Chapter 447: I Really Want to Defect, What Should I Do?

After the New Year’s Day, the heat in the consumer market began to decline.

After all, it’s winter and going out is not easy. Dinners and outings are done on the festival day. So, staying home became the choice for most people.

By the afternoon of the next day, posters declaring that group buying deals on New Year’s Day surpassed five hundred thousand orders were plastered all over partnership stores, with the shining zeros very eye-catching.

On this, LaShou and Nuomi maintained a rare silence.

“Five hundred thousand, such a bragger.”

“The data came out at midnight the day before, and by seven in the morning the posters were already up. I don’t believe they weren’t printed in advance!”

“But, it really works…”

“I heard through the grapevine that group buying was profitable during the New Year. That’s even more bizarre than the five hundred thousand, right?”

“Just a short-term profit. Afterwards, it has to be paid back to the market.”

“But we’ve been operating in Shanghai for over five months without even short-term profits, just burning money.”

Listening to everyone talking all at once, Yang Xueyu stood silently at the window with a cigarette in hand.

The group buying market heated up starting from early this year with Shanghai as the first location. From Kang Jingtao to Robin to Yang Xueyu, LaShou’s branch went through two leadership changes but still couldn’t tap into Shanghai’s consumer potential.

However, within just a month of group buying’s arrival, this market had become too hot to handle; the difference was massive.

Both LaShou and Nuomi focus on merchants first in their development principles, their core policy being to seize most of the city’s merchants to guarantee a position of strength.

Therefore, despite low transaction volumes on New Year’s, Yang Xueyu received awards from headquarters for not losing any operational areas.

Headquarters said this is like leaving the green mountain intact, not fearing no firewood to burn. After financing, the number of cities and merchants becomes the key to victory, not necessarily the number of consumers.

However, Yang Xueyu, who was on the front lines, began to doubt this generous optimism from headquarters.

During its dormant phase, group buying had been carefully selecting merchants, signing many popular stores as a base, and this New Year’s promotion had greatly shuffled the quality of merchants among the three group-buying websites.

Although LaShou had the highest number of Shanghai merchants, their service quality was far below that of group buying.

Simply put, after taking the initial step of deep cooperation agreements, group buying’s food rankings and New Year’s promotions now dominated all of Shanghai’s popular merchants.

Their services were good, quality high, attractiveness strong.

In terms of numbers, group buying had the least contracted merchants, but in terms of transaction volume, LaShou and Nuomi combined couldn’t compete with group buying.

Consumers attract popular merchants to sign agreements, which in turn attracts more consumers; this is a healthy cycle.

Especially group buying’s careful selection process, really quite delicate.

Initially, Yang Xueyu and Robin didn’t understand why group buying suddenly launched a proprietary careful selection.

This required warehouses, channels, a significant amount of work, not directly beneficial to the current group-buying business.

But it was only when rumors in the consumer group hinted that group-buying was all fake and only group buying sold real products that they realized group buying was setting something big up.

Because once group buying became the industry’s sole symbol of genuine products, it was truly unbeatable.

That’s something even burning money couldn’t shake because some people, even if it costs more, will chase high quality.

“Xiao Li, Xiao Liu, we’re taking off first.”

At Nanjing Road pedestrian street, Liangzi, who handled group buying’s booth, stood up, waved his hand at the LaShou and Nuomi personnel across the way.

“Going to dinner now? Isn’t it a bit early? Wait a bit, let’s go together!”

LaShou’s Xiao Liu, peeling chestnuts, tried to convince him to wait.

Liangzi shook his head: “We’ve got a holiday now. Boss Tan said it’s about time; we don’t need so many people here. Let’s hurry back to our wives and children.”

“?”

Xiao Liu was momentarily stunned, then noticed that three of group buying’s five booths had already started to dismantle. Even a sightseeing car had been removed.

Damn, there’s a three-day holiday for New Year’s, and you guys are only working one extra day? Isn’t there a law against this?

“Does your manager even know you have wives and children? Damn, our manager doesn’t even know what my full name is.”

As he packed up, Liangzi said: “We built a profile before, filled in family information.”

“Is Old Xu leaving too?”

“He’s not leaving. He doesn’t have a wife or kids, might as well earn double wages.”

Nuomi’s Xiao Li had just come over to borrow water, and after hearing that, he was shocked. The water he’d just poured spilled all over: “How much? Double wages, was it the same yesterday?”

“Not yesterday.”

“Oh.” Xiao Li and Xiao Liu suddenly felt a bit better.

At that moment, Liangzi added: “Yesterday was triple.”

“?????”

Nuomi’s Xiao Li suddenly remembered New Year’s Eve, their group selling insisted, grasping customers and explaining for three hours without stopping, not even for water.

At that time, Xiao Li had called Old Xu to the restroom, but he wouldn’t go. They had privately discussed how group buying’s boss must have brainwashed his people — they were treating themselves like tools.

Damn, it wasn’t brainwashing — it was just plain triple wages!?

Your boss is so humane, don’t other bosses ostracize him, not befriend him? Aren’t there any big shots saying he’s disturbing the industry balance?

“Can anyone apply for group buying’s ground promotion? Are there any educational requirements?”

“No, but our assessment system is pretty strict. Those who just try to skate by can’t last long.”

Nuomi’s Xiao Li suddenly thought of an old friend: “I remember there was an Old Wu in your team; he hit me back in university town. Did he get fired for just loafing around?”

Liangzi was taken aback: “No, he had lots of sign-ups, got promoted to gold-level ground promotion, and now he’s been moved to another market.”

“Your group buying’s ground promotion still has promotion channels?”

“Yes, Defiant Bronze, Order Silver, Glory Gold, Prestigious Platinum, Eternal Diamond, Supreme Starlight, Ultimate King. Even the badge colors are different. I’m almost at Glory Gold; my salary might increase by over a hundred bucks.”

“Damn…”

For base-level workers, salary and benefits are important, and so are promotion channels.

Some people work at the base level for countless years. Whether they get a raise depends entirely on the boss’s mood. Basically, if the boss feels good, you might get a raise; if not, forget it.

Just thinking about giving you a raise, if the boss’s wife is having a baby, his mood could turn sour in an instant.

So why ask for a reasonable promotion channel? To ensure that as long as you work hard, you get what you deserve, not just depending on someone higher up’s mood.

Plus, their titles sound nice.

Defiant Bronze, Order Silver, Glory Gold… Who came up with this?

Damn, I really want to defect. It feels like being with group buying means really building a career, not just loafing around.

Meanwhile, after a day out, Dong Wenhao and his group arrived at the Xiangti Villa by evening.

They even brought gifts to celebrate the boss’s new house.

“How much money did the boss make to buy a villa in Shanghai? I’m so jealous.”

“You think he has that much money? After group buying entered the national market, the boss has been burning through cash and is nearly broke.”

“Ah? Then how could he still afford a villa?”

“I heard the villa was financed by the boss’s aunt.”

“Damn, with those looks, could the boss be a kept man? Or is he supported by the boss lady? I’m even more jealous!”

Lu Feiyu’s face twisted as if he had bitten into a lemon, realizing that the endpoint of working hard in business was being kept by a rich woman. Absolutely insane.

Just then, Jiang Qin came out from the living room: “Why so late? It’s been two hours. Did you guys get lost?”

Dong Wenhao handed over a set of Zwilling kitchenware: “We were supposed to come back earlier, but everyone agreed to pick a gift for you and the boss lady, so we went another round.”

Lu Feiyu coughed, “Congratulations on being kept.”

“What kept? It’s just real estate!”

Jiang Qin spat at him, then turned to Tan Qing: “Have the salaries and bonuses for the ground promotion department been sent out?”

Tan Qing nodded, “Already confirmed with Sister Xu Yu, they will be all distributed by five this afternoon.”

“Good job. Come in and make dumplings. We didn’t get to eat them on New Year’s Day, so today it’s like a delayed New Year’s Day. Also, while you’re making dumplings, listen to me hold a brief meeting on the side.”

Wei Lanlan and Su Nai hadn’t heard such a sudden call for a meeting in a long time, and it still sounded so thunderous.

Looking at Jiang Qin, he now wore a smile befitting a people’s entrepreneur.

Group buying had achieved a phased victory in Shanghai, effectively opening the door to the national market, and preparations for what lay ahead were necessary.

Like financing, upgrading to Business Loop 3.0, simplifying and improving the scale and quality of second and third-tier markets all required long-term planning.

Jiang Qin had spent his time in Shanghai not only directing operations but also preparing these plans.

“Lanlan, after you go back, help me set up a dinner with the Eight Great Kings, and also arrange a meeting with the boss of a strategic partner. We’ll meet at group buying headquarters next Wednesday to discuss upgrading cooperation.”

“Su Nai, finish your current tasks quickly, then work with Lu Feiyu to make Tonight’s Headlines independent, remove the registration threshold on the PC version, start trial operations, and do some mutual traffic generation with other websites.”

“Wenhao, continue managing Zhihu’s daily operations. The online campus beauty contests can also run a few more rounds.”

“Tan Qing, manage the Shanghai branch and train Xu Kaixuan. Later, I’ll need Sun Zhi to take over the Shanghai market, and I’ll call him over.”

“And Jinrui.”

Wen Jinrui started in surprise, immediately straightened up.

She was Jiang Qin’s personal assistant but hadn’t handled anything significant before. Being called out in a full executive meeting like this was a first for her, stirring a sense of excitement.

Jiang Qin glanced at her, “Don’t put too much salt in the dumpling filling. Are you trying to choke someone?”