I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 326: 10 hours, 100 million users, 46.3 billion! Ma Liyun: Copy! Let's call it Lingqiantong (Pocket Money Pass).

"Yu'ebao?"

The brightly lit headquarters of Ali, the Peach Blossom Island office.

Ma Liyun frowned slightly, her lips turned down, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes. Her expression was a mixture of joy and worry, making her look extremely contradictory.

“Essentially, Yu’ebao is just a fund distribution product, but its advantage is ‘investment from 1 yuan and withdrawal at any time’, which changes the traditional fund redemption method to ‘T+0’. This move will greatly enhance the account value of Orange Pay.”

Lu Zhaoxi added.

What is account value?
The more money in an account, the higher its value.

Since Zhifubao was spun off from Alibaba, Ma Liyun has been thinking about other profit models.

As a payment tool, its core profitability mainly relies on transaction fees from third parties.

Two years ago, before Liu Qiangdong and Ma Liyun had a falling out, the online payment tool Liu Qiangdong used was Zhifubao. Later, he found Ma's transaction fees too expensive and switched to Orange Payment. At the same time, he acquired a payment license to prepare for the launch of Liu Qiangdong Payment.

Three months ago, Zhifubao and Orange Payment jointly obtained the "Securities and Futures Business Operation License" and the "Consumer Finance License". According to Ma Liyun's plan, a financial management module will be added to Zhifubao, thereby generating revenue.

But when Yu'ebao suddenly appeared, he immediately felt that his own operating strategy was not good, and that Chen Yansen's strategy was more suitable for Zhifubao.

Converting users' account balances into investment funds, which can be deposited and withdrawn at any time, provides users with a perfect usage scenario.

Furthermore, it can combine consumption and financial management to create a positive cycle.

"Don't you think that Yu'ebao and Zhifubao are a natural fit?"

Ma Liyun grinned and asked, his hands clasped together, inadvertently revealing his radical thoughts.

"Mr. Ma, what do you mean?" Lu Zhaoxi asked tentatively.

"Good things should be copied," Ma Liyun said with a slight smile, seemingly unconcerned.

The essence of the internet is free and shared. So what if he copied Chen Yansen's idea?
Isn't it just a matter of everyone copying each other?

"Imagine if every Taobao user put 10,000 yuan in their account, then Zhifubao could accumulate trillions of yuan in funds."

Before Lu Zhaoxi could reply, Ma Liyun stood up impatiently, waving his arms and saying.

When users make purchases and transfers using Zhifubao, a certain amount of funds will accumulate in their reserve fund account due to the time difference in the settlement cycle.

The interest income from this portion of the funds belongs to Zhifubao. Last year, the interest income from the reserve fund accounted for approximately 9.1% of Zhifubao's total revenue.

This is the main reason why Ma Liyun is so eager to increase the value of the Zhifubao account!

The world is bustling with activity, all for profit. If there's no profit to be made, Lao Ma (Jack Ma) wouldn't risk offending Chen Yansen by copying and learning Orange Pay's strategic layout.

At that time, the China Banking Association had not yet introduced a centralized custody system for customer reserve funds of third-party payment institutions.

Not only can Zhifubao profit from the deposited funds, but Orange Pay and JD Pay also do the same.

Upon seeing this, Lu Zhaoxi immediately understood Ma Liyun's true intentions, and quickly stated: "I will set up a project team as soon as possible and make Yu'ebao the top priority in Q4 development."

"Let's change the name. If we also call it Yu'ebao, it will be too obvious that we are copying it."

Ma Liyun turned around, returned to his seat, coughed, and said.

After all, Ali is the top e-commerce platform, and Zhifubao is a leader in electronic payment software in China. If they were to copy it without any scruples, it would be somewhat shameless.

Ma Liyun still has any shame!

"How about Huoqianbao?" Lu Zhaoxi had a flash of inspiration, and a product name popped into his mind.

"Huoqianbao? It's a bit lacking." Ma Liyun shook his head.

He pondered it over several times, but he still felt that Huoqianbao was not as catchy as Yu'ebao.

For a product to reach a wider audience, its name must first be catchy and easy to understand.

For example, Taobao, Pinbei, and Dong are all two-character names, which users can easily remember.

"How about Speedcom? It emphasizes the immediacy of product access and gives users the impression of a product that allows them to quickly make money."

Lu Zhaoxi continued.

“I’ve thought of one, it’s called Lingqianbao.” Ma Liyun didn’t give a direct answer, but instead shared her idea.

"This name is suspected of plagiarism. How about changing it to 'Lingqiantong'? 'Tong' means smooth and accessible, which means that users' funds can flow quickly in Zhifubao."

After a moment's thought, Lu Zhaoxi made minor adjustments to Ma Liyun's idea.

“Good! Lingqiantong sounds better than Lingqianbao. Let’s stick with this name for now. We can always change it before the product launch.” Ma Liyun nodded slightly, giving his initial approval to the product name ‘Lingqiantong’.

“Then I’ll start making preparations immediately,” Lu Zhaoxi said, standing up.

"The project has been prioritized as an S-level project. We will concentrate our manpower and resources to strive for its launch in Q1 of next year."

Ma Liyun originally wanted to shorten the development cycle to two months, but Q4 is the peak season for e-commerce, and the revenue of three months can often reach 40% of the total annual revenue. He was worried that the Lingqiantong project would affect the Double Eleven and Double Twelve promotions, so he changed his mind and extended the project cycle to five months.

“Okay,” Lu Zhaoxi replied immediately.

Whether the 'T+0' fund redemption method is compliant is completely outside the scope of their consideration.

If even Chen Yansen dared to bypass the Financial Regulatory Association and use the trick of prepayment to achieve 'T+0' instant redemption, why wouldn't Zhifubao dare to do the same?

It's worth noting that Ma Liyun founded Zhifubao nine years ago, making him a seasoned veteran who dares to explore uncharted territory.

It's definitely not compliant, but it's not illegal!
Let's do it first and talk about it later!

After Ma Liyun made the decision, Zhifubao established the Lingqiantong project team on the same day, which included departments such as fund companies, bank channels and technical systems.

the other side.

At Tencent headquarters, Ma Wenteng and others were also discussing the Yu'ebao product.

Unlike Ali, Tencent's interest in Yu'ebao is not as strong as Jack Ma's.

"I think it's possible. It can not only increase the account value of Tenpay users, but also generate additional revenue from the accumulation of funds."

One of the penguin's board members suggested.

"By utilizing the funds in the accounts of users of QQ Group Buying, Paipai.com, and YiXun.com, we might be able to drive the growth of the group's e-commerce business."

Another Penguin board member nodded in agreement.

In reality, in 2012, online shoppers viewed Tenpay, Zhifubao, and Orange Pay merely as payment tools.

Money in your online banking account will only be credited to your account balance when you purchase goods online.

Firstly, third-party payment software lacks financial attributes and cannot generate additional revenue, so users have no incentive to keep their money in their account balance; secondly, there is a lack of trust in third-party payment software.

This is completely different from the situation a decade or so later!
"Martin, what do you think?" Ma Wenteng, sitting at the head of the table, turned his gaze to Liu Zhiping and asked.

"For Tenpay, Yu'ebao has three strategic significances: first, it transforms the company from a payment tool into a financial platform; second, it attracts a large number of wealth management users and increases activity; and third, it completes Tenpay's ecosystem construction and paves the way for subsequent financial products."

After thinking for a moment, Liu Zhiping answered carefully, choosing his words carefully.

The implication is that Tencent should also join the 'spare money management' industry to seek longer-term development for the group.

Ma Wenteng frowned, considered it seriously for a few minutes, and then said, "Why not go a step further and combine WeChat Pay with Yu'ebao, weaken the presence of Tenpay, and promote the product concept of WeChat Pay?"

"Yu'ebao is the product name of Orange Pay. We should change the name."

How about FlashBenefit?

"I think the Dynamic Gold is also good!"

Immediately, all of Tencent's board members joined the discussion.

On October 10, on the eve of the launch of Yu'ebao, Alibaba and Tencent, two internet giants, coincidentally had the idea of ​​'copying and replicating' it.

At midnight, pop-up ads appeared on Orange Pay's PC page and mobile app, offering 5000 yuan in trial funds for activating the Yu'ebao (Alipay's money market fund) feature. Inviting a new user would earn an additional 5000 yuan in trial funds, with a maximum of 1000 million yuan in trial funds available, valid for seven days.

Based on the page's annualized return of 5.1% over the past seven days, the highest return would be around 9800 yuan.

Within half an hour of the event's launch, the number of participants exceeded 10.

Driven by Pinbei, Kuaipao, and Kuaidi Dache, Orange Pay's cumulative registered users have already exceeded 100 million, with daily active users exceeding 18 million.

With three days of online pre-launch hype, achieving this effect was actually within Zhang Yinjia and others' expectations.

By 10 a.m., the number of new Yu'ebao accounts had exceeded 1 million. Excluding the trial funds, the actual amount of funds reached 46.3 billion yuan, with an average of 4630 yuan per account.

This shows that even with the backing of Senlian Capital, most users still do not have a high level of trust in Orange Pay.

But many people would still be willing to spend a few thousand yuan to experience the extremely high returns of Yu'ebao.

at the same time.

Pinduoduo has launched a promotion offering free trial credits for orders placed through Yu'ebao!
Kuaidi Dache and Kuaipao have also launched corresponding co-branded activities!

(End of this chapter)