Chapter 279: Chapter 235: Only the Ruthless Can Win in the End! The Fall of Eleme
The reality was that the CEO of Qian Du Delivery believed that since first- and second-tier cities have high population mobility, order volume during the Spring Festival would drop to its lowest point of the year. Riders’ incomes would plummet, and to keep them, the company would have to offer triple or even quadruple overtime pay.
After weighing the pros and cons, he made a decision that seemed reasonable but was, in fact, incredibly foolish.
He had intended to cut labor costs, but the result was not only losing market share but also plunging Qian Du Delivery into a long-term predicament of insufficient delivery capacity.
「Meanwhile.」
Zhang Xuhao stood in his office at No. 335, Guoding Road, staring out at the heavy rain. He couldn’t make out the road conditions even ten meters away.
He looked at Kang Jia and asked, "What’s the current order delay rate?"
"Thirty-one percent." Kang Jia forced out the number.
There was nothing to be done. There were too few riders online, and orders were piling up. They simply couldn’t deliver them all.
"I don’t understand,"
Zhang Xuhao muttered to himself.
To compete with Kuai Pao, he had provided Eleme’s riders with social security and accident insurance, plus a monthly base salary of 1,600 yuan. Yet, when the platform was in its most difficult moment, a third of them had gone offline.
This caused complaints from users and merchants to multiply more than tenfold!
"Some riders feel that Eleme doesn’t offer quarterly bonuses or subsidies for harsh weather conditions like extreme heat or cold."
Kang Jia said with a self-deprecating smile.
Before Kuai Pao entered Hu City, these riders didn’t even have proper benefits or a base salary, yet they still worked their hearts out.
But once they had a point of comparison, the Eleme riders’ attitudes changed.
"Some? I’m afraid it’s most of them," Zhang Xuhao sneered. He had to admit he had underestimated human nature.
Kang Jia remained silent.
He knew, and Zhang Xuhao also knew, that there was a huge gap between Eleme and Kuai Pao in terms of delivery route planning and order dispatching.
In the same amount of time, a Kuai Pao Rider could complete more deliveries, faster and better, but an Eleme rider could not.
"Post an announcement. For riders who are online today, reward them 100 yuan for staying on for six hours, and 200 yuan for ten hours."
Zhang Xuhao thought for a moment before instructing Kang Jia.
’The fundamental logic of successful business can’t be emotional. Motivating with money is the most practical way.’
Kang Jia grunted in acknowledgment and left to carry out the order.
As Kuai Pao’s business scope expanded to cover the entire Hongkou District, the atmosphere in the Eleme office grew increasingly grim.
Sometimes, Kang Jia would even see Kuai Pao delivery riders near his own company.
This meant Kuai Pao had already established stations in Yangpu District as well.
When the ground promotion BDs occasionally ran into Kuai Pao’s business reps offline, they would just glare at each other. Everyone was exercising restraint.
After all, no one dared to take a summons from the Inspection Institute lightly!
At 9:30 PM, the heavy rain in Hu City gradually subsided, leaving puddles of varying depths in the alleyways.
After working for over ten hours straight, the order volume slowly decreased, and the Kuai Pao Riders finally got a chance to rest.
They gathered in twos and threes in an open area of the commercial district, busy eating their late dinners while loudly discussing their day’s earnings.
"This Dragon Scale Horse gig! I’m fucking exhausted today! The company is a real piece of work. This afternoon, the rain was so heavy you couldn’t even open your eyes, and they still wouldn’t let us go offline!"
"Brother Zhou, stop complaining! A minute ago, when you looked at your estimated earnings, you were grinning from ear to ear. How much did you make to be that happy?"
"Get outta here! Mind your own business." Li Zhou twisted open a bottle of iced tea and took a huge gulp.
"Probably 1,500! I only did 70 orders and made almost 1,000 with the subsidies. Brother Zhou definitely made more than me. It was exhausting, sure, but man, the money is sweet!" a chubby, round-faced kid with a buzz cut said cheerfully.
"What’s it to you how much I made? I risked my life for it!"
Li Zhou rolled his eyes and snapped back irritably.
As soon as he said that, many of the riders fell silent.
’Yeah, the whole day was terrifying!’
They had earned four or five days’ worth of pay in a single day, but their hands and feet were still trembling.
"Brother Zhou, I heard the company is planning to install some kind of delivery lockers at Ri Yue Guang. Does that mean we won’t have to climb stairs anymore?"
"In your dreams! The delivery locker thing is still up in the air; it’s a long way off! But the guys near Ri Yue Guang will have it easy. Their area is the pilot zone. In the future, they’ll just have to stuff the delivery into a locker and be done with it!"
Li Zhou said with a laugh, a hint of envy in his eyes.
Of course, the strong demand for delivery lockers was limited to commercial office districts. With so many companies and complex personnel, these buildings often had access control, meaning deliveries could only be brought to the ground floor.
For users, the lockers solved the risks of lost or mixed-up orders and also offered more flexibility in pickup times.
But for residential areas, delivery lockers were a pseudo-need, which was why Pei Yi was only promoting them in commercial districts.
「One week later.」
Kuai Pao established 17 stations in Yangpu District. Kou Zhen led the ground promotion business team, sweeping through street by street, moving Eleme’s platform merchants over to Kuai Pao.
The ratio of their order shares quickly shifted from 1:9 to 8:2.
At this point, Kuai Pao’s and Eleme’s service areas highly overlapped, and they competed fiercely every day in the four major districts of Xuhui, Hongkou, Yangpu, and Jing’an.
Eleme even increased its subsidy for new customers to an instant 20-yuan discount. For existing customers, there were also daily "red envelope" discounts of 5 to 12 yuan.
It had reached a point where all marketing tactics were useless. It all came down to who was cheaper and who delivered faster.
But as Kuai Pao deployed more and more delivery lockers in the Ri Yue Guang, Zhongyin, and Tai Fu Square areas, the pressure on Eleme mounted.
Seeing the funds in their account about to run out, Zhang Xuhao had to face reality: the food delivery business he had built for three years had actually lost to a late-coming imitator that had overtaken him.
After reaching an agreement with Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye, and the others, he called Gao Weilin.
’He wants to sell the company to Kuai Pao?’ Gao Weilin was surprised when he understood the reason for the call.
"President Zhang, I heard Ah Li was planning to fully acquire Eleme, weren’t they?" Gao Weilin asked with a smile after collecting himself.
The implication was, ’Go talk to Ah Li.’
Eleme didn’t have much residual value left. Buying it now would be a complete waste of money.
After being rejected, Zhang Xuhao hung up, dejected. He then contacted Ji Gang from Ah Li.
Unexpectedly, before he could even speak, Ji Gang said bluntly, "President Zhang, you missed the best time. Do you understand?"
Zhang Xuhao opened his mouth, let out a long sigh, and finally managed a dry "thank you" before putting down his phone.
"Deng Ye, how much money is left in the account?" After shutting himself in his office to cool down for the better part of the day, Zhang Xuhao walked over to Deng Ye’s desk and asked.
"A little over two million," Deng Ye said, biting their lip, having guessed Zhang Xuhao’s intentions.
"Help me apologize to everyone, and distribute this money." Zhang Xuhao gave a bitter smile. He had wanted to give the remaining employees an N+1 severance package to maintain a final shred of dignity, but reality delivered a harsh slap in the face.
On March 16th, Eleme announced it was suspending its service.
Eleme’s riders resigned in droves and joined Kuai Pao’s delivery team.
Kuai Pao’s HR was so audacious that they set up a temporary interview booth right in front of the main entrance of No. 335, Guoding Road, taking in all of Eleme’s software engineers, database administrators, operations staff, and ground promotion business reps. They didn’t even spare the customer service agents.
In Pei Yi’s own words: "Many of these people are graduate students from Jiaoda and Tongji. They just chose the wrong company; that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable."
The first food delivery war of 2012 lasted less than two months before Eleme was forced out of the game ahead of schedule.
The food delivery market in Hu City opened its arms wide to Kuai Pao. Unfettered by competitors, Kuai Pao began to expand like crazy, preparing to quickly extend its business scope to the entire Hu City area.
The next day, while they were still handling the wrap-up work, Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, and Deng Ye all received calls from Kuai Pao’s HR, leaving the three of them completely bewildered.
When Zhang Xuhao found out, he exploded in anger, cursing, "You little bastards, you take everything that’s not nailed down!"
What bothered him the most was that his three brothers-in-arms had received calls, but no one had called him.
’Aren’t they looking down on me?’
"President Zhang, I’m sorry. You should understand the difficulty of switching industries." Kang Jia, who had been in charge of Eleme’s ground promotion and delivery teams, said apologetically to Zhang Xuhao after some thought.
"It’s alright. I wish you a bright future and great success."
Zhang Xuhao forced a smile and clapped Kang Jia on the shoulder.
He had run the project into the ground. To be honest, he had no right to influence anyone else’s decision, even if they were going to Kuai Pao.
Wang Yuan and Deng Ye looked at each other, a flicker of interest in their eyes.
...
...
「On March 18th, Fast Taxi entered Jinling!」
