2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 798 Red Envelope Attack
P.S.: It's almost the end of the month, please give me some monthly votes, let's see if I can get 2000 votes!
There's always a group of people who watch the evening news, and even those who don't have time to watch it have someone else who collects information for them.

For example, Tan Jincheng is like that. He doesn't have much time to watch the news broadcast, but he knows all the information on the news broadcast very well.

What a few seconds of footage represents is unclear to ordinary people, but entrepreneurs, especially their peers, are extremely envious.

Ying Jianren, who was also busy with social engagements during the Spring Festival, was stunned after hearing the news, as he was one of the earliest automotive people to come into contact with Tan Jincheng.

"Good lad, you've actually gotten this far. I can't compete with you."

Back when the two first came into contact, they even collaborated on a product called Zhongtai2008, which yielded good results.

At that time, Tan Jincheng used his automotive qualifications to obtain 10% of the shares of Beicang Branch, and with the shares of Beicang City Investment, he was actually able to control Beicang Branch.

During the ambiguous period of their collaboration, Tan Jincheng made no attempt to conceal his ambitions, and how could Ying Jianren not know?

However, at that time, besides the temptation of the car qualification offered to him, he was also arrogant. He believed that Tan Jincheng did not have the ability to take over the Beicang branch, nor was he afraid of being taken over.

However, after a few years, things have changed beyond recognition.

In 2013, Weilai Auto was booming, while Zhongtai was struggling to survive.

Zhongtai, which is undergoing transformation, only sold more than 7 cars this year, with its best-selling Z300 model achieving a total sales volume of only 4.7 units.

With sales figures like these, it's not even as good as the Yangzi pickup truck under the Weilai brand. It's enough to make you despair.

Xia Bing, whom they recruited at great expense, was forced to leave the company after only six months. As a purely family-run business, the internal strife within Zhongtai was far too severe, to the point that even the company's founders were exhausted.

His brother-in-law, nephew, and other factions kept him busy dealing with them. Now he really envied Tan Jincheng's absolute control. He could do whatever he wanted, and with the support of the local government, what was there to worry about?

Fortunately, Xia Bing, who only stayed at Zhongtai for half a year, still left something behind for Zhongtai, which is why Ying Jianren persisted.

He no longer expects Zhongtai to become a great car company. He just wants to survive, produce one or two blockbuster models, go public, cash out, and leave.

The most important point is that he knows the opportunity for Zhongtai has been lost. The small province of Zhejiang cannot accommodate three large car companies at the same time. Wei Lai has now taken over, and there is still Geely.

Zhongtai originally had a chance, and was even better than Weilai. In terms of new energy, they were the first, but unfortunately they didn't seize the opportunity.

Unlike Ying Jianren, who was anxious about gains and losses, the boatman was only stunned for a moment after receiving the news, and then smiled.

The real contest has only just begun.

The journey from Luzhou to Ningbo takes about six hours, but due to the Spring Festival holiday and the heavy traffic, Tan Jincheng didn't arrive home until after 3 p.m.

I didn't go to the company and went straight home. Currently, all the factories have closed for the holiday. The Luzhou Industrial Park, which closed the holiday the latest, did so because of special circumstances, starting get off work on the 27th of the twelfth lunar month.

Fortunately, there are abundant labor resources around Luzhou, and the employees do not live far away, so it is not a big problem to delay the holiday by one or two days.

"There are quite a few gifts in the trunk, please take some home. Thank you for your hard work."

It was indeed tough. Tan Jincheng was alright, but the accompanying staff were under immense pressure, fearing that something might go wrong.

Zeng Jixiang and the others didn't stand on ceremony. They knew their boss's temper. He had indeed received quite a few gifts during this trip to Luzhou, all of which were under his responsibility. As for what he should and shouldn't accept, he naturally knew.

After helping the boss move his things inside, and casually picking out some gifts, they happily went home for the Chinese New Year.

"Mom and Dad, due to this unexpected event, we won't be able to go to Yiwu for the Chinese New Year."

Upon entering the house, Tan Jincheng patted his son, who was clinging to his leg, and apologized to the busy Gu Hongshun and his wife with a smile. His schedule usually needs to be arranged well in advance, and this unexpected event has affected his schedule for the month.

Many of the people and their schedules were very important, but after watching the news broadcast, they were speechless.

Gu Hongshun waved his hand dismissively: "Haha, this is a good thing. We're all family, so let's not be formal. Besides, Grandpa and Grandma came with Uncle's family too."

Gu Yanning's uncle, who is also her father, drove to Beicang as soon as he heard the news, ostensibly to spend the New Year with his daughter. After all, both families own property in Ningbo, so they can move in easily after some tidying up.

"Let's go next year. Next year we'll go to Yiwu for the Chinese New Year."

My child is almost four years old, and I haven't even spent a single Chinese New Year at my wife's parents' home. It's really a bit unreasonable.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's the same everywhere."

Having only one child has its advantages, but it also brings unique troubles to families with only one child. Nothing in life is perfect.

Gu Hongshun and his wife are also business people, so they have a much broader perspective. When their daughter went to university in another city, they had already made preparations.

In the evening, Gu Yanning's family, having heard that Tan Jincheng had returned, came over for dinner. Also present were Tan Jincheng's uncle Zhang Qingliang's family and Zhang Xupeng's family.

Zhang Qingliang's family had already settled in Beicang long ago, and his cousin Zhang Wenzuo's household registration had been transferred here.

Although it's not my hometown, it feels even better than my hometown.

"Good heavens, this is really good! When we came to Ningbo in 04, I really didn't expect it to turn out like this. You've even made it onto the news."

Zhang Xupeng was flushed and clearly drunk. There were many people around tonight, so no one dared to force him and Tan Jincheng to drink, but he was genuinely happy for his good brother.

Ten years ago, although they were full of ambition and decided to make a name for themselves, even if they racked their brains, they could never have imagined that their achievements would be so great ten years later, especially for their good brother.

For a long time, this vice president and CEO of Flash Group has not left much of an impression in the media, and most people just think that he got lucky and made a good friend.

If Tan Jincheng is considered low-key, then Zhang Xupeng is so low-key it's outrageous; you wouldn't even know who he is unless you specifically look for him.

But in fact, Zhang Xupeng is quite capable. When he was running a foreign trade company, Tan Jincheng dared to entrust him with full logistics management, not only out of trust but also because he recognized Zhang Xupeng's abilities.

In their past lives, the two were equally successful in business, but Zhang Xupeng, who was more steady and pragmatic, was actually better than Tan Jincheng. When he was with Tan Jincheng, Zhang Xupeng seemed like a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur), but in reality, his personality was much more stable and reserved than Tan Jincheng's.

After he took over the operation of Flash Group, apart from Flash Technology's initial inability to adapt to the pace of a listed company, which made Tan Jincheng somewhat dissatisfied with its performance, the other branches and subsidiaries were managed very well.

In particular, his home base, Jinpeng Industrial, is now developing smoothly. Shanchi Group has firmly occupied the number one market share in the two-wheeled electric vehicle industry, and the GXG brand under Jinpeng Industrial has become a well-known brand.

Foreign trade business is also progressing smoothly.

The outside world's impression of Flash Group after Zhang Xupeng took over is that it is conservative, but what they don't know is that in recent years, under Zhang Xupeng's steady and pragmatic policies, Flash Group's cash flow is the largest among all of Tan Jincheng's business segments.

As of the end of 2013, Flash Group had more than 130 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, and its debt ratio was ridiculously low.

In terms of overall strength, Flash Group is not necessarily much worse than Weilai Auto alone. It is a major taxpayer, a major employer, and a major trading company.

Zhang Xupeng's contribution cannot be denied simply by Tan Jincheng setting a strategy.

It can be said that Tan Jincheng's large-scale investments in Weilai Auto in recent years are based on the existence of the Flash Group as a stronghold. If Weilai Auto's cash flow really runs into problems, the Flash Group can fill the gap at any time.

That night, Zhang Xupeng, who had drunk a bit too much, put his arm around Tan Jincheng's shoulder and reminisced wildly about the past, letting everyone except Gu Qingqing know a lot of interesting things about the two of them and Tan Jincheng's entrepreneurial process.

"You're almost a father yourself, that's enough."

Tan Jincheng was speechless. He hadn't drunk too much; he wasn't a big drinker to begin with, and he had been strictly controlling his alcohol tolerance in recent years. Losing control after drinking would be too damaging for someone like him with big secrets and a high status.

Zhang Xupeng doesn't drink much anymore. Lei Jun used to be inseparable from cigarettes and alcohol. When a person reaches a certain status, many personal desires must be controlled in certain situations. Otherwise, he might get caught in a honey trap like Dong Ge, which would be ridiculous.

Zhang Guolong chuckled helplessly, "This kid's in a bad mood tonight, so please bear with him. Just laugh at him tomorrow."

Tan Jincheng and Zhang Xupeng first appeared on the rich list together in 2009. Four years later, Zhang Xupeng's net worth seems to have not changed much, still ranking around 200th or 300th, but that is certainly not his true net worth.

As a father, Zhang Guolong didn't really appreciate his son's abilities, but he was incredibly envious of his son's luck.

In just ten years, he amassed a fortune of billions, all because of a single decision he made to start a business.

He could have stopped his son, but he clearly wanted to hear what everyone was saying, and Tan Jincheng certainly understood what they meant.

Forget it, there's nothing shameful about it. As long as this kid doesn't spout nonsense about their embarrassing trip to Dongguan to entertain clients, it's fine.

A night of fun.

The next day was Lunar New Year's Eve, and Tan Jincheng's phone calls increased significantly. Starting from around 8 a.m., he received calls from friends and clients wishing him a Happy New Year, and these were his personal phone numbers.

The telephones controlled by Zeng Jixiang, which were intended for the general public, were directly used by Zeng Jixiang when they ran out of battery.

Gu Qingqing received quite a few phone calls. The couple had been on and off the phone since morning, not stopping until almost the end of the day when they were about to have their New Year's Eve dinner. They didn't help with anything all day, just making and receiving calls in the living room, while little Tan Jinyue and little Tan Jinchuan played in the living room. The two elderly couples were busy preparing the New Year's Eve dinner.

"Hey, by the way, give Pony Ma a call and ask how the collaboration between WeChat Red Packets and the Spring Festival Gala is going."

A few days ago, Pony Ma called him to talk about the collaboration between WeChat Red Packets and the Spring Festival Gala. He was so busy at the time that he just made up an excuse to hang up, and he didn't really know the details.

The 2013 Spring Festival Gala was absolutely hilarious.

With the rise of the internet, the quality of the Spring Festival Gala has been declining in recent years, and its reputation has been slowly falling apart. However, this year's Spring Festival Gala is highly anticipated.

"Mr. Ma, Happy New Year! What's the latest on WX's collaboration with the Spring Festival Gala? I've been a bit busy the past few days. How did it go? I didn't leak anything, did I? Ali's relationship with Huayi is quite special."

The butterfly effect has already taken hold: the red envelope feature was launched a year ahead of schedule, and ride-hailing services have shown signs of acceleration under Tan Jincheng's instigation. However, the promotion of WX Pay still faces numerous difficulties.

There's no way around it; Alipay's dominance in this field is simply too strong, even stronger than their dominance in the online shopping market, especially after the launch of Yu'ebao, where the high interest rates are simply irresistible.

The red envelope feature has been well promoted, but overall, QQ red envelopes are still more popular than WX red envelopes. The reason is that young people these days still prefer QQ.

After merging with MiTalk, WX attracted many young users, but people are not yet used to WX Pay, and even fewer users are linking their bank cards.

This is no one else's fault but Tenpay's and Q coins's fault from back then. Pony Ma's reputation in the payment sector is indeed not as good as Jack Ma's.

Little Ma was both amused and exasperated: "Are you so busy you've lost your mind? How could we not have thought of that? Don't worry, there was no leak."

How amazing is Huayi this year?
The rapid development of the film industry and the decline of the Hong Kong film circle have led to Huayi Brothers, the absolute leader in the domestic film industry, producing a series of blockbuster films. Their combination with capital such as Ali has further helped the Wang brothers' career reach its peak.

With a variety of concepts, Huayi's stock price soared fivefold in 2013, and its market value reached 340 billion yuan at the end of the year, which was almost twice the market value of FlashTech.

As the undisputed top director at Huayi Brothers, Gangzi has been incredibly influential this year. It's no exaggeration to say that he can decide a star's career with just a word, and even A-list stars dare not offend him.

With his powerful background and complex network of connections, Hua Yi and Gangzi, who were indeed quite capable, somehow managed to become the director of the Spring Festival Gala through a series of maneuvers.

The director of the Spring Festival Gala was not from within the system. This was unprecedented in history and had not happened for more than a decade afterward. Even the national director did not receive this treatment. Gangzi's peak in life can be said to be 2013.

Actually, when Xiao Ma first learned that the director was Gangzi, he was also a little conflicted. The relationship between Huayi and Ali can be described as very complicated. Although the Spring Festival Gala program and process are kept very secret, this is only for ordinary people.

Old Ma is no ordinary person. If he knew that Tencent was a sponsor of this year's Spring Festival Gala, it wouldn't be difficult for him to find out anything. At least, no matter how much secrecy is maintained, it's impossible to keep it a secret from the director.

But such an opportunity is not to be missed.

Combining the "shake" feature with the Spring Festival Gala IP to distribute red envelopes to the public is a classic marketing strategy, but once you see through it, it's not particularly surprising. The only thing that can be effective is keeping it a secret from Ali (the Ali character).

Only by keeping it secret can this marketing plan achieve its best results.

That's why Tencent didn't start promoting it until a few days before the Spring Festival Gala. Before that, it was all kept under wraps. But at that time, Tan Jincheng was so busy that he didn't have time to care about it.

"Haha, that's right, I misspoke. So, what activities have you prepared?"

That's a rather silly question. Since Tencent dared to take this risk during this special period, they must have made thorough preparations.

Similarly, the fact that the Spring Festival Gala director was not part of the official system was a huge topic of discussion, attracting a lot of attention and making this year's Spring Festival Gala the most watched in recent years.

Gangzi in 2013 was not the same person he would be a few years later. His arrogant image was quite popular with movie fans, and he had a very high personal influence.

"As you said, we'll just distribute 5 million yuan in a simple and crude way, but we don't know what the specific effects will be."

It has to be said that Pony Ma truly admires this marketing plan. There is no doubt that it will be very effective, but neither he nor the WX team can predict how effective it will be.

Prior to this, Tencent had not promoted the red envelope feature on a large scale, and it was also kept somewhat secret, in order to avoid attracting the attention of Ali (the game's creator).

"Don't worry, the effect will definitely be good. Tonight, run your servers at full capacity. It would be embarrassing if the servers crashed."

He personally experienced the "collecting five blessings" activity the following year after the 2015 Spring Festival Gala's red envelope giveaway, and it was truly like going crazy.

He had seen the data from 15, which forced Lao Ma to fly back from his vacation in Hawaii overnight. It also made Ali launch the "Collect Five Blessings" campaign at any cost the following year, determined to win the Spring Festival Gala bid to stop them. You can imagine how powerful it was.

"I hope so. Ali is too strong in the payment field. Although we have grown rapidly over the past year, we don't actually have many users who have linked their bank cards."

This Lunar New Year's Eve was destined to be nerve-wracking for Little Ma.

Alipay took ten years to achieve its success. WX Pay certainly cannot take down Alipay with just one marketing campaign, but it can at least help WX Pay get through the cold start period.

“Okay, I’ll participate in the shake-to-win activity too. I’ll promote it for you on social media and have my wife do it for you. You can also use your connections to share screenshots of your red envelope grabbing experiences online.”

Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing still have a considerable number of fans and influence online, with millions of followers across the entire internet. In addition, the operation of several official accounts is quite active, and they also have a large number of fans.

"Thank you then. I'll talk to everyone about it and ask for your help in spreading the word. It's a pity we don't know many celebrities."

In this respect, Ali really surpasses her. Ali has a very good relationship with the entertainment industry and has a huge influence. This is somewhat similar to the relationship between the US's... something party and Hollywood.

Tan Jincheng, or rather his companies, have relatively good relationships with Hunan TV and a few of his brand ambassadors. He doesn't usually participate in variety shows.

As for Tencent's big entertainment plan, it hasn't started yet, nor has their traffic star plan.

To date, no entertainment star has endorsed any of Weilai's car products. This is partly because Tan Jincheng has not been able to find a satisfactory one, and partly because they do not have many connections in the entertainment industry.

It's fair to say that during this period, most of the celebrity resources, especially the top-tier ones, were somewhat related to Ali. It's a bit unsettling to have these people endorse Tan Jincheng; they might just turn around and give you a negative publicity boost one day.

Before his rebirth, he naively believed that celebrities without a dark past truly had no dark past, but now, well...

"Don't underestimate the power of our entrepreneurs. Times have changed. Look at Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi, they have a lot of fans online."

Little Ma was speechless for a moment. Damn it, this kid's way of speaking is still so unpleasant to hear.

You can just say "Lei Zong" here, but you can't say "Zhou Zong": "I'm hanging up now, help me out tonight; by the way, congratulations."

Hey buddy, what's wrong with joking?

As for what he was congratulating, Tan Jincheng naturally knew.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, Tan Jincheng chatted with his family about the Spring Festival Gala. This year's gala included a red envelope giveaway, which Tan Jincheng had participated in in 2015 in his previous life, though he had forgotten how much money he won.

"Just by linking a bank card, you can rob a bank? And they're giving away 5 million at once? They're really rich."

"Haha, their family is indeed quite wealthy."

5 million is nothing. Internet companies use US dollars as their currency. If Ali wants to fight back next year, the expenses will be at least 10 billion.

"These are mostly artists from Huayi Brothers, or those who have a good relationship with them, or those who are related to their shareholders."

Gu Qingqing looked through the program schedule on her phone and said with some surprise.

Gu Qingqing clearly knows more about the entertainment industry than Tan Jincheng. Orange Technology and Honor of Kings have also hired many celebrities for promotion.

"Hehe, that's right. It's a pity we sold our stocks too early, otherwise we would have benefited from the big surge in 13."

Tan Jincheng didn't hold Huayi's shares in the primary market for very long and didn't get the biggest share of the profits, but he doesn't regret it.

The 2014 Spring Festival Gala was without Zhou Pangzi, but it was full of Huayi Brothers elements. The director was one of their people, and one of their actors was also among the hosts.

Most of the performers in the opening short film and the opening song are from their company or related to their company. Even the male lead of this year's hit Korean drama The Heirs has close ties with them.

The broadcasting platform is Youku, so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it was their internal annual meeting.

It has to be said that for a film and television company to achieve such influence is truly remarkable. Even with the rise of fan culture, no entertainment company has ever emerged like this since.

During the commercial break, as host Li Shishi clearly announced the rules for grabbing red envelopes on WeChat, Lao Ma, who was leisurely enjoying the Spring Festival Gala at home, suddenly sat up straight, his face turning ashen.

"Haha, look, the show's about to begin."

At the same time, Tan Jincheng pointed to the TV screen and said to Gu Qingqing that his focus was not on the program itself at all.

Tsk tsk tsk, speaking of which, the biggest beneficiary behind all this is the Spring Festival Gala itself. No wonder Tan Jincheng was so happy after he contacted the director of the advertising department and made the deal.

(End of this chapter)