Chapter 230: The abandoned Ele.me! Candidates for the CEO of Toutiao!
On February 18, Kuapao launched limited-time flash sales and free-of-charge events.
at the same time.
Kou Zhen led the marketing team to expand the business scope to the Hong Kong region. Ele.me charged merchants a 10% commission, while Kuaipao only charged 8%.
In addition, the riders of Kuaipao are neatly dressed, deliver on time, and speak warmly and politely. Merchants who originally joined Ele.me switched to Kuaipao food delivery almost without hesitation.
The takeaway merchant resources that Ele.me had spent three years painstakingly cultivating were easily taken away by Kou Zhen.
Sometimes, the pioneers of a business model often fail to make it to the end.
The plan may be fine, but there are loopholes in the execution.
At this time, Zhang Xuhao was also getting anxious, as Kuaipao was about to approach the Yangpu headquarters and Ele.me's market share was also declining.
He immediately pulled a group of senior executives together and worked in the technical department to develop a store discount function overnight. For merchants with different sales volumes, the Ele.me platform would give a 50% discount subsidy of '10 off for orders over 20, 15 off for orders over 30, and 25 off for orders over 50'.
The merchants don’t have to pay a penny for this fee, which instantly won back a wave of users.
But soon, due to poor risk control, some Ele.me merchants began to register user accounts in large quantities, taking advantage of loopholes in the merchant delivery and frantically placing orders.
By the time Zhang Xuhao discovered this, there were even merchants who had increased their monthly sales from 300 orders to 5,000 orders, and had taken away 100,000 yuan in marketing fees in one go.
It made him dizzy! After hurriedly taking a few sips of coffee, he immediately strengthened the risk control level and launched a ban on merchants and users suspected of embezzling platform subsidies.
There are bound to be some users who were misjudged! These people not only didn’t get to eat their takeaways, but their accounts were also blocked. You can imagine how angry they were.
With no place to vent in real life, they can only gather on Weibo and criticize Ele.me’s official account.
Just like that, Ele.me’s subsidy activity was launched at 8 am, and was criticized by netizens and became a hot topic at 8 pm.
"If you can't afford to do the event, you don't have to do it! If you don't eat a single bite, you'll lose your account!"
"Are you hungry? I'm so angry that I'm full."
"I ordered takeout at 12 noon, waited until 2, lunch didn't come, and the notification of account suspension came!"
“I suggest changing the name to: Are you starving? The first time I used this app, my account was blocked by the platform. I’m starving!”
The comment section was full of abusive voices.
From morning to night, eight out of ten calls received by the Shanghai Municipal Supervision Association are complaints about Ele.me.
Zhang Xuhao was also panicking at this time. He knew that with Ele.me's current technical means, it would be difficult to deal with the problem of false orders.
So the subsidy activity was hastily taken offline, and then they took the initiative to contact Ali to seek technical support.
Upon hearing the news, Ji Gang frowned and thought: Zhang Xuhao's management style is too chaotic. It seems that the group's 50 million investment will be wasted.
After some thought, he reported the matter to Cai Xin, general manager of the strategic investment department.
After listening to Ji Gang's description, Cai Xin also felt dissatisfied with Zhang Xuhao. It had only been less than a month and Ele.me was about to lose its market share in Shanghai.
He took the information that Ji Gang had sorted out and knocked on Ma Liyun's office door.
"Come in!"
Ma Liyun has been in a very good mood recently.
First of all, he has reached an agreement with Temasek, DST and Silver Lake Capital to inject US$700 million in investment funds into Ali in the form of equity increase. Combined with Ali's own cash reserves, he can mobilize at least US$3 billion in funds.
Secondly, China Investment plans to inject 2 billion US dollars into Alibaba as a strategic investment.
Next, private equity institutions such as Huaxin Capital and Development Bank will buy Ali's common stock worth 2 billion US dollars in full.
By then, Ma Liyun will have raised a total of 7 billion US dollars, which will be enough for him to successfully complete the Ali equity repurchase plan and clear the last obstacle for listing.
Cai Xin pushed the door open, walked to the opposite side of Ma Liyun and said, "Kuaipao is rising very fast in Shanghai. Zhang Xuhao can't hold on any longer. He has requested secondary financing and asked Ali to provide technical support in the fields of algorithms, data and security."
"If I remember correctly, the CEO of Kuaipao is also a graduate student, and he has only been in the Shanghai market for less than a month, right?"
Ma Liyun did not give a direct answer, but raised his own questions.
"Mr. Ma, if you remember correctly, I think Zhang Xuhao, as the project leader, may not be able to fulfill his responsibilities well."
Cai Xin said tactfully.
In fact, he spends most of his time working in Hong Kong Island. This time he came to Hangzhou just to promote Ali's equity repurchase plan.
Although he didn't know much about Ele.me, from the information Ji Gang had collected, it was clear that Zhang Xuhao did not possess the qualities and abilities of a qualified CEO.
"I met Zhang Xuhao at Jiaotong University and heard him introduce Ele.me's business model. At that time, I thought he was a young man with great ideas. It seems that I was wrong about him."
Ma Liyun shook his head and commented with a pout.
Facing his wrong decision, Ma Liyun had a calm attitude, and his words undoubtedly admitted the mistake in decision-making.
"Then I should refuse it?" Cai Xin asked tentatively.
"The model is good, but the person who executes it has problems. Let Ji Gang talk to him. If he is willing to sell the project to Ali, we can discuss cooperation. Otherwise, just ignore it."
Ma Liyun thought for a while and said.
In his opinion, Ele.me's scale is too small, with an average daily order volume of less than 100,000. Instead of spending money and effort to support Zhang Xuhao, it would be better to buy it.
If Zhang Xuhao does not agree, then let it fend for itself. After Ali completes the equity repurchase and listing plan, he will have time to either support a new platform or do it himself.
Cai Xin nodded, quickly put the matter of Ele.me behind him, and talked to Ma Liyun about the details of issuing equity.
As for whether Ele.me lives or dies, no one cares at all.
When Zhang Xuhao received Ji Gang's reply, he immediately stood there in a daze and sat back in his chair.
In a trance, he recalled the conversation he had with Senlian Capital CFO Gao Weilin half a year ago.
"If I had accepted the investment from Senlian Capital, the current situation of Ele.me and Kuaipao would have been reversed, and the one who was beaten back step by step would be Pei Yi!"
Zhang Xuhao was lost in thought.
He was extremely regretful at this moment! Ali was only willing to offer 80 million to acquire all the shares of the founding team.
For a while, Zhang Xuhao was in a dilemma. Ele.me was the company he founded, and it would be difficult to sell it just like that!
More importantly, the price Ali offered was too low! He thought about it for a long time but couldn't make up his mind. Then he called Wang Yuan, Kang Jia, Deng Ye and others to discuss it together.
"I think as long as we can get through this wave of difficulties, Ele.me may win! There is nothing wrong with our business model. The reason why we are restricted everywhere is that we don't know the priorities. I suggest strengthening the construction of the delivery team, adding funds, and improving the delivery efficiency first."
Wang Yuan lit a cigarette and said loudly.
When Zhang Xuhao was panicking, he took the initiative to speak and suggested that they continue fighting with Kuapao.
Ahri gave up on them. If she didn’t express her feelings, Ele.me would lose.
"Merchant resources, rider resources, and user resources. If we hold on to these three points, we will not lose!" Kang Jia stood up and said with a clenched fist.
He has survived the entire process from nothing to something, and now he is thinking of selling the company just because Ele.me lost some market share. How can this be possible?
"There is still 30 million in the account." Deng Ye said lightly.
Zhang Xuhao took a deep breath and finally calmed down. He looked at the three partners who had come along and cheered himself up again.
But what they didn't expect was that after absorbing a large number of former employees from 3F Express, YTO Express, and STO Express, Kuapao quickly expanded its rider team to 2,000 people.
On the second day after the free-of-charge activity was taken offline, users in Shanghai and Luzhou were promised that if the takeaway was overdue by 20 minutes, the bill would be waived unconditionally.
This expense will be fully borne by the platform.
This move caught Ele.me off guard! Zhang Xuhao wanted to play it safe, but his plan was quickly shattered by Pei Yi's tactics.
“It’s actually very simple to make takeout, it’s cheap, and the delivery is fast!”
Pei Yi stood in the Yiyuan conference room on Longcao Road and spoke to the department heads, sales managers and rider station managers.
This sentence was told to him by Chen Yansen, and now he shared it with the core staff of Kuapao in Shanghai.
Cheapness is a fatal attraction for both merchants and users.
Fast delivery and customer satisfaction lead to repeat purchases and retention!
…
…
The other side.
Liang Bo got off at Xucheng high-speed railway station and then took a taxi to Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.
No matter how stupid he was, he understood it now.
There is no such thing as a Hong Kong technology company!
The person who really wanted to poach him was Chen Yansen! A week ago, he received a call from a Hong Kong technology company, inviting him to work in Hong Kong Island, with a monthly salary starting at 60,000, a guaranteed annual salary of 20,000, and an option bonus.
What does he earn at ByteDance? In addition to a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, the remaining bonuses, overtime pay and equity are all empty promises.
Zhang Yiming has failed in his business venture four times!
Liang Bo didn't think that the other party would succeed this time! After repeated consideration, Liang Bo agreed to the other party's request and accepted the offer.
But after he proposed his resignation to Zhang Yiming, this Hong Kong technology company moved the work location to Xucheng.
After seeing the specific address information, Liang Bo understood everything instantly.
The taxi drove forward, and on both sides of the road there were endless rapeseed seedlings, a lush green expanse.
“It is hard to imagine how Chen Yansen developed Pinbei and Orange Technology in such an environment.”
Liang Bo asked himself, even if he had the same resources as Chen Yansen, it would be difficult to do it.
The last time they met briefly in Yanjing, he had a good impression of Chen Yansen: he had no bossy attitude, understood technology, and was generous.
Now he can't turn back and can only go down this path until the end.
Besides, being noticed by Chen Yansen is not a bad thing.
"We're here. The Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park is in front of us. It costs a total of 80 yuan."
The driver pointed to a row of buildings in front and said.
How many?
eighty?
It’s only fifteen kilometers from the high-speed rail station to here!
Liang Bo said with a dark face: "Master, this distance is only 40 yuan in Yanjing, are you sure you want to charge me 80?"
"Oh, sorry, I read it wrong. Then I'll charge you 40." Although the driver said this, there was no embarrassment on his face.
Liang Bo resisted the urge to curse, threw down forty yuan, and walked towards the Science and Technology Park with his suitcase.
Just at this moment, Chen Yansen had just finished reading Pei Yi's work report, walked to the window, and saw Liang Bo walking towards him with his head down.
He took out his cell phone, called the front desk, and asked them to bring Liang Bo to his office.
(End of this chapter)
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