Chen Lei continued.
"Finally, did the finance director arrive?"
The finance director raised his hand to signal, "Mr. Chen, I'm here."
Why didn't you come to the company yesterday?
"I have some family matters to attend to, so I'm taking my annual leave."
Did you write a leave request?
The CFO frowned: "Mr. Chen, who should I ask to approve my leave request?"
Chen Lei was also stunned for a moment. Yes, the CEO and vice president had both run away. The CFO was the highest-ranking person in the company. Was he going to write a leave request and approve it for himself?
However, Chen Lei still said.
"Alright, let's forget about what happened before. From now on, I hope everyone remembers one thing: whether the leader is here or not, it's all the same. Meeting adjourned."
The CFO rolled his eyes. Is that how you interpret it?
This leader isn't here, it's not that leader who's not here.
Ma Ming was very proactive. After the meeting, he immediately updated the latest job list on the intranet and then issued a notice on strict attendance.
Chen Lei then summoned Liu Yu, the newly appointed marketing director, as he had not forgotten his mission.
"Director Liu, how far behind is Lashou.com in terms of market share compared to second place?"
"It's about a two percentage point difference."
"That's not much different."
"Well, a week ago, we were leading them by five percentage points."
"Ah... well, what do you think we should do to regain the market?"
"We're offering subsidies! Compared to Taobao group buying, we still have an advantage. After all, we're an established group buying website with a large user base and high user stickiness. As long as the subsidies keep up, most merchants will still be willing to come to us."
Chen Lei thought to himself, "If I had a subsidy, why would I be asking you?"
"Ahem, if there's no subsidy, is there any other way?"
"There's no other way. What's the point of playing without subsidies? All group-buying websites are burning money. Whoever doesn't burn money will die first. Merchants and consumers aren't stupid."
Liu Yu's words were very straightforward. Indeed, group-buying websites are just intermediaries, and different group-buying websites actually serve the same store in the end.
If that's the case, why would consumers choose the expensive one? Of course they would choose the cheaper one.
Why would a merchant choose the one with less subsidy? Of course, they would choose the one with more subsidy.
It's that simple.
Whoever runs out of money first will be the first to fall.
Liu Yu sighed.
Both are group-buying websites acquired by domestic internet giants, so why is their treatment so drastically different?
Meituan goes without saying. After being acquired by Xingchen Technology, it's backed by Huasuan.com, which is incredibly advantageous. Moreover, I've heard that Xingchen Technology's games are making so much money that they're using it to subsidize Meituan. It's not inferior to other websites at all, and its main selling point is that it's not short of money.
Let's talk about Koubei.com. It was lukewarm at first, but then Jack Ma had a master rename the website. After the name change, it took off and has now surpassed Lashou.com to become the second largest in the industry. Before, Koubei.com was far behind Lashou.com. Moreover, Alibaba Group is a cash cow. As the domestic online shopping market grows bigger and bigger, Alibaba will only get richer and richer.
Then look at Lashou.com. It used to be the top group-buying platform, but Meituan snatched it away. Now, even its second-place position has been taken by Taobao Group-buying. Why? Isn't it all because of Tencent, that lousy company?
Before the acquisition, you called me "sweetie" and said you wouldn't be short of money. But after the acquisition, it's become a conglomerate, and it's not easy to get money to subsidize me.
A while ago, when Taobao's group-buying platform launched a fierce attack, the two sides were engaged in a subsidy war. However, Tencent suddenly confiscated the ammunition. How can they fight without ammunition?
Chen Lei understood completely and began to ponder.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up – he had an idea!
If you don't have money, then expand your business to make money.
So he spoke to Liu Yu.
"Mr. Liu, I've decided to reform Lashou.com. We want to adopt a bidding-based ranking system, just like Baidu. Whoever pays more will rank higher. We'll also launch an ad space sales service, inserting one or two ad slots among the normal rankings..."
Chen Lei was still talking non-stop when Liu Yu suddenly interrupted him.
"Wait, Mr. Chen, you seem to have forgotten something. Over 90% of our website's users come from three platforms: Huasuan.com, Taobao Big Data, and Tencent Big Data. Consumers come here, pay, and leave without ever needing to come to our website to choose for themselves."
Chen Lei: ...
Okay, he admits he hasn't used group buying much.
After all, as a senior executive at Tencent, their annual salary is over a million, so they don't need to worry about the money. They can just go and eat whatever they want.
"Mr. Liu, you can go out first. I'll think of another way."
"Okay, Mr. Chen."
Liu Yu walked out of Chen Lei's office and sighed. It seemed that this new CEO was also a greenhorn who didn't know anything. He wondered how long the company could last.
Meanwhile, Jack Ma, seeing the market share gap between himself and Lashou.com widening, began to get a little arrogant.
"Hmph, tell the Taobao group-buying team to work harder, surpass Meituan, and once they're in the top spot in group buying, everyone's bonuses will double!"
Driven by Jack Ma's ambitious vision, Taobao's group-buying employees began to work feverishly to acquire merchant resources. As they worked, some of them even ended up working for Meituan.
Upon learning the news, Wang Xing was furious and immediately called Lin Chen.
"Mr. Lin, Taobao Group Buying has launched a war against us and has started poaching our merchant resources."
"Hmm? Is Jack Ma getting a little too cocky? Or am I just too weak to handle him?"
Lin Chen thought for a moment and said to Wang Xing, "Mr. Wang, could you develop a new feature on Meituan? For every order placed, send the customer a CD key for either Genshin Impact or Genshin Impact: The Prequel to Demon Wars on the order page. They can redeem a random gift pack in the game, which contains limited-edition gifts such as heroes and skins."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
In fact, Lin Chen's move was essentially a disguised increase in subsidies.
However, the subsidy is for in-game items, and the game is owned by the company itself, so it's like they've collaborated with themselves, and it's the first collaboration between these two games.
The market reacted quickly.
Young people, in particular, used to search on various websites to find the cheapest deals when they were doing group buying. But with Meituan offering a free game gift pack, they didn't hesitate and Meituan became their top priority.
This has led many merchants to be confused about their recent order volume. They wonder why all the orders are coming from Meituan, even though Taobao's group-buying subsidies are high and the prices are low.
These are merchants who have not signed exclusive agreements with any single platform and are offering group-buying coupons on multiple platforms simultaneously.
The other group of merchants, especially those who had just signed exclusive agreements with Taobao Group Buying a couple of days ago, were all dumbfounded.
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