Chapter 592: Mad Tactics for Attention

Due to increased demand, the delivery platform has been busy recently. The weekend is approaching, and rest time is finally here.

Robin and Luo Ping had plans to go fishing at a wild lake.

Life is one thing, work another. Earning money is important, but you shouldn’t live just for work.

Wishes are beautiful but reality is often cruel.

At three in the afternoon, a call from Guo Ming had them rushing back to the company.

They found Guo Ming sitting silently in the meeting room with some executives responsible for operations, promotions, and planning.

The meeting room’s table was covered with plastic bags, paper bags, and fast food boxes all printed with “Group-Buy Delivery, fast at everything.”

“What’s wrong, Boss Guo?”

“Look at this packaging and the orders on it.”

“?”

The brothers looked at each other, thinking this was just normal Group-Buy Delivery packaging. What’s so strange about it?

But since their superior spoke, they had to look.

Luo Ping and Robin grabbed one each, their eyes widened and they shouted, “What kind of trick is this?” Then they fell silent.

There were about eight people in the meeting room, each quieter than the last.

Ever since Group-Buy officially launched on the app, Praise Delivery and its backer Alibaba have been on guard, especially those who had participated in group buying, alert to Group-Buy.

From the perspective of Alibaba, part of their defeat in the ‘thousand group battles’ was due to underestimating Jiang Qin early on.

This oversight gave him enough time to strategize.

As Group-Buy grew stronger, things spiraled out of control.

Having learned from this, they were ready to defend fiercely in the next battle.

Especially Alibaba, which was truly prepared with funds to block Group-Buy in the delivery race.

“You advertise to recruit riders, we’ll raise prices to disrupt the market.”

“You offer subsidies to attract users, we’ll still raise prices to make you lose your advantage.”

Maybe others don’t, but we at Alibaba are richer than you, Group-Buy.

But having watched for so many days without any activity from them, and with the battle becoming urgent, they couldn’t focus on Group-Buy for too long.

The rise of a new industry is full of thorns and twists, focusing on one competitor is not wise.

So they shifted their focus to common areas like the hiring market and advertising channels, ready to react at the slightest hint.

But there were no hints, yet Group-Buy’s business kept growing rapidly.

Many were perplexed during this time, eager to understand Group-Buy’s promotional channels and operational methods.

TV ads? None.

Offline, in elevator or bus advertisements, none either.

Not even promotional soft articles on Zhihu and Tonight’s Headlines.

Until today, when the channels were revealed, nobody had imagined Group-Buy’s promotional strategies could be so cunning, unheard of.

“Good packaging, no spillage. This is what consumers want, and packaging cost is a pain point for merchants. Combine these, and you have the perfect advertising deployment.”

“Exactly, directly reaching our users…”

“The key is, Group-Buy likely knew someone in the market was waiting to strike them, so they used this unstoppable strategy. Such foresight is terrifying.”

“Doing business, the worst is to be led by someone else’s rhythm. In fact, we were caught in Group-Buy’s rhythm from the start.”

“Jiang Qin… what kind of person is he?”

Discussion rose in the meeting room, and when this question was asked, everyone looked at Luo Ping and Robin.

The upper echelons from Praise, parachuted by Alibaba, hadn’t directly dealt with Jiang Qin; only these two had.

Robin hesitated: “A person?”

After a glance at his brother, Luo Ping spoke: “Jiang Qin has forward-thinking, strong strategic capabilities, adept at using unconventional methods, and has a keen perception of market pain points. He dares to think and act.”

Guo Ming fell silent: “Any of these qualities could make a person successful.”

“That’s true…”

Just then, a knock on the door of the meeting room.

The receptionist, dressed in a black silk miniskirt, entered, interrupting the conversation: “Boss Guo, the rider has arrived.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Guo Ming stood and waved to the room: “Come on, let’s see something even more sensational.”

“?”

Everyone looked at each other then followed Guo Ming outside, finding four delivery riders at the door all wearing Group-Buy’s fast-delivery jackets.

Guo Ming asked the first one: “Which delivery are you from?”

“I’m from Hungry Yet.”

“And you?”

“Boss, I’m from our Praise Delivery.”

“How about you two?”

“Quick Meal’s.”

“Uh… I’m from Group-Buy Delivery.”

After hearing this, everyone fell into silence again. All they could picture was a dog dressed in a yellow outfit, shaking madly inside that plastic bag.

Now, Manager Sun from marketing approached: “Boss Guo, we’ve figured out the plastic bag situation.”

“What happened?”

“We arranged people to sell these plastic bags at half price through low-priced promotions because they’re good quality and affordable. They were popular among delivery merchants who care a lot about costs, something we hadn’t focused on before.”

Robin pursed his lips: “When we did group buying, I felt that Jiang Qin understood the market better than we did.”

As he spoke, it seemed inaccurate, so he corrected: “No, not just the market— it’s understanding those struggling at the grassroots, unlike us who might stand high and see far but often overlook what’s beneath our feet.”

Guo Ming was silent, then said: “They can do it, we can too. Let’s find a factory to make our own plastic bags, and some clothes too.”

Manager Sun nodded: “I’ve already got someone on it.”

“Good, then let’s use Jiang Qin’s method to first snatch the Sticky Rice Delivery market.”

Alibaba has the money and resources; making a plastic bag is a piece of cake for them.

Soon, dubbed “low-priced vendors” by Praise Delivery marketers began appearing in business districts with their own plastic bags.

However, what the Praise Delivery management hadn’t anticipated was that their plastic bags would not sell.

Even given away for free, nobody wanted them.

“Get lost, don’t sell us these inferior bags. We’ve been receiving complaints daily, we won’t use them even if they’re free!”

“?”

During the time Praise Delivery tried imitating Group-Buy, other platforms gradually discovered this.

They originally thought the riders seen on the streets and the ubiquitous delivery bags were a marketing strategy targeted specifically at them by Group-Buy.

But as the numbers grew, they realized something was amiss.

It turned out it wasn’t because of Group-Buy, but rather, Group-Buy had unified the packaging of their own deliveries!

This led many consumers to believe that Group-Buy was the origin of delivery services and other merchants were just middlemen shortchanging them, making Group-Buy the favorite among all delivery platform customers.

“You’re ‘Hungry Yet’ number one, I’ll share a bit; ‘Sticky Rice’ number two, I’m here too; ‘Praise’ number three, send a bit; ‘Quick Meal,’ send some too…”

A little here, a bit there, Group-Buy Delivery’s growth was frighteningly fast.

Many platforms, like Praise, rearranged their thoughts and decided to imitate but were unanimously rejected by merchants because of poor quality, and in a market where ratings mean everything, bad reviews are devastating.

They only later found out that plastic bags bearing their logos had flooded the market with extremely poor quality, succeeding in turning off both merchants and consumers.

People from all major platforms panicked, demonstrating on the spot: “Look, our packaging quality is really good.”

But most merchants still refused, saying that now when customers see your packaging, they instantly give bad reviews; it’s become a habit, not worth the hassle.

With feedback like this, various platforms warmly cursed Jiang Qin’s ancestors.

In this fierce market grab, many platforms were wary of offending merchants—it was manageable with one or two, but now that everyone was affected, it was alarming.

“Boss, other platforms seem to have discovered our packaging scheme. There’s been a frequent presence of people selling other brands’ plastic bags these days.”

“No worries, if selling covertly doesn’t work, sell openly.”

“Alright.”

Group-Buy’s ground-push king, Jiang Zhihua, recently started appearing in all major business districts once again.

This time, he wasn’t promoting plastic bags or rider uniforms but was offering small packs of tissues and disposable utensils including chopsticks, spoons, toothpicks.

Don’t ask, it’s just that a certain unscrupulous company ordered them and didn’t want them, selling them off cheap because they had prints.

Thanks to the good reputation built up earlier and being genuinely able to reduce costs, the takeaway merchants welcomed these with open arms; therefore, Shengshi could barely keep up with orders. Factories that were about to close were now making a killing, thriving on thin margins with high volumes.

The delivery market began to panic even more.

From the inception of the delivery industry to today, everyone had been aiming to unify the market.

But Jiang Qin’s approach was different; besides the meals themselves, he did everything else, intending to unify the market through a roundabout route involving utensils, packaging, and rider uniforms.

He intended to encircle everyone by himself.

Chen Jiaxin, currently the market manager for Hungry Yet, stood on the street, watching countless yellow-robed delivery personnel, and fell silent.

They also rushed to produce plastic bags, but failed to sell them.

Sky blue rider equipment was being made but needed more time.

In such a situation, while Hungry Yet was pouring money into operations, Group-Buy’s business volume was skyrocketing.

The good news was that the others were in the same boat.

She had left Public Review for Hungry Yet because she believed in Zhang Xuhao.

She thought Zhang Xuhao was like Jiang Qin two years ago—skilled and ambitious.

Yet, when the real Jiang Qin took to the field in such a manner, encircling everyone by himself, it still brought her an unparalleled sense of pressure.

Chen Jiaxin didn’t think highly of men, but Jiang Qin was an exception.

He knew—the champion of the last race, dancing madly on the cliff’s edge while slapping competitors and casually stealing two sweets from their pockets, the group-buy tyrant, had officially returned to the O2O arena.

And the packaging, apparel, and utensil plans may just be the beginning.

(I finally made it into the top ten, thank you, family. Please feel free to smash me with your votes or2 or2)