Suddenly, Jack Ma had a flash of inspiration and came up with a solution.
"Got it!"
"What?"
"Lin Chen's trick of mapping backfired. He can map, so can we. It's just a resource exchange."
Jack Ma picked up his phone from the table and called Lin Chen.
"Hey, Mr. Lin, are you busy?"
"Busy, I'm busy increasing market share on Koubei.com, Mr. Ma. Have you looked at the data these past few days?"
"I saw it! The effect was immediate. Mr. Lin is truly amazing."
"Haha, I'm all about getting paid to do things, and I'm very reliable."
"I have a deal to make, I wonder if Mr. Lin would be interested?"
"Um?"
"Didn't Mr. Lin map Meituan's merchant group-buying links to Koubei? I was thinking, can I also map Taobao's product links to Pinduoduo?"
"Hmm?!" Lin Chen's eyes lit up upon hearing this. "I wonder how Mr. Ma intends to proceed with this transaction?"
"Hey, Mr. Lin, we're already so familiar with each other, I won't cheat you. Meituan helps Koubei increase its market share by a certain amount, and Taobao helps Pinduoduo increase its market share by the same amount. Isn't that fair?"
Jack Ma's idea is very good.
As the leading online shopping platform, Taobao could easily dominate Pinduoduo, given that Taobao was once synonymous with online shopping.
But Meituan is different. Don't be fooled by its current market share being number one; that's because Lashou.com is facing a subsidy crisis.
Once Tencent finishes developing the game and continues to subsidize Lashou.com, Lin Chen will be caught in a pincer movement.
Not only do they have to face the onslaught of new games from Tencent, but they also have to contend with a counterattack from Lashou.com.
It will be difficult for Lin Chen to maintain his position as the number one group-buying platform, not to mention he also has to share market share with Koubei.com.
In this wave, with the same market share, he actually paid far less cost than Lin Chen, much less.
So Jack Ma continued, "However, Mr. Lin, in order to ensure a fair exchange of market share, how about we sign a performance-based agreement?"
"What kind of performance-based agreement?"
"Let's set a 5% market share increase as the bet line. If one side helps the other reach this bet line first, and the other side hasn't caught up after a month, they'll lose 100 million. How about that?"
"No problem, it's quite fair."
"Okay, Mr. Lin, then give me back the 20 million first."
"What 20 million? Speaking of which, Mr. Ma, you still owe me 100 million. If you don't settle it with me first, I won't sign this betting agreement with you."
"No, Mr. Lin, didn't we just agree that you would help me gain market share on Koubei.com, and I would help you gain market share on Taobao.com?"
"Yes, it was agreed upon, but wasn't that something that happened before? This 120 million was agreed upon beforehand, Mr. Ma, you can't go back on your word."
Jack Ma was furious with Lin Chen, but he had no choice but to agree to give Lin Chen the remaining 100 million yuan.
Hmph, Lin Chen, when you obediently hand over the 100 million bet to me, I'll have a good look at your expression.
Wait a minute? Lin Chen is supposed to only pay out 100 million if he loses, but I've already given him 100 million before we've even started?
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. In the end, Ma Yun could only console himself by saying that he should just consider the money as being fed to the dogs.
Lin Gou: Woof woof woof?
Lin Chen knew exactly what Jack Ma was thinking. He simply felt that Meituan had only been the top dog for a short time, while Taobao had been the top dog for many years. Taobao could easily help Pinduoduo grab that 5% market share, but Meituan might not be able to do so.
If Meituan loses, I can not only gain a portion of the market share for free, but also earn another 100 million yuan. No matter how much market share there is, it's all free money. Why be picky when it's free?
Even if Meituan manages to capture 5% of the market share, it won't lose out.
However, Jack Ma overlooked one thing: the difference between group-buying products and online shopping products.
Group buying products are primarily regional, with promotions only available at stores in a specific location. Even nationwide chain stores may only have group buying promotions at a local store.
Online shopping is primarily a nationwide phenomenon; in fact, if it weren't for internet restrictions, it would be a global phenomenon, targeting all consumers who shop online.
So, even if the market share is the same at 5%, can the corresponding revenue be the same?
Moreover, it's only five percent, so Lin Chen is quite confident. If it's not enough, he can just temporarily map some of Meituan's merchants to it.
When the data drops again, it won't be Lin Chen's problem anymore.
If your Koubei.com can't retain customers, what does that have to do with me, Lin Chen?
Thus began a new round of backroom deals between Meituan and Koubei.
Lashou.com is also having a headache. The salesperson sent to bring back the merchant got into a fight with the merchant's boss, and the incident has caused a huge uproar online, with people saying that Lashou.com is heartless.
Lashou.com gave all its subsidies to new merchants poached from other websites. One after another, old merchants left Lashou.com. Instead of increasing subsidies to retain them, Lashou.com sent people to attack them.
Is this something a normal company would do?
Of course, the spread of this news was inseparable from the tip-off from enthusiastic netizen Mr. Lin.
The news quickly became a trending topic and sparked a boycott by many long-established merchants on Lashou.com.
Many users began removing their group-buying links from Lashou.com and turning to Meituan, which had better reviews.
This left Wu Bo unsure whether to bail out the salesman who was fighting.
Go ahead and try to fish him out. Not only will there be no benefit, but you'll also have to see Uncle Hat again. Wu Bo has developed a psychological trauma from Uncle Hat now.
If they don't try to salvage the situation, they can shift all the blame onto the salesperson, claiming that the fight with the merchant was caused by the salesperson's personal actions, and that Lashou.com's orders to the salesperson were just normal merchant visits.
Finally, Lashou.com held an internal meeting and decided to pin the blame directly on that salesperson.
Wu Bo went and got the person out. In exchange, the salesperson had to apologize to the merchant and resign voluntarily.
Afterwards, Wu Bo had a clarification announcement released to the public, and also posted a photo of the salesperson bowing and apologizing. He also personally compensated the merchant for their losses and finally stated that the salesperson had been fired.
The announcement did serve as a crisis management measure, and it also caused some netizens to change their opinions, shifting from initially condemning Lashou to now feeling that although the company's response was a bit slow, its ability to handle the situation was still quite good.
But then, Lin Chen's second move came.
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