Chapter 647
Ambition
Chapter 647 Ambition (4k)
Alibaba is a bit too strong.
Yu Xing realized this as early as two years ago. Alibaba's current version is overcompetitive and is now fighting on all sides. On one hand, it is constantly battling with Tencent, on the other hand, it is accelerating the transformation of Tmall into B2C, and it is also expanding into comprehensive fields such as navigation, group buying, and short videos.
Ma Chuan was naturally even more in high spirits.
Although WeChat has fallen behind in the competition with WeChat and its decline has accelerated as it has become more commercialized around Alibaba's e-commerce platform, this area has indeed injected new vitality into Alibaba in recent years.
Given this performance and the comprehensiveness of its business empire, US stocks plummeted last month, falling 10% for the entire month, and Chinese concept stocks also all declined. Alibaba was still the best performing and fastest recovering among them.
Wall Street has a wonderful vision for Alibaba's future. Even though WeChat seems to be falling short of expectations, Alibaba's current social media presence has become a better platform for its social networking business in the context of the rapid development of 4G.
Yu Xing knew that Tencent's consideration of cooperation was based on Pinduoduo's rapid development, so he informed Bi Sheng of this possibility as soon as possible.
This is a big deal for Pinduoduo.
Bi Sheng also keenly realized that this might be an excellent opportunity.
He took the high-speed train immediately after receiving the call and arrived in Lingang that evening, where he met the big short seller who had been the subject of much media hype recently.
As an old acquaintance, Bi Sheng recently heard all sorts of comments about President Yu. Some said he had cultivated power and money relationships abroad, some said he was well supported by Wall Street, and others said he had close ties with Jewish capital.
These kinds of comments come from tabloids, websites, and casual conversations at dinner parties, and they all sound quite reasonable. But when I met Mr. Yu in person, he seemed to be the same big short seller as before.
“President Yu, I see a ‘Over the Peak General Office’ over there, that’s…” Bi Sheng walked into the Carbon Silicon President’s Office, looking travel-worn, and the first thing he mentioned was the name he had just noticed.
Yu Xing sighed: "I'm in charge of the Guoshanfeng project. There's nothing I can do. Guoshanfeng's research and short selling must be based on publicly available conclusions. Now some people are using my name to do things recklessly. The stock market sometimes reacts to rumors. Guoshanfeng needs to have legitimacy and legality. The lawsuit in Europe is still ongoing."
Bi Sheng exclaimed in surprise: "You still want to do this under these circumstances? Mr. Yu, why don't you just short Alibaba and take it all down? That would solve everything!"
“Short selling isn’t a panacea.” Yu Xing laughed. “In the past, Guoshanfeng targeted companies that committed fraud. They were all show and no substance, just rotten fish in the cocoon. Oh right, look at Volkswagen, they did something so serious, but they’re doing just fine now.”
Bi Sheng clicked his tongue in amazement: "Volkswagen is doing just fine, I heard that the buyback and fines will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars..."
He has a promising future with Pinduoduo now, and he used to work at Baidu, but the thought of such an astronomical loss is still hard to imagine.
Yu Xing nodded: "Pretty much, just bear with it. But it's different with legitimate companies. This time it was Pony who called me. He's very optimistic about Pinduoduo."
Pinduoduo was previously banned from sharing links by Alibaba's WeChat, but it has also strengthened its cooperation with WeChat, and its development momentum has lived up to Pony's attention.
Since its founding in February 2015, exactly one year has passed, and Pinduoduo's total number of users has increased from zero to 42 million, with 36 million paying users and 8 million monthly active users.
Its user base has expanded to over 2500 counties across the country, with the lower-tier markets in several populous provinces becoming the core engine for user growth. According to Bi Sheng's estimate, Pinduoduo is expected to reach 1 million users by mid-year.
Of course, for today's mobile internet, 1 million users is an achievement, but it's no longer a threshold worth making a big fuss about.
“Mr. Yu, our paid conversion rate was 83% last month, and the latest data this month is 93%. The group-buying success rate has also increased from 65% to 78%, and the 30-day user retention rate is now 45%.” Bi Sheng mentioned that the company is more concerned about data conversion. “The more users we have, the more the conversion efficiency of the social group-buying model will improve significantly.”
In the second half of last year, Pinduoduo completed the optimization and construction of many functions, including a limited-time group purchase with automatic refund if the group is not formed within 24 hours, a tiered group purchase with a 50% discount for 3 people compared to 2 people, and a rebate mechanism after successful group purchase to encourage users to share and attract new users.
Currently, it is fully integrated across Tencent's ecosystem. In the first half of last year, it required a payment redirect, but now, once you enter the group-buying page that is pushed to you, the payment process can be completed directly.
Simply put, Pinduoduo's features are rapidly maturing.
In addition, the agricultural products section has been officially launched, connecting with more than 100 production areas in Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong and other provinces, and offering more than 3000 categories of products such as fruits and vegetables, grains and oils, and dried goods.
Bi Sheng just signed a long-term cooperation agreement with STO Express, YTO Express, ZTO Express, and Yunda Express last month, and also established two regional forward warehouses in North China and East China. This year, he is considering further reducing logistics costs.
Yu Xing listened silently to Bi Sheng's description and said, "This is why Tencent values you. The software functions are mature, the categories and supply chain have been upgraded, and now if we add traffic from multiple sources, this growth momentum can indeed become fierce."
Pinduoduo's growth in 2015 was already quite aggressive.
Bi Sheng's eyes lit up, and he asked, "President Yu, what do you mean by 'multiple traffic sources'? Besides Tencent, what else..."
“Alibaba is too strong and too arrogant now. Its arrogance is palpable to Tencent, Meituan, and Baidu. JD.com might also be able to push for cooperation.” Yu Xing pondered, “The stronger Alibaba is, the more it upgrades its brands and squeezes small businesses out of the Taobao camp, the more fertile ground it provides for Pinduoduo.”
"I believe everyone is happy to see Pinduoduo develop under Alibaba's leadership. This is the basis for the willingness of various companies to cooperate. Another basis is that Pinduoduo's business model is indeed feasible, and this can be seen from its development in 2015."
"Finally, there's one more issue: someone needs to step up and take the lead in doing this."
Bi Sheng put down his teacup and stood up: "President Yu, who else but you?!"
“No, no, it’s Pony, who else could it be?” Yu Xing laughed. “Tencent invested in JD.com, and last year it invested in Meituan. It also promoted the cooperation between Dianping and Meituan. Today, it took the initiative to contact me to discuss the possibility. I suspect that Pony may also be contacting Baidu. You see, the outline of this cooperation circle is basically formed.”
Bi Sheng's eyes flashed; these were all prominent figures in the industry.
“We may not be able to bring in all of them for cooperation, but having more is always good. The question is what kind of cooperation agreement there will be.” Yu Xing took a sip of tea. “It might involve distributing equity to others. Can you accept that?”
Bi Sheng sat back down on the sofa, thought for a moment, and said, "If we can do A/B shares, that would be fine too, like Liu Qiangdong's super voting rights in JD.com."
Yu Xing pondered this matter.
Bi Sheng waited a while and continued, "Equity can be divided. As long as there is control, controlling the company means controlling the resources that the company can influence. I can accept everyone contributing traffic and money. If there is no control, my personal issues are minor. I'm afraid that if there are differing opinions from various parties, it will be detrimental to the overall strategy."
Yu Xing nodded slightly: "This is just a suggestion. If this can be done, my idea is that we can also make use of Douyin's traffic."
Bi Sheng stood up for the second time, surprised, "Is Douyin going to commercialize?" "Douyin's plan for this year doesn't include commercialization, but Alibaba is always burning through 100 billion yuan to warm up, which is really pushing people to the limit." Yu Xing sighed, "So, I'm also thinking that we can probably try it at the end of the year. In that case, Pinduoduo can also be used as a pilot."
He handed Bi Sheng a cigarette and said, "Today Capital and Red Falcon Capital have invested in Kuaishou, so we can try cooperating there, but you have to negotiate this. You should take this possibility and negotiate with them."
Bi Sheng took the cigarette, lit it for President Yu first, and then couldn't hide his excitement: "President Yu, if this works out, we're really going to take off this year!"
Pinduoduo was one of the fastest-growing brands in the e-commerce sector last year.
If it can gain traffic and resource support from multiple sources, it won't need to use the "one of" designation this year.
Yu Xing nodded: "Okay, go ahead, go to Shenzhen and find Pony. He's the key to this matter. We can consider getting JD.com to invest. JD.com focuses on branding, and it lacks categories like agricultural products and white-label products. Meituan and Dianping merged, making it the undisputed No.1 in the group-buying market. Tencent's WeChat is Pinduoduo's biggest asset, and Weishi also has traffic."
“You need to get Pony to make up his mind to push this forward; he may still be a little hesitant right now.”
Bi Sheng thought carefully and finished a cigarette.
Finally, he suddenly stood up: "Mr. Yu, I'm heading straight to the airport!! I'll treat you to a big meal when I get back!!"
Yu Xing smiled, waved, and watched Bi Sheng leave the office in a flurry.
He lit another cigarette. If traffic from multiple sources could be brought together to propel Pinduoduo's surge, then... it was indeed forced out by Alibaba.
From Beijing to Shanghai and then to Shenzhen, Bi Sheng met with the head of Tencent late at night.
Despite his long journey, he was in high spirits and showed no signs of fatigue.
Pony was quite surprised to learn that Bi Sheng had also traveled to Shanghai in between.
After hearing Wan Sheng's description and the possibility of gaining traffic from Douyin, I suddenly sighed inexplicably: "The night Mr. Yu sold WeChat to Alibaba, it must have been this late at night too."
Bi Sheng knew about the infamous incident in the industry, but he didn't know what stance to take in responding at this time, so he could only remain silent.
Pony's sentimentality vanished in an instant, and he said practically, "This is somewhat unexpected. I called Mr. Yu to discuss the possibility of cooperation with silicon carbide. Pinduoduo is just an afterthought. I don't think Alibaba's money burning this time is very meaningful and not worth continuing to do."
Bi Sheng asked, "A collaboration on silicon carbon?"
“For example, our investment in silicon carbon, or our investment in TikTok,” Pony replied.
Bi Sheng was astonished: "How is that possible? How could Carbon Silicon Data get Tencent to invest in it?"
Pony smiled slightly: "Even the king of short selling is President Yu, so what's impossible? He's a mountain peaker. This time he made Silicon Carbon Group go public, but he may not be able to make Silicon Carbon Data Company go public next time. Silicon Carbon Data Company brought Douyin back to its parent company, but Douyin was nominally independent before, and now MusVid overseas is still operating independently."
“We can cooperate with Douyin, and even use this cooperation to erode Alibaba’s WeChat and further destroy Alibaba’s market share in this area.”
"However, if such a collaboration is to take place, the advantages and disadvantages for both silicon carbon and Penguin do need to be discussed, but nothing is impossible."
Bi Sheng heard a startling idea from Pony Ma in Shenzhen: Tencent still harbored resentment towards WeChat, but its intention to end it through its former enemy was indeed unexpected.
He hesitated and asked, "President Yu, do you know? Has he considered it?"
"He asked you to come over, so that probably means he doesn't agree," Pony said, looking at Bi Sheng. "He probably thinks a stronger Pinduoduo is enough. Mr. Bi, what do you think?"
Hearing the voice of the Tencent CEO, Bi Sheng sensed his ambition and hesitated.
Pony didn't force the issue: "I was quite surprised that Douyin was willing to invest traffic in Pinduoduo. I trust Mr. Yu's operational vision. He clearly believes that Pinduoduo's rapid development will pose a threat to Alibaba's core e-commerce business."
"I think this is doable. I hope Pinduoduo can reach 2 million users this year."
Bi Sheng never considered this number in his plans for this year.
Before Pony could finish speaking, he continued, "Pinduoduo aims to achieve a GMV of 500 billion yuan this year, and at least 1500 billion yuan next year. Mr. Bi, do you think that's achievable?"
Bi Sheng felt the pressure surge instantly: "This..."
He knew that these figures were not just empty words, but could very well become a performance-based agreement, but these targets were far too high compared to Pinduoduo's current situation.
Bi Sheng licked his lips: "Mr. Ma, I may need to think about it. We still need to consider the actual situation before making a decision."
Pony stared at Bi Sheng in front of him and said seriously, "Mr. Bi, I think it's possible, and Mr. Yu should also think it's possible."
Bi Sheng: "..."
He smiled wryly and said, "Mr. Ma, you're using me to compete with Alibaba. I really don't know if it's possible right now. But if you all think it's possible, I... I definitely want to give it a try. Even if we don't reach the user or GMV targets this year, Pinduoduo's rapid growth is still extremely valuable."
Pony looked away: "So, Pinduoduo can go public quickly so it can develop better. Tell President Yu that we can work together to promote this."
Bi Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, feeling as if everyone had already made up their minds.
Even if the figures Pony mentioned aren't the exact figures, these requirements are certainly very high. If they don't materialize, the company will definitely be in trouble; if they do…
Bi Sheng felt his ambition ignite in an instant.
(End of this chapter)