Chapter 51: The Competition Between Jingdong and Alibaba

The guests had mostly finished eating, drinking, and chatting, and tonight's auction was about to begin.

Chang Sheng took the stage to warm up the crowd and introduced the representatives of the channel partners participating in the bidding tonight.

Just as he finished introducing the channel partners, three men suddenly rushed forward.

Two of them unfurled a banner that read, "Thank you, All-Seas Group, for the 300,000 units in sales sent to GRM." The remaining man snatched the microphone from Chang Sheng and said, "Hello everyone, I am Huo Haiming, the Jiangnan District Manager for GRM. We were ordered by our Greater China President, Ms. Li Enhui, to specially bring this banner to thank All-Seas Group for your god-tier assist to GRM. President Chang, please accept this banner and brocade flag on behalf of Chairman Yang of All-Seas Group."

Huo Haiming opened the brocade flag in his hand, which read, "Chairman Yang of All-Seas provided a god-tier assist, pushing GRM's sales to break records. Presented to Chairman Yang Chen of All-Seas Group by all GRM employees."

How utterly contemptible. It was obvious that Li Enhui was intentionally trying to disgust Yang Chen.

Chang Sheng turned pale with fright. He immediately stepped forward to push Huo Haiming away and shouted, "Where are the security guards? How are you doing your jobs? How did people without invitations get let in?"

Security guards hurried over to forcibly escort the three men away. At that moment, Yang Chen, who was busy eating a large lobster claw, spoke up loudly, "They are bringing me a brocade flag, why are you chasing them away?"

Yang Chen waved his hand, and the security guards quickly released the three men.

Huo Haiming smiled and said, "You must be Chairman Yang, right? Truly a man of exceptional talent and extraordinary bearing."

"Alright, cut the crap. I'm asking you, are your sales figures real? You didn't fake them by bot-stuffing, did you?" Yang Chen probed.

Huo Haiming laughed heartily and said, "How could they possibly be fake? We have solid, tangible shipments, alright? I even checked with the President this evening; our company and factories have been working in rotating shifts to pack and ship goods, and we've already dispatched 250,000 orders. Chairman Yang, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but these are all genuine sales. Haha..."

The original price was 998 per set, and the half-price was 499 per set. Even calculating at one set per order, they had already shipped out goods worth 125 million. A penalty of refunding three times the amount would require an additional 375 million to compensate consumers. If offline platform sales and subsequent fines were also factored in, vomiting out all the money they had earned entering the Chinese market wouldn't be enough; head office funds would have to be allocated to support them.

Yang Chen smiled and nodded. "You guys are really something. Work hard tonight and ship out a bit more. You've worked hard, stay and grab some food and drinks."

Huo Haiming immediately rushed back to the microphone and shouted loudly, "To all the channel partner executives present, take my advice: do not bother bidding, or you will never make back such high agency fees. You might as well hand all your resources over to us at GRM. The market has proven that consumers trust us at GRM. Give us more resources, and you'll make even more money."

The heads of the various channel partners all wore expressions of contempt. In their eyes, Huo Haiming was nothing more than an absolute clown. Yang Chen had already learned GRM's shipment volume from him just now, and tomorrow morning they would likely move in to slaughter GRM, yet he was still here spouting off with such misplaced self-righteousness.

Yang Chen waved his hand, and the security guards immediately led the three of them away.

Yang Chen nodded at Chang Sheng, who immediately announced in a loud voice, "Everyone, please don't mind this little interlude. We will now officially begin the auction. The successful bidder will have the priority right to negotiate the agency rights for All-Seas Health's upcoming new products. First up for bidding are the online and offline dual channels, with a starting price of 2 billion. If there are no bids for the package, we will split the online and offline channels for separate bidding. The default incremental bid is 1 billion. Esteemed executives, you may now place your bids."

A buzz went off at the venue, and members of the various channel partner delegations began to whisper among themselves.

"Wow, a starting price of 2 billion is already outrageous, and the default increment is a whole billion. Tsk tsk tsk... Is money just not money in their eyes?"

"Just how much confidence do they have in their product? They aren't even thinking about how many years it will take to make back such a high agency fee."

"The catch is that GRM has already preemptively gobbled up a huge chunk of the market. The pressure to break even if we win a high-priced bid now is just too massive. President Yu probably won't bid; the price is absurdly high."

...

Yu Lei, Vice President of Jingdong, noticed that none of the other competitors had made a move, so he smiled and said, "Why aren't the other executives bidding? If you won't, I will."

Li Yong, head of Alibaba Pharmacy, immediately asked, "This is for both online and offline dual agency rights. What does Jingdong want with the offline agency rights?"

Yu Lei smiled and replied, "Doesn't President Li know that Jingdong is currently rolling out offline physical stores under Jingdong Pharmacy?"

Li Yong was instantly rendered speechless. Jingdong Pharmacy did indeed have a small number of physical storefronts, but spending over a billion just for such a tiny handful of brick-and-mortar shops to acquire a weight-loss drug agency seemed a bit too risky, didn't it?

Li Yong smiled and said, "President Yu, there's no need to pull my leg. How could you possibly spend over a billion to bid for a weight-loss drug agency just for those few physical storefronts?"

Yu Lei laughed heartily and then announced loudly, "2.2 billion! Online and offline, we want it all."

"Wow..."

A gasp echoed through the entire venue.

Li Yong said with a shocked expression, "President Yu, are you guys playing for real?"

"We are determined to win!" Yu Lei replied with a smile.

Chang Sheng announced loudly, "President Yu of Jingdong has bid 2.2 billion. Are there any higher bids?"

Li Yong firmly believed that Jingdong couldn't possibly spend over a billion to buy offline agency rights just for those few physical stores. He guessed that Jingdong's strategy was to sell the offline agency rights later to channels like Baixing Pharmacy, which would be several billion cheaper than bidding for the offline agency rights separately.

If Jingdong could pull that stunt, Alibaba certainly could too.

"2.4 billion!" Li Yong shouted loudly.

"Wow..."

Another gasp swept through the hall.

If Yu Lei raised his bid again, it would be no different from bidding on them separately.

Yu Lei smiled and said, "2.6 billion!"

"Wow..."

Another wave of gasps rippled through the crowd, and everyone's attention instantly focused on Yu Lei.

Guo Wenkai, Vice President of Baixing Pharmacy, shouted, "What do the two of you mean by this? You aren't even giving us a chance to bid? Wouldn't it be fine for you to just stick to your online businesses? Trying to grab a slice of the offline market as well is a bit too greedy, isn't it?"

Yu Lei smiled and explained, "Nowadays, offline brands are all getting into online platforms, so naturally, our online platform needs to expand into offline storefronts as well. Especially for pharmaceuticals, offline is still much more reassuring. Before I came here, President Liu specifically instructed me to win the bid no matter the cost; we are going to use All-Seas Slimming Pills to conquer new territory offline. If everyone else lacks the resolve to compete with us to the end, I kindly ask you to raise your hands and stop driving the price up. On behalf of President Liu, I thank you all, and once this is over, I'll treat everyone to a bath and massage."

Offline channel distributors like Baixing Pharmacy certainly lacked the financial muscle and saw no necessity to compete for the dual online and offline agency rights, so they simply dropped out of the bidding.

The only one left capable of competing with Jingdong was Alibaba, and all eyes now converged on Li Yong, Vice President of Alibaba.

Ever since Chairman Ma stepped back from the front lines, Alibaba had repeatedly made missteps. The former e-commerce giant was now being beaten into a full retreat by Pinduoduo, Douyin E-commerce, and Jingdong. They couldn't compete with Jingdong at the high end, couldn't beat Pinduoduo at the low end, and couldn't match the internet-famous and celebrity-driven marketing power of Douyin. They desperately needed a new business growth driver to lead the group back to its former glory.

Since Jingdong was preparing to focus heavily on offline mega-pharmacies, shouldn't Alibaba keep pace?

What was up for grabs tonight wasn't just the agency rights for a weight-loss drug, but also the priority negotiation rights for all future new products from All-Seas Health.

Li Yong immediately made a phone call to Chairman Ma to ask for instructions before deciding whether to follow up.

Chang Sheng shouted loudly, "Are there any bids higher than President Yu of Jingdong? 2.6 billion going once! Are there any more? Is that it?"

The crowd below buzzed with discussion, everyone speculating whether Alibaba would follow up with a higher bid.

"It's already at 2.6 billion, Alibaba probably won't follow!"

"Alibaba Pharmacy doesn't have many offline stores either, they shouldn't be reckless enough to risk nearly 3 billion."

"It's just a weight-loss pill after all; these two corporate giants can't possibly be foolish enough to shell out nearly 3 billion just to acquire its agency rights."

...

Chen Xi asked softly, "Chairman Yang, do you think Alibaba will follow up?"

"Whether they follow up or not doesn't matter. This price meets my expectations, and Jingdong has sufficient strength. They have the capability to get our products into the hands of consumers at the fastest possible speed," Yang Chen replied with a smile.

Just as Yang Chen finished speaking, Li Yong hung up his phone, and the entire room fell silent, waiting for his reaction.