How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 212 was not enough.

On July 7.1st, the new regulations for e-commerce outlets were officially announced.

This time, the official definition outlines the relationships and obligations of the management department, online goods operators, online service operators, and consumers.

This marks the first time that the requirement for individual business owners and consumers to register with their real names has been formally mandated.

This means that the e-commerce industry has officially been recognized as one of the mainstream and developing industries, which is a major positive for the entire e-commerce sector. With official endorsement, it's like pressing the accelerator button to promote the industry's development.

Subsequently, major e-commerce platforms released their Q2 revenue data, with most showing growth rates of over 30%, and JD.com even reaching 40%. Investors are paying more attention to e-commerce stocks.

After all, Alibaba used to dominate and weigh heavily on everyone. Now that this mountain has been shaken, whether the next 'Alibaba' will emerge is what everyone is most concerned about.

The most promising company is Mecox Lane, which is already in the IPO process. Its valuation was originally estimated at only $5-8 million, but it has now been valued at over $15 billion.

The crowd was outraged, except for Alibaba.

If this information had been released two weeks ago, Alibaba's stock price would have risen sharply. However, given the current serious crisis of confidence, good news has turned into bad news, and the stock price continues to decline, while the turnover rate has dropped significantly.

This means that it is very likely that buyers have already taken over most of the stock price, and the number of shares in circulation is already very small.

Wang Yao had Liu Haifeng settle the short position on Alibaba ahead of schedule. The position involved 5 million yuan with a 6x leverage, and a 23% downside target. In the end, Liu Haifeng made a profit of nearly 6 million yuan, which made him believe that Wang Yao must have some special insider information.

Otherwise, how could they always manage to leverage short selling and land so reliably?
Wang Yao didn't explain, but simply instructed Liu Haifeng to transfer the funds back to the overseas BVI company [Weigu Venture Capital], and invest $10 million in JD.com to acquire a 10% stake, laying the foundation for JD.com's $1 billion valuation and indirectly boosting the valuation of Mulan Street.

Having just raised funds six months ago, it has once again received investment from a mysterious foreign investor, causing its valuation to soar to near that of Mecox Lane, leaving Vancl and Dangdang behind, attracting considerable attention.

"Where did Dongzi find such a sucker? They can estimate a billion, even though our Q2 revenue is about the same," Chen Nian from Vancl complained when she came to Wang Yao to discuss cooperation in the second half of the year.

“JD.com is about to transform from a vertical e-commerce platform to a full-category platform, so it’s normal for its valuation to be higher,” Wang Yao chuckled.

“Vancl also has all categories, I’ll see if we can estimate 15 billion by the end of the year.” Chen Nian said somewhat indignantly.

“Your revenue was less than 20 billion in the first two quarters, so estimating 15 billion dollars is a bit difficult,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"That's why I came to you to finalize the cooperation for the second half of the year," Chen Nian said with a subtle smile.

Although Wang Yao's target for Vancl is not yet complete, it is already close to halfway. Relying solely on the traffic and product seeding from Mulan Street, coupled with the buzz surrounding the "refusal to engage in illegal activities" event, it has generated nearly 50 million yuan in revenue in just over two months.

Even without Mulan Street fully committing to traffic redirection, Chen Nian specifically assembled a calculation team to assess Mulan Street's traffic redirection business to various e-commerce platforms. Mulan Street only accounted for about 15%, with Taobao and JD.com taking the lion's share.

JD.com and Mulan Street have a mutual support relationship. Chen Nian knows it's difficult to grab market share, but given Taobao's current situation, it's probably a case of everyone kicking a man when he's down.

After hearing Chen Nian's tactful suggestion to join forces with platforms like JD.com, Dangdang, and Mecox Lane to seize Taobao's traffic while it was declining, Wang Yao pondered for a moment.

"Aren't you afraid that when Boss Ma comes to his senses, he'll come after you later?" Wang Yao laughed.

"What are you afraid of? If you were afraid, you wouldn't have started e-commerce in the first place. This payment transfer issue is too big. We don't believe they can resolve it so quickly. Yahu and Sun Zhengyi are the major shareholders. As long as they can't reach a settlement, Alibaba's overall strategic layout will have to be adjusted, and there might even be internal strife."

Even if a settlement is reached, Alibaba will definitely pay a heavy price and will no longer be able to expand at will. This is a golden opportunity for us.” Chen Nian’s thinking was very clear.

Taobao's current strength is built on the financial support of Alibaba Group. However, due to the trust crisis, the B2B business has had its overseas expansion strategy completely shelved, and its stock price has plummeted. It is temporarily unable to provide Taobao with continuous financial support.

Moreover, if the current situation is not properly resolved, the initial attempt by Ya Hu and Sun Zheng to exercise their power as major shareholders to check and balance the board of directors could very well lead to internal strife, and the probability is not small.

Therefore, Chen Nian and the others' gloating was not entirely unreasonable.

Wang Yao didn't care whether Alibaba could overcome its difficulties. In any case, even without Alibaba, there were still Alibaba and Alibaba. The collapse of Alibaba would not cause China's e-commerce to stagnate.

In the e-commerce field, neither Dongzi nor Zhengzi is less capable than Jack Ma.

Again.

There is only the XX of the era, not the era of XX.

Wang Yao doesn't care who dominates the e-commerce market; he only cares about his own interests.

"What are your thoughts, Mr. Chen?" Wang Yao asked in return.

"How much revenue can Mulan Street generate in the second half of the year?" Chen Nian asked in return.

"Chen Qi wrote about a KPI of around 10 billion in the plan he gave me," Wang Yao said truthfully.

"Quite a few," Chen Nian exclaimed in surprise.

Mulan Street, a third-party redirect platform, has achieved such a large scale, and its user conversion rate is clearly higher than that of dedicated platforms.

"There's hardly any profit, less than 2% net profit. It's all hard-earned money from manual labor. The bulk of the profits still go to your platform," Wang Yao said with a smile, waving his hand.

"Come on, you must be raking in advertising fees by now." Chen Nian chuckled.

Previously, Wang Yao could be regarded as a young junior, but now he has media on one hand and e-commerce on the other, and can almost be said to have the power to make things happen.

"We can barely support the team," Wang Yao smiled. "We'll help Vancl generate 5 million RMB in revenue in the second half of the year. You name your terms," ​​Chen Nian said seriously.

"I can't really guarantee that. Your platform's categories are too niche, and the average order value is low," Wang Yao shook his head.

"You state your conditions first," Chen Nian shook her head.

“Unless you give me 20% of Vancl’s shares,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"I'll give you the whole company," Chen Nian rolled her eyes.

“With the same marketing budget, I can give you 5 million, which will be at least 10 billion for JD.com. Do you understand what I mean?” Wang Yao hinted.

It's not that it can't be done, it's just not worth it, bro.

Chen Nian was silent for a moment. "Shares certainly can't be given away for no reason. When is Mulan Street's next round of financing?"

"I haven't considered that yet," Wang Yao shook his head.

Financing is for companies to obtain capital support and accelerate their development.

However, Mulan Street has been far ahead of other UGC e-commerce platforms so far. Whether it is the quality of content or the user stickiness and conversion rate, it is unmatched by platforms such as Meilishuo.

Even Vancl itself is cultivating "sales influencers," but the investment is large and the results are not as good as those of Mulan Street influencers.

The only limiting factor for Mulan Street's development is the convenience of online payments and the sheer size of major e-commerce platforms.

"Then the only option is to invest more and get more?" Chen Nian gave a wry smile.

He realized that Wang Yao didn't want to provide a guarantee for him and was only thinking about earning advertising fees, which would put the risk and pressure back on him.

"Taobao/JD.com's commission is basically below 20%. Vancl can increase advertising and marketing costs and raise commission to 30%. If influencers earn more, they will naturally be more willing to promote your platform's products."

"As for advertising and marketing, do you remember when we talked about platform positioning?" Wang Yao said with a smile.

Chen Nian nodded. Wang Yao had said during their first meeting that Vancl's platform positioning was awkward, neither high nor low, and it would easily reach a bottleneck.

“I can help Vancl with a platform-level marketing event, a flat rate of 5000 million.” Wang Yao held up five fingers.

"Could it generate billions of exposures?" Chen Nian's mind raced.

"I can't guarantee that. I can only guarantee that it will bring a large number of young consumers to Vancl in a short period of time. As for whether they can be retained, it depends on your platform's strategy. After all, if your products are not right, it's useless to have a lot of consumers." Wang Yao shook his head.

This is essentially a classic example of a 'rogue collaboration' that doesn't take responsibility for the outcome.

This is common in the marketing world; even a slogan or a logo can cost millions.

Chen Nian himself wasn't too keen on this kind of marketing, but if it was Wang Yao who suggested it, he was indeed somewhat interested, even though the cost was huge, which was equivalent to putting most of Vancl's marketing budget into it for the second half of the year.

"Mr. Wang, could you reveal a little something?" Chen Nian asked, frowning.

“Personality,” Wang Yao uttered.

"Huh?" Chen Nian was taken aback.

“Platform positioning is like a persona. Why is it that when you mention Taobao, you think of online shopping, when you mention JD.com, you think of 3C products, and when you mention Dangdang, you think of books?” Wang Yao asked.

"Isn't this related to the main business category?" Chen Nian was taken aback.

“Yes, but vertical categories are just one kind of positioning stereotype. Mr. Chen is a scholar. When it comes to Lu Xun and Hu Shi, who do you admire more?” Wang Yao asked again.

“Of course it’s Lu Xun, but that’s just my personal preference,” Chen Nian replied.

"Personal preference is about recognizing one's own individuality." Wang Yao smiled. "The personality behind Taobao is comprehensiveness; it has everything. The personality behind Vancl is value for money, focusing primarily on clothing."
If you don't continue to amplify your individuality, you'll eventually be overshadowed by other people's. Just like in school, the child who receives the most attention from the teacher isn't necessarily the best student, but definitely the one with the most unique personality.

"Does Mr. Wang think Vancl's unique personality can be amplified?" Chen Nian frowned.

"Why did President Chen just sign Han Han and Wang Luodan as spokespeople?" Wang Yao asked.

"I think it aligns with the platform's positioning. Oh, you mean I value their individuality?" Chen Nian was taken aback.

"That's right. When decision-makers mix their personal preferences and individuality into company decisions, it easily leads to narrow-mindedness. I don't mean anything by this; I just feel that President Chen has a kind of 'I'm the only one who's sober in a world of drunks' appreciation for elite intellectuals."

It's not that it's bad. If Vancl only wants to be a small and beautiful company, that's fine. It can even become a core competitive advantage. But if you really want to become a company worth tens or hundreds of billions, this personal preference will limit the platform's development.

"To be honest, intellectuals only represent a segment of the population, not the main consumers. You need to elevate the platform's positioning and scope to truly highlight its individuality." Wang Yao nodded.

"The wrong spokesperson was chosen?" Chen Nian was taken aback.

"We didn't choose enough," Wang Yao said with a slight smile.

(End of this chapter)