February 8th, Lunar New Year Day 6
A black BMW 750 sped along the He-Xu Expressway.
Wang Zihao drove. Meng Jie lounged in the back, absorbed in the popular drama Palace. Chen Yansen listened to a few lines of Love's Offering, then put on headphones and scrolled through news.
"Alibaba and Yahoo equity dispute intensifies."
"Group-buying war rages: Meituan, Lashou, Nuomi battle for dominance."
"Weibo users surge; celebrities Yang Mi and Feng Shaofeng join, cementing social media lead."
Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes. The group-buying frenzy had peaked. What looked like a platform war was really a proxy battle between venture capital firms.
To attract users and merchants, platforms slashed commission rates—5%, 4%, even 3% for the well-funded. Compared to the 10% standard of a decade later, this was a bloodbath.
Lashou led the pack, followed by Nuomi, Meituan, and Dianping, with the rest fighting over scraps.
No one could have predicted Meituan would eventually devour them all.
"Strike before they react. Take over the group-buying channel."
Chen Yansen decided instantly.
Competitors like Mogujie and Meilishuo were copying FoxTao's super cashback model, oblivious that mall rebates and search cashback were the other half of the equation.
He called Lin Chenfeng at Tencent Capital.
After a brief explanation, Lin Chenfeng sounded surprised. "Group-buying is already a low-margin, service-heavy model. You want a cut too?"
"They pour money into Baidu for ads. Why not into my platform?"
"Good point. Let me connect you with Gaopeng's marketing head."
Gaopeng—a joint venture between Tencent and Groupon. Though new, it was expanding rapidly via QQ's user base.
Thirty minutes later, Zheng Yun, Gaopeng's Marketing Director, called back.
"How do you envision cooperation, Mr. Chen?"
"Two models: mall rebates and super cashback. Try both."
"But group-buying is location-specific. A Shanghai hotpot deal has little appeal in Beijing..."
"Two solutions: focus on national chains like KFC, McDonald's. Second, FoxTao can geo-target based on user IP."
Zheng Yun was silent for a beat, then laughed in admiration. "Brilliant. Connecting shopping guides with group-buying... No wonder you built a 2.8-billion-yuan company in six months."
"Let's finalize details in a group chat."
Chen Yansen added Song Yuncheng and Xiang Pengfei. Zheng Yun added his tech and marketing teams. They hashed out product selection, commissions, and new-user bonuses.
By the time Wang Zihao exited the highway toward Xucheng Academy, the first flash-sale products were set:
KFC Family Bucket: 30% commission → 20% user discount.
Kung Fu Mushroom Chicken Combo: 35% commission → 25% discount.
Dicos Chicken Burger: 25% commission → 15% discount.
Little Sheep Hot Pot Combo: 20% commission → 12% discount.
All national chains. Gaopeng would cover the price difference, excluding the 3–5% merchant fee.
They capped subsidies at 8 million yuan, plus a 40-yuan new-user reward—burning through Gaopeng's February ad budget in one go.
Twenty minutes later, the BMW stopped at the startup park.
Chen Yansen handed his luggage to Meng Jie. "Take it to 0418." He headed upstairs.
"Brother Sen! Happy New Year!" Xiang Pengfei spotted him instantly.
"Backend team attendance?"
"Two still on trains. Everyone else is here."
"How long to integrate Gaopeng's CPS interface?"
"Technically similar to B2C platforms. Three to five days. But first-time collaboration needs alignment on data tracking."
"Add Hu Yun to the coordination group. Song Yuncheng leads this project."
He returned to his desk, logged into the data backend. Daily active users had dipped below 1 million during the holiday but recovered to 1.09 million after logistics resumed.
Yuan Wei approached, expression serious. "Brother Sen, recruitment team reports some Super Cashback merchants are also running promotions on Mogujie and Meilishuo."
"Hold a meeting. First offense: warning. Second: blacklist. Merchants who don't comply get their commission tier lowered."
He wouldn't stop merchants from diversifying, but if they offered better deals on competitors—undercutting FoxTao—he'd cut them off without hesitation.
FoxTao had the first-mover advantage. He wouldn't let copycats catch up.
Not long after, Xiang Pengfei returned from the meeting.
"Pengfei—new task. Monitor competitor product pools. Fuzzy title and ID matching. Flag any products that have run on our Super Cashback. Email the recruitment team."
"Priority?"
"T0. Launch immediately."
That afternoon, the recruitment team had a new, anxious routine: constantly checking competitor sites, terrified of finding their assigned merchants there.
The boss's rule: three offending merchants in a month = automatic commission downgrade. Five offenses = blacklist.
First offense: warning. Second: terminated.
Suddenly, calls to merchants grew sharper, less accommodating.
That evening, Xu Xingxing leaned over, phone in hand. "Class monitor, Meilishuo's boss tagged you on Weibo. He's... not polite."
The post from Xu Yi, Meilishuo's founder:
"@FoxTao Chen Yansen — Young man, don't be a bully! Forcing merchants to choose between FoxTao and Meilishuo? Trying to monopolize?"
With Chen Yansen's 4.8 million Weibo followers (thanks to his "college genius" image), the tag drew a crowd.
Within hours, over twenty merchants had broken contracts with Meilishuo, fearing FoxTao's retaliation.
Chen Yansen hadn't planned to engage, but Xu Yi was milking the drama.
He responded:
"@Meilishuo Xu Yi — Age doesn't grant the right to bully. Your platform copied Super Cashback's UI and mechanics 1:1. When are you paying copyright fees?"
The design team dropped comparison images in the comments—identical color schemes, fonts, layouts.
The court of public opinion turned instantly.
"Thief crying 'stop thief'!"
"Shameless copying!"
"Explain the identical UI, Mr. Xu!"
Xu Yi deleted the post and disabled comments within the hour.
Mogujie fared no better. They scraped together a few no-name brands for a promotion, but without traffic or trust, orders were negligible.
In his office, Xu Yi slammed a fist on his desk. "No sportsmanship!"
But he was powerless. A single FoxTao brand event could move 500,000 to 1 million yuan for a merchant. On Meilishuo? Maybe 30,000–40,000, with massive platform-wide promotion.
"Pick up the merchants FoxTao discards," he ordered his business lead. "Build traffic first."
The next morning, Chen Yansen found several suited visitors in the conference room—Song Yuncheng and a account manager were hosting them.
"Brother Sen, they're from eLong Travel. Here to discuss joining the mall," Wang Zihao explained.
Chen Yansen smiled. This is the advantage of reputation. Before, he'd begged for B2C partnerships. Now, they came to him.
The mall rebate ecosystem—covering beauty, maternal-infant, digital, travel, group-buying—would make FoxTao the default destination for discounts. Even capturing 10% of China's 20,000–30,000 vertical sites could mean 700–800 million yuan in deposits alone.
A week later, eLong Travel officially joined FoxTao's travel rebate section, with a brand event scheduled for month-end.
While the team scrambled to onboard B2C malls and ramp up daily promotions, Chen Yansen quietly registered a new company: Senlian Capital.
He transferred his equity in FoxTao, Mihoyo, and Yunsu Express under its umbrella.
The empire was formalizing. The game was evolving. And Chen Yansen was just getting started.