Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 339: A Bound Partnership Between Douyin and Tmall?

Chen Xiu stared at Ma Yun without showing any emotion, her mind racing with speculation about his purpose for meeting him today, a speculation that hadn't stopped since she entered the room.

However, when Ma Yun revealed his purpose, his expression suddenly changed.

"...I would like to represent Ahri in the next round of investment for Douyin, preferably a single investment if possible."

"..."

Chen Xiu opened her eyelids and stared blankly at Ma Yun.

This process lasted for more than ten seconds. If it weren't for the old copper pot still bubbling, one might even have thought that time had stood still.

Finally, Chen Xiu processed the news and gave a response.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

Ma Yun's lips slowly curled up, showing no dissatisfaction with Chen Xiu's question.

He knew he had gone too far, but in negotiations, you always have to quote a high price first, and then negotiate slowly...

After laughing for a while, Ma Yun repeated, "I would like to represent Ali in Douyin's next round of financing, preferably a one-way investment if possible."

"Douyin has no plans to conduct the next round of financing at the moment, and one-way investment is out of the question."

"Don't be so quick to refuse! Let me explain (or rather, persuade) you first."

"Please go ahead... Um, if I want to eat while listening, would you mind?"

Chen Xiu's attitude was somewhat casual, which Ma Yun saw as a blatant rejection.

This reaction was expected; he dared to make the request, and naturally, he had prepared his explanation accordingly.

Ma Yun smiled confidently and said, "No problem at all. Please feel free to make yourself at home, Mr. Chen. I'd like to ask if you are aware of any news in the internet industry today?"

"I've been busy with work all day and haven't had time to learn about anything else."

"It's alright, I can tell you that this morning, Didi Chuxing launched its food delivery platform, initially covering nine cities: Wuxi, Nanjing, Tanzhou... Chengdu and Xiamen. Mr. Chen, what are your thoughts on this?"

"It's a bit hard to say."

Chen Xiu pursed her lips, thinking: Ma Yun, do you and Wang Xin have a shared group chat?
Ma Yun was unaware of this complaint and didn't care what Chen Xiu's response was, because no matter what the answer was, he had already prepared what to say next.

"Didi's entry into the food delivery market at this time is indeed surprising, but upon closer examination, the reasons behind it are not unexpected."

"How so?"

“Ride-hailing and food delivery both belong to the local life services of the Internet. When the growth of one of them reaches its limit, in order to retain the confidence of investors, it is inevitable to expand outward and eat up the market share of other areas. This is the underlying logic of the establishment of Didi Food Delivery.”

"Mr. Ma, what are your thoughts on the future of Didi Waimai?"

Following up on Ma Yun's topic, Chen Xiu asked a question, then picked up a piece of tender mutton and dipped it in the old copper pot.

This reaction made Ma Yun's eyebrows twitch, and she thought to herself: Why is he so relaxed, as if he's not surprised at all...?

Despite her growing doubts, Ma Yun still followed her own script and began working as a master con artist.

"Ahem, to be honest, I'm not optimistic about Didi Waimai's prospects."

"why?"

Chen Xiu put the mutton dipped in sesame sauce into her mouth, and then picked up another piece.

Ma Yun pretended not to see his actions: "The food delivery competition is over. Meituan and Ele.me have their own solid moats. Unless Didi has tens of billions of yuan in capital for initial investment, its life cycle will not exceed this year."

"Mr. Ma, according to you, e-commerce is actually a part of life services. If Meituan's business also reaches a point where it can't grow, could they also enter the e-commerce field?"

"It's possible, but the moat of e-commerce is much deeper than that of the food delivery sector, so it won't be easy to get a share of the pie."

Ma Yun smiled confidently, then changed the subject: "Moreover, the cooperation I'm discussing with you is precisely to give Ali an additional moat in the e-commerce field."

"How to say?"

Chen Xiu put down her chopsticks, and the interest that appeared on her face wasn't entirely an act.

Seeing that the topic was getting to the point, Ma Yun sat up a little straighter.

He leaned forward slightly towards Chen Xiu and said, "President Chen, since Douyin joined Taobao's direct-access service for stores last year, both of our companies have benefited to varying degrees."

"However, this kind of cooperation is still not deep enough. I think we could have Tmall open a separate store account on Douyin, link the two together, and then let the influencers do live streaming sales..."

At this point, Ma Yun suddenly stopped and looked up at Chen Xiu.

"Mr. Chen, what do you think of my suggestion?"

"Since Mr. Ma has made this request, I would like to know what Douyin can gain from this cooperation?"

Chen Xiu stared at Ma Yun expressionlessly, eager to know what gave him the confidence to propose this cooperation method.

Once the discussion reached a point where the benefits were clear, Ma Yun felt that the matter was already half successful.

He leaned closer to Chen Xiu: "Mr. Chen, are you aware of the collaboration between Apple and Google?" "A browser collaboration?"

"Yes! Since 2002, Google has partnered with Apple to become the default search engine for the Safari browser. Perhaps our collaboration can also be conducted in this way."

"..."

Chen Xiu leaned back, and her gaze toward Ma Yun became wary.

The other party cited Google and Apple as examples, hoping to use this method to force Tmall and Douyin to become a partnership, which seemed like a win-win situation, but if Chen Xiu agreed, he would be a complete idiot.

"Mr. Ma, as far as I know, the main reason Apple chose Google as its default search engine is that there is no better alternative, and Apple itself does not want to invest in the development of a browser; Google also believes that Apple's mobile phones sell well globally, and it can maintain its position in the search engine field through cooperation."

"Are there any domestic e-commerce platforms better than Tmall?"

This rhetorical question made Ma Yun's eyes become extremely aggressive, and her smile vanished without a trace.

"Of course, the cooperation method I proposed is also based on my recognition of Douyin's achievements in the short video field! Anyone with eyes can see that Kuaishou and Weishi are not enough to pose a threat to Douyin. Only by joining hands can we achieve a true win-win situation!"

Chen Xiu met his gaze calmly and said, "What if Douyin wants to enter the e-commerce field?"

"..."

The person who was stunned became Ma Yun.

His expression showed great astonishment, but he quickly regained his composure and then became suspicious.

"Mr. Chen, I remember you said last year in Wuzhen that Douyin had no plans to enter the e-commerce field for the time being."

"Just because it's not there now doesn't mean it won't be in the future."

Chen Xiu kept her gaze fixed on Ma Yun's face and, using the same words she had just said, said, "Just like you said, when business growth slows down or stagnates, we need to expand outwards."

"If the cooperation you mentioned is achieved, Douyin will cut off its own possibility of developing e-commerce and become a mere foil for Ali. This method is no different from a hidden acquisition."

"Mr. Ma, regarding the example you gave, Google has actually tried to release its own phones before. If possible, I think they would prefer to wait for Apple rather than continue paying cooperation fees."

This statement is practically an explicit implication.

Compared to Tencent's relatively good reputation in the internet investment circle, Ali is notorious.

For companies like Meituan, Didi, and Jingdong, Tencent can at most become the second largest shareholder, and has no intention of completely acquiring these companies.

However, Ali is different; their investment strategy has always been to win over clients, behead them, and then take them in as dogs...

Unless Chen Xiu is completely out of his mind, he wouldn't agree to Ma Yun's cooperation.

Faced with the rejection, Ma Yun did not show any displeasure. Instead, she asked with interest, "When does Mr. Chen plan to enter the e-commerce field?"

"No rush, no rush. We haven't even figured out how to use short videos yet, so it's too early to talk about e-commerce."

Chen Xiu waved his hands repeatedly, showing Ma to be weak.

Douyin is currently undergoing a period of rectification, and it has already put a lot of effort into internal adjustments, so it is really not suitable to make any major moves.

Upon hearing Chen Xiu's reply, Ma Yun simply poured himself a glass of wine, unimpressed.

He held the wine glass, gazing at the pale yellow liquid inside, and said, "Mr. Chen, have you ever wondered why Tencent, having already made a strategic investment in Kuaishou and participated in Douyin's Series B financing, still chooses to develop Weishi itself?"

"Invest in multiple areas; it has always been the case."

"No, no, no, you're oversimplifying things."

Ma Yun finished his drink and stared at Chen Xiu with a dark look in his eyes.

"The combined daily active users of Douyin and TikTok have reached 1.5 million. Among them, domestic users spend an average of 69 minutes a day browsing Douyin. This amount of time has significantly squeezed the usage time of Tencent's software. Do you think Pony will let Douyin continue to develop just because you are a shareholder of Tencent?"

"No, but so what?"

Chen Xiu picked up her chopsticks again and started eating mutton hotpot, completely ignoring Ma Yun's "reminder".

With a mouthful of mutton in his mouth and seeing Ma Yun still waiting for him to continue, Chen Xiu could only chew and swallow it whole.

"Mr. Ma, if you want to grow and thrive in an industry, you're bound to have competitors. Didn't you defeat eBay and EachNet before you developed Ali into what it is today?"

"That's not wrong."

"So let things be as they are! Even if Tencent pushes Weishi to compete with Douyin, we will still continue to develop. If Ali is interested in short videos, he can also enter the competition!"

"Forget it, I won't join in the hype surrounding short videos, but I might as well check out the hype surrounding movies."

Ma Yun smiled and poured himself another glass of wine.

He was still considering whether to tell Chen Xiu the news, but since cooperation was no longer possible, there was no need to worry about it anymore.

"Mr. Chen, inspired by your live-streaming movie ticket sales, Ali Pictures plans to officially launch the Lighthouse platform next month, linking it with Taobao Tickets and using Alipay and Taobao as user entry points, leveraging a user base of 10 billion to empower film promotion and distribution!"

(End of this chapter)