From Taobao intern to the father of Pinduoduo

Chapter 159 Ma Huateng's Breakdown

Chapter 159 Ma Huateng's Breakdown

Shenzhen, Tencent headquarters. Ma Huateng, who was strolling in the company park, received a document from Lin Mu.

He opened the file out of curiosity and installed the beta version of Pinduoduo.

After the software finished installing, he saw an update on the homepage: the first row of the homepage previously had three icons, namely 1...

The flash sales for 10 yuan, 10 yuan, and 30 yuan have now added an icon called "Get Free Fruit." The name is certainly simple and straightforward.

Xiao Ma clicked on the "Get Free Fruit" feature. As soon as he clicked, the pop-up window made him a little nervous. The simple and crude pop-up window occupied the entire screen, asking him to choose a free fruit to receive.

Xiao Ma frowned. As a product manager, he simply couldn't stand these aesthetically unappealing pop-ups.

He scrolled through the pop-up window and found that there were only five or six kinds of fruit available for collection.

He randomly selected a pomelos. After making the selection, the pop-up window disappeared, and a fruit tree appeared in his view, with a watering icon below it.

Just as Xiao Ma breathed a sigh of relief, the next scene made the veins on his forehead bulge: the screen was incredibly flashy, with a white finger poking and pointing above the icon, prompting him to click here next, and the icon was even glowing, making it impossible to look away.

"Okay, this tutorial is really simple and crude." Ma Huateng nodded helplessly, then frowned, noticing that his phone was lagging slightly. "Damn, is this for real? This simple web-based simulation game is making my top-of-the-line iPhone lag?"

Ma Huateng took a deep breath and waited a moment. Finally, the phone returned to normal, and the watering operation was successfully completed on the screen.

After watering several times, the fruit tree was quickly filled with water, and then a second pop-up appeared on the screen.

Little Ma rubbed his forehead, thinking to himself, "Is there really no choice at all?"

The pop-up window showed that a 5 yuan no-minimum-spend coupon had been added to his backpack. He could then simply come back every day to water the plants for a week to receive the fruit he had just selected for free, and he could also receive the coupon in the second week.

After another round of testing, Xiao Ma exited Pinduoduo with a relieved expression, his whole body relaxing. He almost gritted his teeth as he sent Lin Mu a message: "Your feature is simple, straightforward, and practical."

Lin Mu sent a "haha" emoji and replied, "Not at all, I learned it all from Tencent's games."

Upon seeing this, Xiao Ma blushed. He knew all too well how simple and crude Tencent Games' payment guidance was. Never mind, he decided not to comment. Then he pondered: Could Pinduoduo's "disgusting" and crude guidance methods really work? How effective would they be?

If it really works, he sent a WeChat message to Lin Mu: "Xiao Lin, after this feature goes live, tell me how well it performs."

Lin Mu gave an OK sign.

1

In Guangxi, Zhu Ce called his wife Liu Xiufang and several relatives from the village. Together, they picked fruit, packed it, and sorted and boxed it in the orchard.

They loaded more than 100 kilograms and more than 10 boxes of fruit onto a tricycle, and then Zhu Ce would ride the tricycle to the express delivery station to sign for the delivery.

After packing the boxes, Zhu Ce looked worried. More than 10 days had passed since he agreed to cooperate with Wang Zaixing. In these 10 days, he had registered for Pinduoduo's merchant version and launched his products, but Pinduoduo had not provided any traffic support. He had only sold two boxes through organic traffic.

Wang Zaixing explained that this was a major marketing campaign, and many features were still in beta testing, asking him to wait patiently.

Today we had a small surge in orders, apparently because a new feature was launched in beta, and he ordered 10 in one day.

Many boxes of Shatin pomelos were shipped out.

Although this is only a beta version and has not yet been released for public testing, so it doesn't mean anything, Zhu Ce was still a little uneasy: what if his fruit still couldn't be sold after the feature was officially launched? Even if Pinduoduo bought it all at a price of 1.6 yuan per kilogram, he would still be in debt, making his already poor family even worse off.

Just then, a relative who was helping with the packing asked, "Zhu Ce, is this new business partner you found reliable? I heard it was your wife who found it for you. Be careful, don't get scammed again."

The relative's lips curled into a mocking smile. He was genuinely offering to help for free, but he was also genuinely mocking Zhu Ce.

Zhu Ce suppressed his urge to get angry and said, "I won't be fooled this time. The contract has already been signed, and the county magistrate even came to vouch for me."

The relative was very surprised after hearing this: "The county magistrate is here? Why didn't you tell us?"

Zhu Ce's lips curled up slightly: "The county magistrate just arrived yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to tell you yet."

The relative inwardly grumbled; it seemed Zhu Ce had truly struck gold this time. Pointing to the fruit in front of him, he asked, "What price did he offer you?"

Zhu Ce became alert, knowing he couldn't set the price too high. If he dared to say he would sell it for 3 yuan per kilogram, his orchard would probably be vandalized within a week.

So he quoted the lowest price: "It's 1.6 yuan per jin, but I don't know if I can sell it all. If I can't sell it, the company will buy it at 1.3 yuan per jin."

Hearing this, the relative breathed a sigh of relief: "If you sell them all at 1.6 yuan per jin, you can make a lot of money!"

Zhu Ce said with a wry smile, "Where can I make a lot? Uncle, you forgot, the money I used to contract the orchard was all borrowed. Even if I could sell it all for 1.6 yuan per kilogram, I would only earn a little bit of hard-earned money, about the same as the income from farming. Sigh, these days everyone is having a hard time."

"Don't worry too much about the money you owe me, I'm not in a rush," the relative said.

Zhu Ce thanked his relative and pedaled his tricycle to deliver the fruit to the courier station. As he pedaled, Zhu Ce's eyes reddened, and he felt wronged and frustrated: "What the hell kind of lousy place is this?!"

Pinduoduo headquarters, late December 2010. After a week of testing, the beta version did not encounter any major problems and was ready for official launch.

At this moment, Pinduoduo has already reached agreements with dozens of orchards, mainly located in several major fruit-producing provinces, covering a total output of four to five million catties.

Of course, Pinduoduo couldn't possibly handle all of such a large production volume. They contracted 10%, spending over a million yuan to give it away to users for free; the remaining production was used to help list the products on the Pinduoduo platform, optimize keywords and main images, and provide traffic support for legitimate sales.

Lin Mu's strategy is clear: increase monthly active users and attract new users by giving away free fruit, and then leave users with the impression that "Pinduoduo is an e-commerce platform that sells fruit, sells good fruit, and sells cheap and good fruit" through the free fruit giveaway.

The hands of time quietly turned, 2010 passed, the electronic calendar turned to 2011, and Pinduoduo's "Free Fruit" feature was officially launched.