Chapter 769: Chapter 517: Feels good?
For a long ti, the person from ituan who liaised with Cheng Zhu was Murong Jun, one of ituan’s co-founders and an executive director.
This individual was ranked 2,279th on the Hurun Global Rich List in 2024 with a personal wealth of 11 billion RMB.
Note, it was the Global Rich List.
Years later, he maintained such a level of wealth, not to ntion Wang Xin.
It is worth ntioning that in the “2022 Hurun World’s Top 500” list announced at the end of 2022, ituan ranked 103rd.
In the sa year, Wang Xin’s net worth surpassed 100 billion!
This company, which had an estimated valuation of just 7 billion dollars at the start of 2015, would make rapid progress in the following years and soar to new heights!
If… it wasn’t disturbed by external forces and developed smoothly, that is.
At this mont, Wang Xin was also unwilling to wait any longer.
He had Murong Jun, who had always been in touch with Cheng Zhu, to make connections, and then he personally went to recruit this talent.
That very night, Wang Xin made a brief call to Cheng Zhu and arranged a ti, indicating he would fly to Hang City tomorrow to have a detailed talk with him.
Although the current situation of ituan was tense and sowhat embarrassing, the ambitious Wang Xin was still full of grand aspirations for the future.
He had already thought it through, “Just bringing in quality rchants is far from enough!”
“Once ituan is on the right track, we could also set up an investnt firm.”
“We could totally participate in the financing of erging restaurant brands at the ti of their rise!”
“In doing so, we could profit and achieve deep integration.”
Wang Xin even ca up with a na for the investnt company, calling it ituan Dragon Ball Capital.
This Wang Xin, often nicknad “Little Ma Yun” due to his appearance, his ambition was underestimated by many.
Little Ma Yun?
Hehe!
As for the future of ituan, Wang Xin had a mature “Three Carriages” plan, and ituan Dragon Ball was one of them.
In his view, Youu Tea was an excellent investnt opportunity.
It’s just a pity that ituan, having just erged as king from the “Thousand Group War” by stepping over corpses, was now about to throw itself into the “Takeout War” and burn through cash again, feeling sowhat eager but helpless.
However, as an old hand with multiple entrepreneurial experiences, he was not the least bit shaken.
——It doesn’t matter at all; he could still paint a big picture.
…
…
The next day, Wang Xin flew to Hang City and arrived at Cheng Zhu’s company.
That very afternoon, the term “ituan Youu Tea” topped the Weibo trending search list.
Interestingly, this ti it wasn’t a covert operation by Cheng Zhu; he hadn’t inford the public that Wang Xin would visit the company that day.
He guessed it was ituan’s own doing, coveting the surge of traffic Ele had enjoyed the night before!
Today’s trending topic intercepted that montum.
The buzz no longer focused on “Youu Tea is about to join Ele” but conveyed that “everyone is in talks with Youu Tea, and the outco is still undecided.”
Anyway, ituan’s idea was simple: whether it could secure a deal in the end or not, it aid to ride on Youu Tea’s coattails and snag so of yesterday’s traffic for Ele.
If they didn’t grab a share, it would feel like a loss.
Cheng Zhu saw all this unfolding before his eyes.
After eting Wang Xin, seeing the person himself, Cheng Zhu could understand why he earned the nickna “Little Ma Yun.”
Looking at photos of the two, they seed sowhat alike, but in person, the resemblance was even more pronounced.
Moreover, ituan, which later relied on Tencent’s backing, now had Alibaba behind it.
So, the nickna wasn’t that surprising.
In his heart, Cheng Zhu was actually quite curious, “Does he like this nickna? Does he see it as a complint, or mockery?”
After eting Wang Xin, Cheng Zhu did the sa thing he had done the day before, which was to take him on a tour of his company.
But he was well aware that the young Zhang Xuhao’s impressions after the visit and the seasoned entrepreneur Wang Xin’s impressions would differ sharply.
Zhang Xuhao was left with many thoughts after his visit.
Wang Xin, on the other hand, simply exchanged pleasantries with Cheng Zhu.
After sitting down in the office, Cheng Zhu couldn’t offer an iced Coke as he did to Zhang Xuhao, so he started making tea.
Wang Xin was also playful for a mont, even asking, “Mr. Cheng, do you have Youu Tea leaves for making tea in the company? Can we brew a pot to try?”
“Oh? I do have so in my office indeed!” Cheng Zhu laughed.
During the tea-drinking session, the content of the conversation was more or less the sa as the day before.
However, Cheng Zhu could feel that Wang Xin was keener to control the pace of the conversation and guide the topics.
In response, he didn’t mind “cooperating” with him.
Throughout the process, Wang Xin repeatedly brought up Alibaba.
He even said, “I’m going to Alibaba tomorrow as well, Mr. Cheng, if you’re interested you could join . Alibaba is quite interested in new catering too, from what I know, they also plan to invest in it.”
In Wang Xin’s view, Alibaba, after all, was Hang City’s local behemoth.
Being from Hang City, Cheng Zhu would have a different kind of reverence and admiration for such a local giant.
Indeed, at this stage, Alibaba’s reputation in the investnt field wasn’t as bad as it beca later, and that’s why Wang Xin brought it up.
Mainly, with the passage of ti, Alibaba’s investnts were leading to failures one after another, and with more examples each year, naturally, the reviews got worse and worse.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Zhu was scoffing inside.
“Others may not know about Alibaba’s shady practices, but you, backed by Alibaba, surely do?”
“Do you forget the grievances you suffered at Alibaba after Tencent launched ‘WeChat Red Packet Snatching’?”
“And now you’re painting this big pie of a next-round financing from Alibaba for ? Sorry, but I’m not the least bit interested.”
At the ti, the “Red Packet Snatching” feature, which was developed by Tencent’s WeChat team lead by Zhang Xiaolong in just over a dozen days, was a stroke of genius.
A feature that now seems quite mundane was an instant hit nationwide when launched, with the number of WeChat Paynts users skyrocketing!
Just this little feature put unprecedented pressure on Alipay!
Jack Ma even likened it to the “Pearl Harbor attack.”
You should know, during the “Thousand Group War”, ituan’s archrival Dianping had Tencent’s support.
After the rise of WeChat Pay, Dianping gained a convenient third-party paynt channel.
It should be noted that Tencent could already provide Dianping with continuous social traffic. Now, with the convenience of mobile paynts and, even more fatally, lower transaction fees than Alipay, Dianping’s growth rate reached twice that of ituan.
Seeing this situation, Wang Xin, of course, went crying to his big brother for support!
You’re talking about paynts, right? Your WeChat Pay has just started to rise, but my big brother is the eternal king in the third-party paynt field!
“I, Little Ma Yun, am requesting backup!”
But what was the result?
Alibaba’s reaction: “We’ve just been sneak-attacked in the third-party paynt field by Tencent, and ‘ituan’, our very own platform, has already amassed over 200 million registered users, covering 1000 cities, with 800,000 partnering rchants… Ti to start slaughter!”
Why not take advantage when it’s fattened up?
With so many small businesses in ituan’s hands, if they could take it all in one fell swoop, why fear Tencent’s stealth attack?
Wang Xin, who ca to request backup, but big brother even made a demand: hey Xin, how about setting Alipay as ituan’s sole paynt thod?
Wang Xin: No, wait… you… … damn it!
Alibaba’s consistent strategy is as follows: it invests in you, ultimately hoping you can give back to Alibaba.
That was a crucial mont for ituan to battle Dianping.
It was beneficial for Alibaba, sure, but setting up a single paynt mode would inconvenient the custors and put ituan at a greater disadvantage in the fight.
That is precisely why Wang Xin later turned his sights on the takeout market, deciding to dominate the market, broaden his business, and crush Dianping!
It must be said, Boss Wang’s business acun was indeed sharp, and his strategic layout was faultless, always able to pull the company through crises, an incredibly capable player!
Leveraging his experience from the “Thousand Group War”, his attack on Zhang Xuhao of Ele was an overt tactical move.
It’s just unfortunate that Tencent pulled Dianping into investing in Ele, making the situation once again unpredictable.
“Tencent! Always Tencent!”
To Boss Wang, Dianping investing in Ele was sowhat expected, after all, as the final two kings of the group-buying field, the battle wasn’t over.
But Tencent, this behemoth, was too tough to handle.
And Xuahao’s Alibaba only thought of “slaughter when fattened”…
So, regardless of Boss Wang’s confident chat with Cheng Zhu, he was actually full of worries, desperately seeking a breakthrough.
Why had Cheng Zhu decided to join a takeout platform this year?
He had figured out that neither ituan nor Ele was free from their own predicants!
In such scenarios, he could stand firr.
In 2015, the turning points in the “Takeout War” were plentiful.
The more such situations arose, the more he could stir the pot, paving the way for his future “Short-video Platform” and so local city service functions.
As a Reborn, he was viewing the big picture from a high vantage point!
When he wanted to be a spectator, he observed in the cold, letting events unfold just like in his previous life.
When he wanted to make changes, he could simply reach down from above and alter the course of the ga!
At this mont, after finishing the talk about Alibaba, Wang Xin began to paint so new big pictures for Cheng Zhu.
Cheng Zhu knew they were pie in the sky, but he listened with great amusent, finding it quite intriguing.
In fact, from the pure standpoint of a participating rchant, Cheng Zhu definitely hoped the future wouldn’t be dominated by ituan Takeout alone.
Because once monopoly ensued, the knives wouldn’t be directed outwards, but inwards!
“In a few years, for rchants, riders, custors… after ituan becos the dominant player, I really want to ask you all…”
“——Are you having a good ti?”
…
(ps: Second update, seeking monthly tickets.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)