[{"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-378":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},2264591,4419,"Chapter 378: Valued at 5.8 Billion U.S. Dollars: Wang Xin","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-378",378,"\u003Cp>Five days later, Penguin, Ali, Huake, and Kuai Pao  signed a letter of investment intent in Shanghai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The content covered core commercial terms such as investment amount, valuation, equity ratio, closing conditions, and an exclusivity clause requiring Kuai Pao  not to negotiate financing with any other investment institutions within three months.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before completing due diligence and signing the formal agreement, the sole investors in Kuai Pao ’s Series B round were Penguin, Ali, and Huake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuai Pao ’s total transaction volume for 2012 was 31.7 billion yuan, primarily from food delivery; based on industry average price-to-sales ratios and a 90% market share, with efforts from Gao Weilin and Pei Yi, they ultimately secured a 1.2x multiplier—31.7 billion multiplied by 1.2—setting the valuation at 5.8 billion U.S. dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the 1.2 billion yuan valuation in its Series A round a year earlier, this represented a 483.3% increase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, investment institutions that participated in Kuai Pao ’s Series A, if they had invested ten million yuan then, now saw their valuation rise to 48.33 million yuan—nearly a fivefold gain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ali led the round, with Penguin and Huake following, investing 870 million U.S. dollars for a 15% equity stake in Kuai Pao .\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the financing concludes, Senlian Capital’s ownership will drop to 67.9%, Penguin to 10.1%, Ali to 9.4%, Huake to 4%, and Chen Yan will still retain firm control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Kuai Pao  did not publicly announce it immediately, due to the large scale of the financing, competitors quickly learned of the news.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“870 million U.S. dollars? Are Penguin, Ali, and Huake insane? What justifies Kuai Pao ’s 5.8 billion U.S. dollar valuation?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Tao of Dazhong Dianping was deeply resentful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Although Kuai Pao ’s annual sales are only slightly over 30 billion yuan, its growth rate is extremely fast; in January alone, its food delivery and group-buying output reached 4.3 billion yuan, and we estimate 2013’s total revenue will exceed 50 billion yuan.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Co-founder Li Jing explained from beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Tao sighed heavily and waved his hand. “I understand what you’re saying, but I still can’t accept it. Dazhong Dianping fought for two years to rise from the Thousand Group-Buying War, and we hadn’t even enjoyed our victory before Senlian Capital stole the prize—how is that fair?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Tao, the marketplace is a battlefield—where’s fairness?” Li Jing said with a bitter smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, Dazhong Dianping itself climbed to the top three of the industry by stepping on competitors’ heads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that Kuai Pao  has stepped on it, it has no right to cry out for fairness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How many daily delivery orders are there now?” Zhang Tao asked casually.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yesterday it exceeded thirty thousand for the first time, but 85.7% of those were new customers; the next-day retention rate for first-time users was only 7.4%, and the second-order rate was just 2.1%,” Li Jing said reluctantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In plain terms, Dazhong Dianping’s delivery users all came for the “first order, 15 yuan off” promotion; out of 100 customers who exploited the deal, only 7.4 were still willing to return the next day, and only 2.1 made a second purchase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These numbers are fucking terrible!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Tao’s lip twitched; he sucked in a sharp breath, his vision darkened, and it took him a long while to recover.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the conversion and retention data from just two days ago, it had dropped by another half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The delivery service had only been online for a week; although Dazhong Dianping had no prior experience, it had poached key staff from Baidu and Meituan Delivery—how could it be this bad?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at Li Jing. “Where’s the problem?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The riders lack Lvyue  capability, the order allocation algorithm keeps failing, and the route planning has serious bugs.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Jing spoke honestly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, Baidu and Meituan Delivery’s technology in these three areas was equally terrible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dazhong Dianping directly copied their solutions—of course problems arose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The food delivery industry has low entry barriers but high technical barriers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To improve precision in order allocation, capacity scheduling, and route planning, Chen Yan spent nearly five billion yuan acquiring Gaode Maps and recruited over a hundred algorithm engineers from Microsoft, Google, and Ali.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Total investment in human, material, and financial resources exceeded ten billion yuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did Zhang Tao really think poaching a dozen programmers from Baidu and Meituan Delivery could replicate Kuai Pao ’s success?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was dreaming!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fix this quickly. Delivery is an extension of group-buying, with far higher repurchase frequency. Dazhong Dianping’s ability to secure its next round of financing depends entirely on delivery performance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Tao, grim-faced, instructed Li Jing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Understood,” Li Jing nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But to users, Dazhong Dianping’s delivery system was even worse than Meituan’s and Baidu’s, with rider delay rates reaching 30%.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Users cursed the riders; riders cursed the company.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, the delivery address was clearly Longhua, but the system routed it to Longhua Middle Road—wasn’t that a fucking trap?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not for the free first order, who would bother using Dazhong Dianping for delivery?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The path Zhang Tao was walking had been walked just months earlier by Li Yanhong and Wang Xin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the other side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon learning that Kuai Pao  had raised another 870 million U.S. dollars, Wang Xin felt immense pressure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facing a competitor that lacked neither capital nor traffic, he truly felt at a loss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fighting a price war was impossible—he couldn’t match their financial strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Competing on technology was even worse—he was miles behind; Meituan had been in delivery for over five months, yet its location accuracy and order allocation were still unbearable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gaode refused to cooperate, refused to provide data interfaces; Baidu’s map data was inaccurate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One was a true villain; the other, a hypocrite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meituan didn’t even have basic map data—how could it run delivery?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In frustration, Wang Xin considered building his own data—but he found out he needed both a Class-A surveying qualification for electronic navigation maps and a Class-A qualification for internet map services to be compliant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time he obtained the licenses, Meituan would be dead!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was another key reason he scaled back Meituan’s delivery operations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, pull the fist back—hold onto his group-buying territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Knock knock knock!” A rapid knock interrupted Wang Xin’s thoughts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before he could react, Wang Huiwen rushed in, looking helpless. “Boss Wang, Juhuasuan wants to terminate the partnership.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ali invested in Kuai Pao , but it’s also an investor in Meituan?” Wang Xin shot to his feet, furious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Kuai Pao ’s valuation was 5.8 billion U.S. dollars, while Meituan’s was only 400–500 million—less than one-tenth; their value was obviously different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Huiwen silently thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin knew internally that Meituan held too few cards—it was normal to be looked down upon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Ma Liyun’s move was too extreme!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuai Pao  isn’t Ali’s subsidiary—why remove Meituan from Juhuasuan?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What about Dazhong Dianping and Lashou?” Wang Xin asked next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Same treatment as us,” Wang Huiwen replied flatly. Fuck!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin cursed inwardly—he understood. This was almost certainly a hidden clause between Kuai Pao  and Ali.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this round, Kuai Pao  must have offered Ali massive benefits to convince Ma Liyun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin paced anxiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meituan’s January transaction volume was 470 million yuan, 60 million of which came from Juhuasuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Losing this revenue stream, Meituan might not even reach 300 million yuan in February.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, February has only 28 days, with seven holidays in between.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin took several deep breaths and, with no other choice, dialed Lin Chenfeng at Penguin’s investment department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Boss Wang wants to sell his company again?” Lin Chenfeng teased.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last time, he had flatly refused Wang Xin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Otherwise, he’d have been played by him like Ma Liyun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No—I want to negotiate a merger between Meituan and QQ Group-Buying,” Wang Xin said bluntly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew conventional cooperation wouldn’t move Ma Wenteng—only a desperate, all-in move offered any chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his view, although Penguin had participated in both Kuai Pao ’s Series A and B rounds, it still maintained QQ Group-Buying, proving Ma Wenteng still coveted offline consumption scenarios.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Chenfeng paused, nearly laughing aloud; internally, Penguin had long criticized QQ Group-Buying, Pupai, and Yixun—everyone wanted to offload them, not acquire Meituan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even via equity payment, Ma Wenteng and Penguin might not be interested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he reconsidered—merging Meituan into QQ Group-Buying might boost the product’s valuation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment’s thought, he didn’t refuse outright. “Boss Wang, I’ll relay your proposal to Martin and Pony.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thank you, Lin Zong,” Wang Xin replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hanging up, Lin Chenfeng went straight to Liu Zhiping’s office and knocked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come in,” Liu Zhiping called.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Chenfeng entered, sat down, then calmly reported: “Martin, just now Wang Xin from Meituan called…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He wants to sell his company again? This guy is fickle—untrustworthy,” Liu Zhiping interrupted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He wants to merge Meituan into QQ Group-Buying via equity payment—likely to gain access to WeChat and QQ traffic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Chenfeng continued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No money? That’s worth trying,” Liu Zhiping mused.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite Penguin’s good relations with Senlian Capital, when it came to self-interest, neither he nor Ma Wenteng hesitated to stab Chen Yan in the back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s the nature of businessmen!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There’s no such thing as loyalty in this world!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone who builds a company worth tens of billions can’t be genuinely good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they appear so, it’s an act.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come with me—let’s hear Pony’s thoughts first,” Liu Zhiping said, standing and walking out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Chenfeng followed behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Five minutes later, they entered Ma Wenteng’s office.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Merge with Meituan? It could raise QQ Group-Buying’s valuation—but who runs the business? Wang Xin?” Ma Wenteng frowned, looking at Liu Zhiping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The current head of QQ Group-Buying is Luo Xi, with a team of over a thousand, including remnants from Gaopeng and F-Tuan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because QQ Group Buy merged with Gaopeng Network and F-Tuan successively last year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Put bluntly, it’s an alliance of losers from the Thousand Group Buy War.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Backed by Tencent, it won’t die, but it can’t thrive either—just barely hanging on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Wenteng originally planned to hand QQ Group Buy over to Liu Qiangdong, but after Liangzai Dong secured funding from OTPP and Saudi royal capital, he immediately reneged, tearing up the letter of intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wang Xin isn’t one of Tencent’s own people,” Liu Zhiping replied indifferently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The implication was clear: accepting Meituan was acceptable, but Wang Xin must be kicked out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Will Wang Xin agree?” Ma Wenteng laughed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew full well that Wang Xin merely wanted to leverage Tencent’s mobile traffic resources.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His words sounded noble, but they couldn’t hide the fact that he was trying to latch onto a big player.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let Chen Fengfeng give it a try—it won’t hurt the group either way,” Liu Zhiping said dismissively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Wang Xin refuses, then Tencent has no need to merge with Meituan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meituan’s valuation is only around $500 million, while Kuai Pao ’s valuation is $5.8 billion; Tencent holds a 10.1% equity stake, worth nearly $600 million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Ma Wenteng and Liu Zhiping, the greatest strategic value of merging Meituan into QQ Group Buy lies in the corresponding increase in valuation, giving them more negotiating leverage in future sales.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That afternoon, Wang Xin received Lin Chenfeng’s reply and his heart turned to ash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Wenteng wouldn’t give him any chance at all!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Lin Chenfeng’s tone, it was clear Tencent had no intention of deeply investing in the group-buying industry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to use Tencent as a stepping stone; Tencent wanted to use him as a footstool—and wouldn’t even spend a penny.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xin’s dream of taking over QQ Group Buy? Out of the question!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Realizing the reality, Wang Xin gave a bitter smile and could only grit his teeth and keep fighting Kuai Pao , Lashou, and Dazhong Dianping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tens of thousands of Kuai Pao  delivery riders across the country gradually heard the news that the company had completed its Series B funding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first batch of over five thousand food delivery riders had roughly 2,000 to 3,000 stock options each.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Riders who became full-time last Q3 and Q4 had only about 500 shares.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the current price of $5.8 per share, the top performers among the first batch of Kuai Pao  riders held up to 6,000 options, yielding over $200,000 in option gains alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In just one year, their value had surged by hundreds of thousands!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The turnover rate of delivery riders from Meituan and Baidu Food Delivery began to skyrocket!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2068,"2026-06-19T19:17:19.606Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ee5dbb73fdefd6ebb48bcc7c1c768fb4cc036b9229370072737541d5d4060e0d","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-379","i-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-chapter-377",387,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-get-stronger-every-payday-with-one-billion-emp-cover.jpg"]