From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 181: Three Major Capital Firms Receive 20 Billion Investment

2011 has passed, and 2012 has arrived.

Lin Mu spends his time in his office tending to his flowers, watering them, and drinking tea.

After a moment of ritual, he sat in front of his new office, leaning back in his newly purchased chair, looking at the important information compiled by his assistant.

First, there's news from Taobao: Jack Ma has made a painful decision to dismiss Ma Su, a key figure in the group-buying platform, due to systemic corruption, with several senior executives being taken away for investigation.

This also includes specific details, such as how much each person embezzled, as determined through investigation.

What made Lin Mu most uneasy was that he saw a familiar face among them.

That was Zhang Qiang's team, who used to work at Pinduoduo and were in charge of outsourcing.

He was also taken away for investigation.

The news report said that he and his team embezzled ten million yuan.

Lin Mu picked up his teacup and took a small sip.

To be fair, Old Ma handled this situation decisively this time. From receiving the email to taking the person away, it took less than two weeks. Those people in the Anti-Corruption Department are definitely capable.

Lin Mu closed the news page and opened another document.

This is the latest report just sent by the finance department.

Cash on hand: 18.7 billion.

This month, we burned through 3 million yuan.

Lin Mu grinned as he read through the list: New office space rental and renovation: 3000 million.

Pinduoduo's team has now expanded to 800 people, and the original office space was no longer enough. The new location is in Lujiazui, where they have rented three floors. The annual rent plus renovation costs are considered reasonable.

Staff expansion and salary increases: 4000 million RMB was invested to hire 500 new employees in the past three months, and existing employees received a 20% salary increase. This expenditure was necessary to retain staff.

New server cluster: With Pinduoduo's monthly active users exceeding 18 million, the old servers could no longer handle the load. New blade servers, storage arrays, and bandwidth expansion have been implemented, resulting in this number.

Cut the price subsidy: 1.8 million/month; Free fruit subsidy: 2000 million/month. Lin Mu's gaze paused on the number "3 million/month," and even he felt a pang of pain.

They burned through 3 million yuan in a month.

This is still being burned sparingly.

In 2024, Pinduoduo will burn through 200 billion yuan a year on its "cut-a-price" promotions. This amount of money is nothing compared to what it is now.

Lin Mu flipped the page backward.

The next page contains a separate report from the "One Yuan Purchase" platform.

[Independent domain name: yigou.com]

Monthly active users: 500 million

Monthly revenue: 5 million

[Revenue percentage: 3%]

Monthly net profit: 300 million

Lin Mu narrowed his eyes.

It's only been three months since the 1 Yuan Purchase platform was spun off, and it's already starting to make a profit?

This was something he hadn't expected.

The initial decision to separate the one-yuan purchase from Pinduoduo's main site was based on two main considerations:

First, this business is too sensitive, as it falls under the category of soft gambling. If the government were to crack down on it someday, it could easily implicate the main website.

Secondly, when funds are tight, you can sell it to raise money, and incidentally plant a landmine for the person who takes over.

Now, Pinduoduo has 18 billion yuan in its accounts, and its one-yuan purchase service can support itself.

Whether to sell or not has become a question.

Lin Mu leaned back in his chair and thought for three seconds.

Then he picked up the phone and dialed Chen Ping's number in the Marketing Department.

"Chen Ping, come to my office."

Three minutes later, Chen Ping knocked on the door and came in.

"Mr. Lin, you wanted to see me?"

Lin Mu pushed the report on the one-yuan purchase to his face.

"I'm going to sell this one."

Chen Ping was taken aback: "Sell? One Yuan Purchase now has 5 million monthly active users and a monthly turnover of 500 million yuan. It's already profitable—"

"I know," Lin Mu interrupted him. "It's precisely because we've started making a profit that sales are even better."

He stood up and walked to the window.

"Go find the three largest auction houses in the country and talk to them about an auction."

"What's being auctioned?" Chen Ping asked.

"One yuan purchase." Lin Mu turned to look at him. "Starting bid: one yuan."

Chen Ping was quite clever; he figured it out almost instantly: President Lin wanted to focus on marketing.

He suggested, "Mr. Lin, why don't we invite a TV station to do a live broadcast?"

"Make it even bigger."

Looking at his expression, Lin Mu praised, "I will find Shanghai TV and Tencent Video to do a live broadcast."

"Then, you have the auction organizer send out several invitations to Baidu, JD.com, Taobao, Tencent, and Sohu—these major internet companies—so they can send people to participate."

A week later, Chen Ping returned with the results.

"Mr. Lin, we've spoken with all three auction houses."

Lin Mu raised his chin: "Speak."

"The first one is Jiade. Their boss is a foreigner, and he's very slow to react. He said he'd need to look into it." The implication is that they feel Pinduoduo's image isn't high enough, and they're afraid of their brand being overshadowed.

Lin Mu nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"The second one is Poly. The situation is similar to that of China Guardian; foreigners call the shots, and their attitude is ambiguous."

"What about the third one?"

Chen Ping smiled: "The third company is Kuangshi. The boss is Chinese and has delegated authority to the general manager. That general manager, surnamed Zheng, made the decision on the spot after hearing my introduction."

"What did he say?"

"He said—" Chen Ping cleared his throat, mimicking President Zheng's tone, "What's Pinduoduo's size now? Tens of millions of monthly active users, a valuation of 200 billion. If I were to turn away a customer like that delivered right to my door, I'd be a fool."

Lin Mu couldn't help but laugh.

"This Mr. Zheng is a talented individual."

"That's right." Chen Ping nodded. "He has already finalized the auction plan. The date is set for the 18th of next month at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. Tencent Video and Shanghai TV will broadcast it live simultaneously."

"Where's the invitation?"

"It's already been sent out. Baidu, JD.com, Taobao, Tencent, and Sohu have all received it."

Lin Mu nodded in satisfaction.

"Well done."

Baidu Building in Beijing.

Dressed in a white suit and white tie, looking more like a prince on a white horse than a boss, Robin Li sat in his office, looking at the invitation letter sent by Kuangshi.

Pinduoduo's 1 Yuan Purchase Auction: Starting price: 1 yuan.

He chuckled softly and placed the invitation on the table.

Pinduoduo has been gaining momentum lately. With tens of millions of monthly active users and a valuation of 200 billion yuan, it has carved out a niche for itself in the fiercely competitive e-commerce market.

A piece of land.

Youa.com's market value and revenue have been far surpassed by Pinduoduo.

Li Yanhong leaned back in his chair, quickly reviewing Baidu's current e-commerce strategy in his mind:

C2C platform Youa.com, B2B platform Rakuten, and O020O platform Baidu Group Buying.

Three directions, three fronts, considerable investment, but the results—

He shook his head.

He certainly knew what the "one-yuan purchase" business was. It was soft gambling, operating in a gray area, but it was indeed profitable. Some people within Baidu had suggested doing it, but he felt the risks were too high and it was never approved.

Now Lin Mu wants to put this business up for auction.

Li Yanhong recalled that night a few years ago when Lin Mu spoke eloquently in front of him, and finally cursed him as "murdering for money and causing death, and cutting off one's lineage."

He was so angry that he smashed the cup.

Now that I think about it, I'm not so angry anymore.

But that's about it.

He won't go.

Why should he go? That kid insulted him, why should he go and support him?

but----

Li Yanhong glanced at the date on the invitation.

Even if you don't go, it's still okay to let people go and take a look.

He pressed the intercom and summoned his secretary: "Have Xiao Wang from the e-commerce division go to Shanghai. Check on the situation and report back."

Tencent Building, Shenzhen.

Ma Huateng looked at the invitation in his hand and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"That kid really knows how to have fun."

He handed the invitation to Peng Zhijian, who was standing next to him.

Peng Zhijian took it and laughed, "One yuan purchase? They're trying to ride on our fame."

-

Ma Huateng nodded.

Tencent actually has this "one-yuan purchase" service for a while now. There's a similar module in QQ Space called "One-Yuan Lucky Draw," which is quite good and contributes tens of millions of yuan in revenue every month.

Therefore, Lin Mu's offer to sell this platform is not very attractive to Tencent.

But he was quite interested in this auction.

"Come with me," Ma Huateng said to Peng Zhijian. "Let's watch the excitement and give him a shout-out."

Peng Zhijian laughed: "Mr. Ma, are you going to endorse him?"

Ma Huateng waved his hand: "What platform? I'm just going to take a look. This kid's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve, maybe we can get something out of him."

Hangzhou, Alibaba headquarters.

Jack Ma and Daniel Zhang are chatting in the office.

The topic is Taobao's future development direction.

"We need to get the entertainment sector going." Jack Ma leaned back on the sofa, tapping his fingers lightly on the armrest. "Look at that kid Lin Mu, he put together a variety show and it propelled Pinduoduo to new heights. We at Taobao need to learn from him."

Zhang Yong smiled wryly: "Mr. Ma, variety shows aren't difficult; the difficult part is becoming that popular."

"The first episode of 'Running Man' achieved a 2.8 rating and over 100 million views online; the phrase 'Running Man family' is still trending. This level of hit is rare and hard to come by."

Jack Ma nodded and remarked, "That kid Lin Mu has some good luck on him."

He paused, a hint of admiration in his eyes: "Just like me when I was young."

At that moment, Zhang Yong suddenly remembered something.

He took a red invitation from his briefcase and handed it to Jack Ma.

"Mr. Ma, someone asked me to bring this to you."

Jack Ma took it and saw: "Pinduoduo One Yuan Purchase Platform Auction".

Starting bid: 1 yuan.

Inviter: Lin Mu.

Jack Ma paused for a moment, then laughed.

"This kid, he's already sent me the invitations?"

Zhang Yong nodded: "The person who delivered the invitation said that General Manager Lin specifically instructed that the invitation must be delivered to you."

Jack Ma looked at the invitation and remained silent for a few seconds.

He recalled the young man who had spoken so eloquently in front of him a few years ago.

I remember that young man whose resignation letter he personally wrote "Never to be hired".

Thinking back to Pinduoduo's recent series of actions...

Cut the price and get free fruit, buy for one yuan, sponsored by Running Man —

Every step was taken quickly and accurately.

Jack Ma suddenly spoke up: "What was that kid Dayan's position again before he left?"

Zhang Yong was taken aback: "What?"

"It's nothing." Jack Ma waved his hand, stood up, and said, "Go and make the arrangements. I'll be there on the day of the auction."

Zhang Yong was somewhat surprised: "You're going in person?"

Jack Ma nodded, walked to the window, and looked at the distant horizon.

"Let's catch up."