From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 189 Pinduoduo downloads exceed 100 million

Hangzhou, Alibaba headquarters.

Zhang Yong sat in his office, a detailed report email on his computer screen.

The report shows that "Who's Still Standing?" achieved a peak viewership rating of 12%, which is estimated to have brought Pinduoduo tens of millions of downloads. According to reliable sources, Pinduoduo's monthly active users have now reached 5000 million.

Zhang Yong looked at the numbers and clicked his tongue in amazement.

A 12% viewership rating.

5000 million monthly active users.

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

At that time, Lin Mu was just a P3. He proposed the "buy one item on the go" feature and wrote a guide on "user mindset".

Back then, he was smart, thoughtful, and a courageous young man. But he was still like a rough diamond that needed polishing.

Who could have imagined that a few years later, this young man would become one of Alibaba's biggest rivals?

Zhang Yong gently shook his head.

Talented people come out from generation to generation.

At this moment, the assistant cautiously spoke up: "Mr. Zhang, regarding Pinduoduo's charity efforts, should we hire online trolls to stir things up?"

Zhang Yong's gaze sharpened, and he asked, "What do you mean?"

The assistant lowered his voice: "Pinduoduo has spread its charity efforts very far, reaching 24 provinces. There will inevitably be some ambiguities in this. If we hire smear campaigns to relentlessly attack these areas, it might effectively damage Pinduoduo's public image."

"Can't."

Zhang Yong decisively rejected the idea, his tone leaving no room for argument.

He said, "Will the instigator have no descendants? When did Taobao start using such despicable methods? If we want to win, we must win fair and square, and take the right path."

"Okay, I understand." The assistant retreated somewhat shakily.

Zhang Yong frowned.

When did this unhealthy trend start to affect his assistant?

People are becoming increasingly unscrupulous in their pursuit of competition.

Shanghai, Pinduoduo headquarters.

Lin Mu sat in his office, flipping through the latest data reports.

It's already the end of May.

[Pinduoduo Latest Data Brief]

Total downloads: 1.2 million

Monthly active users: 5000 million

[Number of participants in the "Who's Still Standing?" quiz: Approximately 1200 million]

[New users (driven by the quiz feature): Approximately 800 million]

Lin Mu looked at the numbers, a slight smile playing on his lips.

1.2 million downloads.

5000 million monthly active users.

In 2012, this data would have easily placed it among the top platforms.

But when he turned to the next page, his smile faltered.

Total investment in the "One Stop to the End" project

[Program Production Cost: 3000 million]

[Naming rights fee: 5000 million]

[Charity Fund: 24 million (2400 million from each of the 100 provinces + 1000 million from the champion province)]

Promotion expenses: 2000 million

[Other miscellaneous items: approximately 600 million]

Total: Approximately 1.3 million

Lin Mu frowned.

1.3 million.

This only covers the investment in the program itself. If you include the merchandise subsidies for the quiz feature, server expansion, and labor costs—

This wave has burned through at least 3 million.

Fortunately, he is currently in talks with international investors about Series C funding, which is estimated to be worth tens of billions.

Of course, specific negotiations and equity ratios will require a long period of back-and-forth.

Once the billions in investment arrive, he can even pull out his ultimate weapon: cash bonuses.

He picked up his phone, opened Weibo, and wanted to see if anyone was discussing Pinduoduo's charitable activities.

After searching around, I found that everything was calm and peaceful.

"Huh?" He was somewhat surprised.

Based on his experience, such a large-scale charity project will inevitably attract skepticism. There will always be a few people who will jump out and criticize it, calling it a "show," a "hype," or "exploiting suffering."

As a result, there weren't any.

He dialed Chen Ping's number.

"Chen Ping, have you been suppressing the discussion about our charity on Weibo?"

Chen Ping paused for a moment on the other end of the phone: "No, Mr. Lin, I haven't had time to make arrangements yet."

"Then why isn't there a single point of contention?"

Chen Ping thought for a moment: "Maybe it is—there really is nothing to question? Every penny we spend is publicly disclosed, and its destination is crystal clear. There's no way to smear it."

Lin Mu remained silent for two seconds.

Then he laughed: "That won't do."

"no?"

"Yes." Lin Mu stood up and walked to the window. "We'll do it ourselves."

Chen Ping was even more confused: "Do it yourself? What do you mean?"

Lin Mu gazed at the city skyline outside the window, his tone relaxed: "Just stirring up controversy. It's like having our own people questioning each other; we can control the scale. Let a few alt accounts post first, questioning the whereabouts of the charity funds, accusing us of putting on a show, and criticizing us for exploiting impoverished areas."

"and then?"

"Then we stepped in, responding to each point one by one. We presented evidence to prove our innocence. We also got several media outlets to follow up with reports, exposing the details of the charity project."

He paused, then added, "Questioning—responding—reversing the trend, doesn't that generate buzz?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Then Chen Ping's voice rang out: "President Lin—you really know how to play the game."

Lin Mu laughed: "Go do it. Remember, keep it within limits, don't overdo it."

"clear."

In Chongqing, a strange sight can be seen in a square of a scenic area.

A small vendor with a missing arm is trying to sell toys to a young couple with a child.

He used his good hand to take out a face-changing panda toy, and showed it to the child, saying, "Little friend, do you want to play with this toy? Look, you can change its face by pressing a button. Isn't this panda cute?"

The child wasn't interested in the panda; his eyes were fixed on its missing arm.

The father's eyelids twitched, fearing that his child was about to say something inappropriate, so he tried to pull the child away.

However, he was still a step too late.

The child pointed curiously at his empty sleeve and asked, "Uncle, where did your arm go?"

Having gone through so much hardship in doing business, Li Xing is no longer bothered by the strange looks he gets from others.

He explained with a chuckle, "Uncle used to be Ultraman. He fought with a monster and lost his arm."

-

The child listened with longing and asked, "Did the uncle win?"

Li Xing answered with certainty, "Although it was difficult, Uncle won."

Amidst the surprised looks of his parents, the child took a few steps forward, grabbed the empty sleeve, touched it, and said, "Uncle, touching it makes it stop hurting."

Li Xing felt a warmth in his heart.

Instead of giving the toy to the child, I simply said, "Thank you, little one. This toy is yours."

At this moment, the child's parents came up, stuffed a 100-yuan bill into Li Xing's hand, and said, "Boss, I'm sorry, my child talked nonsense. We'll buy this toy."

When Li Xing saw the hundred-yuan bill, his face showed no joy, but rather some anger.

He pushed the money back, saying, "Sir, please respect me. I'm a businessman, not a beggar."

The child's father was now extremely embarrassed.

Li Xing quickly offered a way out, saying, "This toy was leftover from a sale; it's not worth much. I'll give it to you for free. You don't need to pay. If you really want to pay, 10 yuan will do."

The child's father quickly took out 10 yuan from his pockets.

After thinking for a moment, Li Xing gave the child a windmill as a buy-one-get-one-free gift.

After handling the minor incident properly, Li Xing got into his electric tricycle.

The snakeskin bag he brought was empty; all the toys inside had been sold.

Business is exceptionally good today because of Labor Day.

He earned a full 300 yuan today.

He hummed a cheerful tune as he rode his electric tricycle home.

After getting home, he parked his tricycle and took out his phone to chat.

He was chatting with his blind date on WeChat.

The person she met on a blind date was also disabled. She was deaf and mute, but it was acquired later in life, so she could type. They could communicate smoothly through their mobile phones.

The blind date was quite pretty, but she had a one-year-old baby in tow, and it was unclear whether she was still able to have children.

Having experienced both highs and lows, Li Xing doesn't care about these things anymore. He just wants to find a companion so that he won't be so lonely in the future; he just wants two people to live together.

If this blind date is still able to have children, then have one with her. If she is not, then raise that one-year-old boy as your own son.

Of course, it depends on whether the person he's meeting will like him. But deep down, he feels there's no problem. Disabled people like him, who can earn money and earn a relatively large amount, are quite popular in the disabled persons' market.

After chatting enthusiastically with his blind date, Li Xing scrolled through WeChat for a while.

In a WeChat group for people from the same hometown, he saw some fellow villagers sharing news about Pinduoduo.

The 1000 million yuan in public welfare subsidies has indeed arrived in my account.

He saw a velvet truck delivering free breakfasts and books to a rural primary school.

Seeing the messages in the hometown group, Li Xing thought of the final battle of "Who's Still Standing" a while ago, which he thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Especially the boy Renwei Yiming, who won the final, bringing honor to his hometown.

Now, in Wei Yiming's hometown, almost everyone knows this person.

After reading the information, Li Xing checked Weibo for a while.

Then he saw some terrible news that made him very unhappy.

A resident of Guangxi questioned on Weibo: "Is Pinduoduo's charity subsidy just a sham? I'm from Guangxi, and I haven't seen any charity funds received by the primary schools in my village?"

Li Xing was furious when he saw Rongren's blatant slander against Pinduoduo.

When he retorted, "You're not a Guangxi native at all! I saw it in the fellow Guangxi people's group chat: Pinduoduo trucks were heading towards the rural primary school, and the locals took pictures of it. If you didn't see it, don't say there wasn't any, okay? Pinduoduo's charity work isn't a scam!"

"Hey hey hey, the cashmere guy's getting impatient. How much money did you get from Pinduoduo to beg for land here? Let's make money together!"

Li Xing didn't have much experience online, and he quickly became infamous among netizens.

Because he made a lot of money through Pinduoduo and improved his life, he and Pinduoduo are now on the same side in the spiritual world.

The attack on Pinduoduo by Shiyaorongren is a provocation against him.

He sincerely wanted to prove to everyone that Pinduoduo is truly a good company.

However, he wasn't very good at speaking and didn't know how to convince people.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to tell everyone what had happened. He would also ask his fellow Guangxi people to gather some evidence to shut up the scumbags.

So he posted a long, rambling message on Weibo for the first time.

Inside were photos of his disability certificate, his own picture, and a picture of Cheng Rong when he was struggling to make ends meet.

[I, Ren Lixing, have seen some people questioning Pinduoduo's charitable work, so I'd like to say a few words.]

I'm from Hechi, Guangxi. I just saw someone say that Pinduoduo's charity program is fake, claiming they haven't seen the money deposited into their account. I'm furious!

I don't know exactly where you're from, but you're definitely not from Guangxi. If you were from Guangxi, you'd see how many trucks have been heading to the village primary school lately.

Let me tell you my story.

I am thirty-seven years old. My left sleeve is empty, do you see? (The photo is from a disability certificate.)

How did this hand get lost? It was smashed by a machine while I was working in the factory. I hadn't been married long at the time, and the factory owner was a bastard. He didn't pay a single penny after the accident; he just closed down the factory and ran away.

I was lying in the hospital, completely helpless. My wife had run away. At that moment, I even thought about dying.

But my mother wouldn't let me die. She went to relatives and friends, scraped together money from all sides, and even sold all the appliances we had at home to raise the medical expenses for me.

After I left the hospital, I couldn't do anything. What could I do with my hands? Nobody wanted me to carry bricks at construction sites, and I was rejected by factory workers. So I just stayed home, day after day, like a dead dog.

My mom is over sixty, and Cheng has to go out to do odd jobs to support me.

Later, a friend from the Disabled Persons' Federation posted a guide saying that there was a Pinduoduo app where things were cheap, and suggested I try sourcing goods from there and setting up a stall. I didn't believe it at first, but I was desperate and gave it a try.

My first order consisted of several hundred yuan worth of items because I didn't know that Shih Hao's products sold well; I bought dozens of small trinkets.

Later, I sold a small bicycle. I bought it for five yuan and sold it for twenty yuan. You can't imagine how I felt looking at those twenty yuan.

My life has been saved!

Now, I earn about 100 yuan a day by buying small leg-shaped gadgets on Pinduoduo. Recently, during the May Day holiday, I earned even more, up to 300 yuan a day.

I used the money I earned to buy back the washing machine my mom had sold. I'm also going on blind dates again; life is finally getting better.

Today, while I was setting up my stall in the game area, a little kid pointed at me and asked, "Uncle, where's your hand?" I replied, "Uncle is Ultraman. I fought with a monster and it got knocked off." The kid said, "Uncle, touch it and it won't hurt anymore."

I gave him the toy. His parents insisted on giving him money, but I said no, I'm not begging, I'm just losing money in business.

Do you know what this feeling is like?

I'm not begging for pity; I'm earning my living through my own abilities. And those abilities were given to me by Pinduoduo.

So I won't stand for your criticism of Pinduoduo.

[Those trucks were delivering supplies to the village primary school; someone in my fellow villagers' group took photos. Books, milk, eggs, school chairs—truck after truckload. I saw it with my own eyes.]

You say you didn't see it? You're blind!

I'm not saying this because I'm being paid by Pinduoduo. Do you think big companies would even consider me, a street vendor? I just feel that since they helped me, I have to speak up for them.

People should have a conscience.