137: Chapter 137 Ma Kun also launched a "cut-the-price" promotion.

As Feng Haicang's voice fell, everyone in the conference room simultaneously turned their gaze in the same direction.

Ma Kun.

He sat in the seat next to Lao Ma, with his laptop open in front of him; the screen displayed an unclosed backend analysis page for Pinduoduo.

For the past few days, he had been browsing it for an hour or two every day, having looked through almost all the pricing logic for the products listed online.

Even Lao Ma, wanting to know his son's thoughts, cast a glance his way.

Facing the questioning, Ma Kun remained silent for a moment before speaking. His voice was steady.

"I also didn't expect that Qin Mo's goal was truly an e-commerce platform, and that he really intended to take on Taobao."

He paused, his tone calm. "I misjudged his direction before; I admit that."

No one in the conference room spoke.

Lao Ma sat in the main seat without saying a word, merely leaning back in his chair, his fingers tapping slowly on the armrest. Ma Kun continued.

"Qin Mo, as a person, certainly has some guts."

"He is shedding his own flesh to reshape his bones."

"We have already confirmed from the backend data these past few days that fruit and vegetable e-commerce has a market, and a large one at that, yet Qin Mo handed it over to us without hesitation."

"The brand-new blue ocean of fruit and vegetable e-commerce is the meat, while the original traditional e-commerce market is the bone he wants."

"I'm afraid that from the very beginning."

Ma Kun paused. "Qin Mo intentionally leaked Pinhaohuo to us."

"He deliberately sacrificed this benefit to us, letting us go all-in on fruit and vegetable e-commerce, while what he truly wanted was to use this one-month window to complete Pinduoduo's transformation from fresh produce e-commerce to an all-category e-commerce platform."

"He was betting that once we spread our operations thin in fruit and vegetable e-commerce, we wouldn't be able to turn back in the short term, and that is indeed the case."

He looked up at everyone. "I did indeed underestimate him."

Everyone exchanged glances.

"So, what do we do now?" Lao Ma asked.

Although Ma Kun had misjudged Qin Mo's true purpose, his son was still the person best suited to steer Taobao at the moment.

Ma Kun leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

"Continue developing the fruit and vegetable e-commerce sector; since he has already ceded this market, we will take it over."

"Continue rolling out the national fresh produce delivery network, do not stop work on the contracted warehouse sites across the country, and proceed with all signed contracts according to the original plan. Fruit and vegetable e-commerce is a profitable market in itself; taking it over is not a loss."

He changed the subject.

"As for."

"The traditional e-commerce market share he wants to trade for fruit and vegetable e-commerce."

Ma Kun sneered. "It won't be that easy to take."

After pondering for a moment, he presented his strategy.

"Taobao will also launch a low-price product portal, an independent channel, specifically targeting the sinking market."

"We will also follow up with a Slash red envelope campaign; we cannot let Pinduoduo monopolize this user acquisition channel."

He turned a page of the report in front of him.

"Taobao's user numbers have been declining these past few days; the lost users are almost all those who only purchase small-amount and low-priced goods."

"This group is Pinduoduo's target audience, and we cannot let him take them for nothing."

Feng Haicang frowned after listening. "But most of our campaign funds are currently tied up in the logistics construction for fruit and vegetable e-commerce. In the short term, we don't have that much liquid capital on the books to distribute to users."

He paused and added, "Moreover, the reason Pinduoduo can push prices so low is that they have the storage and logistics system acquired from JD.com, and they have also signed contracts with small and medium-sized manufacturers to do direct-operated low-price goods, cutting out all the middle links."

"If we want to match the same prices, we can only reduce profits or even subsidize; this alone creates significant upfront capital pressure."

Feng Haicang pondered Taobao's budget for this quarter.

"So, if we launch a low-price channel that requires subsidies."

"Then we really don't have the extra funds to run a Slash red envelope campaign on the same scale as them."

"The billions invested in fruit and vegetable e-commerce last time have already taken up a significant portion of this year's budget."

Ma Kun did not answer immediately.

He leaned back in his chair, the corners of his mouth turning up as he laughed.

"Who said our Slash red envelope campaign has to be the same as Pinduoduo's?"

He stood up and looked at the others.

"We don't need to let users enjoy the same discounts and benefits; we don't need to actually hand out money to users like Pinduoduo does."

He paused, his voice steady.

"We just need to make users feel that they can have the same benefits, and that's enough."

"Make these users feel that they can succeed in the cut, and feel that they can get the same red envelope."

"After all, Pinduoduo's Slash red envelope isn't 100% successful either, and those users who don't succeed will only think it's their own bad luck, and won't blame Pinduoduo."

"Although this is because Pinduoduo's Slash red envelope has a high success rate, as long as we don't disclose the data, who will know that Taobao's Slash red envelope success rate is low? They will still think it's their own bad luck."

"Furthermore."

"To create differentiation, our Slash red envelope only needs to use a small amount of cash as bait."

He turned around and looked at everyone.

"For other rewards, we will give out high-value products directly!"

The conference room was quiet for a beat.

Then, one by one, people began to nod.

Giving away products versus giving away cash—the costs are completely different.

Cash is a tangible expense; one hundred yuan is one hundred yuan. Products are not necessarily the same, especially some factory backlogs, seasonal clearance, and leftover stock. These items sitting in the warehouse are costs themselves; taking them out for a campaign is equivalent to converting inventory costs into marketing costs.

Not to mention, the success probability of their campaign isn't high either.

In other words, they can use extremely low costs to stir up publicity of the same magnitude!

...

Taobao moved quickly.

Just three days later, the Taobao APP pushed a silent update. After the update was completed, a brand-new entrance appeared on the homepage navigation bar: Low-Price Zone.

The interface design of this zone was almost indistinguishable from Pinduoduo; the product arrangement was the same, and the price range was the same.

Even the display of the number of people currently joining the group buy next to each product was the same.

When it first went live, although it was immediately noticed by many Taobao users, the quantity of goods and the discount strength in this zone were about the same as Pinduoduo, failing to create a gap.

With the same product prices but without the support of the Slash red envelope, there wasn't much of a flow of users back from Pinduoduo from the sinking market at first.

But that very evening.

All users who had registered on Taobao, regardless of whether they had shopped on Taobao recently, received a text message from Taobao. Those who were browsing Taobao received a pop-up directly.

The content of the text and pop-up was very simple. It was almost exactly the same as the previous Pinduoduo campaign pop-up: "Congratulations on receiving a free product red envelope; invite new users to Slash for you to claim the reward."

The only difference was that the reminder received by most Taobao users was not a cash red envelope, but a product red envelope.

At first, these users all thought it was likely some junk product, but when they clicked in, they realized that the intensity of Taobao's campaign this time was quite significant.

Clothes, sneakers, beauty products, furniture...

Some people's Taobao pop-ups even offered free products that were... mobile phones worth two thousand yuan!