Chapter 525 - 385: With Just a Slight Move, the Opponent Is Already Panic-Stricken

Had DiDi Bike misappropriated user deposits?

The answer, of course, was a foregone conclusion.

’The money’s in our account, so what’s the big deal if we use some of it?’

Cheng Wei saw nothing wrong with it.

"Hu Weiyi, or perhaps Li Yanhong." Hearing his boss’s question, Songtian Road rattled off two names.

"Why not Chang Wei?" Cheng Wei frowned and immediately pressed him.

He and Chang Wei had fought from Yanjing to Jinmen, and then to places like Tang City, An Ci, and Changshan. Little Yellow Bike had suffered massive losses, but he hadn’t gained a shred of an advantage either.

Over the course of nearly three months, DiDi Bike’s profits had fallen by over a hundred million yuan, and Little Yellow Bike was in a similar situation.

It would be hard to find a third person in Yanjing who hated Cheng Wei as much as Chang Wei did.

The other possibility was Li Yanhong. Qian Du Network had sued DiDi Bike for trademark infringement, but the verdict came out last week. The court had dismissed Qian Du Network’s lawsuit.

In short, Cheng Wei had actually won the lawsuit.

Upon hearing the news, Li Yanhong had become livid.

Now, Qian Du had not only lost the case but had also lost face. Its reputation in the venture capital community had been tarnished as well.

"Little Yellow Bike is trending right below DiDi Bike," Songtian Road said with a dry laugh.

Cheng Wei’s expression faltered. After a moment’s thought, he was sure it was Hu Weiyi’s doing.

After all, Li Yanhong had no reason to target Little Yellow Bike too. For one, there was Chang Wei’s family background to consider, and besides, the two of them didn’t have any conflicts of interest.

"How much cash do we have on hand?" Cheng Wei called for his finance director and asked.

"270 million," the finance director replied.

"The total user deposits are 230 million yuan, so we don’t need to worry about a run on the deposits." Cheng Wei breathed a sigh of relief, his expression calm and composed.

"Sir, we have a 40-million-yuan payment due to a supplier next week," the finance director reminded him.

"It’s fine. Worst case, we just raise another round of funding," Cheng Wei said nonchalantly.

As the concept of the sharing economy grew increasingly popular, products like bike-sharing, car-sharing, and even kitchen-sharing were highly sought after by investors.

Did DiDi Bike lack investors?

All he had to do was shout in the Wangjing business district, and he could attract a dozen VC firms.

Short on cash?

’Impossible!’

"The instant deposit refund feature for the Hu City market is live, right? What percentage of users requested a refund yesterday?"

Cheng Wei looked at Songtian Road and asked.

"28.3%. Most users still have a decent amount of trust in DiDi Bike," Songtian Road replied with a smile. "Once they’ve gotten a few refunds and realize there’s no need to worry about the safety of their funds, the deposit pool will just keep growing."

Currently, DiDi Bike had only launched the ’instant refund’ feature in the East China Market, which included Hu City.

Users were required to pay a 199-yuan deposit before riding. After their ride, they could choose to have the deposit refunded immediately, which helped to eliminate any of their concerns.

If DiDi Bike hadn’t done this, they would have had no way to compete with OFO Bike. Their competitor offered a no-deposit policy: users simply had to deposit 199 yuan into their Yu’e Bao account, which not only waived the deposit but also earned them interest.

"First, have the operations team post an announcement in the app to reassure our users. Then go talk to Lao Hu and Hai Bo. You must ensure the refund channels are running smoothly."

Cheng Wei immediately gave his instructions to Songtian Road.

"Yes, President Cheng. I’ll get on it right away." Songtian Road didn’t dare to delay and turned to leave.

At that moment, both DiDi Bike and Little Yellow Bike were trending on Weibo.

"Bros, hurry and get your deposits back from Little Yellow Bike! If you’re slow, you’ll be out of luck! I heard the company’s about to go bankrupt!"

"I was wondering about that before. I was thinking, ’These bike-sharing companies hand out coupons all day, how do they even make money?!’ Holy crap, turns out they were after my damn deposit the whole time."

"Just got my DiDi Bike deposit back three minutes ago. I’m in the clear. Good luck to everyone else."

"Forget Little Yellow Bike and DiDi Bike. I only ever use OFO Bike. Just keep 199 yuan in Yu’e Bao, and I can even earn eighty or ninety cents a month."

"Isn’t OFO Bike the original pioneer of bike-sharing? They’re backed by Senlian Capital and have deep pockets, not like those other fly-by-night brands!"

Most of the commenters were from the North China and East China regions.

Commenters from the Northeast were baffled; many of them were hearing about this whole "bike-sharing" thing for the very first time.

"I requested a refund from Little Yellow Bike an hour ago. Why isn’t it in my account yet?"

"Customer service said the bank’s payment channels are congested but that the money has already been sent. They told me to just wait."

"They haven’t just bailed, have they?"

"FUCK, give me my money back! @LittleYellowBike @ChangWei, CEO of Little Yellow Bike"

"MOTHERFUCKER, REFUND MY MONEY! It’s been three hours! I called the bank, and they said Little Yellow Bike never sent the payment!"

Before long, the buzz around DiDi Bike quickly died down, and Little Yellow Bike shot up to the number one trending spot.

Although Cheng Wei had misappropriated a portion of the deposits, he had already secured two rounds of funding and still had plenty of cash on hand.

Chang Wei, however, was in a different boat. The company account had just over eight million yuan left. It wasn’t enough to withstand the refund requests from even forty thousand users, and the account was quickly drained.

His original plan had been to use the deposits to scale up Little Yellow Bike’s operations, then approach investment firms to negotiate financing and secure a higher valuation.

But he had never imagined that Wang Zihao, by simply hiring a few independent media outlets, would send Little Yellow Bike straight to the guillotine.

’He was so short on cash!’

For a moment, Chang Wei was frantic, at a complete loss for what to do.

The funding gap was as high as 140 million yuan. All that money had already been paid to suppliers to purchase bikes for deployment in the East China Market.