2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 799 The storm is coming

P.S.: I'm asking for votes at the end of the month, gentlemen, please cast your votes!
"It was you who did this again, wasn't it?"

Gu Qingqing looked at her husband suspiciously. She remembered that after MiTalk and WX merged, a huge sum of money was suddenly deposited into her husband's private account. The investor was Ma, the CEO of Tencent.

She even asked at the time why such a huge transfer was made out of nowhere.

"Hehe, I guess so."

He did offer a lot of advice, but it was only known to Lei Jun and Pony Ma. The specific marketing plans were still independently operated by Tencent. Don't underestimate the marketing capabilities of any major internet company.

Don't doubt their abilities. Just give them any requirement or idea, and they can do a great job.

"You really know how to stir up trouble. I heard before the New Year that you deliberately messed things up with the Tuba project and really angered Mr. Ma."

The business districts in Yiwu and Hangzhou have many connections, but it was somewhat intentional that this news reached Gu Qingqing's ears.

"When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits."

Alipay's territory is too large, and WX Pay is currently no match for it. If it continues like this, WX Pay will suffer a lot in the ride-hailing war.

Regardless of Tan Jincheng's stake in Kuaiche, the mere fact that these two ride-hailing apps are competing could boost car sales significantly, perfectly aligning with Weilai's strategy.

The payment sector is a battleground for both companies. Currently, Wang Xin is still accepting investment from Ali and has not defected. Ele.me also accepted investment from investment institutions led by Shen Nanpeng in November 2013.

With a funding round of $2500 million, led by Sequoia Capital, ByteDance also invested several million dollars, signaling the start of a battle between the two companies.

Whether it's the ride-hailing war or the food delivery war, for the two Jack Mas, it's all about payment competition, but either way, it's beneficial to Tan Jincheng's business.

The food delivery war could boost electric vehicle sales, while the ride-hailing war could increase car sales; it doesn't matter which one starts first.

But it would be best if ride-hailing services started competing first.

Whether it was 2015 or 2014, the principle of red envelopes was the same, and the technology was not difficult to implement. Both 3G and 4G were the same. Viewers of the Spring Festival Gala on TV were attracted by this novel interactive mode.

Tan Jincheng and his family also joined in the shaking with great interest.

Pony Ma had no interest in celebrating the New Year tonight. He and Zhang Xiaolong were stationed at WX headquarters the whole time. Watching the user data and card binding data soar in the backend, Pony Ma couldn't stop smiling.

"Haha, Mr. Tan is right. Sure enough, our servers are running at full capacity."

Starting at 9:00 AM, WX allowed users to shake out small amounts of random red envelopes, along with blessings and interactive pages, during the live broadcast of CCTV News Channel's special program "Year After Year," paving the way for the Spring Festival Gala red envelope giveaway.

However, Tan Jincheng was on the road at the time and did not notice, and Lao Ma did not receive the news either.

There's no way around it; it's Chinese New Year this year, so the information collection is already a bit delayed. Plus, with Alipay's absolute dominance, they really don't take WeChat's marketing tactics seriously.

Indeed, there's no need to take it seriously. Since its launch, WeChat's user base has been growing explosively, but in the payment field, like QQ's Tenpay, there has been almost no significant progress.

This year's cooperation with ExpressChe and the addition of Orange Products Club have brought them more users who have linked their bank cards.

In 2023, WeChat allows new users to bind their bank cards almost immediately, requiring virtually no user acquisition costs. However, in 2013, getting users to bind their bank cards was extremely difficult.

"Wow, I won 16.88 yuan! This is real money!"

The first person to receive a red envelope was Li Jinzhen, the mother-in-law, or rather, Xiao Jinchuan. Xiao Jinchuan, who was in Li Jinzhen's arms, shook the phone slightly when he snatched it.

"Haha, this is for real, it's no joke. Oh, I got it too."

Gu Hongshun laughed. His amount was a little smaller. The first round of the shake-to-win interaction began. Scenes like the one at Lao Tan's house were common in front of the TV. Some people shook out large amounts, but most of them only got a few or a dozen yuan.

It's not a lot of money, but it's very novel, and besides, it's from Tencent.

Tan Jincheng rolled his eyes, took a few pictures of the paintings in his home, and then edited the screenshot of what he had won. He had also won 16.88 yuan, and before sending it to Xiao Ma Ge to confirm.

"You little brat, you have to annoy me even when I'm just trying to help you. Fine, fine, I'm happy today, post whatever you want."

"Haha, 16.88 yuan is a bit too little. Send me a red envelope, 200 yuan will be enough."

The maximum amount for a single red envelope on WX remains 200 yuan. While WX was developing its own red envelope feature, Dingding also launched its own. Tonight, Tan Jincheng sent red envelopes in various company groups, and executives also sent red envelopes.

We have to ride this wave.

Little Ma was helpless about the title that Tan Jincheng was preparing to post.

"Tencent, which is usually stingy, is actually giving us real red envelopes! Everyone, hurry up and grab them!"

Weibo is currently the largest social media platform. If you want to generate buzz, you definitely have to post on Weibo. Tan Jincheng's personal Weibo account has more than 70 followers, so he can be considered a big influencer.

As soon as he posted his Weibo, the planners at Tencent received instructions from their boss to buy a trending topic for Boss Tan.

Soon after, Tan Jincheng's Weibo post appeared in the trending recommendations. It was quite novel and resonated with many that a big company boss would publicly ridicule another company as an ordinary user.

WX's stealing the spotlight greatly shocked Ahri's camp, and Lao Ma organized senior executives overnight to discuss countermeasures.

This time they were careless. Their achievements in online shopping and payment made them overlook the influence of television media and the Spring Festival Gala. He already knew about Tencent's collaboration with the Spring Festival Gala.

But like everyone else, he didn't pay too much attention to it, treating it as just another marketing campaign.

In fact, apart from insiders, most people are dismissive of Tencent's advertising on the Spring Festival Gala. These days, how many young people watch TV? Does Tencent really think of it as a platform exclusively for the elderly?

However, this move did indeed astound many of their peers.

"Oh, you guys spent money too?"

Gu Qingqing received a blessing message from the Dingding APP. Tencent's red envelopes are not just about giving money; they also include many advertising sponsors.

"Haha, I didn't spend any money, a few spots were given to me out of friendship."

There were actually only three spots: one for Dingding, one for Weilai Auto, and one for Chengpin Club. The first two were genuine friendships, while the latter, Chengpin Club, wasn't exactly a pure friendship; it was more of a cooperative and mutually beneficial partnership.

Pony Ma was indeed quite generous this time. Tencent's advertising space is not cheap, especially the combination of WeChat and the Spring Festival Gala IP. They spent a lot of money, but at the same time, they also developed many clients for WeChat.

This is a win-win situation for all parties.

The only losers were Alibaba and Huayi. Huayi was also quite upset. The two Wangs were really speechless seeing Tencent make such a big fuss. They were under so much pressure that they practically turned the Spring Festival Gala into their company's annual meeting.

That's exactly what they wanted for that little bit of traffic. Now look what's happened; all the real-time topics on the internet are related to Tencent and red envelopes.

All the buzz has been stolen. To get back on the trending topics, they'll have to spend money, but how can they compare to Tencent in terms of spending money?

Some were happy while others were sad; the 2014 Spring Festival Gala, the Year of the Horse, ended in this lively atmosphere.

However, the battle of capital is not over yet.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Tencent couldn't wait to release various data on the red envelopes distributed during the Spring Festival Gala.

Overnight, WeChat gained 20 million users, and the number of users who linked their bank cards quickly exceeded 100 million. By the eighth working day of the Lunar New Year, WeChat red envelopes had been distributed a total of 10.1 billion times.

Two hundred million new users linked their personal bank cards during the two days of Lunar New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year.

The data made Lao Ma's heart skip a beat. Tencent's sudden attack in the payment field caught Ali off guard, and for a moment he really felt a sense of crisis.

This year was truly an ordeal for Lao Ma.

The payment dispute began as early as the Spring Festival of 2014.

"Why don't we do it ourselves? Firstly, it's unnecessary, and secondly, our Orange Payment platform is too small; it's not worth spending so much money on advertising."

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, Tan Jincheng visited Dexian Electronics in Shenzhen. As a battery supplier for Xiaomi, Dexian Electronics has developed rapidly in the past two years, and its peripheral products are also selling very well online.

Power banks, phone cases, data cables, and other similar products are in short supply.

With Xiaomi as a supplier, Desheng Electronics has gained a reputation in the mobile phone battery supply chain, and its customer base is growing. Apple has also expressed interest in increasing its orders this year.

Previously, Apple's iPod battery orders were supplied by Desheng Electronics, and now Apple intends to allocate a portion of its iPad battery orders to Desheng Electronics as well.

With its rapidly expanding production capacity, Desheng Electronics is already showing signs of becoming a major mobile phone battery supplier.

If things continue like this, Tan Jincheng might end up with a third listed company.

When he came to Shenzhen for an inspection, Pony Ma invited him to visit Tencent and, as usual, asked him for a red envelope.

Since he can't resist, he can only enjoy it. Little Ma even prepares red envelopes for himself now.

The Spring Festival red envelope offensive greatly excited everyone at Tencent, especially the WX project team, who directly benefited. The power of red envelopes is not limited to the Spring Festival holiday; the social interactions after returning to work are also a peak period for red envelopes.

In addition, Tencent also updated the red envelope gameplay in a timely manner. During this Spring Festival, the number of users who linked their bank cards on WeChat showed an explosive growth, which is much more than the number of users collected by the fast-paced ride-hailing app when it was subsidized.

It has to be said that Pony Ma was truly impressed by this marketing plan and greatly admired Tan Jincheng's foresight. However, he also had his own doubts. Logically speaking, Orange Pay could also be promoted in this way. Although the cost was huge, it wasn't a big deal for Orange Technology's scale.

"Flash sale websites have their advantages, but they also have their limitations. The cost-effectiveness of promotion is not that high. If I were an e-commerce website like Taobao, you definitely wouldn't be in the running."

The main issue is that it's not cost-effective. He only created Orange Pay to make himself feel safer. Nowadays, many people are binding cards to WeChat Pay, and Orange Pay has an entry point in WeChat, so there are actually quite a few people using WeChat Pay.

Although this incurs some handling fees for Tencent, Orange Technology's promotional payment fees are reduced accordingly.

Little Ma thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "That makes sense, but I think it's because you're not interested in this. I'm a little glad that MiTalk is in Lei Jun's hands. If it were in your hands, I would really have a headache."

This is a very high compliment. Tencent is truly the undisputed king in the social media field, and it's rare to receive such praise from Pony Ma.

"Haha, you can certainly understand it that way. My ambitions don't lie in this. For us, making money or starting a business isn't difficult, but our core focus is definitely on real industries, especially now."

The second boss has already gone to inspect Weilai Auto. If Tan Jincheng plays the orange red envelope game again during this year's Spring Festival Gala, his life will be hilarious.

Before 2012, Tan Jincheng might have had the opportunity to adjust his core business, but now he doesn't.

"Of course, I'm helping you because it's in my best interest. First of all, we're strategic partners. Secondly, the more smoothly your WX payment is promoted, the more my businesses will benefit, either directly or indirectly."

"Besides, you did pay me, didn't you?"

"So how do you think Ahri will respond?"

"It goes without saying that after this, they will definitely reassess the value of Spring Festival Gala advertisements, and may even go to any lengths to secure them, following the same approach as with red envelopes."

The red envelope feature was launched a year early, so the Five Blessings collection would naturally also be launched a year early. However, this time Tan Jincheng doesn't plan to block it anymore.

It's pointless and unnecessary. The combination of red envelopes and the Spring Festival Gala has already made the advertising strategy obvious. Even if they had created the "collect five blessings" campaign in advance, Ali would have come up with a "collect six blessings" campaign or a "collect seven blessings" campaign, and then spent money to secure advertising slots on the Spring Festival Gala.

Good patterns can be replicated.

"Looks like there's no chance this year, but raising the price is an option. Oh well, one time is enough, the goal has been achieved."

Without a doubt, Ahri is determined to get it, but we certainly can't let them get it so easily.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiao Ma arranged to meet with Tan Jincheng. Besides discussing the red envelopes for the Spring Festival, they mainly talked about the competition in the ride-hailing industry.

From 2012 to early 2014, with the entry of the giants one by one, the real battle was about to begin in about a year.

"I'm going to change the user subsidies for Kuaidi Dache."

With a smile, Pony Ma handed Tan Jincheng a proposal. Ultimately, it was all for WX Pay. Pony Ma planned to continue his efforts, consolidate users who had linked their bank cards, and activate the payment system through ride-hailing subsidies.

Tan Jincheng took the proposal and glanced at it casually.

"Hehe, with this subsidy, the real battle is about to begin. How much money have you prepared?"

As Tan Jincheng mentioned before, Tencent is encouraging users to use Kuaidi Dache by directly providing cash subsidies. This time, Tencent's plan is to subsidize each user with 5 yuan in cash.

Five yuan may not seem like much, but it's actually quite a lot.

This is very attractive to short-distance users, especially those who commute short distances. For example, if a taxi ride from home to work costs 10 yuan, and Tencent subsidizes 5 yuan, then the trip will only cost 5 yuan.

For the price of a breakfast, many people would be happy to avoid the hassle of squeezing onto buses or riding electric bikes to and from get off work.

"That's right, but only in this way can we encourage WX Pay and keep users who have linked their bank cards during the Spring Festival firmly on WX's side."

"Prepare several plans. For the first wave, a subsidy of 5 yuan should be enough. But once you get started, Ahri will definitely follow suit, and the timeline will certainly be long."

The first wave of subsidies wasn't actually aimed at Didi Chuxing and its competitors; rather, it was a cleanup operation to eliminate smaller companies.

After the first wave of subsidy wars in his previous life, Tan Jincheng's impression was that Bumblebee was completely wiped out by subsidies. Old Li from Baidu was still the same, with a forward-looking and very accurate vision, but he just liked to start things with great enthusiasm but finish them halfway.

Without the support of industry giants, Bumblebee, which ranked third in market share, was acquired after the first round of the ride-hailing war.

Do you have any opinions? And will you continue to invest money?

Tan Jincheng shook his head: "I won't continue investing. You know that my current strategic focus must be on the automotive sector. As for your opinion, the 5 yuan subsidy plan for the first wave is fine, but for the second wave, don't directly subsidize 10 yuan."

“You guys like to play lotteries in your games, right? You can change the direct subsidy of 10 yuan to a random amount. The subsidy amount can also be adjusted. The overall amount is still the same, but the range can be made larger through algorithms.”

The plan clearly anticipated the situation after Didi or Ali followed suit, with the second round of subsidies increasing from 5 yuan to 10 yuan, still a direct subsidy.

"Didn't you prefer a simple and straightforward approach? Why are you using random amounts in the second round?"

Tencent's lottery odds are a joke; 99% is practically 0%, which is one of the most criticized aspects of their business.

"It's different. When people are confused, this kind of simple and crude approach won't appeal to them. You have to come up with something creative to attract users."

The subsidy range can be between 5 and 15 yuan. It's like playing a lottery. Although Tencent's lotteries have always been criticized, lotteries are still something everyone is enthusiastic about.

This is far more exciting than a direct subsidy of 10 yuan. As for the amount of the subsidy, it can be fixed within the same range as the direct subsidy through an algorithm.

"Your method is good; we can use it in the second round."

Tan Jincheng said he wouldn't follow up anymore, and Xiao Ma could understand the reason he gave. He was also someone who became low-key after being slapped in the face. Tencent's success was also inseparable from the support of all parties.

He knew what Tan Jincheng's inspection of Weilai Automobile before the Spring Festival meant, and he even felt a little envious of him.

Tan Jincheng is not yet 30 years old this year. At such an young age, he has already received strong support from above. He is a leader of the next generation of entrepreneurs.

At least one of them.

One of the major shareholders of Tencent and Orange Technology is a strategic partner of Weilai Motors. The cooperation between the two has always been good, and now Pony Ma feels that he is quite lucky.

If the marketing campaign for this year's Spring Festival red envelopes had been implemented by Ali, WX might have been completely out of the picture in the payment field. Even if it had been implemented by MiTalk before its merger, it would have made MiTalk very uneasy.

Now, it's Old Ma who's feeling uneasy.

He had heard that even before the Spring Festival was over, the top executives of Ali were meeting frequently. Old Ma organized several senior management meetings. Need I say more about what they were discussing?
"Alright, you guys take your time. Good luck, I have to go back now."

The two discussed the feasibility of the plan and what might happen next. Tan Jincheng shared some of the tactics he knew about in the ride-hailing war, and how to implement them was up to them.

In truth, both Chen Weixin and Chen Wei were essentially puppets in the first round of the ride-hailing war. With the deep involvement of the three BAT giants and international investment institutions, the decisions they could make were really limited.

Tan Jincheng finds this kind of entrepreneurship truly meaningless. Furthermore, the ride-hailing war and the food delivery war, which are essentially all-in bets based on wealth, have damaged the internet ecosystem to some extent.

Since those two major battles, no outstanding large companies have emerged in the internet industry. The industry's boom lasted only a few years before it began to decline, and there are reasons for this.

If a company that I and my colleagues painstakingly built is then targeted by a financial tycoon, they either force me to sell it or throw money at it and destroy it, then what's the point of building a business?

After the subsidy war begins, it won't be long before both Kuaidi and Didi start raising funds again.

Tan Jincheng was planning to find an opportunity to exit during the next round of financing, whether it was the Didi shares held by Gaode or the Express shares, he intended to transfer them at that time.

Exiting early will definitely affect investment returns, but it can also avoid a lot of trouble.

The consequences of the internet's actions after 2020 were actually sown as early as 2013.

"Okay, then remember to let me know if you make any decisions later. You'll probably transfer your shares in the express car company, right?"

"If there's a transfer, we'll definitely have to notify General Manager Chen, and you two will be given priority."

Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, founder of Tencent) was very accommodating, escorting Tan Jincheng to the entrance of Tencent's headquarters building and giving him ample courtesy.

After Tan Jincheng got into the car, Brother Ma squinted his eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

Nowadays, whenever Tan Jincheng attends a public event, unless it involves a long drive, he always rides in his own company's ES6. This dedication to promotion alone deserves his recognition.

Even when he helped promote WX red envelopes on Weibo during the Chinese New Year, the phone number still had the suffix "尉来" (Wei Lai).

Contrary to what Little Ma had expected, after leaving Shenzhen, Tan Jincheng did not return to Ningbo or go to the capital, but went straight to Shanghai.

A prominent figure in the automotive industry, besides receiving WeChat red envelopes, was one of the most talked-about figures during this year's Spring Festival when he appeared at Shanghai Airport, attracting a lot of attention.

Of the four major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, Shanghai has never been part of Wei Lai's investment portfolio, and no one knows what Tan Jincheng's purpose is in appearing in Shanghai.

Even the Shanghai Stock Exchange government is in the same boat, but at the same time, it also has some expectations.

2013年的尉来汽车整体增长16.96%，全年37.78万辆的销量稳稳的占据着自主品线的一线阵容，最新公布的尉来汽车2014年全年销量预期是40万辆。

As always, Weilai Auto maintains its steady and pragmatic approach in terms of sales expectations.

What they would do in Shanghai has become a question many people want to know.

(End of this chapter)