Rebirth 2010: I taught Mr. Lei how to make a mobile phone

Chapter 941 Ele.me Leaves, Tesla Arrives

Shanghai, the Bund.

The September night breeze, still warm, swept through the bustling metropolis, adding to its vibrant atmosphere.

On the top floor of a landmark building, a banquet gathering top business elites from across China is underway.

Under the crystal chandelier, glasses clinked and laughter mingled, revealing the undercurrents of connections and capital.

The most eye-catching people at the meeting were the representatives who had recently been in the spotlight due to the "other side Weibo list".

"If you ask me, Chen Mo is a complete mad dog, meddling in other people's business!"

"Who does he think he is? Playing this roll call game? Who are he trying to scare?"

"Is this guy out of his mind? What is he trying to do? Is he trying to become the Bao Zheng of China?"

"Hehe, now we're all on the list. Shouldn't we thank him for giving us free advertising?"

"Young man, after reaping a few benefits from the internet boom, he's lost sight of his own limitations. In his early thirties, he's still a greenhorn!"

"On the other hand, the resistance from the capital was considerable in that we were able to defeat them this time. They are still willing to protect 'The Other Shore'."

"That's normal. After all, it's a business with a strong presence. They have to consider the bigger picture. Otherwise, what would the other business owners in Beijing think?"

"That other document should be coming out soon, right?"

"It'll be in the next day or two. The remaining matters are also being finalized, and the tone should be set in the next few days."

"Mr. Ma, we need to seize the opportunity to speak out at Davos on the 18th."

Everything is already prepared.

"Everything is for Ant Group's successful IPO—the Chinese economy will surely usher in a new round of rapid development!"

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

The crisp sound of glasses clinking rang out, the champagne gleaming golden, reflecting on faces filled with determination.

October 9th, Sunday.

Zhang Xuhao was urgently summoned for questioning.

Being summoned on a day off immediately caused an uproar – everyone could see that things were far from simple.

Subsequently, media outlets reported that "elm was summoned by regulatory authorities for suspected unfair competition."

That evening, Zhang Xuhao had just returned to the company, exhausted, when he received a call from Chen Mo.

"Thank you for your hard work." The voice on the other end of the phone was calm yet firm.

"Moss, what should I do next?"

"How about we move?"

"Move?" Zhang Xuhao was a little confused. His boss's suggestion was beyond his capabilities; he had never thought about this issue before.

Chen Mo's tone remained unchanged as he spoke patiently:

"Was it only Ele.me that was named this time, and not Meituan?"

"Yes."

Meituan's headquarters are in Hangzhou, while Ele.me is in Shanghai.

"The Shanghai Stock Exchange doesn't even protect its own companies, what are you still doing here? Being a lapdog? Come to Beijing, this is our base."

Zhang Xuhao suddenly realized, but still had concerns:
"Will we cooperate with the current rectification requirements?"

"Cooperate, of course we'll cooperate. How much of the previous 10 billion yuan subsidy is left?"

"36."

"Since the higher-ups won't let us compete downstream, we'll seize the upstream." Chen Mo's voice suddenly sharpened.

"Use this money to subsidize merchants and retain riders—control the upstream goods and the midstream transportation capacity, and put the downstream users aside for now."

"Two out of three we'll take. I want to see how Meituan plays its game with us next."

"Will the higher-ups continue with this?"

"But won't this attract further regulatory scrutiny?"

“Just go for it. I’ll take responsibility if anything goes wrong,” Chen Mo said firmly. “The other side will provide full support for you in terms of technology and public opinion.”

The "technology" and "public opinion" the boss was talking about were not powerful firepower support, Zhang Xuhao understood immediately.

"Understood, just you wait and see!" As Chen Mo's number one fanboy, Zhang Xuhao had received his boss's assurance and support, and he was bursting with anger today, eager to pull off a heist.

"Okay, that's all for now. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!"

After hanging up the phone, Chen Mo strolled to the large whiteboard in the corner of the office.

The board lists several information platforms that were previously named, all uniformly labeled with the phrase "disrupting network order and damaging the network ecosystem".

He picked up his pen and wrote quickly, adding a name in just a few seconds, followed by five words: "Unfair Competition".

For some reason, Chen Mo had a vague premonition that although he had disturbed an ant nest this time, in addition to ants, snakes and rats were also vaguely emerging.

The opponent's counterattack will not be so simple.

Ele.me won't be the first, nor will it be the last.

He has already ordered Lu Qi to put the group into full defensive mode.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaolong's WeChat big data analysis and Xu Chaojun's information-based military "Sword of Immortal Slaying" were reactivated, working in conjunction with Zhang Changfa's elite offline forces to collect subtle clues about the enemy.
Coming to his senses, Chen Mo glanced at the date and made a phone call to Xu Chaojun.
When will the third phase of the "Sword-Wielding Project" be completed?

"Testing will be completed by December 31st, and verification can be conducted in January at an opportune time." "Okay, expedite the process and execute according to this schedule."

"Moss, Phase Two is ready, but when will it start?"

"Wait for my notification."

"Received. Also, Moss, we intercepted and deciphered an email sent from Hangzhou to overseas. The content may be useful."

"Send me."

A few minutes later, Chen Mo browsed the email, his eyes growing serious.

He logged onto the dark web and compared the information he had previously obtained with the information—the two actually corroborated each other.

It seems that foreign capital infiltration is deeper than he anticipated, and this intelligence may indeed be the final camel that breaks the camel's back.

This information, like the Sword-Wielding Plan, has been sitting idle, with no opportunity to be used.

In fact, Phase II had already completed offline testing by the end of July and was ready. Phase II was fully integrated with the core businesses of the Beyond Group, such as WeChat, games, cloud computing, enterprise network security protection systems, etc.
How to use it and how to maximize its effectiveness are the most crucial considerations going forward.

The next day, August 9th.

Shanghai authorities have announced that they require companies operating platforms like "Momo" to strictly abide by relevant laws and regulations, fulfill their primary responsibilities, proactively perform their social responsibilities, strengthen internal management, operate legally and in a standardized manner, compete fairly and orderly, and jointly create a favorable market environment to promote the standardized, healthy and orderly development of the platform economy.

Specific requirements include: completely shutting down "zero-yuan purchase" promotional activities; significantly reducing the scope of subsidy marketing; establishing a special working group to strengthen activity monitoring, price control and rider rights protection, and strengthening social supervision and information transparency.

Subsequently, Taobao and Meituan jointly issued an initiative entitled "Continuously Improving Services, Promoting Healthy Competition, and Stimulating Consumer Vitality," calling for "resolutely resisting vicious competition and jointly promoting a healthy and win-win industry ecosystem."

The rectification notice was issued in the morning, and in the afternoon, ELM officially responded to the requirements, completely taking down the 10 billion yuan subsidy promotional activity, and at the same time, the prices of both food delivery and group buying businesses returned to normal operation.

Two dogs fight, play off.

When one party suddenly stops, the users' feast of "coupon hunting" is about to come to an end.

Consumers, who were already used to subsidies, reacted quickly, with a large number of "last zero-yuan purchase" orders appearing on social media platforms, and emotions continued to ferment.

As the evening rush hour approached, a massive influx of users flooded into Meituan, which was still offering subsidies, causing it to crash at one point, followed by a cycle of repairs and further crashes.

The official response was urgent, stating that "the order volume exceeded the historical peak, triggering server traffic throttling," and claiming that it was "suffering from an unknown malicious attack," which was strongly condemned.

The real-world scene descended into chaos:
With food delivery delays exceeding two hours, delivery riders are stuck with customers unable to prepare meals, and businesses are on the verge of collapse facing a paralyzed system.

Users complained bitterly, and Meituan was forced to provide additional compensation—in addition to waiving the order, it also provided an equivalent amount of consumer vouchers.

That evening, the official website of a certain group announced that its daily orders had exceeded 5000 million, setting a new record.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Beijing, a technical team and a public opinion guidance group had quietly withdrawn.

Ele.me, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to shift its battlefield and concentrate its firepower on attacking upstream: subsidizing merchants with real money, signing exclusive cooperation agreements, and conquering new territories upstream.

A day later, after compiling the data, Zhang Xuhao discovered a fatal flaw in the other party's strategy:
That is, although there was a subsidy war some time ago, the slogans to the outside world were Ele.me's 10 billion and Meituan's 30 billion.

It's important to understand that Ele.me's 10 billion yuan investment represents real money and tangible benefits. In other words, it's essentially taking out extra funds to benefit the people, and merchants will see a significant increase in revenue due to the surge in sales.

This falls under the consistent strategy of losing money to gain market share, as seen in the other side's approach.

But according to what he knows now, Meituan doesn't subsidize like that. The subsidies are split 50/50 between the platform and the merchants. For example, a cup of milk tea costs 20 yuan for a Shanghai auntie, so how come users get free purchases?
The platform pays half, and the merchants pay the other half. Merchants and riders are completely exploited, and their income is completely unbalanced with their sales volume.

So, they call it 30 billion, but the amount is questionable. After all, anyone can boast, and only they know the exact amount.

This stems from the inherent greed of capital.

No wonder the number of exclusive merchants they signed in just one day exceeded their expectations.

Around 9 p.m., Zhang Xuhao had just appeared in the lobby downstairs when he was surrounded by reporters who had been waiting nearby.
"Mr. Zhang, is it true that Ele.me's headquarters is going to move out of Shanghai?"

Moving? Zhang Xuhao was slightly taken aback, then realized that the coordinated efforts of public opinion in Beijing had already been initiated.

An enigmatic smile appeared on his face; he neither confirmed nor denied it, leaving only the following statement:
"Everything is possible."

Then she gracefully departed.

Leaving behind a group of reporters who were imagining a dramatic and unpredictable scene.

That evening, multiple media outlets successively broke the news:
"Ele.me's headquarters may relocate from Shanghai this year, CEO Zhang Xuhao did not directly deny."

According to sources, Ele.me will reduce its scale in Shanghai, a move that appears to be a response to unfair treatment it has received in the city.

"Alibaba vs. the other side, the battle for the Shanghai Stock Exchange spot, Alibaba wins!"

As the news spread, the atmosphere in some situations subtly shifted:

"Have we been too aggressive in our approach?"

"Who would have thought that Zhang Xuhao would disregard the overall situation and act so impulsively? He actually plans to move the headquarters. With the money spent on moving, wouldn't it be better to use his brain to solve the problem?"

"It must have been Chen Mo's idea behind this. Zhang Xuhao's family is in Shanghai, and he doesn't have the guts to make this decision."

"Ele.me has annual revenue of tens of billions, pays billions in taxes, and provides tens of thousands of jobs. If it leaves, it will definitely go to Beijing. This is a loss for us, and we will lose more than just face."

"What do you say?"

"Contact them immediately and have a good talk."

Someone interrupted coldly: "I don't think it's necessary. If it's going to rain, it's going to rain; if a mother wants her family, she wants to be with them. Let it be."

Shanghai is an international economic center. Ele.me is just a small player. Besides, there's Tesla, and Meituan has already pledged to increase its investment in Shanghai.

The other person pondered for a moment, and finally agreed:
There is no perfect solution. Since we have made the choice, we must see it through to the end.

Releasing the news about Tesla is a good way to generate buzz and boost public opinion.

"Seconded."

(End of this chapter)