50: Chapter 50 Supercars Make a Fortune, Bicycles Close the Net

The reservation frenzy for the tianxing generation supercar completely overturned the entire high-end luxury car market.

For the 88 units of the Supreme model, within less than twelve hours of launch, the backend was flooded with full-payment reservations. The buyers were either top-tier entrepreneurs or bigwigs from influential families, not hesitating for a second;

The 888 units of the 5.99 million yuan supercar model were swept clean in seven days. Many customers who missed out kept calling Tianxing's customer service daily, asking if additional orders were possible;

Even the 199,000 yuan roadster model, with 8,888 slots available, had over eight hundred reserved, with the waiting list stretching half a year into the future.

With this move, Tianxing Technology didn't even touch the ordinary family car market, yet the money it made had all global automakers green with envy.

The profit from a single supercar equaled that of dozens, even hundreds, of ordinary sedans. This business was faster than printing money.

Just like Tianxing phones.

Currently, in the Dragon Country's phone market, the tianxing generation held less than ten percent market share, yet it managed to pocket over ninety percent of the profits.

Brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, and the Blue-Green factories might have hot sales, but the profits on their financial reports couldn't even match a fraction of Tianxing's.

What was more frustrating was that the chips they used to make their phones all had to be bought from Tianxing Technology. The profit from selling one phone was less than what Chen Mo made selling a single chip. Saying they were working for Tianxing was no exaggeration at all.

It wasn't that Chen Mo's heart was black; it's just that for high-tech products, R&D was the major cost, while material costs were negligible.

The problem was, Chen Mo had the Grandmaster Level Manufacturing Skill backing him up. R&D costs were like picking up money off the ground. Even if his selling price matched others, his profit margin would still be miles ahead. That was the gap of having a cheat code.

While Tianxing supercars were raking in profits, Alibaba's funds were also on fire.

Riding a wave of a bull market, the funds on ZFB surged over fifteen percent in just over a month. It looked hopeful to double in a year.

Compared to the measly five percent annualized interest of Fetion's Yu Libao, this return was worlds apart. Anyone with spare cash rushed in.

With the funds making money, Alibaba's backbone stiffened. With a grand gesture, it invested tens of millions of US dollars into Little Yellow Bikes, which translated to several hundred million yuan;

As for Tencent, it went without saying. Although last year's profit was only four billion, it couldn't be helped that cash cows like DNF and CF brought in daily income, so its pockets were never short of silver.

However, in this lifetime, without WeChat, Tencent's influence had greatly diminished, turning it into a wealthy but powerless local tycoon, almost becoming Alibaba's follower. Thus, it was more eager than anyone to establish a foothold in new fields, directly throwing in one hundred million US dollars to start Tencent Bikes.

And then there was Baidu, whose days were even more of a headache.

After Tianxing Search appeared, with no ads and search efficiency far surpassing Baidu's, Baidu, which relied on ads for over sixty percent of its revenue, had its lifeline choked. Revenue plummeted off a cliff. No longer able to make money lying down, it could only grit its teeth and join Alibaba and Tencent, plunging into the shared bike melee.

In just over a month, Tianxing's Little Blue Bikes, Alibaba's Little Yellow Bikes, Tencent's Little Green Bikes, and Baidu's Little Red Bikes covered over a hundred cities nationwide. The four companies expanded desperately, almost delivering bikes right to people's doorsteps.

At Tianxing Technology headquarters, Zhang Kai was reporting to Chen Mo:

"Boss Chen, latest news! Little Yellow Bikes completed another round of financing, totaling eighty million US dollars. Alibaba led with forty million, and the rest came from various capital firms following suit! And Tencent added another fifty million US dollars to Tencent Bikes! Baidu also chipped in sixty million US dollars!"

Chen Mo leaned back leisurely in his office chair, his face showing not a ripple.

After Tianxing Takeout got on track, he transferred Zhang Kai to manage Tianxing Shared Bikes, handing Fetion and the takeout business to Wu Xue. With artificial intelligence overseeing things, it required little effort;

In contrast, Wu Dongju, managing Tianxing Games and live streaming, along with the professional league for *League of Heroes*, dealt with people daily, busy to the point of not touching the ground, yet she reveled in it. Miss Wu loved that feeling of having hundreds respond to a single call.

"It seems these folks have made quite a bit in the stock market."

Chen Mo chuckled lightly, a hint of amusement hidden in his eyes.

He remembered it was like this in 2013 in his previous life. A bull market came fast, surged crazily for a while, then took a sharp turn for the worse. Now was the peak of the frenzy. These capitalists, having made some money, dared to throw it into shared bikes. It was pure foolishness.

The butcher's knife of the bear market, he had long since sharpened.

Zhang Kai continued:

"Our Tianxing Shared Bikes now have less than fifteen percent market share. Those three have been throwing money around, lowering deposits again and again, even offering free rides!"

Chen Mo stretched:

"Just follow the plan."

No one knew that while Tianxing Shared Bikes seemed to have low market share, the actual number of deployed bikes had long exceeded ten million, more than the other three companies combined. Even if no one rode them, they were still being deployed across the country.

The cost of these ten million bikes alone was 1.8 billion yuan. Adding manpower and maintenance, Chen Mo had invested nearly three billion yuan in total.

Many netizens and industry peers couldn't understand, thinking Chen Mo had too much money to burn, ignoring a good market to engage in a loss-making business.

But how could they know that these three billion were but a drop in the bucket for Chen Mo? A trip through the financial markets could earn it back, not to mention the profits from the newly released Tianxing supercars, Tianxing phones, and chips. These three billion were merely chips in a game he was playing.

Just as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu announced the completion of their financing, ready to continue expanding, Tianxing Technology suddenly dropped an announcement.

The official Tianxing Technology account announced across all platforms:

Effective immediately, Tianxing Shared Bikes cancel all deposits! Simultaneously, we officially launch the Tianxing Credit System. As long as your credit score meets the standard, all Tianxing Little Blue Bikes are free to ride!

The news instantly set the entire internet abuzz.

Netizens applauded, flooding the screens with '666' bullet comments:

"Boss Chen is still the most generous! This is how you get things done!"

"From now on, I'll only ride Little Blue Bikes when going out. Isn't free awesome?"

"Hurry up with the Tianxing Credit! In the future, who would dare act recklessly? Just deduct their credit score!"

Some were happy, others worried. The executives at Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu turned pale the moment they saw the announcement, their hearts sinking to the bottom.

Cancel deposits?

Free rides?

Chen Mo was clearly aiming to wipe out the entire shared bike industry in one fell swoop!

They understood better than anyone: competing for the market relied on the deposit pool. User deposits were used to order bikes and expand, creating a cycle. But now, with Tianxing canceling deposits and offering free rides, who would ride their bikes?

Users would inevitably demand refunds en masse. In one move, the entire industry's foundation would crumble.

Sure enough, on the day of the announcement, countless users flooded the backends of Little Yellow Bikes, Little Green Bikes, and Little Red Bikes, demanding deposit refunds. Those small shared bike companies that had followed the trend couldn't withstand this run. Dozens declared bankruptcy and shut down that very day.

At Alibaba headquarters, the meeting room was dead silent. The executives' faces were ashen. Jack Ma clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white, with only one thought in his mind:

Chen Mo had tricked them again!

From Yu'ebao being intercepted by Yu Libao, to jumping into the shared bike pit right after making a little money from funds, to now Chen Mo directly overturning the table—from start to finish, they had been within Chen Mo's calculations.

The meeting rooms at Tencent and Baidu presented the same scene. The executives in charge of the bike projects were pacing anxiously.

Only now did they realize Chen Mo had never intended to make money from shared bikes from the beginning. He had dug a pit, waiting for capitalists like them to jump in. Thirty billion was just petty cash for him to play with them, but for them, it was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Now they faced an unprecedented crisis.

The three companies had already invested four billion in shared bikes, with a combined user base of over forty million. At three hundred yuan deposit per person, refunding deposits alone would require twelve billion!

Even worse, these deposits had already been used to place orders with bicycle manufacturers, paid in full.

With the bike market booming, without full payment, you simply couldn't get the goods.

Little Yellow Bikes alone had twenty million users, requiring six billion in deposit refunds, but part of the deposits had already been used to order bikes;

Tencent and Baidu weren't much better off, having also misappropriated part of the deposits for expansion.

Refunding deposits meant coming up with twelve billion, plus paying penalties to the bike manufacturers;

Not refunding meant endless user complaints and a completely ruined reputation.

Heads or tails, they were losing. The initial four billion investment was likely down the drain. Adding deposit reimbursements and penalty payments, the total loss for the three companies would be at least seven billion!

This was seven billion in 2013—a massive loss. Alibaba bore over half of it. The money just made from funds was all used to fill this hole.

To make matters worse, the Dragon Country's stock market bull run came to an abrupt halt, starting to turn downward. Fund returns shrank significantly. There was no hope of earning back from the stock market to plug the hole.

Gritting his teeth, Jack Ma made a difficult decision:

Abandon Little Yellow Bikes!

After all, Alibaba was only a shareholder, not the direct controlling party. Cutting ties would, at least on the surface, not be too affected. As for reputation, in the face of real money, it was utterly worthless.

But Tencent and Baidu had no such escape route. Tencent Bikes and Baidu Bikes were their own subsidiaries. Even if they wanted to run, they couldn't.

Fortunately, Tencent had a vast business empire and could withstand a loss of over a billion;

Although Baidu's revenue had greatly decreased, it hadn't been too aggressive before, so its loss was the smallest. Taking out over a billion to plug the hole was still manageable. However, its already dwindling days became even more difficult, living in increasing frustration day by day.