Chapter 345: You Can Call Me Sen Ge—I Don

Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Technology Park, in front of Building 9.

A fully black Maybach slowed to a stop; with a soft “click,” the hinge released and the door swung open, revealing a man in his thirties stepping out.

White shirt, dark red tie, navy-blue suit, polished leather shoes gleaming, a strand of white hair resting on his forehead.

Behind him followed an assistant and a bodyguard.

The other two vehicles carried Jingdong’s accompanying business negotiation team.

Pinduoduo employees leaning by the windows couldn’t help craning their necks to look outside.

Though Pinduoduo had already surpassed Jingdong in daily active users and daily sales figures, Liu Qiangdong was a veteran of e-commerce, and now that he had come to visit their company, many were curious, watching the Jingdong founder from afar.

Chen Yansen stood in place, not moving a step.

Since the 418 Home Appliance Festival when Pinduoduo and Jingdong broke ties, this was the first time he had met Liu Qiangdong alone.

Compared to last time, Liu Qiangdong’s smile now radiated far more brightness after securing $1.1 billion in funding from OTPP and the Saudi Kingdom.

When your pockets are full, your heart isn’t shaken!

Even for Liu Qiangdong, worth tens of billions, it was true!

Liu Qiangdong smiled warmly, but when he noticed Chen Yansen hadn’t moved, he silently cursed: This kid holds grudges hard.

“Revengeful Chen Yansen”—only wrong names are ever given; never a wrong nickname.

“Chen Zong, it seems Xucheng truly produces outstanding talent, nurturing two internet tech giants worth over a hundred billion each: Orange Tech and Pinduoduo.”

Liu Qiangdong stepped forward, smiling as he made small talk.

“Just a bit lucky—caught the wave of smartphones and e-commerce growth.”

Chen Yansen demurred.

“I’d love to have the same luck as you, Chen Zong—I’ve worked ten years and still can’t match your one year’s output.”

Liu Qiangdong slipped in a subtle compliment.

He hadn’t forgotten his purpose: first, restore cooperation with Senlian Capital and bring Orange Tech back onto Jingdong; second, form a defense alliance with Pinduoduo to jointly seize Alibaba’s e-commerce market share; third, sign annual framework advertising contracts with Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, and Orange App Store.

Even Alibaba pays for traffic—Jingdong certainly isn’t exempt.

Currently, Toutiao’s cumulative registered users exceed 120 million, with 40 million daily active users; Lingxi Browser has been downloaded 64 million times, with 29 million daily active users; Orange App Store serves over 40 million terminal users.

Thus, Senlian Capital has become a pivotal traffic hub in the internet industry.

This is another reason Liu Qiangdong is willing to bow to Chen Yansen!

“Liu Zong, shall we go to the office for tea first, or tour the Pinduoduo building?”

Chen Yansen smiled but didn’t answer directly, instead steering the topic.

“Let’s go to Pinduoduo—I want to see exactly who helped you defeat Jingdong,” Liu Qiangdong joked half-seriously.

“This way.”

Chen Yansen led Liu Qiangdong straight into Building 6, home of Pinduoduo.

Upon entering, they saw the first-floor customer service center and administrative department.

On the left white wall hung a massive LED screen, scrolling real-time Pinduoduo sales data.

“9:47 a.m., today’s sales: 290 million Huayuan.”

Liu Qiangdong looked up, studying it intently; from experience, he judged Pinduoduo’s daily transaction volume wouldn’t be below one billion Huayuan.

In other words, Pinduoduo’s daily sales were twice Jingdong’s.

After the Double Eleven promotion, Jingdong’s daily sales rose from 400 million to 500 million, but Pinduoduo’s increase seemed even greater.

“Ahead is the customer service center—mostly user support, with fewer merchant support staff; 20% are part-time students from Xuyuan University, a way of giving back to our alma mater. Of course, nothing compared to your customer service center, Liu Zong.”

Chen Yansen introduced calmly.

“What’s on the second floor?” Liu Qiangdong asked casually.

“Merchant operations and major client acquisition.”

Chen Yansen didn’t hide anything, answering honestly.

Liu Qiangdong followed Chen Yansen up the stairs to the eleventh floor, where Huang Zheng had just finished the morning meeting and came over voluntarily.

Inside the office, Huang Zheng hurried to boil water and brew tea.

Liu Qiangdong sat before the tea table, mentally calculating Pinduoduo’s organizational structure and employee count.

Roughly, it was only around 3,000 people.

Jingdong employed 26,000, including 20,000 delivery personnel.

Thinking of this, Liu Qiangdong’s face darkened—Jingdong, with its 6,000+ staff and ten years of procurement and sales experience, had still lost to these 3,000.

Their labor efficiency was less than a quarter of Pinduoduo’s!

In truth, if Chen Yansen hadn’t sought more human spirit fire, Pinduoduo’s structure, execution, and efficiency could have perfectly managed daily operations with just 2,000 people.

“Liu Zong, please.”

Chen Yansen handed a cup of hot tea to Liu Qiangdong.

“Chen Zong, you used to call me Dong Ge. I think, behind closed doors, we should change the title—it’ll make communication easier.”

Liu Qiangdong probed cautiously.

“But all my friends call me Sen Ge,” Chen Yansen said, sipping slowly from his cup, eyes half-closed.

“Fine—I’ll call you Sen Ge, you call me Dong Ge; neither of us loses out.”

Liu Qiangdong paused, then chuckled awkwardly.

“How much did Jingdong sell during Double Eleven?” Chen Yansen asked casually.

“3.07 billion.” Liu Qiangdong smiled faintly.

Then, guiltily, he lowered his head to sip tea.

Chen Yansen instantly understood—Liu Qiangdong’s expression was fine, but his micro-movements betrayed him; he was lying.

But he could understand that Jingdong faced immense funding pressure: last year it battled Dangdang, this year it was fighting Suning and Gome, while also competing with Ali, all while burdened by a capital-intensive operational model—a single super-large intelligent warehouse center could swallow up 700 to 800 million Huayuan.

But he understood: Jingdong faced immense funding pressure—last year fighting Dangdang, this year fighting Suning and Gome, while competing with Alibaba, all while burdened by asset-heavy operations; just one ultra-large smart warehouse could swallow 700–800 million Huayuan.

Put bluntly, it burned cash even faster than Kuai Di and Didi!

Jingdong could only inflate its battle reports to fool overseas investors.

Low-grade tactic, but shockingly effective.

One day OTPP invested $400 million; the next, the Middle Eastern “sucker” rushed to throw money in.

“Taobao Waimai has launched and is in gray-scale testing,” Liu Qiangdong said suddenly, setting down his teacup.

“Taobao Takeout has launched, in gray-scale testing,” Liu Qiangdong said suddenly, setting his cup down.

“Does Jingdong plan to enter takeout?” Chen Yansen asked, staring at Liu Qiangdong, each word deliberate.

“I have no interest in takeout. Jingdong’s vision is to become China’s Amazon,” Liu Qiangdong vowed firmly.

Yet Amazon, years later, invested in Grubhub and added takeout delivery to Prime membership benefits.

Chen Yansen asked only to see Liu Qiangdong break his promise later: “How about a bet? If Jingdong ever enters takeout, I won’t object—but Dong Ge must shave his head.”

Hearing this, Liu Qiangdong’s expression twisted—he suddenly recalled Ma Liyun’s bald photo—and asked sharply: “So Ma Liyun shaved his head because he lost a bet to you?”

“No,” Chen Yansen denied outright.

“Fine, I’ll take the bet—but there must be a deadline. If it’s fifty years, I won’t live to ninety.”

“Fifteen years,” Chen Yansen replied without hesitation.

“Then I’ll wait for Sen Ge to shave his head—ha ha!” Liu Qiangdong laughed loudly.

Then Liu Qiangdong asked: “Alibaba’s entering takeout—aren’t you worried?”

Chen Yansen smirked inwardly—Liu Qiangdong was afraid he’d get too close to Ma Liyun; within five minutes, he’d hinted twice.

“Kuai Pao isn’t afraid of competition. Meituan, Baidu, Alibaba—it’s never short of rivals. Taobao doesn’t even have its own traffic gateway; how can it compete with Kuai Pao?”

Chen Yansen poured more tea into Liu Qiangdong’s cup, speaking coolly.

Liu Qiangdong’s face stiffened—the words stung, because Jingdong had no traffic gateway either.

Tencent was willing to give, but the price was too high.

Ma Wenteng was worse than portal sites or video platforms—he tried to force-feed him QQ Group Buying, Paipai, and Yixun.

Worth a full $1.5 billion!

What did Jingdong need with those trash assets?

Unless absolutely desperate, Liu Qiangdong couldn’t accept Ma Wenteng’s equity swap offer.

Liu Qiangdong looked at Chen Yansen, a flicker of envy in his eyes—he’d heard that WeChat and QQ’s primary traffic gateways had always been freely offered to Pinduoduo, Kuai Di, and Kuai Pao.

Even the contract was signed by Ma Wenteng chasing after Chen Yansen.

Nothing hurts more than comparison!

Ma Wenteng treated him and Chen Yansen completely differently!

“Not necessarily—Taobao’s 600 million users aren’t fake. Ma Liyun is too domineering—abandoning good e-commerce to fight Kuai Pao for takeout.”

Liu Qiangdong sneered, stoking the fire further.

“Why not discuss the real business first?” Chen Yansen suggested.

He understood Ma Liyun’s underlying logic for takeout: as a threat, Taobao Takeout was weaker than Baidu or Meituan—the former only wanted to use takeout’s high-frequency consumption to boost Taobao’s user stickiness and retention; the latter aimed to kill Kuai Pao outright.

In short, Taobao Takeout was all noise, little substance.

Once Ma Liyun realized the investment in takeout didn’t yield proportional returns—and even hurt e-commerce—he wouldn’t need Chen Yansen to act; he’d cut Taobao Takeout’s internal resources himself.

Moreover, knowing Alibaba, Taobao Takeout was pushed through by Ma Liyun against strong internal opposition; the heads of Tmall and Taobao likely hated Taobao Takeout even more than Kuai Pao did.

Because Taobao Takeout, without a single achievement within the group, had secured a core homepage entry point.

Remember: for internet giants like Alibaba and Tencent, factionalism runs deep, and internal struggles are fierce.

Otherwise, Ma Wenteng wouldn’t have established a separate division when pushing the WeChat project.

In fact, the WeChat project team and Penguin Headquarters aren’t even in the same city.

"I would like to invite Orange Tech to set up a store on JD Mall," Liu Qiangdong nodded solemnly.

He didn’t say the words “renew,” clearly unwilling to revisit the past.

Currently, Orange Tech’s digital products cover smartphones, tablets, computers, power banks, smart speakers, and phone accessories, with monthly online sales exceeding ten billion.

Pinduoduo brings its own traffic!

Without Orange Tech’s products, Jingdong would naturally lose a portion of its traffic.

Chen Yansen slightly raised his eyelids, gazing at Liu Qiangdong with a faint, mocking smile.

Last year, it was he who wanted to cooperate, and he who wanted to terminate the partnership.

What did he think of Orange Tech?

A tool to summon and dismiss at will?

"What benefits would Orange Tech gain?" Chen Yansen's smile vanished; he asked coldly.

(End of Chapter)