The people of Xuchang have been living very comfortably in the past few months. JD.com and Carrefour have successively entered the market, directly detonating Henan's retail market.
Fat Donglai chose to stick to Xuchang and cede the broader Henan market to these two companies.
The myth of those days is gradually becoming extinct.
After half a month, Carrefour's new store in Weidu District opened again.
The opening area this time is larger, covering 8,000 square meters.
Rent in third-tier cities is much cheaper than in first- and second-tier cities.
Even the way to open a store is exactly the same as before.
All types of products are at discounted prices, all you need to do is write the words "Come and buy now" on your forehead.
If you are careful, you may notice that these two stores are slightly special compared to ordinary stores.
The eye-catching aerial conveyor chain device, the novel self-service checkout system, and the huge storage and freezer room.
These two stores are more than just bridgeheads into the Xuchang market.
In the future, it will play the role of a front-end warehouse to solve the storage problem of fresh products.
With offline subsidies, orders on Cao Cao's Xianda platform are skyrocketing almost every day.
Chen Wenyuan knew very well that this kind of subsidy would not last long.
When subsidies pass, the model of online ordering and offline delivery becomes key.
The two stores conducted surveys and found that 80% of the customers who visited the stores had some impression of Cao Cao Xian Da.
Among them, young people who are interested and willing to place orders account for fully 30%.
It’s not that young people are lazy.
After a busy day, wouldn’t it be nice to have a rider deliver food to your door when you get home from get off work?
Going to the supermarket is just an experience for most people.
Usually, no one goes there even once a week.
But ordering online is different. You can guarantee consumption at least twice a week.
The opening promotion of the second store has been going on for a week, and the citizens of Xuchang still think highly of the two stores.
It is difficult to widen the gap with the supermarket model.
The decoration standards are all similar, but what people are really sensitive to is the price.
They are willing to go to whichever supermarket is cheaper.
Moreover, Carrefour did not lose money during the opening promotions.
First of all, in terms of price subsidies during the opening period, Cao Cao Daojia and Cao Cao Finance provided some financial assistance.
Secondly, just the orders brought by Cao Cao Xianda made Chen Wenyuan smile.
For two stores in Jian'an District and Weidu District, during the period when the promotion ended, online orders rose to about 2,000 orders per day.
This is without any promotion. If some subsidies are provided, the number can be increased to three to four thousand orders immediately.
Even if there is no subsidy, in one month, the orders brought by Cao Cao Xianda alone can bring sales of three to four million to Carrefour's two stores.
The floor efficiency improvement for Carrefour is almost 30%!
Chen Wenyuan was a little stunned by this data.
He only knew that the online mode had great prospects, but he did not expect that the results would be so amazing.
The average annual sales of a Carrefour store is about 150 million.
Compared with other competitors, it can be said to be at the bottom.
Now the online model has directly boosted Carrefour's sales to a level that is not far behind other competitors, which is really amazing.
Chen Wenyuan was lamenting the benefits of the online mode when he heard a knock on the door, "Come in."
"Mr. Chen, the big boss just asked Secretary Xie to call and invite you to attend Cao Cao Financial's celebration party tonight."
"Where will the party be held?"
"Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the driver is waiting for you downstairs."
"Okay, I understand."
Chen Wenyuan nodded, waited for the secretary to leave, shook his head and sighed: "The boss has too many cards to play."
…
Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Among the many hotels on the Bund, it is also one of the top luxury hotels.
When Chen Wenyuan rushed to the hotel, he saw Xie Jingyu entertaining guests at the door of the hotel.
"Mr. Chen, the boss is already waiting for you inside."
Xie Jingyu smiled and greeted Chen Wenyuan, making an invitation gesture.
"Okay, then I'll go in first."
Chen Wenyuan smiled at Xie Jingyu and walked straight into the hotel.
There was a long queue of waiters along the way, and the chatter of guests could be heard in the banquet hall.
"Mr. Chen, you're late again."
"That's right, I'll punish myself with a drink first."
As soon as Chen Wenyuan entered the banquet hall, he was greeted by two acquaintances.
Lu Guangyu from Cao Cao's Home, and Gan Jiawei from Cao Cao Commentary.
"Haha, it's my fault, where is Mr. Zhu?"
Chen Wenyuan took a glass of champagne from the tray of the passing waiter and drank it in one gulp.
"Mr. Zhu is a very busy man right now, over there."
Lu Guangyu pointed to the front left with a smile.
Zhu Zijing was surrounded by several middle-aged people. He happened to meet their eyes and raised his glass with a smile.
Chen Wenyuan looked around the banquet hall and found that many of them were acquaintances.
Among them, most of them are executives from various subsidiaries of Cao Cao Group.
Zeng Yiming from Little Blue Book, Zhou Shaohua from Cao Cao Logistics, He Qian from Blue Whale Online Shopping...
Including other people such as the vice president, more than half of the banquet hall is filled with family members.
The rest are investors, partners and the like.
Zhu Zijing walked onto the stage and coughed lightly into the microphone.
The banquet hall was silent for a moment, and everyone's eyes were focused on the stage.
“Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend Cao Cao Financial’s financing celebration party.
For this round of financing to be successful, I would like to thank the many investors and your trust.
At the same time, I would also like to thank the people in charge of many brother companies.
Without your business support, Cao Cao Pay would not have the good results it has today.
Finally, I would also like to thank my boss,
Please note that this is definitely not flattery, but a heartfelt thank you.
Long ago, Director Chen noticed the fluctuation of people's hearts within us.
Everyone, including me, was a little overwhelmed by the previous results.
Fortunately, Director Chen's cold water was poured in time, so we were able to correct our attitude in time and do things in a down-to-earth manner.
In the current domestic third-party payment market, Cao Cao Payment’s market share has increased to 12%.
This data has increased 12 times compared to the same period last year.
We are ambitious and confident.
Caocao Payment will grow rapidly and become another leading company in the third-party payment market."
There was thunderous applause.
Zhu Zijing waited for the applause to stop and said with a smile: "The dinner is very sumptuous. I hope everyone can enjoy it."
If you come to such a banquet, not many people will eat freely.
The main purpose is to expand contacts and seek cooperation opportunities.
Soon everyone was divided into social circles.
Chen Dongcheng is surrounded by the most people, all of whom are investors in this round of financing.
There are seven companies in total, namely China Development Bank, National Social Security Fund, Warburg Pincus, Canadian Pension Fund Investment Company, Silver Lake Investment, Temasek, and General Atlantic Capital Group.
The lineup of shareholder members is extremely luxurious, and they are all well-known top investment institutions at home and abroad.
In other words, everyone knows that Cao Cao Finance is a good project.
However, many institutions cannot afford to invest.
For example, PayPal was split up in 2015 and re-listed independently.
The year before the split, that is, 2014.
PayPal's annual transaction volume is approximately US$250 billion.
The market generally values PayPal at more than $40 billion.
The transaction volume of Cao Cao Payment in 2016 was approximately US$60 billion.
However, after sponsoring the Spring Festival Gala, the number of card bindings paid by Cao Cao skyrocketed overnight.
Not only has the number of users increased, but the payment scenarios have also become richer.
Pinduoduo is engaged in group shopping e-commerce, Blue Whale Shopping is a cross-border e-commerce company, and the high-frequency takeout port...
The richness of these scenarios has greatly improved the average daily open rate of Cao Cao Pay.
After continuous education in 2016, the third-party payment market has grown at an alarming rate.
After nearly quadrupling the growth rate last year, it once again delivered outstanding results of doubling.
Many domestic and foreign investment institutions are eyeing the third-party payment market.
But the projects that can be incorporated are few and far between.
Alipay is a no-brainer, WeChat is even more hopeless, and JD.com has yet to take off.
The emergence of Cao Cao Pay has instantly become the best target for many well-known PEs.
As long as Cao Cao Financial dares to propose a valuation, they dare to agree.
Price is not an issue, getting on the boat first is the most important thing.
After PayPal was split independently, its market value increased dramatically.
Ant Financial, which owns Alipay, has seen its valuation soar.
Now only those with a valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars are eligible to enter the market.
In comparison, the threshold for Cao Cao Finance is much lower.
This threshold is relatively low.
For ordinary companies, they will never have the opportunity to reach this threshold in their lifetime.
The post-investment valuation is as high as US$15 billion!
A round of financing of US$1.5 billion!
It's not like they're crazy.
It is the booming development of the domestic third-party payment market that gives them the confidence.
"Mr. Chen, I finally have the opportunity to have a good time with you through the Cao Cao Financial project."
Wei Zhen, president of Warburg Pincus' China region, joked: "Whenever he has time, Mr. Chen will also bring out Douyin and let us all follow suit."
"That is, Douyin is a well-known good project. If there is financing, Mr. Chen cannot take advantage of outsiders."
Temasek’s China president, Wu Yibing, is also very interested in Douyin.
These top PEs are all interested in a project of Douyin's level, but they just haven't found the right opportunity to get involved.
"Please rest assured that if Douyin opens financing, we will definitely notify you in advance."
Chen Dongcheng clinked glasses with them and said with a smile: "Today is the celebration banquet of Cao Cao Financial. We won't talk about other business."
Everyone shook their heads helplessly, knowing that Chen Dongcheng did not want to raise Douyin now.
However, if you inform us in advance, you can reserve a seat in advance to avoid not being able to even order some soup.
The news that Cao Cao Financial completed financing spread quickly.
Zhu Zijing learned from the previous lesson and held a meeting with senior executives to emphasize that an arrogant atmosphere must not be created within the company.
The current position of Cao Cao Pay is very dangerous, and it is facing a run on the two giants WeChat and Alipay at any time.
There is a row of strong opponents behind him, and he is trying his best to overthrow them.
This financing can only be said to be recognition of their previous achievements.
If they want to go further, they need to make more efforts.
The US$1.5 billion received by Cao Cao Financial is very critical.
Some of the original plans can now be implemented.
According to Zhu Zijing's plan, he will set up an investment department to invest in projects closely related to his own business.
Throughout the growth of payment giants, they are inseparable from the support of e-commerce.
Paypal absorbed the nutrients of eBay and became a payment giant with a market value of more than 50 billion US dollars.
Alipay was forcibly split up by Lao Ma, and he did not hesitate to go to court with many Ali shareholders for this.
Facts have proved that Lao Ma was right.
Alipay relied on Taobao to grow rapidly and has become a domestic payment giant today.
Therefore, if Cao Cao Pay wants to grow, it must have an e-commerce giant by its side.
JD.com doesn’t have to think about it unless Cao Cao Financial is willing to accept JD.com’s investment.
I also have Jingdong Finance, so I don’t have to do that thankless thing.
There is no ready-made e-commerce company that is willing to accept investment from Cao Cao Financial.
Zhu Zijing almost immediately thought of Pinduoduo.
Is Pinduoduo short of money?
Definitely missing.
But it's not that urgent.
It is easy to enjoy the shade by leaning against a big tree. This saying is true for Pinduoduo.
Whether it is WeChat, Cao Cao Pay, or Douyin, Pinduoduo is given access to traffic.
Pinduoduo’s development speed has not disappointed them either.
As of the end of September, Pinduoduo’s annual transaction volume has exceeded the 100 billion threshold, and its order volume has exceeded 3.6 billion.
If Cao Cao Financial wants to consolidate its relationship with Pinduoduo, investing in the other party is the best choice.
Zhu Zijing just wanted to call Zhuang Manting to talk to her first.
But when I looked at the time on my phone, it was already past twelve o'clock.
"I really drank too much and my head went crazy."
Zhu Zijing patted his forehead, smiled bitterly and shook his head.
At the end of the banquet, Zhuang Manting left with Chen Dongcheng.
If you call your boss at this time, isn't that asking for death?
Early the next morning, Zhu Zijing came to Century Tower early.
When I arrived on the 24th floor, I didn't find the boss.
It was not until nearly half past nine that Chen Dongcheng arrived late.
After glancing at Zhu Zijing who was hesitant to speak, Chen Dongcheng took him into his office.
Xie Jingyu finished making tea for the two of them and waited aside.
Zhu Zi took a sip of tea and directly explained the purpose of his visit: "Director Chen, I want to invest in Pinduoduo and I need your help to make the deal."
"Well, tell me what you think first." Chen Dongcheng drank tea leisurely.
“That’s right, I asked my subordinates for a data report yesterday and found that Pinduoduo’s transaction size has grown very rapidly.
It is estimated that the annual transaction volume this year will be around 180 billion RMB, and the monthly active users will be around 100 million."
Zhu Zijing’s eyes were bright and he spoke at a moderate pace: “Especially since this year, Taobao’s pressure on Pinduoduo has increased.
I think this is a sign that Taobao is afraid.
Pinduoduo originally adopts the model of group buying at low prices.
Especially in the sinking market, I have to admit that Mr. Zhuang’s team is very effective.
The market that Taobao didn't capture was actually taken over by them."
“Coupled with the fact that domestic housing prices have been rising year after year, young people are generally short of money.
We made a rather surprising discovery.
Even in first- and second-tier cities, many young users choose to place orders on Pinduoduo.”
“If we expand the perspective to the whole country, we find that in third- and fourth-tier cities, and even towns, Pinduoduo has the largest proportion of users.”
“After our predictions, Pinduoduo hopes to double its total transaction volume next year, reaching a scale of around 500 billion.
If we can get priority processing rights for all online transactions from Pinduoduo, the benefits will be huge."
Chen Dongcheng nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that you did not make an impulsive decision, but the amount of Pinduoduo's next round of financing is relatively large. If you are interested, you can subscribe for part of it."
"oh?"
Zhu Zijing was really curious: "I plan to provide 500 million US dollars to the investment department of Cao Cao Finance. Is it rare that I can't get 5% of Pinduoduo's shares?"
Zhu Zijing believes that Pinduoduo’s valuation is only 10 billion US dollars, and any more would be a bit exaggerated.
Chen Dongcheng smiled and shook his head: "Not enough. I have talked with Mr. Zhuang and Pinduoduo will be listed next year.
The post-investment valuation of the pre-IPO round of financing will be around US$15 billion.”
"So high?"
Zhu Zijing was stunned for a moment. He had previously thought that Cao Cao Financial's valuation would firmly occupy the number one position among the boss's companies.
Who would have thought that Pinduoduo’s momentum would be so strong, and the valuation it is now seeking is on par with them.
Think about the relationship between Zhuang Manting and Chen Dongcheng. Pinduoduo will have to continue to suppress them in the future?