Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 126 BAT Makes a Move: Investment? Praise to Kill? Encirclement?
However, what are you afraid of?

When Vipshop's half-day sales figures were revealed, Yao Mingchen, president of Tencent's investment department, excitedly slapped his thigh:

"Brand Sale!"

"I knew it! This model definitely has potential!"

"Based on my many years of investment experience, Vipshop is bound to have a market value of tens of billions in the future!"

"No, I have to hurry and find the chairman!"

With that, Yao Mingchen headed straight for the chairman's office, brimming with excitement:
"Pony, have you seen Vipshop? It has a very promising future!"

"As long as we invest, with the brand flash sale model and Tencent's resources, Vipshop can grow rapidly and has a good chance of reaching a market value of tens of billions in the future!"

"If we invest now, we're guaranteed to make a fortune!"

"And it's not just about investment prospects, but also strategic prospects!"

"Once Vipshop takes off, with its model similar to Taobao Mall, it will inevitably become a major rival to Taobao Mall's B2C business!"

"Invest in Vipshop to use it to restrain Alibaba's Taobao Mall. Then use Paipai to restrain Taobao!"

"With both sides moving in tandem, they're effectively containing Alibaba; it's a sure thing!"

Upon hearing this, Chairman Ma couldn't help but nod in agreement:
“Vipshop’s model is innovative, and I am very optimistic about its brand sales.”

"now it's right!"

Yao Mingchen was extremely excited:
“Pony, we missed out on YouTuan Technology, which was valued at 10 billion, and now it’s been dragged down to 20 billion.”

"We can't afford to miss out on Vipshop, which is currently valued at 10 billion!"

"If we hesitate any longer and drag it out until Vipshop's valuation reaches 200 billion or even 300 billion, then it will be too late!"

"too late!"

"Whether it's for strategic purposes to contain Alibaba or for investment value enhancement, we can't miss out on Vipshop's valuation of 100 billion!"

Chairman Ma nodded: "Investing is about investing in people. To be honest, I not only have faith in Vipshop's model, but also in Wang Junshan."

Yao Mingchen strongly agrees:
"YouTuan International, YouTuan Group Buying, WeChat Farm—each one is a brilliant business idea. Now they've created Vipshop, a platform for brand flash sales!"

"Wang Junshan is a business genius."

"Such people are better suited to be strategic partners than enemies."

"Actually, I had a good impression of him from the first time we met, and I even suggested that he come to Tencent and train him to be your successor."

"Hahaha." Chairman Ma laughed: "You've seen quite a bit ahead. But Wang Junshan is quite capable. Although he doesn't play by the rules, he always gets a royal flush."

"I also think highly of this kid. If he comes to Tencent, his abilities are outstanding, and he can be given important responsibilities!"

"That's right, let's start with investing in Vipshop."

Yao Mingchen said, "Investing in YouTuan Technology at a valuation of 20 billion is too costly right now. Vipshop at a valuation of 200 billion is just right. We can't delay any longer! I suggest we invest 100 billion directly to acquire 20% of Vipshop's shares, thus strategically tying Wang Junshan and Vipshop to Tencent!"

Chairman Ma nodded: "This is something we can consider, but after all, it's a huge investment of two billion, which accounts for one-third of our total cash reserves. It still needs to be approved by the board of directors."

"There will be a board meeting tomorrow afternoon. You know what to do."

"Don't worry, I'll go and persuade the major shareholders and other senior executives right away!"

Yao Mingchen understood that Pony was giving him time, so that things wouldn't be like last time, where the board meeting started but there was too much opposition and the proposal was rejected.

Then there's nothing he can do.

Everything must be done according to the rules.

After leaving the chairman's office, Yao Mingchen immediately summoned the investment department staff and gave them instructions to go and persuade the major shareholders and senior executives.

Yao Mingchen personally lobbied several major shareholders who opposed the proposal!

Regardless, we must take advantage of Vipshop's current low valuation and invest now!
Alibaba headquarters.

Jack Ma looked around at everyone: "What are everyone's thoughts on Vipshop's sudden rise to prominence?"

"Chairman, I've analyzed their model. They mainly clear out the off-season products and leftover stock from major brands at 30-70% off. It's nothing serious."

"Even if the transaction volume on the first day is expected to exceed 6000 million, it is only because this discount method is novel, coupled with Vipshop's platform subsidies, that the price has been reduced, resulting in such a result."

"But the results on the first day were achieved at the expense of profits, and off-season products will not always be popular."

"In a few days, Vipshop's GMV will be halved one after another, and it will be good if it eventually stabilizes at 1500 million. The impact on Taobao will be very limited."

"agree!"

Others also spoke up:
“Vipshop’s model is novel, but it is essentially a vertical e-commerce platform with a very low ceiling. We don’t need to worry about it. Our biggest competitor is still Paipai.com.”

"That's right. Don't be fooled by the fact that Paipai.com's GMV this year is only a few billion, far less than Taobao's hundreds of billions. It has Tencent behind it and hundreds of millions of QQ users driving traffic. It has great potential."

"If Tencent goes all out, Paipai.com will soon become a major player and will remain our biggest competitor."

"Paipai.com is currently undergoing a one-size-fits-all reform, and its success or failure is hard to say. However, we cannot be careless. We can take advantage of the reform to absorb Paipai.com's small and medium-sized merchants and further squeeze Paipai.com's living space!"

"That's right! Strike while the iron is hot. No matter how many tricks Vipshop has up its sleeve, it's still a rootless duckweed, not worth mentioning. Killing Paipai.com first is the priority!"

Jack Ma nodded: "Okay, then our target remains Tencent, and Paipai.com!"

"Taobao is aggressively seizing small and medium-sized businesses from Paipai.com and plundering Paipai.com's core customer base!"

"Taobao Mall is poaching brand merchants. They're informing which brand merchants they don't want to work with Paipai.com that they'll get lower commission rates, while those who do work with them... Hmph!"

Jack Ma snorted coldly and said nothing, but his subordinates understood.

In short, choose sides. Any brand that dares to cooperate with Paipai.com will get hammered!

"Chairman, Tencent is likely to invest in Vipshop. If so, let's get involved and help Tencent raise its price!"

"Alright, you guys do what you think is best. You can praise Vipshop to the point of ruin, making Tencent pay a higher price!"

Jack Ma smiled faintly: "It could also allow Tencent to successfully invest in Vipshop. In that case, Vipshop and Paipai would fight each other. I reckon Xu Tiannian of Paipai would be cursing."

"It's very possible that Mr. Xu would do it."

"This is a good thing. If Tencent falls into disarray, Paipai.com is doomed."

Jack Ma laughed and said, "Besides curbing Tencent's Paipai.com, we can't afford to lose our composure. The current focus of development is still to increase market share and strive for 100 billion GMV!"

"Yes!"

This time, just like in the past, Alibaba completely disregarded Vipshop.

General e-commerce platforms have always looked down on vertical e-commerce platforms, especially giants like Alibaba.

On the contrary, they still regard Paipai.com as their number one enemy, or rather, Tencent, the company behind Paipai.com, as their number one enemy!
Headquarters of the campus network.

"Thirty million in sales in half a day, how the hell did he do that?!"

As Sun Yizhou watched the news, a mix of envy and jealousy welled up inside him.

"With only 2700 million users, which is less than the number of users on our school's intranet, how can we achieve 3000 million in GMV in 12 hours!"

"It's incredible!"

Dai Hede pursed his lips: "Chairman, there's something I'm not sure if I should say."

"Say!"

"Although our school's intranet has a slightly larger number of users than WeChat, its active users are far fewer!"

"That's why our Renren.com with 3000 million users has had lackluster revenue, while WeChat with 2700 million users has seen explosive revenue growth!"

"The difference isn't in the number of users, but in daily active users and user time spent!" "WeChat's daily active users and user time spent are two, even three times that of our Renren!"

"Daily active users and user time spent are two to three times higher than ours!"

Sun Yizhou was shocked, but upon closer reflection, it was indeed the case: "Why is this happening? Have you thought about it?"

"After thinking about it, the most crucial thing is still the client-side issue!"

Dai Hede recounted in detail:
“Our school's intranet doesn't have a desktop client; it only has a web version. Users have to launch their browser and click on the intranet link every day to log in and access it. Once they close the browser, they can't see it anymore. They often only log in once every few days.”

"But WeChat is different. It has a separate desktop client, which is on the user's desktop and will automatically start every time the device is turned on."

"As a result, users who originally intended to use Renren.com were attracted by the automatically launched WeChat messages. After replying to the messages, they would also steal crops, harvest vegetables, or go shopping."

"Once they've finished harvesting their crops and buying their groceries, they'll have long forgotten about our school's intranet..."

"This……"

Sun Yizhou was completely flustered, but upon closer reflection, it was indeed true!
"The Renren.com website, which is passively launched within the browser, is indeed not as good as WeChat, which is placed on the desktop and launches automatically!"

"Looks like we'll have to develop a campus network client too!"

“That’s right, we must develop it.” Dai Hede’s face lit up with joy: “Chairman, leave it to me.”

As long as you develop the campus network client yourself, you can shift the blame for the troublesome reverse engineering of "WeChat Farm" to someone else!

Yesterday's attempt to copy Vipshop failed, but today's project on the Renren.com client should be successful, right?
Unexpectedly, Sun Yizhou waved his hand: "Don't rush, the most important thing right now is to reverse engineer 'WeChat Farm'. You should quickly create a clone of 'WeChat Farm'. As for the development of the campus network client, there's no rush. We'll talk about it after you've developed 'WeChat Farm'!"

Dai Hede's smile froze, replaced by despair: "!@#￥%..."

Reverse engineering WeChat Farm is extremely difficult.

The more they tried, the less they could manage.

They might as well just copy the gameplay from the start and develop it from scratch.

Unfortunately, there's no going back.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue the reverse engineering.

But if one day the truth comes out and the boss finds out that the reverse engineering has failed, then it's really over!

We need to find a way out in advance!
Hey!
With a sigh, Dai and De could both foresee their future.

And I feel like I can't hide it for much longer!

The next day, Vipshop's first-day sales figure came out: 6078 million!
It was a great success, even higher than U-Tuan International's 5849 million.

Wang Junshan was very satisfied.

Of course, this is only the sales volume on the first day of the promotion. Subsequent subsidies will be less generous, and the sales volume will gradually decline.

If it can eventually stabilize at around 30 million, that would be good.

There's no other way; we have to take it one step at a time.

In the current landscape of comprehensive e-commerce, it's simply impossible to compete with Taobao; it will only be precisely crushed by Alibaba.

But Alibaba doesn't bother with vertical e-commerce.

In its previous life, Alibaba didn't take Vipshop seriously and let it develop on its own.

A comprehensive e-commerce platform with hundreds of billions in revenue simply doesn't look down on a vertical e-commerce platform with billions in revenue.

The hierarchy of contempt is right here.

It wasn't until 2013, when Vipshop had grown to a size with a GMV of tens of billions, that Alibaba began to take notice, launching Juhuasuan clearance sales and investing in Meilihui to suppress Vipshop.

By 2015, Vipshop had reached a GMV of 100 billion yuan, and only then did Alibaba consider Vipshop a competitor and begin to suppress it in all aspects.

Forcing brands to choose between platforms, upgrading promotional activities, and improving logistics, Vipshop's market share is shrinking...

Later, Vipshop became marginalized, and Alibaba no longer considered it a major competitor, instead focusing on Pinduoduo and Douyin. Vipshop was reduced to a niche player club.

It was precisely because he was familiar with this process and Alibaba's style of doing things, as well as its strategic disdain for vertical e-commerce, that Wang Junshan focused on vertical e-commerce.

And they refused to acquire Paipai.com.

If Alibaba doesn't acquire Paipai.com, it will show contempt for vertical e-commerce and continue to hammer Paipai.com!

Once the acquisition is complete, Alibaba will relentlessly crush YouTuan.com.

Even with Tencent's support, it will still be very difficult.

But Alibaba doesn't care if it only focuses on vertical e-commerce.

For general e-commerce companies, looking at vertical e-commerce companies is like Brazil looking at the Chinese national football team.

The hierarchy of contempt is deeply ingrained.

Similarly, the same applies to open social networks when looking at social networks among acquaintances.

A tenfold difference in the upper limit means that vertical e-commerce has reached its ceiling and can't catch up with the floor of comprehensive e-commerce!
The number of users of social networking among acquaintances has peaked at tens of millions, while QQ, an open social networking platform, has hundreds of millions!
No matter how well Vipshop and WeChat develop, in the eyes of AT (Alibaba and Tencent), they are just struggling in the cracks between the BAT giants, and are not worth caring about.

They are each other's biggest rivals!

Jack Ma even believes that Baidu Youa, which is about to launch, is more worthy of attention than Vipshop!

At the very least, Baidu Youa is a comprehensive e-commerce platform, and it also has the support of Baidu search and resources!
In the afternoon, Tencent held a board meeting and resolved to make a strategic investment in Vipshop.

Despite his best efforts to persuade him, Yao Mingchen remained uneasy and spoke again:

"Ladies and gentlemen, whether it's for the return on investment that Vipshop is aiming for to reach a market value of tens or hundreds of billions, or to use Vipshop's strategy to restrain Taobao Mall, I hope you will all vote in favor!"

With that, Yao Mingchen cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to the crowd, awaiting the result.

The voting then began, and Yao Mingchen was the first to raise his hand and vote in favor.

Ultimately, there were 34 votes in favor, 15 abstentions, and 21 votes against.

"The resolution to make a strategic investment of 20 billion yuan in Vipshop has been successfully passed!"

"Yes!"

Yao Mingchen clenched his fist, extremely excited.

Chairman Ma smiled and said, "Congratulations."

"Congratulations! Once we strategically bind Vipshop to us, Wang Junshan will become our ally."

Chairman Ma nodded: "Yes, I hope he can give me a surprise. It doesn't matter if he makes money or not, as long as he can tear apart Alibaba's airtight e-commerce empire!"

"Don't worry, he has the ability!"

Yao Mingchen returned to the investment department and immediately said:

"Book the plane tickets quickly! We'll fly to Beijing first thing tomorrow morning, and the investment department will work overtime tonight to discuss the specific plan!"

"Yes!"

The entire investment department at Tencent was busy all night.

It didn't end until the early hours of the morning.

"Everyone has worked hard tonight. Go back and get some rest. We need to catch a flight to Vipshop tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!" Everyone left.

(End of this chapter)