Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Xucheng. In front of Office Building No. 9 at the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park.

A jet-black Maybach glided to a stop. With a soft CLICK from the hinge, the door swung open, and a man in his thirties stepped out.

He wore a white shirt, a dark red tie, and a royal blue suit. His leather shoes were polished to a mirror shine, and a distinctive tuft of white hair hung over his forehead.

An assistant and a bodyguard followed close behind.

The other two cars carried the rest of his entourage—Jingdong’s business negotiation team.

Seeing this, the Pinbei employees by the windows couldn’t help but crane their necks for a better look.

Even though Pinbei had already completely surpassed Jingdong in daily active users and sales figures, Liu Qiangdong was, after all, a long-established figure in the e-commerce industry. Now that he was visiting their company, many were filled with curiosity, sizing up the Jingdong founder from a distance.

Chen Yansen stood his ground, not moving a single step.

This was the first time he’d met with Liu Qiangdong alone since Pinbei and Jingdong had their falling out during the 418 Home Appliance Festival.

Compared to their last encounter, Handsome Dong’s smile was noticeably brighter, especially after securing $1.1 billion in financing from the OTPP and Saudi Kingdom Capital.

Money in your pocket puts your mind at ease.

This held true even for Liu Qiangdong, a man with a net worth in the tens of billions.

Liu Qiangdong’s smile was warm and enthusiastic. But when he saw Chen Yansen standing perfectly still, he couldn’t help but curse inwardly, ’This kid really knows how to hold a grudge.’

Chen Yansen, the man who "repays every slight." There are misgiven names, but never a misgiven nickname.

"President Chen," Liu Qiangdong began with a warm smile as he walked up, "it seems Xucheng is truly a blessed land, to have produced two internet tech companies like Orange Technology and Pinbei Mall, each worth over a hundred billion."

"Just a tiny bit of luck, that’s all. We just happened to catch the tailwinds of the smartphone and e-commerce booms," Chen Yansen replied modestly.

"I wish I had your kind of luck, President Chen. My ten years of hard work can’t even compare to what you’ve accomplished in one."

Liu Qiangdong was laying the flattery on thick, though subtly.

He hadn’t forgotten the purpose of his visit. First, to restore his cooperative relationship with Senlian Capital and get Orange Technology back on Jingdong. Second, to form an offensive and defensive alliance with Pinbei to jointly seize e-commerce market share from Ah Li. Third, to sign annual advertising framework agreements with Toutiao, Lingxi Browser, and the Orange Application Mall.

Even Ah Li had to pay for traffic, and Jingdong was no exception.

Currently, Toutiao had over 120 million registered users, with 40 million daily active users. Lingxi Browser had 64 million total downloads and 29 million daily active users. And the Orange Application Mall reached a user base of over 40 million.

As a result, Senlian Capital had become a pivotal source of traffic in the internet industry.

This was another reason why Handsome Dong was willing to humble himself before Chen Yansen.

"President Liu, shall we head to my office for tea first, or would you like a tour of the Pinbei building?" Chen Yansen just smiled, sidestepping the flattery and changing the subject.

"Let’s see Pinbei," Liu Qiangdong joked, though only half in jest. "I’d like to see for myself just who President Chen has on his team that managed to beat Jingdong."

"This way, please."

Chen Yansen led Liu Qiangdong straight into Building No. 6, where Pinbei was headquartered.

Just inside the entrance, the first floor housed the customer service center and the administration department.

A massive LED screen mounted on the white wall to the left displayed Pinbei’s sales data, updating in real time.

"Nine forty-seven a.m. Daily sales volume: 290 million Hua Yuan."

Liu Qiangdong looked up, his gaze lingering on the number. Based on his experience, he judged that Pinbei’s total daily transaction volume wouldn’t be less than a billion.

In other words, Pinbei’s daily sales were double Jingdong’s.

After the Singles’ Day Grand Promotion, Jingdong’s daily sales had risen from 400 million to 500 million, but Pinbei’s appeared to have grown even more.

"Up ahead is the customer service center. It’s mostly for user support, with a smaller team for merchant support. Twenty percent of the staff are part-time students from Xuyuan, which is my way of giving back to my alma mater. Of course," he added, "it’s nothing compared to President Liu’s customer service center," Chen Yansen explained at a measured pace.

"And the second floor?" Liu Qiangdong asked casually.

"The Merchant Operations Department and the Key Account Investment Attraction Department."

Chen Yansen wasn’t secretive, answering straightforwardly.

Liu Qiangdong followed Chen Yansen up the stairs, floor by floor, until they reached the office on the eleventh floor. Huang Zheng, having just finished a morning meeting, came over to greet them.

Once inside the office, Huang Zheng busied himself with boiling water for tea.

Liu Qiangdong sat at the coffee table, his mind replaying what he’d seen of Pinbei’s organizational structure and employee count.

’By his rough estimate, there were only about 3,000 people in total.’

’Jingdong, by contrast, had 26,000 employees, including 20,000 delivery drivers.’

At this thought, Liu Qiangdong’s expression darkened. ’Jingdong, with its 6,000-plus core staff and a decade of procurement and sales experience, couldn’t even beat this team of 3,000?’

’Their per-person efficiency was less than a quarter of Pinbei’s!’

In reality, if not for Chen Yansen’s desire to obtain more Human Dao Fire, Pinbei’s lean structure, execution, and efficiency meant that only 2,000 people were needed to perfectly manage its daily operations.

"President Liu, please."

Chen Yansen offered a cup of hot tea to Liu Qiangdong.

"President Chen, you used to call me Brother Dong. I feel that now that we’re speaking privately, we should go back to that. It might make for a friendlier conversation," Liu Qiangdong said, testing the waters.

"But my other friends all call me Brother Sen," Chen Yansen replied, taking a slow sip from his cup with his eyes narrowed.

"Works for me. I’ll call you Brother Sen, you call me Brother Dong. Fair’s fair," Liu Qiangdong said, after a brief pause and a dry laugh.

"How much did Jingdong make during the Singles’ Day Grand Promotion?" Chen Yansen asked, feigning indifference.

"3.07 billion," Liu Qiangdong replied with a faint smile.

But he looked down at his tea almost immediately, a hint of guilt in the motion.

Chen Yansen understood instantly. Though Handsome Dong’s expression was composed, his micro-movements gave him away. It was obvious he was lying.

The number was inflated, and probably by a significant margin.

But he understood. Jingdong was under immense pressure to secure financing. Last year, they were fighting Dangdang; this year, it was Sunning and Gome, all while competing with Ah Li. On top of that, their asset-heavy business model meant a single, massive smart-fulfillment center could burn through seven or eight hundred million Hua Yuan.

To put it bluntly, they were burning cash even faster than Fast Taxi and DiDi Dache.

Jingdong had no choice but to fudge their numbers on their reports to trick overseas investors.

The tactic was crude, but remarkably effective.

The OTPP had just invested $400 million, and right on their heels, a ’deep-pocketed sucker’ from the Middle East was lining up to throw money at them.

They couldn’t even refuse the money!

"Taobao Delivery just went live. It’s in gray-scale testing now," Liu Qiangdong said abruptly, setting down his cup.

"Is Jingdong getting into the food delivery business?" Chen Yansen asked, looking straight at Liu Qiangdong and enunciating each word.

"I have no interest in the food delivery industry. Jingdong’s vision is to become the Amazon of Hua Country," Liu Qiangdong vowed.

Yet, over a decade later, Amazon would also invest in Grubhub, incorporating food delivery services into its Prime membership benefits.

Chen Yansen only asked because he wanted to see Handsome Dong eat his words one day. "How about a bet? If Jingdong ever gets into the food delivery game, I won’t mind, but you, Brother Dong, will have to shave your head."

Hearing this, a strange look crossed Liu Qiangdong’s face. He suddenly recalled that photo of a bald Ma Liyun and pressed, "Don’t tell me Lao Ma really shaved his head because he lost a bet to you?"

"That wasn’t it," Chen Yansen flatly denied.

"Fine, you’re on. But the bet has to have a time limit, right? If it’s for fifty years, I doubt I’ll live to ninety," Liu Qiangdong agreed readily.

"Fifteen years, then," Chen Yansen said without hesitation.

"Then I’ll look forward to seeing Brother Sen with a shaved head. HAHA!" Liu Qiangdong roared with laughter.

Then, Liu Qiangdong asked, "Aren’t you even a little worried about Ah Li entering the food delivery market?"

Chen Yansen sneered inwardly. ’Liu Qiangdong is just afraid I’ll get too close to Ma Liyun. He’s brought it up twice in less than five minutes.’

"Kuai Pao isn’t afraid of competition. Whether it’s Meituan, Qian Du, or Ah Li, there’s never a shortage of rivals on this path. Taobao doesn’t even have its own traffic portal. What’s it going to use to compete with Kuai Pao?" Chen Yansen picked up the teapot, refilled Liu Qiangdong’s cup, and continued in a nonchalant tone.

Liu Qiangdong’s expression faltered. The words hit a little too close to home, because Jingdong didn’t have its own traffic portal either.

Penguin was willing to give them one, but the price was far too steep.

Ma Wenteng was even more unreasonable than the portals and video sites that sold traffic; he insisted on bundling QQ Group Buy, Paipai Network, and Yixun Network into the deal.

Assets valued at a staggering $1.5 billion!

’What was Jingdong supposed to do with all that garbage?’

Unless it was an absolute last resort, Handsome Dong couldn’t accept Ma Wenteng’s equity swap proposal.

Liu Qiangdong looked at Chen Yansen with a flash of envy. He’d heard that the primary traffic portals from WeChat and QQ had always been provided to Pinbei, Fast Taxi, and Kuai Pao for free.

What’s more, he’d heard that Ma Wenteng was the one who had chased down Chen Yansen to get the contract signed.

It’s always the comparisons that sting the most.

Ma Wenteng treated him and Chen Yansen completely differently!

"I wouldn’t be so sure," Liu Qiangdong retorted, continuing to stir the pot. "Whatever you say, you can’t fake Taobao’s 600 million users. Ma Liyun is just too aggressive. He’s got a perfectly good e-commerce business, but he insists on trying to steal business from Kuai Pao."

"How about we get down to business?" Chen Yansen suggested.

He knew Ma Liyun’s underlying logic for launching a food delivery service. In terms of threat level, Taobao Delivery was nothing compared to Qian Du or Meituan. The former merely wanted to leverage the high-frequency nature of food orders to increase user stickiness and retention for Taobao. The latter were out to kill Kuai Pao.

To put it bluntly, Taobao Delivery was all thunder and no rain.

Once Ma Liyun realized the return on investment in food delivery was poor and that it might even negatively impact his core e-commerce business, he would scale back internal resources for Taobao Delivery on his own. Chen Yansen wouldn’t even have to lift a finger.

Besides, from what he knew of Ah Li, Taobao Delivery was a project Ma Liyun had forced through against popular opinion. The heads of Tmall Mall and Taobao probably loathed Taobao Delivery even more than Kuai Pao did.

After all, Taobao Delivery had been given a prime spot on the homepage without having earned its keep within the company.

In internet giants like Ah Li and Penguin, factionalism was rampant, and internal struggles were notoriously fierce.

Otherwise, Ma Wenteng wouldn’t have needed to create an entirely separate business unit when he was pushing the WeChat project.

The WeChat project team wasn’t even located in the same city as the Penguin Headquarters.

"I’d like to invite Orange Technology to join Jingdong Mall," Liu Qiangdong said, nodding as his tone turned serious.

He deliberately avoided the word ’rejoin,’ clearly not wanting to dredge up the past.

Currently, Orange Technology’s lineup included phones, tablets, computers, power banks, smart speakers, and phone accessories. Their total online sales reached over ten billion a month.

Pinbei was a traffic magnet in its own right!

Without Orange Technology’s products, Jingdong was naturally missing out on a significant stream of traffic.

Chen Yansen lifted his gaze, looking at Liu Qiangdong with a wry, unreadable smile.

’He was the one who wanted to cooperate last year, and he was also the one who wanted to terminate the cooperation.’

’What did he take Orange Technology for?’

’Someone to be summoned and dismissed at his beck and call?’

"And what’s in it for Orange Technology?" Chen Yansen asked, his smile vanishing as his voice grew serious.