2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 490 Adding a bit of trouble to Old Ma's New Year celebrations

Humans are inherently gossipy, even those who are tall and of high status.

The investor, a professional in the internet industry, held a high position and needed to maintain an air of mystery. Tan Jincheng's elaborate scheme kept them guessing all afternoon.

They guessed all sorts of well-known domestic investors, some internet investment institutions with official backing, and other prominent domestic investors.

Tan Jincheng's trip to the capital was obviously a preparation for this round of financing for the three brothers.

However, no matter how you guess, you can't guess that it's Sun Tongyu, the current CEO of Taobao and the third most important person in Ali, even though he's about to leave the company.

This is outrageous; it's like a direct blow to Old Ma.

"Mr. Sun? Can you tell me when and how Mr. Tan hooked up with you? I'm so curious." Little Ma was the first to lose his temper.

In recent years, Tencent and Ali have clashed many times. Paipai.com, a mediocre e-commerce website, is not even worthy of carrying Taobao's shoes. It can't win arguments with the eloquent Jack Ma and often suffers setbacks at his hands.

Even now, its market value after listing has been crushed by Alibaba. The reason why BAT is called BAT is because it occupies an absolute advantage in its respective field and is regarded as the three most promising companies in the future Internet.

Baidu is invincible in the search market, Tencent is the king in the social networking field, and Ali holds a dominant position in the online shopping market. With its huge traffic, Tencent has naturally coveted the online shopping market with its huge cash flow for a long time.

However, despite investing countless funds over the past two or three years, nothing has been accomplished, and Paipai.com's popularity is even lower than that of Orange Products, which has been online for less than a month.

The three of them only needed a few seconds to figure out what Sun Tongyu's appearance on camera meant. Given Tan Jincheng's talent for profiting from others, if Sun Tongyu was only appearing as an investor in the Series C funding round, then he should just stay where he is.

"We've been guessing all afternoon, everyone has guessed it, but to be honest, I really didn't dare guess it was President Sun. This is too unbelievable," Shen Nanpeng exclaimed.

“You two are better off. I spent the whole afternoon with President Tan and even had dinner at his house in the evening, but he really didn’t reveal anything. President Gu didn’t say a word either. That’s what’s really frustrating.”

Forget about Series C funding, let's gossip and have some fun first.

Kuang Ping also realized that the emergence of new investors was a good thing for them. With Sun Tongyu in charge, Orange Products Club was naturally even stronger in terms of professionalism.

In terms of hype, simply announcing that Sun Tongyu has joined Orange Technology to be in charge of the Orange Products Club project is enough to increase Orange Products Club's valuation by at least 100 million yuan.

In terms of the ability to stir up trouble, Tan Jincheng is really no less capable than Ah Li's Ma Zong; this move is simply brilliant.

"How about it? I told you the new investors wouldn't disappoint you, right? You'd better give me a higher valuation, I'm broke lately, I still owe Mr. Shen money."

Tan Jincheng laughed heartily as he watched the three of them in shock. It was so satisfying; this was exactly the effect he wanted.

“No problem. Mr. Sun’s addition is like adding wings to a tiger for Orange Products Club. Welcome Mr. Sun.” Shen Nanpeng agreed with this point.

Little Ma and Kuang Ping welcomed the investment with open arms. The investment had yielded great returns, which was a good thing in itself, but such a big surprise was still far beyond their expectations.

As one of the top-level employees, it was already December, and it was no longer news that Sun Tongyu's term at Taobao would end on New Year's Day 2008. Many people were speculating about Sun Tongyu's future.

Logically, such talents would switch careers to become investors or start their own businesses after leaving their jobs, like Shen Nanpeng and Kuang Ping. Sun Tongyu is obviously developing in the same direction.

But to associate it with a vertical e-commerce website that has been in trial operation for less than a month is truly a dream come true.

Little Ma was already thinking about what kind of headline to use to promote Sun Tongyu's joining the company after the news could be announced. This would not only be a great publicity opportunity for Pin Hui, but also a blow to Old Ma.

Tencent would be willing to cooperate with Orange Products even without paying advertising fees. They would be more than happy to give Pony Ma a little trouble before the Chinese New Year.

"Mr. Tan contacted me in August. We hadn't met in person then, but we talked on the phone about Orange Products' business philosophy and some trends in the future online shopping market. Overall, Mr. Tan's ideas are quite compatible with mine, so we've kept in touch ever since."

Sun Tongyu was still very considerate and didn't expose Tan Jincheng's dirty trick of relentlessly sending short videos, but he didn't necessarily have any face to speak of in this matter.

He would be embarrassed if he said it, but I wonder if Little Ma has any wicked sense of humor and went to look up their chat history.

This is the downside of using another company's product. That's why almost every large internet company has its own internal communication software. Besides being used to test various functions, the most important thing is security. "Did President Tan contact you back in August?" Shen Nanpeng interjected.

"Yes, Mr. Tan was passing through Hangzhou at the time, and we got in touch by chance." Sun Tongyu's network was good, without the various lag issues that Huang Ming experienced during his last business trip.

However, Shen Nanpeng's internet connection was intermittent because he was abroad.

Shen Nanpeng nodded and didn't ask any further questions. The other two also fell into a brief silence. In August, there were only rumors that Sun Tongyu and Ma Yun had argued about Taobao's business strategy.

The news of his resignation was not confirmed, but Tan Jincheng not only managed to find out about this small rumor, but also seized the opportunity to establish contact with Sun Tongyu.

In addition, his efficiency is really too high. He won over Sun Tongyu in just three months. You know, there are plenty of people who would take a year or two to win over such a top talent.

It must be said that their ability to judge information and execute tasks alone makes them worthy of investment.

What exactly happened during those three months?
"So, President Tan and President Gu went to the capital to secretly meet with President Sun a while ago?" Kuang Ping asked.

"Yes, bringing Mr. Wang along was to provide a cover. It was also around that time that we finalized Mr. Sun's plan to invest in Orange Products. I hope you won't blame me for contacting new investors without informing you, right?"

Such a shameless statement, like "getting a good deal and then complaining," could only be uttered by someone of Tan Jincheng's age. The three of them couldn't help but curl their lips in unison.

The entire Series C funding plan, including this video conference, and even their current emotions, are all being dominated by Tan Jincheng. Under normal circumstances, this would be impossible.

The three of them are, after all, important investors in Orange Technology. They don't interfere with the company's daily operations, but when it comes to changes in equity, they must be notified.

If Tan Jincheng had handled a normal Series C funding round like this, introducing new investors without their consent, the three of them could have ruined the entire funding process.

"Alright, everyone's time is precious, so I won't take up any more of your time. Let me briefly explain my plan for this round of financing. If you all agree, we'll proceed with this plan. If you disagree, we can discuss it together at another time."

Tan Jincheng continued to lead the video conference.

Sitting across from him, Kuang Ping couldn't help but glance at him, feeling quite emotional. He remembered that when he first met Tan Jincheng, it was the same; on the first night, his driver took him to the countryside for dinner.

The next day, he took him to a small island in the middle of a lake to discuss investment. At that time, Orange Technology was just an inconspicuous emerging Internet website, and Tan Jincheng was able to do something so unconventional.

Even now, Tan Jincheng remains unconventional, but he has also become more assertive, or rather, more confident.

This year is a bumper year for internet entrepreneurs. Any decent project has no shortage of investors. But how many entrepreneurs dare to ignore investors like he does and decide the future of a company on their own?

Recruiting Sun Tongyu will undoubtedly bring about a qualitative change in Orange Products, which is naturally a good thing for them, but it also adds a lot of uncertainty.

It's uncertain whether Sun Tongyu, known as the father of Taobao and who has done a great job in full-category e-commerce, can adapt to this vertical e-commerce model, or whether he will lead the company astray.

It's unclear what exactly Sun Tongyu, as an investor, discussed with Tan Jincheng, or what specific aspects their similar business strategies in the e-commerce field referred to.

This undoubtedly increases the difficulty for them in determining the future direction of Orange Products, and it seems that the previous assessment will need to be revised.

Kuang Ping's thoughts were racing, but he was still listening to what Tan Jincheng was saying: "We all know that this round of financing cannot be announced now, otherwise we wouldn't have troubled the CEOs to personally oversee it. So, from the perspective of confidentiality, I have designed the simplest financing plan."

"That means I will transfer a portion of my and Mr. Gu's shares to the four of you. As for the specifics, we plan to allocate 15% of our shares to you, so that you won't keep saying that I hold too many shares, which is not conducive to financing."

Sun Tongyu would take 10%, and the remaining 5% would be divided among the three families, which naturally wouldn't satisfy them.

Kuang Ping was the first to recover: "The plan to transfer 15% of the shares is indeed feasible, and we can do it secretly. However, even after transferring 15%, you and President Gu will still hold more than 42% of the shares. Isn't that a bit too little?"

“Yes, could you give me more? Didn’t you say you owed me money? How about we offset it with the shares? I won’t ask you to pay me back in cash.” Shen Nanpeng was also dissatisfied with this method of equity transfer.

Pony Ma chimed in, "Giving 5% of the shares to the three of us is a bit stingy, Mr. Tan. You're so generous to consumers, but you can't be so stingy to investors."

(End of this chapter)