2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 801 Adding Fuel to the Fire (Seeking Guaranteed Monthly Tickets)

P.S.: It's December already, please give me a guaranteed monthly vote!

"I want to start my own business again."

Huang Zheng found a Cantonese restaurant and ate a relatively light meal. After sipping his seafood porridge, Huang Zheng calmed himself down and began to speak.

"What's wrong? Isn't your game company quite profitable? Besides, you're not feeling well right now, shouldn't you be resting properly?"

Huang Zheng's face showed a slight embarrassment: "Don't make fun of me. What kind of thing is that? I have to find something serious to do."

He had already sold off Ouku.com, a company similar to Dongzi's, but the core team was retained. They then developed game projects to address the company's survival issues, which were essentially just producing some adult games.

These adult games do make a lot of money on foreign websites, but as he said, it can't be considered a legitimate profession.

"Haha, that's true, it's hardly a respectable profession; so, what kind of field are you interested in?"

From the perspective of an ordinary entrepreneur, Huang Zheng's first venture can be considered a success, after all, he made a lot of money. But for him, it was a failure because it did not meet his expectations.

Back then, he confidently told Tan Jincheng that he could go toe-to-toe with Jing Dong, but in the end, he was no threat at all and had to sell the website in a sorry state.

"I still want to work in online shopping, and I got some inspiration from Orange Products Club."

Huang Zheng then shared his findings: the social media sphere was exceptionally active, but its e-commerce sales accounted for less than 1% of total e-commerce sales. He planned to start his business from this angle, following the new concept of "social + e-commerce".

At this time, Huang Zheng didn't have the concept of Pinduoduo in his mind. He wanted to start with a WeChat service account, sell fruit through e-commerce, and gradually expand the company's business.

"The idea is good. Attracting users through viral marketing is a good approach. Fruit is a product with high daily demand and is updated frequently, which makes it easier to communicate with users."

Huang Zheng's idea is somewhat similar to the grocery shopping groups in neighborhood vegetable stores. It's not exactly new, but it's more about scaling up. It's not that big to say how big it can get, but Pinduoduo was incubated from this project.

The success of Pinduoduo has been analyzed before, and it mainly benefited from the economic downturn. In fact, the same applies to new energy vehicles. If it weren't for the economic downturn and the increasing number of ride-hailing drivers, how could new energy vehicles have sold so well?
Ultimately, everyone benefited from the economic downturn.

"Do you need my investment? We've talked about this before, right? If you need investment when you start your second business, I'll be there for you without hesitation."

Huang Zheng smiled and said, "Of course, but there's no rush. I only have an idea for now. I'll think it through and prepare myself before making a decision."

Huang Zheng didn't expect Tan Jincheng to still remember the bet they made before. Now, thinking about it, he felt anxious and amused. Back then, he was counting on Ouku.com to raise funds and go public to prove himself.

As a result, without the support and intervention of his mentor, his entrepreneurial project would not have been profitable at all.

“Okay, once you've sorted things out, feel free to contact me anytime you need investment. I can also introduce you to an e-commerce expert who can offer you some advice.”

When I first met Huang Zhengtian, he was a proud and ambitious young man with the support of others. He had many ideas about starting a business, but he was also somewhat impulsive and lacked thorough consideration.

It only sells products under BBK Electronics, and its funding comes entirely from its mentor. Such a website earns money through connections, so how could it possibly compete with Jingdong?

Perhaps due to illness, Huang Zheng looked somewhat haggard during this meeting, but he appeared much more composed and thoughtful in his considerations.

Instead of launching Pinduoduo directly, they first accumulated initial users through small projects, and then used social methods to expand their user base. Isn't this idea the prototype of "cut a knife"?

Even getting someone to cut your losses requires gaining their trust before it can be done; directly asking someone to cut your losses right away has a relatively low success rate.

"Oh? Who is it?"

“You could consult Mr. Sun from Orange Technology. Who has more experience in the e-commerce field than him?”

Huang Zheng suddenly realized: "That's right, the father of Taobao, no one is more experienced than him."

Sun Tongyu's abilities are undoubtedly exceptional. To be honest, having him run an Orange Products Club is a bit of a waste of his talents. Pinduoduo is his ultimate destination. Tan Jincheng's role in helping them with introductions is also a way of fulfilling his promise to Sun Tongyu.

Orange Products has already turned a profit. Sun Tongyu only needs to find a successor and continue with the existing plan. With Tan Jincheng in charge, there shouldn't be any problems.

If necessary, the agricultural products business can be spun off and sold to Pinduoduo, which would further improve Orange Products' profitability.

"He might also be interested in your project. Our Orange Technology can also provide some assistance. Once you've organized your thoughts and recovered your health, you can have a good talk with him."

"Then thank you in advance, Mr. Tan. Let's have some porridge instead of wine and clink glasses first."

Huang Zheng felt that he was very lucky. He met Boss Ding when he was in school, and had a mentor to protect him during his first business venture. When he had the idea of ​​starting a business for the second time, he planned to talk to Boss Tan. As a result, he now has investment and even professional talent.

Everything went so smoothly.

"Is Mr. Tan here in Shanghai to find a site and attract resources for his power battery project?"

"Yes, but some districts are still undecided. Do you have any opinions?"

I've already met with leaders from several districts, and it's even made the news, so it's no secret anymore.

"Hey, what opinion could I possibly have? But if you're unsure, Mr. Tan, and it's convenient, you can tell me. I'll see what I can offer you."

Tan Jincheng thought about it and realized there was nothing wrong with talking about it. Besides, it was just the two of them right now, and he believed that Tan Jincheng wouldn't go around spreading rumors.

Tan Jincheng then explained the advantages and disadvantages of each region he preferred, mainly because he was not very familiar with Shanghai and had not yet established a presence there.

Before his rebirth, although he knew that Shanghai had a strong manufacturing industry, he believed from the bottom of his heart that Shanghai was a financial city and that its policies would probably lean towards finance.

However, the feeling during this inspection was not like that.

Finance is the foundation of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, but they also attach great importance to manufacturing, especially high-tech manufacturing.

Indeed, a financial industry without a solid foundation is like a castle in the air.

"After listening to Mr. Tan's analysis, I have some opinions. I think Lingang is better. This would be beneficial for battery and car exports this year. Didn't Weilai already expand into the European market last year?"

Last year, the performance of the WooLai in the European market was also quite good. Tesla sold more than 1000 vehicles in Europe in 2013, while WooLai sold more than 400 vehicles. These sales figures are indeed not bad.

This year, sales should be able to improve further.

However, Tesla's main market right now is not Europe, but China. Tesla's sales forecast for 2014 is 3 vehicles, a 50% increase compared to 2013. The factory manager is extremely optimistic about this year's growth rate.

However, in China, a 50% growth rate might not be enough.

The ride-hailing war is about to begin, with policies clearly supporting new energy vehicles. At the same time, more and more car companies are entering the market, with the most obvious moves coming from BAIC's new energy project and JAC and Chery, two car companies from Anhui Province.

BYD, needless to say, has slowed down its pace of launching new gasoline-powered cars since the year before last, while the Qin has risen to a very high strategic position, which can be said to be a bet on new energy vehicles.

JAC, Chery, BYD, and Weilai are four car companies that are either located in Anhui Province or whose actual controllers are from Anhui Province. With the support of their leaders, it can be said that the era of new energy vehicles was started by people from Anhui Province.

Tan Jincheng has his own expectations for the growth of new energy vehicles in China, and these expectations are far higher than those of the China Passenger Car Association and other major institutions, simply because he has his own information channels.

The first round of the ride-hailing war is bound to set off a sales storm for new energy vehicles this year.

Another point worth mentioning is that the real subsidies for new energy vehicles have been increased starting this year. Without the constraints of local protectionism, major automakers can be said to have no scruples when it comes to fraudulently obtaining subsidies.

"Now that you mention it, Lingang does seem like a good location. I'll think about it some more."

Father, like son.

Huang Zheng has no vested interest in this matter, but his opinion can certainly be taken into consideration. How could someone who has built Pinduoduo into a large company lack vision and strategy?

Yes, just based on the possibility that Tesla might take over Lingang in the future, choosing Lingang is the most suitable location.

Tesla has considered manufacturing its own batteries, but they lack the capability. Therefore, for a long time to come, Xuanwu Battery will be Tesla's most important, or even its only, supplier.

This is an astronomical figure; placing the battery factory next to the Tesla factory might be the best option.

It was already late at night when I parted ways with Huang Zheng.

The two agreed to contact each other again when Huang Zheng's second startup was almost ready and he needed investment. They planned to work on an early-stage project similar to a WeChat public account, and Huang Zheng had the money for that.

The real need for funding will likely come after the app is developed and officially launched.

He also assured Huang Zheng that he would bring up the matter with Sun Tongyu as soon as possible. As for Sun Tongyu's choice—whether to resign and become a professional investor or invest in Pinduoduo as the current CEO of Orange Technology—that would be his own business. People like Sun Tongyu, even while working for a company, have their own careers. It can be said that internet executives are all essentially bosses, which is different from traditional industries.

February 14th coincided with the Lantern Festival.

Tan Jincheng saw photos online of the second boss inspecting the BYD Chang'an Industrial Park. Judging from the photos, he was inspecting the Qin production line and the BYD K9 electric vehicle production line.

It's quite interesting that in the field of new energy vehicles, BYD and WYD are competing in every aspect.

The Aion S is comparable to the Qin, and the BYD K9 pure electric bus is similar to the revamped Huanghai pure electric bus.

However, there's not much competition in the bus sector. When dealing with B-end clients, it's all about connections and Zhang Yong's negotiation skills. He trusts Zhang Yong on this point; in terms of developing B-end clients, Zhang Yong is no less capable than BYD.

First came Wei Lai, then came BYD.

"Our Aion S might be going to be a hit this year."

Zhang Yong arrived, and Tan Jincheng had basically made up his mind. Zhang Yong was still needed to formally sign the agreement.

The 2014 sales target of 40 vehicles actually did not include new energy vehicles, because these are too difficult to estimate, the market is too small, and the annual growth rate is an absurd percentage.

But in reality, there weren't many vehicles. Even with last year's total sales of 20,000 vehicles, any car company could easily handle that and wouldn't need to do any production capacity planning.

"So, did the boss draw this conclusion based on just two inspections? Even if policies are pushed forward, the consumer market might not necessarily accept it, right?"

"It's not just this. You should also be paying attention to the ride-hailing market that I invested in before, right? They're going to make some big moves this year. Just so you know."

Bugs are a good thing. Tencent will probably launch subsidies soon, and Alipay will definitely follow suit. Jack Ma will absolutely not allow any other payment system to challenge Alipay's position, and he might even invest more than in the previous life.

With the teams switched sides, in this new timeline, Tencent is tied to Kuaidi, Ali had no other choice but to invest in Didi, and Baidu entered the market earlier. As for Yaoyao and Yidao, the former kings of the Beijing ride-hailing market, they should be eliminated in this round of subsidy wars.

"So what is Aion's expected production capacity this year?"

"Let's prepare for a production capacity of 3 vehicles. If they can't be sold, they'll be stored as inventory. We'll find a way to get rid of them eventually."

"3 vehicles? Isn't that a bit too many? Last year we sold less than 4000 vehicles in total."

"I think they're about the same. You don't understand the internet. If Ali and Tencent were to fight, it wouldn't be a casual battle."

During the peak of the ride-hailing war, tens of millions of yuan were burned every day. This attracted the participation of countless ordinary people. The herd mentality is very strong in this industry. Once a group of people bought in and made money, more and more people would follow suit.

That's the extent of the internet's influence; it simply cannot be calculated using conventional expectations.

A budget of 3 vehicles might be a bit exaggerated, but it's better to be prepared. Besides, there are no plans to revamp the Aion S in the short term, so the inventory can still be gradually cleared out in the future.

What can be sold is not considered inventory.

"Alright then, I'll ask Luzhou to keep an eye on production capacity. As for the ES6, let's proceed as expected."

"Yes, let's just follow Tesla's growth expectations for the ES6. Let's see if we can reach 5000 units this year."

The Weilai APP has nearly 60,000 registered users. Excluding the more than 5000 users who already own a car, the rest are potential buyers. Further promotion this year will increase the exposure of the ES6.

In short, Weilai's sales of new energy vehicles this year are aiming to match last year's total sales. It's only January now, so preparing production capacity in advance will prevent a situation where there are no cars to deliver if there is a real surge.

"If you're worried about inventory issues, then we can actually add fuel to the fire."

During the ride-hailing war, the most famous companies were undoubtedly Didi and Kuaidi, with Uber joining later. However, the power of traditional car companies cannot be ignored. While the internet giants were fighting tooth and nail, they also entered the fray.

For example, Shouqi established Shouqi Car-Hailing Company, and there is also the T3 platform jointly established by FAW, Dongfeng, Changan and others. Even high-end brands such as BMW and Daimler have entered the market.

Of course, traditional automakers are not entering the ride-hailing market for the sake of it; they just want to muddy the waters and give their own brands more exposure.

Among them, Shouqi is undoubtedly the most proactive. If we're talking about which state-owned automaker is most proactive in embracing new energy vehicles, then it has to be Shouqi. They entered the market early and invested heavily, and they've been very proactive in launching electric vehicles.

It's a pity they didn't achieve anything significant, but their efforts are commendable. However, the platform and resources that Lei Jun used to build Xiaomi cars were from Shouqi, which can be considered as indirectly incubating Xiaomi.

"How can we add fuel to the fire?"

“We can set up our own ride-hailing company, similar to a car rental platform. We can cooperate with more car manufacturers, including both traditional fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, and integrate them into a platform. Whether it succeeds or not is not important. What is important is to increase our exposure and heat up the market.”

"In stock market terms, we're doing this by riding the wave of a trend. We can get in when Tencent and Ali fight."

Zhang Yong understood immediately, which just goes to show how many tricks the boss had up his sleeve.

“This is not difficult, but if it’s just us, the impact will be too small. We can join forces with a few other companies to enter the market together.”

"Yes, you can contact other manufacturers. By the time we're ready, the market will have heated up."

Tencent benefited greatly from this year's Spring Festival red envelope campaign. Since Pony Ma has decided to capitalize on this success, he will likely act quickly. At most, subsidies for ride-hailing via WeChat Pay should be available in a month or two.

With coverage in over 40 cities, the latest data released on January 10th shows that the average daily order volume nationwide has reached 128 million, with the highest single-day order volume exceeding 162 million. Among them, the number of orders using WX payment has exceeded 500,000, which means that Kuaidi APP has already met the preconditions for launching a full-scale subsidy war.

"Alright, let's aim for a production capacity of 30,000 Aion S and 8000 ES6s. We can also increase the production capacity of the Tank 300. We can start a ride-hailing company then."

This is feasible. If Weilai didn't have the capability to operate a car rental business in the past two years, this situation will change after this year. At the latest, Weilai's own ride-hailing company will be able to launch in the second half of this year.

"Yes, we can talk to Express or Didi at that time. Our car rental platform can use theirs, which will be a good relief for their driver shortage. In addition, it can also be connected to the Gaode platform."

"We don't expect to make money, nor do we need to make money, as long as we don't lose too much money."

You can't compete with the giants burning money. Once they've burned enough, you can enter the market and ride the wave of popularity. But then again, this is the biggest dilemma for ride-hailing apps: there are too many companies with the ability to enter the market.

Traditional car companies all have the ability to secure a place in the market. If the giants are no longer willing to burn money, the market will only become more and more sluggish, and monopoly will become a necessity. Without monopoly, they may not be able to survive.

Even though Didi had achieved a monopoly in its previous life, they almost went into car manufacturing because the war between companies would never end.

Monday, April 2th.

Weilai Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement memorandum with Lingang District of Shanghai. Tan Jincheng, Chairman of Weilai Group, Zhang Yong, General Manager, and leaders of Lingang District attended the event.

Weilai Group has partnered with Lingang District to control its subsidiary, Jinshidai New Energy Power and Energy Storage Battery Project, which will be located in Lingang. Over the next five years, the company plans to build 24 production lines in Lingang District, with a corresponding capacity of approximately 24 GWh.

If all is completed, the planned investment is estimated to be between 40 billion and 50 billion yuan. In addition to preferential treatment on land, Lingang District will also provide certain preferential treatment in terms of taxation and government subsidies.

Furthermore, the possibility of a second phase of expansion cannot be ruled out. This would be the largest investment in a power battery base for Weilai, second only to the Luzhou power battery industrial base. However, this is just the beginning for Weilai.

Putting aside other things, in Liyang alone, Tan Jincheng has his eye on a piece of land that is quite suitable for building Weilai's third industrial base. Weilai also has its own industry in Changzhou, and Tan Jincheng plans to visit Changzhou after this trip to Shanghai.

We don't have the capacity to build two major industrial bases simultaneously at the moment, but we can still make a promise first. In addition, it's time to upgrade the Changzhou bus base. BYD's K9 bus is indeed amazing.

Huanghai has no shortage of ability to manufacture buses, but its mindset is influenced by traditional buses, which is somewhat inferior to BYD's focus on new energy.

The era of comprehensive subsidies has begun, and this is also a decent source of income.

On the same day, Tencent and Kuaidi APP simultaneously announced a strategic partnership to launch a marketing campaign to subsidize ride-hailing fares through WX Pay. Tencent announced that it would invest 2 million yuan to help people across the country take rides.

Each ride-hailing user who hails a ride through the Kuaidi app and pays via WeChat Pay will receive a 5 yuan subsidy for their ride fare.

Just a few days later, Didi and Alipay Wallet followed suit, jointly announcing that they would invest 5 million yuan to offer free rides to people across the country. Tencent and Alipay were locked in a fierce battle, with the atmosphere thick with tension.

Our good days are coming.

At a gathering with his automotive colleagues, Tan Jincheng ran into several familiar CEOs, and this time he brought Li Xiang along to the event.

Li Xiang's position at Weilai Motors is rather peculiar.

The position of product manager is relatively rare in the traditional automotive industry. This is a position that Tan Jincheng designed for him independently. He is mainly responsible for product planning for Weilai New Energy Vehicles. In addition, he also participates in the detailed design of the products to ensure product quality and user experience.

Strictly speaking, he should be considered Tan Jincheng's special assistant. Zeng Jixiang is getting busier and busier, and Li Xiang will have many more opportunities to travel with Tan Jincheng in the future.

(End of this chapter)