Chapter 181: Chapter 181: Pinduoduo’s Progress
With the time and place set, Wu Yun called for Qi Fei, who was still enjoying the view from the master bedroom, and they left together.
The two agents saw Wu Yun and his companion to their car. Watching the taillights of the "Little Frog" disappear, the female agent asked in confusion, "Brother Yang! What was that all about? Did the talks not go well?"
The male agent explained patiently, "Xixi, a deal for a luxury home like this isn’t as easy as you’d think. Look at regular property sales in Modu—most of them take a very long time to close. And that’s not even mentioning mansions worth eighty, ninety million, or even over a hundred million."
"But based on my experience, as long as this Eldest Young Master Wu and Ms. Du Juan can reach an agreement, the deal is a sure thing."
The female agent looked at her "master" with envy. After a deal like this, his commission would be several hundred thousand at least. Once you’ve accumulated enough resources, deals just fall into your lap even if you’re just lying at home.
...
After lunch, Wu Yun and Qi Fei took a short break at a coffee shop before driving directly to the Pinduoduo office.
The receptionist on duty looked at Wu Yun and Qi Fei in surprise.
"Hello, President Wu!"
Wu Yun led Qi Fei straight toward Zhou Shen’s office. Most of the programmers, buried in their work, didn’t even notice their arrival.
Seeing Wu Yun push the door open, Zhou Shen smiled and stood up. "President Wu, you’re here already?"
Wu Yun casually pulled Qi Fei to sit on the sofa with him and replied, "We were looking at houses nearby this morning. It was convenient to come over right after lunch."
After personally pouring two glasses of plain water for them, Zhou Shen asked, "President Wu, has there been any progress on that front?"
Wu Yun knew, of course, that Zhou Shen was referring to Gome.
"We’ve scheduled a meeting for tomorrow at two p.m. in the conference room. Get the room and personnel ready. Oh, right, we’ll probably discuss the house first tomorrow. I’ll use that as a pretext to bring up a potential partnership," Wu Yun said, crossing his legs and leaning back on the sofa with his arms spread wide.
Noticing Qi Fei’s hesitant expression, Wu Yun explained, "The agent quoted me a price of 250,000 per square meter. It’s 391 square meters, for a total of 97.75 million. Nearly a hundred million. I felt that was a bit inflated, so I countered with an offer of 210,000 per square meter."
Zhou Shen had grown numb to Wu Yun’s extravagance. Even at 210,000 per square meter, the total would still be over 82 million.
And from the sound of it, Wu Yun was planning to pay in full. ’It seems I really backed the right horse.’
"President Wu, what’s your target price range? I need to have someone prepare a proposal," Zhou Shen said, taking out a notebook to take notes.
"I can accept 220,000 or 230,000. But definitely not 250,000. That would make it seem like I’m sucking up to her and begging for a partnership." Wu Yun was only using this as an opportunity to test the waters for a collaboration. If Gome didn’t work out, there was still Sunning, not to mention other appliance manufacturers.
But it would be truly foolish not to seize an opportunity when it presented itself.
"President Wu, how do you plan to broach the main topic after the negotiation tomorrow?" Zhou Shen paused his writing and leaned forward to look at Wu Yun.
Wu Yun gave a faint smile. "Act like a nouveau riche whale. I’m going to burn money. You tell me, will they get on board or not!?"
In truth, Wu Yun wasn’t lying. He had already decided to burn money. Once Pinduoduo went live and the "Help Me Slash the Price" and user referral campaigns began, money would flow like water.
To that end, Wu Yun and Zhou Shen had discussed several strategies. Of course, the primary target was still the "sinking market."
Of course, news of them seeking partnerships with major corporations like Gome definitely couldn’t be hidden from Ali and Jingdong.
This also served as a kind of smokescreen. Even if the two companies were on guard, they could still be misled by this classic misdirection.
Once Pinduoduo’s user base grew, that smokescreen could turn into a time bomb.
Zhou Shen agreed. "That’s true. If it were me, and I could increase my revenue at a minimal cost, I’d be willing to give it a try too. After all, sometimes a pie falling from the sky is too delicious to ignore."
Wu Yun smiled serenely. "I don’t believe we’ll face much resistance from Gome, but this can only be a side objective for us. President Zhou, have you contacted all the small merchants? Once the merchant version goes live mid-month, they can start listing their products!"
Zhou Shen put down his pen, refilled Wu Yun’s glass of water, and then said, "We’ve contacted most of the other merchants who aren’t on Taobao or Jingdong. As for the small merchants on those two platforms, we haven’t done a full-scale outreach yet. The main reason is that our merchant-side app isn’t out, and we’re afraid that large-scale poaching will attract their attention."
Zhou Shen continued, "Of course, you can’t really call it poaching. These merchants can register on multiple platforms. We’re just giving them another way to generate income."
Wu Yun glanced at Qi Fei. She was listening intently to their conversation, a smile on her face as she looked at him.
Wu Yun stroked Qi Fei’s long hair and said, "Senior, if you’re bored, you can go to my office. You can watch shows or something on my computer. This will probably take a while longer."
Qi Fei shook her head and said softly, "No, it’s fine. I just want to be here with you. Don’t worry about me."
Zhou Shen also smiled. "President Wu, I’ll keep it brief then, and also give you an update on integrating the WeChat Pay portal."
Because Little Red Car also has a partnership with WeChat and has integrated their payment portal, WeChat, in return, has given Little Red Car a dedicated download and service portal.
So, thanks to that prior collaboration, Little Red Car, as a sister company, directly introduced Pinduoduo to WeChat’s director, Zhang Xiaolong.
"I’ve already spoken on the phone with Zhang Xiaolong, the WeChat director Little Red Car introduced us to. I’m preparing to go to Feipeng City in a few days to discuss the details."
WeChat Pay only started its large-scale promotion in 2014, but what really blew the market wide open was the "red envelope shower" during the Spring Festival Gala.
In his past life, WeChat Pay and Pinduoduo could be said to have made each other successful, achieving a win-win partnership. As Pinduoduo’s user base grew explosively, the use of WeChat Pay also became much more frequent.
"WeChat has been around for almost four years, but they are indeed planning to start the massive promotional push for WeChat Pay this year."
"WeChat’s goal is to go head-to-head with Alipay. Alipay wants to get into instant messaging, and WeChat wants to conquer the online payment landscape."
"I’m certain that WeChat will succeed, or at least conquer half the market. Promotion means burning money. President Zhou, we might even be able to get a piece of their promotion budget pie and gain an ally on our own money-burning path."
Zhou Shen scribbled furiously. "No problem, President Wu. We’ll hold a meeting in the next few days to optimize the partnership proposal, and then we’ll submit it for your review."
Qi Fei’s beautiful eyes shone. She felt that the Wu Yun in work mode was like a completely different person from his usual self. This Wu Yun was mature and calm, exuding confidence with every move.
Wu Yun said with a serious expression, "President Zhou, I’ve told you before, I can single-handedly fund the first two rounds of cash-burning. But I can’t be the sole investor after that. After all, the company needs more than just capital; it needs resources."
Zhou Shen nodded in understanding.
"That’s why Tencent is the top-tier investor I’m targeting. They will definitely take the bait!"
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