"How many shares are you planning to divest this time?"
Hearing that Chen Pingjiang's Renrengou was looking for financing, Shen Nanpeng eagerly rushed over, accompanied by over a dozen other investment firms.
"I still hold 85% of the equity. In this round, I plan to dilute 15%, and after setting aside 20% for the option pool, I'll still retain 50% myself."
"Oh, you're usually so stingy. Why are you diluting so much all at once? It's not like you."
Chen Pingjiang smiled and said,
"It will take at least half a year after Renrenwang goes public for me to cash out, and I can only cash out a little each time. The money I have now and the money I'll get later will all go towards filling the void of Orange Phone. Phones and chips are money pits; throw in hundreds of millions, and you won't even see a splash."
Shen Nanpeng chuckled,
"You're too ambitious. You want to build your own factories, invest heavily in R&D, and even dare to make chips. I don't know what to say to you."
Chen Pingjiang's thoughts were indeed correct.
It's best not to involve investors with Orange Phone and the chip company.
Investors only look at profit and would never agree to huge R&D investments; in their eyes, that's throwing money away.
From this, it's understandable why Huawei and DJI don't go public.
"The money raised from releasing 15% in this round probably won't be enough. Will there be a third round?"
Shen Nanpeng asked.
"We'll see then. Don't always keep an eye on my business."
"I'm keeping an eye on you right now. Isn't it foolish not to make money when you can?"
Even during Renrenwang's second round of financing, Chen Pingjiang pulled off a bold move that was frighteningly aggressive.
Seeing a profit to be made, investment firms still swarmed around him like flies.
There was nothing they could do; Chen Pingjiang's credibility was too strong.
The surge in Renrenwang's stock price on its listing day was clear proof.
Half a month later, Renrengou announced that it had raised a total of 450 million USD in its recently concluded C-round financing.
This round was led by Sequoia Capital, with General Atlantic, IDG, and Temasek as co-investors.
The pre-financing valuation was 3 billion USD.
This valuation was debated for a long time back then, with opinions divided.
Chen Pingjiang believed that Renrengou, as the leader in the group-buying sector, was appropriately valued at 3.5 billion USD.
However, the investors stated that the group-buying war was far from over, and anything could happen.
They were only willing to accept a valuation of 2.5 billion USD.
In the end, everyone took a step back, and the valuation was set at 3 billion.
These investment firms weren't wrong; the environments faced by group buying and Renrenwang were different.
Renrenwang was an SNS, and at that time, no major companies personally entered the market to compete with it, and internet dissemination was fast.
But group buying was different.
Didn't Lashouwang, a star player in the first half, ultimately fail to go public?
Moreover, Baidu, Tencent, and even Alibaba had already chosen their steeds and entered the arena.
Nobody was sure how the group-buying battle would ultimately turn out.
The outside world wasn't overly sensitive to this financing news; everyone was already somewhat accustomed to it.
Would Chen Pingjiang still be Chen Pingjiang if he didn't stir up some excitement?
450 million USD was no small sum.
When Gao Songbin received the first installment, he felt his back straighten a bit.
The recent group-buying battle was intense, and with no money in hand, he was truly panicked.
The shameless Meituan and Dazhong Dianping had even begun openly using money to secure merchants, aiming to shake Renrengou's foundation.
"Meituan just finished their city manager conference last month, and this month they're immediately preparing for a merchant conference. It's quite a big move,"
said Gao Songbin.
"They also raised money a while ago and are now quite rich, digging into our merchant resources everywhere. Some high-quality merchants were even offered a 1 million advance payment, and after being poached, they sign new exclusive agreements."
"Dazhong Dianping is doing the same."
From over five thousand at the start, only a few hundred group-buying websites remained, but each of the remaining ones was very strong, and cash-burning subsidies became increasingly common.
"We can't retreat now; we must fight for every inch of ground,"
said Chen Pingjiang.
"It's not like before, where we could let them fight first. We've entered the second half. If we don't charge now, we'll just have to pack up and leave."
"If they hold merchant conferences, we'll hold them too. If they subsidize merchants, we'll subsidize them too. We won't let a single one go."
"Now it's a competition of who can last longer and who has more money to burn. If we stabilize this step, Meituan and Dazhong Dianping will either merge or close down; there's no third option."
Not only in the merchant sector, but building advertisements from various companies were also flying everywhere.
What's amusing is that Renrengou, having deeply cultivated first- and second-tier markets and holding the highest market share, placed all its building advertisements in third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities, which were their weak points.
Meituan and Dazhong Dianping did the opposite, wanting to penetrate Renrengou's heartland, desperately running advertisements in first- and second-tier cities.
...
Hilton Hotel Conference Hall, Shanghai.
City managers from Meituan, Baidu Nuomi, and Dazhong Dianping in Shanghai gathered together.
Yuan Zhiyu, Meituan's city manager, cleared his throat and said,
"According to our internal information, Alibaba will be holding a pretty big online promotion on November 11th. I think that's a good date. The reason I've called everyone here is to suggest that our three companies unite and hold a larger event on that same day. We can use this event to catch Renrengou off guard and carve out as many users from them as possible."
Liao Bochen, Baidu Nuomi's manager, and Wang Shi, Dazhong Dianping's city manager, exchanged glances.
"Renrengou has such a large scale; how big an event would we need to really make a dent?"
Yuan Zhiyu said,
"Shanghai has almost been monopolized by Renrengou, making it extremely difficult for our companies to expand our business. Rather than slowly being worn down, it's better to seize this opportunity to muddy the waters and grab as much as we can, otherwise, none of us will have a chance."
"What kind of promotional intensity are you planning to use?"
Yuan Zhiyu smiled,
"The authority I've been given is a 50% discount on all items, with merchants subsidizing a portion and our company subsidizing another portion."
Liao Bochen and Wang Shi secretly clicked their tongues.
"We need to go back and report this, but it shouldn't be a big problem."
"Why go back? The longer this drags on, the bigger the trouble if Renrengou finds out. I suggest you make the calls now."
Approximately twenty minutes later, the two rushed back to the conference room.
"I'm good on my end."
"Me too!"
"Good!"
Yuan Zhiyu chuckled.
"In the Shanghai market, our three companies will form an allied force to deal with Renrengou. Everyone will divide their respective areas and run activities in those areas. No matter how powerful Renrengou is, they can't possibly deal with all three of us at once, can they?"
Wang Shi, Dazhong Dianping's city manager, frowned.
"I think Renrengou definitely won't be kept in the dark about this promotion. Whether it's through merchant conferences or private communications, they've been operating in Shanghai for so long, someone among those merchants is bound to notify them."
Yuan Zhiyu said,
"That shouldn't happen. We'll keep the scope small, everyone will select some high-quality merchants, and we'll sign confidentiality agreements. Anyone who dares to leak it will be sued to death. We'll start promoting three or four days before the event; by then, even if Renrengou finds out, they won't have time to react."
...
"Come in!"
Chen Pingjiang called out after hearing a knock at the door.
After seeing who it was, he smiled and said,
"Why are you here?"
Ge Mengshi walked quickly over and handed him an invitation.
"Meituan, Baidu Nuomi, and Dazhong Dianping have jointly invited several of our brand managers to attend a merchant conference in Shanghai. I've come to ask for your opinion."
Chen Pingjiang frowned suspiciously.
"That doesn't make sense, does it? Don't they know I have shares in Zhizhen Catering? At least seeing that the office headquarters are together should tell them, right?"
"I'm not sure about that, but wasn't the legal representative on the business license changed to me before? As for shares, they can't be checked online now unless they conduct a company background check.
But I'm sure they don't know the company address, because the express mail was sent to Zhizhen Catering's previous office location, and the landlord's contact person there sent it over."
Chen Pingjiang, realizing what happened, wore an amused expression.
"Interesting."
Clearly, these three companies were planning something big, which is why they issued a joint invitation.
However, because the sender didn't conduct a background check, and because Zhizhen Catering and Renrenwang's offices weren't co-located before, and also because there were no equity-penetrating inquiry websites like Tianyancha at that time, this misunderstanding occurred.
In any case, they sent an invitation to the person who least should have received one.
In fact, it wasn't their fault.
Group-buying platforms themselves are not very strict with merchant qualification reviews.
With so many cities and so many merchants, it's impossible to do a background check on every single one, right?
"Since they've sent an invitation, we definitely have to go. It would be rude not to."
Ge Mengshi saw the sly smile on Chen Pingjiang's face and knew that Meituan was probably in for some trouble.
After seeing Ge Mengshi off, Chen Pingjiang quickly called He Zhiyu's small circle.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Fu's Tai Yishou Hotpot and Haojue Foot Massage and other such establishments did not receive invitations.
This made Chen Pingjiang somewhat perplexed.
In reality, Meituan wasn't foolish.
Among the local brands that originated in Dongjiang, they only invited Zhizhen Catering, excluding all others.
As Renrengou's birthplace, they believed that the brand chain stores in Dongjiang had long been infiltrated and certainly had better relations with Renrengou.
But Zhizhen Catering was different.
It had too many brands under its belt, and business was excellent, consistently ranking first on Renrengou for years.
It spanned three major categories: barbecue, milk tea, and sauerkraut fish.
Any normal person would think that such a large brand wouldn't be controlled by Renrengou, right?
After all, like national chains such as KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut, their reputation is strong enough that "whoever feeds me is my mother."
In short, for various reasons, Zhizhen Catering received the invitation.
November 1st.
The brand merchant conference, hosted by the three group-buying websites Meituan, Dazhong Dianping, and Baidu Nuomi, was held at a five-star hotel in Shanghai.
Qin Suqin, Nan Xinzhi, and Zhu Yuanlan, the "three golden flowers," all attended this conference.
Other famous brands in attendance included Little Sheep Hot Pot, Haidilao Hot Pot, and KFC.
(End of chapter)