Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 307: Chapter 254: Chen Dejun: Damn, I Want to Kneel to Him Too

10:30 PM, Room 0418, Faculty Apartments.

Chen Yansen set down a can of beer and plopped onto the sofa. Focusing his Spiritual Power, he summoned a translucent system panel before his eyes.

With the No. 4 Orange Factory in Luzhou starting production and the full acquisition of Gaode Map, the total number of employees providing him with Human Dao Fire each month now exceeded 97,000.

Of these, Cloud Speed Express had 61,192 employees, with labor costs of 501.77 million, accounting for the largest share;

Orange Phone Factory had 21,437 employees with costs of 184.35 million, coming in second;

After Kuai Pao entered the Hang City and Jinling markets, its employee count grew to 7,668, with costs of 66.71 million.

Additionally, Gaode Map, Orange Technology, and four other subsidiaries had a combined total of 6,810 employees, with labor costs of 142.29 million.

The total number of employees under Senlian Capital was just a step away from the 100,000 mark. He had 100,146 wisps of Human Dao Fire, which could be synthesized into 1,001 wisps of Divine Dao Fire.

Cloud Speed Express was losing the most money, but it also contributed the most Human Dao Fire!

Liao Wei mentioned in his April work report that the combined package pickup volume of the "Three Passes and One Reach" companies was only 40% of Cloud Speed’s.

For context, back in 2011, the average daily pickup volume for each of the "Tongda" companies exceeded 2 million packages. Shentong even hit 4 million packages on Taobao’s Singles’ Day. The Tonglu Gang occupied half the express delivery industry.

But now that Cloud Speed Express’s average daily pickup volume had surpassed 8 million, the business scale of the "Three Passes and One Reach" was continuously shrinking. In just half a year, they had lost sixty percent of their market share.

Their franchise outlets across the country were shutting down one after another. Compared to their peak, the number had been cut in half.

’Chen Dejun’s resilience is pretty impressive. He hasn’t begged for mercy, nor has he sold his company. It looks like he plans to fight Cloud Speed to the bitter end.’

Chen Yansen chuckled faintly and muttered to himself.

...

...

"I fucking want to kneel to him too, but Shentong’s business volume has shrunk by sixty percent! I can’t get a good price if I sell, so I’d rather fight Liao Wei to the death!"

In a private club in Hu City, Chen Dejun was holding a wine glass. He threw back a large gulp and cursed furiously.

Ever since Zheng Shengyu of the Postal Association forced Shentong and Yuantong to raise their prices for small e-commerce packages under one kilogram from one yuan back to one-and-a-half yuan, they hadn’t been able to hold onto their market share.

With the backing of Pinbei Mall, Cloud Speed had no shortage of customers and could even aggressively poach the delivery business of Taobao merchants.

With one side waning as the other waxed, Cloud Speed Express’s economies of scale became more and more apparent.

Empowered by technology from Orange Technology, Kuai Pao, and Gaode Map, Cloud Speed Express used big data and intelligent algorithms to plan optimal routes for its transport vehicles based on factors like order distribution and traffic conditions. This effectively reduced empty-load mileage and transport time, lowering transportation costs while increasing delivery efficiency.

At the same time, they built seven large-scale intelligent warehousing centers in the North China, East China, and Southern China regions and introduced automated equipment, making their sorting process both highly efficient and precise.

For the final-mile delivery, Cloud Speed’s superior service—a combination of express lockers and door-to-door delivery—was suffocating the "Three Passes and One Reach" companies.

"We have to think of something, or none of us will make it to next year." Yu Weijiao of Yuantong Express frowned deeply. The white hair on his head was growing denser, a clear sign that times had been tough for him lately.

"If nothing else works, we just sell our companies to Cloud Speed," Lai Haisheng of Zhongtong Express said with a helpless shrug.

In his opinion, if they waited another year or so, no one would want to buy them even if they wanted to sell. It was better to plan ahead.

"Getting cold feet, Boss Lai?" Nie Tengyu of Yunda Express shot him a glance, his tone disdainful.

"Me? Cold feet? Half a year ago, it was Boss Chen who said Cloud Speed couldn’t handle the losses and would only last a few months at most. And what happened? I’ve been gritting my teeth and fighting Liao Wei, but they just get more and more energetic the longer we fight! They just built another intelligent warehouse in Yongcheng this month. What can I do but get cold feet?"

Lai Haisheng shot to his feet and questioned Nie Tengyu pointedly.

"Alright, that’s enough. No need for the veiled insults," Chen Dejun said coldly, his face grim as he looked at Lai Haisheng.

"Hmph!" Lai Haisheng suppressed his anger, flopped back into his seat with a THUD, and picked up his glass to drink in sullen silence.

The four of them stared at each other, at a complete loss. To put it bluntly, when it came to capital reserves, even the "Three Passes and One Reach" combined were no match for Cloud Speed.

There was only one way out now: find a way to raise funds.

...

...

"Financing? Zhaoshang, Huake, and Huaxin?"

On the first workday of May, Chen Yansen had just arrived at his office when Gao Weilin knocked and came in.

Gao Weilin nodded with a smile. "That’s right. Chairman Zheng of the Postal Association made the introduction."

’Zheng Shengyu?’

Chen Yansen didn’t believe for a second that the man was being so kind.

’It’s most likely because Cloud Speed has been expanding like crazy all over the country recently, spending money like water. Its monthly losses have soared from one or two hundred million to two or three hundred million.’

’Is Zheng Shengyu afraid that Cloud Speed’s capital chain will break, affecting the social security and employment of more than sixty thousand people?’

’Still, if I can build a relationship with Zhaoshang and Huaxin, it would be much easier in the future to buy secondhand planes from Air China and convert them into cargo aircraft, or to apply for an air transport operating license and route permits.’

"It is about time for Cloud Speed to seek financing. You’ll be in charge of coordinating with them."

Chen Yansen thought for a moment before instructing Gao Weilin.

"Boss, what’s your bottom line?" Gao Weilin pressed.

"15% at most. As for the valuation, the higher the better, of course. Don’t even bother talking if it’s less than 10 billion US dollars," Chen Yansen replied.

"Okay, I understand." Gao Weilin nodded, set down a financial report, and turned to leave.

After the office door closed again, Chen Yansen extended a hand, and the Orange Mobile Phone on his desk slowly flew into his palm.

After his Spirit value broke through 44.95, not only had the detection diameter of his Divine Sense expanded to over fourteen meters, but the weight he could ’lift’ had also more than tripled.

"May 1st. Penguin invests 200 million to acquire a 13.5% stake in Yixun Network, increasing its shareholding to 80%. The remaining shares will be held by Yixun Network’s management..."

Chen Yansen shook his head. ’It seems Little Ma has really given up on the idea of running his own e-commerce business and has shifted the group’s strategy for the e-commerce sector to investment.’

’Unfortunately, Yixun Network was simply not capable of fulfilling Ma Wenteng’s e-commerce dream. The 700 million in total that Penguin would invest was destined to go down the drain.’

Chen Yansen remembered very clearly that two years from now, Ma Wenteng would trade Yixun Network, QQ Online Shopping, and Paipai Network, plus 220 million US dollars, for a 15% stake in Jingdong from Handsome Dong on the eve of its IPO.

Liu Qiangdong, for the sake of the top-tier traffic funnels from WeChat and Mobile QQ, had no choice but to tearfully take over the mess.

In reality, he didn’t lose out. After gaining access to Penguin’s traffic, Jingdong’s valuation was able to break 20 billion US dollars on the day of its IPO.

Otherwise, based on Jingdong’s market share and business performance at the time, it would have been very difficult to secure an issue price of 19 US dollars per share.

’Now that Penguin has already given its traffic funnels to Pinbei, it’s hard to say if it will still invest in Jingdong when the time comes.’

Just then, a call came in from Zhou Hongyi.