From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 183 One Hundred Million Yuan Sold for One Yuan

"Good morning/afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's auction."

The host's voice echoed throughout the venue.

"Today's auction item is from Pinduoduo's 'One Yuan Purchase' platform, including the independent domain name yigou.com."

Starting bid: 1 yuan.

As soon as the host finished speaking, the first sign was raised, and the person holding the sign was Ma Huateng.

He came to warm up Lin Mu.

100.

No sooner had he finished speaking than another sign was raised.

Mr. Wang from Baidu.

500.

Host: "Baidu, 500 million!"

"500 million already? That fast?"

"Baidu does value this area; they have traffic, but lack monetization channels."

Before the crowd could finish their discussion, another sign was raised.

People from Sohu.

1000.

"Sohu is here too?"

"1000 million! The price has gone up really fast."

Liu Qiangdong smiled and held up the sign.

1500.

Host: "JD.com, 1500 million!"

The atmosphere at the scene became lively.

The reporters whispered among themselves: "It seems the final transaction price should be between 3000 million and 4000 million."

"Pretty much. Although buying for one yuan can be profitable, it's still operating in a gray area. Going too high would be too risky."

The voice just fell.

Jack Ma held up a sign.

3000.

The entire room fell silent.

The host was stunned for a moment before realizing what he meant: "Alibaba, 3000 million!"

The reporters were in an uproar.

"Hey, doesn't Taobao already have a one-yuan purchase service?"

"Mr. Ma himself is holding up the sign?"

Lin Mu seemed to be thinking about something. Old Ma probably valued the domain name of the one-yuan purchase.

yigou.com

Lin Mu bought this domain name from a website collector for 1,000 yuan.

That was last year, before Pinduoduo entered the market. There was no market for one-yuan purchases in China, so it was extremely cheap.

If Taobao were to buy this domain name, merge it with Taobao's one-yuan purchase program, and then spin it off into a separate business line, it would indeed be a worthwhile deal.

While he was pondering this, the bidding continued.

Sohu: "3100 million."

JD.com: "3200 million."

Tencent: "3300 million."

Alibaba: "3400 million."

The price kept rising, with each increase being 100 million.

The atmosphere at the scene became increasingly tense.

Mr. Wang, the CEO of Baidu, raised his paddle and quoted a price that surprised everyone.

5000.

The entire room fell silent for a second.

Host: "Baidu, 5000 million!"

"5000 million!"

"Baidu is determined to take it over!"

Mr. Wang looked around and thought to himself, "Mr. Li gave him a limit of 50 million. There shouldn't be anyone who can give him more, right?"

That being said, with so many big shots here, it feels really good to be in awe of them all right now.

Despite his title of "General Manager," he's just a high-level employee.

Just as he was thinking this, Ma Huateng raised his sign.

5500.

The audience erupted in uproar once again.

Mr. Wang's expression changed.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then stood up, walked to the corner, and took out his phone.

On the other end of the phone, Robin Li's voice came through: "How's it going?"

Mr. Wang lowered his voice: "Mr. Li, the price has now reached 5500 million, what do you think?"

Li Yanhong remained silent for a few seconds.

"Wait a minute."

He hung up the phone and turned to look at the think tank around him.

In the conference room, several people were quickly flipping through the documents.

"Mr. Li, how many users does the 1 Yuan Purchase program have now?" someone asked.

"According to the data we just received, Pinduoduo's 'One Yuan Purchase' program has approximately 600 million monthly active users," another person replied.

"600 million..."

""

"And it's number one in its niche market."

Li Yanhong pondered for a moment.

"If we acquire this platform and merge it with Baidu's one-yuan purchase..."

""

"We are number one in the market."

"Furthermore," another person added, "we can add online lottery to this."

"Lottery?" Li Yanhong's eyes narrowed.

"Yes. The policy hasn't tightened yet. If we could combine lottery tickets with one-yuan purchases... there's a lot of room for imagination."

"The stock price should be able to rise," another person chimed in.

Li Yanhong remained silent for three seconds.

Then he picked up the phone and dialed Mr. Wang's number.

"One hundred million."

Mr. Wang was taken aback: "What?"

"Offer one hundred million." Li Yanhong's voice was calm. "Take it."

Mr. Wang took a deep breath: "Understood."

He hung up the phone and went back to his seat.

Hold up the sign.

"One hundred million."

Hey!

The whole place became lively.

This far exceeded everyone's expectations.

They originally thought 5000 million was the upper limit.

Is Baidu so optimistic about the one-yuan purchase project?

The host paused for a moment, then quickly said, "Baidu, one hundred million!"

Ma Huateng turned to look at Lin Mu and smiled.

"I know what Robin Li is thinking, can you guess?"

Lin Mu thought for a moment and said, "They probably want to boost the stock price. Hmm—this business line could also move in the direction of lottery."

"Online lottery business, wow, that has a huge potential."

Ma Huateng paused for a moment. He had only thought of boosting the stock price, not the lottery.

He narrowed his eyes slightly. Could Tencent follow up on this?

The auctioneer waited a few seconds, and seeing that no one else was bidding, picked up the gavel.

"One hundred million once!"

"One hundred million twice!"

"One hundred million times!"

"make a deal!"

With a bang, the auction gavel fell.

"Congratulations to Baidu for winning the bid for the one-yuan purchase platform for 1 million yuan!"

The audience erupted in applause.

Lin Mu and President Wang shook hands.

Soon, media outlets came forward to interview Lin Mu and President Wang.

Let's skip over Mr. Wang's side for now.

A reporter, holding a microphone, asked Lin Mu, "Mr. Lin, you bought 100 million yuan worth of goods for just one yuan. How do you plan to spend the money?"

Lin Mu glanced at the reporter's sign; this was someone from Shanghai TV, one of his own.

Lin Mu has made such a big fuss, so of course he'll try to capitalize on the online traffic.

He said, "I will use part of this money to make a new variety show, and most of it will probably be used for charity."

"Public welfare?"

Lin Mu nodded and said, "Yes, that's right."

"Pinduoduo is very popular in the lower-tier market, and it was when I came into contact with the lower-tier market that I came into contact with groups that I had never come into contact with before."

"It turns out that there are still many Chinese people living below the poverty line."

"So I plan to create a variety show that combines entertainment and public welfare, aiming to be as educational and entertaining as possible while also achieving a sense of social value."

The reporter readily asked, "Mr. Lin, what type of variety show is this?"

"This is a secret for now," Lin Mu said with a smile.

He knew that if this interview got out, it would definitely cause a lot of controversy, such as how could charity be combined with variety shows, or that it was exploiting suffering.

However, this controversy is also part of the hype.

His idea was to create a variety show called "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and simultaneously launch Pinduoduo's quiz show, giving it a different twist and continuing to offer subsidies.

The chain formed: the popularity of one-yuan purchases → the variety show "Who's Still Standing?" → Pinduoduo's answer guessing game → Pinduoduo's continued expansion.