Chapter 317 Ele.me’s Counterattack
It rained in the morning. The bamboo forest in the Jiuxi Scenic Area of ​​West Lake surrounded by mountains was lush green, and the mountain stream was shrouded in mist.

In the quiet and misty rain, the melodious tunes of tea farmers shouting at the mountains to offer tea during the Jingzhe season drift far away. The whole village makes a living from tea. Just open the door of any house and you will find new fire and new tea to try.

"Ms. Pei, please try it. The yam cake made by this homestay is very good." The man who looked like an assistant placed the fragrant freshly baked snack next to the stone table.

Xie Jingxing and Teacher Ma sat alone in a pavilion not far away, chatting and laughing. Many entourage members were waiting in the farmyard to play with the little dog lying lazily next to the flower stand, eat two cakes and drink a cup of tea, and relax happily.

Only Concubine Pei had no intention of enjoying the leisurely pastoral atmosphere. She responded in a panic and continued to check the Weibo on her mobile phone.

When I just woke up in the morning, I didn't think much about the public opinion on the Internet. I just felt that it was in line with Xie Jingxing's analysis and expectations last night, so I was full of desire to have fun with him and almost delayed the mountain climbing and outing trip that I had agreed with Teacher Ma.

As a result, after a morning, I saw myself still ranking high on Weibo's hot searches, and the hot search term "Ele.me not recharged" was gradually brewing.

With many years of experience in the entertainment industry, Pei Fei was able to smell something unusual, just as her agent's first reaction last night when he learned that Xin Da E was on the 315 list was to feel relieved that the popularity would be diverted, so others could naturally think so.

They could even take the initiative to fan the flames of the gossip about her and Xie Jingxing, and the tough public relations of Ele.me not having a top-up—these two hot spots were pushed to the highest level and took on all the public attention.

Other companies on the 315 list are very motivated to do the same. It has always been my way to cherish the loss of a friend.

Xie Jingxing himself had done this. Before, he and Xiao Wang were exposed to negative public opinion, and the next day there were reports of celebrities in the entertainment industry being put in jail to grab public attention.

This subsequently triggered a chain reaction, with several celebrities receiving silver bracelets. One can imagine what kind of reversal their fate will experience in the future.

So when Concubine Pei realized that this might be happening to herself, she couldn't help but feel a deep fear in her heart. The intensity of the public opinion storm brought about by commercial competition far exceeded the feuds between celebrities.

"Ms. Pei, why don't you go to your room and rest first. We'll call you when lunch is ready." Teacher Ma's assistant suggested after observing her expression.

Concubine Pei's pale face forced a smile: "Thank you, I'm fine."

"Today's hike was indeed a bit long. President Xie and President Ma almost always plan outdoor activities every time they meet. Assistant Song and I were so tired, but neither of them looked blushing or out of breath," the assistant hinted.

Concubine Pei was stunned for a moment and asked tentatively: "Oh, you mean Song Anli?"

"If Mr. Xie doesn't have another assistant named Song, then it would be her. From the beginning, I have been working with her."

The assistant further reminded him that he had personal connections with Song Anli, and also knew that the big star Pei had a good relationship with Assistant Song, so if he needed any help, he could just ask.

Looking at Xie Jingxing's indifferent face in the distance, Concubine Pei finally just shook her head slowly and said nothing.

"Next month, Yunfeng Fund and Zhejiang Merchants Association will lead the Zhejiang merchants to visit Luzhou. Alibaba will invest part of the capital in Xinhai Fund through its cloud business unit. I estimate that it can help you raise 5 to 8 billion yuan."

In the pavilion, Teacher Ma made a decision and changed the subject: "Let me make it clear in advance. I will not consider Luzhou's face, but only yours."

"Don't do that. Don't make our relationship so vulgar." Xie Jingxing said jokingly, feeling less stressed.

Teacher Ma laughed in silence: "You are going all in this time, right? Anyway, I don't know who would invest money in Xinhai Fund just for the reputation of Luzhou."

"All-in is not uncommon in the venture capital industry. I would be honored if my reputation could be worth 20 billion." Xie Jingxing chuckled.

"Not only that, you can talk to Li Ying alone later to see if Yunfeng is willing to cooperate with Xinhai on a sub-fund. It's not easy for me to interfere and force him to do so."

Teacher Ma sighed: "In total, the funds directly leveraged exceeded 200 billion?"

Xie Jingxing did not comment. The total scale of Xinhai's mother fund is 400 billion yuan, and he invested 400 billion yuan, which is equivalent to directly leveraging 200 billion yuan of Luzhou government funds + billion yuan of social fundraising.

At the sub-fund level, the current conditions for preliminary consultation and negotiation are a 600: split between direct investment and FOF businesses, with the FOF sub-fund business accounting for %, or billion.

In principle, the investment share of this money in a single sub-fund shall not exceed 30%, which means that nearly 2000 billion yuan of funds must be raised publicly to match the 600 billion yuan to create a sub-fund.

For him personally and Grapefruit Capital, 400 billion yuan of funds were used to directly leverage 2600 billion yuan of funds, not to mention other funds leveraged through banks, local finance and taxation, etc.

He will use the entity of Xinhai Fund to directly or indirectly influence the direction of at least 5000 billion yuan of funds. As for the so-called industrial guidance, if we only look at the dry scale of hundreds of billions of funds, how can we talk about promoting and guiding the industrial development of a country?

Especially the trillion-dollar manufacturing industry such as semiconductors.

All in all, the energy Xie Jingxing put in over the past few months was not in vain at all.

Correspondingly, if the subsequent outcome of Xinhai Fund is failure, it will not be as simple as how much his reputation is worth, but rather how to allow Grandpa Yu and Father Zhou to work for a few more years.

"Xiao Xie, the capital game is like walking on thin ice, you must be careful."

Teacher Ma threw down a handful of pistachios in his hand, stood up and walked to the edge of the pavilion, overlooking the outline of the mountains.

Xie Jingxing wanted to laugh for no reason, thinking that your brother's Alipay must have started playing the capital game of turning 3 billion into 300 billion. It is indeed an irrefutable truth that one is in the same boat.

However, this just proves that the capital game is very precarious. Once you enter the game, you will be pushed to become more and more greedy, and there are no brakes to step on.

"Looking at the mountains, I see how charming the green mountains are. I guess the green mountains see me the same way." Xie Jingxing looked at the continuous peaks of the distant mountains.

Teacher Ma patted him on the shoulder and said, "You are ambitious. I always feel that you are a natural capital player."

"I will try my best not to let you suffer any loss." Xie Jingxing responded with a reassurance.

Mr. Ma's repeated reminders to him to be careful were not just out of emotion. Just think about it, what kind of emotion could prompt Alibaba to invest billions of real money in Xinhai Fund?
In essence, everything is business. First, Alibaba Cloud officially launched the chip layout plan in the two aspects of cloud computing graphics and voice.

Second, as the stock prices plummeted in January due to the counterfeit problem on Taobao, various international brands and international commodity associations have suddenly opened their minds and have seized upon the problem of counterfeit goods on Taobao to crack down on it.

Alibaba has officially adjusted its strategic focus. On the one hand, it has enhanced the strategic position of Tmall Mall; on the other hand, at the beginning of this month, it spent 25 billion yuan to become the second largest shareholder of Light Media, and is planning to acquire Youku Tudou, and is frantically spending money to acquire various media companies.

Obviously, the pan-entertainment strategy has been put on the agenda and the entire group is seeking new growth points.

It's still the capital that's causing the trouble. Mr. Ma has complained publicly more than once recently that it's unreasonable that the counterfeit incident caused Alibaba's stock price to fall, and that Wall Street does not understand the domestic market.

He was aware that if he gave up on the e-commerce market, competitors would fill the vacancies, and he also knew that he might not be able to succeed in the pan-entertainment sector, but watching the stock price fall was even more difficult to accept.

With all these troubles piling up, Xie Jingxing, who is able to cooperate in both the chip industry and the pan-entertainment field, is currently a rare source of psychological comfort for Mr. Ma.

That's why he is so easy to talk to, and he contributes money, effort and sincere suggestions.

So from Xie Jingxing's perspective, even if he did not have absolute confidence in the future of Xinhai Fund, he had to keep a straight face when talking to her face to face and say, "I expect the mountains to see me as I would."

He is sure to win this capital game!
"I have raised Concubine Pei to be spoiled. She cannot stand slander and abuse. Please be gracious and take care of her." Xie Jingxing raised his chin slightly and said this, ending his solitude casually. He turned around and left the pavilion and walked towards Concubine Pei who was sitting stupidly in the farmyard.

Teacher Ma breathed a sigh of relief for some reason. It was good to be arrogant and pretentious, and to have the leisure to care about toys. The more so, the more confidence he had.

…………

In the afternoon, the hot search terms about the affair gossip between Concubine Pei and Xie Jingxing mysteriously disappeared from Weibo's hot search list.

Various professional internet trolls and Pei Fei's rival black fans worked together to hype up the popularity of related terms according to the Weibo popularity algorithm mechanism, but it was still on the hot search list a minute ago and disappeared without a trace a minute later.

Violent withdrawal from the list, artificial locking of key words, and the 5.8% stake worth US$18 million from Alibaba, the second largest shareholder of Weibo, show the power of commercial capital in action.

The black fans all cursed the dark side of capital, while the professional internet trolls were left standing idly by.

At this moment, the power of another commercial capital began to take action, through millions of text messages.

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Wuxi, a city with a population of 6.5 million, was chosen by Meituan as the main battlefield for its new round of money-burning war.

The entire network's attention was focused on it; romantic scandals and social events were all sidelined; the battle in the food delivery industry was like a bulldozer, easily crushing everything.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, Xu Nuo, head of the Ele.me platform, walked into the chairman's office to report on his work. At seven o'clock that evening, Xindana held an extraordinary board meeting.

"Let's fight in Wuxi! If we can't defend our home, our work for the past year will be in vain."

The meeting ended late at night. Zhang Tao sat at his desk with his hands on his feet, staring at the computer screen with sharp eyes.

A map is displayed on it. Wuxi is a city with a moderate population, good consumption capacity, a geographical location radiating to the south of Suzhou and Hangzhou, and even has a tourism industry. It is extremely suitable to be used as the main battlefield.

But the most important thing is that the straight-line distance from Shanghai is exactly 100 kilometers!

What is this? The German blitzkrieg launched a surprise attack on the suburbs of Moscow. Does Wang Xing think that he can send a message to the whole world tomorrow to reach the loyal Ele.me headquarters in Shanghai?

Even though Zhang Tao is an idealistic and conservative entrepreneur, he finds it difficult to control his anger at this moment.

"Do we have a response strategy in the public relations direction?" asked Long Tao, secretary of the highest decision-making group.

Public relations director Liu Qiming nodded slightly: "We can start anytime."

"When will the platform subsidy plan be launched online at the earliest?" Zhang Tao asked immediately.

Xu Nuo immediately responded: "The plan is fine. The technical functions involving coupons need to be tested and can be launched the day after tomorrow."

"Tomorrow afternoon."

Zhang Tao doesn't care how hard he tries to rush the technology to be launched at noon tomorrow. He just wants the result. He tilts his head and looks at the person in charge of delivery: "Coordinate the delivery capacity. Our self-operated and Yunhe crowdsourcing teams should be ready to support Wuxi at any time."

"I just spoke to Mr. Xie on the phone. We will not use the tactic of adding fuel to the fire. There will be no upper limit on the subsidy campaign from the beginning. Either we kill Meituan or we all die together. It's that simple."

He stood up with his arms on the corner of the table: "Everyone should be mentally prepared and get moving."

Xu Nuo and the others were all silent, leaving the new headquarters building of the group that had just been renovated at the beginning of the year, and each went to fight in his own position.

In fact, since Ele.me merged with Dianping last summer and Meituan launched a huge financing round led by Alibaba, both parties have fallen into the situation of indigestion caused by eating too much.

With the mediation of Shen Nanpeng, the two sides stopped fighting in the food delivery business, and while integrating internally, they shifted their focus to the group buying business to surpass Baidu Nuomi.

Now that people have gradually digested the nutrition and are in good health, it is reasonable and expected whether Meituan or Ele.me takes the lead in restarting the food delivery war.

The former has a 10-yuan subsidy voucher for the entire venue, and the latter is also designing a "10 billion subsidy" plan. It was originally planned to be launched for testing in specific cities next month, but it was forced to be brought forward, not without preparation.

"Boss Xu, please stay."

They took the elevator downstairs to the underground parking lot. Liu Qiming called Xu Nuo stealthily and said, "Let's go to my office and talk. We need your cooperation in our public relations work."

"Mr. Liu, the public relations mistake of the Beijing branch is being investigated and dealt with. It will definitely not affect your work." Xu Nuo took the blame decisively.

Liu Qiming was slightly surprised and tried to make amends, "It's not a big problem. The main thing is that we need to keep the same tone to the outside world and avoid any more contradictions."

"Don't worry, I will fully cooperate with you!"

Xu Nuo made repeated assurances with an embarrassed look on his face, and Liu Qiming didn't know what to say more, so he just stopped there with a few polite words.

If Xie Jingxing publicly said that he forgot to recharge a certain relevant department, the effect would definitely be explosive, but Zhao Zhuo, the public relations director of the Beijing branch, was there, and a small character who was grandstanding to attract attention was really nothing.

At most, the general public would make a few jokes and mock them, saying that they would never have to use Ele.me again, and that they would behave themselves once they used up the red envelopes and coupons from Perfect World.

The key is that Liu Qiming has prepared a big gift for Meituan. There is no need for his own Ele.me to stand at the center of the storm and help share the attention of the former. It is better to kill Zhao Zhuo, an uncontrollable idiot, first.

…………

"Changed, changed, you motherf*ck changed the price for me again!"

At two o'clock in the morning, the owner of a pork knuckle rice restaurant, dressed in flip-flops and shorts, slapped his thigh fiercely and poked the takeaway platform seller operation page displayed on the computer screen with his finger, causing the computer screen to shake.

The pork trotter rice that originally cost 13 yuan per portion has quietly become 10 yuan per portion, and the prices of all items on the menu have been reduced.

"Reporter, let me tell you, this is not the first or second time that the people from Meituan have secretly changed the prices on my menu in the middle of the night. They are repeat offenders!"

Flip Flops picked up a Da Zhonghua and said, "I don't mind the money, but how can they change the prices of my food without my permission?"

"Aunt Liu, who sells fish balls at the stall in front of my house, is illiterate. She was tricked by the salesperson at Meituan into joining Meituan. During the peak business hours every day, Meituan secretly changes the prices in the background. Aunt Liu is busy by herself and has no time to calculate the prices. She often goes to purchase goods every three to five days. Her children help her to calculate the accounts and find that she has sold too much, but she is still losing money. The more she sells, the more she loses! Aunt Liu is so angry that she cries."

Flip Flops puffed out smoke and said proudly: "Since they want to target ordinary people like us, I will fight them to the end. I must expose them and make them face a lawsuit."

"Call your local Meituan sales now." The reporter from Southern Media slowly adjusted his glasses.

(End of this chapter)