Rui Yuchen continued: “Many people might think Zhaiju Delivery is pretty good right now. Every meal comes with subsidies, allowing you to enjoy decent takeout for minimal cost, so people feel favorably toward it.”

“But I’d like everyone to think carefully. A long time ago, when express delivery and other similar platform companies were engaged in money-burning wars, didn’t everyone also enjoy the benefits? But what happened later?”

“Platform companies gained market monopolies through burning money, and then came various sneaky maneuvers: big data discrimination, finding excuses to raise prices, launching more expensive new services while secretly reducing the quality of original services… In short, before you knew it, prices went back up.”

“Customers thought they’d gained an advantage, but in reality, they would have to pay it all back later.”

“Zhaiju Delivery’s current business model follows the same pattern: first acquire large amounts of money through financing, then use this money to subsidize merchants, riders, and customers to seize market share. As their market position expands, they continuously merge with other food delivery platforms, integrate resources, and attract more investment.”

“Finally, they achieve a market monopoly and happily begin to exploit consumers, turning into a business with no risk that will never lose money.”

“In the near future, the following scenarios are all foreseeable.”

“For merchants, Zhaiju Delivery will continuously increase commission rates, constantly testing the profit margin limits of merchants, ultimately leaving merchants with minimal profits while taking the vast majority for themselves.”

“If it were just declining merchant profits, that wouldn’t be so bad. The key is that even more terrible things will happen.”

“Because profits keep decreasing, restaurants providing quality food will increasingly struggle to survive. Those that can survive under such high commission rates will only be takeout establishments with high profit margins.”

“There are two ways to achieve high profits: one is through excellent brand value and strong bargaining power, like certain well-known foreign fast food brands, but these are ultimately rare; the second is by compressing costs, reducing takeout prices to levels ordinary people can hardly imagine.”

“For instance, using cheap ingredients to make set meals that look decent. Despite being priced very low, they still generate enormous profits.”

“But such takeout can’t even guarantee basic health standards. Over time, similar merchants will proliferate on the platform, inevitably causing a scenario where bad money drives out good.”

“For delivery riders, Zhaiju Delivery will continuously use big data algorithms to test riders’ delivery limits. They’ll start by assigning five orders; if most riders can complete them successfully, they’ll keep increasing—six orders, eight orders, ten orders… Riders will be forced to run red lights and violate traffic rules, and this part of the profit will likewise be happily pocketed by Zhaiju Delivery.”

“For customers, they’ll gradually increase charges, but not by directly raising delivery fees. They’ll start by tightening subsidies, then gradually reduce coupon and discount amounts, followed by big data discrimination, secretly increasing delivery fees, or even openly pleading poverty, saying delivery personnel are working too hard and delivery fees need to increase.”

“But in reality, they absolutely won’t provide any guarantees for delivery personnel. Even if they do, it will definitely be deducted from the delivery personnel’s earnings.”

“In the end, the interests of all three parties will be harmed, while the platform will develop into a behemoth, further deeply binding the entire industry, truly realizing the dream of making money while lying down.”

At this point, Rui Yuchen paused briefly.

Then, changing his tone, he continued: “Some might ask, isn’t Slackin’ Delivery also a platform? How is it different from Zhaiju Delivery?”

“I can say very responsibly that Slackin’ Delivery’s model is completely different from Zhaiju Delivery’s.”

“When Mr. Pei established the Slackin’ Delivery brand, he had already planned its business model, and this model is fundamentally different from platform companies like Zhaiju Delivery.”

“Slackin’ Delivery isn’t a pure platform; it has numerous offline stores providing customers with tangible food.”

“Zhaiju Delivery absolutely won’t examine or screen whether the stores on its platform are safe and hygienic, but Slackin’ Delivery can guarantee that we provide customers with healthy and delicious ingredients.”

“Slackin’ Delivery, Cold Noodle Girl Snacks, and the soon-to-be-launched Fast-Sell Milk Tea are all committed to providing everyone with healthy and delicious food, covering most people’s tastes. The key is eating with peace of mind and drinking with confidence.”

“All our delivery personnel, like those at Headwind Logistics, are formal, registered employees with social insurance and housing fund contributions, and various standard benefits. We don’t use system algorithms to squeeze the limits of each delivery person; instead, we encourage them with performance-based wages, allowing them to earn stable incomes while obeying traffic rules.”

“Do we make profits? Of course we do, but our profit-making methods differ from platform companies like Zhaiju Delivery.”

“Our profit sources mainly come from the profits of the food itself from Slackin’ Delivery, Cold Noodle Girl Snacks, and Fast-Sell Milk Tea, with only a small amount coming from platform profits.”

“This is precisely the business model Mr. Pei planned for Slackin’ Delivery: good Chinese cuisine is the foundation, so we first established Slackin’ Delivery stores, and only then created the Slackin’ Delivery app platform. In Mr. Pei’s view, platforms ultimately serve physical entities and shouldn’t hold those entities hostage.”

“Furthermore, Slackin’ Delivery doesn’t have extremely high profit margin demands like platform companies such as Zhaiju Delivery. In some major cities, Zhaiju Delivery’s commission from merchants has already reached 20%, and this figure may continue to increase in the future because Zhaiju Delivery pursues profit margins as its primary goal.”

“But Slackin’ Delivery is different. For Mr. Pei, profit margin has never been the primary goal. What we pursue is: improving dish flavors, expanding coverage, and providing genuine convenience for customers and delivery personnel.”

“In the future, we will also open up merchant franchising on the Slackin’ Delivery platform, sharing the delivery resources of Slackin’ Delivery stores nationwide. Here, on behalf of Slackin’ Delivery, I promise two things.”

“First, as a platform, Slackin’ Delivery’s merchant commission will never exceed 5%!”

“Second, we will carefully examine and audit merchants joining the platform, conducting random inspections regularly to ensure the takeout on our platform allows everyone to eat with peace of mind!”

Next, Rui Yuchen went to Slackin’ Delivery’s kitchen and food laboratory to introduce the internal conditions.

The clean and tidy kitchen, environmentally friendly food waste processors—these had all been filmed by television stations before, but now there were some subtle changes that gave an even better impression.

This was not just showing viewers the health and hygiene standards of Slackin’ Delivery; it was also a hint.

Viewers would naturally wonder what the kitchens of Zhaiju Delivery’s merchants looked like.

Once they started thinking about it, many terrifying images would naturally come to mind.

Moreover, when customers saw cheap takeout on Zhaiju Delivery in the future, they wouldn’t just see the low price but would also associate it with what it represented.

Would these subsidies disappear in the future and prices return to normal?

Was such cheap takeout the result of cutting corners or even made with inferior ingredients?

Wasn’t it quite common for the same restaurant to serve different quality food for takeout versus dine-in? Such suspicions were completely reasonable.

Furthermore, Slackin’ Delivery had an ultimate trump card: opening franchising to other merchants!

Under a low commission model, there would only be two possible outcomes.

First, similar food would be cheaper on Slackin’ Delivery than on Zhaiju Delivery.

In this case, the choice was obvious—people would definitely choose Slackin’ Delivery.

Second, similar food would be more expensive on Slackin’ Delivery than on Zhaiju Delivery.

In this case, customers would actually become suspicious: how could Zhaiju Delivery be cheaper than Slackin’ Delivery? Had they reduced their commission? That seemed unlikely.

Perhaps the same merchant was selling different food on Slackin’ Delivery versus Zhaiju Delivery? Even if they looked the same, the ingredients might be different, which was impossible to detect visually.

They would still choose Slackin’ Delivery!

With physical stores and unique dishes as support, along with a strong reputation, Slackin’ Delivery couldn’t be squeezed out by Zhaiju Delivery through a price war in the short term.

Meanwhile, Slackin’ Delivery’s low profit margin would always serve as an anchor for Zhaiju Delivery, preventing it from freely exploiting the interests of all three parties in pursuit of high profits.

Once this public opinion trend formed, Slackin’ Delivery would naturally stand undefeated, just like Headwind Logistics, Tuoguan Fitness, and Sloth Apartments!

Of course, this approach had a side effect: Slackin’ Delivery could never dream of becoming a monopolistic platform that made money while lying down, like Zhaiju Delivery.

But that didn’t matter. Neither Slackin’ Delivery’s head nor Mr. Pei had ever considered taking that route.

And it was precisely because of this that Tenda could stand undefeated!

Finally, the recording was finished.

Rui Yuchen removed his microphone and let out a long breath: “Whew, was my performance okay?”

Meng Chang nodded: “Very good. After we edit this video a bit, it should be about right.”

“However, it’s not good to release this video immediately. The Tuoguan Fitness episode hasn’t reached its peak popularity yet, and releasing a second episode now would somewhat impact its spread. Let’s wait until the Tuoguan Fitness episode starts to decline, then find a suitable time to release the second episode.”

“This will achieve the best effect, hitting Zhaiju Delivery’s weak spot!”

Rui Yuchen agreed: “You can coordinate and arrange all this. No one is better at it than you.”

The two chatted casually for a while. By now, the heads of various Tenda departments all regarded Meng Chang as one of their own and trusted him completely.

Previously, everyone thought Meng Chang was too mischievous, completely at odds with Tenda’s values, and no one believed Mr. Pei could turn him around.

But Mr. Pei was just that impressive—he had forcibly turned Meng Chang around!

It was quite remarkable.

Rui Yuchen took out his phone, originally intending to check the department heads’ group chat, when he suddenly noticed a notification.

“Department heads… going to the frontlines???”