From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 179: Let Jack Ma Answer

In the town, Zhao Caihua has been living a very happy life lately.

She has made her store very successful by taking advantage of various online deals and precise product selection.

Recently, she plans to rent a small shop in the county town and open a convenience store specializing in selling popular online snacks.

She had done market research and found that in her county, there were no shops that specialized in selling trendy snacks; her competitors were all traditional convenience stores.

Zhao Caihua set her sights on a new opportunity: a software called Pinduoduo.

Not only are the products on Pinduoduo incredibly cheap, but she also used her clever mind to come up with a little trick to attract customers by taking advantage of Pinduoduo's "free fruit" feature.

When some elderly customers come into the store to buy things, she teaches them to register on Pinduoduo with their mobile phone numbers, and then open the entrance to receive free fruit. She encourages the elderly to come to her store once a day, and after collecting fruit for 7 days, she will give the fruit to them for free when it arrives.

Pinduoduo covered the costs, but she received the favors. The elderly people weren't her main customers; their children were.

The elderly people who accepted her gifts would speak highly of her to their sons and daughters. Even though the sons and daughters knew about Zhao Caihua's tricks, they generally didn't mind and were willing to buy New Year's goods and small items from her shop.

Recently, Pinduoduo launched a new feature that allows users to invite friends to receive free products. The product section also features many great items, such as bread from Three Little Bees, trendy stockings from the Spring Shop, and small appliances like electric fans.

Just then, a customer walked into the shop, and Zhao Caihua quickly went up to greet her, "Aunt Wang, did you know that Pinduoduo has launched a new feature where you can get free products by inviting friends?"

"How could I not know? I came to your door wanting you to help me cut something."

"Perfect timing! Let's hurry up and bargain! Grandma Li also has some items she wants to bargain on, so now we have three people together."

Zhao Caihua owns many mobile phones, although they are all old and second-hand, but they can all connect to the Internet and log in to Pinduoduo, and each phone has a separate SIM card.

This was her savings accumulated over the years through various deals and discounts. This time, Pinduoduo's discount promotion came along, and she took full advantage of it.

Her shop became the town's "information hub," where everyone shared their tips on how to get a bargain and created groups to get free products.

Zhao Caihua only selects in-demand items, such as bread from Three Little Bees, stockings from Spring Diary, and some popular snacks. Merchandise related to "Running Man" also sells very well.

She managed to snag over 20 items, totaling over a thousand yuan, and she has her own channels to sell them.

A month later, in November, with the airing of "Running Man", Pinduoduo's "cut a price" function became more and more widespread and intense.

In the university town, Lu Wei also downloaded Pinduoduo at the invitation of a friend.

My friend wanted to buy a phone case co-branded with "Running Man," so he invited three friends to help him cut the price, and they successfully got the phone case for free.

Lu Wei saw his friend receive the phone case, and the case was very well made.

Lu Wei is a big fan of Yang Ying's character in "Running Man". He originally wanted to buy her phone case as a souvenir, but since there was a free option, he naturally decided to try it.

So Lu Wei opened Pinduoduo, and on his first try, the system cut the price by 80%. Soon after, he sent a WeChat link to a friend, typing, "Come help me cut the price!"

A few minutes later, his friend logged on and helped him cut the enemy's health.

After the second cut, the progress bar on the screen has reached 99%. Just invite one more friend and you can receive the item for free.

Just then, his roommate returned, looking down at his phone as he walked. Lu Wei said, "Xiaoyu, have you downloaded Pinduoduo? Come help me cut the price."

-

"Huh?" Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise, "You use Pinduoduo too? But I'm a long-time user, so my ranking is a bit low."

Lu Wei said, "It's okay, I'm already 99% done. You can just make one more cut and it'll be done."

His roommate, without saying a word, logged onto WeChat and helped him cut the price.

Soon, Lu Wei's phone showed a change: the progress bar had reached 99.9%. Lu Wei's expression changed: "This is ridiculous!"

My roommate was also surprised to see this, scratching his head and saying, "Why is there a decimal point? I successfully placed an order by inviting three people before. Is it because my account ranking is too low?"

Lu Wei also thought that might be the case, because many cases around him told him that everyone else could successfully place an order by finding 3 to 4 people, so there was no reason why it would be different for him.

So he stood up and said, "I'll go to the next dorm and look for someone." Now that he'd already paid the sunk cost, he didn't want to spend any more money on that phone case.

Next, Lu Wei swallowed his pride and visited one dormitory after another, even asking his high school classmates to help him cut the price.

However, for some reason, Pinduoduo seemed to be deliberately working against him. After 99.9%, three small flowers appeared. He had already collected two of them and still needed to find one more.

After he invited another friend, all three flowers were collected, but the next scene was not a successful price reduction, but instead the price returned to the original number, becoming 99.99%.

Lu Wei was furious, but he was already at this point and didn't want to give up. He continued searching and eventually even got his parents, who never bought anything online, involved.

After contacting a total of 8 friends, he finally succeeded in completing the group purchase and got the phone case, which was worth 20 yuan, for free.

When Lu Wei saw that the group purchase was successful, he almost burst into tears. It was really not easy. He felt that even getting into university was not this difficult.

In the CEO's office at Pinduoduo headquarters.

Jiang Fan, with a serious expression, reported to Lin Mu, "President Lin, the financial situation is dire!"

"We burned through a total of 120 million yuan in October, and this level of spending is only getting worse."

"If we continue burning money like this, our expenses in November will double, reaching a minimum of 240 million yuan."

""

"In addition, with the influx of a large number of users, we need new data centers. Recently, new server requirements have been put on the agenda, and the old blade servers are no longer sufficient."

"We'll need new office space, and all departments will need to expand. Mr. Lin, we're running out of money."

If things continue to burn at this rate, we won't even make it to the end of the year.

Lin Mu leaned back in his chair, his expression calm.

He had long anticipated this day would come.

Pinduoduo's growth curve is outrageous. It only took three months for its monthly active users to increase from 900 million to 1500 million. With such a growth rate, the rate at which it burns through cash naturally increases exponentially as well.

But Lin Mu showed no sign of panic.

He looked at Jiang Fan and said, "First, cut that part and have the technical department tighten the controls. We can come up with a little trick to make it harder to get something for free."

Lin Mu took out a piece of paper from the drawer and casually drew a few diagrams on it.

"When the progress bar reaches 99%, you can change the unit. For example, change it from a percentage to three small flowers, three gold coins, three gold ingots, or something like that."

"After users collect two, they are still missing the last one. After they painstakingly find someone to help them cut the last piece, all three flowers are collected, and the screen changes to 99.99% again."

"Of course, we can't keep it stuck indefinitely. We need to set a threshold, for example, once we've attracted around 10 people, we must let them succeed. This ensures that the user experience doesn't completely collapse while maximizing the new user acquisition effect."

Jiang Fan raised an eyebrow. This idea was really cunning.

But upon closer reflection, it is indeed a good idea. It avoids leaving users completely hopeless while encouraging them to invite several times more friends and family.

Lin Mu continued, "Also, let's hold off on hiring for now. The existing team can hold on for a few months, with overtime pay and extra bonuses. We'll start large-scale recruitment once the next round of funding arrives."

After finishing his conversation with Jiang Fan, Lin Mu's phone rang.

The caller ID showed Ma Huateng.

Lin Mu answered the phone, and before he could even speak, Ma Huateng's hearty laughter came from the other end: "Lin Mu, I've seen your financial statements. Incredible, truly incredible!"

Lin Mu smiled and said, "Mr. Ma, are you here to make fun of me? I've burned through 1.2 million this month, and I might burn through 2.4 million next month. I'm running out of money."

"Are you making fun of me?" Ma Huateng laughed even louder. "I'm envious of you! I can't even imagine how great your life has been lately."

He paused, then his tone became serious: "Lin Mu, Tencent has decided to increase its investment. This time, we'll invest 5 million."

"Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital have also agreed to invest a total of 15 billion."

"A total of 200 billion, Series B+, with a valuation of 20 billion."

Lin Mu took a deep breath. Sure enough, he had achieved his goal. Once the 20 billion yuan arrived, Pinduoduo could begin a new round of expansion.

He calmed himself down and said, "Mr. Ma, thank you for your trust. I will make sure this 20 billion is well spent."

"Of course I believe you," Ma Huateng said with a smile. "By the way, Zhang Xiaolong asked me to pass on a message: they're already working on that WeChat official account you mentioned, and it should be launched in the first half of next year."

After hanging up, my phone rang again. This time it was Gu Ming, Boss Gu.

"President Lin!" Gu Ming's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement, "I've found evidence of corruption and embezzlement at Jutuangou!"

Lin Mu's eyes narrowed: "Tell me."

"I have a friend who works in operations at JuTuanGou. He said that almost everyone in his department, from top to bottom, is clean!" Gu Ming lowered his voice. "If you want to participate in promotions, you have to pay first. How much you pay depends on the product category. Popular categories can earn hundreds of thousands of yuan per promotion."

"And it's not just one person taking the cut; it's a chain of skimming. The operations team takes a cut, the team leader takes a cut, and the director takes a cut too. The whole department is completely rotten."

"Where's the evidence?"

"There are transfer records, chat screenshots, and even audio recordings!" Gu Ming said confidently. "My friend has a complete list in his hands."

"However, my friend insists that the evidence be submitted, Mr. Lin, you must protect his job."

Lin Mu thought for a moment and said, "No problem, he can come to Pinduoduo and continue working as an operations manager. I'll give him an extra 50 yuan bonus."

"Boss Gu, organize the evidence and send it to my email."

"Next—" Lin Mu's lips curled up: "It's time to increase the intensity of Jack Ma's training."

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