Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 115: We wouldn't invest 50 billion before, but we can't afford to now!

Jack Ma's expression was somewhat complicated; the development of YouTuan International had completely exceeded his expectations.

As we all know, vertical e-commerce has a very low ceiling and is difficult to develop.

As a result, both JD.com and Dangdang have abandoned their vertical e-commerce strategies and switched to comprehensive e-commerce.

U-Tuan International focuses on vertical e-commerce, which has little future, and Jack Ma didn't take it seriously at all.

Unexpectedly, Wang Junshan was so powerful.
They not only created "WeChat Farm," bringing in a large number of new users, but also built a vertical e-commerce platform.

And to make matters worse, it coincided with the massive, high-profile collapse of Sanniu!
There's nowhere to reason with them!

"Fortunately, YouTuan.com uses the Alipay interface, so we can still earn at least 1% commission. The higher YouTuan International's revenue, the more commission we get!"

Jack Ma's expression softened when he remembered this.

But the Alipay president on the other end of the line had a worried expression on his face:

"Don't even mention it! Ever since WeChat version 1.8 was released on the 25th and WeChat Pay was launched, they've completely stopped using the Alipay interface and switched to their own WeChat Pay interface. They also launched WeChat Wallet, trying to steal our market share!"

"What? They've even made WeChat Pay and WeChat Wallet?"

Jack Ma's mouth twitched:
"I was only abroad for a week, how much exactly happened?"

In just one week, WeChat Pay was launched, Sanniu went bankrupt, YouTuan International became a legend, and Alibaba became the biggest victim!

Damn, it's really hard to explain.

But despite the criticism, the tasks still need to be done:

"San Niu definitely can't afford to lose money and will inevitably go bankrupt."

"We'll see how to handle the aftermath; there will probably be a safety net, but Taobao needs to take action!"

"Immediately issue a notice requiring relevant merchants to recall all Sanniu products they have sold and to provide compensation."

"Yes, it doesn't matter whether the merchants do it or not. But we must do a good job of presenting a good image, so as not to give anyone cause for criticism."

Liu Yunhu strongly agreed: "But what if a dispute arises, and consumers demand a recall, but the relevant businesses don't want to recall or compensate them?"

Jack Ma frowned: "That's very likely. Immediately compile a list of all the businesses involved, and freeze the security deposits of those with such deposits. If they refuse to pay, use their security deposits to cover the shortfall."

"Yes."

"In addition, we contacted brands such as Wyeth, Mead Johnson, Abbott, Dumex, and Nestle to invite them to open direct-sale stores on Taobao!"

Jack Ma said in a deep voice, "Such a large market and profits cannot all be eaten up by YouTuan.com. Taobao.com should naturally get a share of the pie."

“That’s right, I’ll arrange it right away,” the marketing department replied.

The head of the investment department also spoke up: "Chairman, after the San Niu incident, YouTuan International has achieved phenomenal success, especially in the imported maternal and infant product sector, where it will hold an unparalleled position. Its future development will be very promising, and Tencent is already in contact with them. Should we invest in advance?"

“Investment?” Jack Ma frowned. “Theoretically, we should invest, but the question is, what price are you willing to pay?”

“Before Sanniu went bankrupt, YouTuan Technology’s revenue didn’t explode. QuShuihuo’s daily revenue was 1500 million, and they were already asking for a valuation of 50 billion.”

"Now that Sanniu has gone bankrupt, YouTuan International's maternal and infant category is experiencing explosive growth, with orders soaring several times or even dozens of times. What will the transaction volume be on the 31st?"

"Breaking through 1 million shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"More importantly, the San Niu incident has a far-reaching impact. For a long time to come, YouTuan International will enjoy strong performance. It can generate very good revenue just from the maternal and infant category."

"Even if the daily transaction volume decreases in the future, even if it drops to 3000 million, the annual transaction volume will still be 110 billion."

"What kind of valuation should we give?"

"This……"

Everyone was silent.

Yes, what kind of valuation should we give?
Liu Yunhu sighed: "A valuation of 50 billion? Forget about it. It's not even worth discussing unless it's more than doubled."

"But even if it reaches over 100 billion, it's meaningless. U-Tuan International is heavily reliant on a single vertical e-commerce sector, and such a high valuation has no investment value!"

"Yes!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

After Sanniu's collapse, YouTuan International became the number one platform in the maternal and infant category, with terrifying traffic and strong market appeal. It has already grown into a fully-fledged company with a valuation of over 10 billion yuan.

That's an investment of 20%, which is over two billion!
This huge sum of money puts immense pressure on Alibaba.

The Alibaba of 2008 is not the Alibaba of 2018; it cannot casually produce tens of billions of dollars.

In fact, Alibaba's total cash reserves are only 40 billion yuan at present!
Taobao is constantly losing money and burning cash. It would be too risky to invest more than 2 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology all at once!

"Alibaba doesn't lack e-commerce resources, so there's no need for it to invest 20 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology."

Jack Ma delivered the final blow:
"If YouTuan Technology only focuses on vertical e-commerce, then it doesn't matter."

"I'm worried that they'll move into the comprehensive e-commerce market next, and that will be our biggest enemy! Even a bigger enemy than Paipai.com!"

"And Li Keqiang from Baidu is also getting restless; I guess Baidu e-commerce will be launched soon."

"With Paipai.com, JD.com, Dangdang, and Amazon already established, and now Baidu Youa emerging, if Youtuan International also upgrades to a comprehensive e-commerce platform, things will really get chaotic!"

Jack Ma rested his chin on his hand, looking quite melancholy.

If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have gone abroad!

A direct investment of 10 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology!

Unfortunately, there's no going back.

September 1st is destined to be an extraordinary first day of school.

The three news stories caused a national sensation one after another.

[Sanniu Group Chairman Diao Zhijie arrested; Sanniu unable to recall all products, declares bankruptcy, and accounts frozen!]

[Kaixin.com's founder, Lao Dong, was arrested, detained for 10 days, and fined 5,000 yuan. Kaixin.com, unable to recall sold goods, declared bankruptcy, and its accounts were frozen!]

[YouTuan International's transaction volume exceeds 100 million RMB, with mother and baby products accounting for 60% of the transaction volume, making it the No.1 platform for imported mother and baby products!]

Any one of these three news items would be enough to cause a huge uproar.

The simultaneous release of these three news items is truly a bolt from the blue.

Whether they are office workers, students, or retirees, they are all shocked.

The online public opinion exploded:

"San Niu went bankrupt, and Kaixin.com went bankrupt too! Oh my god, who will recall the San Niu products I bought from Kaixin Mall?"

"My child drank Sanniu milk and ended up in the ICU. Who will compensate us?"

"Damn it!"

Similar opinions are circulating across the entire internet.

But soon, some people began to offer comfort:
"Don't worry, someone will always cover for something this big."

"That's right. Although Sanniu and Kaixin.com went bankrupt, their accounts were frozen for the purpose of recalling and compensating. There will definitely be a special fund to cover the losses later."

"YouTuan International is still the best. It's the only platform on the entire internet that's truly ethical. They don't sell any products with any problems."

"Good people are rewarded. Mr. Wang is a very conscientious person. That's why YouTuan International has become the number one platform for maternal and infant products, with a daily turnover of over 100 million yuan. He deserves to make a lot of money."

"Once bitten, twice shy. You can do whatever you want. My best friend, colleagues, and I only trust Mr. Wang and YouTuan.com when it comes to maternity and baby products and beauty products."

"Me too, thanks to YouTuan Technology. From now on, I'll use YouTuan.com for everything they have!"

"According to inside sources, Sanniu once approached YouTuan Technology for cooperation and even offered 500 million yuan for sponsorship of Vipshop. However, after testing, YouTuan Technology found that the product was substandard, blocked Sanniu, vowed never to cooperate with them again, and immediately reported Sanniu!"

"Mr. Wang is so kind, so incredibly kind. But what is Vipshop? I've never heard of it."

"Vipshop is an e-commerce platform that YouTuan.com will soon launch, focusing on brand discounts. All products are from major brands, guaranteed authentic, and offered at discounted prices, such as 7%, 6%, or even 5% off!"

"What? Guaranteed authentic big brand, and it's 50% or 60% off? That's great, I need it, I really need it."

"I need it too, brand discounts, when will they be available?"

"Just wait, it should be online soon. My colleague at YouTuan.com said they started working with major brands last month."

"Indeed, employees of Hongxing Erke have already started connecting with Vipshop, and the prices are said to be extremely low."

"Anta is also in contact." "Semir and Yishion are also in contact."

"Brand discounts, guaranteed authentic, and on sale! I can't wait, I really can't wait!"

……

Seeing the online comments, Tang Jinghe quietly withdrew from the discussion.

That's right, she's the one who leaked all this inside information!

As the vice president of YouTuan Technology, Tang Jinghe knew very well what to do and when to do things because Wang Junshan trusted her so much.

There was no need for Wang Junshan to explain.

It would be a waste not to take advantage of this wave of traffic to promote Vipshop!
Not only her, but several other managers and supervisors were also taking the initiative to carry out similar operations to promote Vipshop!

Without a doubt, Vipshop's brand discounts had already won people's hearts even before it was officially launched.

Baidu headquarters.

Li Yan looked at the top-ranked news on Baidu's trending topics, his expression extremely complicated:
"Daily revenue exceeds 100 million!"

"Youtuan.com is amazing! It has become a top e-commerce platform!"

"Even if it's not as good as Taobao, it probably surpasses many comprehensive e-commerce platforms."

Baidu Vice President Lin Zhi strongly agreed: "Putting aside other things, even Paipai.com's daily revenue is less than 2000 million, while YouTuan.com's daily revenue is 1 million! Of course, this is due to the collapse of Sanniu."

"Even if YouTuan.com's revenue is halved or even reduced by 30% after a while, it still has 30 million, which is still a valuation of over 10 billion."

"Oh, I regret it!"

Li Yan sighed deeply: "Last time, YouTuan Technology was valued at 5 billion, but we felt it was unstable and didn't invest."

"Things have stabilized now, but we can't afford to invest anymore!"

"That's right. We can scrape together 10 billion if we grit our teeth."

"We can't even scrape together more than two billion."

Baidu is poorer than Alibaba!
With a total cash reserve of only 20 billion, if all of it were invested in YouTuan Technology, then Baidu would have no need to do any other projects, which is unrealistic.

Unless Baidu's stock is used for a swap, resulting in cross-shareholding between the two parties, but that would be a much bigger issue and requires careful consideration.

Li Yan was filled with disappointment: "Such a great opportunity, and we just missed it!"

It would be a lie to say I don't regret it!

Currently, the three giants, BTA (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), are all focusing on e-commerce.

Alibaba, needless to say, has always been the e-commerce giant.

Tencent launches Paipai.com, making a strong foray into e-commerce.

A quick look at Baidu reveals that we cannot lag behind.

They also quickly expanded into e-commerce, creating Baidu Youa, a C2C e-commerce platform that focuses on "shopping search + transaction closed loop".

However, creating a new platform is not so easy, and it won't be launched until next month.

If they had invested 10 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology back then, and the two parties had jointly promoted YouTuan.com, things would have been much easier.

With the strength of YouTuan.com and the search resources of Baidu, even Alibaba would tremble.

Unfortunately, I missed it.

Previously, YouTuan Technology was valued at 5 billion yuan, but Baidu felt it wasn't worth it.

Now the valuation is over 100 billion, and I think it's worth it, but Baidu can't afford to invest anymore!

All I can say is that things are unpredictable.

"Forget it, let's just focus on our own e-commerce platform, Baidu Youa!"

As Li Yan spoke, his eyes were filled with helplessness.

If only they had acted impulsively and invested 10 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology back then, it would be worth at least 20 billion yuan, or even 25 billion yuan now.

What a pity!

Tencent also felt the same regret.

Group Vice President and President of the Investment Department, Yao Mingchen, clenched his fists:
"I can't believe it, YouTuan.com's revenue has exceeded 100 million! Wow!"

"Hey!"

With two consecutive sighs, Yao Mingchen was filled with regret.

“Last time, YouTuan Technology asked for a valuation of 5 billion, which we felt was not worthwhile. We believed that YouTuan.com’s daily revenue could not be stabilized and that it was worth 15 million.”

"As a result, they not only stabilized the situation, but also managed to recover over 100 million!"

"What concept?"

"So scary!"

"Even if it's discounted by 30% later, it will still have a valuation of over 10 billion."

"It has surpassed Paipai.com!"

Upon hearing this, everyone else fell silent.

Xu Tiannian, president of Paipai.com, looked ashen-faced.

Once upon a time, Paipai.com treated YouTuan.com like a subordinate, thinking of investing in YouTuan Technology and becoming its major shareholder.

Now, YouTuan.com has become a force to be reckoned with, even Paipai.com has to look up to it!

How ironic!

Huo Siying also had a complex expression. As someone who witnessed everything firsthand, she was deeply moved.
"Wang Junshan has both strength and luck, there's really nothing we can do about him."

“YouTuan Technology is now valued at over 10 billion yuan. We need to be very careful about whether or not to continue investing. This should be our last chance.”

The BAT of 2008 is not the same as the BAT of 2018.

Even a company as powerful as Tencent only has 70 billion in cash flow.

Investing 20 billion yuan in YouTuan Technology is not a problem.

But it still accounts for 30% of the total cash flow, which is no small amount!

"Shall we vote?" Xu Tiannian couldn't help but ask.

silence.

There was a long silence.

Neither Yao Mingchen, the president of the group's investment department, nor any of the other senior executives spoke up.

This is a huge deal!

"Let me talk to Chairman Ma first, but I don't think it's very optimistic."

Yao Mingchen frowned: "The overseas economic situation is already very serious; things could get really bad!"

Hearing this, everyone fell silent.

What's going on overseas? Others might not know, but surely Tencent's investment department does.
The ducks are the first to know when the river warms in spring!
Huo Siying nodded: "That's true. A financial crisis might break out soon. It's good to be cautious with an investment of 20 billion. More importantly, YouTuan.com is currently at its peak. Even if we offer a valuation of 100 billion, Wang Junshan won't agree."

"Yes, he might ask for 120 billion, or even 130 billion!"

“Yes, that’s a problem.” Yao Mingchen sighed. “If I had known this would happen, I would have just invested when the valuation was 50 billion last time!”

"This guy said he was going to make a big move, and we thought it was just WeChat Pay. We never expected him to make something this big."

"Seriously... sigh!"

Yao Mingchen's expression was somewhat complicated, but a sudden thought suddenly occurred to him: "Would it be a solution to merge Paipai.com into YouTuan.com?"

(End of this chapter)