Chapter 431: Burn Money, Hit Them Hard!

On Wednesday morning, golden sunlight spilled from the horizon, waking the entire city bathed in a crimson dawn.

Around 7:30 AM, several managers from LaShou’s Shanghai branch arrived early at the office and entered the meeting room.

LaShou has always held morning meetings, but the managers there were yawning continuously, clearly unaccustomed.

This is because the Shanghai market was very stable before group buying entered, so these meetings had become almost obsolete.

However, since last week, they restarted these morning meetings, causing everyone to come an hour early, brewing a long-standing frustration.

Once Robin arrived, the meeting officially began.

As usual, each department first reported their work status, then they began to focus on discussing group buying issues.

“Mr. Robin, has the headquarters released the funds yet?”

Cui Yiting couldn’t help but ask.

Without the funds, her role as a marketing manager was just a title, useless for anything else.

Robin nodded emotionlessly, “The headquarters is currently in a meeting about it. We’ll hear from them soon.”

“I hope the headquarters acts quickly and stops dragging their feet. Get the funds in place soon so we can eliminate group buying and no one has to get up this early.”

The on-ground marketing manager, named Wu Peng with short hair, spoke in a strong and clear voice.

“Even if they approve it, the amount won’t be much. The headquarters has already invested too much in tier-two and tier-three cities, so at best we might just get a fraction.”

The finance manager couldn’t help but retort, not really throwing cold water on it but stating a fact.

Robin showed a nonchalant smile, “A little bit is fine. As long as it is utilized well, even a small amount can make a big impact. So, we must wait for the right moment.”

“Wait for group buying’s momentum to slow down?”

“Exactly. As soon as the pace of group buying slows, they will inevitably weaken. That’s when it’s easiest to achieve our goal and blunt their edge.”

Cui Yiting raised her head, “The high-intensity promotion by group buying has been ongoing for a week now, it’s about time.”

The advertising department manager, Wang Min, also couldn’t help but agree, “Indeed, it’s about time. I don’t believe they can keep it up for another week.”

“Strike while the iron is hot, then weaken, and finally exhaust. Unless their promoters are robots!”

“When Suixin Group was acquired, the entry of 24Coupon was also fierce, but it only lasted three days. Group buying doesn’t even have as much funds as 24Coupon did, surviving a week is already the limit.”

Just then, Robin’s phone vibrated in his hand, showing a caller ID from Kyoto.

Seeing this, Robin immediately stood up, asked everyone else to take a short break, and went out to answer the call.

Three minutes later, Manager Robin returned to the meeting room, a grin beginning to spread across his face.

“It’s approved, 1.2 million for the campaign budget, it’ll be in our account in five working days.”

“Really just a fraction, huh?”

“It’s not little. We’re operating in 23 cities simultaneously, getting this amount out is tough. And for group buying at its current scale, 1.2 million is enough.”

LaShou’s existing market is huge, targeting group buying with 1.2 million in campaign funds is effortless.

Thus, everyone also let go of their anxiety, thinking about enjoying a good sleep after this wave of market competition and not waste the sunny winter days.

Song Yaqian was also in LaShou’s meeting room all this while, sitting quietly, her role largely unnoticed.

The team structure in Shanghai was quite complete, and Robin didn’t know what to assign her, but he couldn’t decline his brother’s good intentions, so he kept her close by.

This college student representative of group buying, although aware of group buying’s situation in Shanghai from Tianjin, only truly grasped its ferocity upon arriving.

In a week’s time, from nothing, they already covered Yangpu, Huangpu, and a part of Pudong, and moreover, Songjiang University Town’s business was rapidly expanding northeast, truly astonishing.

Song Yaqian was very clear about her own role; she always felt like just a startup college student, not prominent on the national market.

Yet, Jiang Qin, also a college student, had his wealthy backers anxiously convening daily meetings; the contrast was extremely strong.

It takes a lot of courage for a college student to step into society, let alone possess the capability to stir up significant changes.

Based on this, she developed an inexplicable admiration for Jiang Qin.

Didn’t that manager just say? Even 24Coupon was only fierce for three days, but group buying lasted a week – now that’s genuinely fierce. If group buying is so intense, how fierce must Jiang Qin be?

Unthinkable, unthinkable…

Unfortunately, the Shanghai branch’s funding request has already been approved. Otherwise, if group buying continued pushing forward, it might have truly established a foothold in Shanghai.

A group buying website that emerged from a campus had become the third-largest in a first-tier city, a feat worth bragging about forever.

Suddenly, it was ten in the morning.

Inside group buying’s division office, Jiang Qin waved inviting everyone to play cards, but after experiencing the boss’s salary retrieval scheme, everyone would rather do field work than play cards.

“Boss, your reputation in the card games is really bad!”

“Heh, how do you know I’m not doing this so everyone willingly does field work?”

“?????”

At this moment, Ye Ziqing had arrived at the group buying division, sitting by a wall, unsure of what to do.

Truthfully, transitioning from the helm of a group buying website to a minor employee was still not something she was accustomed to, so feeling awkward was inevitable.

Plus, she knew Cui Yiting and Zhou Zhenhao were now with LaShou, and Jiang Qin wouldn’t assign her any crucial tasks.

But no matter, as long as she understood how the other side was winning, that was enough.

However, at this moment, Cui Yiting appeared in Suixin Group’s chat group and “shared” the morning’s events again, causing her to frown.

“Jiang… Mr. Jiang, we might have a problem.”

“?”

Jiang Qin turned to look at her, pondered for a moment, then raised his head, “LaShou is making a move?”

Ye Ziqing was astonished, “How did you know?”

“You just arrived in Shanghai and yet know there’s trouble with group buying; the only possible source of that info has to be from Cui Yiting, an employee of LaShou.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Qin pinched his fingers and muttered a prayer, “I figured it out – they’ve probably approved the campaign funds by now. They’ve always been bothered by me jumping around; planning a targeted strike against group buying?”

Ye Ziqing’s head buzzed, feeling like it might explode.

What was that operation? Could he… really predict it?!

Jiang Qin, seeing her expression, laughed, “Don’t be scared, senior sister. I was just playing. I can’t really predict the future.”

“Then how did you guess so accurately?”

“Isn’t this a common tactic used by all websites? Facing a competitor, burn money, hit them hard! It’s been the same move for so long, I’m hardly thrilled by it anymore.”

As they were speaking, Sun Zhi came in with a group, “Boss, everyone’s here.”

Jiang Qin looked towards Tan Qing, “Give them the stuff.”

“Right away, boss.”

Tan Qing, along with a group, carried in two large stacks of thick contracts, of different heights, then cut the strapping ties, which Sun Zhi’s team sorted and took away.

Jiang Qin told Sun Zhi, “No need to go out today. Market-side, Kaixuan is watching; take everyone back for some rest. Tomorrow, we won’t be showing them any mercy.”

“Understood, big saber!”

“Go ahead.”

As the promotions team’s Er Hu left, he couldn’t resist whispering to Sun Zhi, “Boss Sun, since the boss gave us a holiday, is he also treating us to some fun?”

Sun Zhi turned and gave him a look, his mouth skewed, “Is that all you think about? They call me big saber for a reason!”

“……”

After seven days of intense promotional work, the frontline brothers were indeed struggling to keep up; even those experienced in martial arts contests couldn’t withstand such fatigue.

And at this critical juncture, the competition began to gather funds for a frontal assault, and if not handled well, the rhythm might indeed be thrown off.

They can’t afford to slow down and must ward off the fiery assaults from the competitors. Even a divine being would find this challenging, so some underhanded tactics were definitely necessary.

Jiang Qin had made contingency plans for this from the beginning, so he was not panicked by the current situation.

“Ms. Ye, what are they trying to do? I can’t make sense of it.”

“I don’t know either and can’t figure it out. But you got my name wrong; I’m no longer Ms. Ye, just call me Ziqing.”

In the evening after work, Ye Ziqing, along with two men and one woman who came with her, walked back to their apartment, chatting about their day’s experiences working at group buying.

These two men and one woman were Xing Xiangming, Dai Zhitao, and Guan Shen, who had initially worked with Suixin Group in the Shanghai market.

Ye Ziqing felt that if group buying later entered Shanghai, these three could definitely help, so with Jiang Qin’s permission, she had brought them back.

However, even all four of them together couldn’t understand what Boss Jiang was planning.

They had already experienced the terror of LaShou once, and at this moment, Nuomi was definitely prepared as well, seeing two group buying giants mobilizing funds to make a move, how could they not panic?

Back when they were with Suixin Group, they were scared to death!

“Did they secretly raise funds before?”

“Non-public companies can choose not to disclose their financing. It’s possible group buying really got some funds.”

“But it doesn’t make sense. If they raised funds, announcing it to intimidate the competition would make sense. Why keep it secret?”