Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

"Only two are still on the train. They’re expected this afternoon. The rest are all here," Xiang Pengfei replied.

"How long will it take to get the CPS interface with Gaopeng Network done?" Chen Yansen asked.

"Technically, it’s about the same as a B2C platform. It’ll take three to five days, at the fastest. But since this is our first time working together, we’ll need to standardize the order tracking and data specifications," Xiang Pengfei replied after a moment of thought.

"Okay, add Hu Yun to the coordination group. Song Yuncheng is in charge of this project, so go to her if you have any problems."

Chen Yansen instructed.

"Alright, got it." Xiang Pengfei turned, and they went into the conference room together to prepare for the upcoming Group Buy collaboration.

Chen Yansen returned to his desk, opened his laptop, and logged into the data backend to check on the site’s traffic recovery.

Daily active users had dropped below a million for three days during the Spring Festival. It started to pick up after courier services resumed on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Yesterday, the DAU was 1.09 million.

Just then, Yuan Wei walked over with a serious expression. "Brother Sen," he warned, "we’re getting feedback from the Investment Attraction team. Some merchants who’ve participated in our Super Deals have also signed up for brand special sales events on Mogujie and Meili Shuo."

"You and Yifeng hold a meeting with the Investment Attraction team. Everyone is responsible for their own merchants. Give them a warning first. If they don’t listen, blacklist them immediately and permanently. If any of our reps don’t handle this proactively, dock their commission rate for the month."

Chen Yansen was instantly on alert. Realizing the gravity of the situation, he gave the order immediately.

He had the first-mover advantage and had no intention of giving his imitators an opening.

He wouldn’t stop merchants from going to Mogujie and Meili Shuo to boost their numbers. But if their commission rates and final prices were the same as FoxTao’s—or even lower—then they couldn’t blame him for playing dirty.

"I’ll get on it right away," Yuan Wei agreed.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly. ’I feel the pressure, but I’m not panicking.’ The winner-take-all effect was extremely pronounced in the e-commerce industry.

Mogujie had just been founded and had less than ten thousand daily active users. Meili Shuo had been around for less than two years and only had a few tens of thousands.

The only reason merchants were signing up was that those two companies didn’t charge security deposits or slotting fees. It was a pure commission model. You’d have to be a fool not to participate.

Although they weren’t a major threat to FoxTao, Chen Yansen wouldn’t get complacent and give his rivals an opportunity to rise.

Before long, Xiang Pengfei returned from his meeting.

"Pengfei, come over here!" Chen Yansen beckoned to him.

"Brother Sen, what’s up?" Xiang Pengfei asked, holding his laptop.

"I need you to monitor the product pools of our main competitors. Use fuzzy title matching and ID matching. As soon as you find a product that has been in one of our Super Deals, automatically email a notification to the Investment Attraction team."

Chen Yansen laid out the plan methodically.

"What’s the priority level for this task?" Xiang Pengfei asked instinctively.

"T0. Get it online ASAP," Chen Yansen said without a moment’s hesitation.

That afternoon, the Investment Attraction reps had a new task: constantly switching between competitor websites, terrified of seeing any of their merchants or products listed.

The big boss had laid down the law: if three of a rep’s merchants were caught violating the rule in one month, their commission tier would automatically drop. For example, a 5% commission on 500,000 in sales would be slashed to 4% if three of their merchants were caught running promotions on competitor sites. If five were caught, it would drop to 3%.

It wasn’t as if Chen Yansen was giving them no chance at all. First offense: a warning. Second offense: blacklisted.

For a time, the Investment Attraction reps were all on edge, and their tone with merchants became noticeably brusque.

"Boss, the owner of Meili Shuo just tagged you on Weibo. He’s really laying into you; it’s ugly."

That evening, Xu Xingxing came over and held up her phone.

"@FoxTaoCEO_ChenYansen Listen, kid, don’t be such a tyrant! Forcing merchants to only use FoxTao’s Super Deals and not participate in Meili Shuo’s brand special sales? Are you trying to start a monopoly?!"

Meili Shuo’s boss, Xu Yi, had called him out by name.

Thanks to his status as a college freshman, his 2.8 billion valuation, and his reputation as a "business prodigy," Chen Yansen’s Weibo follower count had swelled to 4.8 million. Xu Yi’s tag immediately drew a crowd of online onlookers eager for drama.

In a single afternoon, over twenty merchants had backed out of their agreements, refusing to participate in Meili Shuo’s brand special sales. After making some inquiries, Xu Yi learned that FoxTao was playing the ’choose one of two’ game.

Merchants had to make a choice: either stick with FoxTao or go with Meili Shuo.

The sales figures on the two platforms were worlds apart, so the merchants made their choice quickly, terrified of getting on FoxTao’s bad side.

"@MeiliShuo_XuYi Does being older give you the right to bully people? Your company copied our Super Deals’ UI and mechanics wholesale. When can we expect the licensing fee?"

Chen Yansen hadn’t wanted to engage, but since Xu Yi was desperately trying to ride his coattails for clout, he clapped back.

His design team posted a side-by-side UI comparison of the two websites in the comment section. It was immediately obvious who had copied whom.

"@MeiliShuo_XuYi Come on out and explain, Boss Xu. The color scheme, the font size, the layout—it’s all identical. Is that just a coincidence?"

"Ugh! So shameless!"

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!"

Public opinion shifted in an instant. Netizens who had originally thought Chen Yansen was being a tyrant were now sympathizing with FoxTao.

Xu Yi was torn to shreds by commenters, and the whole affair ended with him deleting his Weibo post and disabling comments.

The situation at Mogujie was much the same; very few merchants were willing to sign up.

Their Investment Attraction team moved heaven and earth just to pull in a few dozen off-brand vendors, barely scraping together enough for a brand special sale. The number of users who placed orders was negligible.

With no brand recognition and no compelling deals, users voted with their feet. It was obvious which platform they’d choose.

"Fuck! This kid fights dirty!"

Xu Yi slammed his hand on his office desk, but he was at a complete loss.

A single brand event on FoxTao could generate 500,000 to 1,000,000 in sales for a merchant. On Meili Shuo, they’d be lucky to hit thirty or forty thousand, and that was only after funneling traffic from the entire site.

After venting for a good while, he said to his head of Investment Attraction, "For now, just pick up the scraps—the merchants FoxTao doesn’t want. We need to build up our platform’s traffic before we can do anything else."

...

...

「The next morning」

Chen Yansen had just arrived on the second floor of the Innovation Park when he saw several people in sharp suits sitting in the conference room. Song Yuncheng and another business representative from the key accounts department were hosting them.

"Brother Sen, those are people from Elong. They’re probably here to discuss joining our marketplace," Wang Zihao explained with a smile, noticing Chen Yansen’s curious glance.

Chen Yansen smiled. ’So this is the upside of being famous,’ he thought. ’Back when I was negotiating B2C partnerships, I had to pound the pavement looking for leads. And if my luck was bad, I’d run into some moron like Zhang Hanhua.’

Now, things were different. He could just sit back, and potential partners would come knocking on his door.

The marketplace rebates section covered vertical sites for beauty and personal care, mother and baby products, toys, digital goods, and books, in addition to brand-operated stores, travel and ticketing, and the Group Buy business.

Once he completed this ecosystem, users would instinctively open FoxTao whenever they thought about finding a deal. This would not only contribute to gross profit but also increase user stickiness.

There were at least twenty to thirty thousand such websites in the country. Even if he only managed to close deals with 10% of them, Chen Yansen could rake in seven to eight hundred million from security deposits alone.

A week later, Elong officially launched on the travel and ticketing section of FoxTao’s rebate marketplace. They were also scheduled to hold a brand event at the end of the month.

While the project teams were busy onboarding B2C marketplaces and increasing the number of daily brand events, Chen Yansen quietly established a new company: Senlian Capital.

He transferred his equity in FoxTao, Miha You, and Cloud Speed Express, consolidating it all under the new company.