Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 301: Will Douyin get into e-commerce?
Chen Xiu and her three companions chose Ding Sanshi's restaurant as their lunch spot.

However, since no prior notice was given and the restaurant owner, Ding Sanshi, was not present, the four of them sat around in a private room, which made the atmosphere less lively.

Watching Pony Ma skillfully order food, Chen Xiu thought of Ding Sanshi's character, and a sigh appeared on her face.

"Mr. Chen, do you have any thoughts?"

"Ok?"

Chen Xiu glanced at Ma Yun sitting opposite her. He was sitting there smiling, looking at her with an air of confidence that seemed to see right through her...

With a light laugh, Chen Xiu shook her head and said calmly, "I'm just a little sentimental."

"Oh, can you share it with me?"

Ma Yun glanced forward, making a gesture as if she were listening intently.

As soon as he said this, Pony Ma and Zhang Yiming, who were ordering food, both looked at Chen Xiu in unison.

Chen Xiu looked around at them, poured herself a cup of tea, took a sip, and found it quite good. She then went to pour a cup for Ma Yun, Pony Ma, and Zhang Yiming, answering Ma Yun's questions as she poured.

"Actually, I don't have many thoughts. I just feel that Ding Sanshi's life is pretty good. He can protect the company's core business, make conservative investments, and do some things he wants to do. Life would be much easier."

"Thank you, are you referring to his going to raise pigs?"

Pony Ma accepted the teacup and thanked Ding Sanshi. He and Ding Sanshi had been friends for over twenty years, and they were also among the first people in China to access the internet.

Chen Xiu nodded and said, "That's right! I think the restaurant's ingredients are very good. I heard that Ding Sanshi loves to eat there. People who love to eat usually don't live a miserable life and live quite comfortably."

"really."

Pony took a sip of tea and suggested, "If you're interested, after dinner with Wang Xin and the others tonight, I'll introduce you to Ding Sanshi."

"Forget it, I don't have any business relationship with him, and it would be awkward to just chat casually."

Chen Xiu waved his hand and declined Pony Ma's suggestion. He was just slightly moved, but he didn't intend to flatter Ding Sanshi.

Turning her head to look at Ma Yun, who was deep in thought after the topic was taken over, Chen Xiu pondered for a moment and decided to take the initiative to start a conversation herself.

"Mr. Ma, you should understand my feelings, right? After all, you've acted before."

"Ahem, you mean 'The Way of Offense and Defense'?"

"Yes! I originally thought you were going to make a sequel this year."

"It's mainly because I don't have time. Your life is much more comfortable!"

As she spoke, Ma Yun glanced at Chen Xiu with envy, thinking to herself: "The freedom to switch between the lives of a business tycoon and a top celebrity is simply my ideal state, it's a pity there's so little time for it..."

The moment her thoughts reached this point, Ma Yun's gaze instantly sharpened and stopped.

He felt he had gone too far off-topic. He hadn't started the conversation by wanting to hear what Chen Xiu had to say; he wanted to get down to business.

Thinking of this, Ma Yun took a sip of tea, cleared her throat, and said, "President Chen, President Zhang, there's something I'd like to ask you. It should be kept private, but we're both short on time, so Pony, I won't hold back."

"Oh, please go ahead."

Pony Ma silently drank his tea, seemingly unconcerned.

Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming exchanged a glance, their expressions turning serious.

Having laid the groundwork, Ma Yun didn't say anything cryptic as usual, but went straight to the point: "President Chen, President Zhang, will Douyin develop in the direction of e-commerce next?"

"This one……"

"Maybe, maybe not."

While Zhang Yiming was still thinking of how to make an excuse, Chen Xiu had already started chanting.

The familiar taste made Ma Yun purse his lips, because he himself often spoke in this mysterious way.

Pony's gaze darted back and forth between Ma Yun and Chen Xiu, his eyes sparkling with amusement. He felt that this meal was already quite delicious even before it had begun.

Ma Yun glanced at Chen Xiu and pressed, "Doing and not doing are two different directions of development. Could Douyin's future development be a quantum entangled state, somewhere between doing and not doing?"

"It's not that mysterious..."

Chen Xiu explained half of it, then left the other half vague: "But to say that it's somewhere between knowing and not knowing, there's not much of a problem."

The way he said it was incomprehensible to both Ma Yun and Zhang Yiming.

A master conman often hates being conned, and that's exactly the mindset Ma Yun is having right now.

He glanced at Chen Xiu and asked in a more serious tone than before, "President Chen, can you explain what you mean by this situation?"

"Hmm~, let's put it this way!"

Chen Xiu took a sip of tea and quoted a classic line from a TV series: "Subjectively, Douyin did not have the idea of ​​developing e-commerce, but objectively, users may have already built a rudimentary e-commerce transaction system, which forces us to do it."

"Is this dialectics?"

"That's also true."

Seeing Ma Yun's obvious stunned expression, Chen Xiu's smile deepened as she continued, "This is what you mentioned earlier at the convention center, Mr. Ma: on Singles' Day, Douyin's shopping cart sales reached 50 billion. We didn't expect this at all; we didn't even anticipate such a result from the shopping cart at the beginning."

"Cough cough."

Zhang Yiming suddenly coughed twice, and when others looked over, he quickly used drinking tea to cover up his expression.

Based on his understanding of Chen Xiu, the following sentence could actually be translated as: I didn't expect Douyin to be this awesome, I was quite surprised!

These words, coupled with Chen Xiu's completely uninhibited expression of surprise and helplessness, almost made Zhang Yiming burst out laughing.

Pony Ma never put down his teacup; he felt the dinner was getting more and more interesting.

Ma Yun frowned, looking at Chen Xiu with a rather dull expression, feeling that he had gone a bit too far. "Since e-commerce functionality already exists, why don't you just enter the e-commerce field?"

"If e-commerce were really that easy, why would Tencent have failed so many times?"

"Ahem, excuse me, I'm still here."

Pony put down his teacup, glanced at Chen Xiu with a reproachful look, and thought to himself: Have you forgotten your identity as a Tencent shareholder? Don't I have any dignity in front of so many people?

Chen Xiu shrugged and said, "That's the gist of it. There's too much to prepare for e-commerce. Oligopolies have already emerged in various niche markets, and Douyin doesn't have any plans to try it yet."

"Oligarchs in various niche markets?"

Ma Yun keenly grasped another key point in Chen Xiu's words, wondering what it meant. Could it be that Taobao was just one of the oligopolies in a niche market?

Chen Xiu chuckled and said, "That's right! Is there a problem?"

Which platforms specifically?

Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo...

"You know about Pinduoduo?"

Ma Yun gave Chen Xiu a strange look, then looked at Pony Ma with realization: "Because Tencent has invested in Pinduoduo, you learned about this company as a shareholder?"

"No! I had already invested in Pinduoduo before I invested in Tencent."

Chen Xiu said this with a straight face, which drew sidelong glances from the other three people at the table.

"Ok?"

"what?"

"You invested in Pinduoduo?"

Ma Yun, Pony Ma, and Zhang Yiming all reacted in unison, expressing surprise at Chen Xiu's discreet investment move.

Pinduoduo's GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) exceeded 100 billion yuan this year, second only to Ali and Jingdong, making it the third largest e-commerce platform in China and a company with a bright future.

Chen Xiu's investments on Pinduoduo have always been made through investment companies, without informing Tencent.

Even if Tencent finds out through Pinduoduo's internal channels, the news will only reach Jeffrey Li, the general manager in charge of investments, and will not reach Pony Ma's level.

It's even more normal that Zhang Yiming and Ma Yun didn't know.

However, they were still very surprised by Chen Xiu's move, because Pinduoduo's value was not much less than Douyin's, and it was also a unicorn company that attracted much attention in the industry.

Ma Yun looked at Chen Xiu with hesitation, and after thinking it over again and again, finally asked, "Do you know Sun Tongyu?"

"Pinduoduo's initial investment was indeed introduced by Mr. Sun."

Chen Xiu looked at Ma Yun with a calm expression, without denying her relationship with Sun Tongyu because of his past conflicts with Sun Tongyu.

Upon hearing that Chen Xiu had contact with her former subordinate, Ma Yun's pursed lips curled up even more noticeably.

However, after staring at Chen Xiu for a long time, he suddenly laughed: "Hehe, I really didn't misjudge you. When it comes to judgment, you are indeed no worse than me!"

"..."

Chen Xiu pursed her lips speechlessly, thinking to herself: You really know how to pat yourself on the back...

Ma Yun looked at Chen Xiu dismissively and said boldly, "Pinduoduo focuses on the lower-tier market. This was a development direction that Sun Tongyu proposed but I rejected. Now it seems that it does have its merits, but Taobao is already number one. Even if it faces challenges from Pinduoduo and JD.com, I believe Taobao will still be number one in the future!"

A person who can take business to the extreme must have confidence.

Ma Yun is currently at the peak of his life. He doesn't care about Pinduoduo, or even the biggest giants...

After expressing his confidence, Ma Yun straightened up and looked at Chen Xiu: "Even if Douyin enters the e-commerce field in the future, I welcome you to learn from Ali, expand the market, and try the possibilities of new retail."

"However, there is a collaboration I'd like to discuss with you right now."

Chen Xiu didn't look at Zhang Yiming, but continued to meet Ma Yun's gaze, which never left her.

"What exactly is this collaboration?"

"Your overseas subsidiary, TikTok, has a large user base in Southeast Asia, Europe, and America, and that number continues to grow. If Ali launches an overseas version, could we consider collaborating?"

Ma Yun stared intently at Chen Xiu, the upturned corners of his mouth indicating that this cooperation was the real purpose of his invitation to dinner today.

Having worked in the e-commerce market for decades, Ma Yun knows that Taobao is the absolute leader in the domestic e-commerce market. As long as he doesn't make any mistakes, it will be very difficult for newcomers to surpass him.

He doesn't really care whether Douyin will do e-commerce, nor does he care about Pinduoduo's rising market share. What Ma Yun wants to do is to explore new e-commerce markets and make Ali a global e-commerce platform.

Ali already has e-commerce channels and products; what it lacks is simply the traffic entry point for early-stage development.

The emergence of TikTok and the success of Douyin's shopping cart have shown Ma Yun the power of traffic hubs to boost e-commerce and have also shown him a new direction for exploring new overseas e-commerce markets.

Faced with this cooperation invitation, Chen Xiu immediately leaned over and whispered to Zhang Yiming in front of Ma Yun.

After the two reached a conclusion, Chen Xiu looked at Ma Yun and said, "President Ma, we need to go back and have a meeting to discuss this cooperation."

"Huh? Don't you two already represent Douyin and TikTok?"

“No, the CEO is responsible for the company’s day-to-day management and future development. We still need to discuss it with her.”

"...Then I'll wait for your good news."

Ma Yun wanted to say something more, but seeing the dishes served, he could only reluctantly end the conversation.

During the meal, Chen Xiu and Zhang Yiming's faces were still filled with thoughts, and Pony Ma's eyes would occasionally flash with contemplation.

(End of this chapter)