2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 465 "Let's Meet" (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
A seasoned entrepreneur and investor is unlikely to utter absolute statements.

It's common for competitors to cooperate and buy each other's stock in the capital market. In layman's terms, this is called hedging, and everyone benefits regardless of who wins.

Is Mr. Tan a mature entrepreneur? Yes! There is no doubt about that.

Is he a sophisticated investor? Judging from ByteDance's trading activity in the A-share market, he certainly qualifies.

Regardless of whether ByteDance's investments are in the primary or secondary markets, even if there are specific individuals in charge, it's impossible for Tan Jincheng, the actual controller, to be unaware of any major investment decisions made by the company.

With Ali's immense popularity and the company's strong growth potential, it's unlikely that Tan Jincheng would use such absolute and even insulting language because they share a common hatred for him.

Sun Tongyu really wanted to ask more, but unfortunately Tan Jincheng didn't reply, which made him very anxious.

Miss Tang's body made Tan and Gu, who were dressed in light clothing, feel somewhat hot.

"Does it look good?"

"Not as good-looking as you, with a flat chest like an airport runway. You're just a figurehead; without that, you're nothing."

"Then why are you still watching?"

"Isn't it just your curiosity? I'm not as serious as you are. Let's not talk about that. Let's try out the positions from the movie."

"You still say you didn't look carefully!"

"It's not important."

Sun Tongyu, in the Xiangjiang Hotel, waited for half an hour without receiving a reply from Tan Jincheng. He felt restless and annoyed. It was really annoying to hear someone say something halfway through. In fact, even Sun Tongyu himself didn't realize that after several months of chatting online, he had gotten used to bragging to Tan Jincheng every now and then.

This feeling was as if it had suddenly pulled me back to my youth, when there was no QQ and we couldn't afford mobile phones, but classmates and friends would chat casually and talk about taboo topics when they had nothing to do.

This is what it feels like to be young.

"Never mind, I'll ask again tomorrow." Sun Tongyu put away her phone with a hint of helplessness.

It was past midnight, and Sun Tongyu wasn't sure if Tan Jincheng was deliberately not replying or had accidentally fallen asleep, but after chatting with Tan Jincheng, his depressed mood had improved quite a bit.

The glitz and glamour of Hong Kong failed to give Sun Tongyu any sense of exhilaration at the company's IPO; however, a casual chat brought him some peace.

Silent all night.

The next morning, after getting up and washing up, Sun Tongyu went to the restaurant for breakfast as he had the day before. Mr. Ma and some investors had already arrived, but the atmosphere was noticeably different from the day before.

Mr. Ma's face darkened and he remained silent, completely unlike his confident and eloquent self of yesterday.

Even though he was unhappy, Boss Ma still had a lot of presence. Sun Tongyu, who had been following him for a long time, was a little intimidated and didn't dare to go up and greet him.

Pulling aside someone nearby, Sun Tongyu asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? What happened?"

The other person pointed to the pile of newspapers collected on the table. Sun Tongyu picked up one at random, and the headline "Ali Baba's Bubble Theory" was very eye-catching.

There was no need to read the content anymore. Sun Tongyu picked up several other newspapers with some impatience. The content was all similar, but the headlines were more and more exaggerated.

This is typical of Hong Kong media; in modern terms, it's clickbait. UC Shocking News is child's play compared to them. The first newspaper already had the most normal headline.

Perhaps it was precisely because his title was the most normal that it was placed at the top, so as to avoid making Mr. Ma even angrier if he saw the titles below.

At this moment, Sun Tongyu's mind was filled with Tan Jincheng's last words from last night: "Even a dog wouldn't buy Ali's stock!"

Sun Tongyu didn't read the contents of the newspapers carefully, nor did he need to. On the second day after the listing, such a large-scale collective negative review appeared. No one would believe it wasn't organized.

But how did Tan Jincheng, who was far away in Beicang, find out? What did he mean by what he said last night?
Or did he see through all of this long ago?
"Let's figure out a response first. If we're all caught by reporters and have to give interviews, we should all stick to the same story and call for long-term investment," Old Ma said with a sinister look on his face.

At the same time, he glanced at Sun Tongyu without leaving a trace.

The team that came to Hong Kong to ring the bell for the listing is a community of shared interests. If there is any unstable factor, it is Sun Tongyu. He has already decided to leave the company within the year, and the only thing he can maintain at present is that he has not yet cashed out his shares.

It has been less than two months since he left the company. Although there are certain regulations on the reduction of shares by executives of listed companies, Sun Tongyu has many ways to circumvent these regulations if he wants to reduce his shares in advance after leaving the company.

Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. For capital that is good at using rules, this is not a difficult thing. Once the stock price collapses, it is hard to guarantee that Sun Tongyu, who has already secured his departure, will not cash out and leave in advance.

We need to find a way to stabilize his emotions. The best way would be for the stock price to continue to rise, but it seems that Ali's stock price encountered resistance on the second day of listing. We'll have to wait and see how it performs after today's market closes.

If the results are good, everyone can be at ease; if the results are poor, then we need to find a solution.

Ma Huateng (Old Ma) is full of confidence in Alibaba's future, but the fact that its market capitalization reached nearly HK$2000 billion on the first day of listing was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations. He had seen the media reports, and some of them were not wrong. With a price-to-earnings ratio of 300, Alibaba has, to some extent, already overdrawn its valuation for the next few years. If the entire group's business, including Taobao, were to be listed, Ma Huateng is confident that he can persuade investors not to sell their shares.

However, it's just a B2B business, and Lao Ma can't guarantee he has the capability. Capital only looks at returns. Early investors who have already made countless profits during the listing process urgently need an opportunity to cash out and leave before facing the financial crisis.

Sun Tongyu naturally noticed Lao Ma's gaze and nodded almost imperceptibly. His position in the team was the most awkward, and he only came along to stabilize morale.

In reality, the team doesn't really consult him about anything, and he himself doesn't care much either; otherwise, he wouldn't have been the last to know about such an important matter this morning.

His current state is that he is detached from the team. At the same time, he also knows that what Mr. Ma just said was only directed at him, which was actually telling him to avoid the media.

Just as Mr. Tan said, only the cold, hard numbers in the account are maintaining the relationship between the two parties.

Sigh, when did it become like this?
With less than two hours to go before the Hong Kong stock market opened, Ali's listing team urgently organized a press conference. At the press conference, Lao Ma passionately appealed to investors to be rational and not just look at the price-to-earnings ratio.

"Aliba is only an 8-year-old company, 94 years away from our goal of becoming a 102-year-old company. Investors should not only focus on the price-to-earnings ratio, but should think more about the future."

"There are 4200 million small and medium-sized enterprises in China. Investing in Alibaba is, in fact, investing in all small and medium-sized enterprises in China, and investing in the future of the Chinese economy. Investors should analyze this more rationally."

"As we all know, our economy is entering a period of rapid development, our enterprises are thriving, and investing in us is investing in the future of our nation."

The press conference was very moving. Jack Ma's speech was as inspiring as ever. At the same time, one has to admire the organizational skills of Alibaba's listing team, which was able to organize a press conference in less than two hours after the market opened.

Furthermore, a large number of media reporters were present, including both professional financial media and Hong Kong stock tabloids. This level of organizational ability is something most companies cannot achieve.

The time was really too short. Judging from the organizational capabilities of some companies, it would be quite an achievement to coordinate the press conference in less than two hours.

From this point of view alone, Ali is indeed an excellent company.

However, no matter how inspiring the speech is, it seems so insignificant in the face of real money and capital institutions that only care about money. Lao Ma, who was favored by all kinds of people in the primary market, was taught a harsh lesson by capital when he first entered the secondary market.

At the start of the Hong Kong stock market opening, Alibaba shares, which had surged and set various records the day before, saw a massive sell-off as trading began, causing the share price to plummet all the way down, shocking everyone both inside and outside the market.

Investors holding large amounts of capital completely ignored Ma's remarks at the press conference, their minds focused solely on shorting the stock.

On November 7, Alibaba's stock price, which was on its second day of trading after listing, plummeted from a one-sided decline in the morning to HK$32.60 at the close, a drop of 17.5% on the day.

It lost approximately HK$350 billion in a single day, equivalent to about one-third of Tencent's revenue.

"Damn, Old Ma has learned a lesson from the capital market. He was all high and mighty yesterday, but today he's been given a big slap in the face, haha."

In the office of Orange Technology's CEO, Chairman Tan, who had been listening to music all night and had nothing to do today, spent the whole day watching Ali's stock performance. After the market closed, his face was full of schadenfreude.

Gu Qingqing, who was lying lazily to the side, was completely confused and had no idea what he was laughing about.

No one could describe what made him happy. In his previous life, Tan Jincheng remembered the grand scene when Ali went public, and he also knew about the sharp drop on the second trading day, but he really had no idea how much it had dropped. After all, at that time he not only didn't have many coins in his pocket, but he didn't even know what stocks were.

The loss of 350 billion Hong Kong dollars in a single day would have been a trivial number in my past life, but in this life, it has a profound impact.

Damn it, if you gave me 350 billion Hong Kong dollars, what would I be doing pretending? I would just announce that I'm going to make cars.

No, we have to get Orange Technology listed as soon as possible. This money is coming in too fast, even just a few percentage points off the stock will make us rich.

While Tan Jincheng was gloating, Sun Tongyu, who witnessed the sharp drop in Ali's stock price at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, was probably the one who felt the most deeply, aside from the loss of his book assets.

If Tan Jincheng's previous ideas about e-commerce aligned with his own, and then he used bizarre methods like short films to maintain contact with him, Sun Tongyu could still resist.

All day today, Sun Tongyu, who was staring at the stock price trend, had nothing but the words "Even a dog wouldn't buy it" from last night in his mind. This made him deeply suspicious of Tan Jincheng. How did he know that?
Although he is no longer in charge of specific affairs in the group, it doesn't mean he is not aware of things. In addition, judging from the fact that he only learned about the news when he went to breakfast this morning, the team should have also only learned about it this morning.

It was no earlier than midnight; those who were at the scene only found out today. It was impossible for Tan Jincheng to have known earlier than them, unless he had participated in short selling, but that was obviously impossible.

Tan Jincheng didn't even participate in the primary market subscription, so how could he possibly participate in short selling? Besides, he doesn't have that kind of power.

Often, no matter how highly educated a person is, once they fall into a cognitive bias, they will inevitably have some superstitious elements, and Sun Tongyu is no exception.

He returned to his room in a daze, lay down for a while, and after careful consideration, took out his phone and opened the Dingding app. It was an Apple phone, and many of the apps on it were not available on the market. It was a gift from Tan Jincheng under the guise of local specialties.

Let's find some time and opportunity to meet.

The message was quickly sent. Looking at the read mark, Sun Tongyu took a deep breath. He desperately wanted to understand why Tan Jincheng was so adamant about not buying Ali's stock.

Sun Tongyu, who had read the message but received no reply, knew that Tan Jincheng would not refuse his request to meet, even though he was already somewhat resigned to joining Orange Products Club.

(End of this chapter)