2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 390 "Just kill him"

"Orange Products Club? What does that mean?"

"Cheng means orange, and Pin means product category. We are a vertical e-commerce company, so let's not call it anything like 'website'. As for Hui, we can launch a membership service later, which will also be a source of revenue."

Shen Nanpeng looked at Tan Jincheng as if he were a monster. He had only asked casually, but he did not expect that Tan Jincheng had even included the design in his name.

Online shopping membership? What kind of trick is this?
Or does he have the entire website design memorized? That would be a bit too incredible, wouldn't it? You only have a high school education?
Although I'm currently pursuing further education, is this something that can be obtained through further education?
Many entry-level internet programmers have only a high school education and a few months of training before they can start working, but currently, the ones who do well are mostly graduates from prestigious universities. The only non-professional is Ma Yun from Ali.

Ma Yun's approach already seems quite unconventional, but now it appears that Tan Jincheng's approach is even more unconventional. He doesn't know a single line of code, yet he has a complete website plan in mind.

"The core of vertical e-commerce is warehousing and logistics. SF Express has helped us with the logistics, but we still need to build warehouses. So, Mr. Shen, how much money are you planning to invest in Orange Technology?"

Shen Nanpeng and Tan Jincheng were staying at the same hotel. From the moment they met at the restaurant for breakfast, Tan Jincheng began to wonder how much money Shen Nanpeng was planning to invest in him.

Although Orange Technology still needs to burn money to invest at its current scale, it can still survive if it doesn't do e-commerce and only provides users with free delivery of fruits and vegetables.

Don't question the ability of free-to-play games to generate revenue, nor doubt the enthusiasm of game enthusiasts to buy in-game items. Tencent can sell over 100 million skins in a single day for Honor of Kings alone. While Happy Farm may not have that capability, its in-game item revenue business is still quite successful.

Acquiring a new item can generate substantial income, enough to subsidize the free fruit and vegetable products distributed to users.

In other words, if game users want to level up quickly to the point where they can receive fruits and vegetables for free, they need to consume in-game items, which means they are actually spending money to buy agricultural products without realizing it.

When it comes to spending money on in-game purchases, there's only the difference between zero times and countless times; once you've done it, you can't control yourself.

This is how internet consumer traps come about. You think you've made a fortune, getting free agricultural products from Happy Farm, but actually, Tan Jincheng hasn't lost out at all.

If it's simply about developing existing business, Tan Jincheng has absolutely no need to seek financing and let investment institutions get a share. If he's really short of money, he might as well sell a portion of his shares to Ningbo University.

Compared to investment institutions, Ningbo University is more trustworthy, and you can spend their money with more peace of mind.

Shen Nanpeng and Tencent also invested in an e-commerce business that was still under construction.

"How much to invest depends on how much Mr. Tan wants. I can give you as much as you want."

Shen Nanpeng shrugged, saying indifferently.

"Haha, Mr. Shen is so domineering. Money talks."

Damn it, he wasn't joking. Tan Jincheng really didn't dare to accept too much. These investment institutions with foreign capital were really rich, and they were also very decisive in their actions.

Whether you are a startup or an established company, they are very generous in giving valuations as long as there is even a slight chance. In addition, their resources in Hong Kong and US stock markets are very useful to internet companies that cannot be listed on the A-share market.

It's no wonder that this group has profited from almost all the major gains during the development of the internet.

The media focuses on their successful investments, but in reality, there are far more unsuccessful ones. With money and resources, they can indeed catch everyone in one fell swoop.

"However, we need to meet with Tencent first to discuss this matter. You guys should discuss who should lead the investment first."

Shen Nanpeng nodded. Tencent and the others also wanted to get involved, and this was a good opportunity to make connections. Thinking of this, Shen Nanpeng couldn't help but feel a little dazed.

As a rising star in the internet industry, and having come from an unorthodox background, it would be very difficult for Orange Technology to grow the company. At least in terms of connections and resources, they had almost nothing in the industry. Just look at how difficult Cheng Hao's initial negotiations with MSN were to understand this.

Without connections, cooperation is out of the question.

However, he managed to carve out a gap in the market by using a simple game.

Lured by the profits, Tencent took the initiative to cooperate with him. Xiaonei.com, which had been under pressure, was also forced to accept his conditions. It also used large orders to connect with SF Express and signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

Unbeknownst to him, Tan Jincheng had not only built a large network of contacts in the physical industry, but also established a network of contacts on the internet.

When did it start? It seems to have been from the moment CCTV announced him as the Economic Person of the Year?
You could say this kid is really lucky. If Ni Jie hadn't offended someone, he wouldn't have his current status.

“This matter does need to be discussed. We’ll talk about it after the three of us meet. But I just remembered, isn’t Orange Goods Club a bit similar to Vancl? They’re also called Eslite, even though the characters are different.”

"Hmm? Your way of thinking is really unconventional," Tan Jincheng was also taken aback, but he didn't care: "It's okay, just kill them, and then no one will remember that he was there."

Vancl was prepared earlier than OrangePin, and it will definitely become the first vertical e-commerce platform in China, but so what?
The title of "number one" is not important at all. By 2023, who will still know about a website called HC360?

Back then, he was incredibly arrogant. In their founder's eyes, all e-commerce websites, including Taobao, were trash. "Hmm? Orange Products doesn't directly compete with Vancl, right? They sell different categories. Why would they want to fight them?"

Although they sell different product categories and have different user groups, these vertical e-commerce websites were established around the same time and both primarily sell clothing. One is a professional internet team that came from Joyo.com, and the other is one of the most popular social networking sites today, so it's natural to compare them.

"That's not what I meant. I meant they're doomed to fail, so we should ignore them."

"How do you say this?"

"They sell T-shirts, right? We don't know how much they price them, but T-shirts are just something new to wear. Who wants to wear a T-shirt on the street every day and look like a fool?"

The fans are loyal enough, but you don't see many die-hard fans wearing their team's T-shirts all the time.

People are just curious about T-shirts; where do all these cultured people come from?

Furthermore, Tan Jincheng remembered their pricing: 29 yuan and 39 yuan. It's true that they offer good value for money in the low-end market, but this is just too low-end!
As the saying goes, "Clothes make the man," and Chinese people, especially young people, pay a lot of attention to their appearance and are willing to invest in their clothing and grooming.

In a period of rapid economic development, most people have some money in their pockets. Which young man would be willing to wear a 29-yuan T-shirt to chase girls all day?

The price of 29 yuan offers no benefits other than being associated with being low-end. The more exaggerated the advertising, the more deeply ingrained the brand image becomes, and you won't be able to market yourself as high-end in the future.

Moreover, Tan Jincheng didn't think there was any profit margin in selling their custom-made T-shirts for 29 or 39 yuan.

Shen Nanpeng smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but he still admired Tan Jincheng's confidence.

If a founder doesn't even have the courage to face competition head-on, then what's the point of their existence?

The meeting with Tencent was quick. Tan Jincheng arrived at the Tencent Building again. This time, in addition to himself, Gu Qingqing, and two drivers, Shen Nanpeng and his assistant also came with him.

Wang Wensong was still in charge of picking them up.

They were both involved in investment. Wang Wensong and Shen Nanpeng had some interaction; although they weren't very close, they knew each other.

After exchanging friendly greetings, Wang Wensong said to Tan Jincheng with a bitter face, "President Tan, you're being too unfair. This time, we can't let your driver come in with us."

"What do you mean?" Tan Jincheng asked, pretending not to understand.

Shen Nanpeng looked at the two of them with curiosity. He could tell that Wang Wensong and Tan Jincheng were quite close, but he just didn't understand why this was the case.

"Still pretending. Last time we visited, your driver secretly handed out business cards, and several of our programmers ran away, making me lose face."

Gu Qingqing suppressed a laugh, while Shen Nanpeng looked surprised. He had never heard of Tan Jincheng poaching people when he was in the electric vehicle industry.

"Hey, you mean this? It's no big deal. My brother Ma has a big business and it's easy for him to hire people, unlike us small businesses. Ningbo doesn't have much internet DNA. We're going to cooperate, so just consider it supporting your little brother."

Wang Wensong was speechless. You're a well-known entrepreneur, have some shame, okay?

If you want to poach people, go find a headhunter to poach them privately. But he just complained a bit. This matter has nothing to do with him. If the cooperation goes through, he will benefit. He doesn't need to really care.

"Don't worry, we won't be handing out business cards this time. I had our company's people hand them out at Ali." Tan Jincheng patted Wang Wensong's shoulder nonchalantly.

You guys can only dig up information about games and social networking. Even if you gave me an e-commerce business for free, I wouldn't dare take it. You simply don't have the DNA for it; it's all just messing around.

Shen Nanpeng roughly understood what Tan Jincheng was saying and had witnessed another side of him.

That's true. When it comes to business, why worry about saving face? As long as you can make money, that's all that matters.

Shen Nanpeng not only didn't find anything wrong with the behavior of the investee, but actually appreciated it even more.

He is insightful, visionary, has a clear mind, is humble, and possesses the assertiveness that an entrepreneur should have when facing competition.

If Shen Nanpeng previously thought that Tan Jincheng's title of New Economic Figure of the Year was entirely due to luck, he no longer thinks so.

Even without this title, he would have become a nationally renowned entrepreneur sooner or later.

(End of this chapter)