2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 823 It's that sixth brother again!

Let's rewind to February 9th.

Since the sudden attack of WeChat red envelopes last year, Ali, who has been resentful of losing market share in the payment industry, has launched its biggest counterattack against Tencent.

Starting at midnight today and continuing until midnight on January 19th, which is the first day of the Lunar New Year, the eleven-day "Collect Five Blessings" activity officially begins.

Unlike Tencent, Ali didn't try to outmaneuver them. Instead, after a fierce bidding war, Ali secured the Spring Festival Gala advertising slot at a price five times higher than the previous year, and then launched a massive promotional campaign.

Tan Jincheng didn't go to the bidding site, but according to staff from Orange Technology who were there, the Spring Festival Gala production team was all smiles.

They also specifically asked someone to convey their gratitude to Tan Jincheng.

"I said last year when we were doing the WeChat red envelope campaign that this year would be their biggest surprise."

Tan Jincheng said calmly, "Let's also launch a publicity campaign, and get Tencent, NetEase, and ByteDance to cooperate and make it as big as possible."

"Okay, got it."

Cheng Hao was very excited. He personally led the team to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala bidding site. In his boss's words, if they could win the bid, they would; if not, they would raise the price. The scene was indeed very exciting.

Orange Technology may not be as powerful as Tencent or Ali, but with its cash flow, it's more than capable of sponsoring the Spring Festival Gala once.

Orange Technology is ruthless when it comes to raising prices.

The display of wealth and power by the three companies on site – Orange, Tencent, and Ali – made other bidders tremble with fear. Damn, internet companies really have no sportsmanship.

Does having a lot of money mean you can do whatever you want?
That's right, money really can buy anything. This year's Spring Festival Gala advertisements were almost entirely monopolized by internet companies. If they want, other industries have virtually no chance.

"I wonder how Mr. Ma will react after seeing our publicity."

"Haha, consider this my farewell gift to you. When you came to Orange, Old Ma stabbed me in the back, and now I'm returning the favor."

Sun Tongyu was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this. If word got out, he and Lao Ma would truly be irreconcilable enemies.

He has already decided to leave in April, and his work has been basically handed over. This year, Cheng Hao will be in charge of Orange Technology. Orange Technology's stock price experienced some fluctuations due to Sun Tongyu's departure, but since Cheng Hao is also a veteran of the company, the company's senior management did not cause any major turmoil.

In fact, Cheng Hao and Sun Tongyu were also stunned after fully understanding Ali's Five Blessings promotion.

Nothing more than that, it's not exactly the same as the card collecting event they secretly started preparing two months ago, but it's almost identical.

He couldn't even imagine what kind of expression Lao Ma would have after seeing Orange Technology's large-scale publicity, or even if he would suspect that there was a mole in the company.

These top-level promotional events are basically prepared in secret. Except for a very few high-level executives, all participants are kept in seclusion. For a long time, they cannot even contact the outside world, and it is as if they have disappeared.

2014 was a big year for the internet, and also a big year for Orange Technology.

Orange Technology, which made very few investments that year, gradually disposed of its non-core businesses and transformed into a true vertical e-commerce platform, and then began its strategic planning.

For $1.12 million, it acquired a 75% stake in Lefeng.com, adding another layer of protection to its leading position in the flash sale e-commerce market. It also invested in Jumei.com, which has become a hit online this year.

Lefeng.com is Jumei.com's biggest competitor. The two companies have been engaged in various promotional battles and verbal disputes since the beginning of 2013.

Sequoia Capital is the major shareholder behind both Lefeng.com and Jumei.com. Through Sequoia Capital's connections, Lefeng.com was acquired by Orange Technology, which paved the way for Jumei's IPO and in return, Sequoia Capital acquired a certain amount of Jumei's equity.

Today, Orange Technology is the company with the highest market share in the vertical e-commerce sector besides JD.com, and a leading enterprise in the flash sale sector.

In 2014, Orange Technology's stock price also increased several times. With a market value of US$89.27 billion, it ranked seventh among domestic listed internet companies after 360, and its market value even exceeded that of traditional portal giants NetEase and Sohu.

Dongzi's prediction about vertical e-commerce websites came true. In 2014, a large number of vertical e-commerce websites did indeed die out, and there were not many with a promising future. Dangdang.com, which was once very popular, is not as successful as it used to be.

Companies like Vancl are barely surviving, but this does not include Orange Technology.

On the contrary, Orange Technology, which underwent a complete transformation, is thriving, which is largely due to the "small but beautiful" policy that Tan Jincheng initially set.

Labor and management diligently helped major clothing brands dispose of their leftover stock. Through comprehensive cooperation with SF Express, they gained an advantage in express delivery and coupled with a low-price brand strategy, resulting in ever-increasing GMV.

In addition, OrangePlatform officially became profitable starting in the fourth quarter of 2012, and has maintained profitability for two consecutive years.

They don't engage in any shady businesses, they don't make any investments other than strategic investments, and they don't do online lending. They just quietly sell goods through their app and WeChat's primary entry point. The low-key Orange Products will thrive.

But this time, they are destined to shine.

"Haha, don't make that face. This year is the first year of our transformation, so it's normal to do some publicity. We need to establish our image."

"Alright, stop arguing and let's get started. Let Ahri see our strength."

Anyone who has seen Ali's investment strategy knows that although Ali has a significant weakness in the social networking field, it invests heavily in media and wields immense influence in the internet sector.

The most popular phrase during the Lunar New Year in my previous life was, "Did you get the 'Respectful Fu' card?"

In this life, Tan Jincheng wants to add a line to this question: "Have you collected the lucky card yet?"

During the 2014 Spring Festival Gala, WeChat invested 5 million yuan in red envelopes, which resulted in 2 million users binding their cards. In just two days, it achieved what Alibaba had accumulated over 10 years in the payment field, leaving Jack Ma completely bewildered.

This number grew to 3 million in the following three months. The fierce competition in the ride-hailing market was largely due to the sudden rise of WeChat Pay.

Red envelopes are just too damn amazing; those guys on Wall Street simply can't understand them.

In the US, if you send someone a 200 yuan red envelope, you have to explain to the tax bureau at the end of the year what the 200 yuan was for, what kind of income it was, and how much tax you need to pay.

Explaining it clearly could even lead to trouble, but on our side, this doesn't exist at all; it's like a bug.

Alipay also launched a red envelope feature this year, but the effect was not ideal. Alipay's biggest weakness has always been that it is too much of a pure payment tool. Apart from payment scenarios, Alipay can be used very little.

This is why Alipay has centralized all kinds of software apps and mini-games into Alipay. Software can only be considered software if it is used frequently; otherwise, it is just a decoration on the phone.

It has to be said that Ahri's idea of ​​collecting five blessings is a genius. Collecting five blessings can maximize Ahri's social attributes, increase friendships, and open up their social connections.

If you disrupt my payment system, then I'll crack down on your social media sphere.

The card collection campaign launched by Orange Products Club is also based on this point. Ali collects five blessings mainly through Alipay, while Orange Technology collects cards mainly through Orange Products Club. Both are aimed at increasing friendships and enhancing the social attributes of the app.

The so-called card collection activity is actually the same as the Five Blessings collection. Orange Technology launched the "Get Rich in the Chinese New Year" card collection campaign, where collecting all five cards allows you to participate in sharing a prize pool of 200 million yuan.

In addition, Tan Jincheng, the sixth player, added a new way to play: after collecting all five cards, players can continue to collect the zodiac cards for a chance to win a share of the 5 million yuan prize.

You can earn up to five times the profit.

At Tan Jincheng's command, while Ali launched its marketing campaign, Orange Technology's marketing efforts also commenced simultaneously. In terms of media resources, he certainly couldn't compare to Lao Ma, but he wasn't bad either.

Tencent, NetEase, and ByteDance alone account for a large number of users; this is what it means to have a powerful backer.

"You little rascal, you're really good at creating trouble. Old Ma is going to be furious with you. Now you can't deny that you came up with the idea for the surprise red envelope giveaway last year."

"Haha, you guys need to step up your game! We've paid so much for advertising, you should make good use of our resources, right?"

"Hehe, don't worry about that. I've personally instructed them to cooperate fully and give you the best resources."

If we're talking about who's happiest about this card-collecting game from Orange Technology besides Tan Jincheng, it's definitely Pony Ma. As Orange Technology's second-largest shareholder, Pony Ma is also having a headache over Ali's Five Blessings campaign.

This directly targets their core area, and no one can predict the effect right now, but just think about my experience of giving out red envelopes during the Spring Festival Gala last year, and I know the effect will definitely be good.

However, Tencent couldn't come up with a good solution either. Just like the red envelope system didn't work well in Alipay, this card-collecting operation also didn't work well in WeChat.

They did conduct simulations, but the results were not ideal. Rather than rushing into a solution, they decided to wait and see.

WeChat is also having a red envelope giveaway event this Chinese New Year, and Tencent has even included QQ in it, all in an effort to divert the influence of Alipay's "Collect Five Blessings" campaign during the Spring Festival Gala.

However, he did not expect that Tan Jincheng, the sixth brother, had also come up with such a scheme, and the method was almost exactly the same as Ah Li's.

"By the way, aren't you afraid they'll sue you? The resemblance is just too striking!"

"Haha, we don't know who will sue whom yet. We applied for the relevant patents half a year ago, but it's not based on Orange Technology. I'd be happy if he really sued me."

"Holy crap, you're a real bastard, aren't you? It's the same old QQ Farm trick again, isn't it?"

Little Ma felt speechless for a moment, and he thought back to the feeling of being dominated when competing with Happy Farm back then. This was not a fair thing to do, but if you really sued him, you would only be giving the other party publicity.

Needless to say, this kid is probably hoping that Ah Li will sue him, so they can save on advertising costs.

"What are you saying? We're just doing normal business, okay? It's Chinese New Year, and a tycoon like you is calling me a dog. Hurry up and send me a red envelope to comfort me."

"Get lost, I'm not talking to you anymore." "Haha, don't forget the red envelope!"

Boss Tan was in a good mood. After hanging up the phone, he started observing the dynamics on the Internet. Tencent was indeed very helpful. Just as Pony Ma said, they gave it all the top-level resources they could. QQ even gave a pop-up ad for the first time ever.

Besides WeChat, its various apps also provided numerous splash screens, so the money was definitely well spent.

Speaking of which, Tan Jincheng rarely does this kind of old-fashioned behavior anymore. After establishing his position in the industry, he competes fairly and squarely, using resources, funds, and creative marketing to pave the way.

In fields like intelligent driving where he has an absolute advantage, he might even give his opponents some time.

It’s nothing but confidence.

After Ali launched the "Collect Five Blessings" campaign, it became a huge success. The internet and offline were filled with the sounds of collecting and exchanging blessing cards. Tan Jincheng's company was also bustling with activity, generating a lot of buzz.

The "Respectful Blessing" card remains the most difficult to obtain, but despite this sentiment, the Orange Products Club's card collection campaign is still going strong.

"Haha, boss, our number of registered users has skyrocketed! I heard that General Manager Ma was furious at the company and ordered a thorough investigation into this event."

The event generated significant traffic for Orange Products over two days. It's nothing short of a miracle that a flash sale website could experience such a massive increase in registered users again after only a few years of operation.

"Haha, you're just showing off; tell me, isn't it fun?"

Sun Tongyu burst into laughter.

"It feels great, it really feels great."

Having worked at Alibaba for so many years, he must know some people there. It's not surprising that he knows some gossip about Alibaba's higher-ups. He was indeed very relieved to hear that Lao Ma was furious.

Regardless, he remains the top executive of Orange Technology and Orange Products Club, and from the outside, it appears that all decisions made by Orange Products Club are made by him.

Some media outlets have already defined Orange Technology's sneak attack as Sun Tongyu's counterattack.

He didn't believe that Alibaba's top management or CEO Ma would miss such news reports.

But he didn't care anymore.

Seven years have passed, and although he has come to terms with the humiliation of being kicked out, who wouldn't want to stand up for themselves if they had the ability?

"It feels like going back to when my boss sent me those little movies."

Sun Tongyu added with emotion, "It's really hard to describe the feeling at that time. There was a sense of helplessness, but also a lot of excitement."

"Alright, alright, let's not talk about such embarrassing things anymore. Just be careful with the server and don't crash it. The power of getting free red envelopes like this is beyond your imagination."

Tencent is so powerful, yet their WeChat servers crashed several times last year. Although Orange Technology was well-prepared, you can't imagine the overwhelming feeling of a large influx of users.

The real reason is that there are too few ways to play on the internet these days. Although we have entered the mobile internet era and online activities are becoming more and more diverse, compared to the short video era, there are still very few truly large traffic entry points.

"Understood. Occasional downtime is fine. Don't worry, we have our expectations. This time, we expect to gain tens of millions to one hundred million new registered users."

"That's really impressive. Customer acquisition costs are getting higher and higher these days, and it's too difficult to attract a new user. We should think carefully about how to retain these users."

The subsidy war between Express and Didi was essentially about spending money to acquire users, and the same goes for the red envelope war.

There doesn't seem to be a good way for traditional internet marketing besides this method. Tan Jincheng has thought about the way ByteDance does, but it seems impossible to do it.

Not only could they not do it, but Tencent and Ali also seemed to have a hard time doing it. Zhang Yiming has forged a path that belongs only to him.

从2月9日至2月18日大年三十的这10天时间里，最为热闹的集卡行动占据了国人的业余生活，两家网站一起集卡完全不冲突。

Although Orange Products Club is not as well-known as Alipay, it offers a wider variety of features, including an upgraded version in addition to the basic one.

Therefore, OrangePin is able to compete with Alipay in terms of user retention, which is a major headache for Alipay.

Moreover, Tencent was also distributing red envelopes, which, although very effective, did not meet Lao Ma's expectations at all. He envisioned an invincible and overwhelming dominance.

The most difficult card to obtain for Ahri is the "Dedication Card," while the most difficult cards to obtain for Orange Products are the "Fortune Card" and the Zodiac Sheep Card. The methods of scanning the code and finding the card are too similar, which makes it easier for players to adapt.

To be honest, after seeing Orange Technology launch its card-collecting promotion and learning about the specific process, Ali did consider suing them.

But then it was discovered that they had been secretly developing it for several months and had applied for a patent six months prior, and then there was no follow-up.

After an internal review, no leaks were found, leaving Lao Ma helpless. He could only assume it was a coincidence that the two sides had a mismatch in their thinking.

But isn't this just too much of a coincidence?
Ali didn't sue Orange Technology, but Orange Technology wasn't afraid of them. Although they didn't sue either, they engaged in a lot of verbal battles, with the CEO accusing Ali of copying Orange Technology's patented technology.

Anyway, Orange Technology and Orange Products Club are barefoot and have nothing to fear from Ali, who is wearing shoes.

One piece of evidence after another was presented to the media and the public. Chronologically speaking, Orange Technology did indeed begin developing the card collecting activity before Ali.

In addition, the total investment was also substantial. Cheng Hao actively bid at the Spring Festival Gala advertising bidding event, which clearly shows the importance that Orange Technology, which is in a period of transformation, attaches to this event.

This inevitably raises suspicions that Ahri might have indeed launched the "Collect Five Blessings" campaign after learning about Orange Technology's idea, thanks to their strength.

Cheng Hao's attack on Ali in front of the media was instigated by Tan Jincheng. Sun Tongyu is about to leave the company, and the newly promoted figure in front of the media needs to have a certain prestige. As a technical person, Cheng Hao's image in front of the media is relatively ambiguous.

This is a great opportunity.

The war of words between the two sides continued while they were collecting cards. Tan Jincheng, who was in charge behind the scenes, mobilized a lot of resources to try to portray Orange Technology as the victim.

Sun Tongyu occasionally appears in front of the media, reminding people of his past when he was kicked out by Ali.

The boss behind Orange Technology is a big name in the physical industry, but everyone knows that he can't compete with Ali in the internet industry. For a while, neither the media nor the general public could tell who was right and who was wrong.

However, in the overall public opinion environment, people still tend to sympathize with the weak.

Compared to Ali, Orange Technology is the weaker party.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the morning that Chen Weixin went home for the New Year and Boss Tan planned to gather his senior executives for a barbecue dinner, he received a call from Lao Ma.

"Mr. Tan, that's enough. Let everyone have a good New Year."

The two sides engaged in a war of words. Although Ahri's image was somewhat damaged, this loss was insignificant compared to the traffic and popularity she gained. Therefore, this was a tacit agreement between the two sides.

Only in this way can the influence of Tencent's red envelopes be offset to the greatest extent, which is also a common interest of both parties to some extent.

Ali, Tencent, and Orange Technology were the three core groups for the 2015 year-end promotion. Orange Technology was both a partner and a competitor of Tencent.

"Hey, Mr. Ma, what you're saying has nothing to do with me what Orange Technology does, but since you've brought it up, I'll say hello."

It's all about interests. Come to think of it, this is the first time Lao Ma has spoken to him in this tone. At the previous gathering of Zhejiang entrepreneurs, this guy called him Xiao Tan.

"Just keep denying it. Fine, fine, I give up this time. Your move was brilliant, and the Orange Technology team is excellent."

The facts have been investigated and found that there was no unfair competition between the two parties. It was just a coincidence of ideas. The two sides' argument over the past few days has also attracted the attention of higher authorities.

If Ahri really had such improper behavior, then the higher-ups wouldn't have let Tan Jincheng suffer such injustice for no reason.

Before Orange Technology stepped in, Lao Ma always thought that their team was incredibly brilliant to come up with such a marketing plan to offset the impact of WeChat red envelopes last year.

"Hehe, okay, I'll let them know. Happy New Year to Mr. Ma in advance."

"Hehe, I can't be happier. If you have the chance to come to Hangzhou, let's get together. Speaking of which, we are both companies from Zhejiang Province, so we should communicate more. Our Ali Cloud System is pretty awesome too."

Tan Jincheng had always enjoyed great success, but Lao Ma never really took him seriously. Firstly, they weren't in the same industry, and secondly, Tan Jincheng's limited knowledge in the internet field was simply not enough to impress him.

His rivals have always been Tencent and international peers. He has higher goals, or rather, dreams that transcend those of entrepreneurs.

However, having such a popular person constantly causing trouble by your side isn't ideal, and for the first time, Lao Ma had the idea of ​​trying to ease the tension with Tan Jincheng.

"No problem. I'll be going to Hangzhou after the New Year, and I hope to visit Ali there. I wonder if you, Mr. Ma, would agree?"

"It's just a matter of a word, but just don't hand out business cards."

"Haha, that was so many years ago."

Ahri is no longer the Ahri of yesteryear. I really don't dare to use the people who came out of Ahri. If they all did office politics like you, who the hell could handle it?

(End of this chapter)