Chapter 220: Chapter 194: Acquiring Kuaidi, Drawn into the 1-Yuan Express Era

On January 9th, winter break arrived, and Xuyuan was deserted.

Chen Yansen, wearing a black turtleneck sweater with a light gray suit jacket casually draped over it, left room 0418 and headed downstairs.

It was the dead of winter. Small puddles on the ground had frozen into ice, and a fine layer of frost coated the withered, yellow grass.

CLICK!

Chen Yansen pulled open the car door, sat in the driver’s seat of the Bentley, and drove toward the Science and Technology Park.

Along the way, pedestrians and vehicles were sparse. Only company shuttle buses traveled back and forth between the East Gate of Xuyuan and the Science and Technology Park.

Ten minutes later, Chen Yansen parked the car on the first floor and walked straight into Building 8.

"Morning, boss!" Gao Weilin, who was sitting in the lounge area drinking coffee, quickly stood up to greet Chen Yansen when he saw him walk in.

"Old Gao, how many times have I told you? This is the Mainland. We don’t need to use those Hong Kong Island customs here."

Chen Yansen smiled and walked over, teasing him.

’Then why do you insist on calling me Old Gao?’

’Everyone else calls me Dylan!’

Gao Weilin gave a sheepish smile but didn’t dare to argue. He couldn’t. Chen Yansen simply paid too well.

For his December salary plus his quarterly bonus, he had received over three hundred thousand.

Following a generous boss like Chen Yansen, Old Gao didn’t have a single complaint, even about working overtime.

’Besides, isn’t there overtime pay?’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"What’s the R&D progress on Fast Taxi?" Chen Yansen asked, pulling over a chair and sitting down.

"It’s expected to enter the testing phase in March. Cheng Weixing isn’t that concerned about equity. After some discussion, Senlian Capital will invest 21 million for a 65% stake, and Cheng Weixing will invest 9 million for a 35% stake..."

Gao Weilin took an equity agreement out of the file folder beside him and handed it to Chen Yansen.

"65%?"

Chen Yansen’s brow furrowed slightly. He hadn’t expected this kind of outcome.

"That’s right. Senlian’s capital contribution accounts for the majority, but considering Cheng Weixing’s human capital, we conceded another 5% to him."

Gao Weilin thought Chen Yansen was dissatisfied and quickly explained.

From his perspective, Cheng Weixing was just a minor project manager. Since Pan City Technology was founded, only one of its games had turned a profit.

And because Pan City Technology’s equity was so widely distributed, Cheng Weixing hadn’t made much money.

To put it bluntly, Senlian Capital’s willingness to partner with Cheng Weixing on the Fast Taxi project was a huge opportunity for him.

It was just like back in 2000 when Ma Wenteng approached Dongyue Telecommunications, wanting to sell QQ for one million.

In the initial stages of a project, who could predict its future prospects?

Chen Yansen just smiled and shook his head, thinking, ’No wonder I’ve never heard of Cheng Weixing. With his understanding of equity distribution, it would be perfectly normal for him to get kicked out of management.’

"Boss, are you not satisfied? How about I talk with Cheng Weixing again and raise our 65% to 70%? This is just a draft contract, anyway. It’s not final."

Seeing this, Gao Weilin assumed Chen Yansen was unhappy with the equity split and immediately added his suggestion.

"Let’s just leave it like this."

Chen Yansen said flatly.

With the funds Cheng Weixing had, he wouldn’t be able to withstand two rounds of financing. His equity stake would be diluted to below 20%.

There was no need to be hasty. Pushing too hard could easily backfire.

In reality, entrepreneurs like Cheng Weixing were not uncommon in the industry.

Take Liu Qiangdong, for example. Back then, Xu Xin of Today Capital asked him how much Jingdong was worth. Her underlying intention was to probe Liu Qiangdong’s bottom line for valuation.

But Handsome Dong just turned around and had his finance department calculate the company’s total assets, even removing the liabilities, and ended up reporting a total of cash on hand and fixed assets.

He had absolutely no concept of premium or valuation in his head.

"Boss, I think Cheng Weixing’s management skills are fine. He just lacks financial knowledge. We should help him find a reliable steward."

Gao Weilin acknowledged, then continued.

After all, he had given Cheng Weixing that 5% for human capital. If Cheng Weixing’s pioneering ability didn’t meet the boss’s expectations, wouldn’t that mean his own judgment was poor?

"Do you have someone to recommend?"

Chen Yansen chuckled, seeing right through Gao Weilin’s little scheme.

"I have a classmate who works as a finance manager at a subsidiary of Cheung Kong Real Estate. He’s a graduate of Hong Kong Island Polytechnic University and holds both CPA and ACCA certifications."

Gao Weilin gave a dry laugh and introduced him seriously.

"Since President Gao is recommending him, I’ll meet him," Chen Yansen said with a slight nod.

’Anyone who can make a living under Superman Li can’t be lacking in ability.’

"Thank you, boss," Gao Weilin said gratefully.

"At two this afternoon, accompany me on a trip to Luzhou. I’ve already settled the Jingdongfang equity swap issue with Meng Yuanzhi."

Chen Yansen slowly rose to his feet and added casually.

"Understood. I’ll go back right now and pull people from the finance and legal departments."

Gao Weilin’s smile vanished, replaced by a look of grim readiness.

Dealing with the Central Bureau, and with a local Luzhou venture capital firm as a partner, he had to be on high alert.

"Bring Meng Jie," Chen Yansen said, then leisurely strolled toward the elevators.

"Yes, boss."

Gao Weilin called out.

’Song Yuncheng is at Pinbei, Meng Jie is at Orange Technology, and crucially, both of these young women are quite capable.’

Gao Weilin had to admire Chen Yansen’s style. Then again, situations like this were not uncommon back on Hong Kong Island.

He didn’t dwell on it. After returning to the finance department, he immediately assembled a negotiation team for the Luzhou trip.

Chen Yansen walked into his office, logged into Pinbei’s data backend, and checked the new customer conversion rates for the newly launched "Cash Wheel" and "Money Printer."

Unexpectedly, the "Money Printer"’s customer acquisition effect was ten points higher than the "Cash Wheel." After a 20% traffic split test, the new customer display ratio for the "Cash Wheel" was currently 40%, while the "Money Printer" was at 60%.

It brought over a million new customers to the platform daily. Combined with traffic from QQ and WeChat, as well as purchased external traffic, the daily new customer growth was still holding steady at 3 to 3.5 million.

The proportion of new customers coming from the primary portals on QQ and WeChat was steadily decreasing.

It wasn’t that Ma Wenteng was secretly throttling Pinbei’s traffic. It was simply that in 2012, the number of internet and e-commerce users had its own ceiling.

Pinbei’s current cumulative registered users stood at 190 million, with 34 million daily active users. Daily orders reached as high as 10 million, with sales exceeding 700 million.

Excluding orders for digital appliances, the average customer transaction was just over 30 yuan, showing that Pinbei’s low-priced products still dominated.

Pinbei’s terrifying sales volume had the biggest impact on the express delivery industry.

Although only sixty to seventy percent of Pinbei’s merchants used Cloud Speed Express, Cloud Speed’s daily package pickups still exceeded 7 million.

The total daily volume of express deliveries nationwide was about 22 million.

In other words, Cloud Speed’s market share had reached 31.8%.

Chen Yansen knew in his heart that this market share had been bought with a 1.5 yuan base delivery price.

Cloud Speed Express was losing a hundred million a month, but the results were outstanding. Now, at least half the merchants on Taobao C Store, Taobao Mall, and Jingdong POP Mall had switched their partnered courier to Cloud Speed.

Although the lowest price for the "Three Passes and One Reach" was also 1.5 yuan, their delivery times were poor, they didn’t offer door-to-door delivery, and this easily led to negative user reviews.

Cloud Speed Express was different. Its prices were on par with the Tongda companies, but its service was benchmarked against Shunfeng.

Although Chen Dejun and the others also required couriers at their franchise outlets to provide door-to-door delivery, the income of many of their frontline couriers was only half that of Cloud Speed’s employees.

You get what you pay for.

The headquarters has its demands, and the people below have their countermeasures.

As soon as the complaints piled up, the couriers would just quit on the spot.

This left the franchise owners not daring to force their couriers to make door-to-door deliveries.

In just two short weeks, the Tongda companies had successively lost a third of their market share.

「Meanwhile.」

At the Shentong headquarters in Hu City, Chen Dejun and Yu Weijiao of Yuantong Express were sitting in an office, drinking tea.

"Zheng Shengyu at the Postal Association doesn’t do a damn thing, just letting Cloud Speed Express run wild. If you ask me, we should just drop the price to 0.5 yuan per order. If Liao Wei doesn’t want us to survive, we shouldn’t let him have an easy time either."

Yu Weijiao took a sip from his teacup, then slammed it down on the tea tray, his eyes burning with anger as he made the vicious suggestion.

"0.5 yuan is too absurd. Dropping it to 1 yuan is something we can consider, though."

Chen Dejun was also anxious, but in front of Yu Weijiao, he maintained an air of calm indifference.

"Wait, President Chen, are you serious?"

Yu Weijiao was taken aback. He didn’t expect the other man to actually be considering another price cut.

What he’d said about 0.5 yuan was just him venting his anger.

"Zheng Shengyu wants to watch the tigers fight from a mountaintop? It won’t be that easy. If he won’t get off the sidelines, we’ll force him to."

Chen Dejun snorted coldly and said meaningfully.

Yu Weijiao’s brow was tightly furrowed. He couldn’t figure it out right away. All he could think was that at a price of 1 yuan, they wouldn’t even be able to pay the couriers’ wages. The franchise owners would be cursing their mothers.

「That afternoon.」

The headquarters of Shentong and Yuantong announced to their franchisees nationwide that for bulk-shipping clients with packages under 1 kilogram, the price per order would be reduced from 1.5 yuan to 1 yuan.

"How much? 1 yuan? How the fuck are we supposed to work like this?"

The owner of a terminal station was not happy. When the price had previously dropped to 1.5 yuan, the delivery fee for these small e-commerce packages was changed to 0.8 yuan, and he paid his couriers 0.6 yuan per delivery.

The cost of a single phone call was 0.1 yuan. At this price, forget door-to-door delivery; just tossing the package at the entrance of the residential complex was already considered five-star service.

Now the headquarters had cut the delivery fee to 0.6 yuan per order. The owner had to make a profit too, so naturally, he could only give his couriers a commission of 0.4 to 0.5 yuan per delivery.

After a full day of running around, not even counting pickups, a courier could only make 50-60 yuan from deliveries.

For that little money, you might as well go begging.

They held onto their market share, but the quality of service was also shrinking drastically. Incidents of lost or damaged packages became more and more frequent.

As Chen Yansen was on his way to Luzhou.

Liao Wei, who had just been discharged from the hospital, called and said, "Boss, Shentong and Yuantong have dropped their price to one yuan per order. Should we follow suit?"

"What about Yunda and Zhongtong?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Still one-point-five," Liao Wei replied.

"Don’t lower the price for now. As long as the decline in business volume doesn’t exceed 10%, maintain the 1.5 yuan price."

Chen Yansen instructed.

1.5 yuan was practically the cost price. If they dropped it to 1 yuan, not only would it fail to cover equipment and transportation costs, but it would also be impossible to guarantee stable income for the couriers.

The essence of express delivery is the fast and accurate transfer of items from sender to recipient, not a race to the bottom on price.

If they couldn’t even guarantee service, then no matter how cheap the price was, merchants and customers wouldn’t dare to use them.

"Okay, boss, I understand. I’ll report back to you if there are any new developments."

Liao Wei nodded in acknowledgment.

Chen Yansen gave a faint smile, not taking the Tongda companies’ price adjustment to heart, and then hung up the phone.

Express delivery wasn’t his main business anyway. He could still handle a loss of 100 million a month.

Whether the Three Passes and One Reach could handle it, however, was another question.