Chapter 307: Are You Hungry
Xu Tingsheng was mainly communicating regarding the matter of âAre You Hungryâ everyday.
Most people felt âAre You Hungryâ to be quite a strange thing at least right at the start of its implementation. In this day and age, it was still not commonly believed that even something minor like âtakeawayâ would also require an online platform.
âThereâs an online company that started out as an intermediary for education, recruitment and the renting and selling of houses etcetera but eventually couldnât hold out like that. They could only turn to delivering takeaway part-time as a result. I hear that even their beautiful lady boss has to deliver takeawayl How very tragic indeed.â
âThis strange thing is Hucheng Tongchengâs counterattack? Who suffered a concussion and thought of it?â
âThe dumbest ever move of the chaotic âThree Kingdomsâ set-up! Likely to accelerate their own deteriorationâŚthough they already couldnât hold on the first place. Entrepreneurs are always just so weak and helpless in the face of capital.â
On the first day, there were twenty thousand orders throughout the fifty cities, mainly amongst student consumers. Not considering their earlier investments, Hucheng had earned around twenty to fifty cents from each of these orders.
Calculating it like this, their daily income was less than 5000 yuan. Just in terms of orders alone, it was insufficient to sustain their business model.
On the second day, the data was basically around the same as on the first day.
Therefore, the experts were rolling on the floor laughing.
Their business competitors were rolling on the floor laughing.
The netizens still did not know if they should laugh or not, because most of them had only just heard about this and had still yet to really understand the situation.
The experts analysed it from various angles, such as the unproven new model not being accepted and making calls being faster and more convenient than using the internet etcetera. The final verdict was actually a sort of rejection. Are You Hungry was doomed to failure. Even if it did ultimately manage to survive, it would only be able to go on operating in an awkward state.
Those business competitors were much more direct as they asked: Have your school canteens all closed down? Are families all not cooking anymore? And even if they do really call takeaway, are there really any homes that donât have phones?âŚ
âOnly fools would try to make a business out of this.â
The conclusion that Huchengâs counterattack was sorely lacking. Hucheng was grasping at strawsâŚHucheng might as well switch to delivering takeaway instead.
Some people who had not known of Hucheng beforehand actually began calling it: Hucheng delivery.
Besides the experts, their opponents and the general public, the employees of Hucheng were actually feeling rather pessimistic themselves, much of their joy from the previous grand victory for their training institute in Shenghai having been diminished as a result. Fortunately, with good news ultimately having preceded this, the company was not destabilised by this turn of events.
âOur boss hasnât even come out and said anything. ReallyâŚâ Someone secretly complained.
âHe has always been like this. Still, heâs never lost before,â A more experienced employee replied, despite not feeling all that confident himself.
âThis loss wouldnât simply be a matter of straining our tendons!â Someone said worriedly.
Still, virtually everyone had actually overlooked something, which was that in truth, with so many forums and such discussing âAre You Hungryâ, whether their opinions were positive or negative, supportive or mocking, most of them would take a look at Hucheng Tongchengâs main website out of curiosity as a result.
As the sole decision maker who had proposed the project himself, Xu Tingsheng could not help but sweat nervously after the data for the first day had been consolidated.
Implementing Are You Hungry before the age of smartphones, relying completely on computers instead, Xu Tingsheng had already mentally pictured the worst case scenarioâŚyet, never would he have thought that it would be tragic to this extent!
âIf I knew engineering, Iâd be off making smartphones. Totally useless, are Humanities students.â
The next day, after Lu Zhixin had sent over the relevant data and the reactions from the various parties, Xu Tingsheng told her to ask the IT department to check the number of pageviews their site had garnered over the past few days.
Lu Zhixin soon returned with the statistics. It had increased tenfold on the first day. It had been even greater on the second day as it had been twenty times how it had been originally.
Xu Tingsheng was reassured by this as he smiled, âThatâs why I said-no worries.â
Lu Zhixin said, âYes, I believe you. Iâll help you to watch over things here.â
âIâll be troubling you,â Xu Tingsheng replied as always.
On the third day, the number of orders had increased to fifty thousand. While their actual income from this was still just a bit over ten thousand yuan, Lu Zhixin was clearly very excited and joyful when she reported this to Xu Tingsheng.
âIt will still rise,â Xu Tingsheng could finally set his heart at ease on seeing this trend as he smiled, âThey really underestimate the number of NEETs and their laziness. Also, people are generally unable to stop once they have been lazy the first time. For those who hold vegetable knives everyday, if they go three days without holding one, it would be very difficult to pick one back up again. Unless theyâre doing so to try to make their boyfriend or girlfriend happy.â
âAlso, in todayâs data, while the number of orders from university students has increased, their proportion has dropped. White collar workers from the city have begun entering too,â Lu Zhixin elaborated.
Hearing Lu Zhixinâs words, Xu Tingsheng thought back on the data of the biggest takeaway apps in his previous life. White-collar workers had formed around sixty percent of consumers.
He considered this for a bit before saying, âActually, theyâre seriously busy and tired. Reaching home everyday, itâs hard for them to move even a finger. They really tire of having to cook. Also, basically all of them have computers and some money. In the long term, they can be considered our mainstay. Also, if they register, itâll be greatly beneficial for the growth of our other services.â
âThen, how about a promotion targeted against this group of consumers?â Lu Zhixin asked.
âNah. Weâre one of a kind now. Our very existence itself is a promotion,â Xu Tingsheng said, âThe crucial thing now is those people outside. Emphasise definitively to them that we want exclusive contracts and try everything you can to get exclusive contracts signed. People will soon discover that the winds have changed and try to follow us into this, I reckon.â
Lu Zhixin smiled, âYou can rest assured on this, really. Actually, things have slowly progressed to the point that we donât really have to take the initiative. The shops will come to look for us on their own, being very hearty and straightforward in agreeing to our conditions too.â
âHuh, for real? âŚThatâs good then.â
Hanging up, Xu Tingsheng felt rather emotional. In his previous life, he had seen âAre You Hungryâ gaining a large amount of copycats right after having seen some results. In the end, with the various companies all competing and making losses with promotions, smashing their opponents with money, the battlefront had truly been brutal indeed.
Exclusive contracts? Hah, no way.
âAre You Hungryâ had managed to avoid such a problem, at least in the initial stages.
Also, Xu Tingsheng had shamelessly cheated away truckloads of exclusive contracts.
This is the benefit of grasping future trends. If your mind is sufficiently ahead of the rest, others wonât even be in time to keep up. While âAre You Hungryâ was not in an ideal flourishing state due to the current lack of smartphones, it correspondingly faced much less competition too.
On his fourth consecutive day at the beach, Xu Tingsheng was a little out of sorts as he spent the afternoon there. As night came, he suddenly didnât feel like going there anymore. He felt like going somewhere else, perhaps visit a bar or something.
This showed that his desire to go relax alone somewhere had basically already been satisfied.
People do need a solitary, peaceful environment sometimes. Still, few people indeed are truly able to remain in such a state for so long.
Xu Tingsheng knew that it was high time he returned.
Nice housed Franceâs third largest Cote dâAzur International Airport from which he could return directly to Shenghai.
When booking a plane ticket, Xu Tingsheng coincidentally spied flight information for New York. He hesitated for a moment but still chose to buy a ticket for Shenghai in the end. While he had originally intended to satisfy Appleâs desire of running together in Central Park as he had once promised her, this could only be left for next timeâŚ
On the fourth day, the statistics for âAre You Hungryâ frenziedly surged to 150000 orders, their daily income nearing fifty thousand yuan. Even if the data itself wasnât all that terrifying, it was the momentum that was scariest, also being the most convincing.
From the looks of it, this momentum would not be slowing anytime soon.
Huchengâs employees were in high spirits, âIâll never dare to doubt Boss again.â If not for their unreliable boss being nowhere to be found yet again, they would probably have gone into his office and lifted him up, throwing him to the skies in joy.
âOur future prospects are endlessâŚhahahaha.â
âBoss once said that heâs going to take us to ring the bell at Nazdaq.â
âTo be honest, I felt rather stifled before, thinking about how I was working for a childâŚIâm convinced now.â
All the mocking jabs and laughter were inevitably dispelled in the outside world.
People were already beginning to discuss how innovative and daring this was, how the era of an Internet-based economy was fast approachingâŚ
More and more people registered on the website, adopting this âbadâ habit. More and more shops successively took the initiative to join in this venture for fear that they might miss out.
âHucheng has found a new source of revenue, and itâs endless. Hucheng has already grasped the advantage in this chaotic battle of the âThree Kingdomsâ.â
âI think theyâve basically secured their victory already, and not just because theyâve a source of income. More importantly, Hucheng has also gathered even more consumers. Really, passivity and all is well, but when that passivity ultimately switches to activity, you know youâre done for.â
âThe other two companies were saying so many big words earlier. Look at them now! Theyâve lost both face and the ability to compete all at once.â
âWhat if theyâre copied again? Wasnât their website copied in the first place? Who knows how Hucheng might be able to prevent it this time.â
âIf they can make it through this, Huchengâs worth will definitely skyrocketâŚdoubling would also not be impossible. Despite competition appearing, its consumer base has instead increased as a result.â
âWhy is it that weâve never heard anything about Huchengâs plans to get listed? It also seems like thereâs been no activity with their shares at all internally.â
âETFs arenât worthy in their eyes?â
âMaybe even A-stocks are worth nothing to them, and theyâre just waiting to get listed on Nasdaq in the futureâŚâ
Amidst the heated discussion of the netizens, the experts simply followed their usual style as those who had commented earlier remained silent, pretending that this had nothing to do with them at all.
Those who had not commented previously leapt out in a timely manner, righteously arguing on how they had always thought this new project very likely to succeed. Then, they analysed this from different perspectives and aspectsâŚthey had always been most proficient in overturning their previous conclusions.
The relevant contenders could not remain silent, especially considering such a situation.
Youxin Tongcheng cared not about copying at all as they swiftly came out and said: Youxin Tongcheng will be entering the takeaway industry in the near future. Also, we have abundant funds and a more professional teamâŚwe will definitely perform even better than Hucheng here.
Jinxiong Corporation included, the real estate companies were preparing to offer the Black Horse Club and Hucheng better conditions. They even felt that they should look for a chance and sit down for a meal with a few of them, Xu Tingsheng included, chatting with them for a bit.
Ding Sen opposed this twice. Still, not only did everyone ignore him, he was even rebuked badly by his father.
At home, Ding Sen smashed a cup on the floor, next taking out his phone and dialling Dongziâs number, âYou two, begin preparations. As soon as I receive news that heâs back, come back to Yanzhou to handle the deed. This timeâŚI wonât rest till heâs dead.â
Back in Nice, Xu Tingsheng was currently in the midst of packing his luggage.