

The studio bosses in the North China and East China regions were all secretly speculating that Da Jin Niu and Xiao Nai Niu were definitely the work of the same person.

Although the risk of exploiting Didi Chuxing was high, the profit was also substantial.

In less than a week, Brother Hui and others, who were far away in Annan, successfully sold 12 sets of the software.

"Brother Hui, counting this order, we have earned a total of 1.8 million!"

"Ah Zhen, where did you find the programmer? His skills are really awesome?"

After confirming the buyer's payment, Yaozi and Chaozi immediately looked up and cheerfully reported the accounts to Brother Hui.

"The profit-sharing ratio for this time needs to change." Brother Hui sat on the sofa nearby, a Marlboro in his mouth, and announced lightly.

"Ah!?"

Liuzi reacted strongly, suddenly standing up, but he didn't rush to speak because he wasn't sure whether Brother Hui's phrase "change" meant an increase or a decrease.

"For every Da Jin Niu order sold, everyone gets 15,000 yuan; Ah Zhen understands the technology, so add another 5,000."

Brother Hui took a hard drag, blew out a smoke ring, and said.

"Any objections?" Seeing that the others were silent, Brother Hui asked with a stern face.

"Brother Hui, whatever you say goes; I'm fine with it." Ah Zhen chuckled, quite sensible.

"Brother Hui, I don't understand." Yaozi asked, summoning his courage.

The implication was that he thought it was too little!

"Do you think this software just appeared out of nowhere? Was the vulnerability in Didi Chuxing that easy to find? I also have to lose 10,000 yuan, understand?"

Brother Hui rolled his eyes and cursed viciously.

Ah Zhen was a smart man; a flash of realization immediately passed through his eyes.

After Xiao Nai Niu was banned, he found a group of programmers in Annan, but the positioning software and automatic device-wiping programs they wrote could not bypass Didi Chuxing's anti-cheat team.

Two weeks ago, Brother Hui suddenly had an idea and found the system vulnerability in Didi Chuxing.

He had thought it was a coincidence, but it turned out there was an insider!

Seeing that Ah Zhen agreed, Yaozi, Chaozi, and Liuzi, though unhappy in their hearts, didn't dare to show it; they forced a smile and reluctantly agreed.

This time, Brother Hui's style of operation was even more cautious, fearing to reveal even the slightest trace.

With the cooperation of an insider and external forces, the daily order data of Didi Chuxing increased again; Li Yanhong was very satisfied with this and attributed the credit to the close collaboration of all departments.

On September 26, the 2.0 version of Chengzi Pay was released, launching simultaneously on multiple channels including the App Store, Android App Store, 91 Mobile Assistant, Wandoujia, Yingyongbao, Xiaomi App Store, and Chengzi App Store.

It mainly added the Scan to Pay, Payment Code, and Collection Code functions; this move meant that the business scope of Chengzi Pay would extend from online to offline.

In Luzhou, Huaihai Road Pedestrian Street.

A Kuaidi ground promotion staff member stood in front of the cashier counter of a spicy pot restaurant, chatting with the boss with a smile.

"Boss Zhou, do me a favor and apply for a merchant collection code." Zhu Zhengchen said directly.

"Collection code? What's the use of that?" Zhou Junyi asked casually.

If it were anyone else, he would have been too lazy to bother.

But Zhu Zhengchen was different; he was the business manager of Kuaidi Group Buying, managing merchants on half the street, so naturally, he had to give some face.

"One is a collection code, and the other is a payment code. When customers check out, they just need to open the Chengzi Pay app, scan it, enter the bill amount, and the payment operation can be completed in a few seconds. For you merchants, first, it makes reconciliation convenient, and second, it reduces the chance of receiving fake money or miscalculating the bill." Zhu Zhengchen recited his script fluently and explained slowly.

"My dragon scales and horse hooves! That's so convenient! Teach me how to do it! By the way, does this thing charge a withdrawal fee?"

Zhou Junyi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly pulled Zhu Zhengchen to ask.

"Of course not." Zhu Zhengchen said with certainty, while adding two words in his heart: for now!

The merchant collection code could significantly improve collection efficiency and operational management levels; Chengzi Pay also added automatic reconciliation and financial analysis functions.

Easy to operate, simple to use!

Zhou Junyi had a strong ability to accept new things; after one hour, he printed out the collection code and pasted it on the cashier counter.

The offline promotion work of Chengzi Pay was very low-key; in the first phase, it only contacted group buying and food delivery merchants, and the progress was extremely smooth.

In Shangcheng, Luzhou, Jin Ling, and other places, scanning to pay gradually became popular.

(End of this chapter)