146: Chapter 146 Billion-Dollar Subsidies and Flash Sales

Listening to Qin Mo's words.

Lei Jun was stunned once again, because he could hear that the young man in front of him was not joking.

"Do you know how much money is needed for the initial investment in your business plan?"

Qin Mo smiled.

He took out his phone, lit up the screen, typed in a number, and turned the screen around to show Lei Jun.

"Before coming here, I had already budgeted with my financial team. This figure is the startup capital I can invest."

"It can complete the preliminary AI training and cover part of the costs."

"Of course, there are some costs that I need your help with as well."

"Aren't you one of the most famous angel investors in Great Xia yourself?"

Lei Jun glanced at the number on the screen.

Then he fell silent.

It was a substantial figure, certainly enough to achieve what was in Qin Mo's business plan.

It was even higher than the upper limit he had just estimated.

And one had to realize.

The other party had already shouldered the majority of the costs and risks and would transfer this startup capital directly to him; all he had to do was help bypass Alibaba and Tencent and be responsible for the long-term AI training.

If this project were truly successful, according to the estimates in Qin Mo's business plan, it would likely bring in massive profits.

For him, it was almost a guaranteed win with no loss.

One had to realize.

These two were meeting for the first time today; they hadn't even spoken on the phone before.

Yet the other party had placed the future core direction of Langchao Group into his hands.

He looked up at Qin Mo.

"This can't be just to get me to offer discounts on Xiaomi phones, right? Even if I don't give you a discount, the funds required for you to subsidize Xiaomi phones on Pinduoduo's Billion Subsidy program are on a completely different scale compared to this investment figure."

"The money you're investing is worth half a Billion Subsidy program."

Qin Mo shook his head.

"Of course not."

"My main purpose for coming this time is to discuss cooperation with you, to have you help me with the preliminary AI training. The mobile phone discounts are secondary; you can treat them as an additional condition."

"After all, as I said just now, this is also an investment. It just depends on whether you, Mr. Lei, trust me."

Lei Jun leaned back into the sofa and tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest twice.

An additional condition.

He had negotiated many deals in his life and had seen many additional conditions.

But compared to the low risk he was bearing, this additional condition was nothing at all.

He could even keep Xiaomi phones discounted in the Billion Subsidy campaign indefinitely.

"Are you serious?"

He looked into Qin Mo's eyes, trying to find any hint of a joke: "With so much money being invested, aren't you afraid I'll run off with the funds?"

"Or find an excuse to embezzle it?"

"Naturally, I will have a team keeping an eye on it. Compared to other options within Great Xia, I really can only trust you, Mr. Lei."

Qin Mo's tone was devoid of any fluctuation.

Small companies couldn't handle such a large cluster, and Alibaba and Tencent would be suspicious. There weren't many internet companies in Great Xia that didn't have much conflict with those two; Qin Mo only had a few options.

"As long as you accept."

He continued.

"We can sign the letter of intent today."

"You can also consider negotiating with Alibaba or Tencent to help me set up the AI computing power cluster."

Lei Jun was silent for a long while.

He leaned back into the sofa, staring at the two cups of tea on the coffee table that had already grown cold for a long time.

Then he looked up, and the indecisive expression in his eyes was completely gone.

"Alright."

"Since you trust me, I won't let you down!"

He stood up from the sofa, walked to his office desk, picked up the internal phone, and asked the legal department to prepare a letter of intent.

He would give this young man in front of him a helping hand.

...

A few hours later, both parties signed the letter of intent on the coffee table in the reception room.

They had also preliminarily discussed the timeline for the investment amount to be injected in batches. The initial funds would arrive within one month after signing, and subsequent batches would be released according to the project's milestones.

Within about two months, the initial AI computing power cluster would be built.

Afterwards.

Qin Mo politely declined Lei Jun's invitation to stay for a meal.

"618 is almost here, and there's a pile of things at the company waiting for me to make decisions on. I'll come bother you again next time, Mr. Lei."

Lei Jun personally saw Qin Mo out of the Xiaomi Technology Park gate, where the driver was already waiting.

After bidding farewell to Lei Jun, Qin Mo bent down to sit in the back row of the business car and took out his phone to send a message to Lin Xiao.

"We can officially announce 618. I've already negotiated with Xiaomi; their team will contact you. Let them coordinate the specific discount plans with you."

After sending it, Lin Xiao replied in a second: "Okay, boss."

Qin Mo leaned back in his seat, preparing to close his eyes for a short nap.

But in the next second, the phone rang; it was a call from Zhao Lei.

This time, Zhao Lei, the person who liked following him the most, hadn't come to Jincheng together with him, because he had sent Zhao Lei to another place.

He picked up the phone, and Zhao Lei's voice came through from the other end.

"Boss, I've finished talking with Wang Xing."

"We've gone over the main terms, and his attitude is more positive than expected, but he wants to speak with you personally, saying there are a few things he must ask you face-to-face."

Qin Mo said alright.

A few seconds later, the voice on the other end changed.

Meituan's Wang Xing's tone carried a hint of complex emotions.

"No wonder you leaked the news about the fruit and vegetable market to me last time; it was for this matter."

"At the time, I thought you just wanted to make a friend and create a rival for Ele.me."

"Looking back now, it was for this in-depth cooperation."

"You should know what it means for Meituan's food delivery business to be integrated into Pinduoduo; this is equivalent to opening up Meituan's core delivery network to you."

"Of course I know."

Qin Mo leaned back in his seat, his tone calm.

"But I can make Meituan's food delivery market share surpass Ele.me, capturing at least sixty percent of the food delivery business."

Wang Xing was silent for a beat.

"Sixty percent? What makes you so sure?"

When Meituan first entered the food delivery market, it did indeed occupy the majority of the market share, but after Alibaba acquired Ele.me, relying on Alibaba's massive capital advantage, Ele.me began to exert its strength.

Eventually, after so many years, Meituan's food delivery market share had fallen to less than forty percent.

Although he had always been thinking about reclaiming that market share, with Ele.me backed by Alibaba, Wang Xing really couldn't think of how Meituan could fight back.

Yet, Qin Mo came right out and said he could help Meituan overtake Ele.me again, which indeed surprised him.

Facing Wang Xing's worries, Qin Mo smiled.

"You don't have to believe it, but you should know that none of my decisions so far have gone wrong."

"And."

"Mr. Wang, are you really resigned to having Meituan's food delivery business constantly being beaten down by Ele.me?"

"Why not try it with me? Perhaps this time, we can really defeat Alibaba."

Wang Xing's voice rang out without the slightest hesitation.

"Of course I'm not!"

"For these past few years, I've been looking for an opportunity to turn the situation around. Meituan entered the food delivery market first, but ended up having our market share swapped by Ele.me using Alibaba's money. No one could swallow that."

"But."

"Is it really useful to integrate the food delivery business into an e-commerce platform?"

"Shouldn't the user ecosystems of the two be completely different?"

Qin Mo's answer came without any hesitation.

"Of course it's useful."

"The ecological effect brought about by integrating food delivery into an e-commerce platform is something you can never imagine."

"Although it looks like the user ecosystems are completely different, in essence, the overlap of users is extremely high. The combination of food delivery and e-commerce might spark new flames."

"And I've already thought of a new name for the food delivery service integrated into the e-commerce platform."

"Flash Purchase."

The other end of the line fell silent again.

Qin Mo knew Wang Xing was thinking, so he didn't rush him, just waited like that.

And on the other end of the line, Wang Xing was currently sitting in the Meituan headquarters office. He looked at Zhao Lei sitting on the sofa next to him and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

In his mind, the series of achievements Qin Mo had made since he first appeared kept replaying.

Douyin beat Weikan to the ground, two games rose to the top by pressing down on Tencent, and Pinhaohuo transformed into Pinduoduo in a month, running Taobao in circles.

Every step was taken at the most precise moment, and every time he won.

He had never seen anyone before who could span so many completely unrelated fields in such a short time and achieve number one in the industry in all of them.

E-commerce, games, Short Video—every track was a bloody path he had carved out.

Thinking of this, he nodded.

"Alright, we can cooperate."

"But because food delivery involves Meituan's core business, the cooperation method I'm currently thinking of is to establish a joint venture subsidiary, plus cross-shareholding between the parent companies."

"As long as the structure works, we can integrate Meituan food delivery into Pinduoduo. Let the specialized teams handle the specific equity ratios and the management structure of the joint venture."

"But to get all this done, I'm afraid it will require quite a bit of preparation and time."

Hearing this, Qin Mo just smiled.

"I've already prepared everything."

"Zhao Lei has a draft contract with specific details. You can decide after you've read it, including the management structure of the joint venture and other details."

Wang Xing was stunned for a moment.

"How much more have you prepared?"

Qin Mo chuckled.

"Pinduoduo has already created the Flash Purchase interface; it can be updated and added at any time. As long as you sign the contract and confirm the direction, Pinduoduo can officially launch the Flash Purchase channel within three days."

He paused.

"And because Taobao previously launched fruit and vegetable e-commerce, Pinduoduo's fruit and vegetable portal will be officially upgraded to Xixi Grocery."

"At that time."

"We will need your local delivery service to intervene with some capacity. This can also be done within the framework of the joint venture subsidiary. Handing the fruit and vegetable delivery over to Meituan's rider network, combined with our logistics, can further shorten the delivery time."

Wang Xing was silent for several seconds after hearing this.

Then he couldn't help but smile, as if he suddenly understood many things.

"You kid, you've had your eyes on me for a long time, haven't you."

Qin Mo didn't speak, directly defaulting to a yes.

Finally, Wang Xing let out a long sigh.

"Alright, I'll take a gamble with you. This time, we'll take on Alibaba together!"

Wang Xing's voice had a bit more fighting spirit. This was the state he was in when he started Meituan back then. Later, when his market share was overtaken by Ele.me, this state had gradually been worn away, but now it was back.

"I don't believe that Ele.me can keep winning forever!"

The call ended.

Qin Mo placed his phone on his knees and let out a long sigh.

With this, Pinduoduo was temporarily not lacking anything.

Next, Taobao's attention would be attracted by Pinduoduo's Billion Subsidy program, and everyone would think that the Billion Subsidy was Pinduoduo's last card to break into the high-end market.

Low-priced goods had Slash and the ten-thousand-person group buying; high-priced goods had the Billion Subsidy. Pinduoduo's tactics ended there.

But they wouldn't expect.

The Flash Purchase business, which could truly retain users, was the final blade that would decide the outcome.

The achievement of surpassing Taobao, which Pinduoduo hadn't accomplished in the previous life, might truly be completed by him in this life.

Taobao's dead end was almost certainly destined.

Qin Mo leaned back in his seat, watching the street scene flying backward outside the window.

"I hope you can accept this ending, otherwise..."

"I'll have no choice but to make a move on Alipay."