2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 440 Unexpected Characters

As companies based in Zhejiang Province, both Flash Group and Orange Technology have relatively limited business reach in Hangzhou, the provincial capital.

Each city in Zhejiang Province has its own unique characteristics. Ningbo is an industrial and port city, and Hangzhou is also mainly an industrial city. However, since the rise of Taobao in the past two years, it has gradually begun to transform into an internet technology-oriented city.

Of course, Hangzhou is also a tourist city and a food city; the West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce is absolutely delicious.

The transformed city of Hangzhou and the Flash Group naturally have a sense of antagonism. Selling electric vehicles and clothes in the provincial capital is fine, but opening a factory is out of the question. In less than two years, who knows where they will be relegated to.

Orange Technology could actually move to Hangzhou. Orange Technology is not really a good fit for Ningbo, as it lacks suitable resources. Hangzhou, with its internet-oriented city characteristics, is more suitable for Orange Technology in terms of both resources and supporting facilities.

However, Tan Jincheng has no plans to move Orange Technology to Hangzhou.

Orange Technology doesn't plan to grow too big. The largest internet company in Hangzhou right now is Pig Farm, and in the future it will be Ali. With these two companies around, Orange Technology probably won't get many good resources here, except for having more complete supporting facilities.

Ahri is their own son, and the scale of the pig farm is something Orange Technology can't challenge.

It's better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix. It's better to stay in Beicang. The supporting facilities are a bit lacking, but at least it's our own son. If we need anything, we can just dig it up in Hangzhou. It's not far anyway.

Another reason is that if we really calculate according to the factions of later generations, Orange Technology should belong to the Tencent system, and it doesn't get along with Ali.

If you want to sell your company and cash out, go to Ali (a Chinese internet company), they have plenty of money and can offer a good price. But if you want to run the company seriously, it's better to work with Tencent.

Most of the time, Tencent really just invests, provides money and traffic, and helps you attract customers without interfering with your company's operations. In this respect, it is indeed a great help to people who want to run a serious business.

Pinduoduo, including JD.com, wouldn't have been able to gain a foothold so easily without Tencent's investment and traffic. For many years, Alibaba's Taobao system was truly a behemoth in the e-commerce industry, defeating all competitors both domestically and internationally.

With Taobao and the absolute leader in the payment field, Tmall has almost completely captured the profits of small merchants, truly displaying an invincible posture.

It's no wonder that Pony Ma was so arrogant that he couldn't be contained. During that period, the Alibaba group was definitely more popular than Tencent. Pony Ma is a tech guy who is low-key, but he is not good at or unwilling to market himself. During the most intense period of competition between the two sides, he was indeed suppressed quite a bit.

From its inception, starting with its Series A funding round, Orange Technology has carried a strong Guangdong provincial flavor. The investors from Qiming Venture Partners are from Guangzhou. Before its Series B funding round, Happy Farm had a deep cooperative relationship with QQ Space, a key project of Tencent at that time.

The Series B funding round even brought in Tencent Investment, and in every respect, Orange Technology cannot be separated from the Tencent label.

Moreover, Tan Jincheng had no intention of breaking away from this relationship. He understood the principle of benefiting from the support of a powerful figure, and being used to leveraging influence, how could he possibly voluntarily sever ties with it?

To be honest, although Tan Jincheng didn't really like either of them, if he had to choose one he disliked more, he would dislike Lao Ma more.

There was nothing else to it; it was just that his words and actions before he was taken down by the big boss made Tan Jincheng, an ordinary person at the time, feel a chill down his spine. He truly experienced the terror of capital.

Speaking of competition, Orange Products has a competitive relationship with Taobao, but the competition is not that great. In fact, the competition is greater with Jingdong, which is also a vertical e-commerce platform at the same time.

However, the two companies have different development models. Jingdong plans to build its own logistics network, while Orange Technology is cooperating with SF Express. Building its own logistics network is much more difficult, but once it is established, the company's scale will be much larger.

At that time, Jingdong will leave Orange Technology far behind.

Tan Jincheng, who had no plans to develop anything in Hangzhou, made a special detour back to Hangzhou after he had already gone to Changxin in Huzhou. It was actually an unexpected turn of events.

Originally, Hangzhou was not on the itinerary for this trip. It was someone Tan Jincheng never expected who, through an intermediary, extended an invitation to meet with him, wanting to have a chat.

The person Tan Jincheng didn't expect was Huang Zheng, the future leader of the "One Cut" cult, and the person who arranged the meeting for him was Boss Ding from the pig farm.

Mr. Ding is from Ningbo and occasionally returns to Ningbo to attend some entrepreneurs' annual meetings and other events. After Orange Technology's Series B financing, the two sides started to cross paths, but they were only nodding acquaintances.

Even a nodding acquaintance is still an acquaintance, and since Boss Ding is the middleman, we definitely have to give him face.

In fact, the future Boss Huang's background is similar to that of Tan Jincheng. Five years older than Tan Jincheng, he was born into an ordinary working-class family in Hangzhou. Unlike Tan Jincheng, who did not go to university, Boss Huang is an academic high-achiever.

Having graduated from Zhejiang University, he had known Mr. Ding since his university days and helped Mr. Ding solve a technical problem.

While talent and hard work are important, having a mentor is a rare opportunity. Huang Zheng is best known as the founder of BBK Electronics and the apprentice of a prominent figure in the investment world.

What many people don't know is that the opportunity for him to meet this bigwig, become his apprentice, and later help him launch Pinduoduo was given to him by Boss Ding. After Huang Zheng, who had helped Boss Ding solve technical problems, heard that he was going to study in the United States, Boss Ding introduced Huang Zheng to Boss Duan, who had just invested 200 million US dollars in him. At that time, Boss Duan had already withdrawn from the operation of BBK and was working in the United States.

He was appreciated by two big shots while he was still studying. Although he was excellent, such an opportunity is not something everyone has. In addition to this luck, he was also very lucky to find a job after graduating in the United States.

His first job was at Google, and he joined just as Google went public. He became a millionaire in a short time, and this million is in US dollars. This kind of incredible luck is something that not everyone can have.

No matter how you look at it, Mr. Huang is a lucky man. At only 27 years old, he is already rich. His luck in the first 27 years of his life was undoubtedly enviable.
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"Why don't you take my mom and the others for a walk around the neighborhood? I'll be at a teahouse nearby. If you need anything, just come find me there."

On the shore of West Lake, Tan Jincheng said to Gu Qingqing.

This meeting was a private one, and there was no business going on in Hangzhou. Only Tan Jincheng's family and driver came, while the others stayed in Huzhou.

With no business activities, Gu Qingqing returned to her youthful style. Today, she wore a white dress, her hair casually tied up, and Tan Jinyue, whom she was holding hands with, was also wearing a white dress with her hair tied in two small knots.

The two women standing together looked like sisters.

"Okay, I'll go shopping with Mom and the others. You can stay here, Brother Li, in case you need a driver."

"Let Brother Li go with you. I'll be fine here. It'll be more convenient for Brother Li to carry things with you."

It was a private meeting, and there wouldn't be many people present. Tan Jincheng was also eager to meet this future bigwig who had just returned to China. He wondered what he would be like in his early, inexperienced years.

As for safety issues, there's no need to worry at all. Compared to Tan Jincheng, Gu Qingqing, whose exposure has increased dramatically recently, seems to have an even higher chance of being recognized in a city with so many internet companies.

In terms of status, Tan Jincheng was much higher than Boss Huang, who had just returned to China. Since he had never had any contact with Tan Jincheng, he had to find an intermediary to see him.

Tan Jincheng didn't know why the other party wanted to see him. If it was about attracting investment, with Boss Duan supporting him, there was no need for ByteDance to step in.

This person has a lot of projects and funds at their disposal, and they also have an extremely wide network of connections in the investment circle.

If they really team up with Tan Jincheng's ByteDance to create Pinduoduo, then Tan Jincheng will definitely benefit. It would be good to meet him; maybe there will be an opportunity.
"Mr. Tan, I apologize for the intrusion and for taking up your time."

Wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and glasses, he was no different from the Mr. Huang who appeared on camera in later generations, except for being a little more naive.

The other party greeted them warmly as soon as they met.

Tan Jincheng smiled and extended his hand, saying, "How could that be? My mother was complaining that I brought her out but we didn't go to Hangzhou to play. Mr. Huang has given me a chance to make up for it this time."

"Not at all, I was being presumptuous. Besides, I'm not a manager at all. I'm just an unemployed young man right now, and I can't compare to you, Mr. Tan."

"Oh? What do you mean? Doesn't Mr. Huang have any new projects?" Tan Jincheng asked with some surprise.

Huang Zheng left Google and returned to China, definitely to start his own business. Tan Jincheng wouldn't be so foolish as to think that this lucky, high-achieving individual was coming to join him.

There could be all sorts of reasons for arranging a meeting, even just out of pure curiosity, but it couldn't possibly be because of this.

"There is indeed a new project, which is somewhat similar to Orange Products that Mr. Tan is currently working on, so I would like to learn from you. Mr. Tan, you are a recognized expert in marketing, especially that big giveaway of more than 6000 million yuan, which stunned everyone."

"Vertical e-commerce? Mr. Huang also wants to get into this area?"

"Yes, you could say that, but don't worry, the product categories are different from those at Orange Products Club."

This is the third update. I'll try to add more tomorrow.

By the way, I'd like to recommend a book by the same author: "Meritorious Deeds Exploding, You Call This a Demonic Cultivation?"
The story begins with a Nascent Soul stage demon who kidnaps the female protagonist and robs her at her doorstep.

It's in the fantasy/xianxia (fantasy/martial arts) category. If you're interested, please check it out.

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(End of this chapter)