From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 176 One-Slash Feature Beta Test

In August, Lin Mu looked at Pinduoduo's report. Driven by pre-installation on mobile phones and the 1-yuan purchase promotion, Pinduoduo's monthly growth rate reached a staggering 2.8 million.

Pinduoduo currently has a total of 880 million monthly active users.

The emergence of the 1-yuan purchase program, in particular, seems to have served as a wake-up call for major e-commerce platforms and their competitors. Taobao, JD.com, Vancl, and Dangdang all rushed to get involved, hastily launching their own 1-yuan purchase portals to compete with Pinduoduo for this wave of traffic.

Some of these websites go even further, failing to limit the number of bets customers can place, which is tantamount to disguised gambling.

Lin Mu pondered that this was yet another opportunity to generate traffic.

He could have easily stepped forward to stir up public opinion and stop his peers from copying him. Although, strictly speaking, activities like 1-yuan flash sales and 1-yuan deals originated from Taobao, which, if I remember correctly, already existed back in 08 when he joined the company.

But that doesn't matter. In fact, he'd love for Taobao to steal the title of "Father of 1 Yuan Flash Sale." It's all just hype anyway, so the more they criticize, the better.

Back in 14 or 15, JD.com and Taobao were also fiercely competing. Liu Dongqiang, along with Zhang Zetian (the "Milk Tea Girl"), kept making their presence felt. As a result, the two websites ended up killing off their competitors.

Drop drop drop.

Lin Mu's phone rang. He answered the call, and Lu Qi said happily, "President Lin, 'Running Man' has a release date! It's scheduled for October 4th, National Day."

Lin Mu has been closely monitoring the production of "Running Man," as he is very optimistic about the boost the show will bring to Pinduoduo.

Even under his coercion and interference, he managed to reunite the original cast from the previous life: Zheng Chao, Wang Baoqiang, Li Chen, Chen He, Zheng Kai, Angelababy, and Zu Lan.

Logically speaking, some of them are too young, having just debuted, and are not suitable to join "Keep Running" in terms of their status.

However, the immense popularity of "Running Man" in his previous life had a touch of mystical magic to it. Lin Mu didn't know who the key figures were or who were dispensable; as long as this team was successful, he would just continue using it.

At first, Lu Qi disagreed, thinking that Lin Mu was an amateur instructing professionals and was giving bad advice. But when he actually reassembled the original team, he was surprised to find that the team worked out surprisingly well, so he stopped objecting.

After hanging up the phone, I received a special email with a pre-installation package labeled "Predictions for the Cut-Off Feature".

"Oh, it's finally been developed?"

Several months have passed since Lin Mu proposed the "cut a knife" feature. The development of this feature has unexpectedly been quite difficult. Lin Mu clicked to install and immediately opened it to try it out.

The entry point for the "cut a price" feature is also on the homepage, and it's listed first on the homepage.

The feature wasn't called "Cut a Cut," which was confusing at the time, but rather "Cut the Price and Get It for Free."

This entry point will feature a selection of products, generally priced between 20 and 200 yuan. Some merchants will be invited to participate in this event, offering prices at cost or with a small profit.

Of course, the merchants will definitely not lose money. When users bargain down to 0 yuan, all the money in between is subsidized by Pinduoduo.

By the way, the "cut a price" function only has two outcomes: the first is that you can cut the price down to get it for free, and the second is that you fail to cut the price down and can only buy it at the original price. There is no way to cut the price down to the lowest possible price and then buy it at a cheaper price.

There is a gray area in this process. For example, if you bring in three to five people to bargain, you can basically get the item for free.

For a product priced at 200 yuan, it needs to attract 40 to 50 people. If the users ultimately fail to get the discount, then all these new users are essentially freebies for Pinduoduo.

Lin Mu tested it out and found that the overall usage logic was smooth, without any lag or obvious bugs.

In his email reply, he asked the product team to test for bugs again and refine the details.

The specific launch date is October 4th. At that time, we will also change the UI of Pinduoduo products and add a banner that says "Get it for free by cutting the price" to the product box.

Inside a private room at the hotel.

Because the business operation of offering free services through price negotiation needed to attract new merchants, Lin Mu met with his old friends again. In the private room were Li Zhi, who sells underwear; Director Mao, who sells stockings; and Boss Gu, who sells bread.

In fact, given Lin Mu's current status, he doesn't need to show his face for such trivial matters in specific business lines, not even at Wang Zaixing's level.

But business is business, and friendship is friendship. These partners are people he met in the early stages of his business, and they continue to provide him with income even now.

Now, Director Mao's factory is a large factory with annual sales of over 100 million yuan, and it can provide him with 8 million yuan in commission fees every year.

Boss Gu's Three Little Bees store is thriving both online and offline, with annual sales of 200 million yuan and a commission of 10 million yuan per year.

Li Zhi has fallen behind somewhat, but his shop still provides him with more than 100 million yuan in commissions a year. Judging from the commissions, Li Zhi himself can earn two to three million yuan in net profit a year.

Such profits were outrageous in 2011, and they will certainly be equally outrageous in 2026.

At the banquet, Li Zhi was the first to toast Lin Mu, saying, "Brother Lin, I'd like to offer you a toast. Brother Lin, you can't possibly understand how I feel right now. These past few days feel like a distant dream to me."

"I met you, Brother Lin, four years ago. At that time, I was so desperate that I wanted to jump into the lake. I really never expected that four years would pass like this."

"I'll be doing this well after the New Year."

Li Zhi said in a daze, "Brother Lin, you are truly my benefactor. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today."

Lin Mu was secretly pleased, and said politely, "You flatter me, you flatter me. The main thing is that Li Zhi, you yourself are capable. If you were an incompetent ruler, you wouldn't be able to support a shop with an annual turnover of over ten million."

"No, no, no," Li Zhi said seriously, "Brother Lin, I'm serious. The 'one' comes before the 'zero.' If it weren't for you, I would be a ghost in the lake by now."

Then everyone chatted enthusiastically, reminiscing about the past and sharing interesting things that happened in the industry.

Boss Gu looked at Lin Mu with envy and admiration. Several years ago, he had seen that Lin Mu was no ordinary person, but at that time he thought that Lin Mu would one day become a senior executive in the Alibaba system, and one of the top executives.

But he really didn't expect that Lin Mu would start his own business and achieve such great success, with the company now valued at over 10 billion.

The difference between people is greater than that between dogs.

He was already considered an outstanding person among his peers, but compared to Lin Mu, he was far inferior.

He began by saying, "Mr. Lin, you have no idea how chaotic things have been at Taobao lately."

"Isn't the group buying business very popular lately? Taobao launched a group buying platform called 'JuTuanGou,' and it's said that the team was formed by people from the Taobao Mall department, and it's causing quite a mess."

"I've heard from many people in private that if you want to participate in group buying events, you have to pay money to the operations team behind the scenes."

"Some shops can participate in 4 to 5 promotions, and the prices are not reduced at all. They make a lot of money, while honest merchants who do not pay can not get a chance to participate in a promotion even once every six months."

"I heard that Jutuangou is here to sabotage you. If this continues, I think it's doomed."

Lin Mu then remembered that Lu Hai had told him, according to his connections, Taobao wanted to pit JuTuanGou against its own Pinduoduo.

But he didn't feel any pressure at all. He remembered that Jutuangou was killed by Meituan in the later group-buying war because of its own corruption and the impact of Meituan. It was not until 2016 that it was reorganized and merged into Taobao, becoming the entry point of Taobao Factory.

Lin Mu had a sudden inspiration. Although group buying didn't pose a threat, he would be happy to use it to cause trouble for Taobao.

He asked, "Boss Gu, is there any concrete evidence of corruption and embezzlement in this group-buying scheme? I'm quite interested."

,

Gu Ning's eyes lit up. Lin Mu called him "Boss Gu" instead of "Little Gu" or "President Gu," and this form of address said a lot.

He was slightly touched; Lin Mu still remembered him. He said, "Mr. Lin, don't worry, I'll help you look for reliable informants and solid evidence."