Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

"What did you say? OFO bikes don’t require a deposit?"

At the DiDi Bike headquarters in Yanjing’s Digital Valley Software Park, Cheng Wei frowned and reconfirmed with the head of the Market Department.

"Yes, President Cheng," Songtian Road replied with a nod.

He paused for a moment before adding, "OFO bike users just need to deposit 199 yuan in their Yu’e Bao and link their Orange Pay account in their personal information to ride without a deposit."

"Chen Yansen is truly a worthy opponent!"

Cheng Wei said through clenched teeth, the pen in his hand creaking under his grip.

He had clashed head-on with Chen Yansen in the ride-hailing arena. No one knew better than him how fearsome Chen Yansen was, with his aggressive tactics.

He lacked the indecisiveness typical of a businessman, possessing only the all-out ferocity of a lion hunting a rabbit.

OFO had just launched, and in one fell swoop, they deployed 3,000 shared bikes in Hang City. That, combined with the deposit-free promotion, instantly put DiDi Bike on the back foot.

The only saving grace was that OFO hadn’t chosen Yanjing for its first stop.

But based on his understanding of Chen Yansen, Yanjing would absolutely be on the list of cities for OFO’s next expansion.

"President Cheng, should we adjust our deposit policy?" Songtian Road asked directly.

"Not for now, but we need to be prepared. Hold on, I’ll call Hai Bo and Lao Hu over."

After a moment of contemplation, a preliminary solution formed in Cheng Wei’s mind. He picked up the landline on his desk and immediately dialed. "Hai Bo, get Lao Hu. Both of you, come to my office."

"Okay, boss," Zhang Haibo responded.

Although Songtian Road was curious, he didn’t ask any further questions. He knew the boss would explain everything once Hu Weijian and Zhang Haibo arrived.

A few moments later, Hu Weijian from the R&D department and Zhang Haibo from the product department walked in together.

"Lao Hu, Hai Bo, I want to add two new features. First, an instant deposit refund upon completion of a ride to eliminate users’ concerns about their money being tied up. Second, a pre-charge feature to waive the deposit. As long as a user’s account balance is no less than 199 yuan, they won’t have to pay a deposit."

Cheng Wei laid out his instructions with clear logic.

In reality, back in 2012 when regulatory mechanisms were still underdeveloped, there were many benefits to collecting deposits from users for bike rentals.

For one, it reduced operational risk. The deposit served as a restraint on user behavior, decreasing instances of bikes being privately hoarded, vandalized, or stolen.

For another, it helped cover operational and maintenance costs. User deposits could, to a certain extent, alleviate the financial pressure of vehicle deployment, repairs, and redistribution.

And third, the pool of funds created by the deposits also served as a source of capital for project expansion.

’As for whether the funds were being misappropriated or not, the users would never know!’

Cheng Wei didn’t see anything wrong with using deposit money to pay suppliers, or for operational, maintenance, and labor costs.

Therefore, the two solutions he proposed were intentionally cumbersome to implement. The real goal was still to get users to pay the deposit and expand DiDi Bike’s pool of funds.

Hu Weijian and Zhang Haibo exchanged blank looks. They hadn’t heard the news about OFO’s launch yet, hence their confusion.

"In October, Senlian Capital founded a bike-sharing company called Xingchi. This morning, they deployed 3,000 bikes in Hang City and adopted a deposit-free business model."

Songtian Road briefly explained the background.

"Boss, I get it now," Zhang Haibo replied. "I’ll coordinate with Lao Hu. From a technical standpoint, it’s not difficult."

"We can develop it and go live in twenty days," Hu Weijian guaranteed.

"We don’t need to be that fast. If OFO wants to prove its business model, it will take them at least two or three months. It’s better to strive for perfection and ensure there are no system bugs at launch."

Cheng Wei waved his hand and added a word of caution.

He’d been traumatized by professional bonus hunters and Gray Studios, and he was afraid that one careless mistake from Hu Weijian or Zhang Haibo could once again cause massive losses for the project.

This time, he was aiming for stability, not speed!

Besides, even if these two features were completed, he wouldn’t launch them immediately—not before OFO entered the North China Market.

’Let’s collect the deposits first!’

"Okay, boss," Hu Weijian quickly responded.

After Hu Weijian and Zhang Haibo left, Cheng Wei asked, "The second-generation DiDi Bike is about to be deployed. You and the operations department need to coordinate well. Put the user’s riding experience first."

"Yes, President Cheng," Songtian Road answered.

The second-generation DiDi Bike was the polar opposite of the first. Not only did it feature an all-aluminum frame, but it was also equipped with magnesium-aluminum alloy wheels, solid puncture-proof tires, and a smart lock, combining the advantages of durability, security, and being easy to locate.

The problem was, while the combination of solid puncture-proof tires and magnesium-aluminum alloy wheels did effectively reduce the risk of flats, the riding experience was hard to put into words. It was acceptable on flat ground, but going uphill was torture.

’He knew, and he knew that Cheng Wei knew too, but there was nothing to be done. To extend the service life of the DiDi Bikes, they had to sacrifice some of the user experience.’

「Meanwhile.」

「Hang City, Wulin Square Subway Station.」

Hu Weiyi, Wang Zihao, and a group of mid-to-high-level managers from Xingchi Technology were each riding an OFO bike, heading west along North Ring Road.

This was a requirement from Chen Yansen for the managers of his subsidiary companies: they had to experience the entire process of using their own products.

Just like with Kuai Pao Delivery, it didn’t matter if you were a supervisor, director, or general manager—you had to log at least eight hours a year on the Kuai Pao Rider app.

Otherwise, the policies set by the business and R&D departments could easily become misguided and lose their human touch.

"This bike is good quality. It’s fast enough, the handlebars are steady, and it’s not hard to pedal uphill."

Wang Zihao had been riding bikes since middle school and was an excellent cyclist. After riding for three or four kilometers, he stopped and spoke to Hu Weiyi.

The dozen or so remaining executives, with cold sweat beading on their foreheads, parked their bikes at the entrance to Wanxiang Park. They plopped down on the ground and started massaging their thighs and calves.

"The design drafts were revised several times before the boss finally approved them. Within the constraints of the supply cost, the performance of the OFO bike is already top-tier. If we opened a flagship store on Pinbei, I bet the sales figures wouldn’t be half bad."

Hu Weiyi glanced at the group of executives resting by the roadside and secretly shook her head.

"That’s a good idea. It might even become a new point of profit growth for our project."

Wang Zihao replied seriously after a moment of thought.

"I was just kidding," Hu Weiyi said, slightly taken aback.

"Then that just proves President Hu really has a talent for business," Wang Zihao said with a loud laugh.

Hu Weiyi just smiled and didn’t take it to heart, treating it as a joke.

But Wang Zihao thought there was real potential in it!

However, the most important thing for Xingchi Technology right now was to first fully test and master their operations and business model, then gradually expand their deployment scale and service area. After that, they could use their economies of scale to renegotiate with suppliers in hopes of getting lower prices.

Chen Yansen had said that if worse came to worst, they could just buy a bicycle factory. It would save costs and create more jobs.

As they were trying out the OFO bikes, the locals in Hang City, who had already enjoyed free taxi rides, were now being treated to a wave of free bike rides.

On the day of registration, new users received seven 1-yuan coupons. One coupon became active each day, allowing for a free ride of up to 30 minutes.

Tapping into Cheng Weixing’s network, Wang Zihao easily got the OFO bikes onto the campuses of Jiang University, Jiang University of Technology, Jiangliu University, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Normal University.

After all, Cheng Weixing had been around Hang City for over a decade. His title as the executive director of the Hang City University Student Entrepreneurship Alliance might not carry much weight elsewhere, but it was definitely effective when it came to university resources.

For university students, spending just one yuan to ride from a classroom building to their dorm or the cafeteria was not a hard sell.

OFO bikes spread like wildfire across the campuses!

After using their ride coupon for the day, students usually wouldn’t wait for the next day but would choose to pay to continue using the service.

One coupon a day—first cultivate the users and the market, then think about profits.

On the first day of launch, the 3,000 OFO shared bikes earned a total of 7,400 yuan. After deducting costs for depreciation, maintenance, operations, and labor, the gross margin was less than 10%.

This showed that the bike-sharing industry, much like the ride-hailing industry, was a business that could only become profitable through economies of scale.

Burn cash in the early stages, reap the rewards later.

Of course, if you failed to become the final winner in the industry, then all the money you invested upfront would be for nothing.

Take, for example, the companies that collapsed during the "Thousand-Groupon War," like Gaopeng Network, WoWo Group, and 24quan. Investment firms had poured in billions, and in the end, they didn’t get a single cent back.

...

...

「Xucheng, Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Building 9.」

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair, reading a work email from Hu Weiyi. The product’s trial run on its first day had generated 7,400 yuan in revenue.

In his view, it was an excellent start.

Once the deployment scaled up to one million bikes, they could generate one billion yuan in annual revenue. Three million bikes would mean three billion in revenue.

In addition, when the time was right, OFO could enter the shared electric vehicle market and partner with Kuai Pao to run a battery-swapping business for Electric Vehicles.

This way, the advantages of having multiple subsidiaries and business lines would become apparent. Many resources could be shared, including maintenance, repair, and dispatch personnel.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Just then, a knock came from the door.

"Come in!"

Chen Yansen responded.

Zhou Shouzhi walked in, holding two new products.

"The engineering prototypes for the Orange Pad 1 and the Orange MagicBook? They look pretty good. Lin Qingbai’s design sense has improved quickly."

Chen Yansen let go of his mouse and teased with a smile.

Previously, when Lin Qingbai was designing the Moss (Alexa) Smart Speaker, Chen Yansen had put him through the wringer so many times that he nearly quit.

"If President Lin heard that, he’d probably be too excited to sleep all night," Zhou Shouzhi said with a faint smile, joining in on the banter.

"What are you and Wang Teng thinking?" Chen Yansen asked, leaning back and looking at Zhou Shouzhi.

Orange Technology’s new products were all in preparation. The Orange Pad 1 and Orange MagicBook were two "money-making" products. From hardware to software, they had almost no self-developed patents; it was all pragmatism.

Therefore, Chen Yansen had no intention of "hyping up" these two transitional products at next year’s spring launch event.

Because, to put it bluntly, aside from their cost-effectiveness, the Orange Pad 1 and Orange MagicBook had few other outstanding advantages.

They were merely meant to fill gaps in the product line and could be considered trial products for Orange Technology.

"Wang Teng wants to hold a small launch event in the form of a livestream. If we don’t do any warm-up or publicity and just rely on hard-selling through online channels, it will be difficult to boost the reputation and sales of the Orange Pad 1 and Orange MagicBook."

Zhou Shouzhi slowly explained.

"That’s fine. Don’t worry about resources. We’ll have What’s Worth Buying and Toutiao start by seeding content and sending push notifications. After that, Pinbei will drive site-wide traffic to the Orange Pad 1 and Orange MagicBook."

Chen Yansen arranged, unhurriedly.

’There’s no shame in making money!’

If sales met expectations, the Aurora Future OS would be installed on the next generation of Orange tablets and laptops.

"Okay, boss." Zhou Shouzhi nodded slightly, then placed the engineering prototypes on Chen Yansen’s desk for him to try out.

The two of them talked for about ten minutes and finally set the product’s launch date for November 25th.

「Meanwhile.」

After receiving an 800 million Hua Yuan investment from Qian Du Network, DiDi Dache quickly expanded its business into the Central China Region.

Faced with the subsidy provocations from Fast Taxi, DiDi remained unmoved, intent on just laying low.

However, without subsidies for existing customers, DiDi Dache’s growth was extremely slow, and it posed almost zero threat to Fast Taxi.