The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

The air in the Waldorf Astoria's ballroom was frozen.

The spotlight, like the operating light on an operating table, shone intently on the center of the stage.

Sitting there were representatives of Alibaba's "Eighteen Arhats": Jack Ma, Joseph Tsai, and Jam Hsiao, who was sweating profusely.

The audience was deathly silent.

The only sound was the clatter of the laptop keyboard, like a swarm of termites gnawing on rotten wood.

"Mr. Ma."

Mark Baum, who was sitting in the center of the first row, stood up.

He didn't hold a microphone, but his deep voice, resonating through his chest, clearly reached every corner.

He held up the thick prospectus in his hand, like a judge holding up a verdict.

"On page 142, I saw that Alibaba's mobile GMV share is rising, but the monetization rate is only one-third of that on PC."

Mark Baum pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold glint.

"This means that all your mobile data is junk."

"Whoosh—"

The audience erupted in chaos.

Although everyone knew this was Alibaba's Achilles' heel, no one expected Goldman Sachs to tear it apart so directly and so brutally.

On stage, Mr. Ma's smile froze for a moment.

He adjusted his posture and picked up the microphone.

"Mark, that's a great question, but we need to look at it from a developmental perspective. Alibaba's ecosystem is a whole; we're building a closed loop from payments to logistics..."

He is practicing Tai Chi.

This is what Mr. Ma excels at.

But on Wall Street, if Tai Chi is hitting cotton, that's art;

To slap a shrewd Jewish banker in the face is an insult.

"I don't want to hear about ecology."

Mark Baum coldly interrupted him, "I only look at the numbers. If there's no monetization capability, the so-called mobile transformation is a joke. Please answer directly: How can you prove that this traffic is valuable?"

The atmosphere instantly plummeted to freezing point.

Old Xiao frantically flipped through the Q&A booklet in his hand, but the sound of the pages turning was amplified in the microphone, sounding particularly jarring and chaotic.

No answer found.

Because that's the truth.

At that time, Taobao Mobile had not yet found an efficient way to make money.

Investors began to shake their heads, and some even started closing their laptops, preparing to leave.

This is Wall Street.

Patience is more precious than gold.

At this critical moment.

That's in the past.

A young, clear voice suddenly came from the shadows on the side of the stage.

It wasn't loud, but it was extremely penetrating.

All eyes in the room immediately turned to that direction.

Lin Che walked out from behind the curtain, one hand in his pocket, holding the black USB drive from before.

He ignored the hundreds of people below the stage and walked straight to the control panel.

"Who are you?" Mark Baum frowned.

Old Xiao was so startled he almost stood up. He was about to stop him when he saw Mr. Ma's eyes flicker.

Mr. Ma did not speak.

He's gambling.

I'm betting that this young man who dared to talk to me about "greed" on the plane can create a miracle.

Lin Che did not answer Mark's question.

He plugged the USB drive into the computer and his fingers flew across the keyboard.

"Click".

The image on the big screen changed.

The original complex financial statement disappeared, replaced by a huge, red, almost vertical growth arrow.

The background was pitch black, except for that red line, which looked like a bolt of lightning tearing through the night sky.

【Project W: The Next Generation】

Only this line of text.

Minimalist, brutal.

"I am Lin Che, a product expert from Alibaba's Wireless Business Unit."

Lin Che picked up a spare microphone and walked to the center of the stage.

At that moment, the spotlight shone on him.

His young face appeared pale and sharp under the bright light, like a knife just drawn from its sheath.

"Mr. Mark, you just asked why the monetization rate on mobile devices is low?"

Lin Che looked at the arrogant old man below the stage, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

"That's because you're using the logic of the PC era to judge the creatures of the mobile era."

"What do you mean?" Mark Baum squinted.

Lin Che pressed the page-turning pen in his hand.

A set of data models popped up on the screen. It wasn't a traditional e-commerce funnel model, but rather a network structure resembling the spread of a virus.

There was a red dot in the very center, which then instantly multiplied into six, and then into thirty-six...

"In the PC era, it was 'people searching for goods,' where users searched with a specific purpose, resulting in high conversion rates, but traffic was expensive."

Lin Che's voice echoed in the banquet hall, carrying the fervor of a preacher.

"But in the mobile era, screens have become smaller, and search is no longer the entry point."

He suddenly pointed to the terrifying fission diagram behind him.

"Therefore, we redefined the rules—goods find people."

"This is a trust currency based on social relationships; it's not about traffic, it's about human nature."

On the screen, next to the red curve, there was a line of small text:

Customer Acquisition Cost: $0.05

Day 1 Retention: 65%

The entire room fell into a deathly silence.

Customer acquisition cost of five cents?

All the investors present gasped in shock.

It's worth noting that JD.com's customer acquisition cost has now soared to $20!

What does this mean?

This is practically a money printing machine!

"This is our new project, codenamed 'Project W,' which we are secretly testing."

Lin Che lied. Without batting an eye.

He pointed to the curve, "Without any promotion, relying solely on social sharing, its daily active users have increased by 400% in the past week."

This is the data that Liu Dazui considered "fake" on the plane.

At that moment, it became a miracle.

"Mr. Mark."

Lin Che walked to the edge of the stage and looked down at Mark Baum.

"You're not worried about the monetization rate."

"What you should be worried about is whether your wife will fire you if you miss this train today."

silence.

A full ten seconds of silence.

Mark Baum stared at the "$0.05" on the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing.

He slowly closed the cap of the red fountain pen in his hand.

This is a gesture of surrender.

"What's this pattern called?" Mark's voice was dry.

Lin Che smiled.

Under the spotlight, that smile appeared exceptionally bright, yet also exceptionally dangerous.

"Social E-commerce."

"Or perhaps..."

Lin Che paused for a moment, then threw out the phrase that would dominate the lower-tier market in the next decade.

Group buying.

"Splash splash splash—"

I don't know who started it, but applause erupted like a storm.

Then everyone stood up.

Those investors who were originally preparing to leave now had greed in their eyes, as if they had seen a gold mine.

They didn't understand what "group buying" meant, but they understood the vertical growth curve and the outrageously low cost.

This is enough.

This is the language Wall Street understands.

Mr. Ma sat in his chair, watching Lin Che standing at the edge of the stage receiving applause.

His eyes were complicated.

There was admiration, there was surprise, but more than anything, there was a deep-seated apprehension.

This young man is too amazing.

It was so alluring that he felt he was losing control.

......

Half an hour later.

The roadshow has ended. The subscription was oversubscribed.

The Alibaba team was surrounded as they left the banquet hall.

Lin Che walked at the very back.

As soon as I entered the lounge, Lao Xiao locked the door from the inside.

The noise outside was shut out through the door.

The lounge was quiet, with only the whirring of the air conditioner vents.

Mr. Ma was sitting on the sofa, loosening his tie.

Joseph Tsai and Hsiao stood on either side, not daring to breathe.

"come over."

Mr. Ma didn't turn around, but simply said something.

Lin Che walked over and stood in front of the coffee table.

"Mr. Ma."

Mr. Ma turned around, his shrewd eyes fixed on Lin Che.

"Project W".

Mr. Ma pondered the word, his tone unreadable, "Why haven't I seen such a large strategic project mentioned in any of the preliminary financial statements?"

This is the hook.

Lin Che just painted a huge picture on stage, which boosted the stock price.

But now, the boss has come to check the accounts.

If he says it's his personal work, that's embezzlement, and he'll go to jail.

If he says this is a company project, then where is the data? Where is the team?

This is a dead end.

But Lin Che showed no sign of panic.

He had already prepared his explanation.

That perfect lie that can turn black into white and private property into public property.

Lin Che raised his head, meeting President Ma's scrutinizing gaze.

"because......"