Chapter 317: 40 Million a Day, 1.2 Billion a Month, Li Yanhong in Terror! You Must Live Wild!

The next day, at dawn.

Luzhou, Luyang District, Rongfengyuan Community.

A young man in his early twenties sat before a computer, yawning incessantly; since it was a rare holiday, he naturally intended to pull an all-nighter gaming to his heart's content.

"Dragon Scale Horse! My body is truly pathetic; back when I was seventeen or eighteen, I could stay up three nights straight without dozing off. I'm starving; let's order some takeout."

Wang Junjie touched his shriveled stomach and muttered to himself.

Since KuaiPao delivery became popular in Luzhou, many shut-ins had come to live a life of never leaving home, with three meals automatically delivered; although Wang Junjie was not a die-hard shut-in, he was a loyal user of KuaiPao.

In his view, KuaiPao was a local internet enterprise in Luzhou, so of course he should support it.

He took out his Chengzi C2 smartphone and opened the KuaiPao app, but for a moment he wasn't paying attention, his hand slipped, he tapped one extra time, and entered the Group Buying channel.

He had intended to exit immediately, but his peripheral vision suddenly caught a new button in the menu bar labeled "Group Buy Delivered to Home."

Group Buy Delivered to Home?

What is this new feature?

Driven by curiosity, Wang Junjie immediately began to investigate and understood the meaning of Group Buy Delivered to Home within moments.

For instance, group-buy packages from places like Caidian Xuan, Luzhou Tai Tai, or Daimai Hotpot; previously, after placing an order, one had to go to the store to verify it before use, but now one only needed to pay an additional delivery fee, and a KuaiPao rider could deliver the Food and beverage items right to the doorstep.

Ordering group-buy items in the form of takeout!

Combining "Group Buy Discounts" with "Instant Delivery"!

For users, it meant enjoying the low prices of group-buy items while experiencing the instant delivery of takeout, with delivery to the home within 29 minutes.

For merchants, the takeout model meant higher consumption frequency, covering more user groups, with order volumes easily surging three to five times.

Furthermore, for Food and beverage items with identical package contents, it could greatly increase meal preparation speed, reduce marginal costs, and thereby expand profit margins.

Pei Yi had specifically chosen the second day of the National Day holiday to launch the new feature, preparing to catch Wang Xin off guard.

The facts proved his plan was a success; before eleven o'clock, popular restaurants across all districts of Luzhou were overwhelmed with orders.

Economic chain restaurant brands like Luzhou Tai Tai had not only joined Meituan and KuaiPao, but had also left no stone unturned, joining Dianping, Laoshou Wang, and Wowo Tuan as well.

Yet in just one morning, the backend received 86 two-person group-buy packages, 32 four-person group-buy packages, and 17 eight-person group-buy packages, with each package containing a minimum of eight dishes and a maximum of sixteen.

Upon seeing the thick stack of orders, the kitchen staff nearly fainted.

How the hell are we supposed to work until when?

The hall manager hurriedly contacted KuaiPao staff; after reaching a consensus, they first disabled the Group Buy Delivered to Home function, waiting until the restaurant finished processing these orders before doing anything else.

Pei Yi had not expected so many users to stay home during the National Day holiday.

The merchants also had not anticipated that as soon as Group Buy Delivered to Home launched, so many customers would appear.

As a result, a Luzhou Tai Tai in Yaohai District gritted its teeth and worked until 3 PM in the afternoon before finishing orders for dine-in guests and group-buy takeout.

After learning of this situation, KuaiPao's marketing department immediately reported it up the chain.

Kang Guodong pulled the product and development teams together to urgently launch a verification cap function for Group Buy Delivered to Home; the default value was 20 orders, and the maximum reception capacity would be set by the merchants according to their actual capabilities.

Once the set value was reached, users would be unable to use the Group Buy Delivered to Home service at that store.

Thereby balancing the user experience for both group-buy users and takeout users!

After the adjustment, the situation of being overwhelmed with orders eased; although there was a small storm, the Group Buy Delivered to Home function of KuaiPao still achieved its expected results.

On the day of launch, it added an extra 200 million in transaction volume for the platform!

And this figure previously required a week to complete!

By the time Wang Xin reacted, it was already the afternoon of the third day; he temporarily cancelled his leave, ordering Wang Huiwen at the Beijing headquarters to deploy a team of R&D engineers to form a strike force, while simultaneously urging city operations managers across the country to launch a counterattack against KuaiPao's actions.

In previous struggles among group-buy websites, the most effective tactic was a price war!

To protect its market share, Meituan simply activated a subsidy model of ten to fifteen percent.

For the same group-buy item, KuaiPao sold it for 99 yuan, while Meituan's lowest price was 84.9 yuan, a direct drop of 14.1 yuan!

No ROI (Return on Investment) assessment, ignoring long-tail effects, focusing only on order volume and transaction volume, to first hold Meituan's defensive line!

Laoshou Wang followed closely; under Li Yanhong's coordination, Gong Zhenbing quickly organized personnel to work overtime and develop the Group Buy Delivered to Home function.

For a time, programmers at Meituan and Laoshou Wang were filled with complaints.

The good National Day holiday was thoroughly ruined; R&D engineers who were originally spending time with family or girlfriends, upon receiving calls from their leaders, had to rush back to the company headquarters.

Laoshou Wang was fine; backed by Qiandu, Li Yanhong was generous enough that everyone he called back to work overtime received double wages.

Wang Xin, as usual, was stingy; overtime could only be exchanged for compensatory time off; wanted overtime pay?

No way!

Therefore, after receiving the product documentation, the project manager intended to call a meeting with the product manager, frontend, backend, and testing team leads to review the requirements first, but he called out for a long time and no one paid him any attention.

"What is going on with you? Do none of you want to work anymore!" Tang Ling suppressed her anger and questioned them with an unhappy face.

Two months ago, due to the resignation scandal involving Zhu Xianbao, she had lost all face, but the company had not punished her; instead, they had placed even greater trust in her.

After all, she did not treat her subordinates as humans, and she did not treat herself as a human either; such a worker was the best loyal dog in the boss's eyes.

"My classmate is at Laoshou; they pay double wages for overtime. What about us? All you do is fool people with compensatory time off!"

A member of the testing team retorted in a muffled voice.

"What's wrong with compensatory time off? Are you losing out? Just take your rest after the project ends," Tang Ling asked three questions in a row.

But apart from this employee in the testing team, the rest only dared to be angry but not speak out.

They knew clearly in their hearts that Tang Ling had driven away the backbone of the technical department, yet the company had not even uttered a single word of reprimand, indicating the big boss believed her actions were fine.

"You want to be a dog yourself, that doesn't mean everyone wants to be a beast; and what the hell is wrong? Have you read a book? Do you know the Labor Law?"

The testing team employee did not indulge Tang Ling at all; when people are pushed to the brink, they say whatever comes to mind.

"Gu Rui is right! Other companies can pay overtime according to the Labor Law; why can't we? If you don't pay overtime, we won't work!"

At this moment, a backend programmer stepped forward.

If this had been a normal time, they might have just endured it.

But these days are the National Day holiday, meant for rest; why should we work overtime?

You still don't want to pay overtime?

"I don't want compensatory time off either!"

"Oppose compensatory time off! We want overtime pay!"

Unlike last time, this time more and more employees stood up, until finally everyone stopped working. HR received the news immediately and reported the on-site situation to Wang Xin.

Upon learning that the employees below had collectively gone on strike, Wang Xin clasped his hands, unconsciously tapping his index fingers against each other. After a moment of thought, he raised his head and instructed HR: "Change it to double wages, limited to the National Day holiday period only."

The implication was clear: this would be a one-time offer.

"Understood, boss." HR nodded, dared not delay, and hurriedly left the office, taking the elevator to the Technology Department to relay the news.

"Double wages is more like it; barely acceptable!"

"Meituan's benefits are terrible; it's not even as good as Lashou. Back then, I must have been kicked in the head by a donkey to accept Meituan's offer."

"The one with the most complete salary and benefits system is KuaiPao! Overtime pay is calculated to the minute: 1.5 times on weekdays, 2 times on weekends, and 3 times on holidays."

"Damn! If I switched to KuaiPao at my current salary, my income would rise by over 50%. Could they be bragging?"

"Don't believe me? Ask Brother Bao! Brother Bao works at KuaiPao's Beijing branch."

After "achieving victory," the group chattered excitedly.

Tang Ling sat alone at her workstation, her face ashen. By all rights, she was also a beneficiary, yet there was not a shred of joy on her face.

On the other side.

Hangcheng, No. 492 Anhua Road, CN District, Dazhong Dianping Headquarters.

After learning about the latest industry trends, Zhang Tao was instantly stunned. He had no food delivery business and no delivery resources; he could only take passive hits.

Even if he poached rider resources from Meituan, he would first have to develop a food delivery order-taking software.

"I should have learned from Meituan and Lashou and entered the food delivery market early."

Zhang Tao was filled with regret, but at this moment he had no choice; he had to face the price war instigated by Meituan and endure KuaiPao's impact on Dazhong Dianping's group-buying business.

After some thought, Zhang Tao summoned Dazhong Dianping's CTO, the General Manager of the Marketing Department, and the Head of Operations to discuss countermeasures together.

First, should Dazhong Dianping launch food delivery?

Second, should Dazhong Dianping launch a group-buying home delivery service?

Third, Meituan has already thrown out activity subsidies of up to 15%; should Dazhong Dianping follow suit?

During the last four days of the National Day holiday, it was not hard to imagine that some employees of Meituan, Lashou, and Dazhong Dianping would spend their time working overtime.

Forced by circumstances, the major group-buying platforms joined the price war, cutting prices one after another, and users benefited as a result.

Especially in the food category, group-buy items could basically be purchased at a 10% discount, or even a 20% discount.

A KFC fried chicken set originally priced at 79 yuan was ruthlessly driven down to 59 yuan!

Meanwhile.

The competition between DiDi and Kuaidi Dache grew increasingly fierce; during the National Day holiday, both raised subsidies for returning customers to a flat 12 yuan off per order, with a maximum of three discounts per day.

The funds consumed in a single day, combined, totaled over 80 million!

If exchanged for 100-yuan banknotes and burned one by one in a furnace, this sum could be burned continuously for ten days.

Li Yanhong stood by the office window; he couldn't even sit still. Every six hours, Hai Long would come to him to approve marketing and promotion expense applications.

Each application involved as much as 10 million in funds!

Gazing at the ceaseless flow of traffic, he pondered silently: at the current rate of fund consumption, the 1.2 billion Billion Huayuan he invested in DiDi would be completely exhausted in less than a month.

Thinking of this, Li Yanhong felt only Heavy breathing and his scalp tingled with numbness.

Remember, this was 1.2 billion Billion Huayuan, not 120,000, and not 12 yuan.

99% of listed companies in the country do not have a market capitalization of 1.2 billion.

Li Yanhong panicked!

This terrifying rate of cash burn made his blood run cold!

On the other side, Cheng Weixing, stationed at the Hangcheng headquarters, was also bloodshot-eyed. A daily subsidy cost of over 40 million was something he would never have dared to imagine before; he never thought he could spend money so recklessly.

Upon hearing the figure of "40 million a day," the investment institutions behind both sides fell silent immediately, yet neither intervened.

First, they lacked the authority.

Second, they knew the ride-hailing war had reached a critical moment.

Whoever could not endure the losses first would be eliminated first!

The winner takes all!

To exclusively enjoy the ride-hailing cake in Huaguo!

Norway, Kirkenes.

A crabbing ship sailed on the Barents Sea; the dark, deep sea surface rose and fell. Chen Yansen stood on the deck, picked up a piece of king crab leg meat, and put it in his mouth; it was tender and plump.

Opposite him, Song Yuncheng, dressed in thick winter gear with a windproof hood on her head, wrapped herself up tightly. She also held a piece of crab meat, chewing it slowly and carefully.

The chef nearby turned the freshly caught king crabs, black cod, and Atlantic redfish into a series of delicacies.

Although there were no exquisite plating or rich seasonings, the freshness of the ingredients made up for it, and the taste was surprisingly good.

While Chen Yansen was vacationing in Northern Europe, Li Yanhong, Wang Xin, Zhang Tao, and others, because of him, could not sleep night after night.

The wind was fierce and the waves high on the sea; the sails above were blown into a loud flapping sound.

"Boss, when are we going to Spotify's headquarters to discuss cooperation?"

Song Yuncheng asked.

Norway was very fun, but she had not forgotten the main business.

"No rush, we still haven't been to Songen Fjord. Sweden and Norway are very close — even going on the last day would be fine."

Chen Yansen shook his head and said.

He understood Song Yuncheng's mindset — like the vast majority of Hua Nation's people, two days without working and guilt would creep in.

But life is meant to be lived; what's the point if you don't enjoy it?

(End of chapter)