Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Ye Yi thought for a moment. He needed an electric kettle at home, so he searched in the "Ten-Billion Subsidy" channel and found a Supor 1.8L electric kettle priced at only 99 yuan.

But he didn’t rush to place an order. Instead, he switched apps and searched for the same brand and model on Jingdong.

yuan!

Ye Yi was stunned. He hadn’t expected the price difference between the two e-commerce platforms to be so large.

So, without a second thought, he submitted the order on Pinbei and paid. This time, the pop-up window showed a "5,000 yuan Yu’e Bao trial fund."

Seeing the bright red and glittering gold of the digital red envelope, a satisfied smile touched Ye Yi’s lips.

A 5,000 yuan trial fund, valid for seven days, meant 4.9 yuan in Yu’e Bao earnings.

「Meanwhile.」

Kuai Pao users who ordered a 20-yuan meal could also receive a Yu’e Bao trial fund ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 yuan. For every 100 yuan added to a stored-value card, they would get a 5,000 yuan trial fund, up to a maximum of 200,000 yuan.

Passengers on Fast Taxi could also receive a trial fund of 500 to 2,000 yuan after their trip. Existing Yu’e Bao users received a minimum of 500 yuan, while new users could get up to 2,000 yuan. For every 100 yuan of ride credit they added, they would receive a 5,000 yuan trial fund, with the same 200,000 yuan cap as the Pinbei and Kuai Pao platforms.

On the day Yu’e Bao launched, besides promotional spots on the Orange Application Mall, Lingxi Browser, and Toutiao, Pinbei, Kuai Pao, and Fast Taxi also launched joint campaigns. Even Cloud Speed Express couriers would casually hand customers a product poster during their deliveries.

This had always been Chen Yansen’s operational style.

Simple and brutal: flood it with money, and flood it with traffic!

By 5:15 PM, the number of users who had activated Yu’e Bao had already reached 2 million, and the total fund size had soared to 10.06 billion Hua Yuan.

"Boss, should we contact a few media outlets and announce the specific funding figures?"

Inside Building Seven of the Zhuxianzhuang Science and Technology Park, Orange Pay CEO Zhang Yinjia asked Chen Yansen.

Publicly disclosing Yu’e Bao’s fund size would, first, enhance user trust. It would allow them to understand Yu’e Bao’s strength and operational status. A larger scale implied stronger capital management and greater risk resilience, which would attract more users to deposit funds into Yu’e Bao.

Second, it would demonstrate their market position, increase their industry influence, and help them establish partnerships with more fund companies.

But there were also many downsides.

First, Yu’e Bao’s ’T+0’ redemption method didn’t comply with the current fund market regulations.

Second, Yu’e Bao’s 5.1% seven-day annualized yield was, in effect, poaching users from the banks. If they angered the banks, there was no guarantee the banks wouldn’t use policy to clamp down on Orange Pay.

"Release it!" Chen Yansen answered succinctly.

The banks were all perfectly aware of the flow of user funds. Burying your head in the sand wouldn’t stop them from coming to cause trouble.

Better to act first and deal with the consequences later.

The larger Yu’e Bao’s fund size grew, the more the banks would have to fear.

If they acted timidly and just tried to lie low, they might be crushed with a single finger by the powers that be.

’Weakness is the original sin. Who ever heard of the strong being suppressed?!’

"Understood, Boss," Zhang Yinjia immediately replied.

「An hour later.」

Thanks to the efforts of the Orange Pay Market Department, keywords like "Yu’e Bao," "10 Billion Fund," "Wealth Management for All," and "5.1% Instant-Access Return" quietly began trending.

Number one on Toutiao’s trending list!

Number one on Lingxi Search’s popular topics!

Number three on Weibo’s trending list!

"Yu’e Bao Launches, Grabs Attention with 5.1% 7-Day Annualized Yield!"

"Orange Pay Rolls Out Yu’e Bao, Deposits Start at 1 Yuan, Kicking Off a New Era of Wealth Management for All!"

"Yu’e Bao Debuts on October 11, a New Venture in Fusing Finance and the Internet. In Less Than a Day, It Rakes In 10 Billion!"

The comment sections exploded, with netizens flooding them with messages.

"I finally figured out how to get a free tea egg every day. Just keep ten thousand yuan in Yu’e Bao!"

"I finally figured out how to get a free iPhone 5! Just keep five million in Yu’e Bao, and you can get a new one every week!"

"So let me ask you! Where do you get the five million for free?"

"I put my entire semester’s living expenses into Yu’e Bao. Earning a few yuan a day is way better than letting it sit in my bank account!"

"A few yuan a day? Looks like we have a Brother Fu here! Send me 50 yuan and show me what you’ve got!"

To be fair, for the vast majority of the working class, the few tens of thousands of yuan they had on hand usually just sat in their bank accounts collecting dust, not generating a single cent of interest.

The moment Yu’e Bao launched, it provided these people with an investment channel for their small sums of money.

As soon as users opened Orange Pay, they saw the slogan: "Move your spare change to Yu’e Bao for returns 14 times higher than a regular savings account."

Even cash-strapped college students were putting their living expenses into Yu’e Bao. Over a month, they could earn enough to at least buy breakfast.

Yu’e Bao’s high-profile launch sent shockwaves through the industry.

Even its partner, Sky Rich Fund, was stunned to learn that Yu’e Bao’s fund inflows had already reached 10 billion.

’Had internet finance actually succeeded?’

The collision of tens of millions of users’ worth of traffic with a money market fund had actually produced such astonishing results.

After all, domestic fund companies ranged in size from a few billion to a few tens of billions. At Yu’e Bao’s current growth rate, even 100 billion might not be its limit.

It wasn’t just fund industry professionals who were shocked; even the senior executives at major banks were rattled.

The people who made it to senior management at the banks were no fools. They quickly realized the threat Yu’e Bao posed to their own savings products.

But they were helpless. After all, Orange Pay had both an electronic payment license and a fund sales license, making it fully compliant and legal.

However, some extremely sharp individuals noticed something. Yu’e Bao allowed users to purchase fund products with their regular spending accounts. This violated a rule in the Fund Sales Management Regulations stating that "fund payment and settlement accounts must be effectively isolated from other accounts."

In other words, when a third-party payment tool simultaneously handled both e-commerce and fund sale payments, the two account types were supposed to be kept separate. Yu’e Bao, however, had broken through this restriction.

Furthermore, the promotions on Kuai Pao, Fast Taxi, and Pinbei Mall that gave away Yu’e Bao trial funds for placing orders or adding funds to a card also violated a regulation. This rule stated that one "may not use methods such as lotteries, rebates, or giving away physical goods, insurance, or fund shares to sell funds."

Although these three companies had no equity stake in Orange Pay, they shared the same boss, which meant they had naturally crossed a red line.

Instantly, jealous fund companies and banks filed a joint complaint against Orange Pay’s practices with the Bank Association and the Fund Management Association, demanding immediate corrective action.

But to their surprise, the authorities didn’t agree.

"Orange Pay has indeed violated regulations and crossed red lines, but it hasn’t broken the law. Moreover, Yu’e Bao’s sales momentum is strong. I think Chen Yansen can blaze a new trail for internet finance."

"I hear Ali Baba in Hang City is planning to launch a similar money market fund product. They’ve even registered the name... what was it? Lingqiantong?"

"Penguin in Shencheng City has its eye on this business too!"

"That’s why I say we should let Orange Pay proceed. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, we can’t tell for sure right now, so let’s just wait and see."

In Yanjing, inside the Bank Association Building, a few industry titans rejected the complaint against Orange Pay after a brief discussion.

The implication was clear: You can do it too.

But they wouldn’t issue any clear regulations. If it proved successful, then the Bank Association had provided sound guidance. If it caused a mess, they would be crushed without mercy.

With this, the "T+1" fund redemption mechanism was effectively dead. As long as a platform used a pre-funded float, it could bypass the regulation and turn a money market fund into an "instant deposit and withdrawal" investment, just like a savings account.

Of course, some people piped up, saying, "Money market fund returns may be stable, but they still carry risks. They aren’t as safe as a bank’s fixed-term deposits."

But these voices were quickly drowned out.

After receiving the response from the authorities, the major fund companies and banks could only resign themselves to figuring out a counter-strategy.

A product for managing spare cash like Yu’e Bao wasn’t something you could launch just because you wanted to. For one, there were policy risks. For another, it required massive traffic resources. This was the root of their frustration.

At 11:59:59 PM on October 11, the number of activated Yu’e Bao users had easily surpassed the 2.7 million mark, with a total fund size of 14.39 billion Hua Yuan!