Chapter 242: Chapter 210: 2 Billion Valuation, Kuai Pao Launches in Hu City, the Food Delivery War Begins
On January 28th, Chen Yansen returned to Xucheng by car.
Before leaving, he bought Chen Guobin a single-family villa outside the city. It was over three hundred square meters, fully furnished with high-end decor and appliances, ready to be moved into immediately.
In Zhao Siyuan’s own words: the landlord was a friend of his who had moved to Shencheng City to pursue his career. The villa had been vacant for two years, so Chen Yansen was doing him a huge favor by buying it.
Of course, Chen Yansen didn’t believe a word of it. ’He probably got this villa from some developer,’ he guessed.
But he didn’t mind. The purchase price was at market value, and all the paperwork was in order. No one could find anything to criticize.
As for whether Chen Guobin would actually live there, or if he could even get used to it, Chen Yansen couldn’t be bothered to care.
On the Banghuai Expressway, a Bentley Mulsanne and a BMW 750 drove one after the other.
Chen Yansen sat in the back seat, mulling over the marketing and promotion plan for Fast Taxi.
Cheng Weixing planned to invite a small group of drivers and passengers for a grayscale test. First, they would collect user feedback, then make further optimizations and adjustments to ensure the stability of the order-matching algorithm and payment process after the official launch.
At the same time, he would build a street team and provide comprehensive training for all its members, ensuring every single person was familiar with the product’s functions and the promotional scripts.
Initially, Cheng Weixing had wanted to outsource the offline promotion to a third-party street team company, but Chen Yansen rejected the idea.
First, he knew all too well what these companies were really like: they did shoddy work and frequently faked their data. You’d spend the money and get no results. Second, if the Fast Taxi team members didn’t get out there and interact with drivers and passengers up close, they would never discover the users’ real pain points.
Additionally, Cheng Weixing used his position as the executive director of the Hang City University Student Entrepreneurship Alliance to easily win over the upper management of two local taxi companies. They agreed to give it a try and promote the ride-hailing app to their drivers.
As for online promotion, Cheng Weixing had nothing to worry about. The Orange Mobile Phone app store alone could generate over 20 million impressions for Fast Taxi.
Compared to his previous life, Fast Taxi’s estimated launch was a full six months ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile, Chen Wei, the founder of DiDi, was still the deputy general manager of the B2C division at Wealth Treasure, showing no signs of resigning to start his own business.
Last December, Chen Yansen had used a headhunter to try and recruit Chen Wei, hoping to get him to join Senlian Capital and take charge of the Orange Pay project team, but Chen Wei had turned him down.
This showed that at this point, Chen Wei wasn’t even thinking about changing jobs.
But Chen Yansen knew that the rise of ride-hailing was unstoppable. Even if DiDi never appeared, a "Dada" or "Gugu" would emerge to compete with him.
"Eleme got funding!"
Meng Jie, who was sitting beside him, suddenly said.
Chen Yansen frowned and took the phone Meng Jie handed him.
The news headline read: "The Forefather of Domestic Food Delivery: Eleme Completes Series B Financing, Secures 50 Million from Ah Li."
’The forefather of food delivery?’
’Did Zhang Xuhao pay for this press release himself?’
’In this business, whoever is strongest is the forefather, right?’
With that thought, Chen Yansen dialed Pei Yi’s number. "I’m giving you six months," he said. "If you can’t crush Eleme by then, you can give up your CEO position to me."
"Boss, I understand. I’ll take Kou Zhen and the reassigned personnel to Hu City tomorrow to seize the market."
Pei Yi could hear the ferocity in Chen Yansen’s voice and hurried to respond.
Right now, Eleme and Kuai Pao were the only two large-scale food delivery platforms on the market. Although Kuai Pao had the advantage in funding and user traffic, Eleme had been entrenched in Hu City for four or five years. It would be no easy task for Pei Yi to eliminate Zhang Xuhao in one fell swoop.
Fortunately, Pei Yi was also a Hu City native and was equally familiar with the local restaurant industry and users’ ordering habits.
"Good. Don’t disappoint me."
Chen Yansen instructed in a low voice before hanging up.
’Looks like the whole domestic internet business landscape has been thrown into chaos,’ Chen Yansen thought to himself.
Perhaps the major deviation had begun when Ah Li acquired FoxTao through a stock swap.
Fast Taxi was launching six months early, Eleme had secured its Series B funding a year ahead of schedule, and Meituan was still struggling to emerge victorious from the "Thousand-Tuan War"...
As Chen Yansen’s capital and resources grew, his every move was altering the course of the future.
After a moment of contemplation, Chen Yansen snapped out of it, not feeling the least bit flustered by these changes.
After all, his greatest asset was the "Xinhuo System," not the informational advantage of a prescient prophet.
"Now that Eleme has secured funding, will it impact Kuai Pao’s own financing and development?"
Meng Jie asked worriedly, seeing that he had been silent for a long time.
"Business competition is sometimes unavoidable. It’s like the group-buy wars—no matter how long the fight lasts, a final victor will eventually emerge."
Chen Yansen said with a faint smile, completely unconcerned.
Meng Jie nodded. Seeing Chen Yansen’s confident expression, she felt relieved.
「Meanwhile.」
Penguin, Redwood Capital, and Gao Ling Capital all received the news. They hadn’t expected that in just a few short months, the investment world’s view of the food delivery business model would do a complete 180-degree turn.
Now, with Ah Li entering the fray, the battle between Eleme and Kuai Pao was bound to evolve into a competition between Ah Li and Senlian Capital.
"Martin, contact Chen Yansen as soon as possible. Tell him Penguin is willing to offer a 1.6 billion valuation."
Ma Wenteng instructed Liu Zhiping.
Compared to their last offer, this was another 200 million increase.
"Pony, based on my understanding of Chen Yansen, he probably won’t accept. His target price is at least a 30% premium on top of a reasonable offer. That’s the only way we’ll have a chance to move him."
Liu Zhiping shook his head, directly rejecting Ma Wenteng’s proposal.
"When it comes to greed, no one can really compare to that kid."
Ma Wenteng was taken aback for a moment. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he knew Liu Zhiping was right.
Take Penguin’s investment in Pinbei, for example. The outside world praised him for his sharp eye, using only 300 million US dollars and a top-level traffic entry point on QQ to secure a 15% stake in Pinbei.
But who knew how much effort it had taken him to get the board of directors to approve that resolution?
What Ma Wenteng was thankful for was that Chen Yansen’s ability to manage projects was still astonishingly strong.
In just over two months, he had pushed Pinbei’s market share into the top three in the industry, and it was on the verge of catching up to Jingdong.
Based on Pinbei’s current daily active users, order volume, and sales figures, investment firms were even giving it a sky-high valuation of 6 billion US dollars.
Those Penguin board members who had questioned Ma Wenteng for giving Pinbei a 2 billion US dollar valuation were now silent, no longer daring to utter a word.
"So, I think a 2 billion valuation is more reasonable. If Eleme can’t withstand the pressure from Kuai Pao, and Kuai Pao manages to swallow up the Hu City food delivery market, its valuation will be worth much more than 2 billion."
Liu Zhiping said with a light chuckle.
"You’re that optimistic about the Kuai Pao project?" Ma Wenteng asked in return.
"No, no, no. I’m just optimistic about Chen Yansen," Liu Zhiping emphasized, pushing up his glasses.
"Alright, I get it. We’ll go with your price," Ma Wenteng agreed. He felt there was no need to miss the best time to invest in Kuai Pao over a difference of a few tens of millions.
「On the other side.」
Chen Yansen had just arrived at the Xuyuan when he received a call from Lin Chenfeng.
"President Chen, is Kuai Pao’s Series A financing open for discussion?" Lin Chenfeng asked bluntly.
He knew very well that the only person who could make the final decision on this matter was Chen Yansen.
Talking to Pei Yi or communicating with Kang Guodong was useless; in the end, Chen Yansen had to be the one to give the final approval.
"Of course, we can talk. The more sincere Mr. Ma is, the higher the chances of this partnership working out."
Chen Yansen replied in a slow, deliberate manner.
"200 million in funding for a 10% stake in Kuai Pao." Lin Chenfeng decided to lay his cards on the table, leaving the choice in Chen Yansen’s hands.
"Deal. But I have a condition. QQ and WeChat must provide additional traffic resources for Kuai Pao. The entry point’s daily impressions must not be less than 10 million, with a contract term of at least five years. In return, Penguin will have the right of first refusal for Kuai Pao’s Series B investment round, as well as the right to an early exit."
Chen Yansen recited his well-prepared script, signaling for Lin Chenfeng to relay it to Ma Wenteng.
"President Chen, that’s not a simple request at all. Looks like Brother Martin and Mr. Ma are in for another headache."
Lin Chenfeng sighed and said with a smile.
As the investment liaison between Penguin and Chen Yansen, his biggest impression of Chen Yansen was that he was difficult to deal with and had many demands. But to be fair, the return on investment was also frighteningly high.
Although Chen Yansen hadn’t demanded a primary or secondary entry point this time, a resource slot with 10 million daily impressions was still a vital asset that many business units within Penguin fought desperately for.
"Then I’ll have to trouble President Lin. I’ll be waiting for your good news."
Chen Yansen smiled. He couldn’t care less what Ma Wenteng and Liu Zhiping thought. He had already rejected DST Capital because they had no traffic resources to offer.
If Penguin was only willing to offer money, he would reject them just the same.
Kuai Pao’s development required a lot of capital, but it certainly wasn’t hurting for 200 or 300 million.
After hanging up, Chen Yansen glanced out the window. Xiaoli had already driven the car to Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.
Even though the next day was a workday, inside Buildings 6 and 8, besides the customer service and technical staff on duty, many employees from investment attraction were already at their desks, contacting merchants and negotiating onboarding procedures.
"Class Rep, Happy New Year!" The moment Chen Yansen got out of the car, Xu Xingxing sidled up to him with her hands outstretched, looking like she was asking for a red envelope.
"No red envelopes for the start of work this year."
Chen Yansen waved his hand, gesturing for Xu Xingxing to scram.
"Huh!? Class Rep, no way! I came in a day early just to get an extra start-of-work ’lai see,’ and you’re telling me it’s canceled this year?"
Xu Xingxing threw her head back with an "Ahhh!" and feigned a look of utter devastation.
"Log in to Orange Pay tomorrow at 10:08 AM sharp."
With that, Chen Yansen ignored her and walked into Building 6 with Meng Jie.
Xu Xingxing’s eyes lit up when she heard this, and she instantly understood what Chen Yansen meant.
Right now, the total number of employees at Orange Technology and Pinbei was over 1,000. If he were to hand out red envelopes one by one, it would take forever.
Chen Yansen didn’t care for such formalities, so he had Orange Pay register everyone’s account information in advance. When the time came, a red envelope would just pop up on the app’s home page—simple and effortless.
「On another front.」
Having secured the funding, Zhang Xuhao immediately increased subsidies for new customers and for delivery fees. He also placed huge advertisements at more than a dozen high-traffic subway entrances, including Xujiahui, People’s Square, and Century Avenue, with the tagline: "Ordering food delivery? Go to Eleme."
Furthermore, on portal websites like Qian Du Search, Sina, Sohu, and NetEase, he launched targeted promotional posters for Eleme aimed at users with Hu City IP addresses.
The money spent on hard advertising alone amounted to tens of millions.
It had to be said that Zhang Xuhao had an outstanding talent for "spending money" in his bones.
Faced with the threat from Kuai Pao, Zhang Xuhao chose to expand like crazy, attempting to gobble up as much market share as possible before Kuai Pao could enter Hu City.
But what he didn’t know was that at that very moment, Pei Yi, Kou Zhen, and their team were standing in the Century Avenue subway station, staring at an Eleme lightbox ad.
"Tell the Market Department that Kuai Pao’s ad placements need to be even better than Eleme’s. I want them plastered all over the tunnels, station halls, escalator ceilings, and inside the trains."
Pei Yi’s eyes narrowed as he gave the order to his assistant.
"Yes, boss," the assistant said hurriedly.
"President Kou, the street team reps from Luzhou need to get familiar with Hu City’s commercial centers and routes as quickly as possible. We’ll set up our first base in Xuhui District and expand outward from Longcao Road. Treat the scattered office locations as extensions of our operational range. Also, we need to speed up the recruitment of local business reps."
Pei Yi continued, addressing Kou Zhen.
"No problem," Kou Zhen agreed readily.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this one, two local group-buy websites in Hu City had gone bankrupt one after the other. All they had to do was pick out some of the most capable business reps from the former employees of Yiqimai and Gtuan Network.
Eighty percent of the employees in Kuai Pao’s Investment Attraction department came from the group-buy industry. They were already experts when it came to work like merchant acquisition.
Pei Yi knew this, so he was more focused on how to build a team of couriers in Hu City and how to snatch users away from Eleme.
Kuai Pao’s delivery speed, order dispatching capabilities, and subsidy levels were all far superior to Eleme’s. If he couldn’t win this fight, he wouldn’t have the face to remain in the CEO position.
