’How are their operational strategies so alike?’
The high subsidies and red envelope promotions were all old tricks from Fast Taxi. Even the content marketing and cross-platform collaborations were copied straight from Cheng Weixing’s playbook.
Li Yanhong looked at Xiang Hailong with displeasure, thinking irritably, ’I didn’t promote you just to copy Cheng Weixing. You have to have some original ideas, don’t you?’
As Xiang Hailong was speaking, he caught a glimpse of his boss’s expression. His heart sank, and he immediately changed his tune. "Second, bind payment scenarios and integrate with our digital map services. We can leverage the high-frequency use of the navigation function to increase exposure and orders for DiDi Dache.
Fifth, optimize the product experience to increase user stickiness. We will use data analysis to improve the order matching rate and reduce driver dead-heading. We’ll also implement features like voice input and a deposit system to improve order acceptance efficiency.
On the passenger side, we’ll need to improve location accuracy, reduce ride rejections from drivers, and utilize the red envelope sharing feature to create a viral social loop, thereby lowering our user acquisition costs..."
Hearing this, Li Yanhong’s expression softened, and his brow unfurrowed.
After Xiang Hailong finished his report, Wang Jin added an update on the progress of refactoring the DiDi Dache software and the planned improvements for its features.
"For the North China Market plus six cities in East China, what’s the approximate daily marketing budget?" Li Yanhong pressed.
"Between 10 and 12 million," Xiang Hailong answered uneasily, taking a deep breath.
’From a strategic perspective, he’s practically no different from Cheng Wei.’
’No sign of any business talent whatsoever, just blindly throwing money at the problem.’
’Three hundred million a month?’
Li Yanhong’s breath caught, and a tightness spread across his chest.
Combining ride-hailing, group buying, food delivery, and map services could indeed create a synergy of user traffic and monetization, fulfilling the O2O strategic layout for the Qian Du LBS Department.
The problem was that Senlian Capital had pioneered this model. Qian Du was just an imitator, and the capital required to gain more market share would be astronomical.
Passengers had absolutely no loyalty to ride-hailing platforms. The moment subsidies stopped, so did their patronage.
The business model was great. Its only flaw was that it burned through too much cash.
Even for someone like Li Yanhong, the prospect of losing 300 million a month was staggering.
Ping’an and Temasek Capital had both expressed interest in investing in DiDi Dache, but both firms were demanding that Li Yanhong quickly complete a merger with Fast Taxi.
To put it bluntly: they were willing to invest, but Li Yanhong couldn’t just use their money as kindling.
As for the merger?
Chen Yansen would never agree!
"The group will exclusively handle DiDi Dache’s Series E funding round. Don’t worry about a shortage of capital. We need to accelerate our expansion into new cities and build up our scale. Use subsidies to rapidly close the gap with Fast Taxi, then gradually phase out direct subsidies and shift to indirect incentives like points and shopping vouchers. We must move from a subsidy war to rational competition!"
Li Yanhong looked at Wang Jin and Xiang Hailong, stressing his points with a hint of unease.
The two nodded repeatedly, the immense pressure settling on them.
With no third-party investors involved, the parent group would be the sole recipient of the divested equity from the Series E round. While this increased their ownership stake, it also meant they were footing the entire bill for the daily cash burn. The big boss’s demands would naturally become even more stringent.
"Go on, get to work," Li Yanhong said with a wave of his hand.
In his view, DiDi Dache’s current market share was only twenty percent, mainly because its service coverage was too small. Once they entered the East China, Central China, and South China markets and raised their daily orders to over three million, it was still anyone’s game.
He refused to believe that Qian Du couldn’t beat Senlian!
At the same time, when Wang Xin learned that Qian Du Delivery’s orders had easily surpassed thirty thousand on its first day, he was furious. Still, he had to admit the truth.
Faced with a BAT giant, Meituan was completely outmatched.
It had taken him a full week to get Meituan Takeout’s daily orders to thirty thousand.
Now, Meituan had plenty of delivery capacity but was facing a shortage of orders.
The delivery drivers he had painstakingly recruited were either jumping ship to Kuai Pao or running deliveries for Qian Du Delivery.
After all, the drivers were all contracted through third-party companies and had no direct employment relationship with Meituan. It saved on labor costs and simplified management, but it also meant Meituan had no real hold over them.
"Meituan Takeout has ironed out its operational workflow here in Yanjing. It’s time to expand."
Wang Xin said to Wang Huiwen.
If it remained confined to one region, Meituan’s delivery business would never be able to grow.
Especially after securing 75 million US dollars in a funding round led by Pan-Atlantic with participation from Redwood Capital, Wang Xin’s ambitions swelled. He was ready to take on Qian Du and Senlian Capital in both the group buying and food delivery sectors.
"South or north?" Wang Huiwen asked.
South meant expanding into East China, Central China, or even the greater Southern China region. North left only the Northeast.
"North," Wang Xin said simply.
He wanted to avoid a direct confrontation for now. First, he would conquer the overlooked Northeast market. The larger their scale, the more bargaining power they would have, and the more they could attract the favor of venture capital firms.
This strategy was identical to their playbook in the group buying sector; he knew it like the back of his hand.
It was also Meituan’s comfort zone: focus on third- and fourth-tier cities first, then circle back to challenge the first- and second-tier cities, ultimately winning through superior scale.
But Pei Yi was watching Meituan’s every move. The plan to conquer the Northeast’s food delivery market had barely been drafted before the complete details landed on his desk.
"The Northeast?"
Pei Yi snorted. He planned to advance on all fronts.
He would develop the South China Market, but he wouldn’t give up the Northeast market either.