141: Chapter 141 Completely Abandoning Taobao

"Are you saying it's possible that Qin Mo has been scheming against us from the very beginning? That both Meituan and JD.com have a connection to him?"

At this moment, Old Ma leaned back in his chair and remained silent for a long while before speaking.

And Ma Kun nodded.

"This is just my guess, but I fear he had already calculated our every move."

He paused, his voice tinged with exhaustion.

"From the start, his target was the e-commerce market in the sinking market."

"After that."

"He acquired JD.com's logistics and warehousing as preparation for Pinduoduo, but he deliberately launched Pinhaohuo first to distract us."

"Regardless of whether we discovered the Pinhaohuo app or not, the outcome wouldn't have changed."

"If we hadn't discovered it, Pinhaohuo would still have evolved into Pinduoduo once users exceeded one million. Even if we had discovered it, we would have been led astray, entering the fruit and vegetable e-commerce sector and wasting time trying to contain Pinhaohuo."

Speaking to this point, Ma Kun sighed deeply.

"He had it all figured out from the beginning."

"Pinduoduo taking over the sinking market was almost a foregone conclusion."

After hearing this, no one in the conference room spoke.

The atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

Everyone remembered that not long ago, they were sitting in this same conference room, confidently believing that this Qin Mo who had defeated Tencent Group was nothing special.

How much time had passed since then?

Once the opponent's true purpose was fully revealed, they no longer had any power to resist.

They wanted to resist, but every step had already been calculated.

When they wanted to turn back, they found their feet were already in a pit, and all their chips were already pushed onto the table.

Finally, Old Ma looked at Ma Kun.

"Now that we know the final evolutionary form of the fruit and vegetable market, localized delivery is the end goal, and we have Ele.me. What do you plan to do next?"

Everyone looked at Ma Kun.

Ma Kun sighed heavily.

"The fruit and vegetable e-commerce market is a dead end."

"Unless you maintain a low-price advantage, only fruits from special regions and specific categories have a market on e-commerce platforms; other ordinary fruits and vegetables cannot compete with localized delivery."

He sat up straight.

Although it was difficult, he still made a decision.

"Shift most of the investment previously put into the fruit and vegetable market on Taobao to Ele.me, and launch localized fruit and vegetable delivery services on Ele.me."

"Although."

"Meituan has already entered the market early, but only we and Meituan have large-scale localized service capabilities in the market. Ele.me should still be able to capture a portion of the market, enough to avoid starving."

Hearing this, everyone in the conference room fell silent.

Although it looked like Taobao's funds were just flowing to Ele.me, both belonged to Anli Group.

But everyone present knew that the profits and losses of these two platforms could not be simply offset against each other.

Taobao's losses were real and would be clearly recorded in financial reports, while Ele.me's profits were not linked to Taobao; the money Ele.me made would not fill Taobao's ledger.

These were two separate sets of books.

"As for those warehousing and logistics lines."

Ma Kun spoke again, his voice having regained its calm.

"Have someone investigate specifically to see whether the losses from continuing to build these warehouses are smaller, or if the losses from breaching the contracts are smaller."

"After all, breach of contract also affects cooperative relationships with local counties, and the tax exemptions negotiated earlier will also be affected."

"Having invested so much capital in the early stages, the losses from continuing construction in many places are actually smaller than the losses from breach of contract."

He paused.

"You have to realize that because Ele.me already has localized delivery services, most of these logistics and warehouses under construction won't be usable, and in the end, they can only be used for Taobao."

Ma Kun's tone carried a hint of helplessness.

You have to understand.

This move provided no benefit to Taobao; they didn't need these warehouses and logistics to seize market share, and users wouldn't abandon Taobao just because their delivery was slower than JD.com.

Therefore, previously, Taobao had never made such unprofitable moves, but now it seemed that Taobao still had to build some logistics and warehousing; after all, the cost of breach of contract was higher.

Moreover, the construction costs of these warehouses and logistics would likely be recorded as losses on Taobao's financial reports.

As Ma Kun finished speaking, a few soft sighs echoed in the conference room.

But immediately, an executive asked, "But President Ma, you just said that as long as there is a low-price strategy, fruit and vegetable e-commerce still has some market."

"Why don't we maintain low prices? After all, judging from Pinduoduo's current situation, their fruit and vegetable channel will likely be kept, and they will use various low-priced but low-quality fruits and vegetables to seize this portion of sinking market users."

"Why don't we do that?"

Ma Kun shook his head.

"The profit from pure sinking market fruit and vegetable e-commerce is too low; it's not worth our effort."

"It's better to do some low-price fruit and vegetable promotions on Ele.me and divert these users to Ele.me."

He had just finished speaking when Old Ma, who was to the side, spoke up.

"The fruit and vegetable market is decided then."

"However."

"What about the conventional e-commerce sinking market?"

"After our campaign failed, Taobao's newly launched low-price zone was also criticized by many; it didn't retain many sinking market users at all. What do you plan to do?"

Everyone looked over.

They had already chosen to admit defeat in the fruit and vegetable market; all that was left was the sinking market. They didn't know if Taobao could still fight Pinduoduo in this direction.

But facing everyone's gaze, Ma Kun just shook his head.

"The previous campaign had a huge impact on the reputation of Taobao's low-price zone. No matter how we operate this low-price zone subsequently, at least in the short term, we won't be able to catch up to Pinduoduo."

He paused.

"So, let Taobao's low-price zone be; there's no need to continue investing."

"We can also withdraw the subsidies for those low-priced goods we were subsidizing."

Ma Kun sighed heavily.

His voice was not loud, but every word landed clearly in the ears of everyone present.

"Since Qin Mo wants this sinking e-commerce market so much, then I will give this market to him."

The conference room was deathly silent.

With these words spoken, it meant that Taobao had officially given up on competing with Pinduoduo in the low-price sinking market.

You know.

The terrifying order volume and user growth rate of Pinduoduo these past few days were enough to prove that this market had a huge potential user base.

Those middle-aged and elderly people in towns who had never shopped online before were completing their first e-commerce transactions in their lives through Pinduoduo.

But Ma Kun still chose to give up.

Because giving up was useless anyway; after the reputation collapsed, the user stickiness of the low-price zone had bottomed out. For the same goods at the same price, users would unhesitatingly choose Pinduoduo instead of Taobao.

Although due to the scale of Taobao, Taobao's low-price zone might still retain a certain market share, it wouldn't exceed ten percent.

Everyone's gaze turned to Old Ma, wanting Old Ma to persuade him otherwise.

Old Ma also shook his head.

Although he had handed over the position of managing Taobao and Alibaba to Ma Kun, his own business judgment had not diminished.

He could see that after the previous campaign disaster, in the sinking market, Taobao really couldn't handle Pinduoduo.

It wasn't that they didn't want to fight; it was that they no longer had any cards to play. The campaign disaster ruined their reputation, cutting subsidies drove users away, and the logistics system hadn't been built yet.

What was there to fight with?

Looking at the oppressive atmosphere in the conference room, Ma Kun spoke again.

"However."

Everyone looked up.

"Although we have given up on the sinking market, we can't let Qin Mo enjoy this market so easily."

"Since he wants the sinking market, then I will only give him the sinking market. I want to make all users outside of the sinking market group abandon this software."

Old Ma looked over.

"How?"

"I want to make Pinduoduo completely tied to the words 'low quality' and 'industrial waste'."

Ma Kun's voice was very low.

Old Ma frowned, understanding Ma Kun's meaning.

"You want to smear this software?"

"Let Pinduoduo only have those sinking market users who care most about price, and apart from that, no other category of user retention."

Ma Kun nodded.

"Although the number of users in the sinking market is large, the profit is not high."

"As long as no one buys those high-priced goods in the Pinduoduo app, the profit of this software will be extremely low, not to mention that Pinduoduo doesn't have many high-priced goods right now."

"We need to let the outside world know that for an e-commerce software, things like user count, subsidy intensity, and reputation are all empty; what truly decides the status of an e-commerce software is sales volume."

He paused.

"The 618 Shopping Festival is coming soon, right?"

Others nodded.

Feng Haicang flipped through the schedule in his hand.

"Last year's 618, Taobao's single-day sales reached 180 billion. This year's volume is even larger than last year, so this figure will likely be even higher."

Ma Kun leaned back in his chair.

"Then let's use this year's 618 to let the outside world see who the real boss of the e-commerce market is. Don't think that a software targeting the sinking market can catch up to Taobao."

Old Ma also nodded.

"This Pinduoduo software, because the 'slash price' activity is still ongoing, by the time 618 arrives, it will probably have accumulated hundreds of millions of users."

"But after all."

"Pinduoduo only has sinking market goods; it doesn't even have high-end electronics or beauty products. Even if they launch a 618 campaign, a daily sales figure of ten or twenty billion would already be quite good."

"Only then will the outside world truly know how large the gap is between these two software."

As this sentence was finished, a few soft laughs finally sounded in the conference room.

After deciding to completely give up on the sinking market, it didn't matter what happened to Pinduoduo, and their mindset became much more relaxed.

Anyway, it was just a piece of software that only did the low-end market; no matter how large its volume was, it couldn't threaten Taobao's core business.

Just at this moment, Feng Haicang's phone vibrated a few times.

He looked down at the message on the screen, and his face instantly turned ugly.

Others noticed the change in his expression.

"What's wrong?"

Feng Haicang didn't speak; he clicked quickly on his laptop, then projected the image onto the big screen behind him.

On the screen was an interview video that had been uploaded not long ago. A reporter was interviewing Xiao Ma, with the background being downstairs at the Tencent Group headquarters.

The reporter held the microphone.

"President Ma, recently Taobao had a campaign disaster, the stock price plummeted, and there is a lot of doubt from the outside world regarding Anli Group. What is your take on this matter?"

Xiao Ma faced the camera, the corners of his mouth turned up significantly.

"I think Taobao will definitely be able to survive this difficulty."

The reporter naturally asked why. And the corners of Xiao Ma's mouth turned up even higher.

"After all, someone inside Taobao has said that Qin Mo is nothing special. Since they think President Qin is nothing special, then they must be able to think of a solution. I have confidence in them."

The image froze.

The entire conference room was silent.

Ma Kun's face turned quite ugly within a few seconds, because not long ago, in the courtyard of the Wuzhen Summit, he had said this in front of everyone.

Unexpectedly, this Xiao Ma, after Taobao suffered a setback, immediately jumped out and returned this sentence to him exactly as it was.

Is the founder of Tencent Group this petty?

Old Ma leaned back in his chair, shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness that he had long expected.

"I told you long ago, be cautious in your words and actions..."