From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 169 Obtaining WeChat Level 2 Access

Chapter 169 Obtaining the Secondary Entry Point to WeChat

Lin Mu was on the phone with Zhang Xiaolong when Zhang Xiaolong couldn't help but complain, "You're really something! The people you hired have used WeChat's 'Shake' feature to create a huge buzz. Now public opinion is starting to turn against us, and it's already affecting the product logic of the 'Shake' function."

Lin Mu feigned ignorance: "Little Dragon, what did you say? I don't understand."

Zhang Xiaolong said irritably, "Don't play dumb with me! Recently, there's been a group of people on WeChat pretending to be innocent young girls, using the 'Shake' function to scam people everywhere, tricking them into downloading Pinduoduo and joining group buys on it. Once the person has bought the items and downloaded the app, they just block them."

He paused, his tone full of helplessness: "I've seen quite a few related posts on Weibo and QQ Space, and some people have even sent letters and razor blades to WeChat headquarters, begging me to send them the accounts of those girls."

"Heaven have mercy! Are you even human? Those people probably still believe those innocent young girls were real, and they don't know they were just burly men in disguise!"

Lin Mu laughed heartily: "You actually heard about this? When I suggested the 'shake it' idea to you, I really didn't expect it to turn out like this. It was just a flash of inspiration."

Zhang Xiaolong believed this. He thought that no matter how powerful Lin Mu was, he couldn't possibly be so intelligent as to be able to calculate things in such detail. He said, "Enough nonsense. This shake function is really great. Do you have any other good ideas? Just say it. You won't lose out."

Lin Mu's eyes darted around, and he said with a smile, "You know what, I actually have some ideas, and more than one." He cleared his throat and his tone became serious: "Xiao Long, the development of Pinduoduo can't even come close to WeChat's."

I heard that WeChat's user base is growing by 1000 million every month, right?

"I'd like a secondary entry point on WeChat. Of course, I'm not asking for it for free; we can discuss the cost. I can offer a nine-figure fee for the entry point."

Lin Mu mentally calculated: If he remembered correctly, in his previous life, Pinduoduo spent 2 billion yuan to buy a secondary traffic entry point from WeChat. And this exorbitant entry fee was well worth it, making Pinduoduo a fortune. If he could take advantage of the window of opportunity when WeChat was just rising to prominence and negotiate a deal for 20 million yuan, he would make a killing.

Zhang Xiaolong pondered for a moment and said, "It's not impossible. I just talked to Huateng last time, and he asked me to collaborate more with your Pinduoduo. Tencent's investment department isn't too keen on continuing to support Paipai.com and has already decided to abandon it. They've found a new e-commerce platform—JD.com—and plan to take a two-pronged approach: one hand, they'll operate their own stores, and the other, they'll focus on low prices, to jointly block Taotian Group."

He added, "However, you still need to discuss the specific profit distribution with the investment department."

Lin Mu laughed. He knew that if he were talking to the investment department, it would be strictly business, and there would be no special offers. He joked, "Xiao Long, the people in the investment department are extremely competitive. If that's your attitude, I'll just talk to them about resource cooperation directly. Why would I need to give you advice?"

Zhang Xiaolong on the other end of the phone said helplessly, "Then tell me first. If your new idea is indeed of great help to WeChat, I'll swallow my pride and personally communicate with the investment department to try and get you some preferential treatment."

Lin Mu, feeling he had probed enough, then asked, "Have you considered developing a self-media platform within WeChat, allowing both institutional accounts and individuals to publish articles on this platform?"

Zhang Xiaolong looked puzzled on the phone: "Your idea won't work. The current self-media platforms are dominated by Weibo at the top, QQ Space, blogs, and Renren at the bottom. Whether it's about personal expression or celebrity traffic, it's all been taken over. Why would WeChat get involved in this mess? Besides, everyone has their own area of ​​expertise. In the self-media arena, Tencent Weibo is already holding the fort."

Lin Mu thought to himself: It seems that from the beginning, Zhang Xiaolong really didn't intend for WeChat to "try to do everything." He was sticking to his consistent "small but beautiful" approach. The various functions that followed, turning WeChat into the "water and electricity" of the internet, were probably gradually improved by the WeChat team. In this way, his "borrowing" approach had a direction.

He patiently explained, "Xiaolong, I have a different idea. We can start with the institution's number. Let me give you an example. For instance, when I go to the hospital, I need to register, but registering is troublesome. I don't know if there will be any numbers available when I go, or what number I am in line."

"But if I search for this hospital's official WeChat account at this time, I can immediately book an appointment, and also read some medical science tips and doctor reviews. Our official WeChat account is essentially a small webpage moved to WeChat. What do you think of this approach?"

Zhang Xiaolong's eyes lit up: "Interesting, incredibly interesting!" He then extended the idea further: "It's not just about hospital registration; we can also bring government agencies on board. All government-related matters, including registration, can be handled together. We can even have users pay water and electricity bills on it! WeChat is going to steal Alipay's business!"

Lin Mu added, "It's not just about the public domain; we can also develop in the private domain. Initially, we can invite some serious writers to write well-reasoned popular science articles, and then gradually relax restrictions to create a nationwide self-media platform. Moreover, our advantage over Weibo is that Tencent has a huge amount of Google's resources."

"We can do what Baidu and Google do, adding Google banners at the end of articles so that self-media bloggers can earn money on WeChat, thus creating a thriving ecosystem. Xiaolong, just imagine, when smartphones are widespread and everyone in China uses WeChat, WeChat will have 14 billion monthly active users, and we can dominate the article and information market of those 14 billion users!"

"Lin Mu, you're a genius!" Zhang Xiaolong exclaimed excitedly on the other end of the phone, repeatedly saying, "This idea is great, fantastic, even better than 'Shake'! However, there are many resource bottlenecks to overcome along this route, and we need the cooperation of Huateng. It will probably be launched on WeChat official accounts next year."

He said confidently, "Don't worry, Lin Mu, I'll talk to the investment department and they'll definitely give you a fair price."

By the end of March, Lin Mu glanced at Pinduoduo's monthly report: driven by WeChat's traffic, Pinduoduo's monthly active users had reached 2 million, monthly turnover was over 400 million yuan, and monthly revenue was over 4 million yuan.

Just then, Tencent's investment department sent someone over to inquire about and discuss the next round of investment. Peng Zhijian said, "President Lin, the capital market is gradually easing, spring is coming, and a large amount of hot money will soon pour in. Your Pinduoduo will be among the first to benefit."

"Now, institutions like Goldman Sachs in the US have taken a look around the domestic market and found that there is an interesting player in the e-commerce field, Pinduoduo. Tencent and Sequoia Capital are also interested in continuing to increase their investment. Our idea at Tencent is this: to give you a secondary entry point on WeChat and put you in the first position on the first row of the secondary entry homepage."

"At the same time, we will sign a performance-based agreement with you for our Series B investment. If you can achieve 5 million monthly active users and 400 million RMB in monthly revenue by the end of the year, Tencent will invest another 250 million RMB. As for the WeChat entry resources, we will sign a 4-year agreement with you, which is equivalent to a total investment of 450 million RMB."

Lin Mu tentatively asked, "What valuation can Goldman Sachs and Sequoia offer for the Series B round?"

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Peng Zhijian replied, "If you can achieve tens of millions of monthly active users, the valuation can reach 100 billion."

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