2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 381: Recharge 100 more and you'll become stronger
Putting aside Tencent's corporate culture, from an entrepreneur's perspective alone, Tan Jincheng still greatly admires Pony Ma's way of dealing with people.

Young Ma was ambitious and even considered paying salaries with QQ coins, but after being severely criticized, he became much more low-key.

After that, he focused solely on making money. He could use all sorts of tricks in business, but when it came to the Guojia (state government) level, he was as honest and obedient as could be.

During his speeches, he only talks about technical and professional topics, and he often appears in famous scenes where he is left speechless and embarrassed by other entrepreneurs' sharp rebuttals.

Is it really that he doesn't know how to refute it? I doubt it.

Managing a vast business empire and holding a high position, it's not something that can be easily achieved by controlling one's desire to boast and dictate affairs for over a decade.

When it comes to putting on airs, all men are part of a community, with no distinction of rank or status; do important figures not need to put on airs to gain satisfaction? No.

The other old man, Ma, is a former teacher. Doesn't he know the importance of keeping a low profile?
He still couldn't control his desire to show off, always wanting to outdo others. After being ripped off, he behaved himself for two years, but after two years, he wanted to go out and have some fun again.

The result was that he continued to be beaten, and only then did he behave himself.

Tan Jincheng sometimes finds it hard to suppress his desire to show off, and he really wants to. Zhao Wu's guess was not wrong; giving money to employees is also a different way of showing off.

Humans all need emotional value.

Little Ma's desire to see Tan Jincheng was definitely not just out of curiosity. He's so busy, how could he possibly wait in his office for a junior just out of curiosity, even if the social networking site this guy founded is already the second largest in the country?

Even though Kaixin.com has over 2000 million users and Happy Farm has over 1000 million users, with daily active users reaching an astonishing level.

However, compared to Tencent, or even just QQ Space, with its 2 million users, Kaixin.com is nothing and poses no threat. Its strategic position is not so high that it requires Tencent to personally intervene.

"Is Mr. Tan planning to get into e-commerce?"

When Little Ma met Tan Jincheng, he went straight to the point, without any intention of being polite.

Tan Jincheng sized up the man before him: 36 years old, with a net worth of over 40 billion, and likely to become the richest man in the country for some time to come.
She actually looks very young, not like 36 years old, but more like someone in their early 30s.

It's different from the photos I saw online in my previous life. How should I put it? It looks a bit naive.

It's really hard to connect this with that classic meme that says, "I've lost so much money I'm now the richest man in the world."

Tan Jincheng's gaze was too strange, as if he were scrutinizing something, which made Xiao Ma Ge a little uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but look himself up and down.

"Is there something wrong with me?" Little Ma asked, unable to resist asking the question that hadn't been asked before.

There were only the two of them in Xiao Ma's office. After the secretary poured tea, she left, while Gu Qingqing and the other two were led by Wang Wensong to visit the QQ Space project team.

The unexpected changes made it difficult for Tan Jincheng to implement his poaching plan, so he had to leave it to Gu Qingqing to decide, and to poach as many people as possible.

The Interactive Entertainment Division—if it seems like a good fit, just hand them your business card.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just admire Mr. Ma a bit, so I couldn't help but take a closer look."

If you recharge another 100, you'll become stronger. I'm about to cry from the loss.

Okay, okay, I can't think about it anymore, or I'll burst out laughing.

"Admire me? What makes you say that? President Tan seems to favor businesses in the real economy more. Shouldn't you be admiring the entrepreneurs in those businesses?"

"It's different. The fact that Tencent's stock is performing so well shows that your company's business is gaining increasing recognition."

"Mr. Tan is also paying attention to our company's stock? Sigh, it's been falling for the past two months."

"Of course we're paying attention. What's a little drop? Your company's stock price has increased more than fivefold from just a few dollars to where it is now."

Of course I'm paying attention! I not only bought at the bottom, but I also added to my position last year. I currently hold 100 million shares of Tencent stock, with a market value of around HKD 2700 million.

Tan Jincheng's cost was around HK$930 million, and he has made a profit of three times that amount.

Thank you, Mr. Ma!
"I don't understand stocks, but they have indeed performed well. If Mr. Tan is so optimistic about our company, you can buy some when the price drops."

Pony Ma also knew he could use this opportunity to promote his company's stock, but he couldn't say too much.

"Haha, I already bought it. I bought your company's stock back in 2005, around May? I can't remember exactly." "Hmm? 2005, May?"

Pony Ma's eyes flashed as he recalled an incident the securities department had reported. At that time, Tencent was experiencing a dark period of being abandoned by mobile operators, and its stock price was extremely depressed, falling to its lowest point in recent years.

Daily trading volume was also very low, with the lowest daily trading volume being only around HK$500 million. It seems that on that day, there was a large order of HK$50, which accounted for one-tenth of the total daily trading volume.

Could it be that Tan Jincheng bought it around that time?
"Around 5 yuan?" Little Ma asked tentatively.

"Yes, I was broke back then; I was very poor. I managed to scrape together some money to buy some of your company's stock."

Ma was speechless. How could he not remember the stock price in 2005? In mid-July 2005, he had reduced his holdings by 10 million shares at a price between HK$6.2 and HK$6.23.

This is his first reduction of holdings since Tencent went public.

Not only him, but the other co-founders also reduced their holdings at the time, simply because they were filled with confusion about the company after being abandoned by mobile operators.

So this kid has stolen my and the company's management's assets? Who said he couldn't trade stocks? The news from Beicang is that this kid is very good at business, but he's a complete novice at stock trading, and the stocks he bought have been stuck for a whole year.

If it was 05, then he wasn't lying when he said he had finally scraped together some money to buy stocks. Back then, he wasn't exactly wealthy, and several hundred thousand yuan was no small sum for him.

So it seems he really went in with the intention of buying at the bottom, and he's telling me he doesn't know how to trade stocks?
“At that time, our company was facing great difficulties. Why would Mr. Tan think of buying our stock?”

"The foundation of the internet is its users. QQ has so many users. The difficulties are temporary, but the benefits are long-term."

"There are other competing software on the market, such as MSN and Sky, and they are just as good as us. Even Kaixin001 is now cooperating with MSN. Why would it be QQ?"

"Outsiders may not be able to chant sutras. Besides, when it comes to investing, there are gains and losses. If I lose, I'll just consider it as buying a QQ account for 50 yuan. By the way, Mr. Ma, could you give me two lucky numbers? Three would be fine too. I'll prepare one for my sister so she can brag about it to her classmates in the future."

Little Ma didn't take Tan Jincheng's last words to heart, thinking he was just joking.

Based on the information obtained, Tan Jincheng's rise to power, and the dialogue between these two questions and answers, Xiao Ma Ge roughly understood the young man's style of doing things, which was that he was bold.

He dared to go all in when starting a company and when buying stocks, but the returns from such all-in bets showed his keen insight. In 05 alone, he made HK$200 million by buying stocks at the bottom of the market.

The foundation of the internet is its users. Just from this one sentence, Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, founder of Tencent) knows that it was no accident that Tan Jincheng was able to make Kaixin001 a big and strong company.

Kaixin001's development process is like a continuous process of collecting users. It gained white-collar users through MSN and made it accessible to all ages through the social mini-game Happy Farm. In less than a year, its user base exceeded 20 million.

Happy Farm has become a phenomenon. It's hard to say how long this game will last, but judging from the assessment, Happy Farm can at least attract more users to Kaixin.com than its current size.

In other words, Kaixin001 will be a social networking site with at least 50 million users, and it's even possible that it will have over 100 million users.

"Going back to the previous question, does Mr. Tan plan to get into e-commerce?"

Owning a social networking site with over 5000 million users, using revenue from game monetization to develop a logistics network, and making very clever choices in terms of direction and partners.

Most importantly, by using public welfare and agricultural assistance, they have cleaned up the negative reputation of the game's revenue, which is truly a very creative idea.

Tencent will launch many games in the future, and it's predictable that, in terms of reputation, they won't be much better than Shengda. If they can adopt the farmer assistance model of Happy Farm, it will be a supplement to Tencent's reputation.

Furthermore, once internet companies grow large, they want to get involved in everything, and Tencent is no exception; they also covet the huge pie of e-commerce.

However, Tencent doesn't want to do this itself for the time being because it involves too much energy. Tencent, which is currently focused on interactive entertainment, doesn't have the energy to compete with rivals like Ali.

However, Tencent doesn't mind causing some trouble for its future competitors.

This is the real reason why Pony Ma wanted to meet Tan Jincheng; like Shen Nanpeng, Pony Ma was interested in Orange Technology's logistics system and its potential ambition to enter the e-commerce field.

Nodding, Tan Jincheng said, "That is the plan. Social mini-games alone are not enough to support the long-term development of Orange Technology."

Tan Jincheng didn't say whether Orange Technology would develop large-scale games, but there was no need to hide it from Pony Ma. Launching a fruit and vegetable special sale was already in the plan and wouldn't be long.

The website is already under development, and if someone really wants to find out, this matter can't be kept secret.

"Leaving aside competitors like Ali, doing e-commerce requires a huge amount of capital. Has Mr. Tan thought about how to solve this?"

(End of this chapter)