131: Chapter 131 Pinduoduo is officially launched! Help me cut the price!

With this update, Pinhaohuo didn't just change its name; it also stopped hiding its relationship with Langchao Group, fully integrating itself under Langchao Group.

Meanwhile.

Pinduoduo also completely bared its fangs, directly adding countless products to its homepage and fully entering the e-commerce market!

These products were all very cheap, targeting the sinking market: paper and daily necessities for a few dollars a pack, as well as various electrical appliances with significant discounts right from the start, and so on.

Furthermore.

Pinduoduo launched a blitzkrieg right from the start. The first campaign pushed after the update was the most exaggerated and massive social fission user acquisition event in the history of the Great Xia internet.

Therefore, after this update.

Every user who opened the new version of Pinduoduo could see one campaign.

Slash the price to withdraw cash!

...

In a teaching building at an ordinary university in Guangcheng.

During the first class of the morning, the teacher on the podium was reading from a PPT in a steady voice.

The classroom was sparsely populated, with less than half the seats filled. A few students in the back row were slumped over their desks catching up on sleep, some in the middle rows were wearing headphones and scrolling on their phones, and only a few scattered female students in the front row were taking notes.

The teacher was clearly used to this scene; he didn't even lift his eyelids as he continued reading his slides.

Wei Yingjie sat by the window, scrolling through his phone in boredom.

This wasn't an important major course. He didn't even always come to class, and he only climbed out of bed today because his roommate said there would be roll call.

At this moment.

He had just opened Taobao to check the fruit and vegetable channel.

These past few days, the fruit and vegetable e-commerce war had been in full swing. Every morning, he did the same thing: open the fruit and vegetable channels of major platforms to see if there were any new campaigns.

He had just snagged a ten-yuan durian the day before yesterday, which was delivered today, and now he wanted to see if there were any similar bargains to be had.

In Taobao's fruit and vegetable channel, the low-price group-buying section on the homepage was still there, but the discount intensity had clearly shrunk compared to the previous few days.

Perhaps it was because the user growth rate of Taobao's fruit and vegetable channel was too fast, directly capturing the majority of the market, so after just over a week, Taobao's discount intensity had weakened.

"The announcement yesterday said they were investing billions into pipelines, why not use that for campaigns instead?"

"Compared to faster delivery or freshness, I still think cheaper is best."

He muttered a few words, exited Taobao, and successively opened the fruit and vegetable portals for JD.com and Suning.com.

The situation was similar to Taobao. Because he had already exploited every platform, there were no new campaigns or large discounts in the short term.

Finally.

He opened Pinhaohuo.

The screen went black, and a prompt popped up, requiring him to go to the app store to update.

It wasn't a normal optional update; it was a forced update. He couldn't get in without updating; it wouldn't even let him see the main interface.

Wei Yingjie frowned. He hated forced updates the most, and his finger was already hovering over the uninstall button after a long press.

Pinhaohuo's discounts during this period were the fewest among all the platforms, far worse than Taobao's, and he hadn't used it many times since downloading it.

But just as he was about to uninstall it, he had a change of heart. Forced updates—this kind of action usually wasn't a small deal.

Often, they were accompanied by the launch of certain campaigns.

"A big update, there should be a campaign, right?"

He reopened the software, clicked the link to redirect, and began the update.

A few minutes later, Pinhaohuo finished updating.

The original icon had turned into a brand-new red icon with the character "Pin" in the middle.

The name had changed too.

Pinduoduo.

"The name changed too?"

Wei Yingjie paused for a moment. He opened the new version's interface, logged in, and as it finished loading, he thought he had clicked the wrong app.

The homepage was no longer just for fruits and vegetables.

Clothes, shoes, daily necessities, small appliances, snacks—the dense list of products seemed endless when scrolling from top to bottom. Fruits and vegetables were just one of the category portals, placed among many others, no longer the most prominent one.

Just as he was about to exit to check if he had clicked the wrong icon.

A pop-up window appeared right in the center of the screen.

"Congratulations, you have received a 200 yuan red envelope!"

Subconsciously, he clicked to view it, and the details popped up.

"The red envelope is divided into a 100 yuan cash red envelope and a 100 yuan shopping red envelope. Invite a new user to help you 'slash the price,' and you can claim the reward!"

"The cash red envelope can be withdrawn directly to your bank card!"

Wei Yingjie's finger froze.

One hundred yuan in cash. He did the math; he had almost spent his living expenses for this month, and this 100 yuan would be just enough to help him scrape by for the last few days.

But the key was.

Were they really giving away money?

"Is this for real?"

He carefully looked at the rules. Inviting a new user would increase the progress bar, with an average of 5% per user. Once the progress bar reached 100%, he could claim the cash reward.

In other words, he could get 100 yuan in cash by finding twenty people.

Withdraw directly, no deductions.

Although he still felt it wasn't very reliable, trying it didn't cost anything anyway.

He first nudged his deskmate with his elbow.

"Help me download an app; it seems you can get a red envelope."

"For real?"

While saying this, the deskmate handed his phone directly to him. After downloading and installing via the QQ sharing link, the other person logged in successfully.

The next second.

The progress bar on Wei Yingjie's phone jumped, and a "critical hit" notification popped up; the progress bar leaped by nearly 10%.

This "slash red envelope" feature actually had critical hits!

He returned the phone. As his deskmate was also looking at the red envelope withdrawal pop-up on his own Pinduoduo app, Wei Yingjie quickly did the math: if there was a critical hit every time, ten new users would be enough!

It was worth a try; after all, it didn't cost money to ask classmates to download the app.

Subsequently.

He immediately started mobilizing the people around him, asking them to help him download Pinduoduo.

"This thing isn't real, is it?" a classmate who had just finished helping him slash the price leaned over.

"I don't know, but trying it doesn't cost anything."

Very soon.

He had invited almost all the classmates around him, but the progress bar was still halfway there. Subsequently, Wei Yingjie sent the link to the class QQ group.

"Can anyone help me click this? I'd be very grateful."

"Just download the app and log in."

"It seems you can get cash."

Someone in the group quickly replied, asking if the "download to get 100 yuan red envelope" in the link was real.

Wei Yingjie was typing an explanation, saying he wasn't sure either, when his phone vibrated a few more times. People had successively clicked his link, and the progress bar was inching upward.

After all, he was quite popular in class, and quite a few classmates helped him download the app.

Just then.

A classmate from the front row turned around, holding the latest model of mobile phone, a smile of undisguised amusement hanging on his lips.

"Hey, Old Wei."

"You actually believe this kind of trick? It's definitely a scam."

"And, to make such a big fuss over 100 yuan, is it worth it? Even if it were real, I wouldn't bother. If 100 yuan fell on the ground, I wouldn't even pick it up."

This person was Old Wang, a well-known rich kid in the class who loved to show off his new purchases whenever he had nothing to do. He was never polite when speaking and always started by talking about how rich his family was.

Wei Yingjie ignored him and kept staring at the progress bar.

91%, just two more people needed.

The progress bar jumped.

97%.

It jumped again.

100%.

A new prompt window appeared on the screen.

"Congratulations, you have reached the goal for the 100 yuan cash red envelope. You can withdraw it directly."

Wei Yingjie felt his breathing quicken.

He went to the withdrawal interface, confirmed there was 100 yuan, and clicked the withdrawal button.

His deskmate also noticed Wei Yingjie's actions. Seeing the progress bar was full, he whispered from the side, "This thing must be fake, right? What platform would give away money for no reason?" His tone was very skeptical.

But just a second later.

100 yuan arrived in his bank account.

"Holy crap."

Wei Yingjie stood up abruptly from his chair, not even caring about the pain when his knee hit the table leg.

"It really arrived!"

"100 yuan in cash!"

This exclamation caused the entire classroom to quiet down for a beat. People from all around gathered over, and even the few female students in the front row who were taking notes turned around.

Only the teacher on the podium was startled, not knowing what the student was talking about.

"Sorry."

After apologizing, Wei Yingjie sat down. On his phone, the latest notification from Pinduoduo popped up again.

"You can continue to invite new users; the next cash red envelope is 50 yuan."

Beside him, the campaign displayed on his deskmate's Pinduoduo app was still the initial one: 100 yuan cash plus a 100 yuan shopping red envelope.

Subsequently.

He and his deskmate exchanged a glance.

Both of their gazes swept over the others in the classroom. Those who had just been invited by Wei Yingjie to download Pinduoduo were also looking at their own phone screens at that moment.

Even many who hadn't helped Wei Yingjie download Pinduoduo, but who had seen the messages in the class group, had figured something out from Wei Yingjie's words just now.

For a moment.

The entire classroom suddenly fell silent.

The next second.

The bell rang for the end of class.

Almost instantly, most of the people in the classroom sprang into action, with only a few who didn't know what was happening and had just woken up looking confused.

"Old Zhang, give me your phone quickly, do me a favor."

"Teacher! Don't leave yet, can you help me download an app?"

"My phone, my phone! I just woke up, why are you grabbing my phone!"

"Help me, help me, scan this code. Once you scan it, you can get 100 yuan."

"Class monitor, don't leave yet, help me slash the price, just one slash."

Some were sending links to classmates in the back row, some were flipping through their contacts to find people in the dorm next door for help, and others had already started calling home to ask their parents to download Pinduoduo.

The whole classroom instantly turned into chaos.

Everyone knew very well that the earlier one acquired new users, the higher the probability of success, because there would definitely be fewer and fewer new users!

Seeing that there was no room for him to compete in the classroom anymore, Wei Yingjie rushed out of the back door of the classroom and directly intercepted others from the next class who were finishing their lecture.

Meanwhile.

Several of his classmates from his original class also slipped out of the back door one after another, splitting into several groups and sprinting toward different classrooms.

"It's just 100 yuan, what's there to slash for?"

"What, you're going to slash too?"

"Then I'll head back to the classroom myself."

The only person in the class who didn't take action was the rich kid, his face full of disdain as he walked toward the outside of the teaching building.

But for some reason.

His pace kept getting faster.

"Old Wang, help me download Pinduoduo." A classmate ran over.

But Old Wang shook his head directly, not caring at all.

"Money, it's just paper."

"It's only 100 yuan that you can withdraw, is it worth it?"

Seeing that he wouldn't agree, the classmate didn't waste time and ran off immediately.

And by this time, he had already walked out of the stairwell, and his pace was still accelerating.

Finally.

When he walked to another teaching building, he finally couldn't help it anymore; he ran to a corner and grabbed a student who had just passed by.

"Hey, classmate."

"Can you do me a favor?"