[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp":3,"chapter-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-369":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I Get Stronger Every Payday—With One Billion Employees!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2264582,4419,"Chapter 369","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-369",369,"\u003Cp>On February 2, Liu Qiangdong publicly announced a “rest and recuperation” strategy, voluntarily ending the price war with Suning, Gome, and Yixun.com.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The outside world assumed he had “gone straight,” but Zhang Jindong knew clearly: Liangzai Dong was going to the United States for advanced study, taking a three-month MBA course, and simply had no bandwidth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jindong wanted to launch a surprise attack but couldn’t bring himself to spend the money.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, every one of Suning’s subsidy campaigns was born only when JD had pushed them into a corner with no retreat left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half an hour later, iResearch released its January group-buying market report: KuaiPao ranked first again with a monthly transaction volume of 1.49 billion yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lashou.com ranked second with 1.02 billion yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dazhong Dianping ranked third with 730 million yuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meituan, unsurprisingly, remained the industry’s fourth-place player, with only 470 million yuan in transaction volume.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lashou.com rose to second place for the first time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the “Annan Bride Group Buy” service generated no actual transaction volume, it brought Lashou.com a surge of attention, and with Baidu’s traffic and financial support, surpassing Dazhong Dianping was expected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet when combined, Dazhong Dianping and Meituan’s transaction volumes still fell short of KuaiPao’s—shocking many.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Meituan now mired in public backlash, it was easy to imagine its February results would again land at the bottom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Movie ticket group buying accounted for a staggering 27.9% of sales, becoming a key channel for the Spring Festival box office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” launched pre-sales, offering an exclusive KuaiPao discount price of 19.9 yuan, driving tens of millions of additional traffic to the group-buying platform.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon after, Mobile announced its TD-LTE strategy, preparing to accelerate 4G deployment and build 200,000 base stations by year-end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>China Telecom and China Unicom, having completed commercial testing of their 4G networks, were also scrambling to prepare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>3G service fees were already trending downward, and rumors of 4G’s imminent arrival were spreading like wildfire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun, holed up in his hometown of Hangcheng, could no longer sit still after learning WeChat users had surpassed 300 million and Apple users had exceeded 200 million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hastily summoned Lu Zhaoxi, Zhang Yong, and others for a senior management meeting, declaring social software the core strategy for Ali in 2013.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a day of discussion, an app named “Laiwang” was placed at the top of the development priority list.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ali’s HR department rushed to distribute the hiring requirements for the Laiwang app lead across the company website, job platforms, and headhunting firms before the Spring Festival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ali’s first foray into social networking began quietly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Xin, we haven’t lost our chance yet—giving up now is premature,” Wang Huiwen ventured cautiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After three straight days of setbacks, Wang Xin had lost heart and wanted to surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t understand!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His own clay doll, held in his hands, remained just clay—but once sold to someone else, it turned into a golden doll.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like Xiaonai.com: seven years ago, it was sold to Chen Yizhou for two million U.S. dollars; after a slight rebranding, it went public on Nasdaq, hitting a market cap of 7.4 billion U.S. dollars on its first day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for group-buying websites, from the start, he understood: serve more users, and the product’s value grows with scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The evidence proved his business vision was sound—but the group-buying arena had too many competitors.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Baidu entered first; Senlian Capital followed closely behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They knocked Meituan off the industry throne, then kicked it down to fourth place; with no one left behind, another step backward would mean closing shop like WoWoTuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lao Wang, I’m sorry—I couldn’t lead all of you to a decent life.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facing his old classmate and longtime partner, Wang Xin looked ashamed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his eyes, only Meituan’s founding team were his own people; middle managers were beasts of burden; frontline staff and delivery riders were mere consumables—he’d never once looked at them properly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin had failed at entrepreneurship so many times he could barely count on both hands; failure didn’t scare him—only the fear of starting over again was shameful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Wang Xin like this, Wang Huiwen’s face twisted in pain. “Brother Xin, it’s not over yet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sell now, and you can still get some cash. Wait until Meituan’s February sales are announced, and you might not even get three hundred million U.S. dollars.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin gave a bitter laugh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not forced, he didn’t want to sell the company.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But right now, there were no investors, no traffic, barely any cash left on the books—keep struggling, and WoWoTuan would be Meituan’s fate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Founders being chased down by venture capital firms!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then who do we sell to?” Wang Huiwen asked helplessly, seeing Wang Xin had made up his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ali.” Wang Xin gritted his teeth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yan and Li Yanhong had driven Meituan into a corner—he’d make things difficult for both of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ali’s strength was no less than Senlian Capital or Baidu; once Ali took over Meituan, with its traffic and funding boost, KuaiPao and Lashou.com’s growth would inevitably stall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But Ali invested in KuaiPao—would Ma Liyun really hit his own palm?” Wang Huiwen doubted this move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Try it. If it fails, sell to Tencent instead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin shrugged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, I’ll contact Ji Gang at Ali’s investment department first,” Wang Huiwen said, seeing through his friend’s plan, and nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That evening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji Gang received Wang Huiwen’s call; after listening, his expression turned startled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t expected Wang Xin to be so defeated by KuaiPao and Lashou, nor that his first choice wasn’t merging with Dazhong Dianping or selling to Senlian Capital—but to Ali.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wang Zong, I need to report this to the company first,” Ji Gang said after a moment’s thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Technically, Ma Liyun and Cai Xin had both said they’d temporarily hold off on investing in Meituan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the bosses’ wording was precise: only temporary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he didn’t report a major development, he might get scolded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thanks, Ji Zong,” Wang Huiwen knew Ji Gang had no authority to decide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His superior was Cai Xin, and Cai Xin reported to Ma Liyun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would take at least two or three days for any result.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So after hanging up, he called Lin Chenfeng at Tencent’s investment department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wouldn’t sit around waiting for Ali.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wang Zong, sorry, Tencent has no plans to acquire group-buying sites,” Lin Chenfeng replied bluntly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>QQ Group Buy, after merging with GaoPeng and F-Tuan, remained half-dead—buy another group-buying site drowning in negative press?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Are you kidding?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t want to be publicly scolded by Pony and Martin at the next senior meeting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Huiwen gave a forced laugh and quietly put his phone away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital also got word and immediately called Wang Xin, demanding why he hadn’t followed his advice to merge with Dazhong Dianping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I want cash, not equity,” Wang Xin replied bluntly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Selling Meituan was his only source of funding for his next project.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What would he gain by merging with Dazhong Dianping?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin didn’t believe Zhang Tao could defeat KuaiPao and Lashou.com.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shall I arrange a meeting between you and Chen Yan from Senlian Capital?” Shen Nanpeng suggested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d just participated in the Series A funding of Ofo; in his view, Chen Yan owed him at least some courtesy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A few days ago, I had Zhang Zhaoyang deliver a message—Chen Yan has zero interest in acquiring Meituan.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin replied honestly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine, I understand. If you want to sell, I won’t stop you—but the price must be approved by Sequoia Capital,” Shen Nanpeng said sternly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He feared Wang Xin would secretly sell low and damage Sequoia’s interests.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine, I have no objection,” Wang Xin replied flatly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With things said this far, Shen Nanpeng didn’t mention additional investment—clearly, Sequoia had already abandoned Meituan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin sneered and pressed the end call button.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half an hour later, Wang Huiwen returned with the responses from Ali and Tencent. “If Tencent won’t buy, then go to Baidu,” Wang Xin thought for a moment, then came up with a new idea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, it could make KuaiPao and Lashou fight each other; second, with Baidu in the mix, he could raise his own asking price with Ali.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, if Ali was the only buyer, they’d crush the price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Huiwen was sharp—he understood at once. He didn’t ask further, pulled over a chair, and started making calls right in the office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin, like a dying hyena, glared fiercely at KuaiPao and Lashou, ready to bite anyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin, like a hyena on its deathbed, glared fiercely at Kuai Pao  and La Shou, ready to bite anyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At Ali’s headquarters in Hangcheng, Taohuadao office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun’s gaze swept over Tang Yongbo, Zhang Yong, and Lu Zhaoxi, then asked: “What do you think?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Acquiring Meituan would fill Ali’s last major gap in local services, letting us walk on two legs,” Lu Zhaoxi said casually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Engaging KuaiPao and Lashou.com head-on now would drain our resources and capital, possibly affecting our upcoming IPO,” Zhang Yong shook his head, clearly opposed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Yan was infamous for holding grudges; after KuaiPao took the group-buying crown, Wang Xin merely bared his teeth once—and got crushed into retreat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Ali buys Meituan and provokes KuaiPao’s retaliation, will we fight a price war?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fight it, and we burn cash and hurt our cash flow; don’t fight it, then why buy Meituan at all?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Combine Taobao Waimai with Meituan—use high-frequency traffic to drive low-frequency services, creating a complete business ecosystem. I support the acquisition,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“By integrating Taobao Takeout with Meituan, using high-frequency traffic to drive low-frequency usage, we can build a complete business ecosystem—I support the acquisition.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acquiring Meituan and merging it with Waimai would give him greater power, more resources, and more influence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since it benefited him, he naturally didn’t oppose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it benefited him, he naturally wouldn't object.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun frowned; two votes in favor, one against—he didn’t really want to buy either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then he reconsidered: Taobao had already entered the food delivery industry, and local life services were part of Ali’s strategy anyway—they’d eventually clash with Kuai Pao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the day he decided to dip into food delivery, the cooperation between Ali and Senlian Capital had developed cracks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long pause, Ma Liyun decided: “Tell Ji Gang to initiate the Meituan acquisition process.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather than hiding it, better to openly acknowledge Ali’s determination to enter local life services.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Understood, Ma Zong,” Tang Yongbo nodded slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You mean Wang Xin is preparing to sell Meituan?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At Baidu’s headquarters building, Li Yanhong asked Gong Zhenbing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wang Huiwen said it herself—it’s probably true. Meituan’s monthly transaction volume in January was only 470 million, a drop of nearly 60% compared to three months ago; once February’s numbers come out, it’ll likely fall below 400 million.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gong Zhenbing smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although he was scolded last month and publicly criticized by the Inspection Association, Lashou.com’s monthly transaction volume hit 1 billion for the first time, surging to second place in the industry, just behind Kuai Pao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Yanhong became warm and friendly toward him again!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a giant company like Baidu, if you want to thrive, timing matters—you must reach the expected performance level before your boss runs out of time and patience.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, the project gets shut down, and the lead gets fired too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s Wang Huiwen’s asking price?” Li Yanhong asked, his eyes gleaming with interest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“370 million U.S. dollars,” Gong Zhenbing replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Yanhong recalled: when Baidu acquired Lashou.com, the price was 420 million U.S. dollars, and Lashou’s monthly transaction volume was around 600 million back then. Compared to that, 370 million wasn’t high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Push the price down, keep it around 300 million—I’ll have the investment department assist you,” Li Yanhong said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If we acquire Meituan and merge it with Lashou.com, Baidu.com will rise to number one in the group-buying sector.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Li Yanhong overlooked one thing: merging businesses is an extremely complex task. From a macro view, it seems simple—like “1+1=2.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But from a micro perspective, factors like executive handovers, operational alignment, and staff turnover will all affect the merged team’s combat effectiveness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If executed well, 1+1>2; if executed poorly, 1+1\u003C2.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next morning, Ma Wenteng, attending an internet entrepreneur exchange meeting, was asked by a reporter: “Ma Zong, hello. What’s your view on Baidu.com entering the ride-hailing and group-buying businesses?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If this were ten years later, Xiao Ma would’ve brushed it off: “Baidu has excellent technical accumulation—I believe Robin will achieve some success in this new field.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gao Peng and QQ Group Buying had humiliated him in the group-buying industry, so Ma Wenteng spoke bluntly: “Generally speaking, a company can’t excel in two entirely different businesses unless you’re Chen Yan.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reporter paused, then instinctively pressed: “So is that why Tencent keeps failing in e-commerce?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Ma’s face darkened; he narrowed his eyes: “Which media outlet are you from?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn it, you’re aiming straight for the face, aren’t you?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reporter startled, laughed awkwardly, subtly covered the mic’s logo, then bolted away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But neither Ma Liyun nor Li Yanhong expected Wang Xin to change his mind the next day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Atlantic Capital’s Hong Jing approached him directly, offering to invest 100 million U.S. dollars in Meituan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To foreign investors, Meituan’s market share wasn’t high, but it still held fourth place in the industry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Wang Xin didn’t understand why, he didn’t refuse—he readily agreed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He exchanged 20% equity for 100 million U.S. dollars in funding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun was dragged around by Wang Xin and flew into a rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Yanhong was stunned—his and Lao Ma’s actions had inadvertently helped Wang Xin raise the price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he could do nothing but mutter a few curses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It seems Meituan’s 4% equity stake barely satisfies Ma Liyun’s appetite.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After learning Wang Xin had tricked Li Yanhong and Ma Liyun, Chen Yan didn’t gloat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Liyun wanted to buy Meituan?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What the hell is this old man up to?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Food delivery isn’t enough—he wants to enter group buying too?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Atlantic Capital’s 100 million injection had pulled Meituan back from the brink of death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he didn’t care much—it would only buy Meituan a few more months.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside the window, snow lay thick, the wind biting cold; only three days remained until the Spring Festival holiday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>5,700 users had collected all five lucky charms; compared to previous days, the daily increase in users who completed the set had risen by over a hundred, and the average payout shown on the activity page kept shrinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Users felt conflicted: before collecting all five, they wished OrangePay would issue 10,000 Dedication Charms per day; after collecting them, they hoped OrangePay would issue just one per day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regardless, OrangePay’s marketing campaign had successfully captured the attention and high participation of hundreds of millions of users.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the United States, Stanford University beside Silicon Valley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Jerry, look what I found! A brand-new mobile operating system—wow, they even have their own open-source community.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A computer science student excitedly shared with his friend.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“AuroraFutureOS? How’s its architecture designed?” Jerry turned, glancing at the screen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m still studying it—the underlying tech is advanced, the layered architecture is clear, memory management and multitasking scheduling are optimized, and the message-passing mechanism is stronger than iOS,”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bu Nian replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Send me the link to the open-source BBS,” Jerry said, suddenly interested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With promotion through Mimo, Wired magazine, and other channels, AuroraFutureOS gradually gained minor fame among developer enthusiasts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combined with a total of 30 million U.S. dollars in AuroraFutureOS vulnerability rewards, it drew countless developers to study the Aurora Future System.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, Apple, having obtained the OrangeZ1 instruction set architecture license, was using the new CPU architecture to design the A7 chip.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2624,"2026-06-19T19:17:19.606Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","c2205508ae2559daf23896a078e991e610c4d85e03d51c2bf1b71cb268255427","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-370","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-368",387,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-cover.jpg"]