Soon, Huasuan.com released its latest promotional announcement: For every ten or more new users invited to register, users will receive an additional day of Qicai.com privileges; if the number of users reaches 100, users will receive permanent privileges.
As soon as the announcement was released, MiXin's downloads surged again.
A week later, the rate of increase in the number of downloads began to slow down because those users who had been referring others had already referred everyone they could, so the number of users reached a bottleneck.
At this time, Mixin had reached 60 million downloads, making it the second most downloaded instant messaging software in China.
However, although the number of downloads is large, the usage frequency is extremely low. There's nothing that can be done about it, since many people only download and register for the website because of its attractive pricing.
However, when there was no one left to chat with, these users who had downloaded MiXin opened it out of boredom and found that the software seemed pretty good. It could send text, photos, and voice messages.
The users of Huasuan.com are relatively young, and Mixin, which has such a high overlap with Huasuan.com users, is also full of young people who love to play. So, they started trying to send voice messages to each other.
"Cave Demon, Cave Demon, this is Cave Guai. Please respond if you receive this message. Please respond if you receive this message."
"What the hell are you talking about? You're such a fool."
Moreover, people soon discovered that this feature was more suitable for the elderly in the family, as they type slowly, and this problem was not an issue when using voice commands.
Although smartphone penetration wasn't that high in 2010, some families could still afford one.
"Dad, let me tell you, you can press and hold this button to speak, and then release it after you're done, and it will be sent. That way you don't have to type."
"This is good, this is good. I'm getting old, my eyesight is getting worse and worse, and typing a few words is really tiring."
"Mom, look at this voice message function. Whenever you ask Dad what he wants to eat for dinner, just use this voice message. It's fast and you won't make any typos."
"Hey, this is really good."
When these uncles and aunties were strolling and playing chess in the park, their phones rang. They glanced at the message, then casually pressed the button and replied with a voice message, making the other uncles and aunties extremely envious.
Someone posted their parents' experience using the phone on Weibo, which resonated with many people, who tagged Lin Chen and asked when he would release a more affordable phone, as iPhones are just too expensive.
Lin Chen saw the questions from netizens, thought for a moment, and then dialed Liu Qiangdong's number.
"Hey, Dong-ge, are you busy?"
"Brother, just say what's up, don't worry about being busy."
"Haha, it's like this, I'm making phones with Lei Jun, and we're planning to adopt an online sales model. When I went home for the Chinese New Year, I promised the leaders of our county that we would invest in a logistics park there. I was thinking, could we cooperate with JD.com to build this logistics park together? The final packaging process for our phones can be completed there, and then JD.com can deliver them directly to all parts of the country."
"Oh? Where is your county located, brother?"
"Wushang County, I wonder if Brother Dong has ever heard of it."
"How could I not have heard of the famous Wushang? Hahaha, it's a logistics hub in central Zhejiang. Building a logistics park there would be a great thing for JD.com. And you happen to know the local leaders, so you can try to get some preferential policies. Lei Jun and I are old acquaintances, so it's settled then."
"Okay, I'll contact you again in a while, and we'll go to Wushang together."
"Sure, I'll contact you then."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Chen browsed Weibo for a while. He noticed a news item that group-buying websites were being launched one after another, with Lashou and Meituan both established!
This is interesting. One of these group-buying websites is showing its strength, while the other is accumulating strength and making a breakthrough. It's just a matter of whether their own "butterfly effect" will affect their future development.
Lin Chen arrived at Zhang Yiming's office door and knocked.
Zhang Yiming looked up and saw Lin Chen. He quickly stood up and asked, "President Lin, what's the matter?"
"Mr. Zhang, let's develop our Huasuan.com's killer app, the group-buying channel. These capitalists are about to start burning money, and we have to catch them."
"OK."
In fact, there were already several group-buying websites of varying sizes on the market at that time. Three of them were relatively well-known: Manzuo.com, the first large-scale group-buying website in China; Gaopeng.com, which is known as the pioneer of group-buying websites; and Tuanbao.com, which claims to be the only one that has achieved profitability.
But why hasn't Lin Chen opened the group-buying channel on Huasuan.com? It's because Lin Chen has been waiting for Lashou.com.
Before Lashou.com, the group-buying websites could be collectively referred to as the group-buying 1.0 era. They all learned from the model of Meidi's Gaopeng.com, where the website would actively negotiate discounts with merchants in exchange for traffic.
It's like when we go to buy steamed buns. They cost one yuan each. If someone buys two, the shop owner definitely won't give us a discount. But Gaopeng.com went to the steamed bun shop owner and said, "Boss, I'll sell 10,000 steamed buns for you on our website. I'll give you the money first, and then people can come to your shop with our website's group-buying coupons to collect the steamed buns. But you have to give me a price of 0.7 yuan each, is that okay?"
The boss thought about it and realized that 10,000 steamed buns was indeed a big business opportunity. He decided to offer a discount, figuring it was about small profits but quick turnover, and agreed.
Gaopeng.com gave the boss seven thousand yuan at once, and then posted a group-buying discount link on Gaopeng.com for 80 cents a bun. After seeing it, users felt that they would buy buns anyway, so it would be good to save 20 cents. Therefore, they placed orders to stock up on the discount.
Ultimately, the steamed bun shop increased sales, users received discounts, and Gaopeng.com even made a small profit – a win-win-win situation.
In this way, a successful group purchase was achieved. This group purchase 1.0 model was very popular on Meituan. When Groupon came to China, it also carried out its business in this way, and it did gain a lot of market share at first.
However, China is the most creative country in the world. Want to rely on one trick to succeed everywhere? The Chinese will teach you a lesson in no time.
Thus, Lashou arrived with the group-buying 2.0 model.
The owner of Lashou.com is Wu Bo. He is a very capable person with a sharp eye. He saw the drawback of the group buying 1.0 model at a glance, which was that the efficiency was too low!
You have to find suitable merchants first, then negotiate discounts with them, and once you finally get your product listed, you still have to compete with other group-buying websites for the same price.
The second website: You're offering 80 cents, right? Then I'll offer 70 cents. I won't make a single cent.
The third website: I'm going all out, I'll pay you six cents, I'll even lose money! Just to crush you.
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