Chapter 330: 4 Billion Burned

October 31, autumn deepens.

The sky is gloomy, drizzling autumn rain outside the window, inside Building No. 3 of Hangcheng Shuyuan Software Park.

Hu Weiyi had just finished the product development meeting, then pulled Wang Zihao to discuss the ofo bike product warm-up, resource placement on the first day of launch, and the distribution plans for App Store, Android app markets, Wandoujia, and Sister Chengzi App Mall.

Wang Zihao sat in his seat, glanced at the scene outside the window, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly; he didn't quite understand Chen Yansen's thinking. He was doing well in his position as Distribution Director at Pinba, yet Chen Yansen had to kick him all the way to Hangcheng to serve as Hu Weiyi's COO.

Did he understand shared bikes?

No.

Did he understand the overall operations of the project?

No.

But when he went to Chen Yansen with his doubts, the other party said: "If you don't understand, go learn. ofo bikes must have one of our own people watching over it."

This statement made Brother Hao happy for a long time; by the time he realized it, he had already arrived in Hangcheng.

"President Wang, you are most familiar with the heads of projects like Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, Gao De Maps, and Kuipao; the subsequent cross-platform cooperation matters will all rely on you."

Hu Weiyi said softly with a smile on her face.

Regarding Chen Yansen's arrangement, she dared not oppose it; after all, ofo bikes is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Senlian Capital, and like Wang Zihao, she is also an employee.

In fact, Wang Zihao's status behind the scenes is much higher than hers.

Although the other party cannot yet胜任 the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO), Wang Zihao has successively served as Distribution Director for Fox Tao and Pinba Mall; his connections in the circle are terrifyingly strong, easily securing resource placements on major portals and social software.

With Wang Zihao present, ofo bikes will not lack traffic resources.

Moreover, compared to professional managers, Hu Weiyi dares not claim her own abilities are particularly strong.

She needs to find her footing in the CEO position, and so does Wang Zihao.

To ensure comprehensive control over the ofo project, Chen Yansen not only temporarily抽调 a batch of personnel from Gao De and Kuai Dache to support development work, but also installed his own people in the human resources, finance, and legal departments.

Hu Weiyi only has operational rights and partial decision-making power!

Her authority is equivalent to that of Liao Wei from Yunsu Express and Zhang Yiming from Byte Technology.

Chen Yansen is too lazy to test human nature; he directly started with human resources and finance, bringing them under the unified jurisdiction of headquarters, only then would he feel at ease.

Human hearts change easily!

"No problem, President Hu. Brother Sen instructed in advance that once ofo bikes launches, for the first week, the daily exposure will not be less than 30 million."

Wang Zihao replied with a smile.

Others don't have this confidence; he does!

Just Sister Chengzi App Mall, Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, and Gao De Maps can each provide around 20 million exposures for ofo bikes.

Additionally, Penguin originally intended to invest in Didi Bikes, but upon learning that Chen Yansen had launched ofo Shared Bikes, Liu Zhiping had Lin Chenfeng immediately cancel the plan and prepare to participate in ofo bikes' Series A financing.

30 million?

Hu Weiyi smiled lightly, sighing inwardly: It feels so good to latch onto a big thigh; money when needed, people when needed, resources when needed.

So starting a business can be this simple!

To know, her magazine "Geek Auto" had been founded for three years, always lukewarm, surviving solely on advertising fees from car manufacturers.

Not earning much money, but not living comfortably either.

After deciding to take over the ofo bikes project, she sold "Geek Auto" magazine to Li Bin of Yiche. com, and it is now in the process of being absorbed.

"I heard from investment banking friends in Yanjing that Cheng Wei of Didi Bikes has been frequently contacting investors recently, probably wanting to expand the distribution scale again."

After finishing work talk, Hu Weiyi casually chatted with Wang Zihao.

"The shared bike market is large, but the profit margin ceiling is low; with Didi Bikes cultivating the market for us in the early stage, we can actually save a huge amount of manpower and material resources. Starting early doesn't guarantee winning, President Hu, have confidence in our product."

Wang Zihao said dismissively.

He has been following Chen Yansen for over two years, experienced many large and small commercial battles, and didn't put Cheng Wei in his heart at all.

He knew clearly in his heart that besides Didi Bikes, a huge pile of competitor software would appear later.

Unless, like Kuai and DiDi Dache, they desperately burn money to grab territory, ignoring new and old customers, automatically refreshing the highest discount of 14 yuan three times a day, rolling up competitors so they dare not enter the field.

No entrepreneur, and no venture capital institution, dares to follow the burning speed of Kuai and DiDi Dache.

Just as the two were talking, hundreds of kilometers away in Yanjing.

Li Yanhong looked at the financial statements of DiDi Dache, silent for a long time, his two eyebrows twisted together like a twisted dough knot.

The 1.2 billion funds from DiDi Dache's Series E financing were consumed by more than ninety percent in just one month; now only 50 million remains on the account.

Xiang Hailong had already canceled the old customer subsidy activities in North and East China three days ago; the driver subsidy per order was reduced from 5 yuan to 2 yuan; currently only the new customer's first-order instant discount remains.

Seeing this, Cheng Weixing readjusted Kuai Dache's old customer instant discount back to the previous lucky draw red packet format, amounts ranging from 5 to 12 yuan; old customers could get 5 to 8 yuan, new customers 9 to 12 yuan.

The driver's order acceptance subsidy dropped to 3 yuan to prevent DiDi Dache from counterattacking!

Both sides tacitly paused the subsidy war!

From October 1 to October 27, Kuai and DiDi Dache collectively threw in 2.2 billion Billion Huayuan, forcibly cultivating users' habits of hailing cars.

In Yanjing, Jinmen, Hucheng, Jin Ling, and Lucheng, if taxis don't download ride-hailing software, they simply cannot receive orders.

Since ride-hailing software appeared, who still stands bitterly on the roadside in the cold wind, waving their hand to hail a car!

Nowadays, passengers often haven't even walked out of the building before hailing a taxi; by the time they reach the community gate, the driver arrives just in time.

"October 28, DiDi Dache daily order volume: 1.34 million orders!"

"October 29, DiDi Dache daily order volume: 1.07 million orders!"

"October 30, DiDi Dache daily order volume: 856,000 orders!"

Subsidies stopped, feelings zeroed out.

Li Yanhong took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his frustration; at the current rate, in less than half a month, DiDi Dache's daily fulfilled order volume would drop to below 600,000, or even below 500,000.

Although Qian Du Maps has improved the ride-hailing order business, it only has a hundred thousand orders per day.

If, after half a month, DiDi Dache's orders really drop below 500,000, then the daily gross profit will mostly fail to cover labor cost expenditures.

Moreover, Kuaidi is watching hungrily from the sidelines; for Didi Chuxing to turn a profit is nearly impossible.

"It is time to talk."

Li Yanhong rubbed his dry, aching eyes, lifted his head, and muttered to himself.

In his view, Chen Yansen could hardly hold out much longer.

Thinking of this, he picked up the mobile phone on the desk and called Liu Zhiping, the vice president of Penguin.

At the last Internet Conference, he had asked Ma Wenteng to mediate, only to later tear up the verbal agreement of "no subsidy war" himself; therefore, Li Yanhong felt too embarrassed to speak directly and wanted to use Liu Zhiping as a mouthpiece to convey a message of "surrender" to Ma Wenteng and Chen Yansen.

Although Chen Yansen's use of third-party apps to run subsidy campaigns was highly unscrupulous, it was Li Yanhong who first reignited the subsidy war on ride-hailing software.

To some extent, Li Yanhong was indeed the one who broke the rules first.

However, in Ma Wenteng's eyes, neither of them was any good; they had given him no respect at all.

They spoke sweetly about accepting mediation, but immediately turned around and pulled all sorts of tricks, treating his words like flatulence.

Yet he felt not a shred of aversion toward Chen Yansen; on the contrary, he admired him even more. After all, what kind of credit do merchants care about?

Especially between Kuaidi and Didi Chuxing, both had already burned over ten billion; burning another ten billion made little difference. The winner takes all!

With a daily national volume of ten million orders, who wouldn't want to monopolize it?

On the other side.

Liu Zhiping was sitting in Ma Wenteng's office, discussing the recent shared bicycle project.

"Cheng Wei is indeed a talent; his business instincts are sharp. One moment he launched ride-hailing, the next he started shared bicycles." Liu Zhiping held a teacup, took a light sip, and said.

"Pity they couldn't secure the angel round for Didi Bikes; Innovation Works' Li Fukai reaped the benefits instead."

Ma Wenteng commented with a light chuckle.

WeChat's cumulative registered users had already exceeded 280 million, with daily active users surpassing 100 million; this undoubtedly signaled that Penguin had bet correctly and successfully secured the entry point to the mobile internet.

Coupled with investments in Pinbai, Kuai Pao, and Kuaidi Chuxing, he had profited handsomely, putting him in an excellent mood.

"Missing out on Didi Bikes isn't a problem; there's still ofo. Instead of investing in Cheng Wei, it's better to continue backing Chen Yansen."

Liu Zhiping set down his teacup and said with firm tone.

"This kid is like he's playing with cheats. Which young person can earn a fortune of 50 billion US dollars at twenty? I heard media in Europe and America are blowing him up to the sky, viewing Zuckerberg as the American version of Chen Yansen."

Ma Wenteng lifted the teapot, refilled Liu Zhiping's cup, and then said with a smile.

Zuckerberg? The American version of Chen Yansen!

Liu Zhiping suddenly choked on his saliva, quickly covered his mouth and nose, turned sideways and coughed several times, his face flushing bright red; only after a while did he recover and say, "Zuckerberg is eight years older than Chen Yansen, right?"

"Who says Chen Yansen's fortune is higher than his?"

Ma Wenteng shrugged, recalling Song Yuncheng who followed Chen Yansen, and sighed inwardly: This kid would make a fine son-in-law, but he seems to have a girlfriend.

"Vrrrrrr—!"

Just as Liu Zhiping was about to speak, his mobile phone in his pocket rang; he pulled it out and glanced at it, feeling instantly surprised.

It wasn't surprise that Li Yanhong was calling him, but surprise that the call came so late.

According to his and Ma Wenteng's estimate, Li Yanhong should have been unable to hold out after mid-October.

Anyone else might have fought Chen Yansen for a few more rounds, burning another few billion in funds, but Li Yanhong was different; his tolerance for a new project was extremely low. If it didn't turn a profit within half a year, both the project and its person in charge would be eliminated.

This was the main reason Liu Zhiping was certain Li Yanhong would admit defeat.

"It's Li Yanhong's call." Liu Zhiping placed his phone flat on the desk and explained to Ma Wenteng.

"Robin can't hold out anymore. Answer it and see what he wants to say." Ma Wenteng adjusted his glasses, pushed them up slightly, and replied without hesitation.

Liu Zhiping hummed in agreement, pressed the answer key, and then tapped the speakerphone button.

"Martin, I need a favor." Li Yanhong got straight to the point, without beating around the bush.

In his logic, Penguin, as the third-largest shareholder of Kuaidi Chuxing, naturally also wanted to end the subsidy war as soon as possible; this would be a good thing for everyone.

"Robin, tell me first." Liu Zhiping asked, pretending ignorance.

"I want Mr. Ma to act as an intermediary and sign a formal agreement with Chen Yansen to terminate the subsidy war." Li Yanhong replied.

"Robin, first, the legal effect of such an agreement is questionable; second, what if a new ride-hailing software emerges after Kuaidi Chuxing and Didi Chuxing end the subsidy war?"

Liu Zhiping countered.

The best way to resolve the conflict between the two was merger; he knew it, and Li Yanhong knew it too.

Everyone was playing dumb, waiting for the other to speak first.

"Does Mr. Liu mean we should continue burning at the current rate of 1.2 billion yuan per month?" Li Yanhong asked.

"Mr. Li, you must understand one thing: the largest shareholder of Kuaidi Chuxing is Chen Yansen." Liu Zhiping didn't take the bait and kicked the ball back.

Seeing the other party not take the bait, Li Yanhong pondered for over ten seconds, then gave a bitter smile and said, "Does Mr. Liu want to broker a merger between Kuaidi and Didi? Is this Mr. Ma's idea or Chen Yansen's?"

If it was Chen Yansen's idea, as long as he agreed, the subsidy war in the ride-hailing industry could end.

"It is Mr. Ma's and my idea. Whether Mr. Chen will agree, I cannot guarantee. Of course, if Didi Chuxing's valuation is reasonable enough, I believe Chen Yansen would not refuse the merger proposal."

Liu Zhiping said slowly and calmly.

The implication was clear: if Li Yanhong was willing to bleed, he would go talk to Chen Yansen.

"Didi Chuxing raised 1.2 billion in its Series E round, with a valuation of 8 billion." Li Yanhong understood Liu Zhiping's meaning, his face darkened, and he said with narrowed eyes.

He had no objection to the merger!

But Chen Yansen shouldn't think he can bully people too much; not a single yuan off the 8 billion yuan valuation!

"Mr. Li, Didi Chuxing's valuation is inflated; half its value was burned up by subsidies."

Liu Zhiping frowned, looking displeased, and inwardly cursed Li Yanhong for failing to see the situation clearly.

Half?

Cutting off 4 billion in one breath?

Li Yanhong sucked in a sharp breath, and his anger surged upward.

The 1.2 billion Billion Huayuan from Didi's Series E funding round was solely reinvested by Baidu, bringing total capital investment—excluding manpower and traffic resources—to 1.41 billion Billion Huayuan, including 80 million from Series D, 100 million from Series C, and 30 million from Series B.

Baidu's equity stake is 44.4%; at a 4 billion Billion Huayuan valuation, it could only cash out 1.76 billion Billion Huayuan—after half a year of effort, only 300 million Billion Huayuan in profit?

Li Yanhong was extremely dissatisfied!

"Director Liu, this offer lacks sincerity. If Tencent and Senlian Capital wish to continue, Baidu will match them step by step," Li Yanhong said coldly, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

If necessary, we'll increase our investment and keep fighting Didi!

Liu Zhiping snorted and relayed directly: "This is Chen Yansen's offer, Robin. Losers must accept the fate of losers."

"Has Didi lost? I don't think so!"

With that, Li Yanhong slammed the phone down with fury.

"He doesn't understand the situation, can't see clearly—Robin is technically skilled but a disaster as a manager. Over the years, Baidu has produced nothing worthwhile except search and Tieba."

Ma Wenteng curled his lips in disdain, then lifted his teacup, sipped slowly, and delivered his evaluation in a calm tone.

"I'll call Chen Zong back."

Liu Zhiping said.

Ma Wenteng nodded without objection.

Liu Zhiping picked up his phone and called Chen Yansen: "Li Yanhong refused."

"He wants to give up, yet preserve face, and still squeeze out a profit—yet won't lower his price. How dreamy of him! I understand, Director Liu, thank you," Chen Yansen said, speechless.

If Baidu doesn't reinvest, in another half month, Didi's market share will drop below 10%. Perhaps then Li Yanhong will finally face reality.

If Li Yanhong increases investment, we'll just fight another month!

I've already coordinated with Tencent, Mama Ali, Gao Sheng, DST, and Huake—all ready to launch Series C funding at any moment.

How can Baidu alone compete against the combined force of internet capital, state capital, and foreign capital?

At the same time.

Cheng Wei, ousted by Li Yanhong, was now at the peak of his life: IDG Capital led the round, Sequoia Capital and Sizhi Capital followed, securing 300 million Billion Huayuan for Didi Bike's Series A funding.

He leapt to the top of the shared-bike industry!

(End of Chapter)