Chapter 335: 30 Billion a Day, Wild Foreign Capital! 3,000 OFO Bikes Launched!

November 12, 10:00 a.m.

Huang Zheng, representing Pinbei, was the first to announce the Double Eleven promotional sales figures on Weibo and Toutiao.

The staggering performance of 7.03 billion yuan shocked e-commerce professionals.

After all, to most people, Pinbei was merely an e-commerce platform less than two years old—precisely, it had been operating for just one year and two months.

The characters “7.03 billion” on the battle report were designed in a bold, flashy style.

In addition, there was a poster displaying Pinbei’s top 50 store sales rankings.

“Midea Flagship Store: 48,000 orders, average customer spend of 2,680 yuan, sales of 130 million yuan!”

“Metersbonwe Flagship Store: 1.291 million orders, average customer spend of 93 yuan, sales of 120 million yuan!”

“Luolai Flagship Store: 178,000 orders, average customer spend of 617 yuan, sales of 970 million yuan!”

“AUX Flagship Store: 62,000 orders, average customer spend of 1,460 yuan, sales of 910 million yuan!”

“…”

Two brands surpassed 100 million yuan in single-store sales; seventeen exceeded 50 million yuan; eighty-six exceeded 10 million yuan!

The core purpose of the promotional report was to attract merchants to join and draw venture capital attention.

Implicitly: come to Pinbei, and you’ll make money!

…

…

“7.03 billion? How much water is in this figure!”

At JD’s headquarters, Liu Qiangdong stared in disbelief.

This promotion, JD’s final sales figure on Double Eleven was 2.36 billion yuan.

He had instructed Xu Lei to slightly embellish it to 2.97 billion yuan—clearly intending to tell users and investors that JD was about to enter the tier of 3 billion yuan daily sales.

But he hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be even more boastful!

In his estimation, Pinbei’s actual transaction volume should have been between 4 and 5 billion yuan.

“I asked several merchants—their actual sales figures were nearly identical to those on the poster,” Xu Lei said weakly.

“The top brands’ sales figures published by Pinbei were likely pre-coordinated; why would merchants tell the truth? Of course, maybe there’s no water—but what about the mid-tier and bottom-tier merchants?”

Liu Qiangdong shook his head with a knowing smile.

Is it hard to fake sales?

The clerks turn a blind eye; the platform pretends not to notice; merchants naturally inflate sales wildly.

For example, create a lucky bag link with ten pairs of socks priced at 9,999 yuan, set stock at 1,000 units; after users receive them, they apply for a refund of shipping and price difference, and get full refunds—simple, and you easily fake 10 million yuan in sales.

Don’t think users won’t care about a few pairs of socks—these lucky bags often sell out instantly upon launch.

Besides, underwear, socks, thermoses, men’s shoes, women’s shoes, trash bags—all are hot items in users’ eyes.

Xu Lei nodded and didn’t argue further, but asked cautiously: “Boss, should we change the report number to start with 3?”

“3.97 billion? Too fake! Adding a few hundred million is fine, but adding over a billion will get exposed by third-party data agencies.”

Liu Qiangdong shook his head firmly, rejecting Xu Lei’s suggestion outright.

“I mean, change it to 3.07 billion—the number looks better,” Xu Lei quickly explained.

“Hmm, you decide,” Liu Qiangdong paused for a few seconds, then waved his hand.

Adding a few hundred million each time wasn’t a problem.

At least it’s better than Tmall and Taobao C-stores, which constantly use 10,000-yuan lucky bags to inflate sales like it’s nothing!

Before JD released its promotional report, Ali followed closely with a dazzling result: total sales of 19.7 billion yuan (Tmall 13.9 billion, Taobao 5.8 billion), up 208.2% year-over-year.

Suning, which had originally sold 500 million yuan, had planned to use the report to promote its platform—but seeing this, it hastily withdrew its draft, erased all specific figures, and replaced them with vague buzzwords.

After reading Suning’s report, you remember no numbers—only words like “surge,” “spike,” “explode,” “counter-trend high growth,” “impressive first-hour performance,” and “record-breaking peaks.”

But if you ask what Suning’s Double Eleven sales were?

Sorry, no comment!

“19.7 billion yuan?”

Seeing Ali’s report, Liu Qiangdong’s mood worsened—he’d expected Ali to reach only around 8 billion yuan based on last year’s growth trend.

“Boss, should we…” Xu Lei began.

“No, leave it at 3.07 billion,” Liu Qiangdong resigned himself, voice weary.

He couldn’t beat Ali, and the gap with Pinbei was growing wider.

If not for OTPP’s continued investment enthusiasm, JD’s situation would be even worse.

Would it be better to abandon the capital-intensive warehouse and logistics model, avoid confronting Ali and Pinbei’s sharp edges, and thus not be so exhausted?

Liu Qiangdong pondered silently.

But he quickly crushed that foolish thought.

The ruthlessness of business rivals rivals the danger of the battlefield!

Would Ma Liyun spare him if JD surrendered?

Even if Ma Liyun stopped chasing JD, Chen Yansen wouldn’t show mercy.

In the internet business world, no one matched Chen Yansen in “holding a grudge.”

The brutal competition in the express delivery industry had shown all the big players Chen Yansen’s ruthless side.

SuFeng, YaFeng, SuEr, and AnNeng vanished without a trace; SFT and QuanFeng were acquired.

Liu Qiangdong knew clearly: JD must advance or fall back!

Otherwise, the best outcome would be acquisition; the worst, becoming like Paipai or Yixun—either waiting to die or waiting for some kind soul to come collect the trash.

Ten minutes later, JD’s promotional report finally arrived: 3.07 billion yuan in sales, cementing its position as the industry’s third-place player.

Ali: 19.7 billion yuan!

Pinbei: 7.03 billion yuan!

JD: 3.07 billion yuan!

The three e-commerce giants totaled 29.8 billion yuan in sales in one day!

Meanwhile, the Postal Association announced: on November 11, 2012, daily parcel volume exceeded 100 million for the first time.

Instantly, domestic media exploded, and even across the ocean, the United States was stunned.

Three e-commerce sites sold $4.5 billion in one day?

Too absurd to believe!

At this time, the United States was in its Christmas shopping season; from November 1 to 11, total online spending over eleven days was only $6 billion, averaging $500 million per day.

Yet China’s three e-commerce companies alone achieved $4.5 billion in transaction volume in one day.

Additionally, the one billion parcel pickups in a single day shocked European and American competitors.

Amazon’s CEO Bezos immediately sent a video conference invitation to Amazon China’s head; after discussion, headquarters decided to increase resource and cash investment to boost Amazon’s market share in China. Under the shock of 30 billion yuan per day, Bezos had to admit he had underestimated China’s e-commerce potential.

On the other side.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan rejoiced—they had invested in JD initially to cash in on IPO gains and fill pension fund gaps.

Ali, Pinbei, and JD together pushed China’s e-commerce industry to a new height.

North American investment institutions simultaneously rushed to Asia, seeking equity in the three e-commerce giants—or to help them go public and profit from it.

JD’s valuation skyrocketed; OTPP immediately resolved to accelerate its second round of financing.

If JD was this hot, Pinbei was even more so.

Gao Wei sat in his office, fielding calls from morning till night—from venture capital firms expressing investment interest, to investment banks clamoring to take Pinbei public on Nasdaq.

“I’ll value Pinbei at $26 billion!”

“$2.8 billion!”

“$3 billion!”

Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity all rushed to bid—but Old Gao followed the boss’s rule: polite, enthusiastic, but never agree.

He wasn’t a fool—he saw clearly: these Wall Street top predators all wanted to profit from Pinbei.

How could Chen Yansen let them succeed?

Pinbei accepted Tencent’s investment because Little Ma held the two major traffic gateways: PC and mobile; inviting Huawei Tech and Huawei Info into the fold aimed to raise state-owned capital’s stake; giving Goldman Sachs a chance was for future overseas market expansion.

Therefore, barring unforeseen circumstances, Pinbei would not launch another C-round financing before its IPO.

Overseas capital poured in!

Ma Liyun had planned to accelerate Cainiao Logistics’ construction after Double Eleven—but Nasdaq and NYSE investment bankers called one after another, proposing cooperation and requesting due diligence.

During Double Eleven, Ali alone captured 20 billion yuan in transaction volume, becoming the darling of capital.

Cai Xin flew overnight from Hong Kong back to Hangzhou’s Ali headquarters to finalize plans for the group’s IPO.

Pinbei, Ali, and JD were reaping the rewards of Double Eleven; only the express delivery industry was mired in chaos.

TianTian Express’s Jiangcheng sorting center covered less than 10,000 square meters; previously, its daily peak capacity was only 300,000 parcels. Faced with millions of sudden packages, sorting efficiency plummeted—for three straight days, it hadn’t processed even 10% of its volume.

Express companies like GuoTong, BaiShi, and GuoFeng faced similar situations.

Adding to this, from November 12 to 13, all major platforms synchronously launched “Promo Encore” events—within two days, parcel volume surged another 60 million.

Lost and misdelivered packages became rampant; users flooded municipal regulators and the Postal Association with calls.

At this point, online shoppers nationwide realized that YunSu Express’s turnover, though slowed, remained within acceptable limits.

Moreover, YunSu Express had deployed 41,000 YunSu lockers across over 30,000 communities, achieving extremely high last-mile delivery efficiency in smart terminal logistics.

While BaiShi and TianTian couriers handled at most 100 parcels per day, YunSu couriers, using lockers, easily completed over 500 deliveries daily.

Efficiency was incomparable!

Logistics companies not yet joined by Yunsu Express felt regret, helplessly watching Yunsu, SF Express, and other alliance members deposit packages into parcel lockers.

Liao Wei’s phone never stopped ringing—all calls from CEOs of major courier companies—but he was busy allocating delivery resources and had no time to deal with them, so he handed all of them over to his assistant, Zhai An.

Only on November 15 did Yunsu Express resume its package pickup operations normally.

Meanwhile, Best Express, TT Express, and Guotong Express continued to face massive warehouse overflow pressures.

They simply couldn’t pick up any packages!

Yunsu Express’s business volume rose steadily!

In just three short days, it surged from 10 to 12 million packages before the promotion to a staggering 15 million.

Seeing this, Liao Wei immediately hired more staff!

After all, many small courier companies lost large numbers of employees daily.

Leveraging its superior compensation, Yunsu effortlessly recruited over five thousand new employees.

“That bastard Liao Wei—stealing business is one thing, but now he’s stealing my staff too.”

Xi Chunyang, chairman of TT Express, cursed furiously.

But he had no way to stop Liao Wei!

In fact, Liao Wei hadn’t lifted a finger—it was all customers acting on their own.

TT Express’s warehouse had overflowed; packages piled up like mountains in its transfer hubs and sorting centers—who knew when they’d ever be cleared?

Senders couldn’t wait that long; Yunsu, the first to resume pickups, became customers’ top choice.

Even SF Express lost a small portion of its business to Yunsu.

Wang Wei only realized later that during his previous visit to Yunsu’s sorting center, he had secretly mocked Liao Wei for wasting tens of billions on automated sorting equipment—purely frivolous spending.

Now, he regretted it!

Although SF Express had begun using basic automated sorting equipment—such as conveyor belts and cross-belt sorters—the sorting process still relied heavily on manual labor, with low automation levels.

Any single bottleneck in the entire workflow would drag down the overall speed of parcel circulation.

“Good tech must be copied!”

Wang Wei narrowed his eyes and immediately made the decision.

Unknowingly, Yunsu Express—a once obscure courier company from two years ago—had risen to the top of private courier companies and become the model that SF Express, Best Express, and others scrambled to imitate in both technology and business ecosystem.

…

…

On November 18, after over forty days of preparation, the ofo bike finally debuted at a Hangcheng subway entrance.

Three thousand units were deployed in the first batch!

Painted entirely in bright orange, equipped with an aluminum alloy frame, reinforced explosion-proof tires, and an alloy-plated chain, plus a smart lock and solar power panel, the bike exuded high-tech appeal.

Placed side by side with the first-generation Didi bike, the latter’s shoddy quality was obvious.

You get what you pay for—the cost spoke for itself.

The unlocking process was extremely simple: users scanned the bike’s QR code via their mobile app, and the phone sent the bike’s unique ID to the backend.

Upon confirming the unlock command, the backend server sent an unlock SMS via the cloud to the bike’s SIM card.

The bike received the SMS, its internal motor turned, and the lock opened instantly.

Though it seemed complex, in practice it was far simpler than a mechanical lock, and there was no absurd possibility of users memorizing a password for lifetime free rides.

The ofo bike and the Didi bike, positioned in the south and north respectively, officially ignited the war in the shared-bike sector.

Meanwhile, a company named Keloke quietly launched in Yancheng.

(End of Chapter)