Chapter 142: The moment he showed up, he was forced to take action
Snowflakes fluttered all over the capital city, and the road ahead was invisible in the vast white.

The biting cold wind swept the snowflakes onto the rider's face. He squinted his eyes and tried his best to steer the electric bike across the street towards Huaqing Jiayuan Community.

This was his first year in Beijing, and it was his first time to see the vast expanse of snow-covered land, and the experience was great.

During the training for takeaway station managers, it was said that consumption stems from human nature, and laziness is one of the biggest motivations.

He was confused by what he heard, but it did not affect his admiration for the manager at all. Due to the heavy snow today, the platform's order volume exploded, with 36 orders in nine hours.

After completing 14 more orders, I will reward myself with a bowl of pork ribs and lotus root soup in the evening. The slow-cooked pork ribs are soft and juicy, and the lotus root slices are tasty. In the winter, there is a bowl of steaming lotus root soup on the carts in the streets and alleys of my hometown.

"Hello, this is Meituan Takeout!" The rider knocked on the door with a smile on his numb face.

The door opened, and a woman who looked to be in her early thirties with fair skin and very well-maintained skin appeared in front of him. She took the takeaway, looked at it briefly, said "wait a moment", went back to the living room and took out two hundred yuan from her wallet.

The rider saw this and swallowed unconsciously. He seemed to smell the fragrance of lotus root soup.

A two hundred dollar tip. How could there be such a gentle and kind woman in the world? The peerless female Bodhisattva described in TV dramas is probably like this.

“52 minutes, your delivery time needs to be optimized.”

Su He put the takeaway on the coffee table in the living room, opened the package and identified the flat white coffee she ordered.

Wang Xing sat on the single sofa, leaning his arm on the armrest, staring at the other glass of iced American coffee expressionlessly.

Cold flat white is still drinkable, but melted Americano tastes like horse urine. It makes sense that Ele.me can sweep the Shanghai market with its "limited time compensation" function. Meituan should learn from it.

He said thoughtfully: "Huaqing Jiayuan has a large number of orders, and riders often take several orders at a time. In the future, we can add a reward function to increase the riders' enthusiasm for special delivery."

"good idea."

Su He nodded in agreement, paused for a moment and reminded: "It seems that the willingness of working-class people to consume is no weaker than that of college students."

"...Is this what Xie Jingxing told you?"

Wang Xing asked back without commenting. Su He curled the corners of his mouth and smiled without saying anything. The atmosphere fell silent for a while.

A few months ago, Wang Huiwen personally led a team to conduct research on the food delivery industry, and made achieving the best market penetration rate in schools for Ele.me the primary goal.

Statistics on the order volume in the twelve cities where it has settled found that the top four are naturally Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, while the fifth is Fuzhou.

Thanks to the entrepreneurial experience of campus networks, Wang Xing had a keen sense of smell and instantly judged that there were huge problems with Ele.me's strategy of focusing on the campus market. The fact that Fuzhou ranked fifth meant that Ele.me had not done well in the three provincial capital cities in Northeast China, which had a larger base of college students!
There were no first-tier cities in central China such as Wuhan, so he immediately conducted in-depth offline research to verify his idea, and the result was not surprising.

The young Zhang Xuhao was careless and, in order to make the company's data look good, he simply brought the restaurants that already had delivery services around the university into the Ele.me platform, and did basically no development on the merchant side.

Continuing to summarize along this line of thought, the platform only has catering businesses around universities. Salaried white-collar workers and family consumers cannot use Ele.me!
So when Meituan’s food delivery business was launched last month, Wang Xing asked the local sales team to focus resources on developing catering businesses.

This strategy paid off greatly after he and Su He had a public confrontation a few days ago. Many entrepreneurs in Huaqing Jiayuan Community supported Meituan in fighting against the barbarian Xie Jingxing, and consumed Meituan takeout for the sake of passion...

From this, it can be concluded that the takeaway market is far from limited to schools, and in the early stages of development, the number of catering merchants on the platform determines the number of users.

Wang Xing believed that he had been an entrepreneur for many years and had figured out the business logic after several months of personal research and experimentation. How could Xie Jingxing, who was sitting high above in Shanghai, easily grasp the core?

Putting aside whether this person is as talented as the media has touted, it is illogical that after Grapefruit Capital has invested in Ele.me for so many days, Zhang Xuhao has not improved its problems.

"Xie Jingxing is really going to let you compete with Tang Man as he wishes?" Wang Xing brought up the topic again and tried to probe.

Su He held the coffee cup in both hands and shook his head with interest: "Guess."

"You're just a kid, I'm still guessing." Wang Xing frowned slightly.

"Then let me guess."

Su He said unconvincedly, "Tang Man also knows the problem with Eleme. Based on this premise, Zhang Xuhao is either too strong-willed and doesn't think this is a problem, or he doesn't have time to make changes at the moment."

"Do not have time?"

Wang Xing seemed to be asking and answering. Regardless of whether the separation of Taihe Pomelo was true or not, it was certain that Xie Jingxing had already laid out the killing plan early on.

He has been pretending to be friendly with Su He these days to delay time and prepare for war. It is impossible for Ele.me and Dianping to sit idle, so Zhang Xuhao has no time to adjust the strategy. So what is he doing with his time?
Sharpening the knife and waiting, waiting for Meituan to be forced into a corner and make the first move.

The answer vaguely emerged in Wang Xing's mind. He was afraid that the day when Meituan Waimai stepped out of Beijing and took the initiative to launch the "New Year Offensive" would be the day for Ele.me to strike.

"Show your head and you'll be gone in seconds."

Su He had a gentle smile on his face. He gently put down the paper coffee cup in his hand, and it made a 'click' sound when it collided with the coffee table: "Game terminology, Mr. Xie is very good at gun shooting."

"You are really seriously ill." Wang Xing made the usual sarcastic comment.

He had come into contact with Su He several times in the past few days, and the other party often mentioned Xie Jingxing, like a fanatical cult believer.

After probing enough in a few words, he made the final decision: "No matter what competition you have with Tang Man, Meituan will not take Taihe's money."

"I think you should carefully evaluate whether you can really take Ali's money?" Su He reminded calmly.

Wang Xing sat up straight and pointed down: "At the end of 05, we launched 'Xiaonei.com' and moved our office into this house."

"It sounds very tough." Su He said.

"Fortunately, a few of us did the marketing ourselves, and by the summer of 06, the number of users exceeded one million."

Wang Xing recalled and said slowly: "At that time, the company encountered its first problem. The server and bandwidth were insufficient. I tried every means to attract investment."

"I didn't see Shen Nanpeng at the Sequoia Capital roadshow, but I ran into Zhou Hongyi. He just looked at me and walked away without saying anything, then invested $500 million in our biggest competitor at the time."

He took off his glasses and rubbed the lenses, then suddenly remembered something and said, "Did Zhang Yiming tell you about this? He did the same thing when he approached Zhou Hongyi for investment a few months ago, and it seems Cheng Wei did the same."

"I heard that you treat Cheng Wei in the same way?" Su He was not very polite.

Wang Xing chuckled and said, "It's almost the same. We all went through this. Then in the fall of 06, Chen Yizhou came to us and said he wanted to buy Xiaonei for $200 million. If we didn't agree, we would die."

"Chen Yizhou made a lot of money." Su He sighed slightly.

Chen Yizhou acquired "Xiaonei.com" and renamed it "Renren.com". It took three years to go public in the United States with a market value of US$70 billion.

The $200 million acquisition price is too stingy, like giving alms to a beggar.

"I bought this house after selling 'Xiaonei.com'." Wang Xing put on his glasses and stood up: "No one can make me kneel again, whether it's Taihe or Alibaba. At worst, I'll die!"

"If you regret it, feel free to call me for help."

Su He spoke in a relaxed tone. In the rider's eyes, the female Bodhisattva now had a gentle smile but a hateful face.

…………

The next morning, Meituan completed its Series C financing of US$3.2 million, with a post-investment valuation of US$19.5 billion.

The US dollar fund General Atlantic led the investment, and early investor Alibaba followed suit. The wind is rising in the cold winter...

"Let's start fighting. No more waiting."

Wang Xing, who had not slept all night, announced the start of the war at the morning meeting: "Start with food delivery."

"Mr. Wang, just tell me when the advertising budget will be in place. I don't want to hear anything else." The manager of the Beijing marketing team was the first to respond.

Wang Xing stared at him for a long time with a stern expression, until Wang Huiwen beside him coughed softly to remind him. He then looked around the audience and said, "You can't do promotion without advertising, right? You've forgotten your roots after just a few days of good life?"

"I'm telling you, I won't approve a penny of budget for advertising before the Lunar New Year. Anyone who can't do it can go and work in the group buying business. I'll lead the team myself!"

The manager of the Beijing promotion team was scolded and his face turned red. He gritted his teeth and said, "I will lead the team to Shanghai."

"Starting from today, if the cumulative sales of the takeaway business do not exceed 100 million within one month, the sales team will be disbanded." Wang Xing said this and strode out of the meeting room.

During the "Thousands of Groups War" in the past two years, Nuomi.com and Dianping.com focused on first-tier cities; competitors such as Lashou and Wowo.com frantically expanded into two to three hundred cities.

Meituan is stuck in the middle. It cannot beat Nuomi and Dianping in first-tier cities, and its coverage in second- and third-tier markets is not as good as Lashou and WoWo.com.

At that time, we were able to break through thanks to the sales team in the conference room. We allocated all resources to the merchant side and went one by one to persuade the merchants to agree to "refund unconsumed orders."

This rule, which became a must-have for the platform ten years later, was considered outrageous in the first two years. How could an order for discounted group-purchased goods be canceled?

But Meituan relied on its strong ground-breaking team to convince thousands of platform merchants, and then Lashou, Wowo and the like were unsurprisingly defeated. Nuomi and Dianping won by taking the high-end and refined route and barely managed to hold on.

Wang Xing is confident that he can once again attack Ele.me from the merchant side. He will develop the merchants that Zhang Xuhao did not want to develop because it was too troublesome, and Meituan will enter the urban areas that Ele.me cannot enter.

This is the foundation accumulated from standing out from the dead in the group buying war. Countless catering merchants that have settled in the group buying platform can seamlessly switch to become takeaway merchants.

"Dianping will cooperate with Ele.me."

Wang Huiwen arranged the specific work assignments and hurried back to his independent office and closed the door.

Wang Xing sat by the window admiring the snowy scenery of Beijing: "It's just throwing a stone to test the water."

"I still feel a bit stressed." Wang Huiwen paced back and forth looking a little anxious.

Wang Xing sighed and tried to appease her: "It was Su He who wanted to see us take action first. Since she wants to force us to go to Liangshan, let's fulfill her wish and be Lin Chong for once."

Su He made it very clear yesterday: either wait for Ele.me to make a big move, or take action first and try to see if they will be eliminated as soon as they show up.

He couldn't figure out from what perspective Su He helped him make up his mind, but one thing was certain - it was definitely right to rely on one's strongest point to attack the opponent's weaknesses.

In the group-buying business, all tactics have been exhausted so far. If we continue to fight, we can only spend money and last longer.

As for the takeaway business, Wang Xing didn’t know what surprise gift package Ele.me had prepared for him, so he chose “Rulu”…

First, they used their strongest field promotion team to explore the way. It seemed that they had launched a charge, but in fact, they had not fully launched the planned "New Year Offensive". This was also the fundamental reason for not approving the advertising promotion budget.

Once the advertising budget is approved, China will fall into the same embarrassing situation that Dianping faced before in the group buying war, where it will be forced to participate in the war and cannot stop.

With this arrangement now, at least Meituan has the initiative and is the offensive party, just like the mobile payment war fought by Tencent and Alibaba supporting online car-hailing agents. The entire market is gradually growing, and no matter how hard Alipay defends, it can only kill WeChat Pay at most, but it cannot prevent WeChat Pay from entering the game.

"Compared to us, Alibaba seems to be forced into a desperate situation. I think Mr. Ma must be having a headache right now."

Wang Huiwen had no choice but to follow the topic and make fun of Teacher Ma.

Wang Xing smiled knowingly. Alibaba had been ambitiously planning to launch Taodiandian for nearly a year, but it had failed. Now that the time had finally come for 4G, it was ready to make a big move. Xie Jingxing and Tencent were walking towards them hand in hand...

Not only does it intend to get into the takeaway business, it also wants to take over the group buying business.

After Alibaba made a strategic investment in Meituan two years ago, it chose to bury its own group-buying product "reputation". As a result, if it does not help Meituan now, it is afraid that it will be defeated by Dianping and completely lose its position in the local life market.

Helping Meituan is equivalent to aiding the enemy and creating a strong competitor for its own "Taodiandian".

As a last resort, Alibaba and Ai Ai also invested in Meituan in this round of financing. This morning, Cai Chongxin even called personally to express how difficult it was, and used exaggerated words to reveal that Lu Zhaoxi blocked Mr. Ma's office door and had a quarrel.

The implicit implication is that if Meituan has to choose between the two, it would be better to give up WeChat Pay. This is what Su He said about how it is difficult to get Ali's money, and Ali may restart the "word of mouth" project at any time.

Wang Xing sighed deeply. The mountain was covered with snow and the temple door was closed. He was surrounded by tigers and hungry wolves. Was he really Lin Chong?

…………

"Brother Tao, we are almost ready here. We can follow Meituan as soon as it moves. How about you guys?"

In Shanghai, the weather is cold and frosty, perfect for a hotpot meal.

In the quiet private hotpot restaurant box, Zhang Xuhao's face was rosy and his heart was burning with eagerness.

Zhang Tao smiled with mixed feelings and said, "Don't worry, you are the protagonist. If you need anything, just let me know and I will fully cooperate."

"Brother Tao, don't say that. They are the ones who make the decisions on priority. In my heart, you will always be my senior brother."

Zhang Xuhao picked up a two-liang white wine glass, drank half of it in one gulp, and complained, "Actually, if it weren't for Meituan's pursuit, I really don't want to cooperate with them. They say they respect all our decisions, but when we really encounter any problems, we still have to discuss them with them."

"Xuhao, eat more dishes and drink slowly. There's no rush." ​​Zhang Tao reminded.

Zhang Xuhao burped half-seriously, "Brother Tao, do you think I'm drunk? No, I'm just wondering, the Internet is such a big market, why can't I avoid Tencent and Alibaba wherever I go... and now there's also Mr. Xie."

"Everyone is the same in this regard. We are better off than Wang Xing." Zhang Tao comforted patiently.

Zhang Xuhao looked up at the ceiling and blinked, then looked back at Zhang Tao: "Brother Tao, why don't you invest in us?"

(End of this chapter)