Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 372 Pinduoduo's 10 Billion Yuan Subsidy: A Product Sold Through Chatting
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Beijing.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Xiu did not immediately return to the private room. Instead, after some thought, she called Zhang Zili, who was in charge of public relations at Datang Film and Television.

"Self-reliance, are you free now?"

"Yes, boss, what's wrong?"

Do you know Yu Zheng?

"Yu Zheng?"

Zhang Zili on the other end of the phone paused for a moment, then recalled the information about the brat in his mind.

“I know him. I had contact with him when I was still at Huayi.”

"Okay, here's the thing. One of our company's artists is currently filming a drama with Yu Zheng. Her agent just reported that she accidentally injured one of Yu Zheng's artists during filming. How would you handle this?"

"Boss, you mean that Yu Zheng's artist accidentally injured himself while filming and wants to take his anger out on one of our company's artists, right?"

"...(Inner monologue: Impressive, impressive)...I don't know the specifics either, you should contact Yang Ming!"

"I understand, I understand, I will handle things well."

After clearly stating her desired outcome, Chen Xiu hung up the phone and sent Yang Ming a message before returning to the private room.

Pushing open the door, Chen Xiuqian entered and saw Huang Zheng replying to messages. He smiled and said, "Sorry, I have something urgent to take care of."

"It's okay, I'm replying to messages right now."

Huang Zheng put down his phone and turned to look at Chen Xiu, asking, "Where were we?"

"The arrangements for going to New York next week."

"Yes! The main stock dealers for Pinduoduo's IPO are Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. I need to attend a few cocktail parties. Would you like to come along?"

"Not interested."

Chen Xiu smiled and shook his head to decline. He held a 3% stake in Pinduoduo and did not hold any position in the company, so he did not need to attend such business entertainment.

Huang Zheng clicked his tongue regretfully: "If you don't want to go, that's fine. The people at Goldman Sachs are quite interested in meeting you."

"why?"

“TikTok is currently the most popular app overseas. Considering Douyin’s profit model in China, Goldman Sachs believes that TikTok’s future is more worthwhile to invest in than Pinduoduo.”

“Pinduoduo is the third largest e-commerce platform in China, and it will soon surpass JD.com. Douyin and TikTok can’t compare to it.”

Huang Zheng simply smiled noncommittally at this commercial flattery.

He came to Beijing today mainly to handle some business-related matters, and also to discuss the details of Pinduoduo's IPO with Chen Xiu.

Since the topic had shifted to e-commerce platforms, Huang Zheng thought for a moment and then took the initiative to discuss Pinduoduo's situation with Chen Xiu.

"Chen Xiu, did you just say that Pinduoduo is about to surpass Jingdong?"

"In terms of GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume), Pinduoduo's growth rate is much faster than Jingdong's."

"Currently, there is a discussion within the company about two development directions. The conservatives advocate continuing to focus on the domestic market, while the radicals advocate entering overseas markets after the IPO. Which direction do you think is better?"

Why are you asking me something like this?

Chen Xiu looked at him, puzzled, not understanding what he meant.

Huang Zheng chuckled and pushed up his glasses: "Didn't TikTok reach a strategic partnership with an overseas e-commerce company called Shein? You were the one who facilitated the partnership, so you should know something about the overseas e-commerce market, right?"

"To be honest, I don't know much about it, since it's not my area of ​​expertise. My collaboration with Shein is simply because I value the company's future prospects."

"From your perspective, is it suitable for Pinduoduo to expand overseas now?"

"I don't know, but building overseas e-commerce channels takes a lot of effort. Taobao and JD.com are now paying attention to the importance of the lower-tier market. Aren't you afraid that when Pinduoduo goes global, these two companies will step in to grab the lower-tier market?"

Instead of offering a choice, Chen Xiu began analyzing the pros and cons.

Pinduoduo is currently only considered to be developing well, but it is still a level below the e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com.

If you make the wrong choice, your competitors won't wait for you to recover and adjust; they'll pounce on you and devour your products at a speed that's beyond imagination.

Hearing this analysis and counter-question, Huang Zheng's eyes cleared considerably, but he still had concerns: "If Pinduoduo wants to establish itself in the domestic e-commerce market, it will inevitably face direct competition with Taobao and JD.com..."

"So what if there's competition? How can you run a company without going through that process?"

"So, you're saying Taobao has Singles' Day, and JD.com has 618, so shouldn't Pinduoduo also create a shopping festival?"

"Both of them have already allocated their time, one in the middle of the year and the other at the end of the year. Which time do you want to choose?"
As soon as Chen Xiu uttered her question, a flash of inspiration struck her, and amidst Huang Zheng's stunned and embarrassed expression, she uttered a sentence that would completely catapult Pinduoduo to fame.

"Why not just offer a subsidy of 10 billion yuan!"

"Huh? What kind of subsidy?"

Huang Zheng blinked rapidly and moved closer to Chen Xiu, as if he had grasped something crucial.

Chen Xiu glanced at him and directly revealed Pinduoduo's most powerful marketing strategy for the future.

"The 10 billion yuan subsidy is also a form of promotion! The Double Eleven and 618 shopping festivals you just mentioned are actually promotional models. Labeling them as holidays is just a way to remind users that they need to spend money during these times."

"Taobao and JD.com have already come up with some really creative holiday promotion models, and Pinduoduo can't compete with them. So why don't you just turn the whole year into a promotion and tell users directly that Pinduoduo will spend 100 billion yuan to subsidize products?"

"These subsidies can be used on Pinduoduo's already low group-buying prices, making low prices and discounts the core strategy. They can also be used on 3C digital products and big-name cosmetics."

"Use the funds raised to offer genuine and tangible discounts to expand our reach, enabling Pinduoduo to move from lower-tier markets to first- and second-tier cities, and making the '10 Billion Yuan Subsidy' a recognized benefit in users' minds. That's how we succeed!"

Chen Xiu spoke faster and faster as she went on, while Huang Zheng's eyes grew brighter and brighter as he listened.

When the story ended with "That's it," Huang Zheng could hear his heart pounding, and his breathing became heavy. He took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and said, "Chen Xiu, I feel like this 10 billion yuan subsidy you mentioned has a lot of potential. Why don't we discuss it in more detail and come up with a plan..."

"Shouldn't you be busy with the IPO right now? Still discussing and making plans, are you not going public?"

"Well, once we get to New York, I'll be busy with the cocktail party during the day, and when I come back in the evening, we can discuss and refine this multi-billion dollar subsidy plan together?"

"..."

Chen Xiu looked at him with a forced smile, thinking: Why would I stay up all night, instead of playing games with Meng Ziyi, to discuss a plan with you?
"Let's talk about it later! Pinduoduo has a lot of talented people. I think you can definitely get it done by discussing it yourselves."

"Wasn't this your idea? We'll discuss it together; it'll be more efficient!"

"I just blurted out something. If it gives you any inspiration, that would be great. As for the specifics of how to implement it, which categories to subsidize, whether to do a one-time promotion or a regular discount, and whether to add group buying, live streaming, or other methods to further amplify the subsidy effect, you can discuss it yourselves."

"..."

Huang Zheng stared blankly at Chen Xiu and muttered, "You've filled in everything I could think of."

"Just something I said offhand."

"Then tell me more!"

"Okay, I've told you now. I'm going to New York next week. Just don't come knocking on the door."

Chen Xiu accepted the several hours' delay today.

After all, he still owns 3% of Pinduoduo's shares, so offering suggestions is a way of contributing to the company.

Huang Zheng was puzzled: "Why can't we discuss this in New York?"

"Um, I have an appointment with a friend to discuss something, so I'm not free during the day."

"That night?"

"I play games online with my assistant and I don't like to be disturbed," Chen Xiuyi said firmly.

He wasn't lying about either of those reasons.

Huang Zheng clicked his tongue, but had no choice: "Alright! Let's discuss it here. If there's anything you don't understand, I'll ask you on WeChat."

"this is OK."

Chen Xiu nodded slightly, and then started a brainstorming session with Huang Zheng to empower Pinduoduo's future.

……

Meanwhile, Xu Kai, who was escorted to the hospital by Yu Zheng, was confirmed to be fine after several rounds of examinations.

On the way back, in order to show his masculinity, Yu Zheng reassured Xu Kai, "Xiao Kai, don't worry, I'll go find Tian Xinwei later and have her come over to apologize to you, otherwise we won't film this movie!"

"Brother Zheng, it's not that serious..."

Xu Kai looked troubled and said that he had actually realized that Tian Xinwei was deliberately using filming to teach him a lesson.

Although he was very angry, he was even more afraid that when Yu Zheng went to find Tian Xinwei, Tian Xinwei would directly tell him that he wanted to switch jobs to Datang Pictures.

Even if he could explain and make excuses, ...

Xu Kai shifted his position, still insisting on keeping the peace: "Brother Zheng, let it go! Xiao Tian is new to the industry, it's normal for him not to know his own strength!"

"No, she must apologize to me in person."

"I really don't need it..."

"Why are you defending her like this? It's so unlike you. Could it be that you've taken a fancy to this little brat?"

Yu stared at Xu Kai, his eyebrows raised, about to explode.

Xu Kai quickly explained, "No, no! I really didn't. Since Brother Zheng said so, then we'll listen to you and have her apologize to me in person."

"That's right! News of this has spread. If I can't even handle a small-time celebrity like this, how am I supposed to survive in this industry in the future..."

As he spoke, Yu Zheng opened a bag of snacks from the car and put it in his mouth.

Just as Xu Kai was starting to feel uneasy about what was going to happen, a series of ringtones suddenly sounded in the back of the car.

Yu Zheng touched his phone to confirm it was his own call, the number was unknown, but he still answered it.

"Hey, who is it?"

"Teacher Yu, I am Zhang Zili, do you remember me?"

"Oh, Mr. Zhang, what brings you here today?"

"To make a long story short, I currently work at Datang Pictures. We are aware of what happened on the set of 'Arsenal Military Academy' today, and we hope that this matter ends here. Let's all work together to finish filming the remaining scenes and prevent any further incidents from happening, okay?"

"Mr. Zhang, no matter how you look at it, this matter is..."

"You don't want to escalate this to He Shengming, do you? I'm in charge of public relations. We should try to resolve these things privately if possible."

When Bai Yueguang appeared, Yu Zheng instantly lost his composure and shut down his microphone, leaving him with no choice but to obey whatever Zhang Zili said.

When he finally hung up the phone, he patted Xu Kai with a dejected expression and said, "Xiao Kai, I think you're right. It's normal for Xiao Tian to be a newcomer and not know his own strength!"

"..."

Xu Kai stared wide-eyed at Yu Zheng, who seemed like a completely different person, and shouted in his heart: That's not what you just said!

(End of this chapter)