Chapter 505: Foresight or Fortune Telling?
Lu Zhichuan did not return to his office, but followed Pang Rui to the Alipay business group building.
Pang Rui asked the secretary to pour him a cup of tea and asked him to sit down first.
Until this moment, Lu Zhichuan still didn't know what he was doing here, nor did he know what Mr. Pang meant by what he said just now. However, when Pang Rui brought over a document, everything was revealed.
"What's this?"
“Cooperation agreement between Alipay and Pintuan.”
"?"
Lu Zhichuan was stunned for a long time before he reacted. He immediately opened the contract and looked through it for a long time. Finally, he showed an incredible expression: "October 2009?"
Pang Rui sat on the chair and nodded calmly: "During the National Day in 2009, Alipay had already signed a cooperation agreement with Pintuan. We provide them with payment services, and they help us promote our business."
“How is this possible…?”
Lu Zhichuan's first reaction was to doubt the authenticity of the agreement.
In 2009, Alipay was really nothing and could only act as a bridge program when shopping online. Its most powerful function was just to pay for phone bills, electricity bills and gas bills online.
But at that time, the electricity and coal systems in most communities did not support online payment.
As for the function of paying phone bills, it also requires the use of a U-shield to connect. The recharge period is 24 hours, but in this time, it is enough for you to go downstairs and buy a recharge card.
Why is this happening?
Because Alipay wants to become a third-party platform, it is equivalent to touching the banks' cake and digging into their moat. How could they allow this to happen?
Otherwise, why would Boss Ma be so angry that he said directly that if the bank doesn’t change, then we will change the bank.
At that time, no one thought that the payment platform could be successful, even their internal employees were skeptical.
But if this contract was really signed in 2009, it would be equivalent to that before Jin Chanzi was slacking off while the Buddha was preaching, a monster had already started frying the pot on the way to the West, waiting to stir-fry Tang Monk's meat.
Lu Zhichuan was willing to believe that some people had a forward-looking vision. After all, he had worked at Alibaba for so many years and had seen many such people. But he didn't believe anyone with such a forward-looking vision.
"At that time, Alipay couldn't even get a license and its future was bleak. How could he sign a cooperation agreement with Alipay so long in advance?"
"He said he wanted to bet with me."
"?"
"I was on vacation at that time, and he found a salesperson under me by all means and handed me a development plan. I thought it was interesting, so I decided to meet him."
"He was very young, just a college student. At that time, he was running a campus forum, Zhihu. He said that within a year, he would do it all over the country and hoped that Alipay could sign a cooperation agreement with Pintuan to form a strong alliance."
Pang Rui picked up the teacup and leaned back in the chair. "I told him at the time that without a payment license, Alipay would be meaningless, but he said he bet that Alipay could get a license, and asked me to bet that he could do it all over the country within a year. So, the two of us bet on something that no one had at the time."
Lu Zhichuan: “…”
Pang Rui looked at him and said, "If we win the bet, Alipay can quickly popularize among college students with the help of Zhihu. If we lose the bet, the agreement will be void and there will be no loss. I want you to bet, do you want to bet?"
"Can he tell fortunes?" Lu Zhichuan suddenly understood what she meant by that terrible sentence just now.
"I thought so at the time, but he said the tide of the times is unstoppable. He didn't have confidence in Alibaba, but in this era."
Lu Zhichuan was stunned for a long time, his eyes fixed on the two big words "Group Buying" on the cover of the agreement.
He no longer cares about the possibility of such forward-looking vision. After all, the cooperation agreement is written here in black and white.
What he is thinking about now is the ending of Lashou.com.
Lashou’s business capabilities have never been as good as group buying, and now it has even begun to think about escaping from first-tier cities. To be honest, if they can really beat it, who would think of escaping?
He originally thought that the access to the payment platform would be a turning point that would allow Lashou.com to come back to life, but now it seems that it will only accelerate the fall of Lashou, and by then, group buying will become the unicorn in this market.
【I am taking the final exam】
Lu Zhichuan couldn't help but reveal a confused expression as if he had lost his brain stem, and finally understood what Pang Rui meant by the word "terrible".
A 20-year-old college student took every step carefully and calculated the market development.
He used what he didn't have to gamble what others didn't have, and made a two-year layout. Then at the most critical moment, this layout became his biggest trump card, and this trump card could have originally become the weapon that killed him.
There are some things that you can't appreciate unless you experience them yourself, and at this moment, he finally understood why Lashou, Nuomi and Dianping lost so badly in the group buying market.
"If that's the case, hand-holding is over."
Pang Rui was silent for a while, holding the teacup. "Now it's not a question of hand-in-hand or foot-in. The value of group buying is far beyond expectations. Even if Alibaba doesn't invest, it will become a strategic partner with group buying."
Lu Zhichuan looked at her: "Mr. Pang, do you think that group buying will be the final winner?"
"If you had ever seen a person who, at the age of 20, planned everything two years in advance and everything came true, you would feel the same way..."
At this time, Jiang Qin didn't know what happened to Ali. He was running out of the teaching building after chasing a 50-cent coin. When he saw it was about to fall into the sewer, he rushed over and grabbed it with a snap.
Then, he used the fifty-cent coin to buy an old popsicle at the store at the door and chatted with it for a while.
The final exam was real, he had just finished it, but it was just an excuse he used to fool Manager Lu.
Because he is not short of money now, he doesn't want to be associated with a group like Alibaba.
After all, compared with these Internet giants, group buying is much smaller. Sometimes being weak is a kind of original sin. Either don’t get involved, or if you do, it is likely that something will happen that goes beyond your plan.
Jiang Qin rolled the popsicle until it was smooth and round, and thought to himself, who would have thought that a rising star in the Internet business would eat such a plain old popsicle.
At this time, Cao Guangyu also came out of the teaching building. Seeing Jiang Qin's expressionless face, he suddenly laughed: "What's wrong? You didn't know any of the questions in the exam?"
"It's not about the exam. Ali wants to give me money, but I don't want it. I don't know how to refuse it without hurting anyone's feelings. What do you think, Master?"
“…”
Jiang Qin smiled brilliantly, not caring about Master Cao's life or death at all. Then he saw Feng Nanshu walking out of the hall and immediately waved to him.
Feng Nanshu ran over, put her hand in his, and called him "brother" in a low voice.
Following closely behind were Gao Wenhui and Wang Haini, who immediately asked to go to Room 207 to use the air conditioning, relying on the fact that they were Feng Nanshu's best friends, and were not at all shy.
Then a few people went to the cafeteria to buy food and went to the entrepreneurship base.
The temperature in this hot summer has been above 30 degrees. It is so hot that I can't even take a nap. Since I went to Room 207, who would want to go back to the dormitory?
The three girls sat cross-legged on the newly bought carpet, watching the TV series "Palace" intently. They put aside all the materials they brought with them because they said they wanted to review well.
"This theme song is really nice, what's it called?"
"It seems like suicide of love, ask for support again."
“…”
"Who do you think Qingchuan likes?"
"The Eighth Wise King."
Gao Wenhui looked back at Jiang Qin helplessly: "Hey, Mr. Jiang, where is the Eighth Sage King here?"
Jiang Qin twisted his mouth and thought, how can I not know if I am reborn? Unless I have seen it wrong, but at this moment, his mobile phone suddenly began to vibrate again. The caller was an unfamiliar number, and the location was shown as Shenzhen.
He guessed and thought it might be Tencent, so he reached out and pressed the answer button.
As expected, the other party claimed to be a manager of Tencent’s investment department, named Peng Sheng, and his rhetoric was similar to that of Alibaba’s Lu Zhichuan.
Jiang Qin adhered to the principle of getting away with it if possible and never offending the big guys, and he also repeated the same thing over and over again, but he did not respond on some key issues. He only showed a positive attitude when the other party said "there is an opportunity to cooperate."
"We currently have enough funds for the group buying. Thank you Mr. Peng for your concern, but we may have other opportunities for cooperation."
"Oh? What does Mr. Jiang mean?"
Jiang Qin coughed and said, "Our Zhihu is the largest campus forum in the country, with tens of millions of student users. I heard that you have a communication service application called WeChat. You can definitely promote it on our Zhihu."
Peng Sheng thought for a moment and asked, "When will Mr. Jiang come to Shenzhen so we can discuss this in detail?"
"I should have a chance to go there in the next two months."
"Okay, I will prepare a bed for you then."
Jiang Qin thought for a moment, then spoke again: "Boss Peng, I have another question."
Peng Sheng's voice came from the receiver: "President Jiang, please speak."
"Does Mr. Ma Huateng have a daughter?"
"Uh? I have a daughter."
"Oh, so her birthday is June 22nd?"
"This... shouldn't be the case."
Jiang Qin nodded, hung up the phone, and glanced at the QQ message sent by a high school classmate: Today is Ma Huateng’s daughter’s birthday. Forward this message to ten groups and you can get one month’s membership for free.
"Stop posting nonsense. I just asked, today is not his daughter's birthday!"
Boss Jiang typed a line of words in reply with a very arrogant expression.
Tencent and Alibaba have been competing against each other for a long time. Whether it is the e-commerce platform or the group buying industry, the two companies are competing fiercely.
Especially the subsequent emergence of WeChat Pay, it can be said that it truly shook the foundation of Alibaba and directly invaded Alibaba's ecological layout.
Jiang Qin didn't like to get involved in this kind of melee where he had to charge for others, but now that he had been targeted, he might as well be a traitor who could please both sides and see if there was any advantage he could gain.
(End of this chapter)
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