"Let's arrange some time tomorrow to go to the commercial district together and see what the situation is. We need to come up with a solution."

When getting off the car, he casually told Qin Lang, who immediately said, "Okay, I'll arrange a study this afternoon to discuss a solution."

Back at the company headquarters, there was no idle time either, as Yadea's top management was still waiting to study the battery issue.

This time Dong Chaogui came in person, and most of the group's senior management came, including the heads of production, technology, and design departments.

Right now, Yang Zhichao and Yu Li are leading a meeting with the management of the front-line business departments to exchange views on issues such as battery replacement and tracking.

In principle, Yadea is required to increase the supply, not only of electric vehicles, but also of the battery replacement plans for the sites that are planned to be implemented.

In addition, in response to the problem of battery theft, Yimei requires Yadi to properly inspect all products supplied to Yimei before leaving the factory.

It is necessary to carry a tracking device and use the battery itself to power long-term operation. This is no small project and involves a series of issues such as the appearance and design of the electric vehicle.

Yadea was troubled as the increased purchasing cost and labor process cost were not a small amount, so it proposed to provide a special hidden serial number to identify Yadea electric bicycles.

Even if it is stolen or sold, it can be quickly identified and found.

However, Yang Zhichao could not easily promise the issues emphasized by Li Zehua. The two sides are currently in intense discussions and cannot reach a consensus in the short term.

Not to mention the subsequent issues of battery miniaturization and expansion.

Dong Ge didn't leave either. He was visiting the park accompanied by some senior executives. When he ran into him coming back, he looked disgusted.

“Your headquarters building is too shabby, and it doesn’t fit the temperament of a company raising $200 million.

I just got off the bus and saw it from a distance, and I thought it was a handbag factory."

"Take your time. It's not that we can't afford a better place, but this place is more cost-effective."

Li Zehua accompanied him for a while, looked around, and introduced the specific situation of the company.

"…This is the technical department. We are waiting for the funds to arrive in the near future. We will have to invest tens of millions in servers alone.

These big electricity-guzzling tigers will only increase in number in the future. One day, the monthly electricity bill may reach hundreds of millions.

We are now in the industrial park, enjoying various preferential subsidies. If we move away rashly, we will suffer huge losses.

In addition, we need to vigorously recruit technical R&D personnel at this stage. Soon the logistics and technical team will exceed one or two thousand people. With so many people, how much rent will we have to pay per year for the commercial building we rent?

We can save as much as we can. We have to spend money, but it has to be spent wisely. As long as our market share and revenue are higher, no one will look down on us just because of these two buildings.”

Dong Ge nodded in agreement and changed the subject, "It's about the attitude towards doing business. What has your technical department been busy with recently?"

Li Zehua attaches great importance to technology and can talk about it immediately, "Such as big data collection, processing and analysis, rider route optimization, and efficiency improvement of pick-up and delivery dispatch. There are too many problems to be solved."

“It’s never easy to run a business.”

Liu Qiangdong sighed and suddenly remembered something, "What are your specific considerations for the payment software you mentioned this morning?
I asked someone, this thing is not something that can be done casually, it requires a lot of resources, have you thought it through?"

“I was not very familiar with this area before, and I thought I had to get a third-party payment license to do it.”

Speaking of this, Li Zehua was somewhat speechless, "The technical team has spent a lot of effort to come up with virtual payment currency, fortunately it has not been put into large-scale use yet, and it is not too late to change it now.

I asked the technical team and they said it's not a big problem.

The two are similar in core procedures such as encryption and secure payment, and can be directly upgraded to Internet payment with a few modifications.”

At this point, he paused for a moment, and seeing that Dong Ge's reaction was not as enthusiastic as expected, he wondered, "Why, you are not interested in this?"

"too expensive."

Liu Qiangdong shook his head and said, "You also know that JD.com has never had much money. The $500 million you invested can't even build a smart city warehouse.

JD.com’s most important task at this stage is to establish a nationwide logistics system, even if there is Hummingbird to assist in providing services at the terminal.

It can speed up the progress, but the amount of funds required is still an astronomical figure!"

Li Zehua nodded in approval on the surface, but he was actually very happy inside.

He is one of JD.com's shareholders. Whether looking at it from the perspective of future generations or referring to JD.com's financial statements, one can clearly understand JD.com's financial situation at that moment.

We are short of money, very short of money!
But he still expressed regret on the surface, "It's such a pity, if you and I join forces, there will be online shopping, takeout, express delivery, and so many payment scenarios.

With the addition of strategic cooperation companies, we will definitely be able to build a payment system.

As the enterprise business grows further, it may not be much worse than Alipay under Ali in the future.”

Liu Qiangdong calmly analyzed the situation from a business perspective, “Such a non-bank payment system can indeed provide a lot of convenience, but it does not have to be implemented today.

Such a large capital investment can wait a little longer and put the limited funds into areas where the company needs it more urgently.”

Then, he looked at him suspiciously, "Are you targeting the amount of funds it retains?
Be careful, it is not payable to suppliers, it can be used for emergency purposes. "

It’s no wonder Dong Ge thinks this way. It’s just that Alipay’s current positioning in the market is very embarrassing.

They are said to occupy half of the non-bank Internet financial payment market, but in fact they are all clients of Taotao and Ali International.

Consumers transfer money to Alipay and lock it up to purchase services and products from third-party merchants. After the transaction is completed without any objection, Alipay will take a percentage commission before handing over the money to the merchant.

But JD.com has absolutely no such demand!

To put it bluntly, Alipay was originally a credit product used to protect the rights of consumers.

JD.com basically adopts a self-operated model. The entity that purchases and sells goods is JD.com Mall, which itself is a guarantee of credibility!
This is also the main reason why Dong Ge has never developed a payment system in history.

In addition, before the era of smartphones, no one could have imagined that the payment system would have such great commercial potential.

By the time JD.com developed, it was too late to intervene. More than 80% of the market share had already been divided up by Alipay and Tenpay.

Since his rebirth, Li Zehua started his business in the takeout and express delivery industry. On the one hand, this is because these two industries do not require much capital in the initial stage.

On the one hand, it is because these two scenarios are natural entrances to Internet financial payment. Later, Alipay acquired Fanjisong and Tencent invested in Meituan.

The main logic.

It is all for the purpose of competing for the entrance to the Internet payment scene!
For Alipay, Fanjisong can also provide traffic support, which is the key core that must be obtained no matter how much money is spent.

If you understand these, you will understand why he is trying to trick JD.com now, because the latter has no money now and is not interested in payment systems, so it has no urgent need for them.

"Brother Dong, what are you talking about? Am I the kind of person who breaks the law?"

Li Zehua was so anxious that he almost rolled his eyes and spoke very quickly, "Isn't it because I saw Yahoo was so anxious that I felt that there must be some unknown secrets hidden in the payment system?

Whatever Ahri has, we must have too!

Anyway, I have decided to build the payment system. Do you support me?"

Whether or not you support it is just a matter of fact. We can still do it without Brother Dong.

But Li Zehua wants his own payment system to successfully participate in JD.com transactions. This is the most important thing.

How can I put it? At this point in time, it doesn’t seem so important when we don’t have it.

Once it snowballs and grows to a certain scale, you’ll find: it’s really delicious!
Liu Qiangdong thought about it again and again, and didn't feel like directly refuting him. "Then do it, but I'll make it clear in advance that JD.com doesn't have much money to invest."

"It's just a token of my appreciation."

Li Zehua didn't care about that, he caught the loophole in the words and said, "It doesn't have to be much, just put your name on it and invest a few hundred thousand in the early stage.

I will then gather a technical team. Isn't it easy to copy them?"

Liu Qiangdong gave a bitter smile, he just couldn't do anything about him. Fortunately, it was only a few hundred thousand yuan, so he just considered it as a friendly sponsorship.

But seeing that he took it so seriously, I asked a few more questions out of curiosity.

"That's fine. Brother Dong, just say this. Don't blame me for not explaining it to you in advance."

Li Zehua was very happy to see that his goal had been achieved, "We took advantage of the fact that the higher-ups hadn't come up with any restrictive policies yet.

I will first discuss with Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to see if we can set up a special retention account.

If everything goes well, it can be approved in a week or two. As for retained funds, I won’t touch a penny and will leave it all to the bank.

This will avoid the biggest risk of fund raising. "Li Zehua did not hide it from him. After all, his own payment system would have to be deeply integrated with JD.com, so there was no need to hide it.

Liu Qiangdong was very surprised after hearing this. "You just opened a new account for the bank, but the money is still in someone else's hands? What's the point?"

"Of course it makes sense, and the banks will certainly be happy about it."

Li Zehua did not make the decision on impulse. "Look, consumers used to use online banking to pay for Hummingbird meals on JD.com, which was a cumbersome process.

Some of these people buy things on impulse. What if they don’t buy when they are halfway through paying or because they find it troublesome to recharge online banking?
It would be great if we had our own payment system, transferred money to the account in advance, and completed the transaction instantly with just one click, simplifying the process. "

Liu Qiangdong's eyes lit up. "That's a good idea, but as a consumer, why should I deposit money on your third-party platform?"

"Interest and credit guarantee!"

Li Zehua smiled confidently, "For banks, deposits are very important!
As long as our third-party payment platform is successful and the scale of funds is large enough, we can negotiate higher interest rates with the bank.

We don’t want this part at all and will return the full amount to the consumer!
In addition, the ownership of the regulatory account is held by the bank, so there is no need to worry about being accused of illegal fund-raising, thus avoiding legal regulatory risks.

For consumers, credibility is not a problem as it is backed by a large state-owned bank.

In addition to the interest rate that is higher than ordinary deposits, I am also prepared to offer more discounts.

For example, there are regular payment promotions on weekends, holidays, and one month before registering a new user. As long as you pay with our payment system, you will definitely enjoy the discount. "

"It sounds like it won't be a problem to do it."

Liu Qiangdong was confused, "The key is how can it make a profit?
You will have to invest real money in the early stages. If you attract a customer, you will lose money. If you have millions of users, won’t you lose tens of millions of dollars? "

"You didn't say that later when you were promoting JD Finance's Bai Tiao gold bars and the customer acquisition cost was 100 yuan."

Li Zehua muttered to himself, but remained calm on the surface. "Just do it first. Once it's big enough to have a sufficient customer base, we can then figure out how to make a profit."

He has a hundred ways to make a profit, but he can't tell you now.

As for Brother Dong, he was far away from the capital, and no one told him how much American capital valued the payment system.

They also believe that this is a shortcut to bypass regulation and directly intervene in China's financial industry.

This led to the fact that at the beginning, players with this ability did not realize the importance of the payment system at all.

When the mobile Internet era begins and QR codes are promoted on a large scale, the existing funds alone will make the capital market rich.

Not to mention the huge profits brought by other means such as traffic, advertising, promotion channels, financial management and insurance funds.

However, by the time the market starts to realize the benefits, the entry barriers are already frighteningly high.

The two big players rely on their respective customer bases and, without considering other factors, can even crush UnionPay.

Liu Qiangdong, who had no idea about this, immediately felt it was boring and said, "Then let's do it first."

But they did not refuse it, because JD.com could gain high-value user traffic from Mejia Fengniao. Just for this reason, the investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars was very cost-effective.

profitable!

Take what you need.

The issue of the payment system has come to a temporary end, and Liu Qiangdong talked about the second goal of this visit.

"What's going on with your Pinxixi? Xu Xin has invested in it. Did Temasek also invest money?

No wonder you asked me for the data of those suppliers. You are planning to compete with me after all this time, right? "

"Don't talk nonsense. It's impossible."

Li Zehua decisively denied the allegations three times, "I invested in JD.com, and they come up with an identical competitor. If this gets out, will my reputation still be in jeopardy?"

"Really?"

Liu Qiangdong's next words almost made Li Zehua vomit blood, "When did you have shame?"

Of course, this is a joke.

But it also represents Liu Qiangdong's dissatisfaction, "You have to explain this matter clearly today, otherwise I won't be able to explain it when I go back."

Li Zehua did not answer but asked, "How is JD.com's sales in rural areas?"

Liu Qiangdong did not hide it from him. The board of directors had to publish data on a regular basis for this kind of business information, and he would know it sooner or later.

They just said, "It's okay, it's mainly concentrated in big cities now."

JD Logistics has not kept up with the development, especially for users in rural and remote areas, who have to use other express delivery services such as ZTO Express in the north and STO Express in the south.

As for SF Express?

Currently, SF Express mainly deals with small items weighing less than 5 kg.

“Then there’s basically no conflict.”

Li Zehua roughly explained the sales strategy of Pinxixi, "It's just a one-time deal. Isn't Taotao going to become Cainiao Network?

The express delivery companies are afraid of wolves in front and tigers behind, and they are afraid that Taotao will cut off cooperation with them, so I am going deep into the remote rural areas to cooperate with the country's strategy of bringing home appliances to the countryside.

It would take at most a year or two to digest the inventory of products from various manufacturers. The main thing was to use the number of express parcels to lure express companies into giving back.

How about this, is JD.com also interested in cooperating with us?"

JD.com cannot hide these things because it provides channels for many large manufacturers, and Li Zehua does not have such resources.

Pinxixi was just starting out and did not have much capital at the beginning to use for product underwriting, since it could not clear the inventory by package sales.

It is necessary to let a strong partner intervene and provide strong credit endorsement. It is inevitable to bring up the strategic cooperation between Pinxixi's parent company and JD.com to gain people's trust.

Liu Qiangdong heard the news, but he didn't care about the situation. The only problem is, can JD.com learn from Pinxixi's business model?
It seems possible, but also seems not possible.

The reason why we can say yes is that JD.com has no problems with its product procurement and sales model.

The reason why it is not possible is because the manufacturer does not agree!

Like Taotao, Gome, and Suning, these sales channels, manufacturers view them as fixed sales venues to maintain brand awareness and brand value.

It’s about steady growth and brand establishment.

Moreover, the specifications of online and offline products are really different at the beginning.

In addition to this differentiation, manufacturers are more worried that big sales on the Internet will affect the perception of Internet consumers.

Online and offline are two completely different sales channels. To give the simplest example, at the beginning, there were a group of people who played games and traded stocks.

Who would use online banking for no reason?

Who shops online?
Aren’t they the new generation of young and middle-aged people with consumption power and completely different life concepts?

In complete contrast to the mature e-commerce online shopping logic ten years later, the first batch of young and middle-aged people who came into contact with online shopping paid more attention to brand value rather than price.

So Taotao’s first Double Eleven was a tragedy from beginning to end, with sales of only 50 million yuan for the entire day, mainly due to the lack of cooperation from manufacturers.

This business logic was not reversed until 2012/13, when group buying and the development of mobile Internet gradually took place.

Otherwise, Taotao should be the undisputed leader in the group buying field, and there would never be a new player like Meituan that emerges suddenly.

Liu Qiangdong's reaction after hearing this was the same: "You can give it a try. Just try it first. I think the business prospects are just so-so."

It is impossible for those who have not experienced the baptism of the mobile Internet wave to fully understand the power of this new economic model.

"Don't worry, Pinxixi focuses on the sinking market, which is completely different from JD.com's self-operated model, let alone the word competition."

Li Zehua spoke very sincerely. After all, human energy is limited. It is impossible for him to fight against Taotao and offend JD.com in the field of e-commerce and online shopping.

As for the future, Pinxixi is basically based in the low-end market and it is difficult to form a competitive relationship with JD.com.

After getting a definite answer, Liu Qiangdong was satisfied. He chatted about some logistics cooperation and then said goodbye and left.

He also needs to go to Yuanmai Express to arrange the details of the cooperation with Fengniao. (End of this chapter)