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

Chapter 352 Options, Red Envelopes! 400 Million Downloads, Ushering in the First Year of Short Videos!

1000 billion yuan? In less than two months?

Upon learning the news, Ma Liyun at Ali's headquarters in Hangzhou had a bright idea in her mind and immediately decided that Yu'ebao must be copied.

The potential benefits brought by the 100 billion yuan of deposited funds are far more than the 500-600 million yuan in book revenue per year. More importantly, it can upgrade payment tools into financial software, improving user retention and ecosystem synergy.

In addition, keeping these 1000 billion yuan in Yu'ebao can generate at least a million new orders for Pinduoduo every day, thus creating a complementary relationship between e-commerce and financial services.

It's worth noting that Alibaba's e-commerce platform has an average daily sales volume of around 30 billion yuan, and on Singles' Day, it sold 197 billion yuan, which is about 6.6 times the usual amount.

Pinduoduo's average daily sales are 8 million yuan, and on Singles' Day, it sold 70.3 billion yuan, which is about 8.8 times its usual sales.

This demonstrates that using Yu'ebao to lock in user funds and prevent them from flowing to competing websites can effectively increase a company's e-commerce business volume.

What stage is the development of "WeChat Pay" at?

Thinking of this, Ma Liyun asked Lu Zhaoxi.

"Approximately 45% of the architecture design is complete. We are currently working on the account system, transaction processing module, and profit calculation engine. We expect to complete all the core functional development work by the end of January. The integration with fund companies will begin in February."

Lu Zhaoxi answered immediately.

For Ali, Q4 is always the busiest quarter, with the Double Eleven and Double Twelve promotions coming one after another, followed by preparations for the Christmas and New Year shopping festivals. Naturally, the development progress of Lingqiantong has slowed down considerably.

"It needs to go live by the end of February!" Ma Liyun ordered.

In his view, Lingqiantong is far more important than Taobao Waimai, and has significant strategic value to Alibaba, so it should be given full attention.

Lu Zhaoxi originally wanted to ask for another half month, but seeing Lao Ma's resolute expression, he knew that this was not a discussion but a notification, so he nodded heavily and gritted his teeth to agree.

"Mr. Ma, as far as I know, companies such as Huawei, ZTE, Xiaomi, 360, and NetEase have all purchased Orange Technology's voice development tools, preparing to enter the intelligent voice assistant market. Should we follow suit?"

At this moment, Jiang Fan, who was the vice president of Ali Cloud and in charge of Ali Cloud's mobile phone business, suddenly asked a question.

Ali Cloud Phone is slightly better than 360 Phone. Although they are essentially special edition phones, Ali Cloud Phone integrates features such as cloud computing, big data, security center, and cloud services on the basis of Android system, creating Ali Cloud OS system.

From the Tianyu W700 to the Little Bumblebee W619 and Big Bumblebee W806, there are quite a few smartphones equipped with the Ali Cloud OS system.

Ma Liyun's decision to license Ali Cloud OS to other mobile phone manufacturers for free is similar to that of Zhou Hongyi, Ding Lei, and others; ultimately, it's about vying for mobile internet traffic entry points.

“Okay.” Ma Liyun thought for a moment and nodded slightly.

Although Ali has accumulated some technical expertise in the field of artificial intelligence, everyone has different research directions and specializes in their own fields. In the field of speech recognition and generation, Orange Technology is the most advanced in China.

He had an in-depth discussion with Wang Jian. With Ali's R&D capabilities, developing a voice recognition tool might not be difficult, but achieving superior performance would be quite challenging.

Compared to a one-time licensing fee of 2000 million, purchasing a patent license is the most cost-effective option.

“No problem,” Jiang Fan replied quickly.

"After discussing work, let's talk about something happier. Since the 2012 performance target was achieved a month ahead of schedule, on behalf of the board of directors, I have decided to distribute stock options ranging from three million to two hundred thousand shares to P5 and above Ali employees at the end of the year."

Ma Liyun smiled and announced loudly.

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhaoxi, Zhang Yong, Jiang Fan, and the others couldn't help but laugh.

Although their salaries are high, no one complains about having too much money.

The P5 junior staff members below them receive 300 shares, while they receive 200,000 shares. At a price of 30 US dollars per share, these options are worth at least 40 million Chinese dollars.

at the same time.

Standing on the second-floor corridor of Office Building No. 6, Chen Yansen looked down at the sea of ​​employees below and loudly announced Pinbei's second stock option incentive plan. From customer service staff to the CEO, everyone could receive stock options ranging from 5 million to 200,000 shares.

Similar to the first time, 25% will be thawed each year, and the remaining amount will be received over four years.

Once the company goes public and the window period ends, it can be freely traded.

Zhang Wenbo, Xiang Pengfei, Zhang Yifeng, Hu Yun, Zhuang Rui, and others looked excited and grinned foolishly.

They are no longer the naive people they were two years ago. They have a very good understanding of the equity value of Pinduoduo. Each share is worth 11 US dollars and the total share capital is 20 billion shares. Even if they only have 10 shares, they may be able to cash out tens of millions in the future.

Huang Zheng, Cai Qiming, Chen Peng, Fei Qiwen, Xiong Li, and other middle-level managers who joined later were equally overjoyed.

As 2012 draws to a close, despite overtime pay, Pinbei's nearly 3000 employees have been busy from the beginning to the end of the year, with many programmers, operations staff, and customer service representatives having very little rest time.

Chen Yansen's equity incentive came at the perfect time, boosting everyone's morale.

"Over the next three days, the HR team will be signing stock option agreements with each of you. There's still one Double Twelve left in 2012, so let's keep up the good work."

Chen Yansen added with a smile.

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire building erupted in a thunderous cheer.

Upon hearing the commotion, employees of Orange Technology, Today Technology, and Orange Payment couldn't help but smile knowingly. They knew that their boss was definitely throwing money around again.

They certainly have stock options as incentives, it's just a matter of how much, and there's no jealousy involved.

After Chen Yansen finished speaking, he strode down and walked straight into Office Building No. 7.

Upon entering the conference room, Zhang Yinjia, Zhou Mingxuan, Jiang Leiming, and others stood up to greet him, "Boss!"

"Let's begin," Chen Yansen instructed Zhang Yinjia after taking his seat.

“Lei Ming, you go first,” Zhang Yinjia said, turning his gaze to Jiang Lei Ming.

He knew that what his boss cared about most was the development progress of OrangePay's red envelope function: when it could be tested and when it could be launched.

Yu'ebao's business and financial data are just minor details.

Ma Liyun is working overtime to copy Yu'ebao, while Ma Wenteng is working day and night to copy Orange Pay.

Chen Yansen wants to copy it back too!

His second plan was to leverage the red envelope feature to enhance the social attributes of Orange Pay.

"Boss, the testing team has conducted comprehensive testing on the developed red envelope function interface, including functional, performance, and security testing. Judging from the stability and reliability of the interface, it can fully meet the business needs under high concurrency scenarios," Jiang Leiming replied.

"What safety measures have been implemented?" Chen Yansen pressed.

He has confidence in the R&D department's technical capabilities. After being tested by the Yu'ebao project, developing the red envelope function shouldn't be too difficult for them. "The main focus is on encrypted transmission, identity authentication, and anti-tampering mechanisms, which can effectively prevent the red envelope function from being maliciously attacked and abused, thereby protecting users' funds and data privacy."

Jiang Leiming replied without hesitation.

“Boss, I’ve discussed the development cycle with Lei Ming, and we expect it to launch before December 10th,” Zhang Yinjia interjected.

"Bring me a test unit; I'd like to try it out first."

Chen Yansen nodded and said casually.

"It's ready for you." Jiang Leiming reached into his pocket, pulled out an Orange C2, and gently handed it to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen took the phone and skillfully entered '0000', which was the unified lock screen password for the test device.

Launch Orange Pay, skip the boot screen, and then enter the app's homepage.

Unlike the cumbersome payment apps of a decade or so later, Orange Pay's page is extremely clean and tidy. At the top of the first screen, there are only three function buttons: Scan, Receive/Pay, and Travel.

The second row is the channel area, which currently includes application modules such as Kuaipao, Yunsu Express, mobile phone top-up, money transfer, red envelopes, and credit card repayment. The bottom tabs include finance, messages, contacts, and personal center.

Chen Yansen randomly selected a test account from his friend list and sent it a red envelope containing 888 yuan. In addition to photos, red envelopes, and money transfers, the chat box also included location and voice functions.

“Add the entry point for the Pinduoduo 10 Billion Subsidy program,” Chen Yansen said after thinking for a moment.

If the entire Pinduoduo payment platform were included, Orange Pay would appear bloated. However, by simply adding the 10 billion yuan subsidy channel, it becomes much cleaner and also creates a closed-loop consumption system.

"Okay, boss. I'll let General Manager Huang know later," Zhang Yinjia replied.

"The functions are smooth and the UI style is well done, but we need to take into account the operation and storage space of smartphones, the number of product functions should be moderate, and we should consider things from the user's perspective."

Chen Yansen returned the testing machine to Jiang Leiming and slowly gave him instructions.

“I understand.” Jiang Leiming nodded in agreement, indicating his understanding.

"continue."

Chen Yansen leaned back in his chair, looked up at the monitor next to him, and waited for Zhang Yinjia to give his report.

Since its launch on October 10, it took only 54 days to grow Yu'ebao's fund size to 100 billion yuan and incorporate food delivery, group buying and ride-hailing functions into the product, building a more complete business ecosystem together with Gaode Map.

After the Double Eleven shopping festival ended, Pinduoduo's daily sales data showed a significant increase, thanks in no small part to Yu'ebao.

When Yu'ebao's scale reaches 3000 billion, 5000 billion, or even 10000 trillion, it will surely become the transaction settlement center for Senlian Capital's products.

OrangePay could start with money market funds, gradually expand its business scope, add more financial products, and strengthen its social interaction and financial features as a tool.

the other side.

After arriving at the Los Angeles branch, Mao Chaorong did not rush to do anything. Instead, he reorganized the software promotion methods, channels, and prices in North America, and comprehensively analyzed the local short video development status through various means such as consulting firms and third-party data agencies.

It's fair to say that, apart from Vine, there aren't many competing companies eyeing the short video market.

As Chen Yansen said, it is indeed a blue ocean market.

Initially, the core of Mimo's first promotional plan was to invite well-known singers and actors from the United States to join the platform and leverage the star power to launch the project.

But Chen Yansen refused!

"My product positioning for Mimo is definitely not a lifestyle app for a small group of celebrities. Celebrities are fine, but they cannot become the mainstream of the platform's content."

Chen Yansen reminded.

For example, three years later, a short video app called Xiaokaxiu suddenly appeared and topped the App Store charts within two months of its launch.

In the early stages, it attracted tens of millions of users by relying on a large number of celebrities. However, the success of these celebrities was also its downfall.

In 2015, the entertainment industry had not yet seen a salary cap, and the live-streaming e-commerce model had not yet formed a complete industrial chain. Celebrities' appearance fees were mostly astronomical, and they didn't care about the meager revenue from short video apps.

Video content created by ordinary people is difficult to get attention, which severely dampens users' enthusiasm for participation.

After all, users watch short videos simply to find instant gratification in the gaps of their spare time, not to watch celebrities show off.

Therefore, this software disappeared after only a few days of popularity.

Under Chen Yansen's guidance, Mao Chaorong invited a group of bloggers with a small number of followers but excellent creative abilities from Facebook and Instagram, thus accumulating the first batch of original video resources for Mimo.

Chen Yansen's use of the term "ordinary person" may mean that someone can appear ordinary, but their abilities cannot be lacking.

The core advantage of a short video app lies in its innovative, novel, and high-quality short video content.

Powerful recommendation engine technology is just a tool. Without high-quality content, the platform becomes rootless, and no matter how much money is spent, it will be difficult to retain users.

Just like how Toutiao first signed authorization agreements with platforms such as Tencent, Sohu, NetEase, Sina, and Youku before launching, it only started promoting itself after acquiring abundant content resources.

After everything was ready, Mimo made its debut on the App Store and Android app markets on December 6th. After a massive advertising campaign, the product's downloads skyrocketed.

Under the organization of the event staff, countless 'ordinary' users started creating covers of "Skyfall".

This theme song from "Skyfall," sung by Adele, has recently become incredibly popular in North America and is highly likely to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Mao Chaorong adapted to local conditions, combined popular culture in the United States, and collaborated with popular movies, TV series, and music works to launch related topic challenges or creative content, which immediately attracted a large number of users to participate.

To the surprise of local netizens, Mimo's recommendation mechanism is extremely friendly to ordinary people. As long as the video content they create is good enough, they can get massive exposure and become big influencers like bloggers on Facebook and Instagram, receiving advertisements and making big money.

Chen Yansen has a total of 3000 million followers across North America. His account resources were not wasted. With the help of the marketing department, a promotional copy was carefully crafted, which increased Mimo's exposure by tens of millions.

On the day of its launch, Mimo was downloaded more than 30 times.

The following day, thanks to Chen Yansen's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ads, there were an additional 20 downloads.

In just two days, Mimo was downloaded 80 times.

Driven by the recommendation engine, users are spending more and more time on Mimo, and thanks to word-of-mouth, Mimo's organic downloads have exceeded 20%.

By the day before the Double Twelve shopping festival, Mimo had surpassed 400 million downloads, perfectly launching the project.

(End of this chapter)