This director is vindictive.

Chapter 285: Starting with 5 billion, ending in utter chaos.

Ali's "Super Welfare Live Stream" promotion was launched with overwhelming force, costing hundreds of millions of yuan in advertising alone.

It did indeed create an effect that became known to the entire nation.

This can be seen from the fact that the number of reservations has exceeded 2 million.

However, in reality, Ahri is in a difficult position.

Why? Because the level of trust among merchants is far lower than they expect!
In particular, almost none of the merchants who sponsored Chen Mo participated in Ali's "super welfare live broadcast"!
The reason is that, on the one hand, they have just benefited from Chen Mo's live stream and need to digest it.

On the other hand, there's also the concern that Ahri might end up looking like a dog instead of a tiger!

Don't assume that big platforms have an advantage; in fact, they often come with more constraints.

Therefore, Ahri is facing a very awkward situation: the publicity has been launched, but the sponsors are not as good as expected.

The response was far less enthusiastic than they had initially anticipated.

Ahri's purpose in organizing this activity is definitely completely different from Chen Mo's.

Their initial intention was to "profit" from this, although not directly in the form of monetary gain, but still for the platform.

Early on, Ali contacted many merchants, hoping they could support this "Super Welfare Live Stream" event.

Unfortunately, businesses aren't stupid; big brands still value their reputation.

Why are they so eager to watch Chen Mo's super-benefit live stream, but hesitant to watch Ah Li's super-benefit live stream?
It's because Chen Mo has successful precedents.

But what about Ahri? That might not be the case.

Ahri's side is really putting them in a difficult position by expecting them to spend 5 billion on a live stream giveaway.

Of course, they also want to be generous with other people's money like Chen Mo, preferably with sponsors providing the money and products. They've already spent hundreds of millions, that's more than enough, right?
Unfortunately, although some sponsors were willing to sponsor products, they were not as generous as Chen Mo's previous live streams.

As a result, it wasn't that Ahri couldn't gather enough benefits worth 5 billion, but rather that the quantity and variety were too numerous and varied!
This leads to a vicious cycle: no matter how good a live stream is, the effect will be greatly reduced if there are too many sponsoring brands, and thus the value of the products sponsored by the sponsors will be greatly reduced.

On Chen Mo's side, the sponsors for the second super-generous live stream were almost all in the hundreds of millions, but for Ahri, the sponsorships were all in the tens of millions!
Such information is certainly impossible to keep secret.

Soon these related rumors began to circulate.

The competitors won't stand idly by; after all, rivals are enemies.

So as soon as this news came out, several competitors tacitly launched a coordinated attack.

"Trying to draw a tiger but ending up with a dog, Ahri's attempt to replicate Chen Mo's super-generous live stream may be doomed to fail!"

"Sponsors generally lack trust in Ali, and there are very few sponsorships worth hundreds of millions!"

"High-profile promotions, but also failures, just like the current Double Eleven mid-year sales event!"

Ahri was somewhat dumbfounded by this storm of public opinion.

Because it's true, there are very few sponsors with hundreds of millions in funding, it's real, and they can't just conjure them up!

Netizens were stunned.

"No, what's going on? Ahri is so rich and powerful, can't she just spend her own money if she doesn't have sponsors?"

"Exactly! Just pay for the benefits yourself, that's what a classy person does, right?"

"It's no big deal! If there are no sponsors, we'll just pay for it ourselves!"

"I'm just wondering, why aren't any sponsors willing to spend money? Why? With such high popularity!"

But sometimes reality is so surreal. After the news broke, this super-benefit live stream plan was made even worse.

Because some brands that had already agreed to sponsor suddenly withdrew their sponsorship.

Now, I really have to pay for it myself.

But 5 billion is no small amount. Don't be fooled by the size of Alibaba's business. Large corporations have their own problems: market value is market value, and cash is cash.

They can accept spending hundreds of millions on a project or a live stream, but it's hard to say about spending billions.

Personal live streaming has its advantages. When Chen Mo first promoted "The Silent Truth" through a live stream, although it was heavily sponsored by sponsors, it was actually based on the fact that Chen Mo did not ask for appearance fees or sponsorship fees, and the money was directly converted into product sales.

In a sense, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Chen Mo paid for it.

But what gives you the right, Ahri?

Chen Mo was also curious about how Ahri would resolve this crisis!

Yes, this is indeed a crisis!
If not handled properly, its reputation will definitely be greatly affected.

"What do you think Ahri will do?" Yang Mi asked with a curious look.

"It's hard to say. After all, it's a big company. They can't be as flexible as individuals in many things! Like adding extra work at the last minute, that's something they find very difficult to do!" Chen Mo shook his head and said.

He really couldn't say for sure.

Actually, the solution is quite simple. The most straightforward way is to spend money. If no one is willing to pay, then you pay for it yourself!

Of course, it mainly depends on whether Ahri has the courage to do so.

A few billion may not seem like a lot, but it's not a small amount either.

"If it were you, what would you do?" Yang Mi looked at Chen Mo with a curious expression.

"Simple, just throw money at it. At least make this live stream impactful, then we won't have to worry about sponsors not wanting to sponsor us later," Chen Mo said.

“However, I doubt Ahri would do that.” Chen Mo shook his head again.

"Why?" Yang Mi asked, confused.

"Because the initial intentions were different! Because the decision-makers were different!" Chen Mo said calmly.

"First of all, what do you think was my initial purpose for doing live streaming?" Chen Mo asked in return.

"Is this to promote the second phase of Huayun Wedding Attire?" Yang Mi asked.

Chen Mo nodded: "I never intended to profit from this. I don't have my own live streaming platform, and I'm not pursuing sales or retention rates. It's purely because Xiao Zhao said he wanted everyone to 'share romance.'"

"But Ali can't just be doing this for publicity. Everything they do must be linked to profit. After all, they are a listed company and have to be responsible for the interests of their shareholders. So, their biggest goal must be to drive traffic to the platform. And Ali itself is a domestic e-commerce giant, so what it wants most is to increase the number of transactions by merchants on the platform."

"But that's the problem. To be honest, I thought ByteDance would be the first to try this, but I didn't expect it to be Ali. To put it bluntly, this live-streaming giveaway model is really not suitable for Ali!" Chen Mo shook his head and said.

This was also the conclusion he reached after his analysis.

After everyone receives the benefits, what happens next? Will it boost sales for stores on the platform? It's unlikely, right?

Therefore, in Chen Mo's opinion from the beginning, Ahri's move was a bit hasty and unnecessary!
The principle is actually very simple, but sometimes the simpler it is, the more difficult it becomes!

What's best for Ali is actually discount coupons or direct subsidies with no minimum spend, rather than giving away products directly!
But then another problem arises. If you're going to offer discount coupons or vouchers, you should advertise it that way from the beginning. But if you advertise it that way, then another problem arises. If you advertise it that way, isn't it just like shopping festivals, Singles' Day, or mid-year sales? The appeal will be greatly reduced. After all, these days, there's a festival every few days, basically all year round.

Pinduoduo has been advertising a 10 billion yuan subsidy for years, but what happened? At first it was somewhat interesting, but later it became basically a joke if anyone believed it.

Therefore, in Chen Mo's view, Ali was indeed a bit too eager for quick success, or rather, he didn't know what Ali's decision-makers were thinking. Perhaps they were blinded by greed? Otherwise, who would jump on the bandwagon so quickly? However, thinking about it, it's understandable. After all, if it's just using other people's money, then even if the effect isn't that good, the cost isn't actually that much. Look, it's just a few hundred million spent on publicity.

They probably didn't expect that the sponsors wouldn't be willing to foot the bill!

Yang Mi said with a hint of jealousy, "No way, then next time I'll make sure everyone 'shares the romance' too!"

You see, women's focus is completely different from Chen Mo's!

He finally understood why in female-oriented novels, when a female general rebels and leads an army of 300,000 to storm the capital and stand before the emperor, all she gets in return is an apology!
This is very typical of female-oriented content. For example, Yang Mi right now, wasn't she initially analyzing Ahri's current situation?

But what could Chen Mo do? Looking at the fox spirit's belly, there were his own cubs inside!
What else could Chen Mo, a master of maintaining balance, do? He could only appease her.

Fortunately, it seems that everyone has accepted the "welfare festival" now, and I have also managed to get the public to accept this model this time.

"Well, you're next. You can start thinking about what theme you want for your wedding ceremony now. We can do a live stream then. Actually, this time it was a bit rushed, so we can prepare more thoroughly next time," Chen Mo said quickly.

Upon hearing this, Yang Mi's fox-like eyes immediately curved into a smile.

What Chen Mo said was indeed the truth. Although his live stream had amazing results and set some outrageous records, he honestly didn't intend to go that far at first!
Otherwise, he wouldn't have posted on Weibo so casually; it really was an unexpected stroke of luck.

"What do you think about us going for a martial arts theme?" Yang Mi asked.

"Martial arts style? To be honest, it's a bit difficult to do! After all, the fantasy and martial arts styles overlap to some extent, and in terms of special effects, fantasy is obviously more visually impactful than martial arts," Chen Mo said with a wry smile.

"Hmph, you're just being biased. I've acted in quite a few fantasy dramas, okay? Why did she steal them from me?" Yang Mi was unhappy again.

Chen Mo: "."

So tiring! Chen Mo was racking his brains to comfort the pregnant woman who was experiencing great emotional fluctuations.

In response to this crisis, Ahri decisively began to change her plans.

As Chen Mo predicted, they were unwilling to pay money directly, or rather, they realized that the model of directly giving away products did not benefit the platform much, so they adopted another measure.

Use vouchers and shopping coupons to provide employee benefits.

But the merchants suddenly exploded, and not only the merchants exploded, but netizens also exploded.

why?
The answer is simple: the platform runs promotions, but the merchants have to foot the bill. Although, it seems, this is probably Ahri's consistent style.

Why were people willing to support shopping festivals in the beginning? Because the platforms were genuinely willing to subsidize merchants back then, and when shopping festivals first became popular, e-commerce was practically dominated by Alibaba, so merchants were also willing to offer discounts.

But the problem is, things are different now!
These days, e-commerce is no longer the blue ocean it once was, but a fiercely competitive red ocean!
Simply put, as things have developed to this point, many merchants are essentially working for the platform!
The platform fees and traffic costs for a year are now comparable to the costs of a physical store, so the profits are naturally not as high as they used to be.

For small and medium-sized businesses, the money they earn throughout the year may not even be enough to cover the various fees paid to the platform.

The reason why merchants are furious is simple: it's their interests being sacrificed! Although they can raise prices first, the vast majority of small and medium-sized merchants on the platform are not big brands and simply cannot afford so many shopping subsidies. After all, the platform isn't even paying for these subsidies.

Small and medium-sized businesses quickly issued a joint statement refusing to bear the cost of subsidies and accusing the platform of "shifting the risk."

So the live stream was in danger of collapsing before it even started. The key point is that in the past, even if merchants didn't want to, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and endure it, because they really didn't have many options. But now it's different! If they can't do business here, there are other platforms.

"Damn it, we have no problem with the platform issuing billions of no-threshold coupons, but you can't pass on the costs to us!"

"Yeah, users can use the vouchers like cash, but damn it, we can't use the vouchers to get reimbursed by the platform. The more we sell, the bigger the loss will be, right?"

"No, why should we merchants pay for the platform's promotions? The key point is that the platform's paid advertising isn't free. So, we have to pay for traffic and then pay for the platform's vouchers? What's the difference between this and the US printing money and making the whole world pay for it?"

"If you don't have the ability, don't try to do super-generous live streams!"

Merchants already harbor considerable resentment towards the platform. After all, they're now resorting to all sorts of tricks even during shopping festivals. Why? Because they're not making as much money anymore! So naturally, they're unwilling to offer discounts.

The reason why netizens were outraged was because this pattern looked very familiar.
"What the hell? Is this the mindset of an e-commerce giant? Can't they be simpler? Are they really that short of a few billion? If they're that short of a few billion, they shouldn't be like Chen Mo!"

"It's the same taste, the same familiar recipe. Isn't this just like a shopping festival? I was thinking that there are similar events all year round, for every holiday?"

"No-minimum-spend shopping vouchers are actually quite good, but if merchants don't accept them, then they're useless, right?"

"No, the problem is, we came here for the perks, we didn't even want to buy anything, what the hell is this coupon giveaway?"

"I initially thought it was typical of an e-commerce giant to be so generous, but wow, is this really how generous you are?"

In an instant, it was a complete mess!
The media has been mocking Ali for always having an e-commerce mindset and being completely unsuitable to learn from Chen Mo.

Experts and commentators have stated that "e-commerce platforms are inherently 'transaction venues,' while Chen Mo's live streams are essentially 'content venues.' Ali made a mistake by equating traffic logic with content logic—users came to claim benefits without ever intending to shop, and the vouchers became a burden on the user experience."

Competitors, of course, wouldn't miss the opportunity to kick someone when they're down: "What's the point of turning a welfare festival into a shopping festival? There are already so many shopping festivals!"

"Big brands aren't stupid. Why are they willing to support Chen Mo, even fearing their support isn't strong enough, but unwilling to support Ali? Because Chen Mo's livestreams genuinely promote their platforms, while Ali's are for their own. Their motivations are completely different!"

Suddenly, it seemed that the brand's unwillingness to pay for this "super perk live stream" had become clear to everyone.

However, everyone is still watching to see how Ahri will handle this situation. Those who originally planned to follow Chen Mo's example with his e-commerce platform have all given up on the idea.

There's no way around it, Ahri is a cautionary tale!
For a while, Ahri was in a real bind, but the live stream couldn't be canceled.

Ultimately, Ahri was forced to announce an additional 20 billion in cash subsidies, but it was too late!
As one netizen commented: "A company with a market value of trillions, is this all the vision they have? What were they doing all this time?"

"The main problem is that Chen Mo genuinely had no ulterior motives, while Alibaba's business is essentially a commercial endeavor! The logic is completely different!"

"I thought the era of universal welfare had truly arrived, but now it seems it was all an illusion!"

"Chen Mo YYDS!"

Regardless, the publicity has been launched, so we have to grit our teeth and keep going.

Soon it arrived at the day of Ahri's super-generous live stream.

On the day of the event, 1.2 million people flocked to the live stream, which was quite popular. However, after the live stream started, many netizens discovered that Ahri was playing tricks again.

The so-called subsidies and no-threshold vouchers have such embarrassingly low face values ​​that it's almost laughable.

But it's still a no-threshold coupon.

The buzz it generated can't compare to Chen Mo's super live stream, but it's not a big problem either.

However, after the live stream ended, many of the lucky winners discovered something disgusting.

That is, while vouchers do have no minimum purchase requirement, they cannot be combined!
In other words, you have to pay the difference, which is clearly different from what many netizens expected.

However, something even more outrageous happened, because Ahri's subsidies were only part of the solution, and the merchants also had to bear part of the cost, which resulted in the merchants also engaging in a form of resistance.

Some items that can be purchased directly with vouchers don't even include free shipping!
Small and medium-sized businesses also have their own reasons. In this event, the subsidies are partly provided by the platform and partly by the merchants. The profit margin is already very small, or even non-existent. Adding shipping costs, it's a losing proposition, so they can only make up for it by covering shipping costs.

This results in these vouchers becoming useless.

They spent a lot of money, but the result didn't bring much benefit.

Many netizens criticized him, saying, "If you can't learn to be sincere, don't try to get something for nothing!"

The hashtag #LearningChenMoOnlyTheSkip# topped the trending search list.

(End of this chapter)