Musk's affirmation

Zhang Yan was quite surprised after learning of Lin Yuan’s plan.

"Senior Brother, do you know what this means?"

Without waiting for Lin Yuan’s answer, Zhang Yan continued, "This is a very sensitive area. I don't mean the food delivery industry is sensitive. I mean it's very sensitive to casually touch areas developed by the private economy.

Because this will send a very bad signal—whether the country is making any adjustments to its economic policies. Therefore, such detailed standards targeting a specific industry are almost impossible to get approved."

Lin Yuan thought for a moment and quickly understood Zhang Yan’s meaning.

"Are you saying my proposal is too broad?"

"Heh, it’s more than just broad. If it were merely setting an upper limit on the commission for food delivery platforms, that would be fine. Just like the ride-hailing industry, it would simply be a policy guidance document. But you are now trying to establish a fixed commission percentage.

This percentage can only vary based on the economic development level of different regions; otherwise, food delivery platforms cannot change this percentage arbitrarily.

So, how would food delivery platforms prevent newcomers from entering?"

Lin Yuan replied, "That’s exactly the effect I want. I want to open the door for newcomers and break the de facto monopoly that has formed. Look at our country's automotive industry now; isn't it thriving precisely because of competition?

The days of joint ventures lying back and reaping profits are clearly coming to an end.

Isn't this a great thing?"

"It’s a good thing. But haven’t you noticed that the automotive industry broke the deadlock by pioneering the New Energy track, not by relying on a single document to impose regulations on existing industries? Now, you can't open up a new track in the food delivery industry. In your words, there's nothing left to innovate in food delivery.

Oh, right. Unless you can come up with drone delivery.

That would be equivalent to opening up a new track, similar to New Energy vehicles, and then policy could intervene.

Otherwise, policy will not overly interfere with an area developed by a private enterprise. Because this is simply too sensitive and does not align with our current national policy.

I know the food delivery industry really should be regulated, but there's a saying, 'fear of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.'

The food delivery industry belongs to the internet industry, where capital is most active. If you touch the food delivery pie today, what about tomorrow? Many people will be scared."

Lin Yuan thought carefully for a moment, and he had to admit that he had been impulsive.

"Fear of throwing the baby out with the bathwater." He only wanted to hit the one mouse that was food delivery, but he was afraid of startling other things near the mouse.

"Senior Brother, don't bother. You haven't even considered one question: who will you submit this proposal to? You are not a representative, nor are you qualified to participate in the CPPCC. Are you going to find relevant representatives to submit it? Who would dare to accept your proposal? Only someone out of their mind would offend internet capital and openly go against policy."

Lin Yuan thought for a long time, and just as Zhang Yan thought he had understood, he calmly said, "It seems that to fight magic, one can only use magic."

"What?"

"Things still have to be done by the rules."

"What exactly do you want to do?"

"I want to use the means of capital to make capital behave. I want to introduce a huge catfish to revitalize the fish in this pond."

"Uh, do you have money? Do you dare to touch the food delivery market without tens of billions? And who would be willing to sink money into a red ocean? Would any capital invest in your idea? Are you thinking of finding Wang Duoyu?"

"Don't be silly, I thought of someone."

"Who?"

"I won't tell you yet."

"Tsk!"

— —

Lin Yuan quickly wrote an email to Musk.

This time, he directly introduced himself, sending his real name information. Because ever since the two of them teamed up to deal with Good Group in the Hong Kong stock market, Musk would sooner or later find out that the mysterious person was Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan now indicated that he would give Musk another big gift—he would give Musk an opportunity to greatly enhance his personal image in Dragon Country.

Lin Yuan voluntarily revealed all the ins and outs of Dragon Country's food delivery industry, acting as a guide for the food delivery industry.

Of course, Lin Yuan wasn't really going to be a guide. It's just that he only knew Musk now, and as for the food delivery industry, it didn't matter if some information was known; at most, he would just need Musk to keep the servers in the country when the time came.

After all, Tesla had invested such a large factory in Shanghai, and Tesla's cars sold so much in the country every year. Musk already had a lot of shady dealings with Dragon Country. What was Lin Yuan's small shady dealing compared to that?

Lin Yuan planned to introduce Musk, this big catfish, into Dragon Country's food delivery industry.

This was his so-called "fighting magic with magic."

He had already prepared his talking points.

Musk would use Tesla's marketing model—public pricing, uniform national prices, expensive but transparent. He would use this transparent mechanism to monopolize the high-end segment of food delivery.

In Lin Yuan's plan, he didn't intend for Musk to take over the entire food delivery industry. He just wanted Musk, relying on his prestige and Tesla's model, to monopolize the most profitable part of the food delivery industry.

He wanted to make food delivery like Tesla's ordering mechanism—with a standard price. At that time, the price of the merchant's meal for each order, the platform's commission, and the delivery riders's delivery fee would all be completely clear.

Then, they would simply make the prices openly a bit more expensive, and then use the high price to demand that merchants ensure high quality and high standards.

Dragon Country now has no shortage of rich people, and slightly more expensive food delivery is completely affordable for the middle class. Then, supplemented by effective control over the merchant's food safety chain, combined with Musk's popularity and prestige, Lin Yuan was confident that plenty of people would pay for such high-end food delivery.

As long as they occupied the market for this type of high-end food delivery, then Good Group and Lanbiao Factory would cry their eyes out. Just like the electric vehicle market, Tesla's sales are not dominant, but its profits are excellent.

Although Tesla's cars seemed like a rip-off to Lin Yuan, there are plenty of people willing to be ripped off these days. The profits are just sitting there; instead of being quietly taken, it's better to do it openly.

This way, at least it can stimulate competition among peers.

If it weren't for Tesla, this big catfish, coming in, perhaps the domestic New Energy vehicle industry would not have developed a sense of crisis, nor would a complete industry chain have been established.

Therefore, Lin Yuan's idea can be summarized in one sentence—he wants to replicate Tesla's catfish effect in the New Energy vehicle field.

He wants to severely crush those two complacent food delivery platforms. (Although Lin Yuan just resigned from Lanbiao Factory, he firmly believes that those two are birds of a feather.)

Musk immediately expressed great interest after hearing Lin Yuan's idea.

In Musk's words, the food delivery industry would at most require about a billion US dollars, which he originally wouldn't have even considered. After all, Tesla's annual car sales in Dragon Country amount to two to three hundred billion US dollars. Investing a billion for fun wouldn't be impossible; Musk could just pay out of his own pocket.

The main thing was that Lin Yuan had already outlined a clear business path for Musk—Lin Yuan planned to use AI to control the food safety of every merchant.

If this really took off, it would be a new emerging application area for AI, and Musk would complete another entrepreneurial myth.

Therefore, Musk quickly arranged to meet Lin Yuan, and he affirmed Lin Yuan's plan even before their meeting.