Chen Pingjiang had thought about instigating Baidu Nuomi by using the "two peaches kill three warriors" strategy, but remembering Baidu's label attribute, he decided against it.
It was just one event; failing wouldn't be a big deal, but getting stuck with Baidu might cause Renrengou to pick up the bad habit of failing whatever it tried.
Baidu LBS Division had previously strategically invested 160 million in Nuomi, acquiring 54% of its shares and becoming the largest shareholder, before later fully acquiring it and renaming it Baidu Nuomi.
Baidu initially acquired Nuomi to promote Baidu Maps and build an LBS business chain and moat, not paying much attention to Nuomi until it saw some success and then felt it could be developed.
However, Baidu Nuomi suffered from poor internal execution, widespread corruption, and slow decision-making.
After Wang Shi rushed out of the club, he called his superior on the way back.
Wang Shi was stunned after receiving more definite news.
Not only were they not continuing the Double 11 promotion with Meituan and Baidu Nuomi, but they were also going to join Renrengou's camp on that day to compete against the aforementioned two companies.
This was truly a blatant stab in the back.
Wang Shi suddenly felt a chill down his neck.
One might ask, if they stab others in the back like this, will they be hit with bricks when walking on the street later?
The next day, Wang Shi arrived alone at Renrengou's Shanghai headquarters, where Chi Weijie personally received him.
After an hour-long meeting, Wang Shi had only one thought in his mind: his leader was wise.
He couldn't see clearly from the outside, but after in-depth contact with Renrengou, Wang Shi realized that this battle truly couldn't be fought.
Cooperating with Renrengou was a wise decision.
Renrengou was too rich, had too many resources, and had come up with a pile of dirty tricks.
What impressed Wang Shi the most were the various district managers under Renrengou; their displayed enthusiasm and mental state were truly incomparable to other group-buying platforms.
Wang Shi even thought, how great would it be if these people were my subordinates?
......
When Cao Ding, the manager of Zhang Guofu Malatang's Xuhui store in Shanghai, came to check the accounts in the afternoon, he was astonished to find the number "4" displayed on Renrengou's backend.
"What's going on? Usually, there are at least thirty or forty orders through group buying, but today there are only four?"
The clerk replied,
"I don't know either. I noticed it at noon and thought there was a problem somewhere, but I checked it and found no issues; there simply weren't any orders. Meituan did have four or five group-buying users, but that's too few, it can't compare to Renrengou at all. However, Yang Liang Malatang across the street has had a lot of customers today."
Cao Ding, as a small store manager, naturally didn't know about the 'sao operations' of the managers above him.
Yesterday, he was happy asking to connect with a few more new group-buying platforms, never expecting such a significant blow today.
The cashier then exclaimed,
"I know why! We used to rank above Li Liang Malatang, whether in terms of rating or number of purchases, but today we're ranked way down, you have to flip through several pages to see our store."
Cao Ding ran over to look, and couldn't help but laugh and cry.
The shops around his own store were all 'junk' shops with only three to five monthly transactions, and he couldn't believe his high-traffic store, with over two thousand monthly sales, was ranked with such 'junk' shops?
Judging by this situation, the mere four orders on Renrengou's backend were probably repeat purchases by old customers through the "purchased" page, rather than through homepage searches.
Cao Ding, who had worked on Taobao stores, knew at a glance that their ranking had been downgraded!
He quickly reported the matter to the manager above him.
Liang Chen, the Shanghai manager of Zhang Guofu Malatang, was also having a headache, receiving calls from various branch stores all morning.
All twenty-plus branches of their brand in Shanghai had been downgraded.
"Manager Chi, I'm Xiao Liang from Zhang Guofu. I want to ask if our store has been downgraded? The number of transactions today is pitifully small, incomparable to before."
Driven by desperation, Liang Chen quickly called Renrengou.
Chi Weijie's voice came through with a "Hmm?" sound:
"I just checked the backend, no downgrade. I'll have the technical staff recheck later."
"Okay, okay, thank you for your trouble. I'll check again tonight."
However, by evening, the situation hadn't changed, and there were even fewer orders.
While Liang Chen was making calls, Chi Weijie had stopped answering them.
This was not a minor matter.
Although Zhang Guofu Malatang itself had its own traffic, the lifestyle of consuming through group-buying platforms was now deeply ingrained, and customers generally chose food from highly-ranked, well-reviewed stores, without having time to flip through a dozen pages.
"No doubt about it, this must be punishment for us just joining Meituan and Baidu Nuomi platforms yesterday."
Liang Chen, somewhat agitated, massaged his forehead and was communicating with Meituan's city manager, Yuan Zhiyu:
"What should we do now, General Yuan? In the past, Renrengou's group-buying orders accounted for thirty to forty percent of our daily store sales. With such a significant drop, I can't explain this to my superiors."
Yuan Zhiyu also hadn't expected Renrengou to be so resolute.
Zhang Guofu Malatang, strictly speaking, had considerable influence and was considered a well-known brand, but its influence certainly hadn't reached that of KFC.
Renrengou just cut them off like that, wasn't this a case of harming the enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred for themselves?
Yuan Zhiyu tried to organize his words:
"Mr. Liang, Renrengou is just venting its anger over your departure. I hope you can hold on and openly complain about Renrengou. This is a monopolistic practice, and the 'Anti-Monopoly Law' enacted by the state last year was precisely aimed at this kind of behavior.
Moreover, even if you obediently go back this time, they still won't give you traffic. They say 'killing the chicken to scare the monkeys,' and you are that monkey. In my opinion, you might as well go all the way and completely delist from Renrengou."
His words were entirely about "sacrificing a friend to save oneself."
Making Zhang Guofu Malatang cut ties with Renrengou wouldn't result in a loss for their Meituan platform; instead, it would implicitly secure an exclusive deal for Zhang Guofu.
But this was clearly unacceptable for Zhang Guofu Malatang.
How many orders does Meituan get in a day, and how many does Renrengou get?
Liang Chen had already planned to report the matter:
"I really don't know what the vice president above is thinking, to impulsively decide to cooperate with Meituan and Baidu Nuomi. I'm out of ideas, let's see how they resolve it."
9 PM that evening.
Zhang Guofu Malatang posted on Renren Weibo:
"Our company has suffered unfair treatment on the Renrengou platform. The reason is that Renrengou became displeased after our company connected to other group-buying platforms, resulting in a downgrade. Our company strongly opposes this coercive 'choose one of two' behavior and will file a complaint with relevant departments tomorrow."
Incidentally, they also bought a lot of press releases.
For a time, many media outlets reported this news.
However, soon, even trending topics related to the matter were taken down.
Afterward, Renrengou CEO Gao Songbin stated:
"There is no such thing as forcing merchants to 'choose one of two.' It's an isolated phenomenon that some merchants don't have orders. Didn't KFC and McDonald's also list on other group-buying platforms? You can ask them if their orders have decreased."
It was nothing more than a war of words; who was afraid of whom!?
Related merchants following the matter felt a chill down their spines and were frightened.
They had originally wanted to wait and see, but now they desperately wanted to delete contact information for Meituan and Baidu Nuomi to show their innocence.
Why weren't KFC and McDonald's downgraded?
That must be because their influence was too great.
Once a small brand like theirs encountered a downgrade, wouldn't it be equivalent to a devastating blow?
Relying on Meituan and Baidu Nuomi was a pipe dream.
Their combined market share in Shanghai was only 25%.
Expecting them to take down Renrengou, their store would probably close before that happened.
"Manager Yuan, I've thought about it. I'll return the money you gave me last time; it feels too hot to handle."
"Thank you for your kindness, but we shouldn't meet again in the future. I'm afraid Renrengou might misunderstand."
"..."
Yuan Zhiyu wanted to smash his phone:
"Renrengou is truly too overbearing. With them doing this, who would dare to open a store and list with us?"
Liao Bochen from Nuomi was also having a hard time:
"What can we do? Strictly speaking, we are not involved parties, so we can't sue them. We can only stir up external hype, but our influence is limited."
"Why didn't that kid Wang Shi come today?"
"He said he went back to headquarters to report."
Yuan Zhiyu was somewhat agitated:
"Although there were some minor issues, not many merchants had come over anyway, so it won't have much impact on our Double 11 event. We'll turn things around with tomorrow's movie ticket event."
On the 10th, before Double 11.
Meituan.com led several companies in launching a group-buying event called "What is the happiness of 5 yuan?".
The first wave, "5 yuan to watch a movie," offered 100,000 movie tickets for 5 yuan each, making it the largest-ever promotion.
For this event, Meituan and Nuomi spared no expense to book entire venues, intending to link it with the Double 11 promotion.
The next morning, the event officially launched.
Meituan had already placed a banner on its homepage.
"Didn't expect such good results? All tickets for the first movie screening tonight sold out in just 2 minutes after launch."
"The second screening also sold out."
Yuan Zhiyu was very satisfied:
"It seems our event is doing well. All tickets for a movie screening sell out in an average of two to three minutes. I checked the backend, and almost sixty percent are new customers."
"Right, if this data continues, by the end of the event, we could gain an additional sixty thousand registered users."
What Yuan Zhiyu didn't expect was that employees from Renrengou and Dazhong Dianping on the other side didn't go out today.
They were all gathered in the office making calls.
"Hey, Mom, open Meituan, buy a five-yuan movie ticket, then send me the redemption code."
"Yes, Old Zhang, that event. Our company will transfer the money to you later."
"Yes, send me your bank account via QQ, thank you, brother."
"..."
Gao Songbin looked at the situation with a satisfied nod, then turned to ask the supervisor beside him:
"How is it?"
"Not bad. All cities across the country, from north to south, have been mobilized by us. We've asked fathers, mothers, friends, teachers, and classmates. We've gotten a total of fifty thousand movie tickets so far."
Gao Songbin nodded:
"Put them all on our platform, list them for twenty yuan each. Sell as many as you can. If they don't sell out, our company will go watch the movies tonight."
"Heh heh, this deal isn't a loss. Fifty thousand movie tickets only cost twenty-five thousand, at twenty yuan each, we only need to sell over ten thousand to break even."
"Leave work early today. I'll count a movie as two hours, so we can watch at least three movies before midnight tonight."
"Awesome, free stuff is the best. Usually, I only dare to 'shear the wool' from Meituan and don't even dare to use our platform's coupons, but today I can actually watch movies for free."
(End of chapter)