155: Chapter 155 Another food delivery war?

A few days later.

As it turned out, the facts were indeed just as Qin Mo and the others had guessed.

After Pinduoduo confirmed that the Multi-billion Subsidy would be a long-term feature, other e-commerce platforms quickly took action.

JD.com responded the fastest; just three days later, they officially announced that they would soon launch their own Multi-billion Subsidy program.

Although the announcement did not specify an exact launch date, the wording was quite decisive, explicitly stating that the Multi-billion Subsidy would be maintained on JD.com indefinitely.

After the JD.com announcement was released, platforms like Taobao and Suning also made their own official announcements one after another.

All of this happened within just one week from the time Pinduoduo issued the announcement that the Multi-billion Subsidy would exist permanently.

Within that week, almost every major e-commerce platform in Great Xia was forced to officially announce the existence of its own Multi-billion Subsidy.

Because the time was rushed, most platforms only issued announcements. The subsidy channels had not yet officially launched, and they still needed to continue negotiating discounts with major manufacturers.

But once these announcements came out, netizens across the country were immediately excited.

"I thought only Pinduoduo was doing the Multi-billion Subsidy, but now all the e-commerce platforms are doing it. That's good; from now on, no matter what I buy, I can at least save a few hundred bucks."

"When will JD.com release the specific prices for the Multi-billion Subsidy? I have my eye on a laptop and want to compare which one is cheaper before I make a move."

"Taobao was forced into this. They were surpassed by 40 billion during the 618 Shopping Festival; if they don't follow suit, they can just wait for more users to jump ship."

"When gods fight, mortals get to reap the benefits. With all platforms having the Multi-billion Subsidy in the future, I don't even know how awesome that will be!"

As for the Livestream E-commerce system, because it was easier to set up and didn't require renegotiating discount terms with manufacturers, they only needed to set up the livestream rooms and link the products to start broadcasting.

Therefore, within that week, all major e-commerce platforms had basically launched their own Livestream E-commerce portals.

Among them, JD.com and Taobao were the most deep-pocketed. The first batch of celebrities they brought in to sell products were quite well-known. With the celebrity fan economy as a foundation, they did indeed have some revenue during their first broadcasts thanks to fan support.

But the key point is, not all celebrities are suitable for sitting under the lights of a livestream room and talking to the camera for hours.

Quite a few celebrities rambled on in the livestream rooms, failing to explain the products clearly or remember the prices. The volume they sold in a whole night of broadcasting wasn't even half of what a mid-tier streamer on Pinduoduo sold.

As for some celebrities with real talent for selling products, like Nai Liang, they had already been signed by Langchao Group with an exclusive contract months ago, broadcasting to sell products on both Pinduoduo and Douyin simultaneously.

During this period, the market share of Pinxixi Flash Buy continued to grow.

However, because Pinxixi Flash Buy deliberately blurred the boundaries with Meituan Delivery, and even had interoperable orders, from the perspective of external data, it was difficult for Taobao to accurately distinguish which orders belonged to Pinduoduo and which belonged to Meituan at first.

But they could sense something else: the daily order volume of Ele.me was continuously trending downward.

And with Meituan Delivery itself not having taken any major actions, the only thing that could explain this change in market share was Pinxixi Flash Buy.

Finally, when Ele.me's market share had dropped by nearly ten percentage points, leaving them with less than half of the market, the Anli Group couldn't sit still anymore.

Inside Taobao, a resolution was officially passed to fully open the Flash Buy portal to Ele.me. The development schedule was immediately pushed to top priority, with all teams involved in the interface working without weekends.

And this day happened to be exactly one month since Pinduoduo's launch.

Just as everyone inside Taobao was pushing full steam ahead on the integration between Ele.me and Taobao, that evening, a video suddenly appeared on the homepage of JD.com's official Weibo account.

In the video was the JD.com boss, Liu Qiang. He wasn't wearing his usual dark suit but had changed into a red uniform identical to that of a JD.com courier.

He sat in front of a very ordinary fast-food table, facing the camera.

"The current delivery market is still not standardized enough, and the protections for riders are not sufficient."

He paused, his tone quite serious. "JD.com is prepared to step in and rectify this area."

"JD.com Flash Delivery officially launches tomorrow. We only deal in quality restaurant food!"

"And the clothes I am wearing are the exclusive uniform for JD.com Flash Delivery."

After saying this, the scene cut away, and he began talking about other things with a few delivery riders, chatting about daily life.

After the video was released, in just a few short hours, it surged to the top of the trending lists on major social media platforms.

The comment section was filled with surprise and a sense of incongruity.

"First Pinduoduo does Flash Buy, and now JD.com is here too? Are all e-commerce platforms running off to deliver food? Don't tell me Taobao is next?"

"Liu Qiang is wearing a delivery uniform? Is JD.com serious this time, or are they just chasing hype?"

"He said they only do quality restaurant food; does that mean they are differentiating themselves from current delivery platforms? Feels like there's something to it."

Of course, Liu Qiang's decision wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment impulse.

For some time now, he had been monitoring the daily growth curve of Pinxixi Flash Buy.

When he discovered that the traffic on Meituan Delivery's own portal had begun to tilt toward Pinduoduo, he finally became convinced that delivery and e-commerce, two tracks that seemed unrelated, could be interlocked.

This likely wasn't a trap. Pinxixi Flash Buy was Qin Mo's next key project on Pinduoduo!

Even if it really was a trap, he had to go in and see for himself what was in the water. However, just to be safe, he locked onto the differentiated route of quality restaurant food.

If Pinduoduo eventually exited the delivery business, JD.com's quality restaurant food service would still have a chance to survive.

And with JD.com suddenly entering the fray, the most surprised party wasn't Pinduoduo or Qin Mo and his team, but the currently quite stunned Taobao internal team.

Everyone was shocked that JD.com would also touch the delivery market. You have to realize that JD.com didn't have the Ele.me system, yet they still dared to enter the delivery market.

Therefore, just a few hours after JD.com officially announced the launch of Flash Delivery the next day, Taobao urgently issued an announcement that same evening.

"Taobao will fully integrate with Ele.me. Ele.me is officially renamed to Taobao Flash Buy and will officially update and launch in two days."

First, Pinduoduo and Meituan collaborated to launch the Flash Buy business, then JD.com and Taobao made official announcements on the same day. In an instant, the buzz surrounding e-commerce delivery exploded, triggering discussions across the entire internet.

Watching the moves by JD.com and Taobao, all netizens paying attention to this matter almost instantly understood what would happen in the coming period. Another Delivery War!

"Another delivery war is coming? The last one was back when Ele.me was throwing money around to grab market share."

"Pinduoduo does Flash Buy first, then Taobao and Ele.me connect, and now JD.com is charging in. How long has it been since the delivery industry was this lively?"

"Great, great, great! I can get free delivery and milk tea again. This time, you guys better make the intensity of the fight even bigger!"

On the same day JD.com officially announced Flash Delivery, in a corner that many people hadn't paid attention to, the final match of the second stage of the league of legends esports tournament officially concluded.

That same afternoon, inside Langchao Group, all the promotional machinery responsible for the esports tournament began to slowly start up.

There was only half a month left until the start of the third stage. This time, with the help of the long-prepared offline tournament, Qin Mo would let the whole world know what esports is!